Disclaimer: Not mine. I'm just playing. I'll put'em back when I'm done.

Rating: G

Synopsis: In the end, he does remember his mother.

As the early morning broke, the village had eventually quieted down and most had either passed out or gone to bed. The smoke of the nightly torches still hung in the air along with the scent of various beverages of alien and human design. The waking forest around the village seemed to promise a better tomorrow and the birds and other flying creatures waking up from their sleep seemed to know that things had changed over night. Their song, as alien as it might be, seemed to proclaim the change with every warble, every twitter and screech.

On one of the many catwalks, away from the main part of the village, Luke Skywalker was standing, hands resting on the low railing. The brightening sky held a promise of peace and friendship, but he also knew that their troubles were far from over. Now was a time to rebuild, to start over. It would take work. A lot of work. But he had hope. Things were going in the right direction. Within a short time, the Rebel Alliance would become a manifested governing body. Something to turn to.

He heaved a deep breath, enjoying the clean fresh air that filled his lungs. The ache of the Emperor's onslaught was still in his body and the sadness at the loss of his father just when he had won him back filled his mind with a greyness that had threatened to suffocate the happiness at their victory. But he hadn't let it. He had fought the depressing darkness that was about to settle on his mind and had instead rejoiced with his friends and his sister. He was no longer all alone in the universe. The fact that Leia was his sister had both pleased him and made him a little sad. Ever since he had laid eyes on her hologram that first time in his uncle's garage, he had been in love with her. He still was, but his love had changed to a brotherly one.

With a smile he pushed away from the railing and wandered toward the hut the ewoks had assigned him. Han had the hut right next to his and there was no doubt in Luke's mind, that Han was not alone in there now. He chanced a glance before entering his own hut. The two of them were deeply asleep and Han couldn't have looked more content. Luke's own hut was - after ewok standard - not very big, but cozy.

He kicked off his boots, briefly letting his conscious mind skim Leia's sleeping mind and that brought another smile to his lips. She was happy. Shrugging out of his tunic, he dropped down on the cot prepared for him and folded his hands behind his head. The roof above him let the first rays of the sun through several cracks and as he lay there, tired and content, Leia's words of the previous night came back to him. The words she had said about their mother. "She was very beautiful. Kind but...sad!" The sadness he could understand. For the umpteenth time in his life, he wondered what she had looked like, his mother. Had she been like Leia? Small and delicate but with an inner strength that could move mountains? Or had she been like him? He had thought he could recognize a little of himself in his father's pale, tormented face. The eyes had been blue like his. Perhaps his hair had also been blond in his younger days. The spirit image of his father had been older and had not given him an accurate image of what his father had looked like when he had been a young man.

With a sigh, he decided to put these thoughts aside. He would never know his mother. He had no recollection of her and could not begin to imagine what she had looked like. Leia remembered very little of her and would probably not be able to give him an accurate image of her. He closed his eyes, letting sleep creep over him and as he felt himself slipping away from the world he was on, his subconscious mind remembered...

***

After another day with a sandstorm, Luke was finally allowed to go back up to the surface while the droids were busy shoveling sand out of the courtyard. Standing up there, at the edge of the sunken courtyard, he looked up at a blinding blue sky which almost burned his young eyes. He had just turned six and another birthday had passed without much notice.

"Luke, get down here and help out," uncle Owen called, his voice once again vibrating with that edge that he always seemed to have when he was talking to the boy.

"Oh, Owen. Let him go," aunt Beru interfered, padding her husband on the shoulder. "He's a boy. He want's to explore."

Luke glanced down into the courtyard and Beru smiled up at him, waving with one hand. He briefly waved back, then ran out to the perimeter to try and spot sandpeople. They usually came close to the settlings after sandstorms. But there were none this day. Instead there was a landspeeder heading in his general direction. He screwed up his eyes to see better and decided that it was definitely coming toward him.

As visitors were a rare occasion this far out, Luke felt excitement bubble up in him. He turned and ran back to the edge of the courtyard. "Uncle Owen. Somebody's coming," he called down, waving a hand in the general direction of the speeder.

Owen looked up from his attempts to clear out the courtyard, a look of caution on his face. "Get down here, boy. You never know who it might be," he ordered and started toward the stairs.

Luke felt disappointment rise in him and he quickly glanced at his aunt, sending her a begging look. "It's better for you to come down here, Luke. You're uncle is right." She waved him down, noting the disappointment and feeling for him. He so much wanted something to happen and nothing ever did. And then when it did come, he wasn't allowed to meet it.

