Chapter 4 - GROWING UP TOO QUICKLY

Aria answered the knock at the door, and was surprised to see Charlebbekka standing there, her fur billowing slightly in the sandy evening breeze.

"Hey!" Aria jumped and embraced her tall Wookiee friend. "What a surprise! Welcome, welcome! You and -"  She broke off her cheerful tirade when she noticed, first, the look on her Wookiee friend's face, and secondly, the gaping absence where her father's form was usually present beside his faithful compatriot, Lebbie.

"Where's father?" Aria asked, although her voice made it clear that she was horrified that she knew the truth. Suddenly sound seemed to muffle and vision seemed to dim slightly. She backed away from the door.

"Aria, who's there?" called her mother from the back of the house.

Aria stood frozen for a half a moment, her mouth moving but not forming words.

"It's nothing mother - you can stay in bed," she called back, hoping her mother would not notice the tremor in her voice. She struggled to finish the thought, staring desperately at Lebbie. "It's... uh, our neighbour... little Tannis has been looking for his sister, you know how she's always getting lost... If you don't mind I'm going to go help him find her."

"Tannis?" called Aria's mother, her voice sounding fatigued and worn. "Oh, yes, from down the road. Sorry Tannis, I'm not feeling well, or I'd help - you go ahead Aria, I'm just going to rest."

"Okay mother, I won't be long." But Aria stood, rooted to the spot, wishing time could stop and rewind.

Charlebbekka picked up Aria's shawl from the hook near the door and gently pulled her by the arm, and they left the dwelling.

Aria walked stiffly beside the tall Wookiee. Lebbie growled a concern, noting Aria's halting walk and alabaster expression.

"I... I'll be fine," replied the young woman. "I'm just trying to think. I don't know how I'm going to tell mother. How will I...?" The Wookiee helped her onto the family's speederbike.

From somewhere far away, Aria watched herself, moving mechanically, somehow getting onto the speederbike even though her limbs felt disjointed and heavy.

She clasped on to the back of Lebbie, holding on to big handfuls of reddish-brown fur and felt the movement of the speederbike as they headed smoothly to whatever destination they were going. She watched the ground blurring by, and wondered if that was how fast her father had seen her grow up, though she had hardly noticed. Flashes of memory came up through her otherwise out-of-focus thoughts.

There was the time he came home in the middle of the night and took them all in orbit to watch the sunrises on the other side of the planet.

There was the wide-eyed tearful look of joy on her mother's face whenever he came home, so happy and young-looking that Aria almost forgot how sick her mother was.

There was the look of surprise and pride on her father's face when Aria had shot her first target with her new blaster: an empty bottle out in the desert.

There was the time she and her father went out for a ride together on a dewback - her first time on any ridingbeast. She sat behind him and held on tight to her father's shirt and they both laughed as they swayed and rocked on the huge beast's shoulders, and he taught her pirate songs.

Now... Now there was no time left. 

Aria jumped slightly. Lebbie was growling and shaking her arm softly. Aria hadn't noticed right away, feeling numb and husk-like. The speederbike must have come to a halt.

"Oh, sorry..." she started. The Wookiee helped her off and she trudged on, with Lebbie leading her. "Where are we going?"  She looked up and saw they had arrived at Chalmun's cantina. "Oh. Yeah, I think I could use a drink. I somehow... feel cold..."

This cantina had become a familiar place the last couple of years - at least for Reissem, Charlebbekka and Aria.  Chalmun's Mos Eisley Cantina was where Ariasha had met with Aria's mysterious martial arts trainer, and Aria had to be content, at the tender age of 13, to wait outside the cantina while her mother met with her potential trainer.

Now she worked as an assistant barkeep and sometimes waited and bussed tables. She had been introduced by Lebbie to Chalmun when she was 16, and since Aria was willing to work and seemed to be able to take care of herself, as well as knowing some good self-defense and being pretty handy with a blaster, she was hired.  Aria worked at Chalmun's regularly and used it as an opportunity to keep up her Shryywook language lessons. Chalmun was a very understanding boss when it came to Aria needing time off to care for her ailing mother.

Charlebbekka and the now 18-year-old Aria walked into the bar.

Chalmun appeared to have been waiting for them. He waved them through to the back to a private room and brought them some drinks himself.

He said nothing, merely exchanging a glance at Charlebbekka, who nodded. He put a comforting arm on the young human's shoulder, returned the Wookiee's nod, and exited the room.

Aria took a sip of her drink and felt some colour come back into her cheeks. She leaned back in her chair, eyes closed, arms extended, palms face-down on the table.

"So... What happened, Lebbie?" she asked.

[color=]Charlebekka explained what had happened:

Reissem was leading the mission: they were to go in, find some crystals they were tipped off about, and take as many as they could, then hyperspace out. The usual. The Tusk pierced the hull, the party attacked through the impromptu portal. Only thing was, these weren't some ordinary run-of-the-mill miscreants or local authorities that were firing back. The ship they were attempting to heist had a contingent of fully armed elite stormtroopers: the Empire's Best.  Apparently a scientist from Mrlsst was kidnapped and a band of Rebels was attempting to rescue him at the same time, using the 'acquisition' operation as a distraction.

