Pebble in the Sky
Dramatis Personae
Ben Skywalker
Valin Halycon
Nejaa Halycon
Scerra Halycon
Nyche Senthe
Anakin Skywalker
Rostek Horn
Syal Senthe
Prologue
Two minutes before Ben Skywalker disappeared from the galaxy he knew forever, he was strolling carefully down a midlevel Coruscant walkway. As he walked, he was whistling a Melodian wedding song softly to himself.
Ben was getting his fair share of looks from the young human females around him. At twenty years old, he has finished out his last growth spurt, which now allows him to tower over his parents at a good 1.87 meters. If one couples that height with the classical lines of his jaw, and wavy ginger hair, then it is easy to understand how Ben so easily attracts the eyes of the girls around him.
Not that he was concerned about that, for he was going to meet Jysella at a diner a short distance from his current location. Not knowing that he would not be able to keep that date, not knowing that he would never get to see her again. If he did know, he would probably be running to her now instead of this leisurely stroll, but of course if he ran, then he would probably have stayed in the galaxy that he knew.
As he finishes the Melodian wedding song, he starts whistling a Corellian one. This particular wedding song has always been one of his favorites, especially the lines which go:
Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made
He was not entirely sure why he loves that song just as much as he does, but there it was, his favorite verses to his favorite song. He notices the askance look one of the panhandlers gives his Jedi robes, as the panhandler quickly slinks away back into the alley, and Ben just continues walking, on his way to destiny.
He dances out of the way as a pack of younglings rush by him, the group so caught up in their arcane game that they barely see the him, even as he is standing in the middle of the walkway. Yet even that does not ruin his day.
It is now thirty seconds until he disappears, and he can see her sitting at a table inside the café. He feels a slight rumble and looks towards the horizon, noticing a pillar of smoke from some building exploding. He frowns and then pushes the building and smoke from his mind; he has a date and he is intending to keep it.
He notices that she has seen him, and is smiling at him; he returns her smile and waves to her. Then looking down he sees a rag doll on the ground. Even though it has been either discarded or lost, the rag doll has a bright smile stitched to its face, one that Ben cannot help but return. He lifts his foot to step over the rag doll and as he steps down….