Years later, Ben told me that he never would have gone to lunch with me if it weren't for the leading of the Force. When he told me that, I smiled. I figured that meant that the Force and I must have had something in common. It was over that lunch that the changing of my life's path was set.

When we walked into Mos Eisley Cantina, my heart was racing. Aliens from every planet and every race populated the tiny bar. Many of them were already drunk despite the earliness of the afternoon. When the door opened, allowing the light to pour in, several creatures turned our direction. A few humans were present and when I stepped in behind him, I noticed their leering gaze. It wasn't until that moment that I realized females of any species were a rarity.

I fought to calm my heart and felt Ben's gentle hand on my elbow.

"It's alright."

"Maybe I should go get a wrap…" My voice trailed off as I looked at my flowing feminine dress. "I didn't expect to come here. I didn't dress…" I looked at everyone in their flight suits and outdoor gear. The dress, light green to highlight my eyes, was a simple one. Long enough to be modest but sewn in a manner to highlight my curves, it wasn't a formal dress. I had many others just like it in my closet. Though completely acceptable for everyday attire, once I stepped into the Cantina it took on a life of its own and became something completely different. In the marketplace it had been lost in the crowd of shoppers. Suddenly, where the dress had been modest, it seemed very immodest. Though only my arms and my ankles showed, it was drawing attention that I had never imagined. I patted at my long brown curls and thought again of how I had chosen this style in order to attract attention. This was not the kind of attention I had imagined. "I can go back to my speeder and…"

"No." His voice was firm as he held my elbow in his warm hand. "It's alright." As I watched, it seemed that he grew several inches taller. His shoulders straightened a bit and, still holding my elbow in his warm hand, he placed just the very edge of his fingertips against the center of my back. He looked at the bartender and nodded his head toward an empty booth far in a back corner. With the barest bit of pressure against my back, we moved to the dark quiet booth.

After we had settled into the booth and ordered our drinks and food, he settled back into his seat and looked at me.

"Didn't your mother ever tell you not to talk to strangers? You don't even know my name." He cocked his head to the side and gave me a warm smile.

"Ah. But the wind doesn't have a name." I smiled in return, tossed my long brown curls over one shoulder, and settled back into my seat.

He laughed long and loud then. "Your wit matches your sense of humor." He began to stroke his beard again. Deep in thought, a soft smile played at the corner of his lips. He was about to say something and stopped. The server arrived with the drinks and leaned in to the booth.

With a long neck and limbs, she lowered her head until it almost touched the table between us and began to whisper. "Those…" she swung her blue head and coughed politely, "gentlemen in the corner wish to buy the young lady a drink." She coughed again. "Actually, many drinks."

I felt my face flush deep red as the female swiveled her blue head back and forth between him and myself. "I don't think…"

"The lady's not interested." He turned and waved at the table in question. "But thank them very much." With a smile and a wink in my direction, he said, "We wouldn't want to be rude or impolite after all." I looked down at the table in front of me, my face flushed a deep hot crimson. I swiped a damp curl from my forehead I heard rustling behind the booth and turned to see the entire table full of creatures that had offered the drinks to me. My heart leaped into my chest and I tried to stand and make amends but all of the strength went out of my knees.

"Gentlemen." I heard the smooth honeyed voice float across the booth and looked up to see him smiling at the crew. "Is there something I can help you with?" Not a twitch. Not a tick. Nothing at all to show that he had any concerns about the situation at hand.

"We asked to buy the lady a drink. Not you." A humanoid male of unusually large proportions stepped forward. His flight suit was tight across his belly and I wondered for just a moment if the buttons on the front were going to pop. His arms were extremely long, hanging almost to his knees. He looked at me, his dark eyes without pupils staring at me long and hard. His dark hair was long and straggly and I couldn't help wondering when he had last bathed.

His motley group was standing behind him. Formed of all shapes and sizes, the lot of them could have been a wanted poster for a kid's holocron in need of personal hygiene. With all the colors of the rainbow and, what appeared to be a large number of the civilized worlds represented amongst them, I wondered how we could ever get out of this situation. A quick glance at my lunch date still showed no concern on his behalf.

