The cleft in the hill was a dead end, all right. For both thief and pursuer. But he was the one with the swarm of allies. It occurred to her that not only did her companions not know she was in trouble, they didn't even know where she was. Master Luminara would be displeased. Cautiously reaching for her lightsaber, Barriss hoped fervently that she would be able to accept that displeasure in person.
'Hahaheehee!' With unflagging energy and enthusiasm, the thief was jumping wildly up and down. 'Tooqui fool you, fool you! You trapped good now, you big back-bald bully-goo! Squinty-eyes! Syrup-stink! What you do now now?'
That depended entirely, she knew, on what the thief's com rades did next. If she backed slowly down the crevice, retracing her steps, would they track her retreat from above? Or would they immediately lose interest in lieu of scrambling down to fight one another over a share of their successful colleague's plunder?
The answer came in the form of a hail of stones. None was particularly big, but she would only have to catch one fist- sized rock between the eyes to be knocked senseless. Derived from her training, her response was pure reflex. Raising a hand, she concentrated hard, hard.
The flung stones hit the sides of the narrow cleft. They struck the floor at her feet. But none made contact with her. She was too busy focusing on deflecting the missiles to wonder how long she could maintain her concentration. Sweat began to bead on her forehead. She couldn't spare the energy to yell for help. Given the twists and turns in the cleft and the distance she'd come, she doubted her shouts would be heard by her friends, anyway.
She was on her own.
Apart from the actual, very real danger, it was a strange feeling. This was the first time she had been attacked by herself, not counting the abduction in the Cuipernam shop. Involving as it had nothing more threatening than a soporific mist, that had been a relatively benign assault. This was completely different. The howling, gesticulating creatures on the gully rim above her were doing their utmost to split her skull.
Wouldn't they ever get tired? she wondered. The strain was beginning to tell. She felt herself growing dizzy from the effort. If they saw, or sensed, that she was weakening, they might redouble their efforts.
If she went down, it was entirely possible that nobody would find her. Words would have to be said over her demise in the absence of a body. Those she had known and studied with would grieve, wondering what had happened to her on distant, suddenly critical Ansion.
Just as she felt she was going to pass out from the strain, the barrage slowed, to finally cease altogether. Overhead, the assembled creatures turned from attacking her to jabbering excitedly at one another. Occasionally, one would point down at their intended target standing cornered below. At such moments she strove to project an air of complete confidence, even indifference. The pain in her head was beginning to fade. She saw one of her assailants shove another. A couple of fights broke out among the stone throwers-all long slapping fingers and angry tiny fists. Apparently, her assailants were a fractious bunch.
Hoping she remembered enough of the language course and still keeping a wary eye out for the odd hurled rock, she tilted her head back and addressed them forcefully.
'Listen to me!' Stunned debaters immediately ceased their arguing. Several dozen wide-eyed faces turned to look down at her. 'There's no need for us to fight. My friends and I mean you no harm. We're not from this world, from Ansion. We're humans, and we'd like to be friends. Understand? Friends.' Turning slightly, she pointed back the way she'd come.
'Two of my companions are Jedi Knights. I and one other are their Padawans, their apprentices. We also have two Alwari guides with us.'
She should have stopped with her own identification. At the mention of the guides, the assembled group resumed their leaping and howling-though not quite as vociferously as before, she noted. She struggled to keep up with the meanings of their overlapping cries.
'Hate Alwari!. . Alwari bad, bad, bad!. . No Alwari here!. . Kill Alwari!. . Alwari go away, away!…' A few picked up and brandished fresh stones.
She raised both hands. 'Please, listen to me! The two Alwari who travel with us are not only from another part of this world, they're clanless! They are completely under the control of myself and my friends and will not harm you. We just want to be friends!'
The flourished stones were not set aside-but they were low ered. Once more the creatures lining the rim resumed their internal bickering. If not for their uninhibited belligerence, they really were quite attractive, she decided, in the diversity of their full-body fur. Eventually the squabbling diminished, though it didn't cease entirely. A gray-coated individual, clearly an elder, leaned over the rim of the crevice to peer down at her.
'You strange person, you is. What a 'Jedi Knight'?'
'What a 'human'?' exclaimed another, interrupting. Suddenly she was inundated by a volley not of stones, but of queries.
Wrestling with her limited local vocabulary, she did her best to answer them all.
Meanwhile, the singular thief who had triggered the con frontation stood with his back facing the cleft's dead end, still clutching his cumbersome spoils. 'Haja-what about me? What about Tooqui?' He tried to raise one of the big foodpaks over his head but succeeded only in dropping it on his right foot. Now much more interested in asking questions of the tall stranger, his comrades ignored him. Putting down his burden, he began hopping about furiously, waving long- fingered fists at those gathered overhead.
'Listen to me! Talk to me, not this ugly beady-eyed one! Jnja, I'm talking to you, you noisy stupid heads! It's me, Tooqui! Listen to me!' In his uncontrolled rage at being ignored by his fellows, he was all but bouncing off the narrow enclosing walls.
Meanwhile, Barriss continued to reply to as many of the thief's now inquisitive companions as her limited knowledge of their language would allow. She learned that they were called Gwurran, that they lived in the caves and crevices that ran through these hills, and that they hated the Alwari nomads.
'Not all nomads are bad,' Barriss told them. 'The Alwari are like any other people. There are good people among them, and bad people. My kind, humans, are no different. There is good and bad in everyone.'
'Nomads kill Gwurran,' one of the tribespeople informed her. 'Gwurran have to live here, in hill country, to survive.'
