Through the Eyes of a Handmaiden
Rabé's Story
By: Emma Kenobi
Rating: PG-13
Synopsis: The life of Queen Amidala's Handmaiden, Rabé Napola, before and during TPM.
Disclaimer: If I owned Star Wars, or any of these characters, and could be making money off this, do you really think it would be up on the Internet for all to see? ;)
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My parents where not supposed to get married.
Father was the son of a noblewoman and an ex-security officer and was engaged to another woman. Mother was the daughter of the Ma'lacian ambassador. They met in the Naboo court, and the rest is history. Father called off his engagement, they got married and Father went on to become a powerful merchant with contacts all over the galaxy, until my brother Natan was born, and he handed things over to his second, came home for good and got involved in Naboo politics.
My brother Jayen was born two years after Natan, and I was born two years after Jayen, on Naboo. Two brothers followed: Rayel and Jonas.
My name is Rabé Aleen Napola, and this is my story.
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When I was six months old, my parents were asked to be the ambassadors to Ma'lacia from Naboo. They said yes. I grew up there and Ma'lacian became my native language. When I was three, my brother Rayel was born, and a year after him, my brother Jonas was born. I don't know how my mother gave birth so many times. I think I would have killed myself halfway through the first time. I learned Basic when I was four because that was the only language my Naboo grandparents could speak. So, by the time I was five, I was bilingual.
Ma'lacia was a beautiful, tropical world covered mainly by oceans, and a perfect place to get into loads of trouble. I liked to follow my brothers around when I was young; I absolutely adored Natan and Jayen, because they were older than me. I was fearless, with a desperate need to prove myself to them and their friends. I would do any challenge they asked me to do and often got either in trouble or hurt doing them. I was quite the tomboy, but then, I thought it was normal because that was what my brothers did.
One day, when I was only six, I tagged along with Natan, Jayen and four or five of their Ma'lacian friends, a merchant's son, the prince and princess of Ma'lacia, a Duke's son and the governor's son. We went to the local park, which was had a beach and a bluff with a large tree on top of it, we went up to the top. Climbing trees was a favorite pastime of ours. The merchant's son, Kasen, who was two years older than me, looked at me with an evil glint in his eyes.
Dare you to climb it little baby. He said snidely to me.
My lips formed a thin line as my pudgy hands balled into fists. Nobody called me a baby and didn't pay for it. I took a step forward, but Natan stopped me. I gave him an evil look and lifted my nose to Kasen.
Fine. I said imperiously. I will. Natan and Jayen exchanged looks and the princess, Talia, ran up to me and smiled. Me and her were pretty good friends. We had to be. We were the only two girls.
You can do it! She said positively. I nodded, and smiled at her, but felt sick to my stomach inside.
I know.
Rabé, you don't have to- Natan begun.
Yes I do! I told him, shocked that he thought I couldn't do it. I turned away from them and walked over to the tree. It was a matter of pride on my part. I was scared out of my mind, but determined not to show it. We had never climbed trees like this before. I stepped up to the base of it and slowly reached up to the first limb. I hauled myself up and climbed.
My fear vanished with every meter I went higher. The size of the tree didn't matter, it was just a tree, like many of the others I had climbed. I smirked confidently to my self and reached for the next branch, lifting my foot. My foot landed on a wobbly branch and for a second, all of my slight weight was on that branch. There was a loud snap, and suddenly, I was falling.
I screamed and I could hear the boys and the Talia yelling. I hit my back on a branch, then my side and my legs, my dress torn and twigs raked at my face and hair. I hit the ground with a thud and Natan and Jayen were there in a flash. Kasen was laughing. Talia had an angry look on her face and her brother, Mikel, was restraining her from jumping on him. Tears welled in my eyes, but they didn't fall, not yet. Natan hurried over to me, checking me over and whispered to me in Ma'lacian.
Ignore him, if you cry, he wins. I stared at Natan and nodded. I looked over his shoulder.
Maybe you should climb to the top! I said, my voice only wavering slightly. The Kasen looked at me and stopped laughing. I stood up and Natan and Jayen took me home. My father had a heart attack. Mother smiled and helped me clean up my cuts, scratches and skinned knee. Mikel and Talia told their father about it when they went back home, and apparently father heard all about it the next day at court.
I was a constant source of embarrassment to my parents, or so they thought. I think the King of Ma'lacia and his family were amused by me. Finally, when I was eight, my parents gave up, and shipped me and Natan back to Naboo. I was to live with my grandparents in the Southern Naboo city of Oxon and Natan was to live in Theed and take the Royal Exams. My parents figured that if anyone could turn me into a lady, it would be my grandmother.
My grandmother was a very feminine woman and was absolutely appalled when she met me at the spaceport in Oxon, where they lived, all hyper and excited from my starship ride over from Ma'lacia. I had loved it, I was dirty from spilling juice all over my dress and rumpled and over-energized from sitting too long. Looking back, I can distinctly remember the look of shock and horror on her face, but that's what happens when you are raised with boys.
She immediately took me under her wing of "womanhood" and tried to make me a "proper lady of Naboo". I totally rejected it at first, but she slowly began to wear on me. She took me to the marketplace one day to find a new coverlet for my bed. We walked by a weaver's stand filled with many blankets woven from silk thread. They were beautiful. I slipped my hand out of my grandmother's and went over to the stand. There was another girl there, with dark black hair and very pale skin. I stood by her and we stared at the tapestries together.
"Which one do you like best?" She asked me finally.
"That one." I said, pointing to a green, blue and gold wave-patterned one. "It reminds me of the ocean."
"The ocean? You've seen an ocean?" She asked, confused. "There aren't any oceans on Naboo."
"Yeah, I saw them on a planet called Ma'lacia." I said. "I used to live there."
"Really? Wow." She blinked and stuck her hand out. "My name is Yané Akari."
I shook her hand. "Rabé Napola."
"Rabé!" Came by grandmother's shrill cry. We both looked to the source of the cry.
"Uh oh." I said.
"Yané!" Came another woman's angry shout. We looked to the source of that cry as well.
"Uh oh." Yané said. We looked at each other and laughed. My grandmother descended on us just as a woman who I assumed was Yané's mother stalked towards us. They both stared scolding us at the same time. It was the beginning of a beautiful relationship.
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