Beyond - Legends Tatooine- A Desert Chronicle (Ben- First person; AU)

Haven't posted for a long time I know, but here's yet another Ben fic. Vignette actually. Comments and criticism are most welcome.

DISCLAIMER: ( See my previous fics)





Tatooine- A Desert Chronicle


I try to remember my first visit to this Force-forsaken desert. I think I must have been four years old at the time. What a shock it was! Tatooine hadn't changed in the past thirty years. Or so Dad said. He had been the one all gung-ho about the trip. Said he thought it would be a good way to show me where I had my roots. I was too young to argue.


Right from the space-port I had thought this a bad idea. Getting on board on Coruscant and disembarking in Mos Eisley.........the contrast had hit me like the simultaneous wave of heat. In the face! Even at four, I had gasped. Mom had laughed. She had humoured Dad on this trip. Just to rekindle some old memories.

But what a place! What had Dad been thinking, bringing an urban kid like me to his rustic home planet?!The docking bay itself had seemed so crude that the Jade Shadow had looked conspicuously out of place. Half the machinery there hadn't been in working condition, and the other half hadn't been fit to be! All the other vessels had been decrepit. And from the looks of the folks milling around them, their owners had been too.And as for the droids, I had been afraid of even looking at them for fear they would disintegrate at a glance! Force! Did my roots hafta be in a place so far removed from Coruscant?!


Snooty beginning? Of course! What did you expect? I was yet to see the towns. Once I got used to the heat and the almost complete absence of gleaming glass and metal, the sights had seemed intriguing to four-year-old eyes.

The dewbacks and eopies were funny, I remember remarking to Mom. She had just nodded vaguely. Grown-ups! Lost in nostalgia, they're hopeless! Coming from a place like Coruscant, cultural and racial diversity had been normal. So it was the open bazaars which had caught my eye.Decadence finds its place amid the sands. I had found droids and equipment, which I doubted would have been called modern even in my Dad's time, functioning ( Thanks to the Jawas, I guess! ) in the open stalls.It had been the multifarious nature of the wares and all the stall-keepers, which had entranced me.They had put on their most sickly, slick smiles trying to entice me to buy. We had passed several junk shops too. Grandfather's stories of his past had kept repeating themselves in my ears, and I had peeped eagerly into the dim recesses trying to spot whether there were any more blonde slave boys in need of rescuing!

As I had looked through the entrance of one of the junk shops, ( whose owner had been beckoning us in frantically) I could see a portion of the yard outside bathed in the harsh glare of the twin suns.From under a hastily draped covering, I had caught a glimpse of what had looked most suspiciously to me like a Podracer engine. This had immediately reminded me of the most compelling reason I had had for coming here in the first place: To see a Podrace.

My father had given me one of those long suffering looks specially reserved for the mention of my hare-brained schemes. He had feared (quite rightly!) that his reckless young son might have gotten the ridiculous idea of trying to participate in a Podrace if even given the allowance to attend one! My parents, I'm sorry to say, had shown a remarkable insight into my character. Even Mom had promptly disagreed.

Thus, I had had ample reason to sulk for the remainder of our trip, the highlight of which had been paying our respects to the graves of Owen and Beru Lars by their old homestead. Dad had pointed out a few of the more notorious cantinas in Mos Eisley as a matter of curiosity, but by and large,my parents had refrained from exposing me to the more nefarious sights of the desert planet. I would get my taste of them in due course of time!


A poet once blamed the sun f

 

This is beautifully written and lyrical! Wonderful vignette!

 

Ben Skywalker has become one of my favorite characters! I love this vignette!

 

I loved this insight into Ben. Great viggie!

 

That was beautifully written, Fettkat!

 

Thank you, all of you. I'm sooooooooo glad you guys liked it!!
VaderLVR64: Ditto! I love Ben too! Primarily because he's so incomplete. Makes him easy to manipulate. Don't you think?

 

That's what I like about him, too. You can basically create the person you think he'd be, given his heritage and his childhood.

 

Thanks again!
VaderLVR64: Precisely! And it's always interesting to see how the other members of TF.N interpret him too. Ben's kinda becoming my muse now!
HealerLeona: Thanks a lot! I'm glad you liked it! Yeah, I kinda made Ben fall in love with the desert coz I'm in love with the desert myself!