Chapter 9: Home Coming

Avingale snorted in disgust. "Thank you, Avi. You were probably the only one who could knock some sense back into me. I've been called away again and I would like you to come." Oh, but he leaves me here, with his employer. She only sees me as a kid. She looked across the table. There were too many things that could go wrong with this arrangement. "Ma'am, I'd like to make a request."

"What would that be?" Asked the cultured voice.

"I need to take a ship to my home world."

"Kyle told me to keep you here."

The only gesture on Avingale's part was that of actually meeting Mon Mothma's eyes. "You will get me passage on a ship to Tatooine. If he asks, it's because my father needs me."


"I'm sure he won't mind then.

She had felt bad for doing that to the older woman. But it had been necessary, her father hadn't seen her in years. Ever since that day she had been put off in the desert to find her way to the tribe, she had hoped to see him again. There had been so many challenges to his right to lead. She knew that it was only going to be a matter of time before one got him. The last one did. Now he was slowly wasting away of an illness that would leave nothing but his bleached bones behind.

Now, as she trudged through the sands to Vertis Alonim Eruk, the village of the dead, she knew that she was lucky to make it here in time to see him. Her father was dieing. This was the place he would be because of it. The last place on Tatooine that any Tuskin went to…especially if they had been a member of the slaughtered tribe. It had become the sacred death and burial grounds not long after the incident.

It was rumored that the angry spirit of the Destroyer still whispered there. She would soon find out. She came to the edge of the village and paused, listening for the whisper of a prayer on the wind. It came to her in all of it's old glory. Avi smiled. If only the outsiders knew of the old language, then they wouldn't truly think the Raiders were barbaric and savage.

His back was to her as she approached. Not wanting to startle him, she scuffed her foot through the sand. The man's body turned as a unit to face her direction. She gasped as she saw him, robes and the other necessary survival equipment having been given back to the tribe, his eyes had gone milky white in a very short time. She knew he was only seeing her as a shadow and probably thought her a ghost herself. Tears streaked her face as he spoke.

"I prayed every day that you would come visit me in my dreams, daughter. Why do you only show yourself now?" came the weary observation.

Her voice cracked slightly when she spoke. "Father I wasn't dead…just misplaced."

"You speak non-sense shade. We found the tatters of your clothing and equipment in a settlement we attacked."

She moved to his side then and gathered him in her arms. "Would a shade be able to hold you like this, old father?" She pulled him closer and smoothed down his barely graying black hair.

"I thought you lost to us my daughter. Where have you been?" his airy voice took on the tone of one who had been alone too long.

"Outsiders found me and took me to another planet. I was only able to get here now. "

"Well I thank you for being here. Can you still call the memori?"

She looked on in sadness. "Always father, the gift will never leave me."

"Do so for me. I wish to show you that which I could never tell you."

"Guide me father." She closed her eyes and put her fingers to his temples. After a couple of minutes, they snapped back open and the surrounding area had transformed. She was seeing the world through the eyes of one who was barely of age.

The night was dark and cold. A hunting party had just returned with a fine catch of dewbacks for dinner. Another was still out, collecting the tough tubers that provided much of the tribes water. She felt her father smile as he dismounted and went to greet his mother. His enthusiasm made the rest of the group laugh.

It was always that way with the young ones. Their first hunt, first kill. They always wanted to rush home to relate to their glory to their Juvni. Relating their importance to the continuation of the tribe. It was here he was when the disturbance came into the village.

An already cold night grew colder. Then the strange humming noise began and the fires flared in response. The cold began to burn. His Juvni looked to him. "Go son. You will need to leave now if you are to survive."

He looked at her confused. "Wha…"

"No time for me to explain." A knowing smile lit her lips as she looked into his eyes. "Just remember all that I have taught you as Ke'd'ri. Pass it on. Let our tribe be remembered as it should be."

She rose and pushed him to the back of the hut. Pulling out a knife, she sliced open the hides at the back. "Leave." She pushed him through. He didn't leave immediately though; He poked his head back through the hole to say goodbye.

He was just in time to catch a brief glimpse of icy blue eyes filled with burning rage. That was it. A sudden gasp of recognition broke the fragile bond between two minds and brought them back to the now.

Avingale shook her head. Her father coughed. "What is it my daughter?"

She looked at him slightly puzzled. "Those eyes I have seen them. They…"

They both shivered as the ambient temperature dropped ten degrees. "My young one, you must go now. The suns set."

She looked to the sky. "No father it is barely after twin shadows. It must be…"

"No the Destroyer does not manifest in the light of day."

She gasped as she felt a pressure on her shoulder and the sensation of ice flowing in her veins. "F..fat..ther I would say t..t…hat hhhe just broke the rrrules." Her teeth began to chatter as well as her fathers.

"You called me." It wasn't a question. As the words whispered across her cheek, Avingale felt her skin catch fire.

She turned to face the apparition as her father spoke. "Leave her. It is not her time."

"She shouldn't be." the apparition hissed.

Her eyes narrowed. "But I am. There is nothing that you could do to change that." She felt the nervous flutters in her stomach. There was a moments pause for the apparition as it saw the flare of recognition in her eyes.

"How could you know me?"

"Not you, just the eyes. I have seen them on another." as she spoke the manifestation of Rage bent to her father. Translucent hands touched the dying man and his breath shuddered out of him one last time.

"Now it's your turn." It reached over to touch her.

"Thank you." she whispered The emotion paused in puzzlement. "You just spared me having to do the deed." Then she lifted her head and the apparition backed away. "Now either you take me out or I put you where you belong." There was no emotion in her voice. She was perfectly calm.

It tried to get away, but the sands swirled around and through it. Each grain eroding a piece of the frozen exterior of the manifestation. Once that was gone, a writhing mass of darkness stood in the spot. That she took care of with a blast of pure light and goodness.

She slid to the ground. The spark of power in her eyes becoming mute once more. "Father the shade in no more. The others will soon fade for he was the anchor. Promise you that I will find our tribe and teach them. It is the least I can do for the people that I have so wronged."

She picked up the shell of the man she had called father and placed it deep within the sands. Then she trudged off through the desert to find her home again.