Chapter Fifteen

Aayla and Harry both turned staring through the crowd, before Harry quickly grabbed Aayla, pulling her down to hide under one of the stalls with him. This was actually more to get them out of the way of the running crowd than to hide them from sight. The spells Harry had put on the two of them would still hide them from sight if someone bumped into them (and given the chaos around them Harry doubted anyone would really notice) but the spells wouldn't protect either child from being trampled under by the crowd.

Lily hovered above them, frowning angrily. "I don't know what's going on you two, but stay put there, alright Harry? I think I see a better hiding place than under that stall, but we might need to wait for the crowd to disperse a little more.

The two of them watched for a moment, with Aayla clutching at Harry's hand, then gasping as the thing which had caused the chaos came into sight. "Wampa!" Aayla had seen the monster before, since her master used wampas as sort of guard dogs on his property. At that thought, an ugly idea came to her. Could the Hutt be using the wampa to try and track me?

Desperately she reached out, pulling Harry's face toward her. "Can someone smell us?"

Harry looked at her blankly, his brows furrowing at the look of fear on Aayla's face. But he didn't understand what she was saying. Aayla sniffed audibly, pointing at her nose, then at Harry and her own chest, before pointing out at the wampa.

She watched as Harry's eyes widened and he nodded understanding. Harry didn't know why Aayla was concerned about the thing she called a wampa, but it seemed as if she was worried it would scent them. He tried frantically to think of a spell that would cover their smell.

He never got the chance. Above them Lily gasped. "Harry watch out, I think it's...!"

By that point the wampa had smashed through what few people were still in the area, the rest having rather sensibly run away rather than fight it. In this area of the city, very few people went around armed, a sign of the wealth of the area this now worked against the people living there. Now with its real prey near the beast ripped the top off the stall, reaching forward for the two children hidden under it. "RAAHHH!"

Frantically Harry gestured up with both hands, using the same spell Lily had taught him before his fight against the burrower on the night sight of the planet. "Stupefy!" A red circle which to Aayla looked like some kind of stun bolt flew out his hands at the wampa, slamming into the wampa with enough force to throw it several feet backwards head over tail. Yet even so it didn't knock the wampa out. The monster, got to his feet angrily roaring a challenge.

Harry gestured again, throwing a nearby rock at the wampa, concentrating hard. Midair it seemed to shimmer and change, just like the plates Harry had enlarged the evening after he had helped Aayla escape. It turned into a slim knife which embedded itself in the wampa's shoulder, causing it to roar and stumble to one side right into another red blast of some kind.

Aayla stared to one side as she Lily's voice shouting something. The ghost-woman had found her way up to a top of a nearby home cut out of the rock of the cavern. Now she was floating there, gesturing toward what might be a small hiding place up there. "Harry, levitate the two of you up to this roof, that thing doesn't look like it can climb sheer rock!"

Harry nodded, and grabbing up Aayla's hand again, he gestured down at the ground of the cavern below them with his free hand. A second later the two of them were suddenly in the air flying over the wampa's charge. Instead of grappling with its prey the beast lammed headfirst into the wall behind their former position.

The two of them floated higher into the air until they alighted on to one of the rooftops of buildings around them. Aayla stared around her in amazement, never having expected Harry could fly before this. She laughed, gripping his hand hard, while Harry smiled at her, setting the two of them down on the roof by his mother.

Below them the wampa began to look around for its prey angrily. Then suddenly it turned, staring at a young human male who was stepping out into the corridor from another room, staring first at it then up at where the two children. Were still visible, then at Lily, his eye's widening. Lily noticed this and gasped. "Harry, he can see me too, I think he's another local magic user!"

Harry and Aayla both looked at the young man, who Harry guessed was in his teen years somewhere. He was a wild looking sort of fellow, with a bar of a yellow tattoo of some kind across his nose, and long hair down to his shoulders. He wore simple clothing, a robe of some kind, but it wasn't his looks or his clothing that made Aayla gasp. It was the cylinder at his waist, the sign of the Jedi. "Jedi!"

At that cry the man turned stared up at them, smiling slightly and waving. The wampa however had enough of being ignored, and charged. Before the creature could cover even a single step, the young man's lightsaber was in his hand and activated. He whirled, the sword at chest height coming around and bisecting the creature from the waist. By the time the wampa realized it was dead, the Jedi was to one side of its collapsing body, not even getting any blood on his cloak.

With that done, he turned to stare up at the ghost and the two children. "Hello children, I heard your call for help, though it appears as if it wasn't necessary."

