Prelude to Eternity - Chapter 14

Xicanti awoke to the sound of birds chirping. Dazed, he raised himself up off of the grass - grass? - he lay upon and surveyed his surroundings. Immediately within his range of vision was Trax, who gleefully munched on some sort of fruit. Seeing that his young friend had awakened, Trax bounded over. :Hello!: he said pleasantly. :Glad to see you're awake! At first, I was afraid you might be dead, but then I saw you were breathing. Dead people don't breath, as far as I know, so you can't be dead and breathing at the same time, now can you?:

The young thief ignored the monkey's ramblings. He raised himself up and looked around. From what he could make out, he was in a meadow of some sort, the others spread all about. Also in the field were a man and a boy, both naked, who he did not recognize. The man held little Icky; both were unconscious.

"I seem to be the first one up," Xicanti murmured to himself as he rose shakily to his feet. "And this's gotta be Yavin. But where's the Falcon? An' what happened to Chewie an' Lowie?"

Odin came up beside him and shook his head. :You don't get it, do you?:

"Get what?"

The dog rolled his eyes and let out a long sigh. :That we're not in Kansas anymore, that's what!:

Xicanti scratched his head. "Kansas? What's that?"

Odin sighed again. :Never mind. I just meant we aren't even close to Yavin anymore. We aren't near any place you've ever heard of. We aren't even in the same galaxy as we were an hour ago.:

"Whadaya mean?"

Odin flopped down on the ground and looked up at Xicanti. :You're taking this awfully calmly,: he commented. :I'll tell you what - you scratch my belly and I'll tell you all. That'll be a fair enough trade.: He waited until Xicanti had begun, then continued:

:You remember that spell I told you about, just before the wave hit? It seems that we were what it was looking for. It found us, so we've ended up here. There should be a wizard of some sort coming back soon. He was here just before you woke up, but he's gone off to look for food now. He really wasn't expecting you, you know. I don't know what could've possessed him to cast a spell looking for all of us if he didn't want us here.: He rolled over at gestured with his nose. :There he is now.:

Xicanti followed Odin's nose with his eyes. Bumbling towards him was a man of about average height. He wore a robe of silver material, which looked to have seen finer days, and a pack filled to the brim with odds and ends. He did not appear very graceful. He bumbled along through the tall grass, cursing as he went.

The wizard, for such he was, did not look up until he reached the naked man. "Still asleep," he muttered. "Anyone else awake?" He looked up, only to see the boy. "Yes, yes, you are! Good, good. Maybe now someone can tell me who you all are! And why you're here, of course. I've been wondering about that. I think it might be slightly my fault - I was trying a spell to locate some rabbits for supper, you see - but I'm not terribly sure, so I'm very much hoping you can fill me in." The odd little man plopped down on the ground near Xicanti and assumed an interesting expression.

"Umm... I don't really know anything," the young thief said with a shrug. "We were just getting' ready to land on Yavin, when this wave of light came out in front of us an' went over our ship. Then I blacked out, and the next thing I knew I was wakin' up here." He shrugged. "Other than that, I can't tell ya much about why we're here, an' I think it'd be best to wait till the others wake up to tell ya who we are."

The man nodded. "I suppose you're right," he tittered. "They can best explain who they are by themselves." He stopped and thought for a moment. "I suppose it'd be awfully rude of me to just sit here until they all awaken without telling you who I am, now wouldn't it? Yes, yes, it would. Well I am, to put it simply, Araphos Dectrates, wizard. Although, I don't seem to be a very good wizard." Araphos looked to the ground sheepishly. "I set out to find some supper, and I end up with a bunch of humans, two elves, and some animals!" He grimaced and asked sarcastically, "Wonderful talent I have, wouldn't you say?"

"Oh yes, it's brilliant!" Xicanti replied with equal sarcasm.

The wizard grimaced again. "Someone who agrees with me!" he announced. "Now, who might you be?"

Xicanti scratched his head. "Well, I might be Xicanti Skywalker, or I might be somebody completely different. I like to stick with the first one, though. It's more familiar. The Xicanti thing, that is. I haven't had the rest for very long."

Araphos nodded. "Skywalker," he said, almost to himself. "An odd last name. Has it anything to do with this flying ship? Or are you a shape shifter, perhaps? I've always wanted to meet a shifter, but I've never had an opportunity. They all live down in the deep jungle, you know, and only come out once a year to trade the items they craft. Wonderful pieces, in my opinion. Very potent as far as magic goes."

Xicanti shook his head. "Nope, I'm just a human. Or at least I was the last time I checked." He thought for a moment. "By flying ship, do you mean starship?"

