Promises Page 4
who growled and snarled madly.
"Tahiri," he said roughly, "are you all right?"
"Fine," Tahiri replied in a voice still coated with sleep. Together
they were pushed toward Sliven, who sat alone in the sands.
What is going on? Anakin thought, trying to control the confusion he
felt at their treatment.
"It must be time," Tahiri replied.
Anakin saw that pale pink scribbles of dawn had bathed the golden
sands in soft rose. Some wake-up call, he thought grumpily. Sliven nodded
once at Anakin and Tahiri, then allowed five Raiders to take them to their
waiting banthas. The large animals stood silently, their long, shaggy brown
coats curling down to the sand. The Jedi candidates were barely settled
aboard Bangor when a loud grunt signaled the banthas to ride. Anakin noted
that Tahiri didn't look back at Sliven as they started across the dunes
with a dull kick of sand. He didn't see Tionne watching as they raced off,
a small humanoid Jedi Knight surrounded by a crowd of Raiders. If Anakin
had seen Tionne, he would have been alarmed at the look of worry and fear
written across her features. A day passed, then another. The only sounds in
the desert were the crunch of ban.tha hooves. The terrain stretched out
endlessly as Bangor followed the five Raiders deeper into the desert. The
group stopped twice each day-once during the sweltering heat of midday to
sip water and eat brown lumps of food, which tasted vile and which Anakin
didn't want identified, and at night, when the suns set and the desert
became so cold that his fingers grew numb.
Then Anakin huddled with Tahiri beneath the thin blanket the Raiders
provided. That afternoon, the group had climbed quickly through low, sand-
colored mountains. Anakin had sensed fear in the fierce Raiders. He'd been
too hot and tired to ask Tahiri 'what they could possibly be afraid of.
Now, as they lay against Bangor for warmth beneath the dark covers of the
night sky, Anakin was once again too exhausted to talk. He watched Tahiri
scratch her bantha's scruffy neck. The creature stared at Tahiri with soft
brown eyes, and Anakin could sense the bond between them. He fell off into
a dreamless sleep. Thoughts of how he and Tahiri were going to survive in
the desert without food and water slid unanswered to the sand. They would
wait in this spot until tomorrow. There was no water in the Dune Sea. Not
that Anakin had expected any as they traveled through the sea-a vast desert
expanse that stretched thousands of kilometers. It was hard to believe that
an area could be more barren than the desert and the Jundland Wastes.
But the Dune Sea was, Anakin thought bleakly as he scanned the never-
ending sand. Midway through the third day, the Raiders began to travel more
slowly, cautiously. What could be dangerous out here? Anakin wondered. His
thoughts were cut short when one of the Raiders barked and all the banthas
halted. Must be time for lunch, he thought without relish. Anakin slid off
Bangor and gave Tahiri a hand down. The heat of the day hadn't lessened
with the onset of afternoon. Tahiri's hair was matted down with sweat, and
her lips had begun to crack from the beating rays of the suns. As the two
children sank to the ground, one of the Raiders grabbed Bangor's lead rope
and drew the bantha toward him. Then, in a flash, the Raiders remounted
their banthas and tore away from Anakin and Tahiri, bathing them in a
prickling shower of sand. Neither moved as they watched the Raiders race
into the distance. They saw Bangor struggle to pull away from the line, to
return to Tahiri, but he was held firmly to the group. The Raiders topped a
dune and disappeared from view.
Anakin scanned the Dune Sea through squinting eyes. He and Tahiri sat
in the center of an unending desert. Above them the twin suns of Tatooine
beat down relentlessly. There were no life-forms in sight. Just sun and
sand. Sand and sun.
"Any suggestions?" Anakin asked Tahiri.
"By night, the tracks left by the banthas will be covered by blowing
sand," Tahiri began. "Let's follow them until they disappear. At least
that'll head us in the right direction."
"It's a start," Anakin said feebly. "What about food and water?"
Tahiri replied, "That will depend on what we come across."
There was a hard glint in her green eyes. Anakin couldn't help
remembering something he'd read about the Sand People. Survival was the
rule. Survival at all costs. He began to trudge beside Tahiri. They rose
and fell over the dunes, their eyes never leaving the bantha prints, which
were already beginning to fade beneath the blowing sands. Hours passed, and
the twin suns of Tatooine began to set. And then, without warning, the
trail disappeared and Anakin and Tahiri were left alone, truly alone.
Or were they? Anakin wondered as a sense of danger raced down his
spine like lightning. Were they alone?
The sand beneath Anakin's feet began to shift. Before he had the
chance to run, the desert floor rumbled and shook. Tahiri lost her balance
and fell beside him, then began to roll downward, toward a pit of sand
several meters away that neither Jedi candidate had noticed in the fading
light.
