Private Sand and Solitude

[Amilthi Camlenn]

Amilthi was in a gloomy mood as her starfighter shot southwards over the Mesra Plateau - sweaty, sandy, but uninjured apart from a bruise on her hip that would heal by tomorrow. What had been a journey of hours a few weeks ago would now take mere minutes. She was annoyed and disappointed with herself for falling for Adron's trick, setting free a dangerous monster that disrupted the local fauna, yanked it violently out of any semblance of equilibrium, and would soon, no doubt, have begun to pose a significant danger to settlers. Had she not by chance returned to Tatooine and learnt of the need to correct her mistake...

It was no good dwelling on such thoughts. Regret was always suspect, and regret over a counterfactual situation was nonsensical. Amilthi reminded herself to keep her balance and decided that a meditation sitting once she was back home would have to serve to fix this situation. But she couldn't shed the feeling that something still wasn't alright.

When she had landed and jumped out of the ship, the finally realised her error: the feeling of wrongness hadn't been about the affair of the krayt dragon at all. The landspeeder was missing. Feeling a sudden pang of anxiety, she ran up to the house. There was no trace of anything untoward happening around it, the door was in perfect order. Perhaps Lefwen would have had the decency to leave a note inside as to her whereabouts.

Naturally, that wasn't the case. Amilthi groaned in frustration, and then noted her frustration at that frustration. She reminded herself not to resent her mind for behaving as it did right now. She focussed on her body, found the tightness in her chest that reflected the worry and anxiety she was experiencing. She observed the two, the emotion and its bodily reflex, in conjunction for a few moments. Thus objectified, they did not disappear, but they became distinct and ceased to cloud her mind.

There wasn't really a question of where the girl might have gone. She was certainly not the type to venture deeper into the canyon or explore the dunes on her own, not after her morning's run anyway. With a sigh and a resigned smile on her lips, the persistent anxiety notwithstanding, Amilthi returned to her ship.

Lefwen Claskier

 

[Lefwen Claskier]

Lefwen held the blaster at arm's length, checking the grip and the weight. She didn't really know what she was looking for, but it seemed important to appear like a knowledgeable customer. The Mirialin vendor didn't seem overly impressed either way. After wincing at the price tag, she carefully lowered the blaster back into the case and moved on with a half-hearted smile.

The twin suns were now getting lower and many of the market stalls were being packed away. Lefwen checked her watch anxiously, realising with a sudden gasp that she was running far later than she'd thought. She swung her bag around and checked through it: spices, two new servo links and a soldering iron, and a few other miscellaneous items. It had been a worthwhile trip in general, now she just had to find her way back to the speeder.

Lefwen shifted her way through the crowds, keeping her eyes focussed on the tall comm-link tower that she knew had been near to where she had parked. It couldn't be much further. The streets were busy with people now as the workshops closed and the workers returned home. Getting clearance to leave at this time was going to be a pain in the-

An arm suddenly wrapped around her throat, dragging her backwards, her heels scraping into the sand. She beat at the arm's owner, whoever it was, with her hands. Scratching, biting, writhing, nothing worked to reduce the pressure about her neck. She wasn't being choked, though, simply dragged away. The main street began to recede away from her as the was wrestled into a backstreet and dumped unceremoniously onto the ground.

In front of her were three figures: two Rodians who seemed to be paid to look intimidating, and a Twi'lek. A familiar Twi'lek.

"Oh look what we found, lads. Some lost little schutta. Where's your mum, schutta?" the Twi'lek asked with a grin before nodding to one of the Rodians, who immediately kicked the crouching girl in the chest. Lefwen felt the air rush from her lungs and grimaced. This was troublingly familiar, although that familiarity made it no easier to endure. She groaned on the ground and held her stomach, her other hand up to ward of any other attack. She risked a glance upward, wincing as she noticed the knives glinting in the light.

"You're gonna whack someone over a misunderstanding?" she asked breathlessly, trying to buy herself time to find a way out. It was a narrow alleyway and she was surrounded on all sides, so forward and backward weren't an option. There was some piping and guttering that lead up on to the rooftops, although that was on the other side of the Twi'lek and her muscle.

The Twi'lek crouched down, holding her head at Lefwen's eye level and smiling with pointed teeth. "This doesn't need to go that far, mummy's girl," she grinned and nodded at one of the Rodians again. Lefwen braced for it this time, but the pain was still the same. "You off-worlders just need to learn how things are around here." She was the one who kicked this time, catching Lefwen directly in the sternum and forcing the air from her lungs again. She rolled onto her side, curled up to protect her stomach and chest. A large hand grabbed her by the scruff and lifted her to her feet. She stood limply in the middle of the group, the Twi'lek woman pacing slightly ahead of her stretching out the muscles in her arms. Lefwen groaned and dropped her hands by her side. Timing would be everything.

"For example, 'round here we make sure we don't disturb our betters," the Twi'lek stated, turning and throwing a punch towards Lefwen's stomach. She'd seen that one coming, however, and in a burst of movement Lefwen slapped the hand away to the side. She span with the momentum, rolling around the Twi'lek and towards the piping that lead up onto the rooftops. One of the Rodians quickly moved to block her, his large, green bulk looming in her peripheral vision, but Lefwen managed to slip to the side. She pushed herself forward as fast as she could, trying to draw on the Force to spur herself onward. There was shouting behind her, the sound of heavy footsteps echoing through the alleyway. The pipe was close now. She leapt through the air, grabbing on to the pipe with one hand and immediately scrabbling to swing her legs up. Something sharp sank into her side. She screamed in pain. Her strength faded and the pipe fell away from her. Dust spat up into the air as she landed heavily on the ground, and the sky above began to letterbox into blackness.

Amilthi Camlenn

 

[Amilthi Camlenn]

Amilthi wandered through the streets forlornly, the feeling that things weren't right wasn't leaving her, and she made an effort to remain in the present moment and listen to all the little urges and hints that came up in her mind to guide her, instead of getting lost in thinking through the possibilities of what could be happening. The everything was indistinct and she found no clear direction.

Suddenly she felt something tugging on her robe, and turning around was faced with a jawa in a clear state of excitement. It was practically jumping up and down, caught hold of her sleeve, and pulled her with it with strong determination and purpose. It was chattering agitatedly and too fast for Amilthi to comprehend.

