The second chapter of my original character from Star Wars: The Old Republic. You can read the first here: Savrika 01.
//02
Savri didn’t look back. Not missing the beat, they followed easily.
She sensed them. She needed to make it look like they were following her. It was always hard to sense droids, but she was getting better. Al Baba’s camera drones flicked to her right, so she took them left. He dogs came sniffing, so she climbed up. It seemed that she lost them.
Good, she thought. The last thing she needed was the undercity ruler giving her gang of kids trouble.
She had disguised herself well, but not well enough to have people think a couple of Jedi would be chasing her. They finally made it to her secret passage. She never knew why only she could use it, but she quickly pushed aside the dumpster and carefully wedged through the crack.
Xuan stopped short as she squeezed through. He raised an eyebrow.
“Did you help her with that,” his master asked.
“No,” Xuan looked at him peering through the gap before they lost her. She wasn’t just force sensitive.
The gap became a pipe about halfway through. Savri crawled into another gap between it until it expanded. She had to help them up the tunnel walls, as they were way too large for this space. She saw the lightsabers dangle and was almost tempted to take one.
“Don’t even try it,” Xuan saw into her eyes. She turned away. Pretty price for an escape, she thought, but sighed. A lightsaber wasn’t worth much down here. She needed credits. The pipe opened up to the back alley shipping docs.
“This is it,” she gestured.
They’d have to stow away or pay for passage off, but no one would care here. It didn’t matter where you were in the galaxy. No one was stupid enough to challenge the Hutts. Not even Al Baba. “You’ll be able to get off here.”
Xuan dropped down the platform immediately. Good riddance of the child. The old Jedi hesitated. He gripped his lightsaber.
“You should come with us. You already know how to run.” He laughed heartily.
She paused, “I can’t.”
“You can do more than see through the force,” he spoke. Her heart clenched and her eyes dropped. “We could train you.”
She wanted to go, but knew it was not the time. She thought about the rats.They were about her age, but they weren’t like her. They couldn’t see where the rich would go, hide their credits, or which bounty hunters to fool when drunk. They were just rats, like her, no matter how good her sight was…. And to be a Jedi?
She shook her head.
He nodded knowingly, as if he hearing her thoughts as clearly as she spoke them.
“The war never ends, does it?”
She almost smiled. He was kind. He patted her on the shoulder, and whispered something above her head. She couldn’t make it out.
He dropped down the exit. His apprentice eyed him and looked to see if the child came down. When she didn’t, he spoke.
“You offered to take her with us, didn’t you?” He growled.
“She has other priorities,” he answered.
His apprentice shrugged. “Well, we’ll need a lot of credits,” he looked at the bounty hunter, “Or another ‘famous stealth tactic’ to get out of here.”
“What’s wrong with my stealth tactics?”
He apprentice chided, “Oh you know, the usual brawl.”
“Ah yes, well, credits then.” His master patted his breast pocket, and felt it: empty. He looked up at the sewer pipe exit and smiled.
“It seems I misplaced my credit stick,” he said.
“Misplaced,” Xuan shook his head. “You mean she stole it.”
“There’s always that option,” he replied.
“Looks like I’ll have to pay for the ship,” he switched on a hologram disguise. “Again.”
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Image credits: Wookipedia