Chapter 2
The sun was warm on her face as she walked through a grassy field dotted by wildflowers. She took a deep breath of the sweet air and glanced over her shoulder. She couldn't help but smile when she saw him. Luke. His gentle blue eyes gazed back at her. He took a step closer and grasped her hand. Her heart beat faster.
A little behind them was his sister, wearing a simple dress, her hair done up in braids. Beside her was her husband, who always seemed to have one eye on Callista, like he didn't quite trust her. But Callista didn't mind, she knew he was just protective of his best friend. Between them was their youngest son. He smiled and pointed ahead of them.
Callista turned back around. There, racing out of the woods, came the twins. Close on their heels was a furry whisperkit. The twins came screeching to a halt in front of the group. As soon as they did the whisperkit climbed up Jacen's side and sat on his shoulder. The whisperkit's fluffy tail curled around the young boy's neck and he scratched the fragile creature behind the ear.
"Is she yours?" Callista remembered asking him.
"Sure is!" Jacen replied excitedly. "You can pet her if you want. Be gentle! She likes to be rubbed behind the ears—"
"Wake up." The command shattered her dreamworld, the sense of warm contentment replaced with searing pain. The face of the brown-eyed boy was replaced with that of a Sith Lord. She blinked her eyes several times trying to make sense of the earsplitting voice and the anguish that burned through every part of her body.
"Good. For a minute there I was afraid we had lost you. I moved you in here so I can keep a closer eye on you. You're very special, you know. You're going to bring me my apprentice. What would a Sith Master be without his apprentice?"
"Master?" a voice called from across the room.
"Yes, Tahiri?"
"Your presence is needed on the bridge."
Jacen sighed. "Very well." He got up to leave, but first he turned to Callista. "I guess we'll just have to catch up later. Don't go anywhere." He gave her a final half-smirk and left.
Callista lay on the floor for several minutes and tried to drift back to the pleasant memories from her dreamworld. If her body could have moved, it would have stiffened with an abrupt realization—it wasn't real. It couldn't have been a memory. The last time she saw Luke, the twins were barely more than toddlers, Anakin just a baby. And that planet—she'd never seen it before.
So I embellished.
Callista froze. It was the same voice as she'd heard before. Was her captor using some kind of mind-control?
Surely I don't sound like him.
It was true, the voice definitely didn't sound like her captor. Not knowing what else to do, Callista responded hesitantly. "Who are you?"
I'm going to need your help.
Callista's head was swimming. She wasn't sure what was real. The sunny planet, the meadow, Luke…She wanted to escape back to the dreamworld. At least then she would know none of it was real.
But it was real. At least, the part about the whisperkit was. That's the important part.
Whisperkit? Why the whisperkit? Callista didn't understand. She couldn't concentrate, her head hurt too much. She felt unconsciousness tugging at her and she welcomed it.