Star Wars Cartoons Part Three: The Aeroplane

The Cold Forest

PART TWO

Sonia crept forward stealthily. The bee (a large furry black animal which is killed for food, its fur and its horns. It is not related to the honey or bumble bees and does not sting in case you were wondering), was nearly in range. She aimed her gun carefully.
 Sonia had been born and spent the early years of her life in Beton, a small town in the warm regions, but her father had disappeared when she was ten and her mother had died the next year, no one knew why. One day Sonia had gone to the beach with her mother. She had run off to collect shells for half an hour leaving her mother sitting on the sand. When Sonia returned her mother was dead. Sonia was taken in by The Government, an organisation for looking after homeless children.

One day Sonia was out walking with her caretaker when a car careered down the street and came to a screeching halt just in front of the pair. A hand holding a gun came out and shot the caretaker. The car doors opened. Two black figures emerged, seized Sonia and buzzed her so she became unconscious. When she awoke she was lying on a black leather sofa in a dark smoky room. A strange man with a beard and a black leather jacket was watching her. He said his name was Mirabell and he would be training her to be part of their group. When the actual training began, Sonia caused so much trouble that they left her in the Cold Forest with nothing but a knife, a gun and the promise that they would return when they thought she was ready. That had been three years ago, when she was fourteen.

A stick cracked in the bushes and the bee bolted. Sonia fired after it but missed. She sprang up angrily, broke off a branch of fire tree and beat the rocks around her in frustration. It gave her satisfaction to see the branch in her hand blaze up in orange flame for a few seconds. When the branch was spent of its fire she snapped it and kicked it as far as she could in the direction the bee had gone. She was about to start throwing dirt after it too when out from the bushes on her right came five people: two men, two women and a small boy about three years old. The two women gasped upon seeing her and leapt back. The men looked startled and the boy hid behind the elder woman's skirt.

Sonia stared at them silently, still holding her hands full of dirt. Something told her she should speak to these people but she had not spoken to anyone for so long that she was a bit unsure of herself.

“Who... who are you?” she said slowly, her heart pounding.

The lighter haired man who seemed to be the leader said, equally unsurely, “We're... on the long march to...” he swallowed, “the hidden city.” Sonia gave him a puzzled look.

“Will you let us pass?” said the other man nervously.

“We're looking for a place to spend the night.” said the first man, “Could you give us directions?”

Sonia shook her head slowly.

“Oh.” he turned away. Sonia took a deep breath.

“You... can stay... with me.”

The younger lighter haired woman sighed in relief as her companions' faces lit up. Sonia rose and picked up her gun from where she had dropped it.

“This way.” She slipped silently through the foliage in the direction of her cave-hut where she occasionally slept, prepared food and made her clothes. As the others followed they spoke to each other in low voices. It was dark by the time they reached the small building so they had a light meal and put the boy, Connal, to bed. Then they sat around the fire, talking. Their names were Ralf, Angele, Lana and Jermaine. 

The Frozen Plains

PART ONE

“I don't think we're going to get anything else tonight.” said Angele,

climbing down from the rock and handing the cardan to Lana who sighed and put the lifeless little body into the bag.

“How much do you think we'll get?” 
“I'd say about fifty six centros perhaps.” 
“Well, let's get back. We don't want to be out after nine.” 
They began to climb down the hill to a red and white yurt just outside the camp. Angele and Lana lived alone, getting by on the money they earned from selling coffee, cardan skins and pies (a cardan is a small animal which lives on and around the frozen plains, has beautiful long, white, brown, black or golden fur and tastes like nondescript stew when cooked). Every morning the girls could be seen at their stall where they would stay cooking pies and coffee until 3 pm when they returned to their yurt. After preparing the cardan skins for sale the next day, they went out hunting until 8:30 pm. On their return they would skin the cardans they had killed, cook the meat and roll out pastry for the pies.

Angele had lately become engaged to Ralf, another, more successful hunter who had his own herd of bahrams, an animal like a sheep but larger which was farmed for milk and wool.

Ralf lived with his mother Zara in a brown and blue yurt near the middle of the camp

and was a close friend to Mirabell, one of the higher class yurt-owners who lived with his wife Iona.

