Scribbler's note: with this chapter it may become obvious why I put the story under "humor." Keep an eye out for parallels -- there are more than it might appear!





Chapter Two : The Ewok Village



"Artoo, somehow I don't think we're on Tatooine any more."

The little droid agreed in a long, low whistle.

Then young Luke got a look at the sky. Blue it was, and cloudless, but in the heights of the upper atmosphere were strange lambent flickerings, powerful energies stirring and shifting in endless patterns.

"Now I know we're not on Tattooine! We must be on the other side of that thing, the thing that caused all those ships to vanish!"

Luke took three steps from the fallen escape pod. "Come on, Artoo. Lets..."

There was something under the pod. Two somethings. A left and a right something, at that. In fact, they seemed to be...

"Feet!" The boy knelt on the leaf-strewn forest floor. "Artoo, there's somebody under there!" He glanced around the clearing the pod had made in it's descent. Then he looked around again, slower. Then he took another long look at the feet. "I hope it wasn't anyone nice," he said at last.

Near the feet was a stubby cylinder of metal. It looked like a weapon, but it had no butt, no stock, no sights. Luke was fumbling at it, figuring out which was the "on" switch, when he and Artoo became no longer alone in the clearing.

The three foot tall, black-furred teddy bear looked at Luke and Artoo. Looked at the feet, lying obviously dead near the young man. Looked back at Luke, and the weapon in his hands.

It raised its bow and arrows and shook them so they rattled in its paws. Gave a bloodcurdling "whoop!" that raised the birds from the trees. Then... "Welcome, Jedi Warrior!" the teddy bear shrilled.



The creature's name was "Wickett." It and its kind were "Ewoks," and the world he was on, Luke gathered, was known as "Oz."

Not that it was easy to understand the shrill, burring speech of the fierce little, furry little, warrior.

"What makes you think I'm a Jedi?" the boy asked, yet again.

"You have killed the evillll Bobba Fett. You frrrreed our village. You're wearing a light-saberrrr at your belt."

"Look, just because I," Luke ducked under a low-hanging branch, "happen to have landed," he ducked under another, "on this Bubba guy, doesn't mean..."

"Pweeee..." Artoo commented, obviously amused by the exchange.

"It really is quite simple," Luke tried to explain. "What happened was this; the ship began to twitch, the engines got a stitch," he ducked under another branch, "me an' Artoo bailed and landed in a ditch."

Luke took a long breath. Chasing down a narrow, low footpath after a warrior teddy-bear was hard work. "Just then, this Fett, for reasons we don't know yet, was traveling through the forest, or so I bet..."

"Glorious," trilled the Ewok. "Deadly aim. You are a great Jedi Warriorrrr indeed."

And at that moment they broke free of the forest into the Ewok village. Immediately Luke was surrounded by hundreds of dancing, trilling, teddy bears. He could hardly take in the complex tree-houses all but filling the lower branches of a grove of massive trees, or the simple wattle-and-daub cottages they seemed to use for crafts halls and animal enclosures and who knows what else.

There were teddy bears everywhere. Teddy bears tall and short, stout and not so stout, from black fur to honey-colored fur and everything in between. Teddy bears in aprons carrying spoons, teddy bears grimed with coal and carrying black-smith's hammers, teddy bears with crooks and what were either bunny rabbits or very small sheep flocking about them. The noise was indescribable.

"The evil one is dead!" Wickett shrilled. Then he said it again, louder.

"The evil one is dead!" the crowd shrieked back. "Sound the drums, wake the sleeping, the evil one is dead!" The pandemonium was becoming general.

"Wait!" Wicket put up his paw. The crowd fell respectfully silent as a grey-furred Ewok came from his hut. This one was wearing beads and branches and a hood, and carried a staff several times taller than it was.

It began a stamping, complicated dance, muttering under its breath all the while. It shook bits of bone and gourd rattles and muttered more. Then it stamped and danced some more. At last the whole ritual reached some sort of climax. The creature raised itself to its full height and addressed the crowd in what was to Luke a completely indecipherable warbling chant.

The crowd cheered wildly. "The sorcerer has answered!" Wicket said. "The evil one is really dead!"

"Most sincerely dead!" amplified another.

An elderly Ewok in chieftain-looking regalia addressed Luke. "Mighty Jedi, we welcome you to our village."

"Ah, thanks, I, um..." Luke said.

A trio of Ewoks in flour-covered aprons were next. They presented Luke with some hard candies and chanted something in unison.

Then three more Ewoks showed up in beads and little bits of spangle-ly metal. They seemed a little chubbier, a little rounder than Wicket or the Chieftain. They danced enthusiastically, clanging the bracelets on their arms and ringing the little bells on their ankles.

Luke rubbed his eyes. Were these female Ewoks?

