It wasn't until after a late dinner that Yoda finally got around to formally introducing our new charges to me - and me to them. The little Zabrak was named Uthr Deth, he had a crown of tiny horns sticking up through his short cropped black hair but no tattoos as yet. the Human boy was Tam Shadowstalker and the girl, dark as he was fair, was Vita Nyree. The Rystalli's name was Keri and she had the usual brush of red hair but not the throat and chest spots I had always thought were natural coloration. The little girl with wings was the loveliest creature I'd ever seen in my life, slender and ethereal with a cloud of pale curls and huge, velvety black eyes, and her name was just as beautiful; Aiolian.
"And this is Mistress Skywalker." said Yoda.
"Master Skywalker's wife!" Vita exclaimed, green eyes round with something like horror. The others looked equally shocked, then tried to hide it.
Uthr nudged her. "Shut up!"
"I know what happened at the Temple." I said as steadily as I could over the pounding of my heart. "You saw my husband there?"
"Padme," Yoda interrupted warningly, "cause yourself more pain you will."
"With so much already what does a little more matter?" I asked him bitterly, then to the children; "What did you see?"
They exchanged uneasy glances. Finally Tam spoke up. "We were hiding in the Council Chamber, us and Nole and Dai-Si and Denni. We were really, really scared. Then Master Skywalker walked in. We came out and asked him what to do." Tam gulped. "He - he told us to follow him so we did - even though he felt wrong -"
"But everything else did too." Keri put in.
"At the bottom of the tower we walked right into a whole lot of Clonetroopers and Master Skywalker said - said -"
"He said 'Take them away'," Uthr finished for him, in a voice far to bitter for a small child. "And they grabbed us but Nole and Dai-Si and Denni tried to run back up the tower -"
"- And Master Skywalker killed them!" Aiolian wailed, tears overflowing those beautiful eyes.
"He just cut them down with his saber." Tam choked out and began to cry too, along with the other little ones.
I thought I would vomit. Obi-Wan'd told me Anakin had killed younglings but I hadn't really believed it - until now. How could I possibly love a man who would do such a thing? I had been wrong about Anakin, completely wrong. The father of my children was a monster and all the sweet memories nothing but lies. Sobs choked me. "I'm sorry." I managed, hugging the children - whether to comfort them or myself I don't know, "so very sorry."
Our new charges brought activity and excitement into a life that had become all too monotonously peaceful - possibly a little too much excitement. And their presence revealed Yoda in a new and endearing light. I never would have believed it but the cantankerous elder of the Jedi Council was absolutely wonderful with children. He soothed their nightmares and fits of tears as tenderly as any grandfather, and quickly established a routine meant to restore their sense of security.
Like Yedda and me, and now Obi-Wan and Raj, the little ones spent the first hours of the morning catching fish for the hearty meals - fit for growing younglings - that Yoda now cooked alongside his own thin vegetable fare. This was followed by mid-morning exercises consisting of 'games' the old Master played along with his pupils - games very unlike those of ordinary small children.
'Pick up pebble' involved one child levitating pebbles, nuts and other small objects while the others - including Yoda - did their best to distract him. Sometimes they would pair off and try to read each others' minds and feelings or play a ball game in which the ball moved without the aid of hands or feet. Other times they played a form of tag involving prodigious jumps and bursts of speed or spent a quiet hour sitting in Yoda's little vegetable garden encouraging the plants to grow.
Obi-Wan took over Raj and Yedda's training. His lessons involved a good deal of sparring with lightsabers which was quite unnerving to watch. Not that I had much chance to watch as it was my job to look after the baby while her grandfather was distracted and that was no sinecure! Mei-Qan could sit quietly for an hour or more at a time, intent on a leaf or flower or fish skeleton, but I quickly learned I mustn't take my eyes off her even for a moment as she might go shooting off on hands and knees whenever the fancy took her.
After their exercises the younglings would help prepare lunch, which we now had en-mass picnic style on the short cropped lawn between our houses, and with the washing up. But after that they were free to play until dinnertime.
At first they were understandably clingy; Tam, Aiolian and Vita attached themselves to me, while Uthr and Keri chose to tag after Raj. Sweet as they were two of my little shadows cost me a pang every time I looked at them. Tam was not only blond and blue eyed like Anakin but had a childish crush on me, just as Ani had. And our exquisite little Aiolian was a real Angel of Iego, a living reminded of my husband's first words to me.
But after a few days the children felt secure enough to become venturesome, and our troubles began.
