Beru softly slid out from under Owen's sleep heavy arm and the rough woven blanket that covered them. She had approximately 3 hours before her husband and nephew would be awake and looking to her for their morning meal. She dressed quickly in the dim light of the kitchen before grabbing a blaster rifle and slipping out of their little compound into the open desert. She was never sure if her husband was aware of her yearly pilgrimage, but she suspected not as he likely would have tried to prevent it this time - the raids by the sand people had been escalating lately. Hence the addition of the rifle today. No matter the danger, her errand this morning was not to be missed.
Beru pulled her jacket close against the chill of the early morning. The stars were just beginning to fade - she would have to be swift. Pulling herself to the top of the hill, she turned towards her secret spot - a tiny chink in the canyon wall just wide enough for her to squeeze through. It opened onto a small, sheltered enclosure, the sand smooth and undisturbed perhaps by none except for her for millennia.
In the center a plant was budding, the flower clearly ready to wake to the world at any moment. This one tiny, impossible miracle, springing up against all odds and all hope to grace the barren and lifeless planet which nonetheless sheltered and nurtured it seemed a parallel too matched to her life to be coincidence. For her, this alone was reason enough to believe in the Force. She cast an eye upward to the sliver of greying sky and snipped the stem off near the base. Cradling her treasure against her chest as she pressed between the rough stone walls, she climbed higher still, coming to a stop on top of a high, wide mesa. She knelt at the gritty edge of the great cliff, eyes on the horizon, holding the flower out so it might catch the first rays of the coming sun.
Her thoughts now turned to the young woman she had met only once, so briefly, but who had changed her life forever. She remembered the smooth skin, unmarred by the ravages of sun and wind and sand, the long glossy tresses unbound from the restraints of labor. Beru touched a finger to her own hair, cut short years ago to accommodate the rough and busy life of moisture farming and raising a child. A life that left no time or energy for the frivolous concerns of beauty.
Beyond beauty though, what Beru remembered most was the calm, gracious soul. It was said she had been a Queen and she could well believe it. There was a regalness about her, an undefinable quality that seemed to elevate her above the world, give her a vision that those around her lacked and could only follow her in hope to someday find. And yet she had been so kind, so caring and personable. Beru was certain they would, despite the galaxy wide discrepancy in their circumstances and roles, have been friends if fate had allowed.
At last, the first golden rays slipped over the edge of the world and lit on the little bud in her hands. Smooth, white petals burst open, releasing a clean, sweet scent. The sunrise desert lily was a gift too rare and pure to be long for this world, indeed, even uncut it would be withered by the setting of the sun. She drank in its glory as she spoke softly.
"He's 15 years old today, Padme. Taller than Owen already, though Anakin was quite tall as I remember. All he thinks and talks about is flying -it's driving Owen nuts!" Beru chuckled. "He's still...special. It comes out in little ways, he doesn't even notice, but I do. He's a good boy. He takes after his father in so many ways, but he has something of your nobility, your kindness. I see it everyday - in the way he reaches out to others, how he helps me around the house, just in his eyes... He's meant for greater things than this dust ball, I know that. But we'll try and hang on to him for a few more years, try to prepare him for...whatever may come later. I wish you could have known him too. Someday, when he's a little older, I'll tell him all about you. Know that he's loved and he's safe and we're doing our best by him."
She let the flower drift from her hand and watched till it spiraled out of sight down to the canyon floor far below. "Thank you," she whispered and hurried back towards their farmhouse where Luke would be waking now and waiting for her.