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The Princess gasped, pointed to a far corner and began backing toward the nearest wall. Two massive, hairy mounds lay clustered near the back of the cell, under the single window. The fur moved up and down, indicating it was surrounding something alive.

“Easy … easy,” Luke instructed, backing close to her and putting both hands on her shoulders. She leaned into him. “We don’t know who they are yet.”

“We don’t know what they are,” the Princess whispered fearfully. “I think they’re waking up.”

One of the huge shapes stood, stretched, let out a grunt like a volcano clearing its throat. It turned and caught sight of them.

Luke’s eyes bugged. He started toward the figure. The Princess put out a hand to hold him back, but he shook it off.

“Are you out of your mind, Luke? They’ll tear you to pieces.”

He continued walking slowly toward the waiting figure. It stood little taller than he did, but was built much more massively. Its hair-covered arms reached to the cell floor, the hands dragging on the stone. A long snout protruded from the center of the face, obscuring any mouth. Two huge black eyes stared expectantly at him.

“Luke, don’t do this … come back here.”

A querulous growl-rumble sounding like an angry underground spring came from the figure Luke was nearing. The Princess became quiet, pressed worriedly back against the cold stone wall as she slid toward the farthest corner.

Luke eyed the massive creature warily. They had to make friends fast, or he and Leia wouldn’t have to worry about getting off Mimban except in fragments. He reached out, touched an arm in a certain way. His eyes never left the jet-black orbs staring into his own.

With startling speed, the creature took a backward hop, chittered something. It was several times Luke’s weight. Dim light from the sealed illuminators in the cell ceiling shone on cable-like shoulder muscles above those double-length arms.

A pair of plate-sized hands reached out for Luke. He responded by uttering something in low tones. Shaking its head, its snout swinging, the creature hesitated, then rumbled again. Luke spoke louder gibberish at it.

Reaching out, the beast grabbed Luke with both hands and lifted him off the ground over its head, as if preparing to dash him against the stone floor. The Princess screamed. The creature brought Luke close to its body, closer, and planted a wet kiss on each of Luke’s cheeks before setting him gently back on the floor.

The Princess stared in disbelief at Luke’s affectionate assailant. “Why didn’t it tear your head off? You …” she gazed at Luke admiringly, “you talked to it.”

“Yes,” Luke admitted modestly. “I used to study a lot about certain worlds, back on my uncle’s farm on Tatooine. It was my only escape, and educational as well. This,” and he indicated the creature resting a massive long arm on his head and shaking him in a friendly fashion, “is a Yuzzem.”

“I’ve heard of them, but this is the first time I’ve seen one.”

“They’re temperamental,” Luke told her, “so I thought it would be better to try and make the first greeting ourselves, using what little language I learned.” He jabbered at the creature, which chittered back. “It might’ve killed me somewhere else, but all prisoners are allies, it seems.”

The Yuzzem turned, staggered backward and bumped into the wall. It leaned over and began shaking its still somnolent companion. The second Yuzzem rolled over awake and swung angrily at the first. The massive hand missed, instead connecting with the wall hard enough to leave an impression in the rock. Rolling to a sitting position, it started chittering to its waker, holding its head with one hand.

“Why,” Leia exclaimed as the realization struck her, “they’re both drunk!” The second Yuzzem finally managed to get to its feet. It growled at her. “No offense,” she quickly added.

“The one I talked to is called, as near as I can translate it, Hin. That’s Kee leaning against the wall, wishing to be someplace else.” He jabbered at Hin, listened to the reply.

“I think he said that they’ve been