Araphos shrugged. "If that's what you like to call it," he replied. "Whatever it is, it must take great magic to get it up into the stars!"

"Not magic. Science. Don't you have ships here?"

"Unless the High Council of Mages has been keeping something from me, no."

Before Xicanti could reply, her heard a loud moan from the unknown boy lying on the ground. Araphos nearly clapped with delight, and rushed over to the boy's side. Xicanti followed him.

The young thief judged the boy's age at eleven or so, although he was nearly six feet tall. He had long, brownish-black hair, and his eyes proved to be golden once he opened them. "This Yavin?" he asked sleepily, putting a hand up to brush the hair from his eyes. For no apparent reason, he screamed as he saw said hand.

Xicanti jumped back involuntarily. "What's wrong?" he asked.

The boy held his hand in front of him, twisting it back and forth in obvious wonderment. "It's mine," he whispered, looking up at Xicanti with both awe and terror, "but it's not furry, and neither is anything else I have, 'cept my head! Who shaved off all my fur?" The boy glared at the other. "It was you, wasn't it? You thought it'd be funny to shave it all off while I was sleeping, didn't you?"

"I did not!" the young thief retorted. "I don't think you ever had hair any place else, besides. You don't look like you have!"

"I don't -" Suddenly, the boy's entire face lit up with excitement. "Do you have a mirror?" he demanded of Araphos. "Even a little piece of glass or something?"

"I have one in my pack," the wizard offered helpfully, rummaging around through said bag as he spoke. "Ah, here it is!" he exclaimed, digging out a small, ornately carved mirror. "Very good for seeing things in. It's one of the things the shape shifters make, you know. You can see any part of the world in it, plus almost anything else you might want to see, like what you look like. I've never really had much use for it as a scrying tool, so I mainly use it as a shaving mirror."

The boy took the mirror from Araphos's hands, holding it reverently for a moment before peering into it. He contemplated his features in silence for a long while. "I can't believe it," he whispered finally, handing the mirror back to the wizard. "I'm an elf! Do you see it, Xicanti?" he asked the young thief with an excited laugh. "I'm an elf! I'm not a Wookiee anymore, and neither is Dad!" He glanced at the man lying nearby.

Xicanti did not bother to conceal his surprise. "Lowie?" he asked. "That you?"

The little Wookiee-who-was-not nodded emphatically. "Yup! But I'm an elf now! Not a Wookiee, an elf!" He blushed and made an attempt to cover his genitals. " A naked elf. Anyone have anything I can wear?"

Araphos nodded. "I've got a few old robes in my pack here. They'll likely be too small for you, but it's better than walking around naked."

Lowie nodded his agreement. "When you're a Wookiee, you don't have to wear anything 'cept a pouch, but I guess things are different when all you've got is skin."

"Of course!" Xicanti smiled inwardly at the thought of Lowie walking naked around this new galaxy naked.

Xepher awakened next; then Cahra; then Han; then Jacen. Chewie and Icky were still unconscious as each of the others received explanations. Han took it the hardest. "The Falcon's probably scrap metal somewhere on Yavin now!" he moaned. "Luke'd better find her and get her fixed!"

Jacen, on the contrary, was not at all worried. "It's nice here," the little boy said thoughtfully. "Lots nicer than Coruscant."

Xicanti couldn't help but agree. "It's good to be someplace without metal an' stone everywhere," he commented to Cahra.

The girl nodded. "I guess this's what the less developed worlds are like," she replied. "Filled with nature and freedom. You can go wherever you want on them, and no one would ever care."

Xicanti began to think how nice it would be to live somewhere like that. "Our galaxy's too industrialized," he said to her. "Araphos says there aren't even any starships here. No one goes to any other planets, ever. That part of it must get boring after a while."

"But it takes longer to get to each place here, since you'd have to ride or walk. Back home, you can get anywhere within a few hours because of the speeders and ships, so you use up all the interesting places pretty fast. Here, you wouldn't get as bored as quickly because you'd take longer to get from place to place, and that would limit the amount of places you could visit before you died."

Xicanti shrugged. "I guess so," he replied. "We'll have enough of a chance to try it out, at least. There aren't any ships, and Araphos says he doesn't know how we got here or how we can get back." The young thief pounded his fist into his hand in frustration. "We're stuck here for eternity. No one'll ever know what happened to us, so no one'll even bother to come lookin'. All we can really do is try an' become known here so someday, when our ancestors get this far, they'll know that we got caught up in some stupid magic spell cast by a wizard looking for rabbits and that we died here."

