Saga The Brightest of the Stars (When Teebo Met Latara) - Romcom Challenge | COMPLETE, WITH E-BOOK

Title: The Brightest of the Stars (When Teebo Met Latara)
Author: Ewok Poet
Genre: Character study, romance
Characters: Teebo, Latara, Batcheela, Warok, Lumat, Zephee, Bozzie, Paploo, Kneesaa, Wicket, Chief Chirpa, Logray (all ECs), Luufi, Yehan (Teebo and Latara's children, OCs), Fashkaa (OC, previously appeared in the last chapter of Snowed In), the "Twig" and "Kami" characters from A Rough Trade.
Timeframe: Prologue and epilogue take place in 15 ABY. The actual story takes place in 7 and 6 BBY. "The Adventures of Teebo: A Tale of Magic and Suspense" is assumed to have taken place sometime between the second and third chapter of this story.
Rating: PG
Length: Five chapters - prologue, chapters 1-3 and the epilogue. cca 10 000 words.
Beta: The ever-so-patient Findswoman

Summary: A wokling unaware of his nature powers does not like attention and he lets his fears of others guide him, unaware that he is different for a good reason. And then he meets a girl who is his polar opposite. Many years later, he gets the opportunity to tell the story to his daughter and a couple that faced their own hardships, in a world that was initially nothing like his own.

This story takes place one day after About a Boy and is otherwise something that would never end up being posted in its current form. For one, it was planned to be a short anecdote near the end of an upcoming 100+ chapter fic and the only way to tell it like this would have been a flashback. I found out that the same was the case for About a Boy - sharing Yehan's past hardships would have not been fitting for the narrative of the said longfic. So, this is an extra scene type of a thing, but not quite.


Some extremely nerdy notes on Ewoks

Spoiler

Joe Johnston's 1984 story "The Adventures of Teebo: A Tale of Magic and Suspense" has Duloks, then led by King Vulgarr, kidnapping all the other Bright Tree Village woklings. Teebo, then an awkward, withdrawn wokling teased by others and continuously sensory overwhelmed due to the Force-sensitivity he is not aware of, goes after them. The only other wokling named in the story is Malani, who is very, very young, barely able to walk.

Since some Starlog and Star Wars Insider guides and cues in some episodes (e.g. in Tree of Light, Teebo is old enough to go on the quest) have established Teebo as slightly older than his peers at the beginning of the Ewoks cartoon, Kneesaa's age was estimated at 14, Wicket's at 12 and Malani's at 6-8 (which I took to mean the age one receives their first hood - I went with 7).

And, as I have previously stressed at the time I wrote my first Ewoks fic - it's impossible that all the Ewoks comics, books, cartoons et cetera took the place one year before the Battle of Endor. For so many reasons. I have my own timeline, which places the first season of the Ewoks cartoon one year before the Battle of Yavin, thus making the Imperial presence at the end of the second season believable and fitting with what Palpatine was doing when he was creating the second Death Star.

With all of this in mind, I determined Teebo to have been 15 around the time of the first season of Ewoks, about 19 for Return of the Jedi. He was definitely about 7-8 in "The Adventures of Teebo: A Tale of Magic and Suspense", given an infant-to-toddler Malani. Since he's himself a bare-headed wokling in the first chapter of his story, it takes place in 7 BBY, so does the second chapter. The third chapter takes place a year later, in 6 BBY. All of this allows me to set 8 snows/years as the age when the woklings get their first hoods.

My backstory for Latara is entirely fanon - but it would explain her absence from all the Ewoks comics but one. It would also explain why her mother looks noticeably younger than the other mothers.

RomCom All The Way!

This is my response to the Rom Com Challenge in the OTP Thread.

The list of challenge prompts gave me the following:

Group 1: Debilitating phobia

Group 2: Dare challenge lost


Posting Schedule

This is solely to compile with the challenge rules, given that one of the prompts is not shown before the epilogue, while the other is present throughout the story.

• Prologue - November 15th
• Chapter 01 - November 24st
• Chapter 02 - November 29th
• Chapter 03 - December 04th
• Epilogue - December 09th

I wrote a lot of it

This post should provide you with a list of my stories.

P.S. Yes, I know, I have some yet to be finished shorter multi-chapter stories, as well as four longfics, other challenge responses, prizes and gifts on my plate; but this is the only way that I can meet the requirements and get this out of the way in order to get other things done. As somebody wiser than me once said, I never made a pretense of living with good sense, it's really not my strong suit.

P.P.S.

Spoiler

I'm not saying that Twig is Anjie Mencuri, but...Twig is Anjie Mencuri.

 

Table of contents:

Prologue
Chapter 01
Chapter 02
Chapter 03
Epilogue

 

Prologue

The view from the Trading Post’s log cabin and its dining table located under a plain glass ceiling was the best. Better than the one on Corellia.

On top of it, it was a starry night above Endor, the kind that Luufi liked the most. Perhaps living at mom and dad’s home planet was not that bad at all! The impromptu ceremony the day before, when her adopted brother, Yehan, received a proper hood, had been exciting, too. If she was right about it, she was to have one of her own, together with Talthuk and Theesa, in three years’, or as they would say here, three snows’ time.

And Yehan had been excited beyond belief, indeed. He slept until lunch time that day and proceeded to admire his newly-hooded reflection in the mirror, an object which he was still not quite able to grasp, speaking to it in a made-up language, with only a word or two of Ewokese. Eventually, he turned away from the mirror and then he threatened it. Luufi had figured out that, in his mind, his reflection was now jealous of him, even though it bore the very same dark red hood. She was also sure that she did not want a blood-red hood herself someday.

Mommy and daddy had to get Yehan out of there somehow and get him to do something else, she thought. And the night was bound to be starry and there was only one place where she wanted to be. She had an idea. There was still plenty of food left from the night before and she suggested that they should carry it to their friends at the Trading Post, who had not attended the ceremony. The suggestion took a bit of time to be accepted, but granny Batcheela and grandpa Warok were eager to take care of Yehan for one evening.

Three minutes later, Latara's speeder, the only one of its kind in the Happy Grove much to Paploo's dismay, docked on the platform neck to the log cabin of the Trading Post's living quarters and the three rang a tiny metal bell next to the door. This place was, in a way, neither very Endor nor very Otherworld. Some things were Stone Age, some were later Hyperspace Age, some seemed to have been somewhere in-between.

“Teebo, Latara, Luufi, hello!” the Human woman with brown hair in a messy bun, wearing a green coat and high red boots was excited to see them. “Where is Yehan?”

“We are going to wait for a bit before we introduce him to anything overly technological.” Latara handed a bunch of wooden pots to the woman. “Even a mirror was too much for him and we even had some of those when I was little…Dad had traded two handful of monmon seeds for it at Mooth’s, may his spirit rest among the stars!”

“So, something like me, but the other way round?” the bespectacled Human man hugged his partner from behind and grinned.

“Something like you, yes. But you know that we’re not letting you run around so you wouldn’t find yet another Force nexus or a hungry hanadak.” She shrugged and turned around to kiss him on the lips. “And Latara, why am I not surprised that you always owned a mirror?”

“Ha!” The Ewok carried the rest of the pots to the dining table herself. “And why am I not surprised that the two of you are more romantic than you were the first time we met?” She winked. “And all of this is from Yehan’s ceremony. We thought that introducing you” – she looked the man’s way again – “to Endor would be safer if we started with food. So, here we have – some dangleberry juice jelly, Batcheela’s chicken sausages and vegetable stew…Malani once told Kneesaa that hers is better, but it’s not…anyway, there is a lot of it. And it’s all ‘organic’ as you would say, so don’t worry.”

And this is how Luufi found herself under her favourite ceiling again, with the most stunning display of stars that she knew, something that she could not see from anywhere else than the observatory, the place that was still too Endor for her.

But this was the only place on the Forest Moon where she was not the only one who was confused by its oddities. She looked to her right, to the freckled face of her Human friend’s partner and thought of something – he had been feeling lost there as much as she did, after all.

“So, Twig, are you used to Endor yet?” she said, with a mischievous grin. “When are you going to take those black gloves off?”

“Luufi!” Teebo almost dropped his large helping of spikeback pike and it was only by the means of his nature powers that he managed to stop it seconds before it reached the ground. “We told you that you should not call him that way!”

“It’s fine.” The man pet the wokling. “Since I am getting away from myself for a while, I could as well be called by another name.” He proceeded to light a cigarra. “But, at some point, I have to think of how to get my dual tube phasing modulator here. And the TMZ-102015.”

“Yay, I mean, ee-chaa!” Luufi was not quite sure what a TMZ-102015 was, but claiming that she knew it was bound to make both of them feel less lost on Endor.

For a couple of minutes, she was looking at the stars, then she shrugged and emptied a tiny jam jar over her slice of honey melon pie, one of the things she did like about her new home. Once the plate was empty, she stopped, scratched her bare head and clapped her hands.

“When Talthuk, Theesa and I are old enough to receive our hoods, is our ceremony going to take place in the Council Hut, too? Or…can we get them here?”

Latara shook her head and smiled.

“No, Luu, Yehan’s ceremony was an exception! You are going to receive your hoods at the Festival of Hoods, which takes place on the shortest night of the year. There is always a large feast accompanying it, too; but it’s all held underneath the Soul Trees, for they allow us to be here and they protect us, together with our ancestors’ spirits.”

“Can we have Soul Trees?” the bespectacled man asked, but the Ewoks did not know what to answer and neither did his partner. For a moment, there was awkward silence.

"Daddy, how was your Hood Festival?" Luufi asked again.

Teebo smiled broadly, his buck teeth no longer obscured by a corrective device that he had been wearing for a couple of months in the “future world”, as some of his childhood friends were calling it. Luufi had the same teeth herself, much to her mother’s horror, but she loved them that way and she did not want them corrected, either.

"We were grounded.” Teebo seemed a bit embarrassed. “We were grounded for some mischief - Wicket, Paploo and I - and then, I had a premonition that a forest fire broke and then we ran to...wait, that was your aunt's ceremony! Mine...err...hmmm?!"

Latara gave her husband a subtle tickle behind his right ear. “That’s not the way it was, honeydrop! I dare you to tell Luufi and these two Kyoopid-struck munyips what it was really, really like!” She pouted and stuck out her tongue, something that Luufi was not sure if the other mothers were doing. “And you, take that thing out of your mouth!” she scolded ‘Twig’. It smells worse than Deej’s pipe!”

Teebo closed his eyes. Latara was right. Somehow, with all the adventures, the places they had visited and the intense memories of pretty much every single moment he had witnessed, the things got mixed up. He was not sure if that was a common trait of Force-sensitives, or if he had just lived a life that was way too eventful for his age of thirty snows. And his Human friend, she was thirty, too – much younger than her mate, slightly older than Latara. Was she forgetting things like that as well? He looked across the table to meet her eyes.

