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| Inheritance: Forceblind |
Inheritance: Forceblind
" Lisha?" Ciana called, walking up behind her crying neice. " Lisha, what's
wrong?" She asked, knowing full well what had made her oldest neice cry.
" They hate me." Lisha shook her head, wiping at her tear-stained cheeds. " They all hate me."
Ciana knelt on the grass beside Lisha and reached out to hold her; but the girl didn't want any comfort
and pushed away from her aunt's hands.
" They don't hate you." Ciana sighed and shook her head. " They just don't
understand.".
" Even Owen, Aili and Jasmine pick on me." Lisha sobbed.
" Jasmine?" Ciana couldn't believe that her own six year old daughter would do this
to her cousin. SHe and LUke had sat down with all of their children to explain why Lisha was different from
them. Ciana had though they had understood. Apparently, she was wrong.
" Well," Ciana sighed. " I can't control your brother and sister, but I can control
my daughter, and," Cinana reached out quickly and took Lisha in her arms. " I will make sure she does not tease
you anymore."
" You don't understand!" Lisha insisted, breaking from the embrace. " If they don't do it, someone else will."
" Listen!" Ciana turned the young 'woman' to face her." You need to understand this
yourself, so you can explain it to others. It's not your fault you were born Forceblind. I understand it is
hard for you to live in a family where every member can read thoughts and do things you can't do. Luke and I
sometimes forget. We are so used to the Force, we don't know what it's like to live without it."
Lisha started to cry again.
" But, Lisha." Ciana held the girl. " You will have other gifts that your brother, sisters
and even your cousins won't have."
" Like what?" Lisha looked to Ciana for the answers no one had ever been able to
provide. " Everyone things I'm a freak because I can't do what they can."
" You are not a freak!" Ciana took Lisha by the shoulders and shook her. " You are different,
Lisha. We are all different."
" Not in the same way I am." Lisha raised her voice. " I can't do anything with the Force;like Ria,
Owen, or even Aili. Ben tries to help me. He and Uncle Luke are so calm when they try to explain, but the don't make
any sense when they talk about the Force, and how it feels."
" Your cousin and Uncle try to help you. Just like I do. But they don't know what it's like for you."
Ciana was starting to understand better the torment this 17 year old girl was going through. " And what about Ria?
Doesn't your twin try and help you?" Lisha nodded slowly. " And Shyanne?" Lisha perked up at hearing her cousin's name.
Ciana smiled. She knew that her 12 year old daughter had already chosen her path.
" You don't need the Force to study Jedi history, and write about the New Order and those who founded it."
Ciana put her hand on Lisha's shoulders. " You only need dedication, and you certainly have that."
" Ria tries to help me." Lisha smiled slightly. " But she has the Force too."
" Your father doesn't have the Force, does he?" Ciana asked. " And even though he might not understand
Leia, Luke and I sometimes, he still loves and cares for us the same way. He doesn't love any differently just because he
can't feel his wife and children's presence when they are in the room."
" Father has lived with you longer than I have. He understands, and," She smiled
slightly, knowing her father. "No one would dare tease Han Solo."
" No, you're right." Ciana laughed. " I don't think anyone would dare tease
your father. Then why don't you..."
" I don't want him to protect me." Lisha answered Ciana's question before she could ask it. " I am
going to have to live with this the rest of my life. I can't have my father protecting me forever.".
Ciana nodded.
" Mom?" Ben and Shyanne appeared from the path, their baby brother toddling behind.
Ciana turned and smiled at her children. Ben, her oldest, had brown hair, blue eyes
and was a Skywalker to his fingertips. Shyanne was blonde, with blue eyes also and nothing like either of her parents.
Her youngest, 1 year old Anakin, was blonde haired too, also blue-eyed, and he had a temper to rival even his fathers.Ciana
looked around, expecting to see her six year old daughter, Jasmine, with her siblings..
" Where is Jasmine?" Ciana asked ,as she bent to pick up her baby. who was
stumbling toward her, arms outstretched.
" Playing with Aili." Ben smiled, hoping he wouldn't have to go home and 'sit' with her.
His eight year old cousin and sister played fine on their own. With all the people and students on the
estate, they would be safe and out fo harm.
" Shya," Lisha came up to her cousin. " Could we go somewhere and talk?"
Shyanne looked to her mother for permission.
" Go ahead." Ciana stood, Anakin snuggled into her arms. " But don't be late for dinner."
As Shyanne and Lisha left, Ciana turned to her son.
" You have lessons. You had better go before your father comes after you."
" Bet he couldn't find me." Ben puffed out his chest, confident of his Force abilities.
" Oh? How about I tell him you said that?" She put her arm around her son and led him down
the path toward home.
" Go ahead!" Ben laughed.
" You are just as arrogant as your father." Ciana smiled at her child.
" Everyone says I'm just like him."
" What's wrong, Lisha?" Shyanne Skywalker asked her obviously troubled cousin. " They've been
teasing you again, haven't they." It was a statement, not a question.
Lisha nodded, tears creeping slowly down her cheek.
" Shya," Lisha turned to her younger cousin. " How can you understand so well? You are so young, yet
you seem to understand better than I do."
" Dad understands that I don't want to be a Jedi.At least not like he and mom are." Shyanne
sat on the grass. " I just want to study the history of the Old Jedi. I know I have the Force, but I just want to use it
to teach others about the Jedi; to help people understand us better."
" That's all I want too." Lisha nodded. " I just don't know why people can't understand that. They want
to make me into something else. Something that I can never be; and they don't understand why."
