Title:Tell Me A Story
Author:Storm
Feedback:Storm
Rating:G
Category:Drama
Timeline:Pre-TPM
Archive:Yes, just let me know where
Disclaimer:Star Wars places and characters are figments of George Lucas' imagination. I'm only visiting.

The woman sat, still and quiet, and listened to the night sounds. The desert heat had cooled as the darkness set in, and the inhabitants of Mos Espa had ended their day. She could hear singing coming from the cantina, and she smiled faintly as she recognized the bawdytune. The Rodians in the next apartment were talking quietly to each other, too quietly for her to understand the words.

Heat lightning flashed in the sky to the south. The woman stood now, and paced patiently back and forth on the small stone porch, her strides even and slow. A trio of Jawas hurried by in the street, hooting to each other as they went.

Finally the sound she waited for came. Light, quick footsteps, a high voice, an gutteral murmur in response. She peered out into the street, and her eyes lit up as the small boy came into sight, laughing up into the face of the Toydarian.

"Ah, I will think about it boy. Now stop pestering me and get to bed. I want you in the shop right after first meal!"

"OK, Watto! G'nite!" And with a jaunty wave, the tow-headed boy veered off.

"Mom!" As he ran up to the woman, the boy grabbed her around her legs and held tight. The woman laughed, and picking him up, she spun him around in a circle.

"Ani! You're late tonight!"

"I know, Mom, I'm sorry, Watto took me to the Pod races! It was so wizard, I wish you could've been there!"

They entered the house as they talked, and the boy turned around and set the sand seals.

Shmi Skywalker was taken aback. "Pod races? Why? Ani, you know I don't like those races! Or the betting that Watto does on them!"

"Mom! If it wasn't for Watto's betting, we'd still belong to Gardulla!"

Shmi looked on her son with disapproval. "That doesn't make it right. Now, did you eat tonight?"

A guilty look crossing his face, the boy said "I had some mopi candy at the track. I need to go wash my hands, Mom, Watto let me help the pit crew."

And he quickly waved his grimy hands in front of his mother's face, then raced out of the room. Now what, Shmi wondered, is he hiding?

After, they cleaned up from the meal together, Anakin unusually silent.

As she dried the last of the dishes, the boy slipped into his room. He generally did at night, to work on his protocol droid, but tonight he seemed different, and drying her hands, Shmi followed her son.

Ani was sitting on the edge of his bed, a forgotten wirecutter in his hand. The unnamed droid blinked silently in its corner. The voder circuits must have malfunctioned again, Shmi surmised, or no doubt the thing would be chattering away, wondering why it was being ignored. It seemed to have quite low self-esteem as well as a huge ego, which Shmi found interesting though contradictory.

Anakin was gazing up out the tiny window at the night sky. Here in the Outer Rim the stars weren't as thick, but when it was as clear as tonight it didn't matter. The stars gleamed and glittered, and Anakin Skywalker flew among them.

Shmi leaned against the doorframe and watched him. For as long as she lived, she would never get over the wonder of this, that her body had been the instrument to bringing the wonder of this child to life. She knew all mothers must feel the same, yet she couldn't help but feel especially blessed. She had never told, and never would tell, anyone the truth of his birth, the miracle she alone had been chosen for. It was enough that he was here, with her.

He knew she was in the room. He always knew when she was there, and she had long ago ceased to wonder about it. He was simply Anakin, her son, and as every mother since time began knew, Shmi Skywalker knew her son was special.

She crossed to him and curled up next to him on the bed. Ani slid back to give her room, then slipped under her arm and leaned into her embrace. They watched the sky together, both silent, and Shmi waited for him to speak.

"Watto bought a pod."

The mother felt a sudden clutch of fear. Her son's words rushed on as if afraid the silent woman would speak.

"He let me try it out, out on the Jundland Wastes. He said I'm a natural. I knew how to fly it, I just knew! Just like in my dreams Mom. Just the same as I told you."

Shmi Skywalker felt the tears burn in the back of her eyes but refused to let them fall.

"Those were just dreams Ani. Podracing is dangerous and difficult. I don't want you to try it again."

Anakin looked at his mother then, his eyes filled with an emotion she couldn't understand. "But Mom, it wasn't hard. It really wasn't. And Watto thinks I can race. I'd be the only human to ever race a pod. The only one."

Shmi heard the pleading note in his voice and knew how hard it must be for him. Her son (her son!) was a slave, and slaves do not, can not, ask for anything. She shook her head slowly at the boy, and felt the ever present grief rise up. Anakin looked away in embarrassment. Embarrassed that he had caused his mother pain, and embarrassed that he had begged.

They fell silent again, and she hugged him closer. She felt a warmth on her sleeve and knew it to be his quiet tears. She let them fall unhindered by her sympathy and after a while felt him gain his control back.