She caught a word for 'sister' that was also more generically used for 'woman' - jawas, living in their sandcrawler communities, were in-bred enough for the average woman a jawa saw to basically be their sister -, the phrases 'toss me' - was this the same one they had encountered in the cantina, now seeking help with someone who tossed him around the room again? - and 'drag away' or 'abscond with' - a very important concept in jawa life, to be sure.

It took much effort not to start speculating, but it was clear to Amilthi that this was the hint she'd been waiting for - it had just come in an unusual form. The creature began to run, and Amilthi followed its manoeuvring through the crowed with swift steps, being pulled here and there and eventually into small alleyways off the main streets. The jawa stopped, shrieked, and pointed ahead energetically.

At the end of the dark alley were two rodians, one of them a particularly large specimen, and a blue twi'lek standing over a figure lying on the ground. Amilthi felt the tightness in her stomach contracting further and at the same time there was a flicker of anger and even relief that she was finally in a position to do something. She pushed past the jawa and approached with swift steps, but without breaking into a run. An energetic, sweeping motion of her arm sent the three standing figured flying off their feet and rammed them into the wall behind.

Amilthi hurried to the figure lying on the ground and knelt down by its side. Sure enough it was her student, lying face-down, and fortunately alive. "If you ever -" began Amilthi coldly, turning around to the twi'lek, but stopped when the noticed that the woman, sunken against the wall, was unconscious. The impact of her sensitive head with the wall must have caused quite the concussion. The rodians, dazed but still awake, seemed to get the message.

Her entire attention was now devoted to Lefwen, she turned the girl around, ensured she was breathing properly, and inspected her for injuries. It took a moment for her to find the stab wound, and she noticed a feeling of panic arising within her at its sight, knowing that she had little skill in healing anyone but herself. But having noted the feeling, Amilthi did not let it guide her actions or cloud her mind. She pulled up Lefwen's shirt to free the wound and let it continue to bleed to wash away any little pieces of dirt that might have found their way into it. She was relieved to find that pure, red blood was the only substance that emerged from it. After allowing the process to continue for a minute, lacking any sort of suitable cloth, Amilthi gently squeezed the wound shut with her hand to stop the last trickle of blood, and waited.

Satisfied that the bleeding had conclusively stopped, she put her hands under Lefwen's knees and shoulders and picked up the girl, who was bigger than herself, with far greater ease than she should have been able to...

***​

The rudimentary medical kit Amilthi kept into her house had been of use, and the wound had been disinfected and covered with a sterile patch. Lefwen's clothes, too, had been changed, and Amilthi was busying herself with repairing the damaged shirt, but at least half of her attention was always with the injured girl on the bed. Some tingling of worry, a slight tightness around the diaphragm, persisted as Amilthi waited for her to regain consciousness, but it was easy enough to ignore with the confidence that that would happen in time.

Lefwen Claskier

 

[Lefwen Claskier]

Lefwen's eyes flitted open. She'd be deeply dreaming but it all fell away, replaced by pain. It was a dull ache but it was all consuming, seeming to grow more and more as she awoke. She groaned and tried to lift herself up, which sent a shooting pain down her side. Craning her neck, she could just about see the padding and wrapping that covered her flank. She sighed and fell back onto the pillow.

She was in Amilthi's house, that much was clear from the sparse decor and the smell of roasting gourds. She hadn't gone there herself though. She closed her eyes and concentrated, but it was impossible to think while her side throbbed at her. She focussed on the parts of her body that felt fine: her arms were okay, her legs too, even her other side. Inch by inch she focussed on a new piece of herself, advancing slowly on the wound and trying to drag the pain-free feeling towards it. After a few minutes of gritted teeth she'd managed to push the pain back a little. Enough to think, at least.

The scene came flooding back to her. Colourful, vivid, violent. Feth. She pushed herself up into a seated position and pulled up the clothes on her side, checking the damage. Her stomach was a patchwork of bruising, but the majority of the pain was on her flank. The nature of the injury was covered by a med-patch and a few poorly tied bandages to keep it in place, but from her recollection it was easy to imagine what lay beneath. Feth.

She took a few minutes to test her range of movement. Unsurprisingly, any turning of the upper body led to an immediate, debilitating pang of pain. Bending and leaning was painful to, but sitting upright was just about bearable. Standing was probably possible, although it didn't seem too smart to try. She swung her legs around and sat on the edge of the bed, her hands supporting most of her weight. She could hear Amilthi moving around in some other part of the house. For a moment, she just felt anger: Amilthi had left her to go off chasing monsters. She'd promised to protect her! She'd said she'd be safe! That moment passed, however. It was her own stupid fault, she knew that really. She'd run off on her own on a planet she barely understood. It had been reckless, idiotic even - if anyone else had done it she'd have laughed at how arrogant and foolish it was.

She slowed herself down, instinctively falling back on some of her practice. She breathed deeply and tried to pay close attention to her thoughts. She was angry, obviously, but her thoughts kept trying to shift that anger elsewhere: onto Amilthi, onto the Twi'lek, onto her father or sister. There was nowhere for it to go except against herself, however. It suddenly struck her as strange that anger was the main emotion: self-pity or sadness would make more sense. Why anger? Because she'd be attacked for no good reason? No, that had happened plenty of times in her life, it was too familiar to lead to anger. Because she was stuck on this dustball planet with an idiot- she stopped herself. Shifting blame again. Because the entire situation was her fault? Because she was embarrassed and wanted to cover that up? Because she'd let herself down? The realisation was painful.

She opened her eyes and sat silently for a short while, and then began the arduous task to pushing herself onto her feet.

Amilthi Camlenn

 

[Amilthi Camlenn]

Amilthi heard Lefwen stir, put down what she was doing without hurry, and stuck her head into the single separate room. “How are you feeling?”, she asked, a gentle smile on her lips. There was not a hint of reproach or resentment about her.

Lefwen looked up. She’d half-expected Amilthi to be cross with her, but instead she was met with a calm smile. “I’d say I feel alright, but you made me promise not to lie…” she forced a smile.

Amilthi chuckled. “I imagine. But I’m glad you’re alive.” It was a simple statement of her feelings, not a disguised warning or reproach.

“Hmm,” Lefwen nodded pensively. She stopped trying to lift herself up and slowly lowered herself into a seated position once more. “Thank you,” she said nervously, not clear on what specifically she was thanking Amilthi for.

“The running will obviously have to wait for a while”, said Amilthi, finally stepping into the room. “But if you keep meditating on your own body as you have been, despite the pain, you might just find that you heal rather more quickly than you would expect”, she pointed out with an encouraging smile. “At this point, probably in weeks rather than months.” The specifics might have been sobering, but she didn’t seem to view them as such. There was still an almost cheerful sparkle in her eyes.

