Beyond - Legends Ozone [AU futurefic]

Blatantly AU, in a world where Tatooine was shaped and so was Tahiri Veila. Thrawn chose the opposite of hot, which is cold. I chose the opposite of dry, which is wet. May be updated, may not. Mostly I'm trying to finish the Older Woman.

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Raneri thinks the only good thing about Tatooine is the scent of the air after the rain. It?s all the more precious because it comes so rarely. The air smells fresh and clean and pure ? sharp, even. Her nose tingles and everything seems better. It?s a nice change from mildew.

Today?s one of the rare times it?s not raining ? the sky is a bright blue, and the suns are two giant discs of light in the sky. They warm the white sand and the blue oceans. It?s as near to perfect as you can get on Tatooine. It?d be even better if the Tahiri wasn?t dying

?Lady?? She looks at the speaker, a boy of ten, still young enough to be in awe of her. He doesn?t understand that it?s luck or chance that brought her the attention of the Tahiri, a simple fluke of something called ?genetics?.

?I?m not the lady yet, Kasin. She?s not dead yet, after all,? She regrets her words as soon as she says them; Kasin doesn?t deserve her ire, her anger. He?s just a child.

Looking anywhere but her, he tells her, ?The Lady want to see you. Something about 'the last memory'.?

She freezes with those words, and a feeling of dread congeals in her stomach. The Last Memory? Apprentices only get that at the succession ceremony, when the Tahiri retires to his or her hermitage or? She presses her lips together, feeling lightheaded. Or when the Tahiri is about to die.

And Raneri is running, running so hard that tears stream down her face from the wind. She only slows when she reaches the tents of their gathering. She stops and calms her breath, hoping her pale skin doesn?t betray her exertion. When she?s sure it won?t, she walks into the largest tent briskly.

The Tahiri?s eyes focus on her, and she smiles faintly. ?Forever are you running after something. One day, you?ll drop dead of a heart attack while running.? She laughs hoarsely. Raneri can?t tell when the laughing turns to coughing. The Lady waves off any attempts to help her, and eventually the coughing ends.

?I have to give you the last memory. You?ll be a master then, and there will be none to dispute it when I?m gone ? no, don?t shake your head at me, death comes to everyone in its time. Come here, where I can touch you, Neri??

Raneri kneels by the Lady and feels her dry hands upon her shoulders. She looks up ? and stifles a gasp.

She has seen the first Tahiri before, as a young woman with her hands scrubbing laundry at a well; a middle-aged woman laughing in the middle of an assisted childbirth; a elderly, though still healthy lady telling stories in the middle of a garden that looks like the ancestor of the forests that cover some parts of Tatooin. The Tahiri in this memory is different ? a girl, really, with bright blonde hair and flashing green eyes. She stares at Raneri tiredly, and turns away to look through the tent flap. Raneri notices that the tent is much smaller than before, and instead of the suns shining out of the sky on the sea, clouds cover the sky over a vast, bone-dry desert. It smells musty and hot ? very different from anything Raneri has ever known. She turns back to Raneri and finally speaks.

?You have to understand, I never wanted this to happen. But I?m sure the Shapers who turned me into what I am thought the irony amazing ? after all, hadn?t I complained enough about the bone-dry sands of Tatooine when I was with them? I guess this was her idea of a joke ? rain on Tatooine??

Suddenly, so fast that Raneri doesn?t even see it, Tahiri reaches out and grabs her chin, forcing her to look directly into her bright green eyes.

?Most of the Sand People are dead ? flash floods, no food, the change? it all combined to kill them. I lead the last, the survivors. They need someone to lead them, to tell them

 

Hmm, off to a bit of a confusing- and yet interesting- beginning.
"the" Tahiri? lol, that made me giggle for some unknown reason.
I liked some of your phrasing as well...ah, next post? lol

 

Elena: as usual, there's a lot you're not telling us here...

An essay in ambiguity, I guess - ambiguity in the use of language, both in the way you play with the Tahiri/the Tahiri contrast, and in how you communicate information indirectly, through things like the smell and taste of the air; also, in the little nods back to the old Tatooine, like the tents, and the counterpointing hints of something Vongy...

I may need to think more on this, and reread a few times again; I'm sure I'm missing stuff, but I expect no less - it'll be a pleasure!

- The Imperial Ewok

 

Are Raneri and the boy in this fic sandpeople? Interesting idea, the vong shaping Tatooine into something more resembling Mon Calamari That would surely cause problems for the Tuskans. I have no desire to ever be "the Tahiri"

Good post