A S H A L A A

Chapter Three
Written by Jeff Walters
"What in the name of Kell makes you think he meant Luke Skywalker?" Kira stated with a laugh. Max must have started drinking early, Kira thought smiling to himself. "How could the old man have possibly been talking about Skywalker?" Kira added to hammer home his point.
Max opened his mouth to speak, before realising that his previously said statement was pretty off-the-wall. Instead he just stared down into his drink and hesitantly said, "I don't know.....it's just that I've heard so much about him", Max swirled his drink around in it's glass before continuing, "...and when you said Luke I...ahh forget it.".
Kira nodded slowly at Max's words, but his mind had drifted off elsewhere. What could the old man have possibly meant?
Death was not something that was new to him. He'd seen many friends buried over the years, claimed by illnesses or accidents. But violence....violence was something new. Even though he often carried a blaster, that was only because it belonged to his late father. He'd never actually had to use it. But last night he'd come so close to using to kill a man who meant him no harm. A man who was doomed anyway.
Max saw the clouded thoughts reflected on his friend's face and quickly decided to restart the conversation on a lighter note. "Guess who I ran into on the way here?". After seeing that Kira was not in the mood to offer up a guess, Max answered his own question, "Fryali...she was down at the South Markets".
Kira tapped his fingernails against the side of his glass, his mind still half focused on the day's events. "Who?", he offered as a response.
The door to Kira's house shattered inwards sending wooden shards lfying off in all directions. Four short and roughly humanoid figures shot through the now mangled doorway and fanned out into the Ikelah. A taller humanoid figure stepped into the doorway and watched on as his much shorter companions searched every inch of Kira's home. Within 20 seconds they were done. The group exited just as quickly as they entered.
The taller humanoid raised a comlink to it's face and spoke rapidly. "He is not here. The old man's tracks lead to this place, but there is no sign of him inside and there are no fresh tracks leaving." The humanoid scanned the horizon as he continued, "That can only mean he left via land speeder.......whether he left alive or dead is another question though...." The tall man glanced down at the ground near his feet to get a another look at the discolouration to the soil he'd earlier noticed in certain places outside the home. "...there is a fair amount of blood on the ground."
The figure paused as his comlink spat forth a quesion. "Yes...there is the remote possibility that the blood belongs to the Ikelah's occupant and that the old man killed him for the speeder, but remember that our friend treasure's life in all forms - so I sincerely doubt that that was the case." The man glanced over at his four shorter alien companions. He raised his hand towards them and clenched his fist twice in quick succession and then pointed at the Ikelah.
"No, the blood is his, that bounty hunter that Jopis warned us about must have tried for him.", he continued as he turned away and began walking back towards their speeder. Behind him two of the short aliens each pulled out a single thermal detonator. As the group slowly walked away from Kira's home, the two detonator's we're lobbed simulataneously.
The shoddy mudbrick home disintergrated as the two seperate explosions rocked it to it's foundations. Small pieces of wood and mudbrick rained down on the four aliens and one human, as they climbed aboard their speeder.
"There's a medium sized town not too far from here, that'll be our best bet." The man spoke into the comlink as the speeder roared to life. He shoke his head in thought, a frown creasing his forehead."There's something we're missing. The old man bypassed numerous other homes to come to this one.....why? What is so special here?".
A short response came from the comlink. "I know, Parris." The man sighed. "Just stay by the ship and be ready for anything.". He stared ahead at the sun as it rose over the hills just before their destination. "I'll contact you as soon as we find anything...Solo out."
.......to be continued.
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