Lefwen nodded again but stayed silent. She span her legs back onto the bed and propped herself up against the wall, and then closed her eyes.

Lefwen Claskier

 

[Lefwen Claskier]

Lefwen opened her eyes. It was getting dark; long shadows sprawling out across the floor of the room. The air was cool and smelled faintly of vegetable stew, and there was the soft sound of sand pattering against the outside wall. Her hands and feet were cold, having been kept still for so long. She closed her eyes again and felt out for the gentle pulse she'd come to recognise as the Force. She found it quickly and began to draw upon it, pushing it towards her extremities and feeling a a slight warmth spreading through them. She could have achieved the same with a blanket or another pair of socks, but she found it useful to remind herself of its presence.

She spent a short while thinking and then rose to other feet. Her injury was healing well: Amilthi had been right when she'd said it may only take a few weeks. She thought back to all the times she'd spent months recovering from much smaller injuries: it seemed such a waste now. She noted how that felt and then moved on.

She'd spent her time recovering. Unable to do much physical activity, it had been much easier to focus on her meditation practice. Lack of distraction - of the possibility for distraction - certainly helped to focus the mind. Perhaps, she mused, that was where the B'omarr had gone wrong. It was very easy to see how they had concluded that outside influence was the enemy, how they'd convinced themselves that enlightenment could only be achieved by removing the outside world altogether, but that was a mistake. There was so much to be learned by really paying attention to the senses: the feelings of pressure and warmth on the skin, the minute sounds that were so easily ignored in day to day life. It was becoming easier and easier to notice such things, and the effect they had on her own thoughts. The B'omarr may achieve some knowledge through their abstinence from reality, but it was clear that their picture of the universe could never be complete.

However, while meditation certainly allowed her to better understand herself, and hopefully make herself better, it couldn't be everything. The incident in Mos Eisley had weighed heavily on her mind over the weeks and days since it had occurred. While this new life, or new chapter at any rate, was a far cry from the scared and desperate existence she'd once had, it was clear that no amount of inner peace could truly protect oneself from external forces. So, she had reached a conclusion about what she needed to do. She just needed to convince Amilthi.

She changed out of the loose-fitting clothes she had bee wearing and into her more normal garb before heading through the house to take a shower. Once that was done she went quickly to the kitchen, where she knew Amilthi would likely be tidying or preparing.

"Y'know, when I was a kid I used to spend all my time running away from lessons. Instead, we used to go climbing or running, or play-fight with sticks," she began with a casual tone. "The only lessons I ever really paid attention in were geography and fencing practice..."

Amilthi Camlenn

 

[Amilthi Camlenn]

As usual, there was going to be no dinner. Amilthi was making tea and taking stock of the inventory in her kitchen to make sure there was enough for tomorrow’s breakfast - not that she could have done anything about it now in the event of a negative determination.

She turned briefly and smiled as Lefwen emerged from her meditation. “You must be very familiar with your home planet, then. Do you miss it?”

Lefwen hid her minor frustration at Amilthi not taking the bait and persisted. “I’m not sure. I guess I do, although it’s all a little tainted. Duelling and going on adventures was fun...”

Amilthi smiled wryly and retrieved a bag of tea from the cupboard. Looking inside, she found that the stash she had been gifted by Tiland Kortun was really dwindling. “Especially when they don’t actually get you hurt like real conflicts do, right?” she said gently, but with a slightly mischievous undertone.

“Those practice sabers can leave you with pretty nasty bruises…” Lefwen retorted with a smirk. “I’ve found the best trick, if you can’t avoid a conflict, is to actually have a weapon though.”

It dawned on Amilthi where this was going, and she smiled wryly to herself. “One of the best tricks to avoid a conflict is not to have a weapon”, she remarked with a tinge of amusement.

Lefwen frowned, “Which is great until you actually need one…” She paused. “I want to train,” she stated flatly.

“You are training.”

“I want to train to defend myself.”

“Why were you at that event?” asked Amilthi suddenly, completely ignoring the question. “You said you ran away from your family. Do you really not remember why? You don’t want your father to know you’re alive - and yet you get entangled with his company…”

Lefwen was caught off-guard by the sudden change in subject. “I was there to try to get information,” she snapped.

“About what?” asked Amilthi casually, completely ignoring the increase in emotional charge of the conversation.

Lefwen could feel herself getting more frustrated. This was not at all how she’d planned the conversation. “About what had happened since I’d left, about my dad, about my sister, I don’t know!”

“Why would you want to know about these things when they’re not part of your life and you don’t want them to be?”, pried Amilthi undeterred.

“Maybe I do want them to be! How would you know?”

“I don’t know”, said Amilthi, smiling. “And neither do you. Do you think your father would chase you away if you returned? What about your mother?”

Lefwen frowned and turned away in frustration. “I don’t know what he would do, it wasn’t exactly a friendly goodbye, which is why I need to be able to defend myself!” She paused and turned back to Amilthi. “I’m not your prisoner. Why do you get to defend yourself and not me?”

“Because you are very confused”, replied Amilthi slowly, stopping just short of a sigh. “If I taught you to use a deadly weapon, you would be even more confused, because you wouldn’t know when to use it and when not to.”

Lefwen scowled. Amilthi was probably right: she tended to be, which was part of why she was so infuriating. She noticed anger bubbling up again and tried to push it down, looking for a way to navigate the situation. "And how am I ever going to be less confused if I don't have a chance to try?" she asked with a resigned tone.

Amilthi smiled. “I never said you shouldn’t try to become less confused. Observe your feelings and investigate them. Remember things and see how they make you feel; or imagine them even. Always observe, never judge. And with time, you will find more clarity. Some things will become more important; others less. If you ever want to talk something through, I’m here for you - and if you don’t, that’s just as well. There is no expectation either way”, she explained patiently.

“I will soon teach you a skill to defend yourself - something with which you cannot hurt anyone. But I can’t yet. Be patient and practice, develop your equanimity. If I gave you the instructions now, you would approach them the wrong way and it would impair your progress later on.”

“As long as you stay by my side and do that I say, you are safe. As I told you, my responsibility is to keep you safe so that you do not have to resort to unwholesome actions. The only one I cannot keep you safe from is yourself.”