A lull seemed to be developing in the celebration. Wickett took that moment to address Luke. "In the morning, I will take you to the Jedi of the North. She is eager to meet the new Jedi Warrior in Oz."

"The who? The what? And I told you I'm not...!"

Someone banged a pair of brass cymbals right by his ear. "Now, light the bonfire, begin the feasting, open the wine caskets and start the music. Let the celebration begin!"



Luke wasn't -- quite -- hung over. The Ewoks had never gotten the idea of non-alcoholic beverage, and most of the liquids he had been served had been fermented in some degree. Still, the sun was awfully bright, and the birds a wee bit shrill.

"This Jedi...she lives here in the forest?" he asked as Wickett led him along a sun-dappled path.

"Shhh," the little warrior said. "This is a holy place."

Luke fell silent, holding back his curiosity. Light splashed golden through the rich greens of the canopy, catching bits of the warm brown earth. The trail wandered, shaded, past mighty trunks and small stones dappled with green moss. A stir of a breeze whispered through the leaves.

A Jedi, Luke thought. A real Jedi. He knew many said the Jedi were extinct. Hunted down by the Empire, some said. They had been magnificent warriors, the tales said. But, much more, they had been incorruptible, totally dedicated to serve the cause of justice and peace and uphold the rights of the helpless.

And there were other tales, as well. Luke had read them avidly on bleak Tatooine, but here, in this great green forest with its whispering wind, they seemed far more real... and more than a little scary. The Jedi were rumored to be sorcerers, workers of a magic of the mind.

The trail had narrowed again. Now it was all but invisible. What the little Ewok's sharp eyes followed, Luke did not know. He did his best to keep the dark-furred warrior in sight.

Somewhere not far away a tiny brook rippled like speech from a silver tongue. Just before the two travelers three huge trees, ancient monarchs of the forest, reached up together into the sky.

Into the shadowed space between them the Ewok led the boy. He followed, softly. A simple cairn of stones stood in the center of the group. On it something gleamed, lights winking slowly.

"A tight-beam communicator!" Luke breathed. The little Ewok, with a combination of practice and awe, turned the device on. Then he turned it to face Luke.

He gasped. The face that formed in the holo was that of a girl, a lovely girl, with a firm chin, cute nose, strange hairstyle, and determined eyes.

"Aren't you a little young for a Jedi?" Her voice held a warm humor that invited you to laugh along with her.

Luke realized he'd been staring. He blushed, turned his head. "Ah, I..." he said.

"The Ewoks tell me you vanquished the bounty hunter Bobba Fett," the girl said. "Good for you!"

"Um, ah, miss..."

"I am the Lady Leia Organa, Crown Princess of the Royal House of Alderann."

"...I mean, Princess," Luke said. "I'm not the warrior the Ewoks think I am," he said quickly.

Her eyes fell. "Then there truly is no hope?" she said. "No, I can not accept that," she shook her head. "I did not lose hope when my ship crashed here, or when the escape pod I fired off did not return. I did not even lose hope when that vile Lord Vader captured me."

The girl raised her head again. Luke could see, now, the dark circles under her eyes, the smudge on her cheek. His heart leapt up in sympathy. "You hid a communicator," he said lamely.

"Yes. The Ewoks have been building a rebellion. They were almost strong enough, before, to attack the 'Governor' the Imperial placed in their land. Now that Bobba Fett is gone, their rebellion has more than an even chance."

She was holding something back. Luke said it for her, hating himself even as he did. "Until this Lord Vader sends re-enforcement's."

"Yes," the girl said bitterly. "The Imperials are strong on this world, young Jedi. They mean to make it theirs."

"Luke. I'm not a Jedi."

"Then you are in terrible danger. The Imperials are sure to revenge the killing of one of their operatives."

"What do I do, Princess? I can't stay here...that will only draw them to the Ewok village." He wished he was a real Jedi then. He wished he was strong enough to fight the Imperials. To stop them from turning this world into another slave-pen, crushing the fierce spirit of his Ewoks, chopping the great green forest down into more damnable Imperial paperwork. He wished he were the kind of great hero who could say "Don't worry, Princess; help is on the way."

"Luke..." the girl Princess said. "There is only one hope. You must go to the Wizard."

"The Wizard?"

"A Jedi Master. You will find him in the Emerald City, which he rules and protects."

"The Emerald City," Luke repeated. Unconsciously, he straightened a little. Perhaps he wasn't much of a hero, but this certainly sounded like a quest. Perhaps he might yet find some way to save not just himself, but Oz and the Princess as well.

"Here." The girl did something to her communicator. The tight-beam in the clearing bleeped, and a single yellow line appeared on it. "I've set a direction-finder on the Emerald City. Follow that yellow line, Luke. Follow it...to the Wizard."