Short Stories of Ezra Bridger

Chapter 1: Stolen Jogan Fruit (3/5/19)

Ezra sat on the edge of a low building with his legs dangling over, kicking sporadically. Down below was a crowd of people who were waiting in line for food at a fruit stand. The line was unusually long and Ezra knew why. The people of Lothal were doing their morning shopping early on in the morning, so that they wouldn't have to in the afternoon.

Tonight, stormtroopers would be patrolling the streets more so than usual because it was Empire Day. All the local Lothal residents were required to attend the annual parade that celebrated the anniversary of the day the Empire supposedly won the Clone Wars years ago. Nobody wished to attend the festivities, but they knew if they didn't they would be arrested and might even be killed for attempting something considered treason and drastic in Imperial eyes.

Although, Ezra wasn't too worried about that evening. He was always long gone by the time the parade started, hiding away in his lonely, abandoned communication tower in an empty field of Lothal. It was a couple miles away from Capital city, and he knew he wouldn't have a problem getting back to his home if he left Capital city at a good time. Meaning, before the storm troopers started infesting the streets like unwanted rats and bullying its people.

Currently, he was awaiting the perfect time to sneak up behind the fruit seller and snatch a couple jogan fruits. His plan was to go back to his tower and spend the evening baking. Something he did on rare occasions, but today was that kind of day. It was, in fact, his birthday and he decided he wanted to celebrate it himself. He normally wouldn't pride himself that way, but he needed something to do to get his mind off of his parents. Anything to get his mind off of them.

Over the past week he had gathered, more like stolen, all the ingredients he would need to bake a jogan cake. The last item on the list was the main ingredient; the jogan fruit.

Noticing the fruit seller was becoming more and more busy by the second, Ezra decided to take his chance. He crept to a corner of the building he had been sitting on and threw his legs over once again. He scanned the ground below the edge of the building. There was a stack of barrels to his right and a pile of dirt on his left. He decided to go to the large dirt pile and half jump, half roll down the building and landed with a short grunt in the dirt.

Once on the ground, Ezra held both straps of his backpack and walked around the corner, acting like a normal citizen. Instead of walking in front of the fruit stand, where all the hungry customers were, he crept to the back. He waited patiently until the sellers back was turned before jumping out and snatching three jogan fruits.

Looking around, casually, Ezra didn't notice anybody that had seen his act of thievery. He stuffed the fruit in his backpack and walked away whistling, like nothing unusual had happened.

He decided he had better head back to his tower and start baking. There was no reason to stay in Capital city longer than he needed to. Once the storm troopers were out on the streets, there was no hope in traveling back to his hideout. The only reason he had come to Capital city that morning was to snatch the fruit and leave. Normally, he just ended up getting himself into trouble if he did things that were not planned according to his schedule.

As he continued to walk, nobody looked at him. Or if they did, they would walk in the other direction. All of the smarter Lothal citizens knew which kids were orphans and which ones were keen on pick pocketing. Ezra noticed one Rodian grab their satchel as they met eyes with Ezra as he turned the corner.

Up ahead, Ezra was surprised to see a group of troopers surrounding an unlucky ugnaught and its courier droid. As custom, the troopers were bullying the small ugnaught and accusing him of things he probably did not do. The small creature looked confused, and rightly so, because they did not speak in Basic.