"Tell me a story." His voice was soft. "One about the Jedi Knights."

She smiled in the darkness then. She too, had dreamed of becoming a Jedi, when she had been a small girl. And so in the dark of the Tatooine night, afraid to let the reality of her life close in on her, she began speaking.

"Once, on the planet of Aldaraan, a boy was born. He was yellow haired like his mother, but his eyes were dark, just like his father's. He was a sweet baby, and his mother knew he was special. So when a Jedi woman came to her door and asked for the baby, she handed him over with joy. She knew the Jedi would love her son and raise him well, and that he would be a great Jedi Knight. And the Jedi woman took the boy to the Temple of the Jedi and named him Ori Hamble."

Anakin settled back and listened. He had heard this story many times before, but Ori Hamble was his favorite of all the Jedi tales his mother knew.

"Ori grew strong and true, and many Knights of the Order wished for the boy as an Apprentice. Some were ancient Masters, some powerful and visionary. But when Ori was asked to choose he chose the woman who had taken him from his home."

"And her name was Seera Eld."

"Yes, Seera Eld. She was a Master Jedi also, but not very strong, and many were more powerful than her. Her strength was in her compassion, in her belief in truth and justice, and in her love for all people. Some said that these things weakened her, that she must be firm and distant in her dealings, but she would smile and go her own way. And Ori Hamble loved her as as he would have loved his own mother.

One day Seera Eld was called before the Great Jedi Council and chastised. She was, they told her, to learn to maintain her distance, to control her passions, to conform to the Jedi Way. And Seera Eld bowed down before her elders and agreed."

"Why did she agree?" Anakin asked, knowing the answer but wanting to hear it again.

"She agreed because of her apprentice. She knew he would be the greatest Jedi that had ever lived, and she wanted to be the best example she could for him. And so it went. Seera Eld did as the Council asked and learned to keep her emotions under control and to ignore her compassionate feelings. And the Great Jedi Council approved of the change in her and honored her and her apprentice with an important mission."

"The medicines."

"Yes, Ani, the medicines. On the planet of Danica a great sickness had broken out and the Jedi were sending all the healers they could to help. And Seera Eld and Ori Hamble were to be there first, in a ship carrying enough medicine to treat an entire world. The two Jedi took off as soon as the medicines had been loaded."

Outside their home Shmi and Anakin could hear the night sounds of the spaceport, faint music, someone fighting, someone laughing. The sounds seemed to fit in with the tale she told, of life and death and honor.

"The ship was caught in a meteor storm and they landed on the planet of Tagoth to make repairs. Now Tagoth did not pay homage to the Jedi, indeed the Jedi did not want homage from anyone. Most worlds accepted what the Jedi offered, the chance for truth and justice, for honest judgements and lawful settlements. But not Tagoth. They told the Jedi to repair their ship and leave, and only gave them the parts they needed to speed them on their way. For the people of Tagoth had a great secret and they did not want the Jedi to discover their secret."

"The slaves. Like us."

"Yes, the slaves. But to the Tagothi, slaves were not people they owned, they were things. Things to be used, and when their use was done they were left in the great desert to die. And so the slaves on Tagoth had rebelled against their owners, rebelled and fought. They had all been killed by their Tagothi owners, all the rebels except one group, and they had been captured. Over two hundred beings, all herded into a pit, and they were to be killed at sunrise. And the slavers of Tagoth did not want the Jedi to find this out, for fear they would free the slaves in the name of truth and justice.

And it came about that Ori Hamble discovered the slave pit and spoke to the slaves and heard the tale. And he came running to his Master Seera Eld, calling for her help to free the poor people.

But Seera Eld looked at the medicines in her hold and told him no. Ori was astounded that she would say this and he told her so. She explained that the medicines would save a million people and if they stayed to battle the Tagothi slavers the medicine would not get there in time. Again she told him no, and again he pleaded with his Master. But Seera Eld remembered that she was to be an example to her apprentice, and that the Council had charged her with this mission to Danica. And for the third time she told her apprentice no.

And Ori Hamble turned on his Master and renounced her. This woman whom he loved as a mother, he told her to go on without him, that he would fight the slavers on his own. And so Seera Eld climbed aboard the ship without him to continue the mission. Ori Hamble did not stay to watch her take off, instead he headed back to the slave pit. And as the sun rose the method of execution was made clear.

The pit was surrounded by Tagothi slavers, two thousand of them, armed with shock guns and blaster rifles. And as the light of the sun fell into the dark pit they began firing. A dozen people died before Ori Hamble made it to the pit. The slavers were laughing amongst themselves, placing bets on which they would shoot next. They took their time, enjoying themselves hugely. Then suddenly they found themselves facing an enraged Jedi Knight, with his laser sword burning and flashing.

