• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

"What are you afraid of?" Jacen asked one of the villagers. "What are you guarding against?"

The gaunt young man looked at him in shock. "Everything," he said.

When Jacen finally settled down to eat, he felt uncomfortable with his usual large plateful when these people had been starving for so long.

Off in the darkness he heard the strange night sounds getting louder.

A low hooting and snarling from the rocks came closer. The villagers looked up in alarm.

The ferocious sound grew louder, echoing, as if it came from dozens, perhaps even hundreds of throats. Now a rustling approached through the distant, fire-ravaged hills. After a moment of rising tension, the sentries shouted an alarm.

Tenel Ka sprang to her feet and stood beside Jacen. "What is it?" she said. "Are the mountain miners attacking?"

Anja dropped back toward the Falcon, a startled look on her face.

Lowie sniffed the air and growled. "Dear me, Master Lowbacca," Em Teedee said. "I'm certain I can't identify the specie,;, but I do agreethose definitely sound like the voices of predators."

The sentries yelled out, "Knaars! Knaars!" The villagers who were still eating dropped their plates of precious food and scrambled back to their homes. Some grabbed sticks, others gathered prized possessions.

Many wailed in panic.

"What is it?" Jacen cried. "What are knaars?"

"Monsters!" Ynos said, pivoting on his droid leg. "It sounds like an entire herd migrating from the hills. The fire must have driven them in our direction." He hung his head as villagers continued their disorganized evacuation efforts all around them. "Now the miners will have cause to rejoice. Our village will be wiped out."

"Can you not fight these monsters?" Tenel Ka said.

"For a few minutes," one of the villagers said.

"I'm going to kill five before they take me down," a brash young man said, though the look of terror on his pale face belied his brave words.

"Killing five won't even help," Ynos said. "A migration pack contains hundreds, and the fire has driven them into a frenzy."

"We can fight beside you." Tenel Ka clutched her lightsaber. "We are Jedi."

"Then you might kill five yourself But we'll still all fall under their fangs and claws." Ynos shook his head. "We may as well fightthere's nowhere to run." He glanced over at the deadly minefields blocking their path toward the forest, their direction of escape.

Han stood up and put a protective hand on Jacen's shoulder as the sounds of hooting and howling grew louder. They heard thundering feet, claws skittering on stones. "I could take some refugees in the Falcon.

I can't carry nearly enough, though."

Ania stood beside the boarding rwnp. "I'll get my lightsaber," she said, and ducked inside.

Jacen glanced after her with a questioning look. He had thought she always wore the weapon at her belt. But that hardly mattered now. He was much more concerned about the oncoming predators.

Inside the back cabin where she had stashed her pack, Anja rummaged among her belongings and took out the small black carbon-freeze unit.

Her fingers trembled. She had been wanting the spice so badly; now, at last, she had a perfect excuse.

Hunching over to hide what she was doing, Anja took one of the tiny black cylinders in her hand. Its coldness felt welcome against her sweaty palm.

Czethros had given her only enough andris for four doses-not as many as she wanted... but she would have to make it last.

Looking longingly at the three remaining packages of spice, she sealed them in her pack. Then she carefully unwrapped the insulating opaque paper that surrounded the spice. The andris spice came from a newly discovered vein on Kessel, the highest quality available.

Anja could barely wait. Outside she heard shouts, human voices among the predatory growls. She would have to hurry.

Before the spice could warm to air temperature, she slipped it under her tongue and felt the energy course through her. Her muscles sang.

Her nerves became much more sensitive. Her thoughts whirled. Her blood pumped more freely, the air tasted sweeter, and her