“D…d….” He begun, but he was not sure what he was going to ask her and how was he supposed to phrase it.

“D….d…do you have some prism pebbles with you?” the woman asked him in return. She fondly remembered the first time that Teebo showed her how the Ewoks were telling stories to their fuzzy children, over some bonfire on her favourite beach on Vagran.

Teebo nodded. “Chak! But I am going to need a fire pit. You don’t have one here.”

“I know.” The woman pulled the cigarra out of her partner’s mouth. To his surprise, she mashed it between her fingers and threw it on the spherical metal surface that served to keep the food warm. “Luufi, where is that little project of ours from some weeks ago? Do you remember? The one when we recreated the historic strangeness that is…paper?”

Luufi pointed to the cupboard behind her. “You had left it here!” She got up and proceeded to tear the sheets of light-beige homemade paper and throw them on the pile. Within a couple of moments, the pile was burning.

“That’s great!” The man said. He pointed a glove-clad hand to the pile. “Teebo, I have to teach you this one sometime. It’s not a dark side…Night Spirit thing…ummm…honest!”

His laser-crafted synthteeth were, once again, met by his Ewok friend’s raw, buck-toothed grin. He could never tell if Teebo was menacing, or just not the prettiest creature in the Galaxy.

“Is this good enough? Are the prism pebbles going to work?” the woman asked.

“I think so…” Teebo seemed unsure of it. He pulled a tiny prism pebble out of his satchel and threw it over the fire. A cloud of smoke emerged from the fire and travelled towards the ceiling where it spread and obscured the actual stars in the sky. A stardust-like, connect-the-dots picture of a scruffy wokling with what looked like lots of head and chest fur, formed before the group.

Teebo was pleased.

“Chak, it’s good enough. Now I just need to allow this story to come out of its hiding place.”

The man looked down. He could relate to the idea of not wanting to share some stories more than anybody else in the room. He glanced at the painting of the sunrise on the wall in all the shades of blue and red, and then back at the wokling made of the mysterious stardust-like substance. Could that have been…Teebo? Impossible. It looked like a mere…test projection. But it had Teebo’s eyes. So…t was Teebo, then. His glove-clad hand reached out to his partner’s much smaller, bare hand.

Meanwhile, Luufi crossed to the other side of the table and sat on her mother’s lap, her little hands still sticky from the jam. For some reason, the ever-so-tidy Latara did not mind. She looked at her husband, expecting an answer.

“Latara, I accept your dare.” Teebo mimicked his daughter’s mischievous grin. “And if I do manage to tell it all the way it really was…”

She raised an eyebrow. “Chak, I know…now start it already!”

The woman clapped to turn off the light.

And so, the story unfolded right before the four eager observers, dragging itself from the deepest corners of the heart deep below the gurreck skull headdress-clad façade and the mind behind the forest green eyes.

---

Footnotes

Spoiler

The trading post mentioned here is a later incarnation of the former Salfur's Trading Post. It's the very same place shown in A Rough Trade. I can imagine that it's located on a clearing, because it would have required some extreme piloting skills otherwise.

Honey melon pie is typically served at the Fall Festival (no Wook link, mentioned in Blue Harvest) and its youth dance/masquerade counterpart, The Shadownight Festival, but I can imagine that it can be eaten whenever available.

Spikeback pike is fanon. If the chickens have a little tusk type of a thing, rabbits have three ears...why wouldn't a pike be all spiked?

I don't know what a "dual tube phasing modulator" and "TMZ-102015" are. Neither do you.

Batcheela’s chicken sausages and vegetable stew appear in Snowed In, but Latara's memory is wrong. Malani once, in that same story, called Kneesaa's stew better than Batcheela's. Either way, since Latara was not present in that scene, Malani's claim must have become a common misconception.

I did not quite plan not to mention the name of the character who goes by Kami in A Rough Trade. The idea is that Yehan came up with the name when he was learning to speak both Ewokese and Basic, while Twig is a nickname Luufi came up with. So, since I would otherwise have to spoil some pretty big things, I went with just not mentioning the name. I am otherwise very well aware of the consequences of leaving a female character nameless, but this is - I assure you - not that kind of a thing.

By now, it should be clear who Twig is, if you read my other stories.

 

Oh yes! My OTP among Ewoks it's so nice to see Teebo and Latara living in their "happily ever after" with their children. The hints of their adventures in "future world" and dealing with technology are tantalizing (was Luufi born off-world, on Corellia). You've done a great job maturing Latara and Teebo, but keeping what makes them...well, them. Teebo still has traces of his awkwardness and chatty, bossy Latara is still in charge, albeit in a more motherly way now.

This is definitely a new view of Twig and Kami. They are not nearly off-putting and...creepy...as they appeared in "Rough Trade." They almost don't seem like the same couple. I wonder if circumstances changed them that much over the years or if it's just that we are seeing them with and through the eyes of their friends and not strangers. And they are clearly close friends with the Ewoks, which is a fascinating concept in itself. The Ewoks have gone from being allies by circumstance with humans to sort of a cultural exchange with humans, traveling to their worlds and allowing humans to settle on Endor. It's lovely how open Twig and Kami and Teebo and Latara are...a true friendship regardless of species.

I got a kick out of Latara's speeder and Paploo's jealousy over it . Of course, you would be jealous,Paploo...especially because she's a GIRL.

This prologue is such a sweet vignette; good friends, good food, a good story...I look forward to hearing Teebo's tale.

 

What Raissa said.

Okay, less lazily:

It's neat that we get introduced to this point in the timeline by Luufi, who is both an insider and outsider on Endor. It just works for Luufi to be the one that brings us to the story, even if Teebo is the one who will be telling it. I like how we get some hints of her mixed up feelings without it being brought into the foreground much; it's just kind of there, as most of one's issues tend to be during daily life. Not unimportant, but there are other things going on all the time too. She has found few things to like on Endor, and yet. Luufi does have some curiosity (and even anticipation) about the hood ceremony and when she'll get to be a part of that. Which hints to me that she'd very much like to belong in some way, even as she's trying to pull away as though that will prevent her from being "stuck" on Endor forever.

And it's good to see more of Yehan settling into his new life. It's not without some bumps along the way, as seen with his reaction to the hooded reflection. Interesting that Luufi is the one to pick up on what's actually going on there; with her comment to herself on not wanting a blood-red hood I wonder if she's a bit scared or uneasy about Yehan's feral child past. Or maybe she's just not sure what to think of this new "intruder" into her life, showing up at the same time as another major change. Or maybe I'm making too much of one line.

There are also the offworlders, of course. They do seem much more in-sync with the world than in A Rough Trade (maybe that's a weird way of putting it, but it's what I came up with). But I get the feeling that that's partly, as Raissa Baiard mentions, because they're in the presence of friends. Teebo and Latara -- especially Latara -- are going out of their way to connect with them.

I love Latara's determination to help via introducing them to food. It's not what I would have thought of, but it's so right. Of course Latara is that neighbor who has to chase everyone down with a casserole and welcome to the neighborhood! Plus commenting on their romantic lives and everything else under the sun. Never change, Latara. But she has grown up, just as Teebo has. It's nice to see them here telling stories to the younglings, especially knowing that this wasn't certain to turn out happily ever after back in the day.

Really like the framing of the story as a campfire tale with an Endorian twist. (The prism pebbles sound like a fascinating story in their own right, but probably one for another time.)

 

Wow, what long comments the three of you have left me. Thank you so much! This one came straight from the heart and it required letting go of some inhibitions in order to write it, so I'm most certainly glad that it works.

And I'm so not good with schedules, so there. THIS IS COMMENT SPACE AND THE COMMENT WILL REQUIRE SOME WORK. SO, DO ALLOW ME TO DELAY POSTING IT.

---

Re: comments about the Human couple being less creepy than in A Rough Trade

Twig (err, Anjie ) and the character you know as Kami in A Rough Trade (and is not referred as that, or anything here, because the idea is that Yehan utters that when he gets a better grasp of both Basic and Ewokese) are not supposed to be creepy. They're melancholic types and he's slightly more "damaged" than her and she has to take the role of a friendly, cordial type, which she might not 100% be. But in this story, one key factor is missing, the very thing that makes other characters behave oddly - Ben Solo, the anti-empath.

And the creepy little girl comes into the picture later, because one just doesn't make amends and immediately makes a baby and lives happily ever after. I hope that makes sense.

Re: the speeder

Unlike him, she won't get this close to suicide piloting it. She knows what she's doing.

A meet-cute might exist when you look at things from Latara's perspective, but not Teebo's. He just does not function that way.

It was meant to be basic, but apparently, my basic is different than other people's basic. *head spinning*

That one IS meant to be a dichotomy of sorts. Luufi is too advanced for your average Ewok and what I wanted to show here was how a species cannot be "primitive" if they're capable of what Ewoks were capable of in Return of the Jedi. It's a matter of upbringing and Luufi was exposed to hyperspace-era tech from the day she was born, utilising all of her possibilities and of course she thinks in a way slightly different from other woklings. And feels alone, in a way. She can bond with her new pal over her love of tech...which, in a way, is her mother's influence more than her father's.

TMZ-102015 is one powerful...well, whatever it may be.

Yup, this is a dinner date, in a way.

See above. And yes, crafts are fun. Guess who makes his own paper in older stories, too?

Smoking is bad, bad, bad. But of course that a neurotic character has some repetitive action they're known for.

And of course that Latara would be the one to be like "cut the cr*p and don't smoke, I don't care if this is your home and not mine".

Yes, Luufi was born on Corellia - you'll see.

I would not say that Latara's ways are exactly motherly - she just became more caring, and that was a long way. Similarly, Teebo became a tad bit more rational. Long way, too.

Yes, but that was...another long way...

The blood-red hood appears again later.

I said "long way to go" many times here, but Yehan, just like Twig, has a long way to go before he's completely comfortable with himself.

To be fair, it's Luufi's idea. Latara just accepts it because HOW DO YOU MEAN A DAY WHEN YOU DON'T SEE ANYBODY? Teebo is eager to be around his friends, too, but it's just not something that comes to him as naturally.

What exactly do you mean here?

They're present throughout Sunstar vs. Shadowstone. And what is interesting about them is that, at the very beginning, Chirpa, a non-sensitive, uses them. That probably means that...I dunno, they can be pre-recorded?!

 

Chapter 01

That evening, Warok had to leave Batcheela and Teebo again.

