[Han Solo] - 03(22)

Jowdrrl, a smaller, chestnut colored female (Han was surprised to note that he could actually see a family resemblance!) was a cousin, and Dryanta, a darker brown male, was another cousin. The other four were members of the Wookiee underground resistance movement, who had come in especially to meet Han and negotiate for his cargo.

Motamba was an older Wookiee, a munitions expert whose blue eyes lit up when Han revealed how many boxes of explosive quarrels he had to sell.

Katarra was a young Wookiee, younger than Chewbacca, and she was the underground resistance’s leader, as near as Han could tell. The Wookiees listened to her with a great deal of respect. She consulted regularly with her father, Tarkazza, a burly male who was the first Wookiee with black fur Han had ever seen. He had a stripe of silver-colored fur running down his back, which was evidently a family trait, for Katarra had one, too, though her fur was brown and tan.

After several minutes of confusion, Chewbacca roared an order to his friends. Han caught most of it. Something about, “fetch the quulaars.” What are quulaars? Han wondered.

He soon found out. Two long bag-like pieces of woven fabric–or was it woven hair?—were produced. Chewbacca turned to Han, and pointed from the Corellian to the quulaar. Han stared at his friend, incredulous, and shook his head. “Get inside? You want me and Jarik to crawl into those things?

So you can carry us up the trees? No way, pal! I can climb, just as good as you can.”

Chewbacca looked at his friend and shook his head. Then he grabbed Han’s arm, and hustled the Corellian over to the entrance to the cave, and, lifting the camouflage hanging, gestured Han to step outside, onto the lip of the cave.

Jarik had followed them outside, as had the other Wookiees. The youth was confused, having understood almost nothing of what had been said.

“Han?

What do they want?”

“They want us to crawl into these sacks, kid, so they can haul us up the tree trunks until we can catch the lift for Rwookrrorro. I just told Chewie no way, that I can climb just as good as he can.”

Jarik walked over to the lip and cautiously leaned over to look down.

Then he walked back to Han, gave him a long, silent look. Without speaking, he began climbing into his quulaar.

Out of curiosity, Han walked over to look down, too.

He’d known it intellectually, of course, but it was one thing to know it with his brain, another to know it in his gut. He was kilometers high in the air. Below him the forest went on … and on … and on ….

The tree trunks stretched down, past the point where Han’s excellent eyesight could distinguish them from each other. Despite all his piloting experience and his outstanding sense of balance, the sight made Han’s head swim for a moment. He walked back to Chewbacca, who was helpfully holding out the quulaar. When Han hesitated, the Wookiee flexed his powerful hands and made his claws pop out. They were very sharp, and, coupled with Chewie’s great strength, would enable him to dig deep into a tree trunk when climbing.

“I’m gonna regret this “Han muttered, and climbed into the sack.

Chewbacca wanted to carry Han, but his relatives convinced him that, since it had been a long time since he’d done any forest-traversing, it would be better if he had only himself to worry about.

So Motamba carried Jarik, and Tarkazza carried Han, both humans stuffed inside their respective quulaars. Han wanted to look out, but Tarkazza was firm, pushing the human’s head down into the sack, warning him to keep his arms inside, too, and to stay still, so he wouldn’t disturb his carrier’s balance.

Inside the quulaar, Han felt the bag sway as Tarkazza walked to the edge of the platform lip. Then, with a grunt and a powerful leap, the Wookiee launched himself. They were falling, falling!

Han barely managed to hold back a yell, and he heard Jarik let out a short, bitten-off cry.

Seconds later Tarkazza smacked into a hard surface, clung, then began climbing rapidly upward. Leaves swished against the quulaar. Han had just started to relax, when suddenly they leaped again!

The next few minutes, all Han could do was try not to move, and to keep concentrating on not being sick. The sack swung and jerked and spun and slapped against the tree trunks, despite Tarkazza’s best efforts.

Swing, scramble, climb. Leap, grip, swing.

Grab, grunt, swing-climb ….

Han finally had to close his eyes, not that he could see much anyway, and just try to hang on. It seemed as though the nightmare journey took hours, but Han realized when he checked his chrono later, that it had taken only about fifteen minutes.

Finally, with a last swing and grunt of effort, the movement stopped, and Han found himself lying on the ground, still inside the quulaar.