CHAPTER 10: REPAYING THE DEBT

It was done.

Oscar had slain the beast who had kidnapped his infant daughter. He thought he would feel victorious. Instead, he was filled with remorse for having killed a man. Well, sort of a man.

The aftermath wasn’t easy. Poor little Valencia Rose didn’t know her mommy and daddy anymore. There were days and nights filled with sadness and tears. But Oscar and Tyla kept doing their best to comfort their daughter and show her patience and love.

Three months after Oscar’s return, their family returned to the vampires’ home to visit and to pay the debt they owed. The house was as dark and creepy as Oscar remembered. But the vampires were warm and welcoming. They fawned over Valencia Rose and introduced her to their children, including the vampire triplets that had been recently born.

“They still take mostly breastmilk, but they’re already starting to drink a little blood, too,” Krysanthe said proudly.

“How…nice,” Oscar said, suppressing a shudder.

Later, Oscar filled in Ellison on all his adventures in Batuu. Ellison clapped his hands in delight when he heard how Oscar had escaped the stormtroopers and had flown a real X-Wing fighter.

“I would give anything to go there myself,” said Ellison. “But as you can imagine, we vamps don’t fare too well in a sunny climate.” They went outside to say their goodbyes, and Oscar gave Ellison the souvenir he’d requested. Ellison gripped the hilt tight and turned it on.

Fssssssshhhh!

The lightsaber glowed the same pale yellow as the harvest moon above. Ellison gave the weapon a few test swishes through the air.

“It’s perfect!” he cried. “Just what I needed for my Star Wars collection. Now if only I had a BB-9 unit…” he looked at Oscar shrewdly, as though trying to think of a way to convince him to return to Batuu.

“I think we’ll be going now,” Oscar said quickly. “Thanks for everything!”

Oscar, Tyla, and Valencia Rose returned to their cozy cottage, which now belonged to them, where they fed their chickens and cows, read good books before the crackling fireplace, and, like all good fairy tales, they lived happily ever after.

THE END

CHAPTER 9: BATTLE AT THE COTTAGE

Mission complete.

With the lightsaber safely tucked away, it was time to return home to Tyla. Only, Oscar didn’t go home. Not right away. He had some unfinished business to take care of before he was ready to hand over the lightsaber to the vampires.

Without bothering to knock, he burst right into the cottage where he and Kyla had encountered their daughter.

“Where are you, Demon?” he bellowed, his voice echoing through the little house. From somewhere upstairs, he heard his daughter begin to cry. But he couldn’t stop to go comfort her. Not until he’d taken care of the monster who’d kidnapped her.

“And just what do you think you’re going to do?” asked the demon, sneering when Oscar entered into the room where he’d been relaxing. He didn’t seem at all surprised to see Oscar, as though he’d been waiting for him to arrive. “You can’t hurt me. I’m far too powerful.”

Oscar almost whipped out the lightsaber right then but didn’t want to risk Valencia Rose entering the room and getting caught up in the battle. “Outside, Demon,” he growled through his teeth. “You and me. Now.” Whirling on his heel, he marched down the hall and waited for the demon in the garden.

The demon appeared suddenly just across from Oscar. In the moonlight, he looked even more sinister, the tips of his long ears as sharp as thorns. How had Oscar ever mistaken this creature for a human?

“What do you want, you puny little man?” asked the demon. “I need my sleep.”

“I want my daughter back!” Oscar’s voice shook with anger.

“Certainly not. She belongs to me now.” The demon’s eyes glittered. “In a few more years, she’ll be a tasty morsel.”

This was too much. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the lightsaber and turned it on. Fssssssshhhh! The weapon’s brilliant red glow cut through the darkness.

“Prepare to die,” said Oscar, gripping the hilt tightly.

“Really? Is that the best you’ve got, Inigo Montoya?” the demon’s laugh was dusty and dry. He snapped his fingers, then he, too, was holding a light saber, which glowed a sickly yellow, just like his sallow face. For a moment, there was only the sound of the two weapons humming.

Then Oscar lunged.

Kshhhhh!! The weapons clashed together in the air, red and yellow sparks spraying like fireworks. Oscar twisted away, then swung his weapon again. Again, the demon blocked him. The dance went on and on, until Oscar’s hands grew weak, and he could barely hold the hilt of his weapon.

