Lady Obscura: Vader's Shadow [Star Wars | Luke Skywalker]

Chapter 29

When she finally woke, Athara didn't recognize her surroundings in the slightest. She was in a little hut, the walls made in part of sticks and branches and part of the hollowed out interior of what looked like a tree. The small room was filled with what looked to her like a mix of a primitive being's necessary and prized possessions. She was lying on a surprisingly comfortable pallet made up of furs and soft leaves and mosses. On the far side of the room from her was a little door, covered only with a swath of rough-spun fabric.

For a brief, fleeting moment she wondered if she was in Yoda's little hut. But then logic prevailed and she realized that was highly unlikely. This dwelling was smaller—but still taller, though only marginally so—and was obviously of a different sort of construction. More than that, the air was different. It was nothing like the dank, swampy smell that had permeated Dagobah. There was a thick woody smell to the air, threaded with the pungent scents of wood smoke, cooking food and a faintly musky scent that immediately brought fur to mind.

But then something else caught her attention. From outside the hut came the unmistakable sounds of celebration. She could faintly hear happy calls and shouts, the crackling of large fires, the distant crash of fireworks and the dim rhythmic tones of triumphant music.

Understanding came upon her then, mingled with incredulous disbelief.

The Emperor was dead. The second Death Star was destroyed.

They had done it.

She could hardly believe it. But then grief crashed in around her.

Her Master was gone. Anakin had destroyed Vader just as surely as he had destroyed the Emperor, but he had sacrificed himself to do it. She could almost remember trying to save him, but the memory was fuzzy. But a sinking feeling deep in her stomach and the answering crush of emotion in her chest told her that she had failed. All she could do was curl in on herself, fighting back the sobs that threatened to rip through her chest. She may have found out who her father and mother were on Tatooine, but on the Death Star she had realized that her Master was her family, and the closest thing to a father she had ever known. She didn't know how long she lay there, curled around herself as she let the first shocking wave of grief pass over her.

Let me go, came the echo in her thoughts. It broke through the grief threatening to drown her as swiftly as a Tatooine sunrise breaks over the desert. A faint smile came to her face. Whether it was memory of his last words to her, or his actual voice speaking in her thoughts, she didn't know. But she realized then that she hadn't lost him as completely as she thought.

It took a surprising amount of effort to sit. Her head throbbed at first, though she was soon able to banish it with the help of the Force. Her body was another matter. Every muscle in her body ached and she felt so stiff she could barely move. But she had survived and this was likely to be the referenced 'worse' she'd refer to surviving in the future. She brushed it aside as best she could, ignoring the way her body protested. At first she staggered as she got to her feet, but her legs had mostly steadied by the time she reached the cloth-draped door.

She nearly gasped as she stepped through the low door, though her lips did part with surprise. The hut was nestled in the branches of a massive tree, and all around her were dozens upon dozens more, all linked by crude but sturdy winding ramps, stairs and rope bridges. The hut she was in looked down over a great platform lined with more huts that spanned the space between a handful of enormous tree trunks. Some of the giant trees themselves had been hollowed as well to create larger communal spaces. It was a primitive tree-bound city. Everywhere fires glowed in the night, from tiny flickering lights off in the distance to a bonfire surrounded by dancing figures immediately below her. Even far below on the forest floor she thought she could see glimpses of fires surrounded by dancing figures. It was a beautiful scene that nearly took her breath away.