"Oh I don't know Quinlan, I think you did a decent enough job, and thanks to your efforts we have enough evidence to take both the Hutt and Pol Secura under arrest. We might even make the charges stick, at least on Pol." Said another voice, and Lily and the two children turned their heads to see another human male walking up from behind the first.

This human was obviously older, and where the young one gave off a wild feel, he gave off an aura of calm control. He smiled at the younger man, then nodded, and both of them leaped up quickly onto the surface of the rooftop next to them. The older man stared at Lily, while the younger seemed to find Aayla fascinating, though admittedly the opposite could be said too. Aayla was staring at him as well, though not, Lily felt, in anything but simple fascination.

The older man bowed profoundly to her. "Milady, you are the first Force Ghost I have ever seen. I am Jedi Master Tholme, and this is my padawan, Quinlan Vos. May I ask your name?"

Lily smiled back, speaking in her own language. "I'm sorry, I can't understand you." The man frowned in consternation at not understanding her, and she shrugged her shoulders moving over to Harry, ruffling his hair with a few of her fingers, a sight that made the older man gasp. "I think they're wizards Harry, or the local equivalent. Maybe we can ask them to help our own learning along."

The boy responded in that same kind of language, while Tholme looked between the two of them. Quinlan pulled his eyes away from the young Rutian Twi'lek, looking at his master. "Master, what does this mean?"

"I think my young padawan, that we have solved one, perhaps two mysteries only to find even more." Tholme glanced at the Force Ghost, the boy, and the young extremely talented Twi'lek girl. Tholme had arrived in time to see the boy fly, not Force Jump, but fly, something that very few masters could do for very long. He wondered if that was all, and was determined to find out.

A Force Ghost of a woman whose face I have never seen in the archives, a boy who can already consciously use the Force who resembles her and who seems to speak the same tongue, along with a young Force user of respectable strength. And both children having the looks of those who have led hard lives, the boy in particular. This has been a most interesting day, and will be the first of many I feel.

With that thought, Master Tholme went to his knees in front of the two children. "I know not what you are saying lad, and I have honestly no idea how you went so long without being found. But" he said holding out his hand "I can tell you have had a hard life. But if you trust me, I will aid you."

The boy looked at him uncertainly, gently nudging Aayla behind him as if protecting her. This made Aayla feel warm and fuzzy inside, making her hold onto his hand all the tighter. She felt a connection to the young padawan Quinlan, but Harry had saved her from her life of slavery, had taught her many things already, and had saved her just now from the wampa.

Harry turned slightly to stare at Aayla, who stared back into his eyes, then up at Lily, who smiled at them both. "We have to start trying to trust someone Harry, and this is the first human we've seen who wasn't obviously connected to the slave trade, and he did apparently intend to help you. Plus, Aayla seems to know what these two are, which counts in their favor as well."

After a moment Harry turned from her to stare at the two 'Jedi' who hadn't moved from their positions, the older one still on his knees still holding out his hands. Finally he looked down at Aayla then moved his head slightly indicating the two men. "Do you trust him?"

Even though she didn't understand the words, Aayla somehow knew what Harry was asking, and without hesitation moved around him, still holding his hand in hers tightly as she held out her own hands towards the older human male. He smiled, allowing their palms touch but not taking her hand in his still holding out his other hand towards Harry.

Harry stared into his eyes, and the human male stared back calmly, a faint smile on his face still as he held out his hands. After a second's hesitation, Harry reached forward taking Tholme's hand in his own. Only now did Tholme allow his hands to squeeze the child's children's. He nodded at them, standing up and then nodded at the Force Ghost. "In that case, I think we need to head back to my ship. I have a protocol droid there, and the first thing you need to do is to teach the two of you how to speak Galactic Standard. I have no idea how you can't speak it my lady, but I am certain that there is a lot more going on here than I can understand right now."

Somehow the Force ghost seemed to understand a little bit of that, not the words but his intention and she smiled, reaching down again to touch the heads of the two children gently, which made them both smile up at her. Then she nodded at the two human males and floated down to the ground.,

Quinlan nodded in turn, moving forward to pick up Aayla into his arms, stopping a moment to stare into her eyes, as she did the same. Looking at them Tholme smiled. The apprentice bond, interesting.

He turned to do the same with the last youngster, only to find that the young boy had already jumped off the roof, floating down rapidly to join the Force Ghost. Both of them waved at Quinlan and Aayla, and Quinlan jumped after them, landing easily while Tholme shook his head, staring down at the emerald eyed boy. Yes indeed, interesting days abound. With a snort of laughter, he too jumped off the roof, joining the very odd group below.