He was attending the Warrior Overnight Trip, and that was to be followed by a scouting mission somewhere close to the Gorge of Fire. All of this was hopefully going to get him closer to completing his Belt of Honour. A great glider pilot, he lacked the patience essential for other kinds of tasks. Or so thought Kazak, the newly elected Head Elder. The old lurdo refused to let Warok have the status of a proper warrior before he learned to be “disciplined”, whatever was that supposed to mean in his mind.

And it might have been personal, too!

He already disliked the free-spirited twenty-five-snow-old fisherman for breaking the rules and he had subjected him to a couple of hearings in front of the Council of Elders in the past. The most notable of those was held when the village found out that Batcheela, the daughter of two warriors held in high regard, was carrying Warok’s child and that he wanted to marry her. They had been only eighteen snows old, and it was a disgrace! Kazak might as well have been more shocked than Chief Chirpa himself. After all, Chirpa did not care all that much. He was head over heels in love with his wife, Ra-Lee.After his red-furred daughter Asha had come into the world, he had become noticeably softer, always hoping that the next wokling the tree spirits blessed him with would be his heir, the new prince.

Kazak’s breeding years were long past him. His children were adults and they had their own children already. And they were all disciplined. Just the way everybody should have been.

Therefore, he could simply not let Warok become a warrior until he truly, truly deserved it. He gave him more and more errands, in order to keep him from turning into another version of that meek eggcake Chirpa and other younger family men like Deej Warrick. If nothing else, Deej’s sons were showing the signs of becoming true, manly warriors themselves. Warok’s almost-bastard child was undoubtedly male, but a very strange creature, with his eyes of forest green and patches of fluffy fur. Strange.

And that was certainly not how the said child saw himself, looking at his own reflection in the bathwater, interspersed with reflections of numerous stars.

While he was always worried about daddy Warok, little Teebo loved it when he was away – he would get a chance to sleep next to his mommy. He understood her name quite literally; she had been named for a wind spirit that comforted the Ewoks when they slept, in return for their fur’s ability to keep her warm. With these thoughts, he was able to fall asleep quickly and not swing in his hammock until he was too tired to stay awake. He could just press his head against his mommy’s shoulders and block at least some of the unintelligible whispers that had been bothering him ever since he had learned to say his first word. He did not know where they were coming from, but since his first word some snows ago had been “tree”, he had assumed that they were the whispers of the trees. What they whispered and chanted about sounded like a language from another world and occasionally, a word or two of proper Ewokese would break through.

Teebo was not willing to share this little discovery of his with anybody – for one thing, he didn’t know if the other woklings were able to listen to the nature, too. They could have been much better than him at understanding these whispers and that could have been another reason to mock him. He did not play with any of the other woklings all that much to begin with. The Warrick brothers, Paploo, Flitchee...they did not like the idea of a bare-headed wokling running after them and a couple of munyips always running after him and then, more often than not, somebody ending up tripping on them. And he looked like a girl wokling to them, too. What were those fair bangs on the top of his head about?

The younger woklings were still too little to talk to, and often bitey on top of that. Whenever he would attempt to do something he was truly interested in – such as finding an adolescent or an adult who would help them practice their reading and symbol writing skills – they would protest. Learning things was not as fun as breaking them. Eating food was not as fun as food fights.

Sometimes he thought that the older ones would finally take him seriously when he received his first hood. He knew his ceremony was due to take place soon, as it always took place on the shortest night of the Endor year. Maybe the younger ones would stop pulling his scruffy chest fur and biting him. Maybe he would not have to resort to telling the munyips to trip whomever was threatening him, so he could run away.

Until then, he was by himself, most of the time. And that particular evening, he was more than happy to play alone in the large wash tub near the window opening. For one thing, it was welcome refreshment on a hot summer night. The two suns had long gone to sleep and he could see the Sistermoon in its corner, below Tana. He spread his little stubby legs and made space for the celestial bodies to reflect in his bath. When he ran his finger through the water, they became distorted and be gone for a moment. When he sat calmly and wait for them to appear again, they seemed brighter and bigger than they were the last time around. He liked that. The warm wind that would occasionally blow would bring musings of the trees his way – but he only understood every twentieth word or so.

Across the chamber, his mother was sitting on the rocking chair that wasn’t really rocking – the two tusks that his father had found on the edge of the desert needed to be polished a bit more in order not to get stuck to the floor boards as often as they did. Then again, nothing in Warok and Batcheela’s one-chamber hut was the way it should have been in the first place – they got it from the Council of Elders after they got married. The marriage was unplanned. Warok was still a warrior apprentice at the age of twenty-four snows. He could not have built a new hut just yet!

Just them, a figure appeared in the doorway – somebody unlikely to ever knock on the frame before entering the hut.

“Goopa, Batcheela!”

“Goopa, Bozzie!” Teebo’s mother looked the visitor’s way, but did not get up. He casted a glance at the figure clad in a long red dress with a purple hood, her lips smeared with crimson-coloured powder, her large chest dangling as she approached the fire pit. “Didn’t expect you this late!”

“I was filling in for my brother, telling a story to the woklings on the Main Square.” Bozzie pointed to the prism pebbles in her hand. “It was about the dangerous creatures of the forest – boar-wolves, gurrecks, the hanadaks…and he still cannot bear himself to talk about it, after poor Ra-Lee and Asha have been mauled! So, he put Kneesaa to sleep and I was sharing the little I knew of these beasts. I hope that’s enough for them to be able to recognise one if they see it.” She let a loud sigh. “My poor sister-in-law and my poor little niece, who must have been eaten alive, with only that hood remaining behind.”

A pair of green eyes peeked from above the edge of the wash tub. Teebo’s water was getting cold and the clouds now covered the sky, so he could not play his game of tracing the stars anymore. In fact, he could not do much more than listen to the two women talk. Truth be told, Bozzie was doing most of the talking. She had heard this and that from Shodu, she was completely sure that old Needoo stole a pack of flour…and she did not stop. Little Teebo could see the similarities between this woman and her son – they both talked too much, and half of it seemed to be untrue, to the point where his eight-snows-old self could not believe it.

Finally, Bozzie stopped to catch a breath. Batcheela was just smiling sheepishly. At some point, she had lost track of the conversation and was looking for a way to make it stop.

“I have baked honey melon pie today, if you would like some,” she said to Bozzie, who nodded and licked her lips.

“Me too!” Teebo’s little hands splashed against the water. “Please!”

Bozzie turned around. It was only then that she spotted the little one and walked up to him.

“Just how cute your wokling is!” The visitor ruffled her three fingers through the scruffy fair fur on top of Teebo’s head. “The love children are always the most beautiful! Batcheela, you’re going to have all the girls of the Bright Tree Village march to your home once he’s old enough to burn the sacred branches.”

The little Ewok turned away, giggling.

“Come on…don’t be shy. You are going to be popular, like your daddy. I am sure that you already like being in the company of warriors!”

“No.” Batcheela responded for her shy son and handed a wooden plate with a large slice of pie to Bozzie. “He is slightly scared of them. But he likes other adults, for example…old Logray!”

Bozzie almost dropped the wooden plate. “K’vark! The old fool who claims he was been blessed by some kind of nature powers? And has that alleged powerful gem? Ha! Not a good role model for the young ones, I say!” She sat down and took a bite of the pie. “Ee cha waa ma, Batcheela, you baked another honour-belt pie! Anyway, where was I? Once this boy has received his first hood, he’ll be given lookout duties. That will help him become a little bit braver. After all, they all start out like that!”

Teebo finally found the courage to say something. “No. I don’t want to be a warrior. Can I…pick flowers?”

“Nonsense!” Bozzie shook her hand in dismissive manner. “You will be a warrior, like your father. And you will marry a pretty girl. And I am going to give you a big kiss once you have received your hood tomorrow!”

Teebo’s pupils grew wide. “Big kiss? Tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow!” She clapped her hands. “Batcheela, don’t tell me that he doesn’t know?!”

“It was supposed to be a surprise.” The sheepish smile appeared on Batcheela’s face again. “Or…well…you see…he is very shy. We didn’t even go for the test fitting at Fashkaa’s.”

The tone of Bozzie’s voice changed.

“What do you mean, you didn’t go for a test fitting? Only the woklings of our warriors who moved to other villages don’t have test fittings. Take him for a test fitting in the morning!”

Teebo swallowed a lump.

“Sure.” Batcheela said. “I’ll do it the first thing in the morning.”

After Bozzie had stomped out in a huff, Batcheela went to get her little boy from the tub.

The wokling drew an imaginary line in the water for one last time, with his toe, as she picked him up. And then his laughter turned into a suspicious expression.

“Mommy?”

“Chak?”

“Where is Paploo’s daddy?”

She ignored the question, smiled again and lay Teebo down on the only table in the small hut to dry him off. With Bozzie gone, he was his relaxed wokling self again – snuggling against the towel, giggling as she tickled his tummy.

After a hearty helping of honey melon pie, she tucked him in on Warok’s side of the bed. He fell asleep quickly. Finally, she could stop walking on eggshells. He forgot about that fitting and the eventual ceremony pretty quickly. But his mother was still aware that it was not going to be easy.

---

Footnotes

Spoiler

Warrior overnight trip is mentioned in Horville's Hut of Horrors.

The Gorge of Fire appears in The Rainbow Bridge.

Festival of Hoods is the event where woklings come out of age, as in, receive their first hood.

The background on Warok and Batcheela is fanon, but as we know from Return of the Jedi, Warok IS a skilled glider pilot.

The background on Chirpa's family, apart from the bit with Paploo's absent father - this was never explained in a children's cartoon - is canon.

The analogy Teebo makes between his mother and the spirit of Batcheela is an expansion of what is known about that spirit.

Burning the sacred branches is a reference to my fanon on Ewok weddings. Branches of the groom and bride's Soul Trees burn together in their hands.

 

Aww, how adorable is little Teebo! Even at this tender age, he doesn't quite fit in-- too small to play with the older boys and too mature for the "bitey" baby woklings (love that description). His elders seem too preoccupied with the circumstances of his "scandalous" conception to see him as an individual. Good thing he has his mother; bless Batcheela, she seems like the kind of mother everyone should have, who loves her child exactly the way he is. His shyness and "femininity" (in quotes because I don't think any of Teebo's traits are inherently, exclusively feminine) don't bother her at all, and she works with her son instead of forcing him to change. You can tell how much she loves her little wokling.

And then there's Bozzie. Oh, what a character she is! I guess every village has to have their busy-body. At six, Teebo already has her number, when he reflects that she "talks too much, and half of it seemed untrue." He's perhaps perceptive beyond his years when he asks about Paploo's daddy. Bozzie and Kazak must get along well; they both seem obsessed with things being The Way They Should Be. I feel sorry for Kazak's poor, disciplined children and grandchildren.