" Then just ignore'em." Shyanne smiled. " If people can't take the time to understnad you
and your feelings, they are not worth knowing."
" And what if some of those people are my siblings, and your sister?"
Shyanne could think of no reply to this question.
They sat in silence for a few minutes, watching as the last of teh sunlight
faded behind the ocean, and darkness settled over the cliff where the girls were sitting.
" I need to get home." Shyanne finally spoke. " Dad will hit the ceiling if I'm late
for dinner again."
"Yeah." Lisha laughed. " Dad would be upset if I'm late again too."
" Could you 'sit' Anakin for a few hours?" Ciana asked Lisha. " Luke and I have classes
today, Ben has training with his father and Shyanned and Jasmine have lessons."
" Sure," Lisha looked at her cousin playing with his little inflatable lightsaber. " I'd love to
watch him." She bent to pick up the little boy. He held out his arms to her and smiled, his blue eyes glowing
with delight.
" Thank you." Ciana ruffled her baby boy's hair, and kissed his upturned nose before leaving. " Bye,
baby."
" Well." Lisha bounced the boy for a few minutes, trying to decide what to do. It was too beauutiful a day to spend indoors, so she decided to take him to her favorite spot: the steep, rocky cliff rising above,and overlooking, the vast Alaan Ocean where she and Shyanne had talked so many times.
"Hey." She sat the baby down on the soft grass. " Do you want a sunapple?" She walked over
to the short,stubby tree and picked a pale looking fruit from it's branches. The baby squealed, and Lisha smiled as the babe
wobbled toward the sunapple she held out to him. As soon as his chubby fingers got a hold of the fruit, he stumbled and fell,
dropping the sunapple. Lisha laughed and turned to pick an apple for herself, while Anakin chased his fruit as it
rolled toward the edge of the cliff.
The babe caught the runaway fruit before it fell over the edge and lifted it to his mouth.
Just then, Lisha turned from the tree to see her baby cousin standing dangerously close to the edge of the cliff.
" Anakin!" She yelled." Move away from the edge baby. You don't want to..."
" But her voice startled the baby, and he looked up suddenly, losing his unsteady footing on the
loose dirt and tumbled over the edge of the rocky cliff. His tiny body bounced helplessly off the rocks until
his lifeless form slid down the last rock and onto the soft, golden sand.
"ANAKIN!" Lisha screamed, running to the edge of the cliff. "Oh, no! NO!" She shook her head, looking for some way down to her injured cousin; momentarily forgetting the path a few meters away.
A khern rabbit, hearing her screams, bounced up to the hysterical girl and licked
her hand; looking at her, and past her, with somber eyes.
" Oh God's, what do I do?!"
" The rabbit made a small, squeaking noise, now looking past the girl and down to the beach; to where
there was a herd of wild Kheran- horselike animals with coats of pure white and eyes of steel blue.
Blind animals, with an incredible sense of direction and...danger, racing past the injured baby.
The rabbit's eyes followed the first Kheran as it passed the path down to the beach. Lisha, who
had been following the rabbit's eyes, saw the path that she had forgotten and turned to the rabbit.
"Thank you, rabbit." She breathed, patting it's head, then turned to run down the path.
As Lisha came to the bottom of the path, she noticed a big, white Kheran pony standing
in front of her. She tried to go around it but, when she moved, it would buck and rear. She halted, fearing the animal would
crush her baby cousin. It was then that she realized the pony was not close enough to her cousin to hurt him. The wild
animal was protecting the baby!
" Please." She pleaded with the animal to let her past." Please let me help him." She looked into
the blind, blue eyes , into the animal's soul. The Kheran backed to the side of the unconscious baby and bent it's head to
lick the blood stained cheek.
"Anakin!" The girl raced up to the babe, cradling his fragile body to her. " I can't use the Force!
No one will know Anakin is hurt!" She brushed her hand through the baby's wispy,blond curls, now stained and matted to his head
by his own blood.
Lisha stood , cradling the child's body close to her own, and looked to the Kheran pony. It tossed it's
head wildly in the air and took a step towards her. Lisha could feel it's breath on her face as she stared
into the ice blue eyes; eyes so like her cousin's.
" Please." She thought." Please help us." She knelt beside the animal and laid the babe
at it's feet. It sniffed her hair, then bent it's head and sniffed the unconscious babe. Lisha again looked into
the unseeing blue eyes, and into it's heart.
Talking to it, wishing it to help her, wanting it to trust her. Then she reached out
and touched the Kheran's leg, showing it a tenderness it had never before seen and displaying an affection for animals
unrivaled by any before her. The animal, who Lisha unconciously decided to call Laciega-Blind One, licked her hand where it rested
on it's leg, then sniffed the baby.
The girl picked up her unconscious cousin and reached up to grasp Laciega's mane.Lisha laid the babe across the animals' back while she attempted to mount the animal. Laciega, realizing the girl could not get on her back without help, walked over to a large rock and stood beside it . Lisha stepped onto the rock and was about to lift her leg over the animal's back when she noticed a red stain beside her foot. She suppressed a sob and continued her action. Once mounted, she wrapped one arm protectively around Anakin, the other arm, into the Kheran's mane. Laciega took off, racing up the trail that would lead them toward home.
Lisha Solo had discovered her gift. The tiny bit of the Force that is in everyone, revealed to her the talent of talking to - and understanding - the animals.
As she remembered that day, she realized she had understood the Khern rabbit, even as she understood the Kheran pony, Laciega. As she grew to understand her gift, her friends became the animals that she could talk to more easily than people; and the books that contained the history she would learn from and would one day teach.
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