Saga - OT All I Remember Are The Dreams In The Mist (Leia oneshot for Language of Flowers mini-challenge)

Title: All I Remember Are The Dreams In The Mist
Characters: Leia
Timeframe: Sometime after ANH
Notes: Written for @Mira_Jade's beautiful Language of Flowers Mini-Games Challenge. I got #5, Sagiso. Thank you for coming up with such a gorgeous prompt and challenge!

Spoiler: Prompt #5, Sagiso

Pecteilis Radiata is a species of orchid found in Japan, China, Korea, and some parts of Russia. In Hanakatoba, the Japanese language of flowers, the sagiso symbolizes my thoughts will follow you into dreams, perhaps owing to the fact that the orchid’s petals resemble a bird in flight. That is why the sagiso is also called the crane orchid, or the white egret flower. Cranes are revered throughout Asia, but the Japanese, especially, consider them to be a national treasure. Cranes, more so than anything else, symbolize longevity; a crane could live for a thousand years according to ancient belief. Cranes are monogamous and mate for life, so they are often used to decorate wedding kimonos as symbols of fidelity and unbreakable bonds. Borrowing from its namesake, the sagiso shares many of those same qualities. It’s a bittersweet flower, symbolizing everlasting love and loyalty, even beyond death. According to Japanese legend, there was once a princess who sent a letter along with her husband-to-be as he rode off into battle. In the letter she included a sagiso bulb as a gift. No matter her prayers, her love was struck down by an arrow, and a crane orchid blossomed on the field where he died. It is now a superstition in Japan that if you give a sagiso to a loved one, they will never return to the place where they received it. Orchids as a whole mean several different things to many cultures all over the world, but white orchids usually encompass purity, elegance, and integrity. Yet, the more specific symbolism of the crane orchid was too beautiful to pass on by!

Title is taken from the song These Dreams by Heart.

On a personal note I'm really excited that this prompt inspired my first Star Wars fic in ages, even if it is a short one! Thank you to anyone who reads this, and thank you to everyone who's participated in or created one of these awesome challenges. I hope you enjoy!

*****

All I Remember Are The Dreams In The Mist

*****

Sometimes she dreams of the palace where she grew up.

She wanders the hallways, her feet carrying her along the familiar floors. She knows this place intimately, every room, every sound, the textures of floors and walls, the hiding spots and the open spaces. She runs her hand over the wall of her childhood bedroom, and it is solid to her touch.

Sometimes she dreams of the cities. She drifts through the crowds in a way she was never able to, anonymous, simply soaking in the sounds and scents of her home planet and her people. She walks among them, with them, and they are vibrant, alive.

Sometimes she sits in the garden, among the plants and other lifeforms. She admires the colors of the flowers, the stunning mountain views, the beauty of skies shifting from day to night.

The dreams seem so real that when she awakens it takes a moment for her to remember she can never go home.

 

Oh @amidalachick -- you had me at Leia Gorgeously poignant and that last line

 

*heartstrings tugged*

 

Oh. That was so beautiful and so lovely and just so sad. Bravo.


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I recently watched the OT and for the first time had a sense that the writers kinda missed an opportunity with the character of Leia. She's just never quite as interesting as she is in ANH. I guess that's the beauty of fan fiction. This is a short piece but it says volumes, almost a poem.

 

This is beautiful writing. Your fan fic has a bittersweet quality to it. We see Leia dealing with her unbelievable loss in her dreams, because she never had the time nor opportunity to do elsewhere. All is about the fight for freedom.

Thanks for posting this! (It also reminds me of a water colour painting I once did,... should repost that.)

Thanks for being a muse.

 

Excellent work, amidalachick. This is a well written thoughtful piece on Leia's longing for her home even though she can never return. I really enjoyed the description of the settings that you had her walking through.

 

@WarmNyota_SweetAyesha Thank you so much for your lovely comments and thank you always for reading!

@Cowgirl Jedi 1701 Thank you!

@Kit' I don't usually write sad, but it felt right for this piece. Thank you for reading!

@castin Wow, thank you so much! Leia is definitely a character with so much potential, and I loved the books like Tatooine Ghost that gave her more of a chance to shine. And yes, being able to explore and expand on our beloved characters is a big part of the magic and beauty of fanfic! Thank you so much for reading.

@AzureAngel2 Oh my goodness, thank you so much! I've always been totally fascinated by dreams and the subconscious, and the way our minds use that to make sense of our lives and the world around us. I've also always envisioned Leia as being very intuitive and having strong, vivid dreams (like Anakin, I guess, although not necessarily premonitions). So when I saw this prompt that's where my mind went. And I agree, she never had the chance to grieve (that we saw, anyway) because she was always so focused on the fight. And that's almost like a loss in itself. And finally, it's amazing to see how creativity and inspiration are shared and feed off each other - I never would have written this without Mira's beautiful prompt, and I would LOVE to see your painting if you care to share it! Thank you again for reading and for your lovely comments.

@brodiew Thank you for reading and for your kind comments! I wanted a mix of very personal and more general settings for her, and I'm so glad to hear the descriptions worked. Thank you again!

@Mira_Jade Thank you so, so much! I could not have written this without that prompt - it was gorgeous, and I thought of Leia as soon as I saw it. I'm so glad it worked. Thank you again for your kind comments, and for coming up with such a beautiful prompt and challenge!

Thank you again to everyone who's read this, and to everyone who's commented, I know this sounds terribly sentimental and cliche but I truly do appreciate every word and it means more than you will ever know. Thank you!

 

The imagery is so clear that it almost seems as if we're experiencing this dream along with Leia, only to wake up and realize it was only a dream. And, like mentioned, this reads almost like a poem and speaks a lot of volume in a very short amount of words. Well done!

 

great work showing what Leia lost.

 

@gizkaspice I was trying to capture that feeling when you're dreaming and it seems real and then you wake up and realize it's not, so I'm so happy to hear it worked. Thank you so much for reading and for your lovely comments!

@earlybird-obi-wan She really did experience an unimaginable loss. Thank you so much for reading!

 

That last line -- whoa. I like how from the beginning you know that it's a dream, but you almost kind of get drawn in along with Leia. Especially liked the part about her just basking in the places that she never had time to stop for before. It's just so instinctive to try to grasp at what's no longer there in dreams, and that must be especially gutting for her when the loss she awakes to is so far-reaching.

 

@Kahara, I didn't even see your comment and I thought the same. For some reason, at first I thought that Leia arrived to her mother's homeworld and feeling like she had always been there because it reminds her of her lost home...

...and then came that mood whiplash. Wow.

I think that one gift that @amidalachick has that might or might not be helpful with the writer's block right now is this mastery of super-short forms. Saying that much in a couple of paragraphs is a special kind of art.

 

Oh wow, this is a fantastic little story. You manage to convey so much in so few words, and you go back and forth throughout the story between the sense that what Leia sees is real, and the fact that it's actually not there, but you leave it ambiguous enough that the last sentence is a punch in the gut.

Funnily enough, once I'd read your story I went back to the prompt, and suddenly the flower itself, between the bird shape and the bright white colour, made me think of Leia.

A beautiful read that gave me yet another reason to hope that we'll be seeing you on the SWFF side more often!