Another lovely addition to this story. Little Teebo is as charming as his adult self. I look forward to seeing what happens next...perhaps he'll meet a certain hood maker's apprentice at his fitting?

 

Thank you for reading and commenting. I had horrible nausea out of nowhere last night, just like the night before, so I did not manage to post the next installment on time, but I am doing so now. And luckily, this set of comments does not overlap that much and isn't that complex, so I can deal with them.

---

I remembered when a child two years younger than me had this habit to bite my elbow when she was three and I was five. I assume it gets worse in...other humanoids.

The bolded part matters, a lot. I think it was Cushy who once said that it was not right of other characters to mock Teebo's masculinity (or variant thereof). I think that masculinity and femininity are purely cultural things and that they can be whatever you want them to be.

And Kazak is a true apple of discord, a rotten one, for that matter. Of course that what matters to him doesn't matter to anybody other than a selected group of his creepy crappy friends.

I kinda think that they don't. Bozzie's son, "her baby", is a complete rascal.

And Bozzie's views on The Way Things Should Be are a big deal in the first season of Ewoks.

Too early for that, but #soon.

Totally!

He's a delicate creature - even though he won't look that way as an adult - and his subtlety is what helps him eventually refine his skills. A true empath, healer like that has to be extremely sensitive and of course, what he feels is intense and it could lead to the manly men types seeing him as a wuss.

Bozzie's attitude may be reflecting more than one circumstance at the same time. But Logray could have been feeling extremely guilty over what happened with his previous apprentice, who turned to the Night Spirit...for example.

Warok doesn't serve a purpose to this story, but we saw him in Snowed In and while he does have some "bro" moments, he's indeed nice.

*snort*

We'll see where the problem is...

 

Chapter 02

The next day, right after a delicious breakfast of egg-cake and blasé tree goat milk, Batcheela took little Teebo by hand and took him to the hoodmaker’s hut. He seemed calmer than the evening before, but he was not particularly enthusiastic.

Fashkaa, the hoodmaker, was expecting them. Of course, Bozzie had to wake up very early and let her know that they were coming. Then again, it was always nice to see a creation she was particularly proud of – the blue hood that she had made for Batcheela. It was a practical one, easy to convert into a front-covering robe that could be worn after one wokling too many. And if Batcheela ever had another wokling, Fashkaa had this vision of turning the upper part of the hood into a whole new hood for a female Ewok. A mother and a daughter wearing a piece of the same cloth? That would make everybody go ee-cha wa maa!

“Goopa Batcheela! Goopa, little one,” she said, solely for the timid wokling to hide behind his mother’s back. “Teebo, right?”

“Goopa…right.” Teebo peeked from behind Batcheela, more or less attempting to crack a smile, then hid again.

Batcheela nodded and clapped her hands. “Fashkaa, we are here for Teebo’s first hood.”

The hoodmaker winked. “It’s ready.” She headed to the large branch with many test hoods on it and picked a dark red one. “You’re surely going to like this one, little warrior. It’s a reminiscent of your father’s hood.”

Teebo finally peeked out from behind Batcheela’s back and allowed Fashkaa to place him on a small log and fit the hood on him. Then she raised him above a barrel of water right in front of the hut.

“Look at that little warrior!” she said.

Teebo was confused. The hood was too tight around his neck, red like fire, red like blood and he did not like it at all. There was something about it that was not him – there was a wrong sound to this colour somewhere between the threads of its fabric.

“It’s going to be a big day! Everybody is going to be looking at you as Chief Chirpa presents you with what I have just made for you.”

“E…everybody?” There was suddenly a fearful tone in little Teebo’s voice.

“Everybody!” Fashkaa gave him what was supposed to be a reassuring nod.

This got the wokling into a panic. He did not like being ridiculed by a group, but he could not bear having others cheer him on, either. The idea of so many eyes looking at him, trying to determine what he was going to become someday – the idea of standing in a clearing where so many beings and so many trees would talk at the same time – it all sounded like too much noise for him.

“No!”

He got himself out of the hood and, before Fashkaa and Batcheela knew it, he kicked down a roll of fabric and disappeared under the nearest pile of leather scraps.

“Teebo!” Batcheela called her son. No answer.

Fashkaa was already looking under the tables. “I guess he’s very nervous because this will be such an important day for him! I mean, he’s eligible for lookout duties come tomorrow!”

“No. I think he’s nervous because he does not want to do be around others all that much.”

“Now, that would be odd, Batcheela.”

“Not for him, no.”

Meanwhile, little Teebo found a way out of the hut and onto the platform. He intended to go home, lie down in his hammock and refuse to come out. He ran by some of his favourite trees and passed the supply hut, and he was about to climb the stairway to the top level when he noticed something. He caught a vine and swung down to a lower level.

There, on one of the village’s dead-end platforms, was a hut he was sure he had not visited before. The passage leading to it did not have a regular wooden fence. Instead there were poles with small animal skulls on them. The hut itself was decorated with horns and, in a couple of places, there were marks and symbols written in red and orange paint. How come he had not seen it before? It was interesting! There was a wooden crate by the window, so he climbed on top of it and went inside.

The interior was even more fascinating than the exterior. There was a large map on the wall, a small table and a canopy bed raised on a platform, which he had not seen in any other hut before. There were two fire pits, one topped with a large cauldron and another that looked like the one they had at home.

And then, a large shadow with a bird beak and a long tail appeared behind him.

“How did you get in?”

That’s when Teebo realised where he was. He found himself in the hut that most Ewoks did their best to avoid – that of Logray, the notorious recluse and former warrior. According to his parents, most families would call on the old man if a birth was not going well, if a wokling was sick or if somebody was badly wounded. He had incredible medicine man skills, they said, but the rest could have been delusions. The night before, Bozzie hadn’t spoken fondly of him and there was that mention of some “gem” in his hut.

“I…ran away.” Teebo’s confession came with a sigh. “I’m sorry, sir. I didn’t want to break into your hut. I wanted to hide.” He broke down.

Logray was intrigued. This wokling – he had seen him before – was always playing all by himself. And now, he was led to his lonely dwelling, of all places in the village. When woklings were in trouble, they usually hid in the places like the chicken coops, the bordok stable and the supply hut.

His first thought was to take the boy back home. But then he changed his mind.

“Why did you run away?”

“I don’t want to wear a long red hood. And I don’t want to be a warrior. And the trees…”


“You don’t want to be a tree?” The old man tried to cheer up the boy. “Now, that one is new to me.”

Teebo sat down on the edge of the small platform. Logray leaned on the beam next to him and looked into his eyes, expecting an answer.

“No, I would not mind that. I just don’t know what exactly they’re saying. And if they start to chant, like they always do in the evenings, during the hood ceremony tonight…”

“The trees chant?”

“Chak! Sometimes they say something I understand, but most of the time, no. Can you hear them, too?”

This got Logray by surprise. He had been feeling lonely ever since the day the hissing of the Tulgah Witch’s pet skee and the gibberish her Yuzzum slaves uttered while munching on lantern bird thighs suddenly began making sense to him. But he was a warrior, thirty or so snows old when he had been captured, and, until he had found himself hanging on a rope wrapped around a mantigrue’s tail high above the forest, he had thought he was just very, very brave. This wokling here was very young, timid and exceptionally polite – there was no single sign of rebellion in him.

“It’s too early.” He more or less said to himself.

“Too early for what, sir? For me to get a hood?”

“No.” Logray patted Teebo on the back. “But is the ceremony bothering you for…reasons other than the trees chanting?”

Teebo shrugged. He could not quite explain if he was afraid of aunts like Bozzie pinching his cheeks and calling him a heartthrob before he even knew what that meant, uncles like Kazak once looking below his belly when he had long ago stopped soiling himself, or if what was truly scary had been their expectations.

“It’s too much. All of it. And the hood is ugly. I don’t want it long. And I don’t want it red.” He was running out of complaints that made sense. “And everybody is going to be there!”

“So…you don’t like attention?”

“No, sir.”

“Neither do I. That is why I am always here by myself. Sure, that gets people talking and some of them make things up. But you, you have to honour your Elders and the Soul Trees. Think about that. The trees are not going to talk to you until you have allowed them to. And, in order to do so, you have to stop being afraid of the unknown.” He paused and looked at a small-bladed knife he used to clean up wounds of his patients. “As far as the known goes…imagine that everybody got shaved. You see, some of those who bother the quiet ones like us, they are quite small under that large amount of fur.”

Teebo then imagined Weechee Warrick without his intimidating pattern of facial fur. That was funny! And how about Aunt Bozzie with her crimson lip paint on a shaved muzzle? That was scary, but it was funny, too!

“And perhaps Fashkaa can make you a hood that you really like. That said, what’s wrong with the one you’re already wearing? Didn’t you say that yours was long and red? This does not look like long and red to me!”

“What?” Teebo was confused. He reached up and realised that he had a piece of scrap leather on his head. “This? Oh, it got stuck because my…my ears are too big.”

“It looks good. Here, see for yourself!”

Logray picked Teebo up and showed him his reflection in the cauldron.


“I think this looks good, too, chak!”

“You could use some holes for those big ears, as you say, and straps, in case it gets windy, since it does not have a bib. How about I take you back to Fashkaa’s and tell her that? Would you like me to?”

“Yes!” the wokling’s face lit up. He stopped crying.

Fashkaa and Batcheela were close to calling the guards when Logray brought Teebo back to the Hoodmaker’s Hut.


“Where have you been?” Batcheela asked. “I was worried sick!”

Fashkaa cocked her head. “And what is that leather scrap on your head?”


“I like it.”

“That’s his new hood.”

“Oh, it’s you, Master Logray.” Fashkaa crossed her arms. “Do you have an idea how much I worked on the hoods for tonight? And now he does not want to wear his!”

“He is just a boy. Not one of your giant straw dolls that you use to cut the fabric.”

“There is simply no time to adjust this so it looks presentable!” the hoodmaker was quick to protest. “It’s just not pretty enough.”

She turned around, not looking at Teebo’s disappointed facial expression. And then Batcheela spoke.

“Danvey, Fashkaa…I don’t want Teebo to wear something that he does not feel good in. He can be clumsy sometimes. He’s small, too. He could use something that he wouldn’t be able trip on. And perhaps Warok can bring him something nice from his scouting missions to decorate it so it’s not that bland.”

She turned around. Teebo nodded and hugged his mother.

“K’vark! I guess that this is going to be a long day. So, what are you waiting for? Come here, so I can see how I could strap this.”

Teebo was over the Sistermoon. This turned out better than he had thought and he was sure that he had just made a new friend…who might know something about the trees and who had so many interesting things in his hut!

