Chapter Eight

Launa made her way to the quiet bedroom that she had kept meticulously clean in anticipation of her father's return. She had made sure that nothing had moved in the past ten years and now it was a jumbled mess of scattered papers, open drawers and overturned furniture. She carefully placed the mattress back on its foundation and then replaced the coverings just the way Ben would have wanted them, the end tucked in and the pillows under the sheet. She folded the clothes that had been taken out of the dresser drawers and strewn about the room. She carefully replaced them and then she set his writing set back on top of his desk. Her mind revolted at the thought of never seeing her father again. It couldn't be true, but in her heart she knew it was a certain truth. She held her emotions in check and then turned to leave the room. Then she caught sight of her father's favorite sitting chair, the one where he used to sit with her at his feet telling her stories of the brave deeds of Jedi Knights of the past. And now she was set to join their numbers and he'd never know. She ran to the easy chair and embraced it, her face buried in its sitting cushion. She couldn't bear it any longer.

The tears streamed down her face in a torrential release of emotion. She had restrained herself from showing that she felt anything for so long that she was surprised at her own behavior. She didn't care though, she wanted her father back. Seventeen years was not half long enough; he was supposed to have been there when she became a Jedi, how could this happen? It was so wrong. He had died too early; his death had preceded Anakin's return and the return of the Jedi.

She punched the cushions of the chair.

"No!" she screamed. "No" she said in a quiet whisper.

She sat there weeping with her head on the cushion of the chair. Her heart ached terribly, and the only avenue available to release the torrent of emotion she felt was through crying. The hot tears of her sorrow swept down the lines of her face in an endless cascade. She raised her head, looked at her surroundings, and then fled to the shelter of her own room.

She knew Luke would be returning soon and she could not afford to let him see that she had been crying. She took a cloth, vigorously rubbed her face, and looked in the mirror. She was relieved by her reflection; she had been blessed with a capacity to shed as many tears as she liked and her face would still remain natural looking, no red eyes, no puffiness, her face would seem a shade more flushed than usual, that was the only effect weeping had on her appearances.

She slid onto the floor and blindly felt around under her bed for her travel case, it was still there. She drug it out from under the bed and began packing a couple changes of clothes and a few sentimental items that she did not ever want too far from her grasp. There was still space in her bag, so she went over to her bookshelf and sorted through the books that were scattered on the floor and put most of them back on the shelf but set a couple aside and then stuffed them into her bag. She then left her room and went down to the cellar once again.

She found the most recent volume of the Jedi Chronicles and tucked it away in her jacket and then climbed back up the ladder and triggered the trap door. She went to the table and then pulled a pin from out of her chest pocket and added in her disorderly scrawl this entry…

'Jedi Master Luke Skywalker takes Launa Jordane Kenobi, daughter of General Obi Wan Kenobi to be his Padawan Learner. Exiled Jedi Obi Wan Kenobi dies (11 years and 3 months previous)'

That stated everything that needed to be said. She closed the tome with a resounding bang then she went into her bedroom, placed it in her bag, and then zipped the duffel bag shut.

"There" she said with a decisive sigh. She had everything she needed. She wandered throughout the house putting a few miscellaneous items back where they belonged. She wanted this house to stay the same forever. She would be extra careful when she left with Luke to make sure that it was safely locked up before she departed on her journey to new systems. A journey that she didn't have the faintest idea where it would lead her or how long it would be before she would be able to return to her beloved home. She put some food in her bag and then slung it on her shoulder and went outside. She carefully locked her house up, setting several devices that would deter anyone who might try to vandalize her quiet desert sanctuary again.

It was that mysterious hour right before dawn, when the eerie silence that enveloped the entire desert was at its peak, and stillness reined over all living things. It was a meditative hour for Launa. It gave her an opportunity to let the weight of the past few hours sink in.

She was on her way to becoming a Jedi. She could scarcely believe it. Yet it was a bittersweet kind of thing. Could she separate the glorious parts of the past few hours from the tragic? only time would tell.

There under the shining stars everything seemed to be at peace and right, the pristine night sky had a calming affect and she laid down on the cold sand and stared up at the stars. She wondered if the skies of other systems looked different than the sky of her own. She wondered what they called their constellations and what stories they told about them. Launa smiled childishly as she pinpointed her favorite constellation; the warrior princess; Satine Windtamer. According to legend she had been a Queen of Tatooine back in the days of the monarchs. She had spent her entire life warding off invaders from outer systems. When she died, it was said that she prophesied that too many foreigners dwelling in the Tatooine system would be its downfall it would become a savage system (only a hundred years later the Hutts appeared and seized Tatooine as one of their fiefdoms) until a monarch came to rule it once again. Launa laughed, she loved the folklore of her people, it told of so many noble deeds and of people who defied the elements to become great leaders.

Her mind traced through the dramatic sights she'd seen on Tatooine. The fierce sandstorms, the still nights in which the sand never stirred, the flare filled sunsets that dazzled the senses, she would miss them all.

It was about time she came out of her cozy protective shell, she knew there had to be more to life and that the only way of ever finding that unidentifiable thing that she so desperately sought would be to leave Tatooine. She was certain it couldn't be on Tatooine she had been over every inch of the planet and the unknown something simply did not exist on her planet, so logically it had to be lurking in the regions of the galaxy to which she had never travelled.

Launa sat up went back into her home paying careful attention to not triggering the traps that she had set up. She went to the kitchen found a small bottle, poured out its contents and then went back outside. She gathered up some sand in her hands and then funneled it into the bottle. Then she tightly closing the lid and placed it in her bag. She turned her head and looked wistfully out of her kitchen window. The first rays of dawn were filtering over the still desert sands. She rushed outdoors; making sure that she relocked her house. She stood at the pinnacle of a nearby dune to watching the sunrise.

Tatoo One swiftly rose; showering her with its radiant warmth, it was followed in due time by its more gradual companion Tatoo Two. Launa smiled, the glorious sunlight flooded over her illuminating her blonde tresses. The first gust of wind blew her hair around her. She felt exhilarated. She could not resist the warmth of the suns and the freshness of the first wind. After all it was a new day, with a new future, and new adventures awaiting her. She stood on the brink of the most daunting prospect of her life. She was leaving home; the only place she had ever known and she was going to venture to places that were entirely unknown to her. She sighed and then sat down, her legs crossed, and watched the intensely overwhelming majesty of the twin suns as they began their trek across the sky.