Lilla Syrin
A great leap forward often requires first taking t
“No, I don’t think it’s pretty here. With our luck, it’s inhabited solely by droid-eating monsters.”
– C-3P0
Lilla adjusted the restraints on the pilot’s chair and leaned forward, eager for her first glimpse of the fourth moon of Endor. The small shuttle glided smoothly out of hyperspace, and star lines compressed into brilliant points of light – a beautiful sight, but one that could have marked nearly any destination. Then the ship banked sharply to starboard, and a soft green haze bloomed against the darkness of space.
Mist clung to the deeply forested planet, and the slanting rays of the rising sun lent the humid atmosphere a luminous, verdant glow.
The moon held a famous place in history. One which, at the time seemed significant. But as was the case in these matters, subsequent events meant it provided a reprieve, not an end.
At the feathered edge of the galaxy, the moon sat. Its mother planet had long since died of unknown cataclysm and disappeared into unknown realms.
As Lilla looked down, she saw the trees. They stood a thousand feet tall. Their trunks, covered with shaggy, rust bark, rose straight as a pillar, some of them as big around as a house, some thin as a leg. Their foliage was spindly, but lush in colour, scattering the sunlight in delicate blue-green patterns over the forest floor.
Distributed thickly among these ancient giants was the usual array of forest flora – pines of several species, various deciduous forms, variously gnarled and leafy. The groundcover was primarily fern, but so dense in spots as to resemble a gentle green sea that rippled softly in the forest breeze.
This was the entire moon: verdant, primeval, silent. Light filtered through the sheltering branches like golden ichor, as if the very air were alive. It was warm, and it was cool. This was Endor.
And this was the site of Lilla’s first trial.
– C-3P0
Lilla adjusted the restraints on the pilot’s chair and leaned forward, eager for her first glimpse of the fourth moon of Endor. The small shuttle glided smoothly out of hyperspace, and star lines compressed into brilliant points of light – a beautiful sight, but one that could have marked nearly any destination. Then the ship banked sharply to starboard, and a soft green haze bloomed against the darkness of space.
Mist clung to the deeply forested planet, and the slanting rays of the rising sun lent the humid atmosphere a luminous, verdant glow.
The moon held a famous place in history. One which, at the time seemed significant. But as was the case in these matters, subsequent events meant it provided a reprieve, not an end.
At the feathered edge of the galaxy, the moon sat. Its mother planet had long since died of unknown cataclysm and disappeared into unknown realms.
As Lilla looked down, she saw the trees. They stood a thousand feet tall. Their trunks, covered with shaggy, rust bark, rose straight as a pillar, some of them as big around as a house, some thin as a leg. Their foliage was spindly, but lush in colour, scattering the sunlight in delicate blue-green patterns over the forest floor.
Distributed thickly among these ancient giants was the usual array of forest flora – pines of several species, various deciduous forms, variously gnarled and leafy. The groundcover was primarily fern, but so dense in spots as to resemble a gentle green sea that rippled softly in the forest breeze.
This was the entire moon: verdant, primeval, silent. Light filtered through the sheltering branches like golden ichor, as if the very air were alive. It was warm, and it was cool. This was Endor.
And this was the site of Lilla’s first trial.