Later that evening, he was dancing with his own shadow close to the orchestra. He was not as far away from other woklings as usual. In fact, a couple of them were dancing close to him and there had been a moment earlier that night when an older wokling allowed him to try and beat a drum. He was not quite what they expected – he had a unique sense of rhythm, but that was not to say that he couldn’t play. The trees were quick to start chanting to his beat. As usual, he would only hear an occasional “yubnub” and nothing more, but this was the first time that the ancient conifers were listening to him, in a way – as opposed to him listening to them.

And the fact that somebody had been looking at him for a while did not bother him the slightest.

“What a disgrace! There he is, cavorting with his own shadow!” Bozzie nudged her brother. “After everything he and old Logray put poor Fashkaa through today, he’s dancing. And you know what? He strikes me as one of those who will change his mind and eventually grow up to wear something outrageous on his head…and have a good story about it. I have seen that before.”

“Bozzie…” Chirpa shook his head. He was doing his best not to laugh. His sister’s tendency to smother young ones was nothing new to him. His own daughter became especially bitey when she spent too much time with Bozzie.

“You don’t understand this, Chirpa! I couldn’t even kiss him after you presented the group with their hood! He was laughing at me!”

“So?”

“Hmmpf!” Bozzie was clearly annoyed. “Well, don’t come complaining to me when the next generation of our apprentices turns out to be disobedient and rude!”

A little farther away, Logray was enjoying the feast from afar. He was feeling slightly less lonely than he did most of the time. Until that morning, he had not seen the Sunstar flicker in a long time. While his experience had taught him to question anything and everything, he was pretty sure that the wokling could become a far better apprentice than his previous one, Zarrak - if he managed to awaken the voices within himself, that is. That misguided young outcast was, after all, the reason he had withdrawn from the rest of the village and the reason some of the villagers no longer trusted his powers. Maybe, just maybe, this encounter was a sign of better days for him, as well as for this wide-eyed fuzzy wokling.

He discreetly waved his small ceremonial wand and directed a single Wistie Teebo’s way. The young Ewok stopped dancing, spread his hand and allowed the gentle, translucent creature to land on his palm.

---

Footnotes

Spoiler

Egg-cake with a hyphen is something resembling omelette. Eggcake, without a hyphen is the equivalent of the English language expression “milquetoast”. There’s a difference!

Fashkaa, the hoodmaker, previously appeared in the last chapter of Snowed In, where teenage Latara is her apprentice. She’s an OC.

Logray’s flashback is word-for-word what happens to him in the visual and verbal aspects of the story Chirpa tells to woklings at the beginning of Sunstar vs. Shadowstone – then a young warrior, he attacks Morag’s trained mantigrue with a lasso, the dragon-like creature carries him away to Morag’s lair inside of Mount Thunderstone and then, he serves the witch alongside her Yuzzum slaves, but in the process, also discovers that he’s got “nature powers” himself.

Logray’s first apprentice, Zarrak is the villain in the second season episode, The First Apprentice and he’s everything Teebo isn’t.

Kazak looking to see if Teebo’s got male genitalia is – sadly – a thing borrowed from real life nonsense here in Serbia. So many fathers and best men take photos of nude baby boys or close-ups of their penises to show off to colleagues, that the “real man” “pumped up the girl” and “had a [redacted]” – [redacted] being any word to refer to a male who, wow, has male genitalia.

The hood that Teebo eventually ends up on is the cap-like thing that he wears throughout the cartoon series.

Wisties or “Firefolk” are semi-sentient creatures native to Endor. Like little firefly people.

 

Nice story so far
I don't know much about Ewoks so I don't understood most of the names but I liked it anyway. My favourite part was probably were Teboo speaks with the old Logray. Its nice how he helps the scared young Ewok.

 

Poor little Teebo...so overwhelmed with too many sensory stimuli from his new hood, not only from the usual senses but his synesthesia. Everything Fashkaa says to reassure him, which would work with other woklings, only serves to heighten his anxiety. He doesn't want to be a warrior; he doesn't want everybody looking at him (and I can't blame him on either count).

But at last he finds a sympathetic ear in Logray... and a distinctive new hat. ;D. I love your Ewok take on the old "picture everyone naked" approach to public speaking. I do feel just a little bad for Fashkaa, putting all that work into a hood that won't be used... until perhaps a generation later? (Although, Luufi, being her father's daughter, is certain she doesn't want one that color!).

My mom is a seamstress, so Fashkaa's reflections on Batcheela's hood made me smile. I'm guessing that her plan is fulfilled and the top becomes Malani's hood. I hope everyone said ee-cha wa-maa!

It is nice to see that Logray's support and advice helps Teebo overcome his anxiety and that he's able to dance and have fun at the ceremony.

Are we sure Bozzie doesn't secretly have Nature powers, because she seems positively psychic when it comes to Teebo, first predicting he'd marry a pretty girl and now foreseeing his future headdress.

 

Ewok Poet - Intriguing story, here, and an excellent commentary on the occasional oppressiveness of culture and expectations ...

I especially want to applaud the connection between Ewok shamanism and the Force. IIRC, Randy Stradley once claimed that Ewoks couldn't be Jedi, but I find that far too excluding of such a noble and species.

 

Thank you so much for all your wonderful comments. I've decided to post Chapter 3 and the epilogue one after the other, because the next couple of days will be QUITE mad, work-wise.

---

Precisely. There's a lot of sound, bouncing off everything and anything. And he's still confused by that, yet he doesn't know how to say it. Plus, who wouldn't be scared at the option of Bozzie kissing them?

Would've never guessed you're a fan of Logray, a character who thinks the way you do, is big on esoteric and religious and all.

And uncertainities can be a great bond in some cases. I only recently released that many of my own friendships started out like that. And if the characters are open to being healed, they can heal one another.

OMG THAT BLACKED OUT WORD. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAHA.

Go back to the prologue and you'll find the answer for that.

Hey, I told you that thing about that avatar.

And Logray indeed knows that a) sometimes, words are not necessary, b) he has to go step by step with Teebo, but also his own ways of rebuilding trust.

Well, you made an effort and that's respectable and nice of you. Most people would just dismiss it, so...you're cooler than them already.

I recommend the Ewoks cartoon, especially its more mature, better animated and character-driven first season. The plots are fairly simplistic, but the characters are great.

He does not even know what he wants, but knowing what he does not want is a good start. And his colour-to-sound thing, aka chromesthesia, is getting the best of him here and the language the trees and animals use has got to be as creepy, as - say - the auditory hallucinations some of us may get from too much caffeine. O_O

Might have to ask you for some tips later, given that your mom is nice and all. And yes, you guessed it right once again - Fashkaa somehow assumes that Batcheela's expecting and she's right!

The idea of shaved Ewoks comes from a non-canon comic where a complete idiot actually shaves them and then gives them underpants. And they call him lurdo. So, yeah, the word "idiot" is OK to use...they said so themselves.

...and he dances with a wistie!

Bozzie's stereotype thoughts come true.

Bozzie's criticism leads to odd thoughts and those sometimes come true, too.

Thankfully, no nature powers there. Bozzie with nature powers would be...quite scary!

The said connection is in the cartoon and the cartoon came before that comment, so as far as I'm concerned, some Ewok wizards/medicine (wo)men/healers use the Force, while the others are just plain quacks.

If you're interested in their wizardry, I have one complete and one current epic dealing with these characters in their teens - at this point, Teebo is a wizard apprentice and Logray is his master. And yes, they use the term wizard.

 

Chapter 03

The next spring Warok, Batcheela, Teebo and the new baby that arrived shortly before the Harvest Festival finally moved into a proper hut shortly after the glider pilot was finally accepted into the warrior circle, having completed couple more ridiculous tasks. Of course, this required the intervention of Chief Chirpa himself. Bitter as he had always been, Head Elder Kazak then claimed that Batcheela had bribed the leader of the tribe with her famous vegetable stew. But it was only fellow grouches such as old Needoo who trusted him on that. Even Bozzie, the tell-tale of Bright Tree Village, laughed it off.

Lumat, the long-absent carpenter and a friend of Kazak, had come back to the village, with his new wife, Zephee, and a wokling daughter expected to follow him shortly. He stressed that he had not come to help Warok out at all – he wanted his only child to receive his hood at his home village. The villagers were mesmerised – the wokling was exceptionally beautiful and she bore an exceptional amount of head fur, divided to two tiny braids.

“Once she is old enough, she will be promised to Prince Jierhook,” said Lumat to Kazak. The Head Elder just nodded – that was sure going to be praised as a great decision on his Council’s behalf. If he managed to claim it as his own, that is.

“And she is so much prettier than Chirpa’s brat,” he finally said. Lumat did not quite understand why that had been necessary, but he took great pride in the wokling’s looks and just nodded. “I made sure that her hood is something that reflects the status you had here and that you will have again, should you ever decide to come back.”

“I still think we should have arranged her a fitting with…what was the name again?”

“Fashkaa. And it’s not necessary. She is going to adore it.”

That evening, the villagers have gathered underneath the Soul Trees. A handful of woklings were to receive their hoods, amongst them Chief Chirpa’s son that never was – a daughter named Kneesaa with fur as white as snow. They were suspicious, standing there bare-headed among the hooded ones, for the first time realising that they had not truly been Ewoks until that very moment. An orchestra was playing “Knaa Naa", the song of the Soul Trees themselves. Little Teebo, with his shapeless, strappy hood resembling a plain cap, was drumming as best he could. The trees were singing a different melody than the Ewoks surrounding him and he was not sure whom to follow. Similarly, the Firefolk, or the Wisties, as the children of the tribe would more often call them, were flying around, in patterns resembling the stars. He was mesmerised. How come that nobody else was able to see the beauty that was there all along, beyond this very ceremony?

“Drum roll! Drum roll!” He heard Aunt Bozzie yell from behind him. He did not realise that he had stopped drumming at some point. He clumsily picked the brushed bones that he was using as drumsticks and joined the other two little drummer boys. A very small wokling squeaked from the arms of his mother, Shodu Warrick.

“Wicket!” Bozzie pointed the finger at the tiny creature. Shodu frowned. The tribe leader’s sister never behaved like that around her older sons, Weechee and Willy.

Chief Chirpa approached the woklings. His face was glowing with pride – there was his surviving child, standing right before him, the first in line to receive her hood. Standing next to him was the Head Elder Kazak, carrying a handful of small hoods. Sometimes, the young Ewoks would grow out of them within one snow; if they were on a growth spurt, they might rip through the head fabric and require a new one to be made for them. And sometimes they receive them so big that they keep on wearing them far into their adulthood. Such was the case of Lumat’s wife, Zephee. She had not been present at her fitting back in the day.

The leader of the tribe begun his speech. He knew every single word of it by heart and he loved it from the depth of his very heart.

