Within the Force (Star Wars fan fic) Book One

Chapter Four

The first thing to hit her eardrums were faint voices. They were a blurry kind of buzzing noise, like when you get out a swimming pool, and there is water in your ears. Her head was swimming as she tried as hard as she could to open her eyes. After a while, Ashlyn felt someone grab her hand and shake her slightly; then she steadily fluttered her eyes open. There, barely visible, were the Jedi, the Naboo handmaiden, the Gungan, the two Tatooine slaves, and the two droids.

When they saw her eyes open they let out a synchronized sigh of relief, Threepio mumbling things like 'Oh, how relieving!' and 'We thought we had lost you' or 'We're so glad you're finally awake and safe, Miss' while Artoo was whistling, agreeing with him.

Suddenly, she started to feel pain in her head. Ashlyn groaned and instantly clutched her head between her hands that were now shaking.

"Ashlyn, what's wrong?" Padmé asked, concern coating her face.

She wanted to answer, but she couldn't. The pain was just too much. Then, her thoughts floated back to an image. It was her family, how it used to be before it turned into a nightmare. Her family was happy and smiling, and she was with them. There was a writing at the bottom, but she didn't get time to read it. The more she thought about it, the more the pain in her head increased.

"Get away from her immediately," Shmi instructed.

They all backed away, a look of worry spread across their faces. Shmi came over and touched Ashlyn's burning forehead with a cold, wet cloth. It calmed her down a bit and, soon, the pain in her head started diminishing.

"Better?" she asked, keeping the cloth against my forehead.

Ashlyn nodded, taking the cloth from her while she went to go get something else.

"Ashlyn, are you alright?" Qui-Gon asked.

"Um... yeah... I think," she said awkwardly. Ashlyn bit her lip as she looked up at them. "What happened?"

Qui-Gon furrowed his brows. "I'm not sure. You left, and for a moment, the sandstorm started calming down but then when you came back in you just collapsed... did you do that?" he asked, referring to the sandstorm.

Ashlyn pursed her lips. "I think so. I remembered how when I got here and fought those dugs, I sort of created a force field or something that threw them off me," she started as Shmi made her way back to them and handed Ashlyn a cup of water.

"Thank you," she said, before bringing the cup to her lips and taking a long sip. She gave the cup back to Shmi then resumed her tale. "The force field was somehow still around me, making the sand stop ten feet away from me. I tried to expand it to stop the sand from hitting the house, but then I got tired... I think the effort wore me out."

They were all silent for a moment before the Jedi Master spoke up. "Probably. I suggest you not to worry about that for now and rest. We will talk about this back at the ship, alright?"

Ashlyn nodded then both her and Padmé went to Anakin's room, where they spent the night, though even exhausted, Ashlyn could not sleep.

The next morning, people filled the streets as a bantha, and a few landspeeders went by to clean up the mess and rebuild their food stalls. Qui-Gon, Ashlyn, Padmé and Jar Jar were walking toward Watto's shop, Artoo rolling behind them.

Ashlyn stopped Qui-Gon as he was about to enter the shop.

"Are you sure about this?" Ashlyn asked, hesitation clear in her grayish, hazelnut eyes, whereas doubt was clearly mirrored in Padmé's brown orbs. "Trusting our fate to a boy we hardly know."