They began firing at Ori now, and he spun and parried the blasts, sending them back into the crowd of Tagothi slavemasters. The slaves themselves huddled behind the Jedi, praying and trembling. A few of them stood beside Ori and fought with him, armed with stones and sticks, and they died at his feet. Never had Ori battled so intensely, one man against two thousand. And the slavers laughed, even though dozens of them lay dead from the bolts Ori had deflected back at them. Yet soon it was clear to all that the Jedi would lose, and the cheering and merriment among the Tagothi grew. Indeed, Ori Hamble had fallen to his knees, his great sword still swinging, when another lasersword joined his, and he looked up to see his Master, Seera Eld, standing beside him with fire in her eyes.

'You are my apprentice' she told him. 'I will not leave you behind. And I will not leave these innocent people to die when I could save even one of them. I would not be a Jedi if I did not try. Sometimes,' Seera Eld told Ori Hamble, 'you must try even when you know you cannot succeed.'

And Ori Hamble found the strength to climb back on his feet and continue the battle. He and Seera Eld battled the Tagothi while the sun climbed into the sky, and they held the slavers back. The slaves huddled behind them climbed out the far side of the pit, ignored by the slavers who now only wanted to kill the Jedi. And of the two hundred, one hundred and fifty made it to safety. Two dozen lay dead on the floor of the pit and two dozen more refused to leave the valiant Jedi who defended them. They could not help, for the Jedi whirled and parried with such speed that they were just a blur, and the Tagothi slavers continued to die from their own blaster bolts sent back to them.

But Jedi are only people, and two people cannot win against two thousand. Seera and Ori fought from sunrise to midday, when the hot sun burned down and exhaustion was overtaking them. And finally Ori Hamble fell, his great sword at his side with no power left to it, while his Master Seera Eld stood over her apprentice's body and continued to fight."

"And she died too."

"And she died too, yes."

Shmi was silent for a minute.

"When the Jedi Council found the deserted ship they searched. And they found two thousand dead Tagothi slavers surrounding the rim of a deep pit. They had all been killed by blaster fire, and the Jedi could not tell why. Until they climbed down into the pit and found forty dead slaves and the bodies of the missing Jedi. The Council were standing with heads bowed in grief when they heard the voices. At the top of the pit stood the one hundred fifty slaves Ori and Seera had saved, and ten thousand more slaves who had come to honor them. They sang the story to the Council of the great Jedi Ori Hamble and his Master Seera Eld, who gave their lives for the sake of others. And then the Council leader found their laserswords under their bodies, charges spent and the cases black with discharge.

And the Council knew then that they had been wrong in their words to Seera Eld, that compassion for others was truly part of the Jedi Way. The sacrifice of Seera and her apprentice humbled them, and they took up their bodies and burned them. When the ceremonies were done the sun had set, and the flames from the bodies rose into the night sky."

"What happened to the slaves?"

"The Tagothi slaves took the world from their owners, and the world of Tagoth became a haven of peace, where all were able to live their lives free from fear. The planet of Danica, where the plague had been, entered into a Compact with Tagoth, for the people of Danica felt deep guilt for the death of the two Jedi. And from that day to this Tagoth and Danica have been friends, and many great Jedi have come from those two worlds. But none as great as Seera Eld and Ori Hamble."

Shmi's voice trailed off, and she felt her son's body relaxing into sleep. "About the pods Ani. Whatever Watto decides is what we will do, but know this. I will be terrified for you, each and every time, but you have my blessing to try. You won't know if you can do it until you try."

Anakin was quiet for so long she thought he had fallen asleep. "I felt free when I flew it today Mom. Free."

Shmi Skywalker stood then and tucked him into his bed. She kissed him on the tip of his nose and whispered, "Fly then. Be free."

Anakin hugged her fiercely. "Someday the Jedi will come and free us. I know they will."

"Go to sleep Ani."

"G'nite Mom."

"Goodnight Anakin."

The mother went out into the front rooms of the hovel and brought down the lights. She put away the last of the dishes, then went to the doorway of her home and stared up into the sky. A star fell, streaking across the blackness, a fiery ball. Shmi thought back to the story, and in the star's fall she saw the pyre of the two fallen Jedi. A shiver took her then, and her sight went dark. In the dark she saw flames, flames leaping into the sky. They rose from a pyre, and for a moment she thought she watched Ori Hamble's funeral. But somehow she knew that though it was a Jedi who burned, it was neither Ori nor Seera. She felt tears running down her face and wondered why. The grief that shook her body then brought her down to her knees, as she realized that the Jedi who burned was Anakin Skywalker.