The Legio Twins Saga: New Day Dawning/Chapter 4

Mark

"... Oh, don't worry, he'll be alright."

Someone was talking, very close by, but the voice was certainly not my sister's. I must have been kind of out of it; I was dimly aware that my head was hurting, and that someone was talking- was it about me?- with a vaguely British-sounding accent to someone else, and that for some reason I was really sweaty...

Wait. The voice almost sounded familiar, but I was confused, and that was impossible. Who the hell did I know with a British accent?

All of a sudden, bits of memory flashed through my mind; the attic, the wind, the mirror, Stephanie...

The mirror? Stephanie! Where was she? Where was I? My eyes promptly jerked open and were imediately assulted by blinding sunlight. I squinted and bolted upright, groaning as the pain in my head flared up angrily, making me dizzy. The voice spoke again, sounding very serious, but also with a sort of bemused chuckle.

"Rest easy, son. You've had a busy day," it said, as I felt a hand grasp my shoulder to help me sit up. I think the words must have made my heart skip a beat. Confused, I blinked rapidly, trying to adjust to the sudden brightness. A cheerful-sounding series of beeps sounded nearby.

Suddenly I gasped. I knew that voice!

Blinking again, I turned to look up into the face of whoever had helped me. My jaw dropped. He smiled at me kindly, ignoring my obvious, dumbfounded gaping. Somehow I found my voice, but looking back now, I almost wish I hadn't.

"A-Alec... Guiness...?"

...and then I passed out again.

I guess I had been out for awhile that time, because when I woke up- again- I was laying on something soft, like a bed or a couch, and there was a cool, wet cloth over my eyes and forehead. My head still hurt, but it was only a dull ache now; whoever had put the cool compress on my head had obviously known that I would need it.

What nice people, I thought stupidly (I was still more than a little delerious, mind you, after having passed out twice in a short span of time, one of which had probably been caused by a massive blow to the head). It's so quiet here, I wonder if I'm in the hospital?

Not being very smart or particularly worried about much at the time, I decided to just lay there for awhile, the bed-like padded surface being much more comfortable than the little I remembered of the rocky, sandy surface I had first woken up on. So, I lay there contedly, feeling my headache slowly ebb away, and thniking about what an amusing dream I had, or maybe was still having.

You wanna hear about the crazy dream I had last night? I imagined telling Uncle Vader the next morning. He always liked to share his dreams with everyone, and since my own dreams were hardly ever interesting, I never had the chance to one-up him until now. It was really weird; we were at Aunt Susan's party, and Steph and I ended up in the attic or something, and there was a bunch of old Star Wars costumes up there and stuff, and some old mirror... but then it started to get really windy, and I got sucked into a magic vortex or something, and the next thing I knew I was in the desert or something with Alec Guiness! Ha! I think I might have landed on Tatooine or something crazy like that, and Alec Guiness was Obi-Wan and he probably thought I was Luke Skywalker! Boy, would he get a kick out of that!

But as I was imagining everything I would say about my "dream", I began to realize that I was no longer as groggy and blissfully unaware of my situation as I had been a minute or so ago. Whatever I was laying on was more lumpy than comfortable now, and although my headache felt like it was gone, I felt worse than before. As my head had cleared, I began to feel less and less excited about my "dream"; by this time I was feeling more than merely put-out, and somehow even a bit nervous. Questions prodded my mind. Where was I? Why had I passed out? And why did I imagine seeing the Obi-Wan incarnation of Alec Guiness, and actor that I knew was dead? Just as I was beginning to worry, an answer seemed to come from the deepest, wisest part of by brain, though not one to any of my questions.

"Your're not alone here."

What? The thought had occured so quickly and unexpectedly that it almost seemed more like a reflex than a consious thought. And it didn't go away, either, which was more suprising; it lingered, like the dull, lasting pain after Steph had originally whacked me on the arm with the prop lightsaber- even now I could feel the "ghost pain" from that hit. But this wasn't pain, though, it was something completely different. Fast as a reflex, lasting as a physical feeling, and stronger than real proof that someone was there. True, I didn't have any proof, but this inexplicable, absolute sense of... knowing was enough to trick my mind into thinking that I wasn't simply paranoid. I'm not sure that it was a good feeling- better than actually being paranoid, though- but it did feel a lot different than the simple feeling of being watched.

All this took but a moment to consider in my brain, but in the end, my mind had decided that I had to get up and look around for myself, even if my body and soul felt differently. Nervous as I was, I hesistated to take the cloth off my eyes, when I was struck by another instantanious feeling. "Struck" might be a bad word, though, because it was really as though a wave of calm had come over me. It was a lot like the feeling one gets after being spoken to by someone who always knows the right thing to say to calm you down, only this time, no one was speaking to me.

Sighing, I uncovered my eyes and struggled to sit upright. I appreared to be in some sort of small hut or house that looked like it was made out of stucco or carved out of solid rock. It was very plain, but very very clean, with a kitchen area and the room that I was in, which was sort of a combined living room/ bedroom. Apart from the low bed that I sat on, there was very little furnature: a few seats, a little table, and a few chests for storage.

It was Ben Kenobi's hut. I knew it was. And the man sitting on a chair opposite me was most certainly not Alec Guiness.

I must have been blatantly staring again, because Obi-Wan Kenobi said nothing, but simply sipped his bevarage and studied me with and equally quiet intensity. And now that I had a chance to get a good look at him, I began to realize that he simply wasn't the image of a dead actor, but a real person with a unique, authentic appearance. This Obi-Wan looked just the way I'd always though he should have looked in ANH: he looked to be in his late fifties, sixty at the oldest, with salt-and-pepper graying hair and beard that was between pale gray and dull red-brown. Whereas before, in my utter shock, I had mistaken him for the late Sir Alec Guiness, it was now hard to decide if he looked more like a younger Alec Guiness or an older Ewan McGregor. I guess when you get down to it, the reson i couldn't decide was because he was really neither; he was the Obi-Wan, general and Jedi Master, this was Ben Kenobi in the Flesh!

At last last he spoke. "I can see that you're still a bit confused," he said gently. It was funny to hear him speak; his voice sounded incredibly familiar, but it wasn't excactly the voice of either actor who had played him. I nodded, but was still speechless, so he continued.

"Your are not Luke Skywalker, are you?"