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━━┓'𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐦𝐮𝐠𝐠𝐥𝐞𝐫' ┏━━
━━ ★ ━━
. . . JUNDLAND WASTES, TATOOINE
𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐄𝐃𝐄𝐑 𝐑𝐈𝐃𝐄 back to Mos Eisley was a melancholy one. The engine roared as the kicked up sand in their wake. Cora sat in the back seat and she kept catching Obi-Wan turning around. She knew he wasn't looking at her. He was looking for the woman they had already left behind.
Cora smelled the acrid smoke as it came into view ahead of them. A giant, trapezoidal machine looked like it had been completely blown apart. The speeder puttered to a stop at the scene and Luke hopped out to investigate.
It was an entire group of Jawas slaughtered in one attack. Cora toed at piece of shrapnel with her thick leather boots. It looked unmistakably like it had been shot by a blaster.
"It looks like Sandpeople did this, all right. Look, here are Gaffi sticks, Bantha tracks. It's just–I never heard of them hitting anything this big before," Luke said, perplexed.
They didn't. But we are meant to think they did," Obi-Wan told him. "These tracks are side by side. Sandpeople always ride single file to hide their numbers."
"These are the same Jawas that sold us Artoo and Threepio."
Obi-Wan ran a hand over the treads of the sandcrawler. "These blast points are far too accurate for Sandpeople. Only Imperial stormtroopers are so precise."
A chill brushed up Cora's spine. Tamis's voice laughed in a memory. Those Imperial bastards couldn't shoot their way out of a paper bag.
Luke turned. "Why would Imperial troops want to slaughter Jawas?"
"The droid," Cora muttered. Louder, she repeated, "They knew about the droid, the plans that were housed in Artoo. They must have been tracking him."
"If they tracked them here, they might have learned who they sold them to," he was verging on panic now. "And that would lead them back home."
"Luke, wait," Obi-Wan said, but the boy was too fast. Before they could do anything, he started the speeder and headed off.
Cora blinked. They were surrounded by nothing but miles of sand.
"Do you reckon he'll come back?" she asked no one in particular.