Lefwen Claskier

 

[Lefwen Claskier]

Lefwen sat cross-legged on the floor, her back straight and her hands resting gently on her knees. She breathed slowly but without any attempt at control, merely observing. She allowed her focus to shift, slowly threading her attention through different parts of her body. She noted that her shoulders were tight, relaxed them and moved on. Her attention progressed down her arms and she noticed the familiar rise and fall of sensation as she focussed on more or less sensitive areas. She recognised that her wrists ached, likely from helping carry in some of the new parts for the moisture vaporator which she'd been helping to fix. She felt proud, a warm feeling of self-satisfaction that seemed to appear like fog within a river valley. She allowed the mist to clear on its own and returned to focussing on her body.

She moved to her hands, noticing the touch of the fabric against her fingertips and then noticing that the feeling wasn't possible to place. It wasn't a feeling within her fingers, or a feeling that was somehow held within the fabric. It was merely a sensation that arose in her consciousness, without form or location. She allowed herself to try to find how they feeling travelled: searching, for just a moment, for the connection between her fingers and her head. The link alluded her, though, and the desire to find it passed. She noticed that it was a strange idea: the notion that she was 'in' her head. Was it true? She noticed that she was curious, and allowed herself, once more, to try to find the location where her consciousness was placed. It was an easy illusion to fall for: with her eyes open it felt like she was within her skull, looking out at the world as though her body were a vehicle for her conscious mind. That idea seemed intuitive, but she found no evidence for it as she became more absorbed in the sensations that were arising. She was in her hands too, in her chest, in her sore side, in her legs and feet.

Suddenly, she noticed a strange feeling arising. Almost illusory, and yet also somehow truer than normal awareness. The idea of her body began to slide away; the fog in the valley fading in the morning sun. She noticed that she could not feel her body truly, could not feel its shape or form or colour. Instead, what she actually experienced was raw sensation, arising in unbroken space in a way that her mind was trying to catalogue and locate within a preconceived form. She felt ethereal, like a will-o'-the-wisp suspended in the air, and like a ghostly fire she could spread and touch things beyond her current form. She could feel the floor behind her, the room around her, the Force connecting it all together.

In a flash, the sensation fell away entirely. Once more she was inside her body, limited to the sensations that 20-odd-years of consciousness had told her were all that lay within the limits of her form. She opened her eyes, noticing how calm the room felt, how still and homely it was. She stretched her arms out, her side still ringing with a dull ache as she stretched, but her mind focussed on what she'd just experienced. After a few moments, she felt excitement building with her, and sprang to her feet in search of someone to tell.

She found Amilthi sitting on a cushion in the middle of the living room, but the woman opened her eyes as soon as Lefwen entered. “So, I know I’m not meant to finish this session for a while, but something just happened.”

Amilthi smiled at her reassuringly from below and made no motion to get up from the floor. Instead, she leaned to one side to fetch a second cushion that was lying around, and put it in front of her. “Tell me.”

Lefwen moved around and sat cross-legged in front of Amilthi. “I was focussing on the feeling in my hands and I noticed that I couldn’t ‘place’ them, if that makes sense.” She was speaking quickly, and didn’t leave much of a pause for Amilthi to answer. “Anyway, I then suddenly felt like I was floating, except it wasn’t really ‘me’ - it was like I was a different… shape?”

Amilthi tilted her head. “Was it a shape?”, she replied in the usual brief, pointed manner with which she often received reports of experiences and nudged her student’s thoughts.

Lefwen thought for a moment, “Not really, no. It was like being made of smoke or air. I could feel myself, but it was like I’d forgotten what shape I was entirely; as though it stopped being relevant.”

“Very nice”, said Amilthi blithely. It was not praise, but rather she spoke as if Lefwen had just given her news of a particularly fortuitous circumstances. “How did you feel about that? Did you feel about it?”

Lefwen looked confused as she tried to recall the experience. “I guess I didn’t really feel anything about it when it was happening. I started to get excited, but that seemed to break me out of it. What was it, something related to the Force?”

“Everything is related to the Force.” Amilthi almost shrugged. “What you say happens commonly, especially the first time. You got absorbed in your excitement. Next time, note the excitement, but notice that it isn’t you. Continue to investigate the state, the spatial quality of your attention. See if it has a boundary somewhere further out. See how large a portion of space you can hold in your attention simultaneously. See if you find any things there.” It wasn’t clear if she meant literal, material objects or something else.

Lefwen listened intently. Things were starting to make more sense now: Amilthi’s statements which for so long had seemed esoteric and mysterious now had a more tangible quality. “So I am making progress?”

“You’ve been making progress all along”, said Amilthi, smiling warmly. “Even when you thought you weren’t.”

Lefwen nodded, a smile spreading across her face. She took to her feet and left to start preparing the tea, her mind still dancing with thoughts about what she might discover next.

Amilthi Camlenn

 

[Amilthi Camlenn]

Amilthi was very happy that Lefwen had finally reached the point where she could have a taste of the real thing, a tiny glimpse of the wonders yet to come. Much happier than she let on. The experience the girl had had, that of perfect permeability of the physical body to the Force, the direct knowledge that the Force was neither inside nor outside of her, but everywhere, was an important step on the path, in a sense the first real step altogether.

The next morning, after breakfast, Amilthi held back her student from withdrawing to take a short rest before the next meditation session. "Come", she said, and led Lefwen... to the bathroom. There she fiddled with the shower until she had managed to set it to be dripping ever so slightly, releasing a single drop once every few seconds.

"You will continue to meditate as if you have been. But from now on, for an hour a day, or maybe two when you feel like it, but on no account more, you will be practicing a new exercise.

"You have been developing your equanimity in the face of bodily sensations and emotions. Now you have some notion of what it is like to be anxious, angry, even joyful, and yet at peace, immovable, impervious to anything your mind or body might throw at you. What you will begin to practice now is... in some sense the same thing - but about the world at large. You will make yourself untouchable by a physical object - such as a drop of water."

"You stand under the shower so that the water drips onto your head. It is useful to begin like this because it will always hit the same spot. You could pehraps hold up your hand, but your arm would grow tired, so don't do that. It you want, you can also sit and have the drops hit your thigh.

"You will experience a great many things, especially the anticipation of the next drop as you have come to understand their rhythm, and aversion against these vexatious impacts. Not them, observe those feelings, too, but do not dwell on them. Do not wish the drops to stop. That is the wrong path and it will lead to an unpleasant place.

"You can extend your awareness beyond your scalp and to the water above, observe the drops already as they are falling - if that is feasible. If not, do not get discouraged. Simply observe what is happening and remain totally equanimous, imagine yourself totally unaffected by and impervious to these events. Once you are awaiting the next drop with perfect equanimity" - now a mischievous smile flashed on Amilthi's features - "it will stop happening."

