"Good you're okay, I was coming to warn you."
Renn looked at the entrance to the ally and saw a small boy maybe a year older than him panting as though he had just run a long way. Alpha stepped warily between Renn and Opal and the boy, causing the boys gaze to focus on him.
"Whoa, you're a droid" the boy said in amazement looking at Alpha. The robes Alpha wore were burnt around his chest, from when he was shot, exposing the metal underneath and the bandages hiding one of his arms had been torn off.
The boy looked around the destruction in the ally seemingly thinking about something before coming to a decision and gestured for the trio to follow him. "Come with me, I live close by. You'll be safe there."
Renn and Alpha shared a look and seemed to come to a silent agreement before they cautiously began following the boy. Opal followed a step behind still hiding behind Renn.
-
"This is my home, come in I'll go get my mum" the boy said as they arrived outside a small house that looked similar to most of the others on the street.
The streets had become deserted as the weather grew darker, Tatooine was known for strong sandstorms, and it seemed like one might be starting soon.
Renn and the others followed the boy into his house and began looking around curiously. The inside was small like the outside and they were currently stood in the main room which seemed to have a small kitchen attached to it.
"My mum will be down soon," said the boy coming back into the room.
"Who are you? And why were you coming to warn us?" Renn asked, they had still been a bit on edge after the fight, so no-one had asked the boy who he was yet.
"My name's Anakin. I work for a scrap dealer called Watto nearby to the shop where you sold those valuables. The people who attacked you are a local gang, I saw them watching you as you were in the store, so I was coming to warn you because it was the right thing to do." The boy, Anakin, told them.
Renn watched Anakin as he was talking, and his gut told him that the boy was telling the truth, so he decided to believe him.
"My names Renn, this is Opal and that is Alpha," Renn introduced himself and the others to Anakin. Opal gave a small wave when Renn mentioned her name and Alpha just gave a short nod as he stood silently in a corner of the room.
"Your friend Alpha is a droid, isn't he? He seems so advanced what model is he? I'm making my own droid you know, do you want to meet him?" Anakin excitedly started asking questions and Renn and the others weren't sure which to answer first. Luckily, they were saved when Anakin's mum chose this moment to enter the room.
"Ani what's going on?" Anakin's mum asked as she walked in, she was interested in finding out why two small children and a mysterious droid in a partially burnt robe were in her house.
Anakin's mother, who introduced herself as Shmi Skywalker, soon had Anakin explaining the full story of the strangers in her house. After hearing about what happened and asking Renn and Opal some questions about themselves Shmi soon took pity on them and noticing the weather decided to invite them to stay the night.
"There is going to be a sandstorm tonight, it'll be dangerous trying to get back to your ship now so you're welcome to stay here tonight." Shmi told them.
"Thank you, if it's not too much trouble that would be great." Renn accepted her offer with a grateful smile.
"This is going to be fun, come on I'll show you the droid I'm building." Anakin exclaimed excitedly before pulling Renn and Opal out of the room to go see his droid.
Alpha politely excused himself before leaving to call the ship and inform Sapphire and the others that they were safe and what they were up to. He then returned and started chatting with Shmi about various things while trying to fix his disguise.
-
"This is C3-P0 he's a protocol droid that I'm making out of spare parts to help mum around the house. He's still not finished but I think I should be finished within the next year."
"Whoa that's impressive, the circuitry is really complex you've done a good job." Renn said as he was leaning in to examine the droid.
Renn like Anakin also had a love of building and fixing things and would spend a lot of his time back on the asteroid base where he lived in the repair bay with Bolt, Tinker and Drillbit learning all about the subject. Soon the two boys were having an animated conversation all about building things and how Anakin could improve C3-P0, while Opal just sat staring at them like they were speaking a foreign language.
"I'm building a podracer as well" Anakin said causing Opal to ask inquisitively.
"What's a podracer?"
Anakin looked at Renn, who due to his 'sheltered' upbringing also didn't know and wore a curious look on his face, before launching into a lengthy explanation of what podracers were and the sport of podracing.
"It sounds exiting" Renn said once Anakin's explanation was done, "I bet it's fun watching it"
"It is. Tomorrow is actually the Boonta's Eve holiday, so the Boonta Eve Classic is going to be held. It's on of the largest podraces in the galaxy, I'm going to watch it with my friends you two should come too." Anakin told them.
"Definitely it sounds like it'll be fun." Renn said.
The children kept talking discussing different things and quickly becoming friends, especially Renn and Anakin who would talk about things that they both found interesting, and both felt as though they had found a kindred spirit.