Star Wars_ The Approaching Storm - Alan Dean Foster [80]
Actually, it did not matter what the travelers did: the Gwurran seemed to find everything and anything about the humans most amusing. Whether it was demonstrating technical gear, or exposing their differently toned furless flesh, or matching five comparatively thick human fingers against three slimmer Ansionian ones, the tribe was utterly enthralled. Wholly devoid of tact, they crawled over everything: travelers, dozing suubatars, and supply packs alike. But there were no more attempts at petty theft. When one adolescent attempted to make off with a plasticine pack covering, she was roundly chastised by several of the adults. Luminara was gratified to see that friendship, if not comprehensive understanding, had been established.
At least, it had been established between human and Gwurran. The two petulant Alwari guides observed the proceedings in bad-tempered silence, tolerant of the tribe’s antics but less than enthusiastic—to the point that Luminara felt compelled to question them about their reticence.
“Why the attitude, my friends?” she asked them. “Is it that you’ve had bad dealings with people like this before?”
“I’ve never seen creatures like this before.” Kyakhta remained scrunched up against his softly breathing suubatar, as if he was afraid a bunch of the Gwurran were going to hoist the huge animal up onto their shoulders and walk off with it. “Don’t know their kind, don’t think I want to know.”
“Alwari keep away from hilly places like this,” Bulgan added, “so it’s not surprising my clan has never encountered such as these.”
“But they’re not so very different from you,” she pointed out. “They’re much smaller, true. That should make them less of a threat, not more. So what if their eyes are slightly bigger in proportion to their faces than yours are, and unlike the Alwari they’re completely covered in fur? They speak a variant of your language, and they look and act like the representatives of many other tribes we saw in Cuipernam.”
“Not Alwari,” the normally equable Bulgan argued. “Ignorant little savages is what they are.”
“Ah, I see.” She turned to watch the merriment as Obi-Wan demonstrated how a self-heating foodpak worked. Squeals of delight followed by energetic conversation rose from his furry audience. “So the Alwari are educated, sophisticated, forward-looking beings, while these Gwurran are primitive ignoramuses?” The guides’ ensuing silence was answer enough.
Nodding knowingly, Luminara eyed each of them in turn. “Isn’t that how the city folk of Ansion look upon the Alwari?”
Kyakhta looked confused. As for Bulgan, his face contorted as he struggled to get a handle on the concept. Then he looked at his friend and companion. If it was possible for an Alwari to look sheepish, both guides succeeded.
“You are a good teacher, Master Luminara.” Kyakhta rose from his resting position. “Instead of yelling and screaming, you let those you are instructing come to the truth at their own speed, by their own road.” Looking past her, both he and Bulgan contemplated the frenetically active but good-natured Gwurran from a new perspective. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe they are just curious, and not a tribe that lives by stealing.”
“Give them a chance. That’s all that’s being asked here. Like Barriss gave you and Bulgan a chance.”
“That is fair enough.” Gesturing positively, Kyakhta moved off to see if they could help with Obi-Wan’s demonstrations. Watching them go, Luminara felt she had struck a small blow for the kind of tolerance and understanding that would be needed to make for a just and strong planetary government.
And for a durable Republic as well, she told herself as she watched Barriss at work.
“But we’re not nomads.” The Padawan was trying to explain the nature and purpose of the Jedi Knights to a small cluster of attentive but obviously confused Gwurran.