Lefwen Claskier

 

[Lefwen Claskier]

Lefwen listened carefully, quietly sceptical but interested nonetheless. Pushing away an object seemed a long way from her current ability, which so far only encompassed sensing feelings and channelling the Force into her own body, and she was certain that her efforts there were meagre anyway. Nonetheless, she listened attentively and then waited for Amilthi to leave. She removed most of her clothes, not eager to get them wet, and then stepped into the shower and sat down. A drop of water almost immediately fell on her head, the shock of the cold water making her flinch. She settled her shoulders. Drop. She flinched again. She closed her eyes and tried to focus, immediately noticing how anxious she felt. She flinched before the next drop even fell, which meant the shock of it hitting her scalp was even more disconcerting. She shut her eyes tightly and tried to anticipate the next drop.

***
​

She wanted to get out. Drop. Her shoulders were tense, her jaw clenched, her eyelids pressing tightly against each other. Drop. She was cold, the water dripping down her face and back sapping away any warmth. Drop. She couldn't focus, the feeling of worry about the next splash of water was too much to bear. Drop.

Her eyes shot open and she scrabbled to the other side of the shower, almost slipping on the wet surface. She curled her knees up to her chest and held them tightly, trying to move some warmth into her body, all the while staring coldly at the endless drops of water splashing on the plastcast surface.

***
​

Lefwen finished meditating and walked dutifully in the direction of the shower. She'd noticed, during her meditation, that anxiety had started to become a common feeling since she'd begun her water-drop training. She tried not to judge the emotion, although it was hard not to view her nervousness about a mere drop of water as somewhat pathetic. She twisted the dial on the shower, practised fingers easily finding the exact position to create a familiar, slow drip at the shower head. She stepped in carefully and moved herself under the flow of water.

She focussed on proceeding through her normal routine: travelling over every part of her body. In theory, when she wasn't focussed on her head she should be able to shut out the repetitive drips that continually fell upon her. She'd made some progress in that respect, although she still found herself being dragged out of her mindfulness by a sudden flinch.

She was focussing too hard. When she'd achieved that odd sense of freedom before it had come when she was most relaxed. That seemed to be the point of this practice: finding a way to remain mindful despite distraction. She'd been trying to force herself to stop noticing the water, but maybe that was wrong? Perhaps she needed to accept the water drops, accept that the next one would come, accept the way it would feel. She shook her shoulders and loosened her body, relaxing into her normal meditation position. She stopped trying to avoid the water, instead allowing herself to focus broadly on the effect it had on her body. She worked through the nervousness, trying to accept the inevitability of the next drop's fall.

Her sense of form began to fall away again. A sudden rush of excitement came with the feeling, one which she quickly noted and then allowed to fade away. She needed to avoid analysing the feeling too much; simply allowing it to happen and observing it was the only way to maintain this state. She felt out with her senses, trying to discern the shape of her body, and then progressing onto attempting to feel the Force linking her to the room. It was faint, but present. Another drop fell, threatening to drag her back to normal consciousness. She accepted the feeling and moved on. As with her breathing, she avoided focussing on the past and began to attempt to anticipate the future. The next drop fell, landing on her wet hair without interruption. She focussed more on sensing the room around her. Faintly, as though merely imagined, she felt the water trickling slowly from the shower-head and gathering at its lowest point. The droplet grew larger, gravity tugging at it just as it tugged at everything else in the room. Finally, Lefwen felt the droplet detach from the shower-head and fall. She awaited calmly for it to land upon her head.

There was a splashing sound but no sensation of touch at all. Her eyebrows creased slightly in confusion, but she tried to avoid analysing the feeling, returning instead to studying the next droplet of water as it formed and fell. A splash again, but nothing landed on her head. She opened her eyes slowly, just in time to notice the droplet of water sliding through the air in front of her. She felt another drop falling and tilted her head up. Before the droplet could reach her it impacted something, as though a dome of glass surrounded her. The droplet trickled down the dome as Lefwen watched, fascinated by the strange way it snaked through the air. Another droplet collided with the air above her. She cocked her head and then reached out her hand to touch it, feeling a strange humming sensation as her finger touched the suspended splash of water. She was actually doing it. She felt a sudden wave of excitement which was immediately followed by a splash of water on her face as the Force barrier faded away.

She wiped the water away from her face, grinning as she thought about what had happened. She glanced over at her watch, which she always propped up at the opposite end of the shower. She still had some time until she needed to stop her practice and help Amilthi prepare dinner. With a smile still on her face, she positioned herself back under the slow rainfall and closed her eyes.

Amilthi Camlenn

 

[Amilthi Camlenn]

Lefwen flinshed when a pebble hit her right in the face. "Ow!" she cried indignantly. "What are you doing?"

"Sorry." Lefwen sought in vain for a note of real contrition in her tone. "Concentrate."

The next pebble flew at Lefwen's chest again, as had hundreds before it. It had been a few weeks since Lefwen had first been put in the shower, and in time she had learnt to emerge from it almost dry. Amilthi had then proceeded to subject her to the next exercise to develop her ability to defend herself without hurting others. And so the two women regularly sat outside in the shadow of the canyon's walls, and Amilthi was throwing small pebbles at her student, in slightly irregular intervals, and of necessity hitting slightly different places. It would be weeks or months until she would have developed the ability to the point of any practical usefulness, to stop even a punch, let alone a slugthrower. But she was off to a good start with it.

***​

Amilthi wakened Lefwen as every morning, before sunrise. But unusually, she told the girl to get dressed and ready for travel. It was not ideal to skip the morning meditation session before breakfast, but if they started only in two hours, they wouldn't be able to put most of the way behind them before the suns grew too hot. "We'll have breakfast on the way." That probably meant it wouldn't be warm, as Lefwen had come to expect.

The air was still chilly as they stepped outside. Amilthi had given Lefwen her black coat, wearing her own grey one, so that the girl would have protection from a sandstorm, should the find themselves in one. The roomy garment was of an indefinize size, and while it did not sit quite as loosely on Lefwen as it did on Amilthi, one couldn't really say that it didn't fit, because it was rather unclear what it meant for it to fit in the first place.

"Where are we going?"

"To the mountains", said Amilthi uninformatively, as they climbed into the landspeeder.

