that the little things I could do-like sense emotions and find things that
were misplaced-were a special power. So Tionne rescued me from the desert
and brought me to this moon. Not that I needed rescue. The Sand People are
all right, and I did have my own bantha as a pet-you have seen a bantha,
haven't you?" Tahiri asked Anakin. She didn't wait for an answer. "Banthas
are animals with long, thick fur. They have spiral horns. On Tatooine we
ride them and use them to carry things. Anyway, Tionne brought me here
because she says that I have Jedi potential. Guess that's why you're here
too, huh?"
Once again Tahiri did not wait for an answer.
"Best thing about this place is that I don't have to wear long white
robes and cover my face and mouth like I did on Tatooine-I hated that! Oh,
and I don't ever have to wear shoes if I don't want to-I made Tionne
promise me that the moment I arrived at the Great Temple," Tahiri
explained, wriggling her bare feet. "I made her promise because I love the
feeling of the Temple's cool clean stones under my feet. Where I'm from
it's hot and there's sand everywhere - gritty sand that sticks between your
toes. So, aren't you going to say something?" she finally asked Anakin.
Anakin had to laugh. "It's pretty hard to get a word in with you
talking all the time," he explained.
Tahiri thought for a moment.
"Sorry about that. It's just that on Tatooine there wasn't anyone near
my own age to talk to. I guess I'm pretty lonely for a friend."
"I guess I could use a friend too," Anakin admitted. After all, his
brother and sister were back on Coruscant with their parents, and Anakin
already missed them, more than he could say.
"Then it's settled-we're best friends now," Tahiri said with a grin.
"So are you going to tell me your name?"
"My name is Anakin Solo," he replied softly.
Jedi instructor Tionne found her newest student, Tahiri, in the Grand
Audience Chamber. She had come to take the girl to her sleeping quarters.
There had not been a chance to show the active young student where she was
to sleep since the girl had arrived on the on the moon that morning. For
the last few hours Tionne had had a hard enough time just keeping her eye
on this last - minute addition to the young Jedi class, a class that had
been carefully selected and then brought to Yavin 4 over the last week for
classes that would begin tomorrow morning.
Tionne walked through the wooden doorway and paused, watching Tahiri
talk to Anakin Solo. Tionne was happy to see that the child had begun to
make a friend. She had known that Tahiri wasn't shy. In fact, the girl
rarely stopped talking. But Tionne had been worried that the other students
would be put off by her nonstop chatter. It was understandable, though,
since the girl hadn't had any human her own age to talk to for almost six
years.
"Tahiri, I've come to show you to your room," Tionne said.
Tahiri looked away from her new friend and toward the silver-haired
Jedi.
"I'm not tired. I want to stay and talk with Anakin," Tahiri replied.
Tahiri wasn't used to anyone telling her when to sleep, or where. On
Tatooine everyone took care of themselves. If you were tired you slept. If
you were hungry you ate. And if you were thirsty... Well, if you were
thirsty you hoped to find water somewhere in the desert.
Tionne smiled at Tahiri.
"You are not on Tatooine anymore," she said. "And you will follow the
rules of the Jedi academy."
Tahiri frowned and her bright green eyes clouded. She really did hate
being told what to do. But she stood up from the bench. She would follow
Tionne for now.
"Young Anakin, it is almost time for lights out," Tionne informed the
boy. "All of our young students must be in their rooms and ready for bed
four standard hours after nightfall," she continued.
Anakin nodded. He was used to being told when to go to bed. On
time.
Anakin, Tahiri, and Tionne left the Grand Audience Chamber and
descended the stairway to the next floor of the Temple. Artoo was still
waiting at the base of the stairs for Anakin, and when the boy reached the
bottom of the stairs the droid once again followed him. Several times he
bleeped and beeped, but Anakin ignored the droid.
"Well, this is my room," Anakin said softly when he reached a door.
"Good night, everyone."
He pushed open a large wooden door and entered the room.
"This way, Tahiri," Tionne said. The two continued down the hallway
until they reached another door. "This is your room. When you hear the
wake-up bell tomorrow morning please use your refresher unit to clean up
and then come down to the dining room."
Tahiri scowled, then stepped inside the room. Tahiri stood with her
back to the wooden door. She had never had her own room before. On the
planet Tatooine all of the Sand People slept outdoors in encampments on
blankets on the ground. Now Tahiri was looking around her very own room.
She couldn't believe it! There was a large sleeping pad in the far corner,
covered with soft white blankets. A dresser and a closet were on the wall
to her left. Several orange jumpsuits hung from hooks in the closet. There
was also one pair of shoes on the floor.
