only what he can see. See that you have plenty room on great big riding suubatars for little guy like Tooqui. I fight hard, don't eat much. Usually.'
She had to smile. 'You mean, usually you fight hard, or usu ally you don't eat much?'
Taking a step back, he kicked angrily at the ground. 'Don't word-game Tooqui! I not stupid stupid like these other ground-burrowers! Tooqui smart smart.'
'Smart enough to steal from us when we're sleeping?' she inquired pointedly.
Placing his right hand over his face and his left over the back of his head, he declaimed as sonorously as his small stature would permit. 'May Tooqui shrivel in the sun if he ever take a grain crumb from his new friends without asking. May his insides spill out on the ground and run run away like worm suckers. May all his relatives burn in grass fire that cleans the open places and-'
'All right, all right.' She was laughing softly despite herself. 'I get the picture.' Although she had the feeling that Tooqui wouldn't particularly mind if certain of his relatives did happen to meet an untimely and unpleasant end. 'You're brave and true. But we still can't take you with us. As Barriss has already told you and your fellows, we're engaged in a difficult and dangerous mission and have no time to look after guests.'
'Tooqui take care of self! You see see. Tooqui not afraid of danger.' Once more he slapped himself on the chest. 'Tooqui eat danger for morning meal! Make good pet, too.'
She blinked. 'Pet? You're an intelligent being, Tooqui. You can't be a pet.'
'Why not? Gwurran keep small yirans and sometimes omohts as pets. They get free food, free living place, protection from shanhs and other things that want eat them. Seem seem like pretty good deal to me. If I intelligent like you say, then not I smart enough to choose what I want to be?'
'It's not that.' The last thing she would have expected was for the glib Gwurran to confuse her with subtle academic argument. 'It just-it wouldn't be proper, that's all.'
'If I intelligent enough choose for myself, then where be im- properness?' He smiled, showing miniature versions of the same sharp teeth as their guides. 'That intelligent Tooqui's choice: I want want go with you new friends as pet. Learn about Ansion world-ball. Maybe other world-balls, too. Learn much, then come back and help Gwurran.'
Not only was the proposal rational, it was downright noble, Luminara mused-although Tooqui doubtless had personal mo tives as well. How was she going to put him off? Jedi were taught to use logic and reason on those who disagreed with them, not to terminate an awkward dispute by saying, 'Because I say so.'
'Jedi can't have pets,' she finally declared in exasperation.
'Where does it say that in the regulations, Master?' It was Barriss, injecting herself into the debate at the worst possible time. Luminara glared at her Padawan.
'I'm sure it says something of the kind somewhere. Anyway, we're not equipped to accommodate guests.'
'Tooqui equip self.' Putting a hand in Barriss's, the Gwur ran smiled innocently. 'See? Good pet, yes yes?'
'Please!' Turning to resume her final packing check, Lumi nara grumbled as she struggled to secure a strap seal. 'If you want to take responsibility for him, Barriss, then I suppose he can come along.' She looked back sharply. 'But if you cause us the least trouble, Tooqui, if you slow us down or impede our work in any way, then you have to leave leave. It's back to the hills for you, and no arguments. Agreed?'
Repeating his hands-over-face-and-head gesture, the eager Gwurran replied without hesitation. 'If I cause any impede — thing, may I rot rot slowly in decaying water. May all my fur turn purple and I sick sick turn myself inside out. May I chew on my feet and-'
'Just keep him quiet,' an exasperated Luminara instructed her Padawan. 'And away from me.'
'He'll be good.' Bending over, Barriss patted the Gwurran on his furry pate. 'Won't you, Tooqui?'
'Good as a Gwurran can be be,' he told her genially.
Somehow, Luminara did not find that pledge particularly reassuring.
Chapter 12
Obi-Wan was indifferent to, if not openly amused by, the antics of the newest member of their party, while Anakin was quietly pleased. The Gwurran was someone new to talk to, even if his vocabulary was limited and tended to repetition. He and Barriss took turns looking after Tooqui who, true to his word, needed very little looking after at all. The energetic native helped with everything, from unpacking the suubatars at night to gathering fuel for the campfire to learning how to operate simple devices such as the compact firestarter and watermaker. He was a fast learner, eager to know everything about anything. Or everything everything, as he habitually put it.
Only the Alwari guides were displeased by his presence among them. They did not exactly shun him, because they knew that would displease their employers. But neither did they go out of their way to assist in his instruction, or to become fast friends. The gulf that existed between Alwari and Gwurran was inexplicable to Luminara, as they both sprang from the same ancestors. Physically, they differed significantly only in size and hirsuteness.
To someone used to dealing on a daily basis with representatives of different species who differed far more radically in their physical appearance, the continuing enmity displayed by the two guides was hard to understand. Hopefully, traveling together would eventually oblige Kyakhta and Bulgan to view their smallish cousin in a better light.
At present there wasn't much of the latter, as the sun was beginning to rise over the northern horizon. It was the same horizon they had been riding toward for days; flat and grassy. A pack of shanhs had shadowed them for a night and a day, but sensing no weakness in either suubatars or their riders, had given up and drifted off in search of easier prey.
'Something moving from east to west along the horizon,' Kyakhta called out. Though still waking up,
