Star Wars_ The Approaching Storm - Alan Dean Foster [79]
Movement made her turn. Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Kyakhta returned from searching the slopes outside their little refuge. “No sign of her anywhere.” Anakin’s tone was full of concern. “Would she have run somewhere instead of walking?”
“That would depend on the circumstances, wouldn’t it?” Luminara was hard-pressed to keep anger and sarcasm out of her voice. She knew that Barriss’s absence had nothing to do with Anakin. But the Padawan was Luminara’s responsibility. If anything had happened to her …
Anakin had bristled at Luminara’s tone, but held his peace. It was not his place to question a Jedi Knight, not even if she was being unreasonably abrupt. He could not yet talk back to someone like Luminara Unduli as an equal. Soon, though. Soon …
Bulgan looked up at her out of his one good eye. “We’ll take the suubatars and make a spiraling sweep of these hills and gullies, Master Luminara. We can cover much more ground that way. Perhaps she has fallen into a hole in the rocks and hurt a leg.”
A worried Luminara nodded absently. Sitting high up on the back of a suubatar would certainly provide a better view than was available from searching on foot. The implications of the Alwari’s observation were distressing. If Barriss had fallen into a hole, and if the hole was big enough, and if she had been knocked unconscious, they might never find her.
That was when they heard a voice hailing them.
“Hey, everybody. I’m over here.”
Racing around a pair of resting suubatars, they saw the object of everyone’s present concern emerging on all fours from beneath a projecting slab of rock. The crawlway it concealed was exceedingly well hidden from anyone not standing directly in front of it and bending to look under the jutting stone.
“Barriss! Are you al—?” Slowing as she drew near, Luminara’s expression quickly changed from open concern to a reproving scowl. “Where have you been, Padawan? We’ve been looking all over for you. And—are you hurt?”
“No, I’m fine.” Rising from the crawlway, Barriss brushed dust from her hands and stretched. “And so are our new friends.”
Luminara was not alone in taking a couple of surprised steps backward as a veritable deluge of noisy, jabbering, furry bipeds spewed from the concealed crawlway. In an instant, they were investigating Barriss’s companions with the same candid zeal and lack of discretion they had shown toward her.
“Suubatar,” one shouted as it clambered up onto the back of Kyakhta’s mount. Glowering his irritation, the guide hurried toward it.
“You, little fella! Get down from there! Get down just now!”
Sitting atop the unconcerned suubatar’s middle shoulders, the brown and blue Gwurran made energetic faces down at the aggravated guide. “Nyngwah nooglik, goofy-talking no-hair outlander darling! You make make me!”
“Why you little!…” Kyakhta would have started up after the taunting pygmy, but Luminara called him back.
“Never mind that one now, Kyakhta.”
“But Master Luminara, it is—”
“I said, never mind. Come and meet these people.”
“People?” Muttering under his breath, Kyakhta reluctantly complied with the Jedi’s order. “These are not people. These are dirt crawlers.”
As Barriss proceeded to explain the reasons for her extended absence, Luminara was soon mollified. The Padawan’s tale was brief but intriguing.
“… and so I convinced Tooqui here to return what he’d taken, and to bring along his whole tribe with him.” Barriss eyed her teacher hesitantly. “I promised them a kind of a party.”
Luminara frowned. “This is not a pleasure trip, Padawan. Obi-Wan, what do you think about this?”
The other Jedi considered. After a moment, somewhat unexpectedly, he grinned. “A Padawan’s promise does not bind a Jedi, but that doesn’t mean it should not be honored. We don’t have musicians, and speaking for myself, I feel I’ve already done enough entertaining on this journey. But we can certainly show them some