No chance I'm going to wear those, Tahiri thought as she looked at the
shoes. She walked toward another doorway directly across from her bed. It
led to her very own refresher unit. I can't believe this place, she
thought. Tahiri had never even had a shower before she'd left Tatooine.
There was barely enough water to drink on the planet. A shower was unheard
- of! Luke and Tionne had made Tahiri take one on their shuttle. She
smiled.
The way they had wrinkled their noses when she had unwrapped herself
from the white robe she wore had been funny. She must have really smelled
awful. Tahiri had to admit she'd liked the warm shower. And she liked the
orange jumpsuit they'd given her even more. It was so much more comfortable
than her robe had been. Tahiri rubbed her feet along the cool stone floor.
The clean stones felt wonderful. She changed into her nightgown, raced
across the floor, and leapt onto her bed. Tahiri sank into the blankets. So
soft and fluffy, she thought dreamily. Maybe she was ready to sleep after
all, she thought right before she drifted off.
Tahiri began to dream. It was the exact same dream she'd had on
Tatooine. The same dream she'd had every few weeks of her life for as long
as she could remember. She was floating along a green river in a long
silver raft with rounded sides. Before Tahiri had come to Yavin 4 she had
never even seen a river. Strange to have imagined something I've never
seen, she thought in her dream.
Tahiri could feel the cold water lap her hands as she paddled in the
raft. A storm was brewing. The wind was growing stronger, and the water
began to hit the sides of the raft in powerful waves. Tahiri paddled
harder, her muscles beginning to ach
e. She had to reach the side of the
river before her raft was turned over by the swell. A giant wave swept over
the front of the raft. Tahiri was hit full force, and her small body was
sent flying backward.
She fell from the raft and was quickly swept into the cold river
water. This was the part where she usually woke up. But not this time. This
time Tahiri felt the waves tumbling over her, smacking her face and filling
her nose and mouth with water. She could feel herself desperately
struggling to breathe.
Why hadn't she woken up? She thrashed through the water trying to get
back to her raft. She could still see it above the tumbling waves. And then
she saw him. It was the boy she'd just met. Anakin Solo was in her raft.
And he was paddling toward her. He held a silver paddle out. It rose and
fell from her vision as she was carried along wave after wave. Tahiri knew
that she was supposed to reach for the paddle, that if she didn't she would
surely drown.
But she couldn't grab it. It was too far away. She saw Anakin
screaming at her, but she couldn't hear his words. The water was swallowing
her up. And then suddenly the cold silver paddle was within reach and she
was again grabbing for it. But just as her fingers began to close over it a
loud bell sounded.
Tahiri awoke with a start. Strange, she thought groggily, I've had the
same dream on Tatooine ever since I was a small child, but the dream
usually ends when I fall into the river. I've never almost drowned, or been
saved by a boy. There has never been anyone else on the river with me.
Tahiri dropped her feet over the side of her pad and stood. Her nightgown
clung to her body in sweaty spots.
Yuck, she thought, and headed to the refresher unit. In my dream I was
on Yavin 4, Tahiri thought as she showered. In fact, it looked like the
river that runs by the academy. But where was I going? And why was Anakin
Solo in my dream? Tahiri wondered.
"I think I should get to know my new friend Anakin better if he's
going to turn up in a dream I've been having my whole life," Tahiri
muttered as she slipped on her jumpsuit. She opened her door and headed to
the dining room, determined to understand her strange dream.
"We need to talk, Anakin," Tahiri said as she arrived at the morning
meal and sat down at the breakfast table beside her new best friend.
Anakin wasn't a morning person.
"Oh hi," he said with a grumble as Tahiri sat across from him. "Look,
I don't like to talk in the morning," he tried to explain.
"Nonsense. You don't like to talk period," Tahiri replied. "Last night
I did all the talking. Now I want to know a little bit about you."
Tahiri wasn't ready to tell him about the dream. That would have to
wait until she could be sure that he wouldn't laugh at her. She hated to be
laughed at.
"Go on," she prodded when Anakin still hadn't spoken.
"You're not going to leave me alone no matter what I say, are you?"
Anakin asked grumpily.
Tahiri just stared at him, her green eyes glowing. Anakin hated
telling people about himself. He swallowed, then quickly began to recite
his family history.
"My mother and father are famous. My mom is Leia Organa Solo and she's
a princess from the planet Alderaan and chief of state of the New Republic.
