18

"Not everyone is meant to be a warrior. The Republic needs healers and farmers too. With your Force skills, you will be able to treat sick crops. Your talents will help feed whole worlds."

"Come on Atri!" Shiko called out as he ran across the golden fields.

"Shiko!" Avlo scolded. "Watch it, you might break the stalks!"

Atri walked by Avlo's side and looked in wonder at the growing field around him. The golden fronds had captivated him since his first day with Avlo and his family. Atri reached out to touch them and they tickled his hand. Sometimes when there was this strange force on them they would bend back and forth. This force also pushed against his skin but he did not sway back and forth. They must be more sensitive to the force than Atri was. When Atri asked about it once Shiko had called it 'wind'. It was a simple name for something so incomprehensible to the boy. The name should be powerful yet light as if it could move anywhere and do anything it wanted. When the flying animals (whom Atri found out were really birds) tried to fly in the air and this wind was present they were pushed back and there were times when the wind helped them fly where they wanted. It sometimes even pushed the white parts of the sky away.

Atri knew that names were very important. He still didn't know his real name, but he liked being called Atri. Who named the wind? Who named anything? Shiko told him that he got his name from his mom and dad. Where did the wind and sky get their names from? Who were their parents? Who were Atri's parents?

"Atri, Atri look." Avlo said and shook the boy gently.

Atri looked up at the large Galacian man. The light rays of the sun partially obscured his vision and made Avlo look as golden as the fields he owned. The man smiled and held a small piece of the golden field in his hand. It was small and Atri was intrigued by it. Avlo put the golden piece in the boy's hand and Atri looked at it with fascination.

"It's so small," Atri murmured aloud.

From afar the field had looked like one single entity. It was large and it stretched off into the distance. Now he held a part of it in his hand. How could that be? Was the field any less without this one piece? If it was Atri could not notice.

"Isn't it wonderful?" Avlo said with a smile. "It looks so small and unimportant by itself, but when it is with the rest of the wheat it is large and beautiful."

Atri let the wind take the severed wheat and it blew it off into the distance. Soon it was lost to the golden field. Atri stood in stunned silence.

"All of this," Avlo motioned towards the field. "Grew from small seeds. They grow bigger and then they leave small seeds of their own. I grow it and then harvest it so that others can make food out of it."

"Boring…" Shiko drawled.

Atri was fascinated. This field was made into food for others to eat? He pondered this in his head for awhile. That meant that Avlo was actually feeding his planet by growing it. He knew that people needed food to survive. Shiko had told him this. Atri's awe for Avlo grew at this new discovery.

"Most farmers—"

"What's a farmer?" Atri immediately asked.

Avlo laughed. The normally silent boy had begun not only to ask Shiko questions but him as well. He didn't mind; not yet anyway.

"A farmer is someone, like me, that grows plants that can be food instead of just buying them at the market."

"All of them grow this?" Atri asked pointing at the golden field.

Shiko and Avlo laughed together and Atri smiled at their mirth. He felt a rightness about their joy. He could not explain it. It was one of those feelings that he didn't ask about.

"No Atri, some grow the same as I do, but many others do not attempt it. It is very difficult to grow in this climate. The sun doesn't shine bright enough, as they say."

"My Dad is the best farmer on Gala!" Shiko said proudly and vehemently.

Avlo swelled with pride and ruffled Shiko's hair.

"My father owned this farm, and his father owned it and so on for many generations," Avlo explained. "I may not know as much as scholars or these politicians that Tiku looks up to, but I know this and that's enough."

Atri looked back at the field of gold and was in awe at how Avlo was able to help this beautiful field that somehow fed people grow to what it was. What could be greater or more beneficial than this?

"Most farmers care most about harvest-time because that is when they finally benefit from all of their hard work. Farmers only get paid once a year you know… But my favorite is the start of the new season when you have to replant. Everything grows and you have to pay extra attention to it because it is so fragile and new. It's in those first few weeks that the strength of the crop will be revealed. Farmers only plant by season and they forget that it's the most important part."

Avlo and Shiko then took Atri towards the house to a secluded section. As Atri got closer he was barraged with a strange sensation. This place was alive! As he immersed his senses in it he could almost hear the place whispering to him. There were different colored plants that sprawled over the ground in various sizes. Atri almost ran to look at them more closely. He delicately touched one and was surprised by its softness and vibrancy. He smiled at it and its sheer amount of life.

"What is it called?" Atri asked, mesmerized.

"It's a flower!" Shiko answered.

"Flower…" Atri repeated as he did with all new words he learned.

"They all have their own names," Avlo said. "But they are all flowers."

Shiko joined Atri and started pointing out all the flowers and their names. Atri tried to keep track of them all, but there were so many.

