Before anyone says ANYTHING, this thing is the reason why I'm late on my update of "A Protector's Pride". The guys at work AND my wife ganged up on me to write this thing based on a rather hilarious idea regarding the Ewoks.

So, I do not take credit for the idea, and it took quite some time to research fully (I try not to contradict canon too much). Anyway, hope you enjoy.

Chapter 1: Evolution of the Ewok

Jacob Pluckett looked at the data he'd painstakingly acquired disbelievingly. He was a well-known historian throughout the Republic, having written what was largely accepted as the best historical account of the Rebellion. He'd interviewed several of the legendary heroes for that work: Luke Skywalker, the Jedi Master who was in the process of resurrecting the Jedi Order; Han and Leia Solo, infamous pilot of the Millennium Falcon and Luke's sister respectively… many, many others. There were many heroes in those years, and Jacob did not like to think of how many of those heroes had died with their stories yet untold.

Having written so much about the war, Jacob had decided to take a break and look into the histories of the Ewoks, a small, primitive, humanoid people who resided on the forest moon of Endor. The Ewoks were well known throughout the galaxy for being a crucial force in the battle against the Imperial forces, but it was also known that their people had not even reached past the stone age of technology! How could it be that such a primitive race had been able to do what they had?

Jacob had had a hunch that the answer lied somewhere in the Ewok's past, their nature. What had they evolved from? Given their tribal, community-oriented culture, it seemed logical that they had perhaps had similar roots to humans, who were much the same especially in those early years, so Jacob had pursued that path, with a translator droid on hand to convert Ewokese into Galactic Standard. But what the historian had found completely destroyed that theory.

Though their history was not yet written consistently, the Ewok tribes had legends, myths, folklore, and any historian worth their salt knew that such things frequently had a basis in truth. So Jacob had listened to their stories, writing them down for future analyzing, and these stories were what he was looking at again right now.

It seemed that the Ewoks had once been solitary creatures, but that something nigh-cataclysmic had happened that forced them to band together. The core details from the stories told by different tribes all across that world were the same: food had become increasingly scarce, and Ewoks had been forced to fight each other for the right to survive. Those who had banded together formed the various tribes that could now be found across the moon.

Jacob took a deep breath and adjusted his glasses, looking over his notes again. Protection in numbers, indeed, he mused. The oral histories indicated that after a few more decades, there were relatively few Ewoks left, mostly those who had formed tribes and communities. This allowed the moon to recover sufficiently for the inhabitants to work out a balance, led by those who were in touch with nature.

"And today, those Ewoks are known as shamans, and they are highly secretive," Jacob muttered aloud, connecting the dots as he wrote. "They led their people to new sources of food – high in the trees where they had not been able to go before, or far into the lakes and seas. And they established a nature-based religion to keep it from ever happening again. Alright, that seems fairly straightforward."

But there was one thing bugging Jacob: there had been no mention anywhere of natural enemies, and the time he'd spent with the Ewoks had been rather peaceful. It was plain to see that they were the dominant species on the moon, but for the life of him Jacob could not see how that could be. There were many larger predators, though they were unable to reach the Ewok tribes due to their remote villages, and they should have been able to keep the Ewoks from being able to grow to such a point that they had exhausted the moon's food supply. Nature had a knack for balance: everything had a counter. If one group of animals grew too plentiful, then its natural predator would thrive until the prey diminished, at which point the predator too would diminish. That was the way of an ecosystem.

Wait, the Ewoks are omnivorous. Assuming that was the case even then, that means that they could hold their own… even against those larger than them. That was a scary thought; the tiny little bear-like creatures had evolved from vicious and efficient killers. And they were beginning to develop technology…

Jacob's eyes widened when he remembered that a large part of their community centered on warriors, who decorated themselves with trophies of their kills. It was beginning to become apparent just how the Ewoks had been able to terrorize the Imperialists and help the Rebels drive them out. They were able to use any weapon at their disposal without hesitation. Teeth, claws, hand-held weapons… there was nothing holding them back save their own leaders.

Morbidly, Jacob wondered what would happen if they didn't have the 'enlightened' leaders guiding them into peaceful society… and then paled when he distinctly remembered reading the reports about how frequently Ewoks are kidnapped and kept as slaves or pets by those wealthy enough to afford them. He didn't dare mention it to the tribe leaders; Jacob could no longer say with absolute confidence that he'd be able to leave alive if he did.

I need to get off this moon. Now!

There were a few different ways this prologue could have gone, but Star Wars isn't my usual genre, and I'm actually quite busy nowadays.

Anyway, the idea, as you probably have figured out, is that Ewoks are descended from one of the most vicious, efficient, resilient omnivorous predators out there - the honey badger. Look it up. I dare you. The honey badger can take multiple bites from some of the most venomous snakes out there, be knocked out for a few hours, wake up and then EAT the damn snake. Highly intelligent, able to use tools, very resilient... No animal wants to tangle with this.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed!