Star Wars_ The Approaching Storm - Alan Dean Foster [111]
The fur of every one of the dozens, of the hundreds, of surepp within view was mostly either blue or green. There was not a white animal in sight. Not even one that was a pale green. Luminara was quick to point this seeming discrepancy out to their host.
Bayaar looked embarrassed. “I don’t make the laws. I am only serving as a vehicle for the council’s directives.”
“How can we cut white wool from an animal that doesn’t exist?” Obi-Wan indicated the milling herd.
“It does,” Bayaar told them. “The albino surepp is very real, and there are some in the Borokii herd.”
Luminara’s gaze narrowed as she studied their discomfited host. “There are thousands of animals foraging out there. How many is ‘some’?”
Bayaar turned away, visibly uncomfortable. “Two.”
Letting out a long sigh, Barriss found herself nodding knowingly. “I knew it sounded too easy.”
“Without transport, I don’t see how we’re expected to do this.” Anakin was visibly upset. The Borokii council had set the visitors a seemingly impossible task. Addressing himself to Bayaar, he asked dispiritedly, “What do the Borokii do with their herds at night?” He indicated the electrically charged conductors that kept the herd separated from the town. “The other Alwari we’ve seen round their animals up and keep them in temporary corrals, the better to watch over them and protect them from nocturnal predators.” Both Obi-Wan and Luminara eyed him favorably, and he tried not to show how pleased he was at their approval.
“The Borokii do the same,” Bayaar acknowledged, “though on a much larger scale than other Alwari.” He indicated the softly humming barrier. “This keeps the surepp contented and together after dark, while outriders like myself keep shanhs and others away from the corral. The surepp cannot leap over the barrier, but a hungry shanh could.”
“You said ‘together.’ ” Luminara’s mind was working. “How close together?”
“Very close.” Holding his hands out in front of him, Bayaar brought the slender palms almost to the point of touching. “This close. Crowded up against one another, the surepp feel safe and secure. They sleep standing up.”
Barriss studied the herd. “Packed that closely together, they’d have to.”
Luminara nodded thoughtfully. “With the animals concentrated in one place, it would be much easier to find the white ones than during the day, when the herd is spread out over hills and vales like they are now.” She eyed the polite sentinel unblinkingly. “How would the surepp be likely to react to someone moving among them?”
He had to smile. “I see what you’re thinking. It is a dangerous notion. It is possible to walk among sleepy surepp without panicking them, but one has to be very careful. They are nervous creatures, easily agitated. If they feel disturbed, or threatened, or even nothing more than uneasy, their mood and manner can change abruptly. Anyone trying to walk between individuals could find himself gored by an abruptly irritated male, or crushed between many suddenly shifting bodies.”
After a quick glance at his colleague, Obi-Wan spoke up once more. “Is there anything else you can tell us that would help us to single out these rare white surepp? Do they tend to congregate in any single place, any one part of the herd?”
“Actually, they do,” Bayaar admitted. “Unfortunately, because they stand out so prominently, they naturally tend to seek the safest place—which is in the exact middle of the herd.”
Surveying the thousands