"What's happening?" Anakin yelled.
Tahiri's hands clawed at the sand as she continued to slide away from
her friend. Her small fingers ran through the grains like water. Then her
legs dropped over the edge of the pit, and in a flash she disappeared from
view. Anakin threw himself forward, staring into the pit. Tahiri's fall had
been broken by a small dirt ledge, a meter from the edge. Anakin reached
for her, his fingers just managing to grasp her hand. He tried to pull her
back up the sandy hill, but it was all he could do to hold her in place.
Tahiri's frightened green eyes locked on. Anakin's. He pulled harder, and
slowly he began to draw her out of the pit. Tahiri dug her knees into the
dirt walls and scrambled up the sliding terrain.
Suddenly, Tahiri's feet shot out from beneath her. She struggled as
she lost her footing, then gave a small cry as she slid back down to the
ledge.
"Give me your hand!" Anakin called to his friend.
Tahiri reached up again. But something made her turn the instant
before their fingers met. When she did, fear rolled over her in a tidal
wave and she dropped to her knees and out of Anakin's reach. A thick, puce-
colored tentacle emerged from the depths of the pit and snaked through the
air. Tahiri froze in terror.
The tentacle whipped through the pit, searching for the prey it had
sensed. Three more tentacles snaked upward and joined the first.
"Tahiri, grab my hand!" Anakin cried. Still his friend didn't move. I
can't reach her, Anakin thought with growing frustration and terror. Anakin
crawled forward on his stomach, dug his toes into the sand, and leaned:into
the pit.
He reached down and grabbed at Tahiri's jumpsuit. The creature in the
pit sensed his movement, and tentacles lashed toward the Jedi candidates.
Anakin stopped breathing, his fingers frozen on Tahiri's suit. The
tentacles brushed along the walls of the pit, searching, searching. I've
got to get her out of here, Anakin thought. He could barely control his
panic as he watched the tentacles draw nearer. Tahiri slowly turned to her
friend.
"What is it?" Anakin mouthed to Tahiri. Tahiri shook her head. She had
no idea what the creature was, only that it wanted to wrap them in its
tentacles and draw them downward. It doesn't matter what it is, Anakin
thought. He could sense the creature's hunger.
"Climb," Anakin mouthed to Tahiri.
She didn't move. She was frozen in panic, her green eyes were fixed on
the tentacles as they danced through the air. Anakin tightened his grip on
Tahiri's arms until she turned to face him again.
"Climb," he said again. This time his ice blue eyes flashed, and his
word was a command that rang with the power of the Force. Immediately,
Tahiri turned and began to scramble up the dirt and sand wall behind her.
Anakin drew her up, helping her keep her balance when she slid. He could
sense the creature's tentacles moving toward them. The moment Tahiri's
hands reached the edge of the pit, Anakin leaned back and yanked her out.
Then they ran. Anakin and Tahiri ran until the creature and the pit
were four dunes behind them and their lungs ached. And when they fell to
the sand, gasping for breath and sweating in the stillness of the desert
night, they didn't notice the cold. All they saw was the beauty of the
stars, and all they felt was the relief of their own freedom. And when
sleep swept over them like the blowing of the desert sand, they gave
themselves up to its hands.
Anakin awoke, facedown, in the warm desert sands of Tatooine. He felt
his belly rumbling in hunger, and his throat burned with thirst. Sand clung
to his eyelashes and crusted along his mouth. He reached up to wipe the
grains from his face. His senses came alive. He smelled their company
before he saw them.
"Anakin, we've got a slight problem," Tahiri said softly as she rolled
to face her friend. She motioned with her head toward the brown-robed
creatures that stood in a circle around them.
"What are they?" Anakin asked as he wrinkled his nose. Whatever the
beings were, they smelled rotten, he thought.
"Jawas," Tahiri whispered. Anakin remembered hearing about the
scavenger race from his uncle Luke. Jawas were rodent - like beings that
traveled in bands, searching for wrecked ships to salvage, vehicles to
steal, and discarded hardware to collect. Anakin studied the meter-tall
creatures. There were ten of them, and they jabbered and pointed at him and
Tahiri, their yellow eyes glowing.
"I think they're trying to figure out if we're worth something or if
they should just leave us in the desert," Anakin said. If the Jawas left
them, he thought, he and Tahiri would die of thirst, hunger, and exposure.
The Jawas moved toward the two Jedi. Tahiri rose to her feet.
"Careful," Anakin whispered.
"They aren't really dangerouLs," Tahiri said softly.
"In fact, they usually like humans, because we're the ones they sell
their scavenged material to."
"I'd be willing to bet that we don't exactly look like paying
customers," Anakin grumbled as he stood up. The Jawas quickly decided that
Anakin and Tahiri weren't worth bothering with and began to walk away.