"You don't need to buy this girl a drink. She's with me." He waved his hand again with that slow voice modulation and a few of the beings in the crew stepped back a pace. They looked at each other confused and he made eye contact with them one at a time. "There's no business here. She's not your type." I watched as there were mumblings and grumblings amongst the group and a few of the beings decided it wasn't worth it. They turned and left, making the odds decidedly better.

The leader wasn't so sure though. He glanced around and in a harsh grating voice said "You idiots! It's a mind trick!"

At that, my companion cocked his head to the side and said, "You have no business here my friend." His voice just a little more firm.

"I think I do." The huge creature said as he reached out to make a wide sweeping punch. By the time his fist reached the spot where my friend's face should have been, he had ducked below the swing and was behind the attacker.

"I told you friend. You have no business here." His voice resonated through the now silent Cantina. "The girl is with me. Does anyone else here have concerns about that?" He looked around at the bar patrons, his smooth glare ice hard.

A general murmuring wound its way through the Cantina as everyone went back to what they had been doing before the argument broke out. My companion's eyes focused on the large humanoid that had started the conflict and cocked his head to the side.

"Are we finished here then?" The honeyed voice was back along with the hint of a smile behind his beard.

The alien stared down at him, assessing the situation and then looked back at me. His black eyes met my frightened stare and the thought ran through my head that I was going to die. He swung around and grabbed my hair, preparing to yank me from the booth and run, but before he could take even a step, there was a hissing noise and a hum in the air for just a second. A bright flash and the alien fell to the floor without letting go of my hair, so pulling me on top of him. He looked confused, not sure why he had fallen. When he looked down and saw his very large foot with a black, charred edge. Several toes were lying on the floor next to him, a matching black char on their ends. He began to scream. Hands and fingers still tangled in my hair, he began to panic and screech in his alien tongue. I was dragged across the floor with him for just a moment before his eyes lit on my own and he wrapped his hands around my throat. I clawed at his hands, wanting to shriek for help but unable to breathe. Another bright flash and the weight that was holding me shifted. I looked down to see a hand still clutching my throat. I pulled away the long fingers and threw it across the room as warm arms wrapped around me and lifted me to my feet.

I trembled and fought to stay upright while my companion pulled me close in to his side. His hands were empty, but I could feel the bump of a lightsaber against my side. With another quick glance around the Cantina, he swung me toward the door and tossed a bit of currency at the server.

"I'm afraid we are going to need to leave without eating our meal. My apologies." His voice was even, steady. I could barely hear anything except his voice and the sound of my own breathing which seemed, at that moment, to be unusually loud. Each breath had a measure of pain to it as well. As if I had swallowed fire.

When we stepped out into the bright sunlight of Tatooine's mid afternoon, I felt his breath whisper against my ear. "We're almost there. Stick with me. Where did you park your speeder?" I bobbed my head in a slow drunken movement and lifted my hand in the general direction where I had parked my speeder. I was fighting to keep conscious now, aware only of the pounding in my head and the ripping pain in my throat. As we came into view of the speeder, I croaked an affirmative at him and pointed my finger just in time to see the bright sunny world of Tatooine go dark around me. The last thing I remember was his arms around me and his voice whispering in my ear that everything would be alright.

"It still stings, to this day, the way that I handled that situation. I should have known better. Dressed differently. Done…something." My voice trails off and my hand trembles. "But I was young. I was very single minded. Ben never held any of it against me." A chuckle. "He used to tell me that I had helped him to remember not to grow complacent in his talents."

With a long silent pause, Young Skywalker and I were both wrapped in our own thoughts.

"Are you alright?" His voice was young, concerned. Gentle.

"Yes. I'm fine." I look up at him with a smile and a wink. "I'll make you a deal. Take me to lunch…."

"And you'll bake me a tanja pie?" He finished the sentence with a playful grin.

"Better yet. I'll tell you about Caden."