Cahra sighed and put a hand on his shoulder. "It's not that bad!" she said in an attempt to reassure him. "Araphos also said that this High Council of his would probably know a counter spell for what he did. We'll go ask them if they can help us. With any luck, they'll be able to."

Shortly afterward, little Icky began to stir. He moaned a little bit, then rolled over and rubbed his eyes. "Where?" he demanded sleepily, giving a small kick as he went to get up.

Han explained the situation to him carefully. Icky was none too happy about it either. "Momma!" he demanded. "Me wanna see Momma!"

"You'll just have to wait a while," Han told him coldly, his anger causing him to lash out at his son. "Momma's millions of light years away. It'll be a long time before any of us sees her again."

Icky sniffled, tears welling up in his eyes. "Momma!" he wailed. "Momma!"

Odin, fortunately, was able to cheer the small one up. The dog trotted over Icky and gave him a small lick. Icky smiled a little and wrapped his arms around the dog's neck. :There now, it's okay!: the dog mindspoke to Icky. :We'll get you back to your Momma in no time. All we have to do is go ask a bunch of fat guys in Castle Sarmon to expend the energy they need to do a magic spell and send us back into our own galaxy. Very easy. Nothing to it, really.:

Icky smiled, his young mind easily reassured. "Thanks, Odie!" he sniffed, rubbing his little nose with his hand. "You nice dog." He then looked to Chewie. "Chewie?" he asked. "Chewie, that you? Wake up! Nice out! Plants and trees and sun everywhere!" He ran over to the Wookiee Lord's side, climbed up on Chewie's chest and started to bounce up and down. "Chewie! Chewie! Chewie!" he cried happily. "Wake up!"

Cahra leaned closer to Xicanti. "How'd he know that was Chewie?" she asked.

The boy shrugged. "Probably some little kid intuition," he replied.

Chewie responded reasonably well to Icky's bouncing. He opened his blue eyes almost immediately and looked around himself, seeming a bit uncertain. Once he'd gotten the view in perspective, he looked up at little Icky and grinned. "What're you doing there?" he asked the small boy, lifting him off of his chest as he sat up. This movement, however, caused the Wookiee Lord to see the rest of his body; he was even more surprised than Lowie had been.

"MY FUR!!!" he roared, leaping to his feet. "Something's happened to my fur! I'll be the first bald Wookiee in history! Everyone'll ridicule me!" He reached up to scratch and itch on his head, and drew his hand back sharply as it met with his ear. "And I have ears sticking out of my head!" he wailed dismally. "Pointed ones, at that! It's like I've turned into one of those elves from Lowie's books!"

Lowie grinned at his father. "You have, Dad!" he crooned triumphantly. "And so have I! This guy here -" he pointed at Araphos "- cast a spell that backfired, and it brought us here, and turned us from Wookiees to elves!" The little Wookiee scratched his head in wonderment. "Say, I wonder why it did that? It was just a find spell, right? So how come it made us elves?"

Araphos shrugged. "I really don't have the slightest clue," he replied, evidently embarrassed, "but I suppose that it might have been because we don't have these Wookiees here. At least, I haven't heard of them before."

Lowie nodded. "That must be it," he agreed. "There aren't any Wookiees here, so the world or galaxy or whatever changed us into something that was here and was sortta the equivalent!" He grinned over at his father. "Didn't I always tell you us Wookiees were like big hairy elves with no ears?"

Chewie nodded. "You did," he admitted. "But that doesn't mean I have to like it!"

"None of us really like it," Xepher told him, "but we're gonna have to live with it for a while. Araphos says that some High Council of his can help us, but it's real far away. We're gonna have to travel there if we wanna go back."

"Great! Just great!" The Wookiee Lord began to pace. "I guess we won't have any ships to help us out, will we?"

Araphos shook his head. "Just horses, I'm afraid," he told the huge Wookiee-turned-elf. "Everyone else in your party's told me you have large metal flying carriages that you ride in on your own world, but here we don't have anything even remotely like that. Just horses and our own feet."

"Wonderful yet again!" Chewie muttered. "Simply balmy. We're stuck on some backwater world, thousands of galaxies from home, and we don't have any way of our own to get back. Everything depends on a buncha graybeards who probably live months away from here!"

"I'm afraid so," Araphos said meekly. "And even then, there's no guarantee that they'll know a way."

The little group looked at each other remorsefully. We may be stuck here, Xicanti thought to himself. And not just for a few months. For forever.

Copyright 1998, Jadis Darkmore