"This is me and my dad's garden." Shiko said with his usual enthusiasm.

"Garden…" Atri repeated.

"Yes, a place where flowers grow." Avlo elaborated.

"Do you eat these too?" Atri asked.

Shiko laughed and Avlo smiled broadly. Atri usually took laughing as a 'no' to his questions. He didn't understand why they seemed to amuse Shiko and Avlo so much, but at least he got good feelings from the laughs and not bad ones. There were times when he asked the Galacian Kiban a question and he laughed, but it was different. Atri always got a different feeling when Kiban was around. He didn't like it. Avlo must feel it too, because he clearly didn't like Kiban.

"Shiko, teach Atri how you plant one." Avlo suggested.

Shiko sprang to animated life and grabbed Atri's hand. He led Atri further into the garden and Atri could feel his friend's excitement. He felt excited as well, but he didn't know why. Soon they stopped in front of some dirt and Shiko became calm and composed. Atri noted this strange occurrence. Shiko was extremely concentrated as he took a small round object in his hand. He gave the small object to Atri and the boy looked at the tiny thing in his palm. What was this? Shiko took another one and kneeled down in the dirt. He took a blunted-blade object and started digging into the ground. He set the digging tool aside and then gently placed the round object in the ground.

"What…?" Atri began, but Shiko shook his head.

Avlo's son buried the object with dirt again and then sprinkled a little water on it. He patted the ground gently and closed his eyes. Avlo hunched down on the ground and sat next to Shiko and Atri. He put a large hand on Atri's shoulder.

"Do you see what you are holding Atri? That's a seed. It's going to turn into one of those orange and pink flowers." Avlo said.

Atri looked back and forth between what he held in his palm and the exotic flower. How could that be? They were so different. How could this seed be that flower? Atri's face broke into an abysmal blankness. It didn't make sense! How could something change that much? The boy searched for answers in his own mind, but there was only the all consuming nothing that he strove to fill up. The lost boy began to breathe erratically. His eyes looked terrified, but his face betrayed nothing.

"Atri?" One of them asked.

That wasn't even his name! He wanted to know his name! Why did everything have their own name and not him? Even all of the flowers had their own names! Why did a seed become a flower? Why did it become that particular flower? He knew things, but he didn't know why they happened. Something was missing that he needed. He knew it was there, but he wanted to understand it! He wanted to know what it was! It was in the seed and it was in Shiko and Avlo. It was in everything.

"Atri, now you try." He heard Avlo's gentle voice and it broke him out of his blank terror.

He saw Avlo and Shiko smiling at him and gently urging him to put the seed into the ground. Atri held off the abyss of endless questions and took up the digging tool. He began to dig into the dirt and he felt better.

"Not too deep," Avlo instructed.

Once the hole was about the same size as Shiko's had been Atri carefully set the digging tool down. He gently put the seed in the hole and covered it with soil. Shiko handed him a strange can with a strange extension coming out of it. Atri looked inside and saw water sloshing around. He gently tipped the can over as he had seen Shiko do it and tiny streams of water sprinkled out of it.

It was so simple and yet so integral to everything. The lost boy couldn't begin to describe what he felt all around him. It stretched out in the ground and into all the flowers. It was even in him and he felt connected with everything. He liked it. He liked it a lot.

"I think maybe you can understand why Shiko and I enjoy this so much," Avlo commented.

Atri didn't say anything because he couldn't. The place held him and he was almost lost in it—immersed in it. If he could just reach out a little farther maybe he would be able to understand… but he couldn't and the feeling dissipated away. He felt a strange sense of loss, but he was not sad.

"Come on, Atri, I'll show you the rest!" Shiko said excitedly.

The boy was a natural at farming and gardening. If Avlo didn't know any better he would say that the boy's presence was making the plants and crops grow faster. The best part for Avlo was that Atri really enjoyed it. He was given chores like Shiko and when Shiko saw how much enthusiasm Atri had in doing them he emulated that enthusiasm and his chores were getting done as well. Avlo was happy. He never remembered being this happy since Shiko was born. His family was complete.

There were shadows in the distance though. The first and most troubling was Keta. He didn't understand why she wanted to leave so much. He had striven his whole life to give his children a good life. His father had done the same thing. Keta was not grateful for this—far from it. She resented it. Avlo's insides curdled as he thought of her 'mentor' Kiban. He unequivocally hated the man, but he could not send him away. It was the only person Keta would accept and Avlo would not deny his only daughter what she wanted.

