AT THE END OF THE DAY…
Memories returned slowly at first, fleeting feelings scattered into jumbled confusion. Then the flashbacks stabbed, unwanted and uncalled for, into her consciousness. Emotions exploded into her senses as she lay there. Panic and sheer ice-cold terror rose in her throat, her heart pounding in her chest, fear showing in her blue-grey eyes.
Fear... Yes, she had been so afraid... of the march of heavy-booted footsteps, shattering the silence of the calm blue morning. Of the harsh voices barking commands, and asking confusing questions. Questions she did not know the answers to. Questions she would not have answered, even if her life had depended upon it.
With a start, she recalled the flash and roar of blaster fire ripping through the air, the acrid stench of smoke and flames. Burning. Something was burning. She could taste it, hot and sour, and then the noise and the pain overwhelmed her, consuming her, and then sweet silence, and the warm welcoming embrace of all-engulfing darkness…
They were only obeying orders…
It was just a memory now, an awakening from a bad dream. She gasped, feeling the cool night air on her face. It was finished. She didn't feel afraid any more, just empty echoes where the fear had once been, mere shadows of darkness which passed over her, feeble wind-blown ripples in the sand. She cast the shadows away and they melted into oblivion, like the night-dew in the warmth of dawn.
She could feel cool sand beneath her, the small, hard grains passing between her fingers as she tried to sit up.
Looking around, she saw that it was now night, serene and still. A thousand stars blazed softly overhead, a soothing blanket of peace.
In the glow of gentle starlight, she became aware of the man sitting on the ground beside her.
"Are you alright?" she enquired, her voice unsteady, unsure, "What happened? Where are we?
"It doesn't matter", he replied, as he placed a comforting hand upon her shoulder. "We're safe now. Don't worry, they can't hurt us any more."
He looked up into the darkness of the deep, endless, purple sky. He had spent a lifetime on this dust-ball of a planet, he knew the old familiar stars above as well as he knew the harsh landscape beneath, but tonight…tonight, they were somehow different. He had not seen them sparkle with this clarity since he was a boy, it was as if he was seeing them through fresh young eyes once more.
One star stood out from all the others, shining with a calm, pure light through the still desert air, growing even brighter as he watched.
"Will he be alright?" Her anxious eyes searched his face for reassurance.
Overhead, the star blazed, its light streaming down in ribbons of radiance.
He took her tenderly by the hand and helped her to her feet, his usually gruff voice edged with softness as he spoke: "Yes, I'm sure Luke will be fine. Come on, Beru, it's time to go…"
And together, arm in arm, they walked into the golden glory of The Force…
~ THE END ~