with. How hard can it be to catch one and snip off a handful of ruff?'
He nodded uncertainly. 'I know. Maybe that is all there is to it. Just because it's a custom doesn't mean it has to be difficult, or dangerous.'
She indicated their Masters, who were conferring between themselves. 'I have a feeling we'll know soon enough.'
Standing away from Luminara, Obi-Wan again addressed their host. 'We'll be happy to comply with the council's request.' He hesitated. 'I take it that wool from one of the surepp in the Borokii herd will suffice, and that we don't have to go looking for a wild one?'
'That is correct. It is allowed to cut from the ruff of a herd animal.'
'Then we're wasting time. There's still ample daylight out side. If you'd be so kind as to escort us?'
Bayaar sighed. Plainly, these strangers had no idea what they were being asked to do. Haja, they would find out soon enough.
'Come with me.'
The stroll through the nomad town was interesting, and Bayaar was happy to point out highlights and explain the sights. Before too long they found themselves on the outskirts of the bustling community, gazing across strands of recently unspooled, electrically charged superconducting lines at thousands and thousands of Borokii surepp. The herd was an impressive sight, mewling and moaning as it nibbled at the high grass. Grazing close together guaranteed safety, if not much room for individuals to move about. Catching a male and cutting off a handful of its neck ruff might require a healthy sprint on the part of the would-be wool trimmer, but it wasn't as if a lengthy dash across the plains was going to be necessary. There was only one prob lem. Bayaar had told them that the council demanded a handful of white wool.
The fur of every one of the dozens, of the hundreds, of surepp within view was mostly either blue or green. There was not a white animal in sight. Not even one that was a pale green. Luminara was quick to point this seeming discrepancy out to their host.
Bayaar looked embarrassed. 'I don't make the laws. I am only serving as a vehicle for the council's directives.'
'How can we cut white wool from an animal that doesn't ex ist? ' Obi-Wan indicated the milling herd.
'It does,' Bayaar told them. 'The albino surepp is very real, and there are some in the Borokii herd.'
Luminara's gaze narrowed as she studied their discomfited host. 'There are thousands of animals foraging out there. How many is 'some'?'
Bayaar turned away, visibly uncomfortable. 'Two.'
Letting out a long sigh, Barriss found herself nodding know ingly. 'I knew it sounded too easy.'
'Without transport, I don't see how we're expected to do this.' Anakin was visibly upset. The Borokii council had set the visitors a seemingly impossible task. Addressing himself to Bayaar, he asked dispiritedly, 'What do the Borokii do with their herds at night?' He indicated the electrically charged conductors that kept the herd separated from the town. 'The other Alwari we've seen round their animals up and keep them in temporary corrals, the better to watch over them and protect them from nocturnal predators.' Both Obi- Wan and Luminara eyed him favorably, and he tried not to show how pleased he was at their approval.
'The Borokii do the same,' Bayaar acknowledged, 'though on a much larger scale than other Alwari.' He indicated the softly humming barrier. 'This keeps the surepp contented and together after dark, while outriders like myself keep shanhs and others away from the corral. The surepp cannot leap over the barrier, but a hungry shanh could.'
'You said 'together.' ' Luminara's mind was working. 'How close together?'
'Very close.' Holding his hands out in front of him, Bayaar brought the slender palms almost to the point of touching. 'This close. Crowded up against one another, the surepp feel safe and secure. They sleep standing up.'
Barriss studied the herd. 'Packed that closely together, they'd have to.'
Luminara nodded thoughtfully. 'With the animals concentrated in one place, it would be much easier to find the white ones than during the day, when the herd is spread out over hills and vales like they are now.' She eyed the polite sentinel unblink-ingly. 'How would the surepp be likely to react to someone moving among them?'
He had to smile. 'I see what you're thinking. It is a danger ous notion. It is possible to walk among sleepy surepp without panicking them, but one has to be very careful. They are nervous creatures, easily agitated. If they feel disturbed, or threatened, or even nothing more than uneasy, their mood and manner can change abruptly. Anyone trying to walk between individuals could find himself gored by an abruptly irritated male, or crushed between many suddenly shifting bodies.'
After a quick glance at his colleague, Obi-Wan spoke up once more. 'Is there anything else you can tell us that would help us to single out these rare white surepp? Do they tend to congregate in any single place, any one part of the herd?'
'Actually, they do,' Bayaar admitted. 'Unfortunately, be cause they stand out so prominently, they naturally tend to seek the safest place-which is in the exact middle of the herd.'
Surveying the thousands of large, healthy creatures that cov ered the nearby grassland all the way to the horizon and beyond, Barriss tried to imagine worming her way through a densely packed mass of them while striving constantly not to annoy or alarm a single one. In contrast to Obi-Wan's earlier optimism, she found herself tending to agree with Anakin. When confronted with the reality of the immense, easily agitated herd, the task that had seemed so simple at first was looking more and more impossible. Given a landspeeder, now, or a confident suu-batar, or any other means of transportation capable of rising above the horned heads of the massed beasts, the task set before them would be worth contemplating. But the Council of Elders' instructions, as relayed to them by the sympathetic Bayaar, were all too straightforward: no offworld technology could be employed in the carrying out of the undertaking, and no mounts could be ridden into the herd. No suubatars, not even a smaller sadain.
It didn't matter. They didn't have a landspeeder anyway. A mastery of the Force would enable one to rise momentarily above a small part of the herd, but it would not permit long- term personal levitation. Something else would have to be tried. She tried to imagine stepping through the electrified barrier and walking all the way to the