The second trouble on Avlo's mind was his eldest son Tiku. He was an adult now and he had absolutely no interest in becoming a farmer. He enjoyed the nuances of this election though. Avlo snorted. Tiku was too good a man to be a politician. Perhaps that's what Gala needed. It was still disappointing that his first born would stray so far away from what his father did

The last and probably most pressing was Atri. The boy was becoming part of the family. Even Sera accepted it. Shiko adored him and treated him like a younger brother (even if he was quite a few years older). The boy brought out a gentle nature in his whole family. Even Tiku was fond of him and tried endlessly to teach the boy about the election. Avlo laughed. Atri just didn't understand or didn't want to. He couldn't blame him. Keta said he was 'cute'. He was part of the family, but there were some times when the boy seemed so distant… He still hadn't remembered anything of his past life which was troubling. Avlo had this strange fear that the boy's father was going to show up one day and take him away.

Avlo didn't know if he could accept that.

Shiko and Atri had the rest of the day to do with as they pleased, but what they really wanted to do was eat something. Dinner time was, unfortunately, far off and they knew that Sera's soft spot for Atri was rapidly turning into the love she bore for all her children. This was extremely unfortunate for both Shiko and Atri who could no longer get away with anything. This did not stop them, however.

"She's gone Atri! Now all you have to do is reach up into that cupboard—"

"What's a cupboard?" Atri asked immediately.

"That!" Shiko whispered as he heard a sound. "It's where all the snacks are!"

"Cupboard…" Atri repeated and Shiko hissed for silence.

The footsteps were becoming nearer and nearer and the two boys tensed. They were caught! They didn't know whether to run or take their chances. They sighed in relief as Tiku came walking into the kitchen instead of Sera.

"Atri, just the person I was looking for!" Tiku exclaimed. "I need to ask what you think about—"

"He doesn't like election-stuff!" Shiko said, haughtily.

"That's because you tell him not too!" Tiku shot back.

"No!" Shiko drawled immaturely.

Atri smiled on the inside and watched the two brothers interact.

"He looks about eight years older than you Shiko, I'm sure he wants to learn more about the world than just causing trouble and eating snacks." Tiku said with a smug smile.

"I like snacks." Atri commented.

"He's not eight years older than me! He's thirteen!" Shiko said with an equally smug smile.

"Oh how do you know?" Tiku asked.

"I just do okay? He's thirteen!"

"Thirteen what?" Atri asked.

"With that height? He's got to be sixteen!" Tiku shot back.

"Sixteen what?" Atri asked again, but was being ignored.

"Even if he was, which he's not, he wouldn't be interested in your boring elections!"

"How do you know? It's fascinating to people taller than you!"

"I'm not short!" Shiko said and punched Tiku in the gut.

Atri's eyes flashed and he couldn't help the fear that raced through him. He had seen this sort of, as Shiko called it, brotherly affection before but it always scared him. His first memories were that of pain. He didn't tell any of the others of these memories. Those were the only memories he tried not to remember. Sometimes he could believe that he lived his before life with Avlo and his family, but it wasn't true.

"Is that all you got, little man?" Tiku asked.

Soon Shiko was raining blows on Tiku who was blocking them with ease. Atri had to turn away even if he wasn't getting any negative feelings from the pair. He didn't know what he would do if Shiko decided to hit him like he hit Tiku. The very thought filled him with terror and he fled the room. He heard the sounds of Shiko's laugher echo from the kitchen. He didn't understand, but he accepted.

He wandered around the house until he found Keta and Kiban silently talking to each other. They always spoke in whispers. The pair didn't see him and Atri felt a shiver go up his spine. Atri hid behind the partially open door and listened and watched them. He didn't know why he was compelled to do this, but he felt it was the right thing to do. The way that Kiban watched Keta was…wrong. The whole situation was wrong. Atri couldn't hear what they were saying, but he watched them intently. Their faces were close to hear the other's muted whispering and Kiban reached out and grabbed Keta's hand. She gripped it and looked away. The wrong feeling convalesced in the pair's presence and Atri felt cold all over.

He had a bad feeling about this.

"Atri!" He heard Shiko call loudly.

Keta and Kiban immediately pulled their hands apart and Keta looked in her books and scribbled some notes furiously. Their eyes darted to the partially open doorway. Atri remained unseen. He looked behind and saw Shiko heading in his general direction. He slowed and became quieter as he saw Atri's crouched position. Shiko was notorious for spying on other people. He took a peek inside the room and rolled his eyes.

"Keta is so boring. Let's go do something fun!" He whispered.

Atri let himself be dragged away from the scene and the bad feelings. As he got farther away the feelings eventually subsided, but he couldn't quite get rid of the scene in his mind. There was something important about that little exchange, but as with many things he did not understand.

A/N: Hey, faster than last time. Show of hands: who wants Qui-Gon to actually get to Gala?