The Tale of Shatir Lavan

[Shatir Lavan]

A First-Person Tale of the Journey to Knighthood.

Introduction

My name is Shatir Lavan, and I am a Jedi. I was born on Dantooine to a pair of Corellian archaeologists studying Ancient Jedi ruins left untouched by the Yuuzhan Vong. I am told that nine months before I was born, my parents discovered a crystal cave in the North and "celebrated". I prefer not to think of the details of that celebration, but I suppose that their celebration is the reason I am a Jedi today. The caves my parents found were ancient sacred places of the Jedi where lightsaber focusing crystals grew. The Force was strong in this place, and I suppose a high number of midichlorians were drawn towards my parents while they were "celebrating". Nine months later I was born in a small outpost on a mountain. I was named after my mother's great uncle, Shatir Noria, a Jedi from the Republic. I'm told he was one of the last Jedi killed by Darth Vader in the Jedi Purge. He was the keeper of a Jedi Holocron. He hid it before Vader caught up to him. When I was young, not long after Master Skywalker found me and I learned of my history, I vowed that I would one day find my Great-great uncle's holocron, and restore it to the Jedi order.

[Shatir Lavan]

Chapter 1

Today the sky burst into showers and stormfronts. The grey clouds covered the sunrise. The lavender grass was soaked with much dew. Dantari howled in the distance.
The sound of a ship approaching grew. I was three years old. It was the first day I ever saw the man who saved the galaxy from the Empire. The ship landed in the outpost's shuttleport, the repulsors splashing water onto my father's boots. I looked out my window. Two men in cloaks stepped out of the ship towards my father. They asked him something. He pointed...towards our house...towards my window...towards me.
"Shatir. Will you come downstairs please?" my father called. I came out to the top of the stairs to see the two men standing next to my mother and father. One in brown, the other in green.
"Hello, Shatir," said the man in brown, "My name is Luke Skywalker, and this is Corran Horn. We are Jedi. We have come to show you the way of the Force." I was in awe. These men were like my great-great uncle who I had only imagined. I walked downstairs. I bowed before them. I didn't speak. I didn't think I knew any words good enough to respond to what I was being told.
My father knelt down before me. He said, "Shatir, these men are going to take you away from here. Away from our home, away from our world. You're going to travel in a starship to the Jedi Academy. You're going to become a Jedi Knight. I love you my son. I will see you when you return." What he said, I will remember forever, because it was the last thing he ever said to me. I went upstairs with my mother. She helped me change into warmer clothes for my journey. She didn't say anything. She had tears running down her cheeks. I went downstairs. The Jedi held out their hands. I walked to the ship with Master Skywalker on my right, Master Horn on my left. I looked back at my parents. They were sad, yet proud.
"I love you!" I yelled. The ship's door closed before they could respond. Master Horn was in the pilot's chair. I sat in a chair across from Master Skywalker. It was then that he told me of how he had been discovered by Jedi, and how he was trained, and how he re-established the Jedi order.

[Shatir Lavan]

Chapter 2

My life as a Padawan learner was difficult, but rewarding. My two best friends at the academy were also the hairiest. Maksitt was a reddish brown Ewok who grew up in a tribe that shared a river crossing with a clan of Teeks. Maksitt had an innate talent for using the force to speed up his actions. He used to race Teeks upriver right to the springs and back. My other friend's name was Tibbacca. Tibby was a white haired Wookiee who grew up in the alpine areas of Kashyyyk north of the 70th parallel. She was incredibly gifted at telepathy. Although Master Skywalker did start reverting to some of the old ways of the Jedi, such as taking very young Padawans, there were still not enough Jedi to train Padawans one on one (especially after so many died fighting the Yuuzhan Vong), so we trained three students to one master. The three of us were trained by a female Zabrak named Keth Plae. We stayed with her for our entire childhood. She taught us how to be a part of the Force. She taught us how to control our emotions, and how to embrace our full Force potential without straying into the Dark Side.

[Shatir Lavan]

Chapter 3

Today was the first day I used a lightsabre. Keth brought us to a large training hall where we met up with other groups. Master Horn taught all of us about the circles of defense.
"This is one of the most important aspects of lightsabre training," he said. "A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack." I was confused, so I raised my hand. "Yes, Shatir?" Master Horn said.
"I don't understand. You say a Jedi never attacks, but then how did we beat the Vong if all we did was protect ourselves?" I asked.
"Yuuzhan Vong you mean to say." That was Tahiri, another instructor of a different group of 3 padawans. Some people thought she was part Yuuzhan Vong. "If I may, Master Horn? Defense is not all about shielding yourself from your enemy's attacks. It is also about counterstriking him when it is most critical. Jedi don't start fights, we just finish them. Understand?"
"Yes Ma'am. We need to protect ourselves by not letting our enemy hurt us in the first place." That day was the day I really started training as a Jedi.