Help me, Obi Wan Kenobi, he thought. No wait…wrong movie. I am the force, the force is with me. Something like that.

“Give it up, you insolent fool!” the demon growled, thrusting his lightsaber at Oscar’s chest.

Oscar parried the blow. “I will never stop fighting for my daughter. Do you understand? Never!”

With a surge of strength he didn’t know he had, Oscar swung his light saber and felt it connect with something softer than a weapon. With a cry of pain, the demon fell to the ground, his weapon growing dark as it landed in the grass.

For a moment, Oscar stared at his lightsaber, unable to believe what had just happened.

Then saw the demon curled on the grass, looking less like a monster and more like a shriveled old man. A dead old man. Oscar had done it. He’d killed the demon.

CHAPTER 8: EARTH JEDI

“The rebel base!” Oscar couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. “You mean…will C3PO and R2D2 be there? And Luke Skywalker?”

The alien stared at him for a long minute before shaking her head. “Dude, you’ve been watching too many movies.” She ordered a ronto wrap for Oscar, who gobbled it down gratefully, not even pausing to ask what exactly a ronto was. Then they boarded the alien’s ship and flew toward the forest, miles away from the city.

To Oscar’s disappointment, the forest looked like any ordinary forest from planet earth. A thick growth of green trees provided shade as he followed the alien’s directions down a long dirt trail, swatting mosquitoes as he went. At least, he thought they were mosquitoes. They could be some kind of bizarre, alien bloodsucking insect, not unlike the vampire who’d sucked his blood. Oscar shuddered and pressed a hand against his neck at the memory.

At last, he came across what looked similar to the homeless camp where he and Tyla used to live, only with mysterious crates and electronic machines scattered among the trees and rocks.

“Freeze right there!” someone said in a sharp voice.

Oscar froze where he stood, hands in the air. “I–uh–I come in peace!” he said. He turned very slowly and found himself facing two humans wearing uniforms. One of them, a woman with bright blue hair, was pointing a blaster right at Oscar’s chest.

“Identify yourself,” said the person with the gun.

“Oscar. My name is Oscar, and I’m from…planet Earth?” By their blank expressions, he figured they’d never heard of his planet. “It’s far from here, in the Milky Way galaxy. I was sent here to uh…retrieve a lightsaber.” His face grew hot. The request sounded ridiculous now that he was saying it aloud.

The blue-haired woman gave him a dubious look and put her weapon away. The other person snickered.

“A lightsaber, eh? Well what makes you think you deserve a lightsaber?”

Oscar cringed. The vampire hadn’t prepared him to answer any questions like these. “Because…I’m a Jedi? I mean, yes, I’m a Jedi.” He waved his hand in front of their faces like he’d seen Obi-Wan Kenobi do in the movies. “You will give me a light saber.”

The blue-haired woman looked shocked. “You know the ways of the Jedi?”

Oscar shrugged. “Pretty much.”

“Well, then, how could we refuse? Tell you what, we’ll trade for it. If you can help us to repair our fighter ship, then I’ll give you what you seek. Especially since no one around here knows how to use one.”

“Really?” Oscar gaped at her. He hadn’t expected it to be so easy. “Okay, sure.”

“Right this way.” She led Oscar to a clearing, where a battered-looking X-Wing fighter was parked. “If you can get it started and make sure it’s flight-worthy, then the light saber’s yours.” She showed Oscar where the tools were kept, and he went to work troubleshooting. Luckily for him, repairing the fighter wasn’t much different than when he used to help his dad and brother to repair their cars back home. Within a few hours, he was able to get it running.

“Now take it for a test flight,” said the blue-haired woman.

“Seriously?” Oscar had never flown a plane before, let alone a star fighter. But he climbed in and sat behind the cockpit, and thought back to the countless hours he’d spent handling similar controls in video games. He was trained for this. Sort of.

The engine roared to life, and up Oscar went. His stomach dropped as the jet took off like a rocket, zipping above the treetops and into the open sky above. He grabbed the controls and steered the ship around, and by some miracle, managed to guide it back to the rebel camp and land safely back in the clearing.

“Well done, earth Jedi,” said the blue-haired woman when he exited the fighter. “Here is your payment.” She handed him a heavy metal rod stubbled with buttons.