He had a herd of bahrams and a flock of whills, a large kind of pigeon, which earned him a small fortune each week with their eggs, meat and feathers.

He even had the money to buy an extra powerful motorised sled to haul his yurt and belongings from one campsite to another when everyone else had to do it themselves or with the help of their friends. Every few months or so gangs of robbers would come down from the mountains on raids to carry away livestock and sometimes small children. But other than that everything went well in the frozen plains camp.

“Evening Lana, evening Angele.” 
“Good evening Mirabell. Where are you going?” asked Lana, they had reached their yurt where they encountered Mirabell leaving the camp. 
“I'm off to find one of my bahrams who's gotten loose.” 
“Good luck sir.” said Angele, nodding goodbye. Mirabell was soon lost to view in the gloom. As they prepared for bed that night Angele was strangely quiet. She would marry Ralf tomorrow and her life would change completely. She didn't realise how completely. There would be no more sitting out in the small, draughty stall dealing with customers. Ralf would do all the selling. She would go hunting with him, help haul the yurt and he might even teach her how to drive his quad bike to herd the bahrams when they moved next. Something thumped against the wall of the yurt. Angele and Lana jumped and looked at each other. Robbers? No, they never bumped into yurts and it wasn't time yet anyway. They rushed outside and dimly distinguished in the gloom a figure lying motionless on the ground not far from their boots which they had forgotten to take inside. 
“Oh no!” said Lana. 
“I'll get Ralf.” said Angele.

When Ralf came it was revealed that the figure was a man in foot traveling gear without a gun. He was obviously on the long march to the hidden city. There was a nasty looking cut on one side of his head and his arm had been hit by a hand thrown missile. He had dark hair and his eyes were tight shut. They carried him to Ralf's yurt where Zara took care of him with Lana's help.

He said his name was Jermaine.

Ralf and Angele were married the next day and the camp moved to new territory. Mirabell still had not returned from his search for the bahram but no notice was taken of it except by Ralf who remarked that it was strange for him to take so long since bahrams never strayed very far. The new couple were happy as possible for exactly two weeks and three days. Then everything went wrong. Jermaine was indeed on the long march and had been attacked by three big men who stole his pack. Before they could steal anything else he had raced for the camp but had been hit by one of their missiles and tripped over some boots outside the girls' yurt.

After listening to him talk about the long march for a while Jermaine's enthusiasm began to rub off on Lana. One evening she came over to Angele and Ralf's yurt for tea. 
“Jermaine's been telling me what it's like on the long march and he asked me to go with him when he's better. I want to go but I wanted to ask your advice.” she said while they were eating. Ralf and Angele looked at each other, then at Lana. The long march was a long and dangerous road and many travelers did not survive it. Lana and Angele were not sisters or blood relations of any kind but they loved each other just as much as if they were. Like many others in the camp, they were orphans taken in by members of the young hunters organisation until they were old enough to take care of themselves. This love built up over years of living together spurred Angele to do something she would regret for the rest of her life. “We'll go with you.” 
“What?” said Lana, aghast.
“We're going with you Lana.” 
Ralf started up, “Angele-” 
“We're not going to let you go by yourself with a stranger.”
“Angele, it could take years.” 
“I don't care how long it takes. If you don't go with me I don't care, I'm going, whatever you say.” 
“Angele and Lana, please reconsider.” 
Ralf looked pleadingly at Angele. "I wish Mirabell was here, he could talk some sense into you both" he said unhappily.
“Maybe I shouldn't go.” said Lana, staring down uncomfortably at her plate. 
“You should go Lana. I'm going with you.” 
“Angele.” 
“I am.” Angele stood up and left the yurt.

The Southern War

The Life of Queen Ilo and Her Sister

No one really ever knew much about Daisy Janet's parents or why they disappeared so suddenly one night. But Daisy didn't care (oh shock horror!); she was twenty and quite capable of taking care of herself. At twenty five she married a young man named Rowan Julian who lived in Ilon, a town south of the south river.

