Anakin had just come back from investigating the grounds when he heard Tahiri's cry for help. "What's wrong?" he asked frantically, bursting through the clearing they were in.

Tahiri was kneeling beside Lunaris. "She's convulsing. I tried a healing trance, but it didn't work. She was mumbling some incomprehensible words, then her body twitched and started the convulsions." She was wringing her hands on her lap and her face was turning pale, and for a moment she looked briefly like the Tahiri Anakin knew: unsure of herself, yet tried to hide it. He waved the thought away.

"Hold her hand and transfer some of your energy to her. She's having another bad dream." Anakin stayed on the other side and transmitted some of his energy to her through the Force, sensing Tahiri do the same thing. After a while, the convulsions died down, and Lunaris was sleeping peacefully again.

"She's running a slight fever. Get some hot water and a cloth," Anakin said.

Tahiri stood up, but didn't make a move to get the items. "Anakin, I--"

"This is no time to be jealous, Tahiri." Anakin cut her off.

"I'm not jealous. I just don't like being ordered around like a child," she complained, and huffed away.

Anakin sighed. "Artoo, could you please get some hot water and a cloth?" Artoo peeped an answer and rolled away.

Anakin watched his sleeping apprentice and started stroking her forehead. He listened to the rise and fall of her steady breathing. "When will your father ever stop tormenting you?" he asked her softly, as though she could hear him.

I opened my eyes to see Master Anakin bent over me with a cloth in his hands, dabbing gently at my face. "What are you doing?" I rasped, pushing away his hand.

"You were convulsing, so Tahiri and I used the Force to heal you…a bit. You have a slight fever. That gash on your forehead was pretty serious, but you'll be better by tomorrow."

My hand flew to my head, and much to my surprise, it was gone. "Where is it?" I asked.

"You'll be pretty surprised at how good Tahiri and I are at being medics," he smiled. "What was your dream about?" He put the cloth away.

"My father," I said, clutching my head. "He wanted me to come back to him and turn away from the Jedi Order. He wanted me to go over to the Dark Side. He was a Sith…in my dream…I hope…"

"Why?"

"I think it's because he knows that if I go over to the Dark Side, you'll go after me to try and rescue me…and they'll capture you and convince you to join them…because you're a very strong and powerful Jedi Knight." I wasn't sure at first if that was true, but when I listened to myself explain to Master Anakin, it all made sense.

He was clenching and unclenching his fists, but I pretended not to notice. "Is that all he said?"

I shook my head. "He was about to kill me with his lightsaber, and I stepped aside in time to avoid the blow, but he kicked me in the shins and let me fall to the ground while holding down my body with the Force." I pulled up my robes until my knee, and there was a very mean-looking purple-and-blue bruise.

Master Anakin winced. "Ouch."

"He told me that he was the one who led Artoo to the ship that had been properly refueled, but had a leak…made by him. He did this because he wanted to convince me to consider the Jedi careless and dangerous, and to reject the Jedi Order on my own."

I rested my head on my knees and was silent for a while. I didn't hear Master Anakin stand up and leave.

Anakin walked angrily into the forest, brushing shrubs and low branches to clear a path for him using the Force. He kept his eyes on the floor and was too wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn't notice a tall figure coming up towards him until he smacked right into her.

Tahiri rubbed her head. "Watch where you're going."

Anakin massaged his chin. "Sorry, Tahiri. I was too busy thinking to pay attention to where I was going."

Tahiri didn't take offense, as she normally would, and instead noticed his listless tone. "It's about Lunaris, right?"

Anakin merely nodded. "She had another bad dream about her father." He didn't tell her that it involved him, too. He still had to think it out before he wanted to tell it to anyone else.

Tahiri patted his back. "You really care about her, do you?" she asked softly.

Anakin shrugged. "She's the second person whom I really care about, whom I've sworn to teach and to learn from and to protect and to trust and to love as much as life itself."

"Who's the first?" Tahiri asked, hoping she sounded casual.

"You."

"Oh." Tahiri blushed, but luckily, it was too dark for Anakin to see.

They started to walk a bit. The silence between them was anything but comforting.

Tahiri took a jab at conversation. "You just left Lunaris there?"

"I don't think she noticed I left," Anakin said shortly.

"Oh," she said again. "Anakin, you--"

"I know I haven't been doing my role as your "best friend" lately, especially ever since Lunaris' problem, so I want to apologize and make up for all the lost time."

"No, Anakin, I completely understand, I--"

"You're telling me you understand, but I sense that you just don't want to tell me what you really feel. I want to prove to you that I still remember who you are, and who you are to me." He pulled out a small, crudely wrapped box from somewhere beneath his robes. "Happy birthday, Tahiri."

The expression on Tahiri's face was priceless. "Thank you!" she cried, throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him. "You finally remembered on your own, after three years of receiving gifts really late or at the wrong time of the year." She tore away at the brown paper the package was wrapped in.

Anakin scuffled his foot guiltily and couldn't bring himself to tell her that Lunaris was the one who had reminded him about it, a few weeks earlier. She constantly nagged about her birthday everyday and insisted that he buy or make a gift for her, wrap it himself, and bring it to her personally on Yavin 4. He made a mental note to himself to always listen to Lunaris.