First of all they built themselves a raft. I found out about it when a loud splash and a chorus of gleeful shrieks brought me running to the mooring place, just in time to see three soaked little girls wade ashore followed by the two boys pulling the overturned raft.
This had been constructed from poles and wicker strips left over from our house raising and had long wooden objects attached to the bottom. It took me a moment to identify these.
"Our kneading troughs!" I cried.
Little Tam started, then looked guilty. "Oh. They're yours, Mistress Skywalker?"
"They were just lying around so we thought nobody wanted them." Keri, put in quickly.
"They were drying in the sun after being scrubbed." I told them grimly.
All five hung their heads. "Change into dry clothes you will," Master Yoda said tranquilly from behind me. "Then thoroughly wash and return the kneading troughs to Mistress Skywalker." I turned to find the old Master regarding us all with amused benevolence. "After that show you how to make a proper raft I will."
"Yes, Master." The little ones trotted off to Yoda's cottage to change.
"Is that really a good idea?" I asked. "They might get into trouble."
"Know how to swim they do, and no dangerous animals there are on Whillowan." Yoda assured me calmly. "Safe they will be."
As a matter of fact it wasn't their safety I was worried about. An experienced aunt I was very well aware of how much trouble even the sweetest little children can cause. But if I was apprehensive as I watched our younglings paddle off on their new raft the next afternoon I was the only one. Yoda and Obi-Wan seemed unaccountably happy to let five four year olds wander unsupervised around our watery world.
But anxious as I was not even I dreamed that our little darlings had anything to do with the column of smoke that appeared mysteriously on the horizon some hours later. Yedda and Yoda were as puzzled as we Humans but nobody was very concerned since the fire couldn't spread beyond its own islet.
It wasn't until dinnertime that the mystery was solved. The raft returned manned by smoke blackened, soot stained younglings and accompanied by a boat with two equally smudgy male Whills in it.
"We didn't mean any harm." Aiolian explained tearfully to an assembled audience of Jedi Masters, Apprentices and one Jedi Widow. "We found a big bank of clay and we decided to make some bowls and things -"
"This is for you," Tam interrupted, pushing his way through the others to present me with a large, slightly lopsided bowl of half fired clay decorated with an intricate pattern of incised lines, "to make up for the kneading troughs."
I stood there holding my gift as Uthr took over the explanation, patting Aiolian on the back as she sniffled. "Then we built a fire to harden the bowls and things - like the floors - but it got away from us and burned all over the island -"
"And the bridge to our house place." put in one of the Whills. "But no farther did it get."
"Fortunate that was." said the other Whill, with some understatement.
"We're very, very sorry." said Uthr and the others nodded emphatically.
"Apologized they have." The elder of the two Whills agreed.
"And fought the fire with us they did." added his son. Neither seemed particularly upset by the incident.
Nor did Yoda. "Next time use kiln you will." he scolded mildly. "Mindful you must be, and consider consequences of what you do." he turned to his fellow Whills. "Tomorrow we will your bridge rebuild."
"Thank you, Master." they said. And took their leave apparently entirely satisfied.
The children were so obviously miserable that I hadn't the heart to scold them further but just led them off for a wash and change. It seemed I had set a precedent that first day and was now responsible for the children's evening bath. Well somebody had to do it - and obviously I cared a lot more about cleanliness than their Masters did!
The younglings did rebuild the bridge for the Whills the next day and the day after Yoda gave them a lesson in how to control fire with the Force - nearly burning down Obi-Wan's cottage and our little stand of trees in the process! But somehow the old Master kept things from getting entirely out of hand. Still I found the whole exercise so alarming I elected to sit it out on a neighboring islet.
What Yoda did not do - to my dismay - was forbid any more unsupervised excursions.
"Explore and learn younglings must." was all he said when I tried to argue with him. I turned to Obi-Wan but he took the same casual attitude as his elder.
"Master Yoda knows what he's doing, Padme."
"But they'll get into more trouble!" I cried.
Obi-Wan had Mei-Qan on his knee and was spooning some kind of mush into her mouth - or trying to, more was getting on his robes then into the baby. "Of course they will." he said serenely, "that's what Initiates do - make mischief."
Mei-Qan playfully spat a mouthful at me. "No, no, Chani. Not at Padme." her grandfather chided mildly, wiping orange goo off her little face.
"I don't think she likes it." I said, swabbing my skirt.
"She loves it." Obi-Wan answered. "It's just she loves making a mess even more."
I reverted back to our other children. "So you and Yoda are determined to let the younglings wander around loose looking for trouble?"
My husband's Master gave me a grin that made him look no older than our charges. "That's right - my lady."