When they had been married only a year they got a baby from the baby plant and named him Iro.  When he was four they got another baby and named her Illus. Iro was very excited to have a sister and taught her everything he knew and they became very close friends. When Illus was one and Iro was five, their parents got twins and named them Ilo and Laurel. Thirteen years later the old queen Florinda died in mysterious circumstances, leaving the territory to her daughter Rose, who was only twenty and not very good at ruling.  (She had actually killed her mother and had sympathies with the immortals). Rose then made the worst decision ever, declaring friendship with the immortals which was just the excuse they were waiting for to attack. When they started marching over the mountains to Centerton Queen Rose ran away to Across The Border. Everyone was of course shocked but there was nothing they could do to get her back so they opted for self defence. The battle was soon raging to the west of the Eiderdown hills and calls were being sent out for more troops. Iro went but was soon killed on a raid. Illus was stunned and wouldn't talk to anyone outside the family for a month. Even getting a new little sister named Iris didn't cheer her up much. Neither did the news that Ilo had been made part of the council. One day her parents came into her room and told her that they were going away to “help the war effort” and she was not to expect them back for a while. They would leave on the next plane for Curo Village, a small town just west of the Eiderdown hills on the north shore of the south river.

The war had now been going for almost a year and Illus was fifteen.  She had never been apart from both her parents for very long.  Her aunt Jonquil was coming up from Rock Island but the flight was delayed an hour because of contrary winds, as was the flight to Curo Village. As a result the Julians' flight was blown off course then shot down by immortal troops over the Eiderdown hills. All survivors were taken prisoner. The news reached those in Ilon at 1^st 12:45 when most were still in bed. This was terrible news which wasn't helped by the fact that nearly a week afterward the immortals began an attack on the city, during which Laurel and some of his friends were killed. Ilo was so sad she wouldn't leave her bedroom for a week. But she had to move eventually because everyone was moving down to the caves through an underground tunnel. The next step was to get word to Centerton and urge Queen Rose to act, as their communications had been knocked out. Illus volunteered to go to Across The Border with a team of helpers and Ilo was chosen as a representative of the Ilon council to go to Centerton with a guard of three people. They set out three days later and reached the cities in four days, without incident. Illus was chosen to speak to the queen who was in her winter castle. However, they had to wait for a week as the queen was not in the mood for seeing people. The day before Illus went to the castle she and her team received the news that Ilo had been given control of the southern continent and was just one step away from being made queen. Illus was very proud of her sister.

The Queen was sitting on her throne with a very sour expression on her face when Illus entered the room and her expression only grew worse throughout the conversation which followed. 

“Your majesty.” Illus bowed, the Queen nodded, “My name is Illus Julian. I have come to speak to you.” The Queen raised her eyebrows, 

“What do you wish to speak to me about?” 

“About the war, the war which you brought about. You should never have befriended the immortals, you should know how they feel about that sort of thing. You ran away when you should have stayed to encourage your subjects. The people want to make my sister Queen.” 

“Is she the girl who I continually see on the television who cannot talk in a coherent manner?” Queen Rose received a hard slap on her cheek from Illus who had fired up at this speech and was unable to contain her anger any longer. Ilo did stammer but not that much and Illus was very sensitive to criticism of her relations. The Queen slapped her back. 

“So this is your answer?” Illus almost shouted.

“Yes!” 

“Alright then!” She stomped out of the palace. 

The next week the city heard that Ilo had been made Queen. The war carried on in favor of the immortals for two months, but at the beginning of the third month the tide began to turn and they were driven back. To everyone's surprise the immortals didn't seem to mind being driven back very much and when the war was over there was not a sound from them about being beaten. The fairies even began to hope that the old days were returning when the only fighting between the two races had been done with pillows and cushions. But they had no idea what horrors were in store.

On the third day after the war had ended, the prisoners were returned to their families, including Rowan and Daisy Julian. The reunion was a very joyful one but Ilo couldn't be there as she was busy being the Queen. Queen Rose had mysteriously disappeared. Most people, when questioned, said that they didn't know and didn't really care either. Ilo remained Queen for three more years and was then replaced by Queen Daffodil who reigned for many years afterward. When Daffodil was made Queen, Ilo got a job looking after children and plants.  Illus became a space pilot and helped to fly the great big exploration ships.  When little sister Iris was old enough she followed her sister and assisted in testing evacuation ships to see if they were fit to journey in space.  Rowan and Daisy bought a farm and lived a quiet life there.

THE END