"Strange that they're walking," Tahiri murmured.
"They usually travel in sandcrawlers."
"What are sandcrawlers?" Anakin asked with interest.
"They're huge ore haulers that human miners brought to Tatooine years
ago. They expected to make a fortune in the Wastelands. But they discovered
that there's not much worth mining out here. So, they left the haulers and
the Jawas took them. Jawas use the sandcrawlers to find and collect metals
and wrecked machinery. The deserts here are full of junk. Galactic battles
have been fought near Tatooine for hundreds of years. And whatever falls
from space and lands here is preserved by the dry climate. Jawas find
wrecked ships, droids, and other machinery, which they fix and sell in Mos
Eisley or to moisture farmers in the desert."
Tahiri watched silently as the Jawas walked away from them.
"Anakin, let's follow them," she suggested with a glint in her eye.
"Wherever they're camped, there's got to be food and water."
Anakin and Tahiri began to tag along with the Jawas. If they noticed,
they didn't turn around.
"At least we're heading toward the Jundland Wastes," Anakin noted with
a nod toward the mountain peaks that had appeared as they crested a dune.
"So why do they smell so bad?" Anakin asked Tahiri as they trudged
through the sand.
"Sliven once told me that the Jawas love their smell," Tahiri began.
"They use scent to identify each other, to sense health, anger, or sadness.
To us, they stink. But to them, scent is information."
"I wonder what information they got about us," Anakin said. He didn't
need Tahiri to answer. Fear, hunger, thirst, confusion; that about summed
up their smells. Over an hour later, the Jawas stopped walking.
"Must be home sweet home," Anakin said as he spied what had to be a
sandcrawler. The machine was a dull brown, its hull ravaged by wind storms
and the suns' rays.
"If they've got that thing, why walk for hours in the sand?" Anakin
asked Tahiri.
"It must not be working," Tahiri said as she squinted at the
sandcrawler.
"Sandcrawlers are pretty old. And even though Jawas are good
mechanics, sometimes a machine just stops working and can't be fixed."
"I bet I could fix it," Anakin said softly as he walked toward the
vehicle. The Jawas let out alarmed cries and raced to block Anakin's path
to the sandcrawler.
"That is," Anakin added, "if they'd let me near it."
"Hey, guys," Anakin said with a smile. "I'm not going to hurt your
sandcrawler, I just want to try to fix it for you."
He watched as one of the Jawas lifted a canteen to his lips and drank
deeply before passing the water to another.
"How about if I fix it, and you guys give my friend and me some of
that water?" Anakin wheedled. The Jawas didn't reply. In fact, they ignored
him. Anakin thought about the time Tahiri had been drowning in the river on
Yavin 4 and he'd used his voice and the Force to command her to struggle,
to swim. Could he do the same thing with the Jawas?
Tahiri saw the glint in Anakin's ice blue eyes.
"What is it?" she asked. "I was just thinking that maybe I could use
the Force to command the Jawas to let me into their sandcrawler. If I can
fix it, maybe they'll give us a ride to the Jundland Wastes, and some food
and water... It's a dumb idea, right?" Anakin said in embarrassment.
Tahiri replied slowly.
"You've done it before, and I think it's our best chance. You've got
to try."
Tahiri gave a sharp whistle and the Jawas turned to face the Jedi
students.
"Here goes nothing," Anakin murmured as he faced the Jawas. "Let me
into the sandcrawler," he said in a soft voice. The Jawas jabbered, but
not, was their most valued possession.
"Let me pass," Anakin said more strongly. One of the Jawas moved
aside, but the others let out a string of sounds and the creature stopped
in his tracks. It's not working, Anakin said to himself in frustration. His
throat burned from speaking, and his head felt light with hunger. I've got
to calm myself, got to believe that I can succeed, he thought. Anakin
closed his eyes, and the next time he spoke his voice carried the power of
the Force.
"LET ME PASS, NOW!" he called. The Jawas moved aside. Anakin walked
toward the vehicle, his ice blue eyes glinting in the midday sun. He
climbed inside and disappeared from view. Tahiri trotted after her friend
and followed him inside the sandcrawler. It reeked. Anakin tried not to gag
at the stink inside the vehicle. He sensed that Tahiri, too, was trying not
to let the smell overcome her. Anakin had never been inside a sandcrawler,
but he'd also never seen anything mechanical that he couldn't figure out.
When he was only two, he'd amazed his brother and sister, the twins Jaina
and Jacen, by taking apart a droid. and putting it back together. He
quickly found the control panel deep within the vehicle and began to
tinker.
"Can you fix it?" Tahiri asked her friend. Anakin ran his hands along
the tangle of cables and wires that trailed from the control panel.