[Shatir Lavan]

Chapter 4

I don't remember many distinct things about my childhood. Most of it blurred together as I learned new techniques and perfected old ones. One thing I do remember, however, is when I constructed my own lightsabre. Master Skywalker told several padawan groups that he would take them to a real adegan crystal cave. Little did I know that the cave he would take us to was on my home planet of Dantooine; to the cave where my life blinked into existence.
When we arrived at Dantooine, we headed for a place where friends could be found. For me, they were family. Our shuttle touched down on the landing pad on the West ridge of Mt. Lavan. It was named after my grandfather Wes Lavan, the famous Corellian geologist. He died of illness when I was barely a year old. As the landing ramp descended, I recognized my parents' old speeder. Then I saw them. I ran to them and hugged them tight. "I missed you so much."
"Look at you," my mother said, "Full grown and well on your way to becoming a Jedi." Tears streamed down her face. I looked to my father. Then I realized why my father hadn't said anything. I saw a rough scar down the centre of my father's throat. Some years before, my mother told me, pirates came to the outpost demanding supplies. What the residents were willing to share wasn't enough for the pirates. My father stood up to the leader, and was given a vibroblade cut in return. It was lucky the pirates left some medical supplies behind, but a few bacta patches can't repair severed vocal cords. Luckily, my father lived.
That night we all sat around a bonfire behind by family's house. Master Skywalker told us the plan for the following day. We went over my parents' maps of the cave. Then Master Skywalker told us all the history of the lightsabre; from the days when Jedi wore a battery on their side and the crystal was exposed, right up to telling us about amphistaffs and cortosis ore, the only things he knew of that could stop a lightsabre's blade. Finally, I got to sleep in my own bed, a reward long awaited and well-deserved.

[Shatir Lavan]

Chapter 5

We awoke at dawn. Keth, Maksitt, Tibacca, and I took my parents speeder to the cave. Other Jedi borrowed other speeders from the village. Master Skywalker led us all on my grandfather's old surveying speederbike. Before long, we came to the entrance of the cave. Off to the left were the smashed remains of an AT-ST.
"Years ago, before the fall of the Empire, there was an Imperial installation set up on this planet. The Empire fell to the Rebellion, but part of the Remnant kept up operations here," Master Skywalker told us. "When the Yuuzhan Vong took over, they destroyed all machinery they came into contact with, but they appreciated natural formations, even those used by our civilizations. They used to occupy these caves, but now they are gone."
Light from the morning sun shone down into the entrance of the cave. Inside, light broke into a thousand rays, refracting through ubiquitous crystals. As we entered, the Force contained within the cave enveloped each one of us, and unified us.
"This point is the culmination of your training. All that you have learned about the Force will be needed here to find the crystal that will complete your lightsabre. You have made hilts already from materials found on your homeworlds. Take them now, and follow where the Force takes you." As Master Skywalker spoke these words, I felt a concentration of Force energy coming from up ahead on the right. I followed the will of the Force, and walked towards the source of energy.
I came to a cluster of green crystals beside a pillar. There was strange writing on the pillar, but somehow I knew what it said, without being able to actually read it. Choose, and act. I didn't know who had inscribed, nor what it would mean for my future, but I did as the inscription told me. I chose, and I acted. I dove into the power of the Force, and plucked a green crystal from the cluster at my feet. I knelt down and went into intense meditation. I felt the crystal's presence in the Force, calling me, instructing me in how to cut the rough crystal into the exact shape I would need for my lightsabre to function. I felt the Force surge each time I struck the crystal with my invisible strength. Then suddenly, the crystal's purity shone clear. I followed the Force instruction me where to place the crystal in the assembly of lightsabre parts. The hilt composed of hydraulic parts from my father's old speeder floated into my mind, yearning to be one with the crystal. I granted its wish, melding the crystal with the hilt. A week after I had entered my meditation, I awoke to find a green blade of pure energy blazing in front of me, its source held in my right hand. I looked around, and saw that Maksitt and Tibacca had awoken at precisely the same time as I did, saw Tibacca's sabre of bronze and wroshyr wood snap-hiss to life with a brilliant golden blade, Maksitt springing his night-sky-blue blade from its blurrg-bone hilt. Some students were already finished their lightsabres, while several others were still in meditation. Maksitt, Tibacca, and I joined Keth, Master Skywalker, and several others around a fire, underneath the clear, midnight sky.