Lefwen Claskier

 

[Lefwen Claskier]

Lefwen watched with eager eyes as the mountains drew closer. Admittedly they were dustier than the ones she'd used to climb on Epica, but the idea that they might actually get to do something outside of the house and the surrounding valley for once was enough to remove any real criticism. She hadn't done any proper mountaineering for years, but the prospect was exciting nonetheless. The reason for their trip, however, eluded her, and Amilthi was being characteristically stingy with exposition.

As the speeder carried them closer the mountain range seemed to grow far beyond what Lefwen has expected. Perhaps it was an illusion caused by all the flat desert that surrounded them, or maybe something about the curvature of the planet. Either way, the mountains now stood before them like an unyielding wall of silica and sandstone. Amilthi manoeuvred the speeder expertly, taking them through the clusters of foothills and fissures before finally bringing them to a stop at the base of a near-vertical cliff-face. Amilthi dismounted, followed shortly by Lefwen, who found herself craning her neck up at the beige facade of stone. It didn't seem an especially good spot to begin at: the sandstone was well-weathered by strong desert winds, and there were few hand-holds that could lead them up the cliff-face. It was certainly doable, but then Amilthi hadn't brought any ropes...

"I'm not sure how much you know about climbing, but this really isn't the best spot," she began, her voice not betraying the slight worry that she could feel building inside. She idly pushed the feeling away as she continued, "Where is it we're actually trying to reach?"

Amilthi Camlenn

 

[Amilthi Camlenn]

It was already late morning when the terrain finally became impassable for a landspeeder, after hours of travel over sandy plains and through rocky hills. Amilthi slipped out of her roomy coat and put it in the landspeeder, leaving her with only a skirt and her shirt. She smiley wryly when Lefwen voiced some concern over the vertical rockface above them. Amilthi had noted the girl's stated enthusiasm for rock-climbing and therefore had had no compunctions about bringing her with her on this trip, but that didn't mean she expected the impossible - or even the dangerous.

"No, it really isn't. I don't know where exactly we're going. For now... up. We're going to be looking for crevices and caves."

If the girl continued to progress as she had, then in a few week or months, Amilthi might consider beginning to teach her to deflect shots with a lightsaber. But that required a lightsaber and the only one she had was her own - which was very, very deadly. And it was anyway useful to have some spare training sabers lying around, so she was planning to build one or two. Fortunately, they were on a planet that provided suitably crystals, even if they were rarely used for the purpose among Jedi in the galaxy at large.

They went along the rockface, some twenty metres to one side, where it was broken up by a gully that ended on a ledge about three metres above the ground. "This looks better", she said, looking up and examining the area. "Can you get up there? I'll catch you if you slip."

Lefwen Claskier

 

[Lefwen Claskier]

Lefwen scrutinised the foreboding wall of rock for a moment. It was a better spot to start, certainly, although there weren't many handholds to get started with.

"I should be able to, if you can give me a leg-up to there," she pointed at a thin fissure which snaked its way up towards the ledge. She tossed her coat over onto the speeder. She crouched and sifted some of the loose sand between her fingers, rubbing away any sweat."It's been a while but I should be able to lift you up to get your own handhold when I'm properly planted at the bottom of that crack." She stopped and gave Amilthi a look up and down. "Are you sure you can climb it?" there was an unfamiliar note of genuine concern in her voice.

"Oh yes," Amilthi replied, a distinctive wry smile accompanying her calm voice.

Lefwen frowned and pointed over to the base of the cliff. "Okay then, well I'll need you there." Amilthi stepped over quickly and stood in preparation to lift Lefwen, her fingers interlocked into a basket in front of her, her legs crouched. Lefwen stepped up and hooked her foot into Amilthi's hands, "Just remember to lift with your ba-"

The rock face rushed past her much quicker than she'd expected. She was still standing on Amilthi's hands, but the Jedi had lifted her taller, heavier apprentice clear above her head with almost no effort at all. Lefwen braced herself against the rock face, holding back several curses as she worked out what to do next. She threaded her fingers into the crevice in the rock, hands facing outward to allow her arms to take the weight rather than her fingers. There was a small bulge in the rock surface, enough to plant a foot on. Her other foot lifted away from Amilthi's hand and hooked into the base of the crevice. Lefwen smiled. I've missed this.

She lowered her body, her hands skipping down inside the fissure, searching for less loose, sandy sections of rock, and then turned her head and reached out a hand toward Amilthi. "Okay, if you jump I should be able to lift you up so you can grab a handhold there," she nodded toward a slightly easier position which she'd deliberately left.

"You go on ahead," said Amilthi equanimously. "I'll join you."

Lefwen frowned at her master, unable to tell if the Jedi really understood how difficult the climb could be. Amilthi's expression didn't buckle under the scowl, however, and so Lefwen shrugged and turned back to the job of climbing.

It took a couple of minutes to reach the ledge, despite only travelling a few metres. The sandstone was loose, and Lefwen continually had to re-adjust her hand and foot holds to make sure she didn't slip. Her arms and legs took the strain well, technique compensating somewhat for her relative lack of practice in recent years, and finally she lifted herself up onto the shelf, which jutted out from the rock. It was a welcome relief, allowing her to stretch out her arms and clear the sweat from her hands and forehead. She looked down at Amilthi and shouted, "If you follow the route I took then you should be able to make it up. Just watch your holds, the rock is a little loose. Take it as slow as you need, and keep your weight on your legs."

Amilthi seemed to take the words in, although it could be hard to tell with her pensive disposition. She seemed to be eyeing the ledge quite carefully. Lefwen groaned internally: focussing on your end goal was a rookie mistake, you had to take each movement one at a time...

It was at that moment that Amilthi jumped. She moved through the air in an serene way: a fast but smooth motion which lifted her precisely onto the ledge beside Lefwen. The student gawped for a moment before knotting up her mouth and glaring at the her mentor. "You're such a show off..." Lefwen remarked with a slight smirk, before turning back to the wall to look for their, well her, next route.

Amilthi Camlenn

 

[Amilthi Camlenn]

"Truth be told", said Amilthi with a shrug, "I probably couldn't do it your way."

She looked up the slope, then began to make her way through the rocky gully. It was steep, but could largely be negotiated without use of the hands. At its end, some hundred metres above them, there was a small chimney - at least it looked small from a distance.

They reached it in about ten minutes. Amilthi was first, and was breathing less heavily than she should have been. The chimney revealed itself to be eminently climbable, not so small as it had first looked, about five metres in height, but much less vertical that it had seemed at first. Amilthi brushed a streak of hair out of her face as she turned around to Lefwen and briefly smiled at her. "Wait until I'm up there", she said unnecessarily.

