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Chapter 21 “You’re doing it wrong,” Tapki barked as Katrina had her face washed once again by the rough tongue of an over excited Olveck. “You’ll never finish at the rate you’re going. Stop being so friendly and start working!” Katrina smiled down at the little ball of fur and petted it once more before taking the buzzing shears to it. The Olveck squirmed and made the job more difficult than it already was, but Katrina finally finished with it and sent the little creature on to Tapki to have the loose hairs knocked off. “About time,” Tapki grumbled but Katrina pretended not to hear him. Katrina went through the same process with each of the Olvecks and ignored Tapki’s comments each time. After the fourth creature had gone through she had recognized it as a routine and stopped taking offense to his words. “How much longer?” Madame Zinkrey tapped her toe against the floor impatiently as she came to stand in the doorway. “No longer than it takes every year,” Tapki answered without looking up at the woman. Madame Zinkrey growled in disgust and looked down her nose at the white fur covered Katrina. The thirteen-year-old grinned up at her and shook her head, sending loose hairs flying. Madame Zinkrey squealed in protest before running from the room. Katrina looked to Tapki, expecting a rebuke but instead found the older man grinning. He looked back at her and turned back to his work. Katrina smiled at his back and went back to shaving Olvecks. “Tapki, why are you here?” Katrina spoke timidly, softly. “If I wasn’t here, who would be?” “Do you like it here?” “No one likes it here, girlie. Even Zinkrey would rather be somewhere else. We’re all here because, for one reason or another, we have to be.” “Why do you have to be?” “Why do you wear that mask? Why do you cover your hair? Hmm, girlie?” Katrina clamped her mouth shut and kept her eyes glued to the half bald Olveck in her lap. She didn’t know how to answer or if she should, she had the disappointing feeling that Tapki was laughing at her and it hurt. “Not very nice, is it? Having people asking questions you don’t want to answer.” Again Katrina didn’t answer. She wanted to ask him about his home, if he had a family, but knew he would not answer. Those thoughts turned her mind to her own family. She thought of the brothers and sisters she once had and wondered how many still lived. Cassidy was still alive, she knew, but what of the others? Many had died in the fire soon after Katrina had escaped the compound she had been forced to grow up in, but some had escaped. Where was TyraFem, Katrina wondered. Where was her mother? She had not been at the compound and had not accompanied the emperor to Endor so Katrina had no reason to believe her dead, but she had no idea where the woman was. Probably following some other powerful man around the galaxy, Katrina thought bitterly. Thoughts of TyraFem and Palpatine pushed Katrina’s mind in a direction she had been avoiding for over a month. Before leaving for the second Death Star Palpatine had officially declared Katrina married to his second in command, Darth Vader, as part of her punishment for what he considered to be a betrayal. Had Vader died at Endor, as the galaxy believed, it would have meant nothing, but the man lived still. She had felt his mind awake sometime after the death of the Palpatine and had been glad that he had survived; he had been kind to her more than once. Knowledge of the marriage made Katrina hesitate in her well wishes for the man. The other half of that punishment had been that her ownership had been given to a Dark Jedi named Alvis Ker who had come looking for her at the school. He had found her and tried to claim what/who he believed to be his rightful property. Katrina shivered at the memory of the battle that had followed and just how close she had come to death. Tabi had saved her but if Vader came to claim her there would be nothing either of them could do to stop him. Katrina remembered his rare kindnesses but recognized them as such, knowing that he was far different the vast majority of the time. “Keep your mind on what you’re doing,” Tapki broke into her thoughts. Katrina looked down to see an Olveck curled in her lap, sleeping. Its head was free of all fur but the rest of the animal was completely covered with the white fluff. She scratched gently behind its nearly transparent, little ear to wake it up and began removing the remaining fur. At some point she would have to sort out her thoughts and feelings and make a plan of action in case she did ever come face to face with the Dark Lord again, but at the moment she needed to finish shaving the cute little Olvecks before Madame Zinkrey returned to annoy them with her impatience. |