Both she and my father, Han Solo, were Rebel heroes. My uncle is Luke
Skywalker, the famous Jedi Master and the founder of this academy. The
entire family is almost too much to live up to." Anakin growled. "Okay, are
you satisfied now?"
"You don't have to live up to them," Tahiri said matter-of-factly.
"You aren't them and they aren't you."
"Easy for you to say," Anakin replied. "I would rather have a family
than not have one at all,"
Tahiri shot back.
"I thought your family were the Sand People," Anakin said.
"They are, but not really," Tahiri answered. "The Sand People found me
in the desert. But my real parents were moisture farmers on Tatooine. My
parents had machines that pulled water from the air. That water was used on
the planet for drinking and farming. I don't really remember them. The Sand
People said they were killed when I was four. I'm not sure how they died,
though."
"I'm sorry," Anakin said.
"Don't feel sorry for me," Tahiri replied fiercely. "I'm lucky that
the Sand People found me in the desert. Just like I'm lucky that Luke and
Tionne found me on Tatooine."
"You're right," Anakin agreed. He was beginning to feel more at ease
with Tahiri. He took another bite of food, then said, "I even have an older
brother and sister. They're 13 years old and their names are Jacen and
Jaina."
"What are they like?" Tahiri asked her friend.
"Well, Jacen is pretty wild. He loves spending time outside. He
collects bugs and gets into a lot of trouble. Jaina is more like me. She
likes taking things apart and then figuring out how to put them together. I
don't get to spend too much time with either of them. They were on Yavin 4
for the past few months studying. Now I'm here," Anakin explained.
"You miss them, don't you," Tahiri said.
"Yeah. They're my best friends," Anakin admitted.
"Well, now you have me," Tahiri said with a quick grin. "And I have
something I need to tell you. Last night I had a dream-the same dream I've
had most of my life for as long as I can remember. It's a strange dream.
Strange, because in it I'm rafting on a river, and before yesterday I'd
never seen a river. In fact, before I came to this moon I'd never seen so
much water in my life. Anyway, I'm pretty sure that this dream I've been
having has always taken place here, on Yavin 4. Which is truly weird, don't
you think, because this is my first time here." Tahiri didn't wait for
Anakin's comments. "Anyway, in the dream I'm always rafting a river when a
terrible storm begins. The winds howl and the water of the river grows into
giant waves. One of the waves hits me and I'm thrown out of the raft.
That's when I usually wake up. But last night I didn't wake up. Instead I
almost drowned. I didn't, though, because the breakfast bell rang and I was
woken up. But that's not important right now. What's important is that for
the first time in all the years that I can remember dreaming this exact
same dream, someone else was in it too. That someone was in my raft, and
when I was swept into the river he held out a silver paddle to save me from
drowning. The boy who held out that paddle was you!"
Anakin was silent. So this was what his brother Jacen was always
talking about. I guess girls do get crushes on boys and say things that
make no sense, he thought.
"Aren't you going to say anything?" Tahiri asked impatiently.
"Well, I don't think it's so strange that you had a dream with me in
it," Anakin began. "After all, we met last night right before you went to
sleep."
"Don't flatter yourself. You're not so terrific that I'd have a dream
about you for no reason," Tahiri retorted, her irritation showing in her
fla
shing eyes.
Now she's upset with me, Anakin thought with wonder.
"Don't be annoyed, Tahiri," he said. "I just thought that might be one
explanation."
"And what about the river, the storm, and the fact that my dream has
always taken place here, on this moon, when I've lived in the desert all my
life?" Tahiri asked in exasperation.
"Well, you said yourself that you can hardly remember anything about
your life before the Sand People adopted you. Maybe you've been here
before," Anakin suggested.
"Been where?" Luke Skywalker asked his newest student as he walked up
behind her. Tahiri whirled around to face the Jedi Master.
"Nowhere," Tahiri huffed. She kicked back her chair and stalked from
the table.
"Making friends so soon, young Anakin?" Luke asked with a smile.
Anakin gave a feeble grin and then he, too, rose and left the table. He
wanted to find Tahiri to apologize for whatever he'd done wrong. The girl
talked too much, but she was his new friend and he didn't want to hurt her
feelings.
There was no time for Anakin to talk to Tahiri before the bell rang
for the first class of the Junior Jedi Academy. Anakin walked into the
Grand Audience Chamber and looked for her. He spotted her blonde hair in
the third row and quickly slid in beside her. Tahiri pretended not to see
him. Anakin tried to apologize, but she just stared at the large block