Oscar pressed buttons until the lightsaber sprung to life, glowing with a long, deadly red laser. “Yessss!!” he cried, swinging the lightsaber from one side to another and relishing the womp womp sound it made. He could feel the power surging through him…the power of the force. With this weapon in his hand, he could face the demon who had stolen his baby girl and strike him down. Womp! It would be easier than flying an X-wing fighter.

It was time to go home.

CHAPTER 7: ALIENS AND BUCKETHEADS

“Isn’t there another way?” Tyla asked. “Can’t you stay here with me, and we can think of a plan to get Valencia Rose back from the demon?”

Oscar shook his head. They should have snatched their daughter up and run away while they had the chance, he knew. By now, the three of them could be somewhere far from here. Somewhere safe. But then, was there really any way to be safe from a child-eating demon? No matter where they fled, the monster could find them. He shuddered.

“I have to go to Batuu.” Oscar waved the letter that had arrived in the mail from Ellison, the vampire. “He says right here that I’ll be transported there tonight. Like it or not, I have to go and find him a light saber, or he won’t help us.”

He kissed his wife goodbye, then they headed upstairs to bed. Just as the vampire had said, during the night, Oscar was transported away from the little cottage. When he woke, he found himself in a strange land. The air smelled of exhaust and roasting meat. As he wandered between the mushroom-shaped buildings, he caught snatches of foreign languages from the people passing by. No, not people, exactly. Well, some of them were people, like him. But others had bulbous heads, tentacles, or glassy alien eyes.

He was definitely in a galaxy far, far away from home.

How was he supposed to find a light saber in this place? He couldn’t even find a bathroom. Or food. His stomach growled. He hadn’t eaten since last night, with Tyla. That was last night, right?

“Excuse me,” he asked one of the people-creatures he spotted. “Can you tell me where I can find a light saber around here?” The alien just stared and stared, not saying anything, even as Oscar pantomimed swinging a light saber. “Okay, forget it,” said Oscar.

As he turned away, he saw something familiar just up the road. A stormtrooper! His heart thumped against his chest. A real, live stormtrooper! Here!

Oscar didn’t think. He chased after the stormtrooper, waving his arms. “Hey! Hey you, buckethead!” he called. The stormtrooper swung around to face him. “Question for you,” said Oscar, unable to help himself. “You guys get shot like, all the time, right? So what’s the point of the armor? What does it do exactly?”

“Who are you?” the stormtrooper demanded, ignoring Oscar’s question. “Show me your identification.”

Oscar blinked. “I don’t have any identification,” he said. “I’m just trying to find a light saber for a friend of mine. You don’t happen to know where I can find one, do you?”

“Light saber! Hold it right there.” The stormtrooper mumbled something into his radio about rebel spies.

“I’m not a spy,” Oscar insisted. But the stormtrooper arrested him anyway. As they marched him off toward jail, Oscar managed to give them the slip.

“After him!” he heard one of the stormtroopers say as Oscar fled, zig-zagging through the unfamiliar streets and slipping down a shadowy alleyway. He saw a couple of aliens enter a building and dove inside after them just before the metal door clanged shut.

The room was dark, glazed with a sweetish smoke that smelled nothing like cigarettes. Music played at a frenzied tempo, but no one seemed to be dancing. Most of the clientele sat at the bar, sipping drinks that foamed or bubbled, while others skulked in the shadows or conversed at tables. A few eyed Oscar warily as he sidled up to the bar, but most ignored him.

“Can I get something to eat?” Oscar asked the bartender.

“You got credits to pay for that?” the bartender asked in a gruff voice.

“Well no, but–“

“No credits, no service!” The bartender pointed at the door.

Oscar started to turn, but one of the aliens seated at the bar spoke. “I know what you seek,” she said. “You did me a great service today, by distracting the troopers.”

“I did? Uh…I mean, you’re welcome,” said Oscar.

“Let me repay you. A meal, on me. Then afterward, you can hop on my ship. I have a delivery to make in the forest.”

“What’s in the first?” asked Oscar.

The alien looked around to make sure no one else was listening. Then she leaned toward Oscar. “The rebel base. That’s where you’ll find a light saber.”