It was clear that Amilthi was not a well-trainer climber from the way she moved, using more strength than an expert would have - and yet her body seemed so light that she hardly needed it and her lack of technique did not slow her down.

Standing at the top above the chimney, she briefly inspected a patch of her skirt around her knees and, satisfied that it had not taken damage, turned around and looked expectantly at Lefwen as a sign for her to follow. She kept her attention scrupulously on the girl, ready to catch her, should she slip, but it was quite unnecessary and Lefwen mastered the chimney with ease.

The found themselves standing in flatter terrain now, below a ridge that was rising to the left. Amilthi went off into the flank, clearly having no intention to actually climb the ridge towards the top. She moved lightly and swiftly over the rocks, setting her feet down with perfect surety, not even testing the ground and yet never picking a spot that was unstable. She did not seem to have a clear goal or path in mind, but rather stopped frequently, looking around, as if she sought something.

Lefwen caught up with her. "What are we even doing here? What are you looking for?"

"When you find something that looks like the entrance to a cave, or a crevice that might contain crystals, let me know."

"We're looking for crystals... ?"

"You need new earrings", said Amilthi, deadpan.

Lefwen was taken completely off-guard by the joke. "I don't... seriously, why are we looking for crystals up on a mountain?" she repeated. "Wait, was that a joke?"

"You have a very acute perception", quipped Amilthi with a twinkle in her eye. "We’re looking for crystals up on a mountain because that’s where we are. And we’re looking for crystals because they’re useful." She shrugged. "There are engineering applications."

Lefwen Claskier

 

[Lefwen Claskier]

Lefwen wasn't convinced that these 'crystals' could have any engineering purpose that they could need: the vaporator was working well now, and the speeder certainly didn't require any rare crystals, it just needed cleaning once in a while. It seemed pointless asking though, Amilthi didn't seem to be in the mood for giving straight answers.

Although, she pondered as they continued to scour the mountain, she didn't usually seem in the mood for jokes either. Was that the first one she'd ever told? It was almost unnerving, like hearing a respected diplomat swear, or your nanny share a dirty story. It felt a bit wrong. Lefwen picked her way up onto a shelf and continued to search, but her mind was mostly on Amilthi. She was certainly a strange one; it sometimes felt like there were two people in there: the calm, pensive Jedi teacher and a normal person sharing the same body. Perhaps it was a Jedi thing? If Amilthi was less neutral it would almost appear deceptive, but there was something about the woman that Lefwen had come to trust. She'd noticed, with slight disgust, that she'd become to internally refer to Amilthi as her 'teacher', or even 'master' on occasion. Some part of her still rebelled against the notion of being anyone's student, but, at the same time, what better word was there? Amilthi was teaching her how to hone her skills with the Force, and how to calm her mind and focus more on the present. She was Amilthi's student. To what end? Well that still seemed undecided. It seemed Amilthi had taken her in out of some sense of duty, but Lefwen had still not yet quite worked out what drove the woman.

They searched for several hours, the suns rising higher in the sky and threatening to force them off the mountain with their perilous heat. Amilthi had taken to searching in small crevices and chimneys, taking out stones and cracking them open with a slight tap. She hadn't yet found whatever she was looking for, however. There had been a few caves, although none to Amilthi's liking, and Lefwen began to give up. She suggested going to Mos Eisley and trying to find a merchant there who could sell them the crystals they required, although that ideas had been dismissed without discussion. Perhaps this was just another part of training? Learning to climb? Learning to deal with disappointment? Lefwen didn't exactly need further training in either area.

It was that moment that Lefwen's foot fell through the ground. She grunted with pain as her muscles flexed uncomfortably, but she just managed to balance herself anything was twisted too far. The ground was the same dusty rock as everywhere else on the mountain, dotted with odd shrubs and rocks, but as she pulled her foot out of the hole she noticed that she was standing in a slight fissure in the rock, made visible only by the slight depression of sand that followed its track. She nursed her ankle for a moment before turning to look contemptuously at the hole. It was hard to tell in the harsh light of the sun, but for a moment she was certain she saw a flicker of light from within the darkness. It didn't last long, although it did appear to illuminate a much larger cavern hidden beneath the ground.

"Amilthi!" she shouted. "I've found another cave!"

Amilthi Camlenn

 

[Amilthi Camlenn]

Amilthi, who was standing a bit further up, turned around at Lefwen's call and swiftly hopped over the rocks to join her student. She peered into the small hole in the ground, but couldn't see much. She knelt down and began to remove the stones lying around and to dig through the sand with her hands, pushing some of the loose matter into the hole as well. Suddenly, the ground began to shift, the sand came lose and flowed into the hole, pulling with it more and more matter. Amilthi jumped up and took a step back, then another one.

She waited for things to stop moving. The hole was now considerably larger, probably large enough for a person to wiggle through. The cloud of dust that hung in the air below glittered in the rays of sunlight that fell into the hollow.

They waited for the dust to settle, and after a few minutes, Amilthi looked into the whole again, satisfied. Feet first, she slithered into the hole, twisting as necessary to squeeze through the opening. The rock was sharp and scratched the skin on her thighs after pulling up her skirt, and the pressure against her chest was briefly painful. Then followed a fall of five or six metres.

Standing on the ground of the cave, she put her clothes in order and looked around. The sunlight that fell through the hole above dimly illuminated it. The hollow was elongated and far from straight, winding and twisting. It seemed to extend both outwards from the mountain and alongside it. She didn't see any crystals yet as such - but she had a feeling that this was what she had been looking for. The place wasn't exactly familiar, it must be another part of the cave system she had once been in, but it felt right.

She looked up at the small hole. Lefwen was taller than herself, but not overall bigger. Still, she'd rather not risk it - and there was also the fall at the end, no threat to herself, but certainly to the girl. "I'll find another entrance", she shouted. "Wait where you are!" And with that, she disappeared from Lefwen's sight into the darkness of the cave.

Maybe fifteen minutes later, Amilthi from below Lefwen. "Lefwen, down here!" she called out, waited for the girl to reach her position, and led her a few minutes further over the slope, which was getting steeper, until they arrived at a hole they could comfortably crawl through. A few metres further in, it opened up and the hollow became big enough for them to stand in.

