So I know I should be getting on with TtEotBN, but this was my first real fan fic based exclusively in the SW universe. I have the obligatory self-write-in to the original trilogy (that I got an A+ for in my writing class at school in the eighties!) but this one really started the whole Obi thing back in the late nineties when we were all waiting with anticipation for AotC. I was not confident enough to write about force powers as seen through the eyes of a Jedi, so I created a world and characters in it that were SW universe people who had little to no contact with the order, they were real outer-rim folk and it was our favorite Jedi who appeared to shake things up!

It's set sometime between TPM and AotC, probably early in Anakin's training, because he isn't accompanying Obi on missions yet. Again, I wasn't confident in writing a convincing Anakin so I left him back at the temple!

Disclaimer: As per usual, just playing around in a galaxy that's not my own. All Hail the mighty GL who would sue the pants off us all if he thought we were profiting financially for this stuff! Well, his lawyers would, anyway! The OCs are mine and I'm sure the villain will seem familiar to folks, but I swear he was created years before the man Grievous was even thought of. When I first saw pictures of Grievous, I did have to take a second look, because I seriously thought someone had totally read this and ripped my bad guy off! The only problem with that was that I wrote it long hand and I let like 2 people read it! I don't think they were secret Lucasfilm spies, somehow, especially considering one of them was my future husband! Anyhoo, I based him on a bad guy from the game DIABLO II, from the desert level. There was a striking demon like dude who was very tall and thin with four arms, each wielding a blade and I just thought that would be so cool if he were swinging four lightsabers around and towering over old Obi. So there, that should clear things up and not get me into too much trouble!

Okey Dokey, here we go, hope you like, review please….

I guess I should have realized something like this would happen. After all, Sav and I were getting bored with the harvest on the mountain slopes and were longing for an adventure. The garegrax herds were moving up to the snow capped peaks and we wanted to follow them. Anything to get away from home for a while and the farming work. Sav had managed to get a job on Kalib's land, so we could hang out together on our breaks, so long as we weren't caught, Kalib was very annoying that way; no fraternizing with the competition. Kalib and dad had been friendly rivals for years and there were rules about this business.

Sav tossed a stone over the cliff we were sitting on and watched it disappear to the valley bottom, clattering against the jagged rocks as it fell. The sun was getting behind the Finuran Mountains beyond which we had no real idea of the world.

More mountains, we guessed, but what we would have given to see for ourselves, to become explorers, that was our dream. I would lead and Sav would follow, although I think he always saw things the other way around. But right now we were too tired to really consider such an expedition.

"So, when are you going to marry my sister?" The question came from nowhere, and for a moment I didn't register that it had come from Sav.

"Where did that come from?" I asked.

"Not a good time?"

"Just a bit unexpected."

"Unexpected? It's a foregone conclusion you're going to marry her, the family was just wondering when, so we can get the village organized."

"Dad hasn't even named his successor yet, I can't set a date until then, if he chooses me or not."

"What if it's 'not'?"

I sat silently for a moment. I loved Tai very much, but as I was I had nothing to offer her, we'd end up living either with her family or mine and I wanted to be able to give her a home of her own and some land we could work together. My father was getting old and ready to choose a successor for his farm, but I didn't really want the responsibility of the whole place. He had said he meant to split the land up between my siblings and began to favor Dil, my elder brother and the whole place would probably end up being his. I couldn't have been able to live in the same house as him if he was leader. We just never did see eye to eye. I needed a place of my own before I could settle down and take a wife. And I would have that piece of land, I was sure of that, I just didn't know when.

"Hello! You've been very quiet for quite a while now." Sav was great at bringing me back to a reasonably close proximity to reality.

"Sorry, just thinking about some options."

"You think too much. Just marry her and go live in some cave near Sova Summit. We can visit when the snow thaws. Problem solved."

I began to chuckle and noticed a thin line of cloud stretching across the darkening horizon. It looked strange, I'd never seen anything quite like it before, yet strangely it was reminiscent of something from my past.

"Yeah, somewhere on Sova, chasing garegrax and harvesting yinpatta, and no inlaws or relatives for at least seven months of the year. Sheer bliss!"

Sav laughed and lay back looking up at the sky above us. I was still interested in the cloud ahead, which seemed to be moving much faster than any other clouds.

"Anyway, how could I marry and leave you to suffer Kalib and both our families alone. How long do you think they'll take to find you a bride? I'm sure they've already got a list somewhere."

The line of cloud had abruptly stopped and just seemed to be expanding at one end. Sav pulled himself up, also seeing the cloud formation changing unnaturally.

"I doubt there's a girl on this planet who'd have the patience to stay with a despicable rogue like me. Is that cloud coming straight for us?"

"That's no cloud!" I exclaimed and we both saw the craft as it raced towards us. We scrambled to our feet and jumped to either side for cover as the craft skimmed the grassy top of the cliff face we had just been sitting on. The ship ploughed on over the surface of the plateau digging itself further into the soil. It was slowing down and eventually stopped just short of the mountain side which rose above us some thousand feet of solid rock.