"Tonight we gather here, in the shadows of our sacred Soul Trees, to honour these young Ewoks. Like the trees planted for each of you on your birthday, you have grown strong and tall. Always have the Ewoks and the trees lived together, each protecting the other in times of danger. And this bond will grow, as you now take now your first steps toward your great life with the tribe!"

With these words, he took a pink hood from Kazak’s hands. At first, it seemed that the Head Elder was not willing to let it go, that he wanted it to rip apart between the two of them, but that must have been the heat of the moment.

“There you go, my daughter. Someday you will lead Bright Tree Village!”

Kneesaa was humble, but she could not contain her excitement. This hood had been in the colour of the flowers she used to pick with her mother and sister and the blue gem attached to the head fabric, right above her forehead, was the only memory she had of her older sister, Asha.

The crowd cheered. So did Teebo. He knew Princess Kneesaa and he was hoping that now that she too was a hooded wokling, she would never bite him again. Perhaps they could play with straw dolls or wooden bordoks someday?

Just then, the small wokling in Shodu Warrick’s arms kicked him in the back of the head with his tiny feet.

“Wicket!” Bozzie went again. Shodu smirked and went to sit on the other side.

Five other woklings received their hoods that night and each time, Chief Chirpa had nothing but words of praise for them. The last one in line was the one that most of the villagers had not seen before.

“Is that Lumat’s daughter?” somebody asked.

The wokling nodded and stuck up her nose. The great Chief and his father’s friend were coming her way.

“Latara, the daughter of our Honorary Elder Lumat, who now lives in the Green Haze Village. It’s a great honour to have you here tonight. Don’t ever forget who you are and where you came from, even when you’re far away from your home. Even when you are forever away from home.”

The wokling seemed surprised that he knew her name. He smiled and reached out to the Head Elder. Kazak handed him a pure white hood with an aura blossom woven on it and a pair of lantern bird feathers dangling from the side. Chirpa had not seen it before. Had he seen it, he would have been slightly suspicious of his Elders’ intentions and the message that he was trying to convey. For one, he, not they, was the one supervising Fashkaa.

Nevertheless, the hood soon covered the young girl’s braids and fell over her narrow shoulders, all the way to her ankles. But she was not smiling. She was not looking at the fabric, or seeking water barrels nearby to observe her reflection.

“I don’t like white!” She suddenly screamed at everybody around her. “And I don’t like this stupid flower! I am never going to be white…no offense to you.” She pointed to Kneesaa.

“What is she doing?” Lumat yelled from the crowd. “Daughter, once you have received your hood, you just…don’t walk around hoodless like that!”

“K’vark, father! My name is Latara, and you need to remember that!”

“Did she really say that out loud, in the middle of the Hood Festival? Zephee?” Lumat was horrified.

The grey-furred girl then stomped her feet and stepped on her hood, then she proceeded to tear it apart, right across the middle of the woven blossom.

“You are a princess?” she addressed Kneesaa, who still stood there, clutching the ends of her new pink hood to her chest. “Too bad. I’m so much prettier than you. Why can’t I be a princess?”

Kneesaa was not sure if she was terrified or amazed, if she wanted to be friends with this girl or if she was afraid of her. This Latara, she had the power of a whole herd of bordoks, and she seemed to be surveying the crowd.

Just then, the angry girl smiled. She appeared to have spotted somebody.

“Wait.” She ran back to the remains of her torn hood and recovered a lantern bird feather from it. Oddly enough, they were not damaged.

Teebo had been observing all of this with his mouth wide open. He was not sure what was going on, but the trees seemed to be whispering something in the lines of there being nothing wrong about it. He was recalling the previous year and his wish eventually having been met with respect. Why couldn’t have they done so for Latara?

And just then, he realised that she was walking right up to him, bare-headed, with two lantern bird feathers in her left hand. She stopped before him, cocked her head and observed him. Then she took one of the feathers and stuck it in the notch on the side of his hood.

Her comment did not make much sense to him.

“It looks better that way.”

“G…goopa.” He said. Or at least he thought that he said that. It could have just been a squeak, after all.

“Green eyes.” She turned his head toward her, stopping him from looking away. “Drums. I have a flute, but my father doesn’t like it when I play it.”

Teebo smiled. Nobody liked it when he played drums, and yet there he was, in the wokling orchestra.

“You are cute.” The girl continued. “You would look good next to me. I am going to marry you when I grow up. And if any other girl comes across, I am going to fight her!”

His heart was beating fast. But somehow, he could not hide a smile slowly forming on his face. Nobody had told him anything like that before, or at least nobody who did not colour her lips crimson and nobody without a protruding chest.

“I’m Teebo.” He finally managed to utter, offering her his hand.

“I’m Latara.” She attempted to bow, the way she saw the white-furred princess do it. “Your wife.”

“I don’t want a wife…” he pulled out his hand.

“You do. All boys do! We can play hut and someday –” she leaned to whisper into his ear. “– we can play healers, too. And you’re going to be privileged, because I am the prettiest girl on Endor. Just ask Prince Jierhook…who is uglaay! Nowhere near as cute as you.”

Why was she pulling the words out of his mind, out of his head? The “hut” part, that is. He had no idea what the “healers” part was supposed to mean.

Who was Prince Jierhook? And how come he looked better than him?

And why was he suddenly able to hear what the trees were saying?

“You can see her, through her, above her…but you cannot see beyond her.” The choir of green- and golden-needled conifers echoed inside of his head. “You cannot see beyond her. There is nothing beyond her. She is your brightest star, she is the brightest of the stars.”

And just like that, every single word uttered by the creatures of the forest was no longer gibberish to him. His nature powers had been finally awakened, by the most powerful of them all. Somebody, in her childish sincerity, was the first Ewok to believe in him, other than those whose blood flowed through his veins.

And this was where little Teebo knew that you could not truly see without truly being seen. He would come to the same conclusion many more times and was surer and surer of it each time, but it would always happen with his beloved Latara.

The one time he had been shattered to pieces on the outside and the inside, he needed to be able to see again in order to understand who he became. And to connect his real self to his former self he, once again, needed Latara.

Many years later, the first time they spent the night together, he needed those moments when the Sistermoon would peek from underneath the clouds, to bravely oppose the Cold Metal Moon and to tell him that, yes, many creations of the Spirits themselves were born shy, but that there was no shame in being in love and indulging in love.

And finally, the night they first fell asleep with their newborn daughter nursing between them, he knew why woklings were blind for the first moon of their lives or so.

For everybody had to learn how to see - but before that, they had to be seen.

---

Footnotes

Spoiler

Prince Jierhook and his, Green Haze Village, were entirely made up for this and future stories. The idea of Lumat having temporarily been a nomad and then living in another village where he married Zephee and where they had Latara will be elaborated in another story.

Honorary Elder is a title I made up for "expats".

Kneesaa does get the blue gem from her sister, Asha, as shown in the flashback in the last episode of the first season. The symbolism of the colour pink was made up on spot.

The lantern bird feathers do appear on both Teebo and Latara's hoods during the cartoon series.

Chief Chirpa's speech is taken from the Ewoks pilot, The Cries of the Trees, word for word.

Teebo’s near-death experience happens in the last third of Snowed In.

Latara and Teebo consummate their relationship in The Other Moon.

 

Epilogue

The flame from the hot, spherical metal shape vanished the moment Teebo signalled to his friends that the story was indeed over. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes again. He could not see the pictures forming before the others, but they were playing an equally vivid holo-theatre on the other side of his eyelids, to the point where he did not realise that his eyes had been closed all along.

“Ummm…err…can somebody please turn on the light?” Twig’s tenor broke the silence. “The sensor is not reacting to my hands and I am almost c-completely night blind.”

Teebo clapped. He always thought that a chosen being had to do so, that the bringer of light in a hut was the hut owner, the one that the home spirits would speak to. Now there was the light and his illusion was shattered. Even after so many years of exposure to the Otherworldly Things, he was not quite sure how they worked sometimes, and if they had ever relied on the spirits at all.

As a stark contrast to these doubts, the sight of the four beings in his audience was more than welcome. Latara was smiling broadly, he could see it in her eyes, even though she was trying her best to look disappointed because she had lost the dare.

“Chak, you won, honeydrop. Happy?” She stuck her tongue out again.

“Happy.” He reached out to rub his small nose against her prominent one. Everything else about the two of them was small the other way round, but not their noses.

Twig smiled and lay his head on the woman’s shoulder. There may have been a tear or two forming on his face, but Teebo could not quite tell. It was not as though the Human man did not cry a lot these days, anyway.

“Sorry about that light comment. I had to watch…experience…observe that with my spectacles off...and once the light of your story vanished, I could not find them.” He said. “They allow me to see, but sometimes, they don’t allow me to see, y’know?” He pulled his face into a sheepish grin, much like Batcheela’s. Regardless of the species, some beings smiled just like others, Teebo thought.

But where was Luufi?

And what was that rubbing against his foot from below the table?

He reached out with his right hand and pulled his daughter out of her hiding place. Unsurprisingly – maybe – she was wearing the night blindness-adjusted spectacles.

“I cannot see with these on! Not at all!” she stopped to pout and stick her tongue out, just like her mother would. “Everything is in the strangest of the colours, just like when I cannot sleep and when they are all talking to me, but I don’t know what they’re saying. And it does not resemble anything! But it’s dark down there either way…right?” Disappointed, she handed the spectacles back to Twig.

“It takes time, Luufi.” He blew into the spectacles, and they were foggy again, just like the ceiling had been once Teebo had clouded it with his nature powers before telling his story. “It takes time,” he said again and rubbed the glasses against his partner’s green coat. Now they were translucent once again. “And nobody ever guarantees that you won’t be seeing the fog and clouds again. To chase them away forever, you have to know what you are feeling and what the others are feeling. You have to know.”

“I always knew that mommy was a star.” She begun, oblivious to the expression on Twig’s face when she used that word in that context. “But I never knew that she was the brightest of the stars! And daddy…was that really you? You looked nothing like me and a lot like Theesa!”

Teebo felt that a silent tear was coming, but he then looked at the four smiles before him and he knew that there was no need to cry. Still, Luufi’s confusion was evident.

“That’s a story for some other time, when you’re just a little older than you are right now, Luu.” He said.

“I have a story for you, too. But…but…also when you’re just a little older than you are now.” Twig added. His story could have been even more frightening than Teebo’s and he had just realised that he never told the whole of it to a single person.

“So, what is mommy supposed to do?” the wokling asked again. “She lost the dare!”

“Luufi!” Latara scolded her daughter for the first time that night. “Why did you have to remind us of that?”

Teebo pulled Luufi to himself with his left hand. “I am going to whisper it to you.”

“Chak, daddy! Did I say that right, ‘chak’ as ‘yes’?”

