A Padawan's Journey

[Ryss Fal-Orran]

I enjoy writing, even when I run out of inspiration or critique my own work too harshly. It is never a problem to come up with intriguing characters, but the plot rarely pulls me. However, I have received a sudden burst of inspiration, and while I am still running wiht it, I shall tell the tale of Ryss Fal-Orran.
Here I will present, post by post, the mirror to Schph's story: the story of her Padawan.

[Ryss Fal-Orran]

Of my mother I have little good memories. She was silent, and not like a mother should be. Shorter than my father, and thin, but she seemed taller, the way her eyes penetrated and sparked. She was cold and distant, keeping herself apart from everyone else, but given to firey bursts of rage, and I would hide under my bed. I remember but a single time when she smiled. My father and mother and I had taken a trip to the big city, and as she stared up at the elegant curving towers and the gleaming arches, she smiled once, briefly, and still coldly.

The warmth came from my father. He was a tall man, broad-shouldered and strong, and always laughing. A man of love, they called him, and he did love me, his daughter. I could tell by the way he smiled at me, by the way he held me in his arms, by the way to spoke of me. We would not be parted, my father and I, even when his work with the government pulled at him. A strong bond held us together, and my young days were happy, my father by my side.

[Ryss Fal-Orran]

It was raining, I remember that clearly. The sky was gray and dripping, one of those dreary days when you just want to sit inside and curl up by the fire. My father had bought some logs from a stand down by the center road, and he piled them up in our little-used marble fireplace, almost an antiquity. The fire he built was toasty and comforting, and we closed our eyes and stuck out our toes to be warmed. I could not keep my eyes closed for long, though, and the dancing flames fanscinated me with their sparking and leaping.

Later that afternoon, rain was still pattering on the roof with a steady staccato beat. The fire was dwindling to gray ash, and my father, glancing at his chrono, announced it was time to leave. My mother was away on an interplanetery business trip, he explained, and it was time to pick her up from the spaceport. My father never liked the public transports.

He strapped me securely in to our dome-hooded speeder, and we zipped through the rain towards the city. My father manuevered into a parking garage, after paying some exorbitant fee and complaining about the scarcity of parking.

The walk to the spaceport was not far, luckily, giving how my little legs did not carry me very far without me crying for my father to carry me. We were to meet my mother at Gate #561, the officials said, and directed us to the nearest repulsorlift. I don't know why I remember the number.

The first thing I noticed was the lealin-print scarf thrown around her neck. My mother did not usually indulge in expensive accessories, but lealin-print was difficult to reproduce, and as a result, expensive. Of course, I immediately knew something was different, in that intuitive way children have.

The second thing I noticed was the woman in a long brown robe and hood that concealed her face. Her hands were tucked into her sleeves, and she walked beside my mother with purpose in her stride. I stared up at her with unconcealed curiousity, until my father admonished me.

As my mother and father embraced, the woman knelt before me and spoke, in a way that made me feel like another adult instead of a mere child. She was very blunt, and got straight to the point. Her words still ring in my mind today: "Ryss, you are Force-sensitive."

[Ryss Fal-Orran]

And thus began a new stage in my life.

My father helped me pack a travel-bag with my clothes and a toy, then kissed me tearfully goodbye. I clung to him, not wanting to leave. The woman in the brown robe, after smiling sadly, took me by the hand and led me out the door of our home.

We took a public space transport somewhere. I didn't know where we were going, and the woman in the brown robe never mentioned it to me, for whatever reason. It seemed like a long and desolate journey; I missed my father terribly already. The woman in the brown robe mostly kept to herself, and I decided that this was the most miserable time of my life.

[Ryss Fal-Orran]

I clutched my single bag of belongings close to me as the woman led me off the space transport. Her name was Fera-Ne Alianin, I had learned, and she was a Jedi. A Jedi. One of those mysterious protectors of the galaxy, and upon learning just what she was, I became withdrawn, not sure what to think of Fera-Ne. Was she someone to be feared? I did not know if I should cower from her in fear, or run to her when seeking comfort. The Jedi had a reputation, to be sure, but on my home planet we cared little for them. The Jedi would never become a part of our everyday life, would never cme to our peceful planet, so we did not need to worry much about them.

I still did not know where we were. Fera-Ne did not speak, but took me my the hand as we followed other passengers down the sloping silver ramp. I was frightened - I was alone with a woman I hardly knew, on a strange planet, with no way to return to my father. I thought I might cry, but bit my lip instead and followed Fera-Ne with wide eyes.

The spaceport was much bigger than the one at home, bustling and noisy and filled with humans and aliens of every description. Fera-Ne drifted through the crowd with ease, managing to avoid the slow crush of beings and darted through ever-changing gaps in the crowd. She made a sharp turn off the mainway into a narrow passage, and then we emerged into what looked like a private speeder-lot.

The lights were bright, and constant low hum filled my ears in the lot. We boarded a small open speeder, and a section of the wall slid back as Fera-Ne activated the speeder. We zoomed out through the opening and into the open air. Still without a single word spoken.

My hair whipped back by the wind caused by our speed, and I held my bag tightly in my lap as if it were the only thing keeping me from falling out. In truth, I was firmly buckled into the seat of the speeder, but I had never been in an open speeder at such a great height.

For we were far up, as I could see over the polished side of the speeder. I looked down, and saw buildings and durasteel and many many speeders, all flying in perfect rows according to traffic laws...but I could not see the ground. I looked down, and down, and I saw the buildings shrink out of sight...but I could not see any ground. The buildings did not end - they went down forever, it looked to my young eyes. And I think this scared me more than the openness and the whipping wind.

[Ryss Fal-Orran]

It was loud, the roaring of speeders and transports and the hum of life from the throngs of people thtat crowded walkways everywhere. I wanted to clutch my hands to my ears, shut out the noise, but I clung with one hand to my bag and the other to the side of the speeder instead, still not trusting that I would not fall out.

This was a city, for certain. The biggest and loudest city I had ever seen. My heart cried out for the rolling hillsides and the redwood forests of my home, and my snug little house by the lakeside. I was a country girl, more suited to waterfalls and grassy fields than soaring durasteel. A wave of homesickness washed over me, stronger than it had on the transport, now that I was truly in unknown territory.

But I still steadfastly blinked away my tears, refusing to cry in front of anyone I did not know. The speeder trip I spent in silence, for neither Fera-Ne nor I was inclined to speak.

The speeder slowed, and the deep hum and vibrations of its engines began to dim. I looked ahead, scooting up in my seat to see where we were. And towering above me, taller than any of the skyscrapers I had yet seen, were five lofty pale structures that gleamed white and calm amidst the bustle of the city. They touched the sky, I thought, brushing gentle fingers against the pale blue expanse above. I felt nothing but awe, then. My fear was gone.

And this was my first sight of the Jedi Temple.