"It's not for me to say. I am only a sentinel." Placing hands over eyes and chest, he departed, leaving the visitors to wait for a formal response. Hopefully, she mused, it would not be long in coming. Councils of every type and species had a distressing tendency to dawdle until a consensus could be reached. With luck the Borokii, a people used to being always on the move, would be more responsive.

Everything they experienced during the next several hours spoke to the strength of the overclan. The food was better, the drinks richer, the trimmings and trappings of the visitors' house in every way more lavish than anything they had previously encountered on Ansion. Truth be told, they enjoyed themselves. After their dubious encounters with the Yiwa and the Qulun, it was a relief to be able to relax in pleasant surroundings reasonably confident they would not be set upon at any moment by potential assailants. Both Kyakhta and Bulgan were convinced of that much, though Tooqui remained as chary as always. As to the possible response they would receive from the Borokii Council of Elders, the two guides could offer no opinion.

Bayaar was back well before evening. If the swiftness of his return was encouraging, his words were not. At best, they were ambiguous.

"The council will greet you," the sentinel informed them.

Barriss's face broke out into a wide smile. "We're all set, then."

As she spoke, Bayaar turned his attention to her. "I am not entirely certain what you mean by that, but I think you are confident too soon. When I say that the council will greet you, that is all they will do. Not to do so would be ill mannered."

Obi-Wan worked to interpret their host's meaning, as opposed to his words. "Are you saying they will receive us, but not listen to our proposal?"

Bayaar nodded. "In order for that to happen, you must pre sent the council with an appropriate conventional offering of their choosing."

"Oh, well then." Obi-Wan relaxed slightly. "What would sat isfy the council? We have access to some funds that can be used for trade. If something more substantial is required…" He left the question open.

"Actually, the council requests that you present them with something smaller." Bayaar let his gaze travel over the group. Having encountered only a few human traders before, he was fascinated by their tiny, squinched-up eyes and individual follicu-lar variations. "They wish one of you to hand them a handful of wool taken from the ruff of a mature white male surepp."

"That's all?" Anakin blurted. Obi-Wan threw his Padawan a warning glance, but a very mild one. He was himself surprised by the seemingly unpretentious nature of the request.

Which was why he was immediately wary.

"Where can we purchase some of this wool?"

"You cannot buy it." Bayaar was uncomfortable in the posi tion of diplomatic go-between. He would much rather have been out on the prairie, patrolling a picket line, weapon in hand. "One of you must take it, by hand, in the traditional manner and without the use of any marvelous offworld devices or other forms of assistance such as a suubatar mount, from the back of a white surepp."

Tooqui made a face. "Don't like this idea. Too many many surepp gots too many many big feet."

Leaning over, Barriss whispered to her fellow Padawan. "I don't like this either, Anakin. Just a handful of wool? It seems too easy. The surepp are domesticated herd animals, therefore they can't be too hard to work with. How hard can it be to catch one and snip off a handful of ruff?"

He nodded uncertainly. "I know. Maybe that is all there is to it. Just because it's a custom doesn't mean it has to be difficult, or dangerous."

She indicated their Masters, who were conferring between themselves. "I have a feeling we'll know soon enough."

Standing away from Luminara, Obi-Wan again addressed their host. "We'll be happy to comply with the council's request." He hesitated. "I take it that wool from one of the surepp in the Borokii herd will suffice, and that we don't have to go looking for a wild one?"

"That is correct. It is allowed to cut from the ruff of a herd animal."

"Then we're wasting time. There's still ample daylight out side. If you'd be so kind as to escort us?"

Bayaar sighed. Plainly, these strangers had no idea what they were being asked to do. Haja, they would find out soon enough.

"Come with me."

The stroll through the nomad town was interesting, and Bayaar was happy to point out highlights and explain the sights. Before too long they found themselves on the outskirts of the bustling community, gazing across strands of recently unspooled, electrically charged superconducting lines at thousands and thousands of Borokii surepp. The herd was an impressive sight, mewling and moaning as it nibbled at the high grass. Grazing close together guaranteed safety, if not much room for individuals to move about. Catching a male and cutting off a handful of its neck ruff might require a healthy sprint on the part of the would-be wool trimmer, but it wasn't as if a lengthy dash across the plains was going to be necessary. There was only one prob lem. Bayaar had told them that the council demanded a handful of white wool.

The fur of every one of the dozens, of the hundreds, of surepp within view was mostly either blue or green. There was not a white animal in sight. Not even one that was a pale green. Luminara was quick to point this seeming discrepancy out to their host.

Bayaar looked embarrassed. "I don't make the laws. I am only serving as a vehicle for the council's directives."

"How can we cut white wool from an animal that doesn't ex ist? " Obi-Wan indicated the milling herd.

"It does," Bayaar told them. "The albino surepp is very real, and there are some in the Borokii herd."

Luminara's gaze narrowed as she studied their discomfited host. "There are thousands of animals foraging out there. How many is 'some'?"

Bayaar turned away, visibly uncomfortable. "Two."

Letting out a long sigh, Barriss found herself nodding know ingly. "I knew it sounded too easy."

"Without transport, I don't see how we're expected to do this." Anakin was visibly upset. The Borokii council had set the visitors a seemingly impossible task. Addressing himself to Bayaar, he asked dispiritedly, "What do the Borokii do with their herds at night?" He indicated the electrically charged conductors that kept the herd separated from the town. "The other Alwari we've seen round their animals up and keep them in temporary corrals, the better to watch over them and protect them from nocturnal predators." Both Obi- Wan and Luminara eyed him favorably, and he tried not to show how pleased he was at their approval.

"The Borokii do the same," Bayaar acknowledged, "though on a much larger scale than other Alwari." He indicated the softly humming barrier. "This keeps the surepp contented and together after dark, while outriders like myself keep shanhs and others away from the corral. The surepp cannot leap over the barrier, but a hungry shanh could."