Rules are meant to be broken

A Battle against Pirates

100 reads on this story! Thanks, everyone!! and sorry for the delayed update :)

Anakin was forced to stop teasing Melanie when Ahsoka came up to eat some breakfast too. She had already been working with the farmers, helping them start the harvest process.

"They are very uneasy, it's taking every little bit of courage they have to not bolt and hide in their homes..." She explained as she quickly gulped down her food.

Melanie put her hand on her shoulder. "Eat slower, you'll get indigestion. Ani and I will go and oversee the harvesting process while you take a few moments."

Ahsoka smiled gratefully and slowed down her pace a little. Anakin and Melanie went outside to see round doughnut-shaped machines harvesting the sillim into square boxes. These newly formed boxes were then being pulled by four-legged animals towards the barn. Somewhere across the field, the two could hear the bounty hunter ordering them to take the herbs and store them in the barn. Melanie caught sight of Obiwan standing next to her and she felt a stab in her heart. At least he had sorted his bed hair out.

"Come on, let's start those lessons." Melanie reminded Anakin. The two walked over to a group of about 20 villagers. They were obviously the most courageous and strongest of them all, but they still shook from their nerves.

"All right, everyone, form up!" Anakin ordered, expecting them to do as he asked. Instead, they just looked puzzled. "Ummm... Divide into rows of five?"

The villagers tried their best but their lines were still sloppy and one line had one too little and of course, another had an extra.

"I told you, we're not soldiers! We don't even have weapons." Complained the same villager as last night. Dilani, Melanie remembered.

"Melanie. How about you give them a little demonstration?" Anakin nodded towards his friend. She smiled and stepped forward.

"May I?" She asked Dilani, taking his long gardening tool in her hands. She tossed it between hands, getting an understanding of how it felt in her hands before beginning to swing it around her body like a propeller. She had no idea how to fight with it, instead, swinging it any way that felt like it could defend her. After practising some strikes with it, and turned back to the villager with a grin and said: "Yup, these'll do."

The villagers had a new look of hope in their eyes as they set about the drill that Anakin soon set up for them. However, after another hour, the hope was fading from their eyes again. After a not so impressive staff throw by one of the villagers, Dilani was vocalising his fears again.

"The bounty hunter is right. Every minute you waste teaching us to twirl these stupid poles is time you could have spent beating those pirates yourself!"

"And what good would that do? Another band of brigands would eventually come along or do you intend to give away part of your crop every harvest season?" Came Obi-wan's voice as he arrived at the training area.

"If you make us do this, there won't be another harvest season!" Dilani said in hysterics before stomping off.

"All right everyone, let's get back in position." Anakin tried to defuse the situation. "Let's continue."

With Obi-Wan, Anakin and Melanie working on the villagers, they improved dramatically. The female bounty hunter, who Melanie found out was called Sugi stood around watching with Embo, the bounty hunter with the big disc on his head.

Suddenly Melanie felt eyes on her back she cast a glance around and caught something gleaning on the hill above. A pirate.

"There, a scout!" She cried out.