Discouraged and slightly angry, the small boy stomped down the steps to the courtyard and followed his aunt into the house. "You can meet whoever it is if they turn out to be friendly. But you know we have to be careful," Beru explained, leading him to his room.

Brooding, Luke dropped down on his bed, picked up one of his model planes and started racing it around in the air. "I'm never allowed to do anything," he mumbled to himself.

After Beru had left the house again, there was a brief moment of silence. Then he heard voices from the main living area. Uncle Owen sounded upset, even though Luke couldn't hear what he was saying. He dropped the model and snug up to the door and opened it a little.

"You shouldn't have come here. It's dangerous," Owen persisted in a harsh tone of voice.

"Owen is right, dear. You know that. You don't want to put us all at risk, do you?" Beru's concerned voice rang down the corridor in her usual calm manner.

The voice of the visitor raised goosebumps on his arms. A deep, melodious voice belonging to a woman. "No, no, of course not. But I had to come."

There was a feeling vibrating in that voice so deep that it made Luke shudder. He didn't know what it was, but it made him want to cry. Thinking of his uncle's words that big boys don't cry, he clenched his fists and tried to be stronger.

The grown ups talked for a while longer, arguing back and forth why she had come and that she shouldn't have come. But eventually they fell silent. Then Luke heard footsteps coming down the corridor and quickly returned to his bed and the model. They would never know he had listened at the door.

Beru stuck her head in, smiling at him. "Our visitor is friendly. Come on. Come and meet her," she said, reaching a hand out to Luke.

Luke jumped off the bed, grabbed his aunt's hand and more or less dragged her back to the main living area. As he cleared the end of the corridor, he stopped dead in his tracks. There was something about the woman standing there in the middle of the room. She seemed tall to him, but wasn't much taller than aunt Beru. A thick, dark-blond braid hung over one shoulder and her brown eyes smiled openly at him when she saw him.

Smiling, she squatted down, keeping her hands on her knees although Luke saw them jerk as he cautiously stepped toward her. "And you must be Luke," she then said.

Luke stopped a few feet short of her, keeping a tight grip on aunt Beru's hand. There was something restrained about that woman's voice. Something that made him want to run away and hide. Beneath her friendly smile, there was something that seemed to want to reach out for him and grab him. He nodded in reply to her statement.

Whether it was because he didn't answer her properly or because she maybe didn't like children, her smile quavered and she rose, taking a hesitant step backwards. Glancing at first Owen and then Beru, she looked a little bewildered. "You're right. I shouldn't have come. I'm sorry. I'll leave right away."

Beru's grip on Luke's hand tightened as she gave her husband a look that Luke couldn't really interpret. Then she looked back at their visitor. "Won't you at least stay for lunch. You've come such a long way," she then said.

Owen gave her a sharp glance. "No, I think it's better she leaves right away. Her presence here may only cause us harm." With those words, too strong for Luke to understand, he stepped toward the woman, took her arm a little roughly and guided her toward the door.

Looking over her shoulder, her brown eyes met Luke's for a moment and the expression in them made him hide behind Beru. Then she smiled at his aunt, still this slightly haunted smile, and nodded. "Owen is right, Beru. I shouldn't have come. I've put you in unnecessary danger." Without another word she turned and strode out the door and moments later the landspeeder race away.

Luke still hid behind Beru with a strange feeling in his guts. He wanted to go after the woman even though he didn't know her. "Who was that?" he then asked, stepping out from behind his aunt before his uncle realized that he had been hiding.

Beru looked down at him with a smile. "Just a friend, Luke. Just a friend," she then said, padding his head...

***

Luke woke up on his cot in the ewok village with the feel of the dream still in him. At the very second he opened his eyes he knew it had not been a dream. It had been a memory from his childhood. The memory of that haunted-looking woman, who had come to see them once. Back then he had not been able to interpret her feelings correctly. And since then he had not thought about it. Not until now.

Now he remembered the sadness in her eyes, the restrained feelings hidden behind that smile when she had said his name. The sensation that had come over him and scared him back then made him yearn for that feeling now. She had wanted to reach out for him, to hug him, to perhaps take him along. It didn't take much for him to know who she had been. She had come to see him one last time, to see what her son looked like. With a sad smile, he looked up at the sunbathed roof above his head, feeling the heat of the few rays that came through and touched his body. Now he did have a recollection of his mother. And she had been very beautiful, yet filled with sadness. A sadness that he could now relate to.

THE END