He nodded and proceeded to whisper to her. Luufi then got up and took a jar of jam from the table, walked over to her mother and nonchalantly emptied it on her head.

Latara was caught by surprise. When she was half as young, during the time that she spent denying her feelings for Teebo because youth is strange and sometimes, peer pressure gets the best of everybody, she did not like getting dirty or wet. And somehow, that happened all the time now.

“Teebo! I mean, Luufi!” she screamed. And then she looked up. “Whatever. I deserved this. And I can still see the stars – no, Teebo, not in the way I meant it when we were much younger – and sometimes, that’s enough. After all, swarms of stars surrounding you are better than swarms of bees biting you…when you have jam on your head and all.” Latara winked and some jam dripped from the top of her head got onto her nose. Luufi shrugged and licked it off.

“Mommy, was that Endor enough?” she asked. “Or is this what everybody would call ‘savage’?”

“Wait, is this parenthood?” Twig looked very worried. “I don’t think I will ever be able to have children and I don’t know all that much, but…is this parenthood?”

“I don’t know, try it yourself?”

Teebo and Latara both laughed. Latara got her flute out and started playing, with all that jam still dripping over her face. The Humans proceeded to replicate the scene, smearing a tiny bit of jam on each other’s noses, then licking each other’s noses in turn, eventually determining that this did not make sense to anybody and ultimately calling each other gross.

"Gross and hard to lick anything off his nose. His nose is slightly crooked, you see." The woman said. "He once punched himself in the face and that was the consequence of it."

"But yours is small and cute. And this was not savage, it was only kind of stupid. We should have licked the glass ceiling instead. The swarms of stars.” Twig said and looked at his partner.

She smiled and pointed upwards.

“The stars are like swarms up there when they don’t make sense. But it’s up to us to chart them. They look different from every single spot in the Galaxy, from every single place you are. And, at the end of the day, once the night has fallen, everything is love. Everything.”

The stars are like swarms up there when they don’t make sense. But it’s up to us to chart them. They look different from every single spot in the Galaxy, from every single place you are. And, at the end of the day, once the night has fallen, everything is love. Everything.

---

Footnotes

Spoiler

The first sentence of this should remind you of something else.

A huge thanks to divapilot for her observations in this comment, that made me explore the night-vision glasses symbolism further.

To those who did not read The Other Moon, teenage Latara’s euphemism for sex was “seeing stars with somebody” and, in the previous story, “taking somebody to see the light spirit”.

The last sentence is repeated on purpose.

 

A neat tale - I have fond memories of the Ewoks cartoon, and it's always good to see a happy ending.

Latara's strength is a good compliment to Teebo's insightfulness - thanks again for sharing, Ewok Poet.

 

Hi, I'm here to distract you from your work!

Ch 1

Re-reading this as I review and I appreciate even more how much you capture the way that everyone sees those around them through their own lens. What Kazak, Bozzie, Fashkaa, and the bitey children of the village see is not exactly the real Teebo. Though some of them have a more distorted view than others, of course -- Kazak being the worst as usual! Always the worst. If anything, Batcheela and Logray perhaps come the closest to understanding, and... well, I'm getting ahead of myself here.

But anyway, Kazak. The worst. So full of himself that he can't see people for anything but how well they obey his personal scripts. (Those poor obedient kids of his; perhaps I'm wrong but I can only imagine they're quietly miserable.) And naturally he's deliberately making it difficult for Warok to spend any time with his family when they're in this slightly isolated, not really outcast but not as included as everyone else kind of status.

On to something much cuter. I love the description of how Teebo experiences the world as a wokling. Though it's not completely without trouble thanks to him not understanding the talking trees etc., there's also a magical tinge to his early life as described here.

So lovely and foresty! I've been to the sort of redwood forest that parts of Endor are set in, and the idea of the trees literally (sort of) speaking in the background and the warmth of Teebo and his mother cuddling is wonderful.

I do feel bad for Teebo, being an old soul amongst all the bitey woklings. But it's quite the image, especially when we later learn that Kneesaa was one of those incorrigible little chompers! Interesting that he already has a certain knack with animals, being able to convince the munyips to help him out with his anklebiter troubles.

Oh, here's another detail that I missed on the first read-through! Teebo noticing the stars reflected in the water... that's our first actual glimpse of him and it reappears several times before the end. (And in a really major way.) Nifty!

Bozzie really has no brain-to-mouth filter at all, does she? Or at least sees no need for it, which works out the same in the end. She's very much the Bozzie that I remember from Snowed In, all gossip and no particular ill-will -- but you'd want to gnaw off limbs to escape by the time she's done talking. Her blather reveals a lot about Bright Tree Village and its social expectations, so it's actually very interesting to me as a reader. She's almost incapable of seeing other than what she expects to see -- of course young Teebo is pretty because of how his parents weren't married at the time (weird superstition and I can see how it seems kind of a backhanded compliment), of course he wants to be a warrior, of course Logray is a menace to polite society! Because that's what everyone says. Or at least what everyone in her circles says.

Yup, already an astute judge of character it seems. Though oddly enough, Bozzie seems to have a touch of that same predictive power that we've seen among other characters in your stories. Teebo's going to grow up to be a warrior and marry a pretty girl, huh?


Ch 2

Even though she's not the most perceptive when it comes to little kids, I found myself liking Fashkaa quite a bit. She means well, and just has her mind already on her artistic visions for the future. (Visions which I think eventually come true, thanks to others for noticing because I probably would have missed it.)

Aww.

Considering all that is sometimes associated with red in Star Wars, this is an interesting reaction for Teebo to have. Of course, it could be and probably mostly is his intuition telling him that a warlike persona isn't right for him. Which is also true, though we know that his outer appearance does end up quite intimidating in later years. But he's always been more than that as well.

Liked this bit of dialogue. It's good that Batcheela has such patience with Teebo and really tries to make sure he's okay even when she doesn't quite know what the problem is. She definitely sees his shyer, more thoughtful personality and is trying the best she can to help and not just push him the way some others do.

Considering how much Bozzie and Fashkaa bother him all on their own, I can just imagine how intimidating the idea of the whole village (THE WHOLE VILLAGE OH NOES ) watching him is for Teebo.

Of course Teebo ends up running to the one place that he really needed to be at this point. I like how there's almost a Platform 9 3/4 effect here, where one doesn't normally notice Logray's hut. Though the way things are with the village clearly has something to do with that too.

Logray is great here, I really like how his being willing to listen is as much the key to drawing out Teebo's problem as any shared Force sensitivity. He may be a recluse (not entirely by choice), but he's got a compassionate heart and that makes him easier to talk to than most. The revelation that there's another Ewok with nature powers around is as important (or more so) to Teebo's future mentor as it is to him. Being the only one would have to be very lonely, and Logray apparently discovered his abilities pretty much on his own. That's a pretty heavy responsibility, especially with the whole Zarrak incident.

Anyway, his advice to Teebo is my second favorite thing in the whole story.

So true, and so Logray as well. And it's neat that they're able to come up with a solution for Teebo's dislike for the red hood as well. Glad that both Batcheela and Logray helped Teebo stick to his guns and insist on the fabric that he liked instead.

Can't imagine it, Bozzie!

Teebo dancing with his shadow and Logray sending the Wistie is a cool image -- there's so much uncertainty and potential for his future, but Teebo does have this sort of quiet happiness.

 

A wonderful ending to another wonderful story

Young Latara certainly knows what she wants ! I was literally laughing out loud at her outspokenness at the Hood Ceremony. She and Teebo are opposites in many ways, but the parallels between them show in their respective Hood Ceremonies. Neither of them were consulted about what they wanted, and were given hoods according to what their elders dictate their roles should be: a blood-red warrior's hood for Teebo and a fancy white princess's hood for Latara. Teebo needs the support of his mother and Logray before he can express what he wants, but Latara...she's not afraid to tell EVERYONE!

And speaking of not being afraid to tell everyone:

I love the way she instantly claims him as her own, despite his protests, and plans to play "hut" and "healer" (oh, Latara, you naughty wokling!) Suddenly the world and the language of the trees makes sense to Teebo; he's found his brightest star.

There really is something special when you make that connection with someone who has no reason to love you, save that you are you.

The rest of the chapter and the epilogue are such lovely and poetic meditations on love. I am in awe of your eloquence

Yes, Twig...parenthood is full of gross, funny, silly and unexpected moments...that you wouldn't trade for anything. Latara has a point that you really have to try it to fully appreciate it.

Once again, I always love seeing my Ewok OTP TEEBO 'N' LATARA 4 EVAH!

 

Ch 3

So much sourface! Glad that no one's listening, this time around.

Interesting to see Latara's early days in the village like this, since her being new and a stranger makes for a very different (and yet similar) experience to what Teebo had at the time of his ceremony. One can tell that her father and Kazak see her mainly as a bargaining chip that can be exchanged for influence at some point in the future. Of course, we do start to see the personality factors that mean that intended betrothal isn't too likely to be happening, just as soon as Latara herself takes center stage at her hood ceremony.

That would make it difficult to stay in sync -- Teebo literally walks to the beat of a different drum than the others. And of course he's the one to notice the star-like Wisties drifting by while everyone else is focused on the social goings-on of the moment.

Tiny squeaky Wicket!

Liked the background on hoods and how they are (or are not) presented and replaced. Those ones that last for the entire lifetime must be really durable -- which shouldn't surprise me, given the subtle technological wizardry that underlies a lot of things among the Ewoks. There does seem to be something sad about how Zephee wasn't present for her own fitting; given the way her life has gone, that seems to hint that she wasn't given a lot of freedom even before marrying Lumat. Though perhaps it was due to some other circumstance that we don't know about, it does make me think of how Latara is kind of being packaged as Future Bride of Important Dude even at this childhood rite of passage.

Aww, this is really sweet and a little sad. I love how there's some representation of the family members who can't be there -- though one is a bit less gone forever than anyone realizes. Neat that the gem thing is canon too.

Princess Kneesaa, toddler terror!

Another of those accidental prophecies, I think. But good words to remember in any case. Nifty reference to the title of something else in a far-removed corner of this universe as well; that was cool and unexpected.

And then Hurricane Latara crashes into the village! Thus completely abandoning the mystique that her "managers" were attempting to build -- and thank goodness for that. The total outspokenness without thought (except hilarious afterthought in Kneesaa's direction ) is so classic to what we know she grows up to be like! Though I think in this case, it's probably a volcanic explosion that's been building up for quite some time... Lumat really should pay attention to the warning signs, but of course he's convinced that he knows/can rewrite his child's wishes. And Latara's having none of it. Everyone's going to remember her name or they're going to hear about it.

