Flight to Shadow

by Briony ( Hippediva@aol.com )

ARCHIVE: M_A, my site, anyone else just ask

DISCLAIMER: George owns all, meesa just borrowin', same with the writers of 'Lion King'

RATING: G

PAIRING: Qui/Obi implied

TYPE: Angst, POV, drabble

SUMMARY: Obi-Wan remembers.

NOTE: The song is 'Shadowland' from "The Lion King". I don't usually do any kind of songfic, but this seemed so appropriate.

He remembered it, in the middle of his desperate flight. Hunched in an alley, deep in the sublevels of Coruscant, all his senses pricking and aware, watching for stormtroopers at every breath, he remembered that little melody, dredged from deep in his memory: a chorus of singers, the soloist's voice rising like a silver lark above it, calling on the ancestors to guard her journey into an unknown future.

He had heard it, long ago in fathomless youth, standing next to his Master, fingers tensely gripping his wrists, hidden beneath the sleeves of his robes, as he bit the inside of his cheek to keep his tears from flowing, so much had it moved him. Like a ghost of echo, it had grabbed hold of his heart and clung like frost to a window, that memory of her voice soaring with anguish, as brilliant as a rising sun. Once in their tent, he had curled into his bed, stifling short gasps into the pillow. Qui-Gon had heard. Of course he heard, responding intuitively to any suffering of his apprentice; accepting, loving and unaware. And he had sobbed out his emotions in his Master's arms, possessed by some demon of sorrow he could not name.

Now, hidden and in flight, he knew. He knew its name.

It was his song now, his chorus the unceasing drone of sublevel traffic, beating against the thrum of his heart like the endless whisper of desert winds; the melody, a bird of hope rising from the ashes of his dying world, if only in his aching soul.

Shadowland

(chorus): Where the journey may lead me
Let your prayers be my guide
I cannot stay here, my family
But I remember my pride.

(from the Lion King Soundtrack album)