[Junior Jedi Knights] - 01(5)

“Well, this is my room,” Anakin said softly when he reached a door. “Good night, everyone.”

He pushed open a large wooden door and entered the room.

“This way, Tahiri,” Tionne said. The two continued down the hallway until they reached another door. “This is your room. When you hear the wake-up bell tomorrow morning please use your refresher unit to clean up and then come down to the dining room.”

Tahiri scowled, then stepped inside the room. Tahiri stood with her back to the wooden door. She had never had her own room before. On the planet Tatooine all of the Sand People slept outdoors in encampments on blankets on the ground. Now Tahiri was looking around her very own room. She couldn’t believe it! There was a large sleeping pad in the far corner, covered with soft white blankets. A dresser and a closet were on the wall to her left. Several orange jumpsuits hung from hooks in the closet. There was also one pair of shoes on the floor.

No chance I’m going to wear those, Tahiri thought as she looked at the shoes. She walked toward another doorway directly across from her bed. It led to her very own refresher unit. I can’t believe this place, she thought. Tahiri had never even had a shower before she’d left Tatooine. There was barely enough water to drink on the planet. A shower was unheard - of! Luke and Tionne had made Tahiri take one on their shuttle. She smiled.

The way they had wrinkled their noses when she had unwrapped herself from the white robe she wore had been funny. She must have really smelled awful. Tahiri had to admit she’d liked the warm shower. And she liked the orange jumpsuit they’d given her even more. It was so much more comfortable than her robe had been. Tahiri rubbed her feet along the cool stone floor. The clean stones felt wonderful. She changed into her nightgown, raced across the floor, and leapt onto her bed. Tahiri sank into the blankets. So soft and fluffy, she thought dreamily. Maybe she was ready to sleep after all, she thought right before she drifted off.

Tahiri began to dream. It was the exact same dream she’d had on Tatooine. The same dream she’d had every few weeks of her life for as long as she could remember. She was floating along a green river in a long silver raft with rounded sides. Before Tahiri had come to Yavin 4 she had never even seen a river. Strange to have imagined something I’ve never seen, she thought in her dream.

Tahiri could feel the cold water lap her hands as she paddled in the raft. A storm was brewing. The wind was growing stronger, and the water began to hit the sides of the raft in powerful waves. Tahiri paddled harder, her muscles beginning to ache. She had to reach the side of the river before her raft was turned over by the swell. A giant wave swept over the front of the raft. Tahiri was hit full force, and her small body was sent flying backward.

She fell from the raft and was quickly swept into the cold river water. This was the part where she usually woke up. But not this time. This time Tahiri felt the waves tumbling over her, smacking her face and filling her nose and mouth with water. She could feel herself desperately struggling to breathe.

Why hadn’t she woken up? She thrashed through the water trying to get back to her raft. She could still see it above the tumbling waves. And then she saw him. It was the boy she’d just met. Anakin Solo was in her raft. And he was paddling toward her. He held a silver paddle out. It rose and fell from her vision as she was carried along wave after wave. Tahiri knew that she was supposed to reach for the paddle, that if she didn’t she would surely drown.

But she couldn’t grab it. It was too far away. She saw Anakin screaming at her, but she couldn’t hear his words. The water was swallowing her up. And then suddenly the cold silver paddle was within reach and she was again grabbing for it. But just as her fingers began to close over it a loud bell sounded.

Tahiri awoke with a start. Strange, she thought groggily, I’ve had the same dream on Tatooine ever since I was a small child, but the dream usually ends when I fall into the river. I’ve never almost drowned, or been saved by a boy. There has never been anyone else on the river with me. Tahiri dropped her feet over the side of her pad and stood. Her nightgown clung to her body in sweaty spots.

Yuck, she thought, and headed to the refresher unit. In my dream I was on Yavin 4, Tahiri thought as she showered. In fact, it looked like the river that runs by the academy. But where was I going? And why was Anakin Solo in my dream? Tahiri wondered.

“I think I should get to know my new friend Anakin better if he’s going to turn up in a dream I’ve been having my whole life,” Tahiri muttered as she slipped on her jumpsuit. She opened her door and headed to the dining room, determined to understand her strange dream.