Master Apprentice Archive Reaching Skywards Quick search:

Archive: MA, or ask me

Category: Q/O implied

Rating: G

Summary: Just a tiny ficlet, pre- A New Hope. Luke knew Ben when they met in Ep.IV so they must have seen each other earlier.

Disclaimer: George's characters, not mine.

Feedback: Yes please

Note: Guess what I was thinking of during my taijiquan class? Thanks as always to Bonnie for the beta.

Me and Biggs came across Old Ben, that weird guy who lives all alone out in the desert, just outside Anchorhead yesterday. We were sitting in the shade under a wrecked landspeeder, drinking pallie ices, when Biggs elbowed me in the ribs and hissed "Look! It's that mad wizard!"

He was standing in the shade of the cantina wall. He hadn't moved for ages, then he took off his old cloak. He must have had that thing for years; it's nearly falling apart. Anyway, he folded the cloak like it was something special and put it on the ground, then stood up and went back to just standing there again.

"What's he doing?" Biggs asked.

"How should I know?"

After a bit, Old Ben started to move. He sort of danced - well, it wasn't exactly dancing, but he moved real slow, his arms and legs moving gracefully. He reached out, held his arms still, then stepped to one side.... It looked easy, but I bet it wasn't. He speeded up, his shadow dancing along side him, and I thought of animals: he was a scuttling dune lizard, a heavy bantha moving smoothly over the sand, even a ferocious krayt dragon!

Biggs had started sniggering at first, but even he shut up when Old Ben spun, reached, kicked and balanced and spread out his arms as if he was about to fly away.

His shadow made him look taller than he is as it stretched and curled with him.

I wondered if he was pretending to hear music while he danced, because when I saw his face his eyes were closed and he looked... happy.

Then he finished: he sort of wound down and then was still again.

After he picked up his cloak and put it on and walked slowly around the corner of the cantina out of sight, I thought of something. Old Ben was dancing in the shade, out of the light of the suns, so I couldn't have seen his shadow. If it wasn't his shadow, what was it I saw?