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"It was their choice," Tenel Ka said simply. Removing her lizardhide boots and armor, she plunged into the river water without the slightest hesitation.

"They could have invited Anja along to go swimming with us," Raynar said.

"It might have made her feel welcome, more at home."

At last Jaina said what was on her mind. "Anja's been at the Jedi academy for weeks now, and I don't think she'll ever feel at home. I'm not even sure she wants to. I've tried to be friendly and show her around, but most of the time she just ignores me-except when she wants to complain about something. Like the weather: she hates the humidity.

Or the food: it's not prepared properly. And our lessons: it's stupid to, sit around thinking at rocks all day." Not to mention the entertainment: there's nothing to do on Yavin 4."

Lowie rumbled a comment. "Indeed," Em Teedee translated.

"Master Lowbacca has also made every effort to befriend Anja Gailandro, but to no avail."

Tenel Ka surfaced and shook back her red-gold warrior braids. "I, too, have been rebuffed."

"She has not spoken five words to me," Lusa said.

Jaina sighed again. "She seems perfectly happy to spend time with Jacen... and Zekk."

"And they with her," Tenel Ka pointed out. Jaina couldn't tell whether or not she detected a note of jealousy in the warrior girl's comment.

Raynar opened his mouth as if he were about to ask something, then seemed to think better of it. He simply said, "Oh." The blond haired boy looked curiously from Jaina to Tenel Ka for a moment, then added, "Well, I hope they know what they're doing." He flushed slightly. "I... I mean, lightsaber practice with someone who isn't really trained in the Force can be pretty dangerous."

Jaina looked up and flashed him one of the lopsided grins for which the Solos were so famous. "Zekk assured me he was just going to coach.

And I don't think we need to worry about my brother. He's fought some of the most ferocious creatures alive with his lightsaber."

She chuckled. "Including Tenel Ka."

"This is a fact," Tenel Ka said, raising her single hand as if it held the rancor-tooth lightsaber hilt that normally hung at her waist. The warrior girl's other arm had been cut off above the elbow in a lightsaber training accident.

"Now," Jaina continued, "why don't we all swim. That is why we came, isn't it? Anyway, Zekk and Jacen are Jedi. I'm sure they won't let anyone get hurt."

"Ow!" Jacen yelped, pulling back with the hand that held his emerald green lightsaber. "You singed the hair off my arm!"

A bland smile was fixed on Anja Gallandro's face, a smile that did not reach her large, sad eyes. She seemed not the least bit perturbed.

"Then I guess you should have moved a bit faster, huh?"

Zekk approached the two combatants. His intense green eyes flashed an emerald fire as cutting as that of Jacen's lightsaber. "That was a foolish risk, Ania," he said. "This practice is to learn about control with the weapon."

Anja shook back the silky hair that fell to her waist. Her dark hair, highlighted with streaks of honey gold, was held out of her eyes only by a strip of leather bound about her forehead. She gave Zekk a haughty look. "You're just angry because I don't need to control my fighting, and it makes you real Jedi look bad."

"No. That move was unnecessarily risky," Zekk said in a stern voice that Jacen had rarely heard him use before. "Not only did Jacen almost lose a chunk of his arm, but if he had been trying to hurt you, you left him the perfect opening to sweep back with his lightsaber like this"-he demonstrated with a stun stick he was holding-"slice through your ribs, and cut you into two neat pieces."

Anja glared at Zekk for a long moment. He endured her gaze without flinching, casually set down his stun stick, and reached back to retie the narrow theng that kept his own hair in place at the nape of his neck.

A symbolic gesture, Jacen guessed.

Zekk's hair was as dark as his past, yet he had learned to control it, to put it behind him. Anja, on the other hand, often spoke with