Apparently the captain's 'reliable source' who had told them about the precious crystals on board had overlooked the small detail about it being full of Imperials on a completed mission that had involved harvesting crystals for a prototype weapon.

Blaster fire was everywhere, explosions, flying debris. In the confusion, Charlebbekka had, just for a fraction of a second, lost track of her human brother. She had turned around to find him, and found herself at almost point-blank range from a stormtrooper's heavy blaster pistol.

Everything after that microsecond happened before Lebbie's eyes in slow motion.

She heard Reissem yell in rage at the stormtrooper, and was helpless to stop the laser fire as he threw himself in between his Wookiee guardian and the blaster.

He lay dying in the Wookiee's arms as his last breaths left him. He grabbed hold of her arm, just like he had when he first helped her stand up when he'd found her in a containment cell under a pile of her dead kin.  As Charlebbekka continued, Aria imagined what her father had said and how he forced out his last dying wishes…

"Please... tell them... I'm sorry... didn't mean to leave them... alone back there... Please... help... my girls..."
[/color]
Not many crystals were found, but the ones that were found were quite large: a fortune.

"Where is... his body?" Aria looked at Lebbie across the table.

The Wookiee explained that the captain had let her take Reissem's body, and she had it on her shuttle, awaiting a proper funeral.

"I see," said Aria. She watched as Charlebbekka stood, and moved Aria's drink aside to gently place a dusty, beaten up old knapsack on the table between Aria's hands.

Aria suddenly felt her eyes get very hot, and pulled the knapsack toward her and clasped it to her, watching her tears spilling onto it and spotting the dusty canvas.

After a moment or two, she opened the straps with trembling hands and reached in.

"Oh, Lebbie, thank you for this," she whispered. In her hand was a tattered picture of herself and her mother. "It was when we were both so much younger. It was before she started having the seizures. I think it was when I was six."

She pulled out a datapad. "Encrypted, no doubt," she said smiling faintly. "I'll find out what the code is." She pulled out sealed package, and opened it, revealing a long piece of silken material. "This is from mother's hair. She wondered where it went. It was one of her favourite hair ties. She always thought I had taken it and lost it," said Aria, chuckling and then struggling not to break down again. "It still smells faintly of her perfume." She paused, "I shouldn't be doing this," she stopped, put up her hands, abashed. "I can't open this without mother!" She hastily began packing everything back into the sack, when Charlebbekka, touched her on the shoulder. Aria looked up, questioning.

Charlebbekka unzipped a side pouch and pulled out a smaller leather bag, and deposited it in Aria's hands. She motioned the girl to open it.
Aria unzipped it and looked inside: even in the pale lighting of the backroom, something heavy shifted and glittered inside the darkness of the pouch. She reached in and pulled out two huge red crystals. She sat mesmerized at the reflections casting about the room. "Great Krayt," she muttered, drying the rest of her tears off with her other hand. "You weren't kidding. I can definitely help mother with this. I just have to find the right buyer on the market, and then I could get a medical droid full time for mother, and some other droids to help out on the farm..."

Charlebbekka looked inquisitively at Aria. "I plan to get off this rock someday, Lebbie, and this is my first really big break."

The Wookiee tilted her head and made an inquisitive sound. "I plan to eventually work like my dad," said Aria. Charlebbekka barked, waving her hands in protest and shaking her head.

"Yes, I am," barked back Aria hoarsely. "I always wanted to be with him. Now he's gone. This is the only way I know how to be near him now."

Charlebbekka grumbled, resigned. Then added something cautiously.

"Yes, I know I can't leave mother," Aria sighed, her shoulders fell. "I can't do this to her. She's lost him, and she won't want to lose me on top of that." She sighed. "Yes, I will have to stay. For now."

Charlebbekka pulled her chair over to Aria and encircled her with a furry embrace, drawling in Shryywook.

"Thank you. That's nice of you to keep me in mind for later... We can keep in touch and when I'm ready to join you, we'll hook up." She tried not to think of her mother's condition that would allow for when she would be free of this planetary prison. She looked at her chronometre. "I guess I'd better go back, it's been over an hour. Thanks for the drink. Do you want to stay with us tonight?"

Lebbie considered for a moment, then shook her head and explained.

"Yes, that's true. Perhaps you can stay somewhere else for tonight then, and then come over around noon tomorrow?" The Wookiee nodded in agreement.

"Yes, I'll take care of mother and the two of us will look at this together, first," she said, looking down fondly and placing a reverent hand on the knapsack under her arm. "Thanks so much Lebbie. I know you kept him alive a lot longer than he was meant to. Are you going to be okay?" asked Aria, putting her hand on the Wookiee's head.

Charlebbekka's forehead touched Aria's and two great tears rolled down her cheeks and absorbed into her dusty fur. The two friends embraced once more, and then Aria gathered up her father's knapsack and went home as her friend waved to her.  

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