They shortly arrived back in the room Lefwen had originally found, and Amilthi led her deeper into the cave with strange determination. The path led slightly downwards over a few steps, low enough to jump down safely, and finally they found themselves looking at a narrow passage. On its walls bloomed clear, colourless crystals. Amilthi got down on all fours, crawled into it, inspected the crystals closely, touched them with her hand - and then, looking back at Lefwen over her shoulder, smiled happily.

Lefwen Claskier

 

[Lefwen Claskier]

The sight of the cave took Lefwen's breath away. It was beautiful. Subtle colours and intricate geometric figures covered every surface, and the cave seemed to be lit by some unknown source. She watched with wide eyes as Amilthi reached out and touched a cluster of crystals and then copied her, tracing her own fingers over the edges and facets of the clear crystals. The crystals were cool to the touch, and they almost fell like they were vibrating or buzzing.

"What are they?"

"Crystals," Amilthi replied

Lefwen frowned, "I've never seen crystals like this before. What type of crystal are they?"

Amilthi smiled, seemingly searching over the various crystals using some unknown criteria. Finally, she found one that seemed to please her, and with a careful pull and twist she removed it delicately from the rock. The crystal seemed to glow slightly as she inspected it, before returning to its clear colouration as she placed it carefully in a pouch by her side. "Very useful crystals," she finally responded.

Amilthi Camlenn

 

[Amilthi Camlenn]

The afternoon air was still hot even as the slope of the mountain lay in shade now. The way down had taken them a good two hours, partly over precarious scree which moved under their feet and almost took them with it and buried them. But it had done nothing to dampen Amilthi's spirits, and they had at least found a way that mostly avoided the need to climb. Now they were almost back at the speeder.

Suddenly, Amilthi stopped abruptly and held out her arm to hold Lefwen back. Her expression had darkened. The next moment, an explosive sound thundered through the valley, the sound of a shot - not of a blaster, but of an antiquated slugthrower, just as Amilthi was pulling back her arm. The projectile hit her hand and harmlessly bounced to the ground.

"Stay behind me!" she hissed. There was no cover easily reachable, and there was always more than one sniper. They would have to wait until they had all fired their first round to move, then they could get away as the weapons took a long time to reload. Tuskens weren't usually clever enough to coordinate to space their shots. She stood motionless, her arms slightly to her side, palms forward.

Another shot which hit her forehead - and fell to the ground in front of her. Suddenly, there was a whole salvo, and all of them hit the barrier in front of the Jedi - except one. There was an explosion of pain in the right side of Amilthi's chest, and she stooped. Her visual field blackened out and she sank backwards against the girl she had been protecting...

Lefwen Claskier

 

[Lefwen Claskier]

Lefwen caught Amilthi as she fell, slowing her fall before laying her down and crouching beside her. Another shot cracked overhead, They were exposed, a few wiry shrubs and small rocks the only nearby features to break up the flat rock and sand. She kept her head low and turned her attention to Amilthi, who had seemed to be falling in and out of consciousness, a splash of red blossoming through the side of her shirt. Lefwen pushed her fingers under her master, searching for a damp patch which would indicate an exit wound. There didn't seem to be one, however - likely Amilthi's Force Barrier had slowed the projectile enough to stop it from penetrating fully.

Lefwen instinctively put pressure on the wound and began to search around for some course of action. The gunfire had stopped now, either because the Tuskens had thought then dead or were busy reloading. Either way, that meant they could stay where they were. The speeder was nearby, just beyond a small rise ahead of them. However, that meant crossing a perilous amount of open ground. Behind them was a craggy area of rock, enough to provide some cover from the slugthrowers.

She closed her eyes and tried to call upon some of the equanimity that she had managed to achieve through meditation. Her heart was pounding, her throat dry, her hands shaking. She'd been caught-up in gunfights before, although usually she didn't have to worry about the shooters eating her if she lost, and she'd never had to worry about protecting someone else.

She opened her eyes again. The rocks were a trap: if the Tuskens behaved like they had at the house when Lefwen had first arrived then they would inevitably advance on them, and within the rocks there would be no way to escape. She had to get Lefwen over the rise: that was where the speeder was, and it would offer some cover from the Tusken gunfire. It would mean dragging Amilthi though, and they'd be exposed the whole way.

Lefwen quickly pulled off her shirt and tore at the frayed stitching along the side. It came open quickly, leaving her with something resembling an apron. She wound it upon itself length-ways and then wrapped it around Amilthi's torso. Bracing Amilthi's body with her other hand, she pulled the knot tight and quickly checked the wound. It was still trickling blood, but it was better than nothing. She hooked her hands under Amilthi's shoulders and began to drag the Jedi backward towards the rise in the hill. She amateurishly groped for the Force around her, directing it towards her leg muscles in an attempt to cover the distance quicker.

A shot split the air next to them, bouncing off the rocky surface with a crack. Lefwen started and nearly drop her master, but carried on nonetheless. She groaned with effort, feeling the sweat forming on her face and arms. She could almost feel the Tuskens as they drew up their rifles and aimed. Another shot, this time landing terrifyingly close to Amilthi's leg.. The ground was sloping up now, which meant it was only a short distance before they would get some respite from the salvos of deadly metal.

She felt the rifle raising. Saw the bullet spinning through the air towards them on a deadly trajectory. She felt herself pushing Amilthi away, felt herself raising her hand, and heard herself shout. There was a cracking sound, but no pain came. Instead, the sliver of metal crashed into the air in front of her, splitting open in a shower of sparks and metal. The Force Barrier had blocked the bullet, and Lefwen watched for a fraction of a second as the air shimmered in around her. Another cracking sound split the air and in a flash of light the barrier broke. Lefwen felt her hand jolt slightly, and was quickly overwhelmed with a stabbing pain. The shot had shattered the Force Barrier and tumbled into her hand, smashing open the prosthetic part of her palm. She grimaced and turned back to Amilthi, grabbing her by the scruff of her coat using her good hand and began dragging the Jedi with all her strength. Another shot spat towards them, bursting open a rock beside them both, but finally Lefwen felt the ground fall away behind her. She shouted with effort as she wrenched her arm to pull the Jedi clear of the small bank of sand and rock. The speeder glinted in the suns-light a short distance away, although the pain in Lefwen's hand and arms was too much to bear for the moment. She lay Amilthi on her back and pushed down on the wound again, biting her lip to stop herself from crying. She winced as one last shot flew over the crest of the hill, accompanied by a low, animalistic wailing sound. The Tuskens would be on them soon.

"I'm really sorry, Amilthi," she said shakily.

Amilthi Camlenn