How to win friends and influence people. (Well, it does work for Latara, as it turns out. )

Honestly, I could have just quoted this whole chapter. Baby Latara is a ferocious, antisocial little furball of wonder and awe. Liked how there's that moment of understanding that they both aren't exactly what everyone around would like them to be -- but they like their own and each other's quirks. Also, so much squee that we now know Teebo's signature feather was a gift from Latara. That's a great detail!

Lovely! This is that favorite section of the story that I mentioned previously. That star motif again, of course. It fits so well that this moment of enlightenment happens in the midst of all Latara's flirty babbling -- there's so much more to her, but this too is a part of her character. She's the brightest of the stars with all her eccentricities and differences from him, not in spite of them. And that this is what brings Teebo's nature powers into clearer focus is really awesome, because it's not the lack of emotion but the presence of a different sort of balance that makes the Force light up for him. What Teebo needs is to be seen as he is, and that, somehow is what Latara manages here. Or so I'm thinking!

It's so perfect that Latara is in a way the first person to love Teebo unconditionally -- with the exception of people like his parents and Logray who have a specific, pre-existing bond or reason to care for him. Not that they don't care just as much, but it's a different sort of caring. Latara's love is basically a freely given gift from her that in the end, just is.

Gorgeous before-the-epilogue ending! Really liked the connection to The Other Moon and more future events.


Epilogue

This is fascinating, and I like how that and Twig's night-blindness, and the spectacles (Hapan relatives, if I remember right?) continue the seeing/unseeing theme of the ending of the last chapter.

Honeydrop! Some things never change.

Luufi's reaction to the story and the unusual magic/tech needed to perceive it is really interesting -- and symbolic, of course. She still has a lot to figure out and that's reflected in how the story works for her. Anyway, really enjoyed hearing her take on things. Teebo's childhood self would be a weird contrast since she's used to his adult looks. And of course her mom is a star.

Family bonding time, always a hazard. And of course these particular Humans take them at their word and give the jam thing a try.

Congrats on a great story!

 

I apologise for having taken way too long to respond to these comments, but given how long and detailed they were, I kind of chickened out and went about postponing it...and postponing it...and postponing it. I did not expect such a reaction to this story and I am grateful and honoured that you liked it. Thank you, thank you, thank you - all of you.

---

This is where I have to apologise for my previous reply to your comment in this thread - I always assume that people have not seen the cartoon (or that they would not admit to it) and I shouldn't have "dealt in absolutes". And now I'm super-happy that there's another Ewoks fan on here, not counting those I converted.

And those two make a match BECAUSE they're so different, yet they have a couple of things in common. It would not work if there were not these abstract threads connecting them, a reep-web of such little things.

OMG EVIL KAHARA.

I mean, d'awww...you're the sweetest and kindest, ever.

Teebo is rare in more ways than one and one thing that this life taught me is that beings who are odd combos of traits will have a hard time adjusting to...pretty much everything. His mother loves him, but doesn't necessarily understand every single thing he says and does. Logray understands Teebo and, further on, helps others understand him, too.

Quietly miserable is an understatement!

Kazak is a long-term planner of things that won't benefit anybody. He's like this parody of the Republican Party from the Simpsons' episode Bart Gets an Elephant:

I envy you on having been there and I never ever envy people when it comes to things other than food. Mmmm...food.

And "foresty" is such a lovely compliment to this, as that's what I wanted. Something...ambiental.

I was inspired by a little girl who was biting me on my elbow all the time. As an adult, she's quite responsible and intelligent. So, having the sweet and mature Kneesaa as an anklebiter was super-fun.

HE'S DISTRACTED BY THE SHINY.

In all seriousness, the shiny, supernatural things and the stars always appear in Teebo's presence throughout the show - like in the scene somebody painted for the image I use as my avatar, with him and Queen Izrina of the Wisties. And a different kind of shiny - material shiny is often connected to Latara - from her necklace from the very beginning of the series, to bling-bling and pure greed later on. Another thing that connects them on an abstract level.

In addition to this, the moment with Teebo in the water is the foreshadowing for the moment in Snowed In when he looks in the water in the barrel, sees himself and figures out who he is. He faces himself, which he does not do here, as what matters to him as a wokling in the wash tub are these imaginary paths among the stars - not that that won't have significance in further stories, too.

Quoting myself in Chapter 25 of that story...

He reached out the window to take it back, solely to realise his hand was wet. Somebody placed a barrel of rainwater in front of their main chamber's window opening. He had to lean through the window to reach for the carving and, unexpectedly, came face to face with what he'd been afraid of seeing for a while – his own face. Staring back at him from the rippled surface of the water in the barrel was a large black and grey striped Ewok with somewhat bigger teeth, a gurreck headdress and now a gurreck teeth necklace.​

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Suddenly, everything made sense to him.​

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He remembered the scariest of the futures from his visions, the one where there was darkness followed by light and where the last picture that came to his mind was Latara, falling asleep on the shoulder of a dark striped Ewok, playing with a strange trinket. It was this very necklace.​

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The darkness, the mean look, the new fur...it had been him all along.​

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That was the point where he first realises that he could be BOTH what is expected of him and what he wants to be.

Bozzie and Maris Inesedam-Vorr = best friends. Funny enough, they DO share their personality type...

...but so does Emy Kaeni - she is an example of a healthy ISTJ, as opposed to these two who are unhealthy ISTJs: Emy does not immediately express emotions, rather loyalty, keeps her judgement for herself etc. Then again, she works in tourism, she could not be scaring her own guests away, which Maris and Bozzie would in her position.

And I shared this because she's in your long-due award fic and all...sorry for the semi-necessary tangent here. XD

She is a "regular" whose only actual quality is being Chirpa's sister. Otherwise, she'd be just one of those evil aunts that come to your house and tell you that your cooking sucks, that the carpet is dirty and so on. And she'd be the "you're pretty" rather than "you're smart" kind of a compliment-er.

But yes, she sometimes reveals more about others than she would or could about herself - because gossip is only second to nagging among her hobbies.

Even a stopped clock...

And I wanted to play with the "society's expectations" thing as Teebo does all of that, but in ways far deeper and more subtle than somebody would expect. His path is a tangled one, through the thorns, beings like Bozzie see only straight lines.

Paploo and Bozzie are polar opposites in terms of how they think and process their emotions, but they both don't have the filter, plus they're a mother and a son, so...of course they'd pick some of each other's "qualities" and of course than an intuitive little Teebo would notice. Then again, it's visible from the outer space.

Yup, she sort of knows that Batcheela is pregnant with Malani. Perhaps she can feel it (insert one of those clichéy comments about how pregnant women have that glow or whatever), perhaps she sees how often Warok is absent thanks to those stupid tasks assigned by Kazak and that it's very likely that the two have some particularly passionate reunions every now and then.

The last sentence kind of says it all, but there's more - Yehan, who had a different life and is more classic warrior-like (he does end up being a proper warrior) gets that exact hood Teebo didn't want and Luufi, in the prologue to this story, expresses her dislike for the colour as well. She makes all those comparisons, too.

And the hood is also "tight around Teebo's neck" - the expectations are smothering him, much like Bozzie, Fashkaa and the anklebiters do. Even when they mean well, because he's not that well-adjusted yet - after all, he thinks something's wrong with him, in a bad way.

The whole village AND that awkward moment right before you've received the hood - you're not wearing anything in front of everybody, and you are old enough to wear it. Teebo's fears function that way and losing all of his foor and his initial "outfit" in Snowed In, depending on those around him to be warm enough, to eat, go to the outhut etc - it helps him realise that it's okay to be helpless and "nude" in whatever symbolic way. As a healer, he does not mind hoodless Ewoks, body parts, helping Logray deliver woklings - but when he is the one in "danger" or danger - it's EEEK.

So, it's like...

THE WHOLE VILLAGE OF THOSE THAT MOCK ME AND TEASE ME...AND A HOODLESS ME, OH NOES!

That was a great comparison! And also shows how obvious things can be ignored for a long time - whether they're abstract, material...or both.

Logray may have lost some credibility - or a lot of it - after that thing with Zarrak and he probably blamed himself for not having been able to see it. Teebo helps him gain trust in others as much as he helps Teebo do the same. And eventually, they trust each other enough to take the risk of a master/apprentice relationship.

...and with my comments regarding Snowed In above, it fits. Good catch!

Yeah, me neither!



What's funny is how those theatrical, over-the-top comments of Bozzie's come true...as I said above, by accident. She expects the "worst" from those who don't follow the straight and narrow path, and her "worst" might not necessarily be the worst.

He may be distracted by supernatural shiny, glowing things, but he's finally allowing himself to, in a way, be just another happy wokling, too.

Plus...there's a reason for it...



I love that song, shame Andy Gibb had such a short life. And some of the lyrics make sense in the T/L relationship, too, from Teebo's POV.

Look at how l8 the comment replies are.

As Cushy said once, Latara is an "It girl" type. But a very complex It girl at it...

You nailed it - and that's what I said to Kahara above. Their commonalities might not always be obvious, other than their love for art, but their individuality and their intuition might be the second most obvious.

And yes, yes, such couples are SQUEEEEE!

Nothing to add here, you got it all right and the suspicions are correct...plus OF COURSE SHE WILL LIKE IT, SHE IS A GIRL, GIRLS ACCEPT EVERYTHING WITHOUT EVEN ATTEMPTING TO QUESTION IT.

Yes, and he immediately connects it to his own situation the year before.

Yup. Her intuition works in a different way from Teebo's and Latara's - deep, rather than wide, but that, paired with her objectivity, produces the same non-judgemental result as it does in Teebo. In fact, Teebo is probably more likely to be judgemental than Kneesaa, every now and then.

And Latara DID offend her, mind you.

A marabu in torchlight, I'd say...hey, I need to use that in some story, thanks for (un)expected brainstorming.

And yes - and he needs to be understood in both of those ways.

Basically, Teebo needed something concrete, mortal, material to help him make sense of the world - both abstract and concrete. And of course, that one thing is a primary emotion - love. As unknown as the space and stars themselves. <3

That and the stars, rebirths, reinventions and poisonous plants....are my thing, yes. DANKEGRAZIETAK.

Yup...which was, in addition, a way to show that the two species have more in common that they do not.

Those are all a nod to divapilot 's PERFECT comment on a different story. I meditated over that for weeks and I have it copied and pasted in my Evernote, so many great things came out of it.

That was the very idea, all right.

THIS IS SPARTARENTHOOD.

The "gross" thing will be reappearing in other stories, too. It's an inside joke. You'll see.

They indeed are. And the last two sentences KILLED IT.

*takes a bow and falls into the bowl*

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Replies to continue in the next post, to avoid too much BBCode, just in case Xenforo decides to have a hiccup again, the number of quotes and/or smileys is limited, or whatev'.