Tahiri pulled out an intricately carved wooden pendant. "Did you make this yourself?" she asked in awe.

"Yeah, I did." It was true. He'd made the pendant after Lunaris suggested he give a gift he made himself. He made another mental note to make one for Lunaris. "I was hoping you could place it on your necklace, next to the pendant with your parents' thumbprints on it." Tahiri's parents had died long ago when she was a child, and their thumbprints pasted and dried on a smooth stone became a pendant she always wore on a silver chain around her neck, as well as the only memories she had of them.

"Of course." She unclasped the chain at the back of her neck and slid the pendant next to her parents' prints. "Thank you, Anakin, you have no idea how much it means to me." She stood up on her tiptoes and kissed him again.

Anakin and Tahiri walked back to the clearing hand in hand, and found Lunaris fixing something in the Artoo Detoo's circuit placed behind it. "Stand still, you bucket of bolts," she was saying, inserting a screwdriver in the droid. "How will I ever get to fixing your Holonet connection?"

"Looks like your apprentice learned more than lightsaber techniques from you," Tahiri whispered to Anakin.

"What can I say? She's learning from a pro at mechanics," he whispered back, watching Lunaris amusedly.

Artoo let out a series of protesting whistles and tweeps. "No, it isn't working at all. I can't send my message to Master Skywalker at all through you!" Finally, she hinged back the outer metal covering. "There you go, you rolling lump of metal. See if you still can't send it."

"Send what?" Anakin asked, finally making his presence known.

"Sithspawn!" she exclaimed, throwing her screwdriver into the air. "What the—oh." She grinned, embarrassed.

"What message?" Anakin asked again.

"Well, I received a holographic message from Master Skywalker, asking about our current condition and all. I told him we'd made it, but my ship ran out of fuel and I had to use the crash landing method. I told him we were all fine, and there were no major injuries."

Anakin tapped his foot. "What did I tell you about lying?"

"But Master, I didn't lie! There really weren't any major injuries. I'm okay now, aren't I? And I HAD ran out of fuel. And I didn't tell him everything. I felt that it ought to come from you than from me."

"Fine, then. I'll send him a message when he asks again."

"But when I asked Artoo to send the message back to him, it wouldn't send. So I figured there must be something wrong in him." She glanced at the little droid, which was rolling back and forth.

"Artoo, how did she ask you?" Anakin asked as Lunaris rolled her eyes. Artoo beeped complainingly. Anakin sighed.

"Lunaris, there is such as thing as politeness, you know. Artoo," he said, turning towards it. "Will you please send Lunaris' message?"

Artoo replied in the affirmative. Tahiri was holding back giggles behind her hand, which was smothered immediately with a swift nudge to the ribs from Anakin.

Lunaris reddened. "I'll keep that in mind."

Anakin let go of Tahiri's hand and pulled Lunaris aside, mumbling an excuse to Tahiri. "Thanks for the suggestions and constant naggings on Tahiri's birthday and gift."

Lunaris glanced over her shoulder at Tahiri. "She liked it?"

"She loved it. Thanks so much."

"Sure," she shrugged. "Anytime."

Anakin opened his mouth to say something else, but decided against it and closed his mouth when he saw his apprentice going back towards Tahiri. "We start the mission tomorrow," he announced as he walked up to them. "I haven't been able to look around too much, since it's too dark, but I think sunlight from Tatooine's twin suns can provide us with enough light to see where we're going."

I only had a few hours left to sleep till sunrise, but I couldn't. I was afraid of what dreams I would dream the moment I closed my eyes.  When would this torture ever end? Ever since I started having dreams about my father, I was afraid to close my eyes, for fear of the physical and emotional pain it would bring me. Everywhere I went, he followed me. Everything I do, he knows.

My gaze lingered over to Tahiri's sleeping form beside me. She had a small smile on her face, and her hand was loosely holding the pendant Master Anakin gave her. She is so lucky, I thought enviously. No nightmares to haunt her, no horrifying dreams of a maniacal father. She had her own things to worry about, but at least they didn't follow her, even as she slept.

My eyes then fell on Master Anakin's dozing figure, a few feet away from us. He insisted on this, saying he could protect us if ever something "suddenly jumps out of the woods to eat you up." Maybe he could help me get some sleep…as well as protect me.

I crawled over to him as silently as I could and shook him gently. He turned over to face me and muttered something incomprehensible. "What's wrong, Lunaris?" he muttered.

"I can't sleep, Master. I'm not sleepy." /And I'm afraid of what I might see when I sleep, / I told him through the Force.

Master Anakin looked at me through heavy-lidded eyes for a long time, and I had no idea whether he was going to go back to sleep or think I was insane or get mad at me for waking him up at such an unholy hour. Finally, he moved a bit to the side and patted the space beside him. "Here. Sleep here."

It was highly unlikely for him to suggest such a thing, and I gaped at him for a few moments until he said, "What? I don't know how else I can help you other than this."

I slowly lay down, with my back against his chest and my head resting on the crook of his arm. I felt the steady rise and fall of his breathing against my back, and I thought him asleep until I felt his hand slip into mine, his arm resting on my side. /Goodnight, / he told me, somewhat sleepily.

/Goodnight. / Surprisingly, I slept straight through the rest of the night.