STAR WARS - INTERLUDE SIXTEEN
"The Children's Story," written by Steve Bowden and edited by Mark L. Stinson
(This story takes place very soon after INTERLUDE 13, and before INTERLUDE 15.)

That's a fairly weird question, I think to myself, but my answer will certainly be yes. If they could speak of it, then I could damn well listen. In this world of strife and chaos, these poor kids need someone to listen. So I tell Tevin, "Yes." Later I will come to understand what a mistake that was.

Lorza reaches for Tevin's hand and he bends down, clasping her hand tightly. Then without warning, Lorza reaches up and touches my cheek! In a flash of pain and a swirling I am suddenly in a bed. I look over to the other bed and see Tevin asleep...he seems a couple of years younger than when I know him. What the hell is going on? I'm in a bed with a doll and pink night gown. All of a sudden the doors open and two people are thrown to the floor. One a woman in her early twenties and a man of about the same age. They lay perfectly still. Then I see blood coming from both of their faces. They are not breathing. Two men in armor walk through the door. With another in tight black leathers smelling strangely of cinnamon. The man points to Tevin and myself, as if to say "These are the ones we want." Two bags come out, and one is thrown over my head. I hear Tevin yelling and I start to scream. Then a sharp pain, and then darkness. I wake up far below the surface of Milos...surrounded by children. I look for my brother and he is there with both his hands tied. He has a swollen eye and a bloody lip. He looks ghastly. He whispers to me, "Don't worry little Lorza, I will protect you...by the Fire...I will protect you." I look up and see the dark man who smelled like cinnamon talking to four men in the shining armor. The four gather all of us into a line tied together and start leading us down a passage. I look down and the floor is littered with bones, I can feel the presence of all those children that have walked this path before me. It is overwhelming, and I begin crying again. One of the guards slaps me from behind and tells me to either shut up or lay down in the bones and rot. I look at Tevin, and he raises a finger to his lips and I bite back my sobs. I must be strong for my big brother. He is depending on me also.

We reach the end of the tunnel and come out in a large room. We crowd in with the other children...there are hundreds of them...maybe thousands. How long have they been here? They are dirty, and half clothed...some of them hardly appear human anymore. What do they eat? And then I see it. A crowd of children stooped around what must be a food trough. They are fighting and clawing at each other for the food that has been provided there. I can hear them chewing and choping on their meal...shoving each other back, and growling at each other. I ask Tevin if we should try and get some food. We walk forwards towards the crowd. The food must all be eaten, because the children scatter, red meat dangling from still chewing mouths...and then I see it. A child's carcass, picked clean by the starving children. White ribs splashed with red blood arched towards the ceiling...only bones and gristle remain. I am sobbing again...how will we survive?

We quickly learn the rules. The strong survive. The weak die and are eaten. Those that are especially strong are deemed worthy, and the men in black leather take them away to some place of honor. When Tevin and I stick together, we are able to keep the hungry children away from us. On a day a few weeks from when we arrived here a crowd of male children, barely recognizable as human anymore begin circling us...growling...and gnashing their teeth. I am so scared, but Tevin appears completely calm. He closes his eyes and whispers to me. "Lorza...close your eyes. Imagine for a moment that they can't get us...at a band of plas-steel a foot thick surrounds us. No matter what happens Lorza, don't open your eyes...just imagine...and don't stop." Even at my age I know that Tevin is just distracting me...sparing me from the grisley end that awaits us at the hands of these starving children. But then a minute goes by, and though I hear their frustrated growls, I still live. Then two minutes...five minutes...and the growling seems to fade away. Tevin tells me to open my eyes. The crowd of children disbands, and we still live. How did this happen?

One day a guard starts beating me and Tevin begins yelling for him to stop. The guard turns and backhands Tevin across the room. I feel the anger well up inside Tevin. He extends his hand out towards the guard...and then suddenly clenches his fist. Tevin's face turns red as he seems to be squeezing with all his might. Suddenly the guard's knees buckle...and he collapses on his face. Tevin stands up, grabs my hand, and we run from the bone filled room. My big brother runs and I try to follow, but I keep falling. He stops and picks me up and continues to run through the dark tunnels. We can hear the fearful screeches of the dark men in leather...and the baying of the vicious hounds. I can't help but cry. Tevin finds a place to hide in a deep crack in the wall. He tells me to cover my eyes and picture a wall covering the crack. I can hear the hounds run by us. Then men in shiney armor clank by us...and no one notices us! We move from hiding place to hiding place...using our imaginations to befuddle the guards and dark men, alike. Tevin was covered in dirt and I tell him he looks like a smoke rat. He says I don't look any better. Mom would be very upset with us if she could see how dirty we are. I begin crying again....

One day we run directly into a man who tells us that he will keep us safe. We follow him, as he seems to be our only real chance. He guides us out, telling us his name is Jahammer and that he will take care of us until he finds our parents. I begin to tell Mr. Jahammer that our parents are dead, and Tevin motions me to be quiet. I hear his voice in my head, "That is our secret for now, Lorza."

He cleans us up when we get to his house. Then took us downstairs to what he says will be our rooms until he finds our parents. He is curious how we had managed to escape. Tevin tells him our story and the next day when we awake, Tevin has a fever and we are both tied to the bed. The man had lied to us! He tells us we will be useful to him, and that he can't let us leave. I notice that Tevin had been beaten while I was asleep. For days Tevin gets worse and men come to visit both of us. Even though Tevin is in and out of sleep when the men come, we link minds and go to a place where we cannot be hurt. At one point a doctor is brought in for Tevin, and by this time Tevin was in and out of consciousness. Jahammer tells the doctor, "If the boy dies, so will you." The doctor works all day and night on Tevin, and at one point jars start floating and flying towards the men at the door. Jahammer steps up to Tevin and hits him in the head so hard I am sure it will kill him. The days seem to swirl by as my brother and I speak to each other only in our minds. Then the two men come that kill all the guards. We are free of this pit!

...and the link breaks. I look up at Tevin. "How did you do that?"

He looks me straight in the eyes...a long cold stare. "Do what, Priest?"

I stare back at him briefly and he looks away. In their own way the two children have shared their story with me...but they do not trust me enough to reveal the secret of their powers. I understand that...and I will not press them on the matter...not right now, anyway.

But, regardless of Tevin's claim that nothing happened...and that Lorza and he did not share a link with me, there is no way I imagined all that. And it didn't feel like the visions I normally have. It felt more like when the Jedi touch your mind...that spark of living Force that electrifies your thoughts...enlivens your spirit. I feel these two children must be strong in the Force to have survived their ordeal...and strong in the Force to communicate to me in such vivid images. I think this is something that both Jedi need to hear. Perhaps when they are healed....