It has been a bit since my last post, for reasons. My father passed away in January, and I have not felt all that creative until recently. Fortunately, I feel like I’ve turned a corner. I have a new Star Wars fanfic I’ll be sharing over the next several weeks to months, one chapter at a time.
This is an Ahsoka fanfiction. It kicks off before the show, will extend through the end of season one, and hopefully conclude with post-show content before season two of the real thing airs. Let me know how I’m doing in the comments!
Rating: General, Spice Level: None
Characters/Tags: Original Character, Master and Apprentice Relationships, Original Female Character, Original Jedi Character, Ahsoka Tano, Huyang
Chapter 1 – Before the Fall
Kendra closed her eyes and allowed the swift rush of the stream to pull her into her meditation. The Force flowed through her like the water, a comforting presence she had come to know intimately over years of near-seclusion. She drifted into the familiar words of the Jedi code.
Emotion, yet peace.
Ignorance, yet knowledge.
Passion, yet serenity.
Chaos, yet harmony.
Death, yet the Force.
A ripple of unease brushed against her mind, faint and unfamiliar. She reached for it, but it vanished like the mist of the fast-flowing stream. Probably a bird, she told herself. Master Edith would probably say it was only her own restlessness.
Another pull of the Force alerted Kendra to her master’s ascent of the trail. Master Edith wound back and forth up the switchbacks from their camp. Each year, the climb took a little longer for the centenarian. Still, she joined her padawan at the top each morning.
Kendra’s rock, as Master Edith liked to call it, lay among several other large boulders in the middle of the rushing water. The water flowed southeast from the distant mountains, past where Kendra knelt, over the waterfall, and on to Fernwood.
Once, other settlements had dotted the land west of Fernwood. Only ruins remained, and the crumbled bridge under the falls was now a path to nowhere. Children still spoke of the haunted western mountains, and each retelling of the ghost stories became more vivid. It made for a safer campfire story to tell than actual close encounters with dangerous wildlife, though the children liked to talk about those as well.
Kendra expanded her circle of focus to search for any of those animals; the large ones that could kill with a single swipe. She envisioned this connection as a great pool of life, with ripples moving toward her, giving her information about the many living things in the Force. A pack of cave hoppers lived northwest toward the mountains, but never ventured near the Jedi. nexu roamed the forest but avoided the Jedi and usually steered clear of Fernwood. Three hunted to the south.
She’d have to check in on the nexu nest near town the next time Edith and she went there. It was a little close for comfort, and little Evan had reported seeing the beast. He was brave but young and prone to getting himself in trouble. And a nexu mother protecting her young would definitely be trouble.
Cold seeped into her knees and shins from the rock. A light spray thrown up by the stream settled on her exposed arms, neck, and face. She took a deep breath of the fresh morning air and wondered if rivers smelled the same on every planet. If damp earth and pine needles smelled different elsewhere, could they have smelled better? Not possible, she decided.
The Force nudged attention to the riverbank behind her, where a young squirrel limped across the edge of the trees. It favored its front right leg as it moved between the bright green shoots of grass and over the matted remnants of the leaves from Fall.
Kendra placed all of her focus on the tiny animal and its wounded leg. The ripples of the great lake she envisioned now moved away from her. In her mind, they seemed to break against the squirrel. She sensed a tiny cut on its leg, shallow but painful.
Calling upon the Force, she gently applied healing to the wound. It felt like soothing light to Kendra, but warmth to the animal. She sensed the animal pause, surprised at the feeling. Frightened, it darted away, though it bore more weight on its front leg. Kendra smiled faintly as she released the focus on the healing and opened her eyes.
Master Edith stood on the bank nearby and smiled. “Healing is probably be easier if the patient does not run away.”
“Yes, master.” Kendra instinctively extended the healing energy in her mind toward Master Edith. Nothing specific ailed her master, but every joint ached with age. Healing would probably be easier if the patient were younger.
“Your skill continues to improve.” Master Edith rolled her shoulders and bowed toward Kendra in thanks. She moved with a grace that belied her age, but her face remained weathered, and she appeared ever more slight in her frayed dark tunic and cloak. Her silver-gray hair lay thin and damp on her head.
“But you can still tell?” Kendra asked.
Master Edith shrugged. “Yes.”
Her master’s connection to the Force meant she’d probably always be able to tell if someone was using it on her, but the goal for Kendra was to make it as subtle as possible so others would not notice. Master Edith also insisted deliberate and careful use protected Kendra from damaging herself in the process. Kendra thought all of it made the process too slow.
Master Edith forbade her from using her abilities on the people of Fernwood, but the animals could not report the Jedi to the Empire or any remnant that remained. The older woman said they were only safe if nobody knew they were Jedi, but Kendra had never seen any bounty out on members of the Order. Even if the people they knew had no animosity toward Force-users, Edith maintained that many would talk in exchange for credits.
Kendra longed to heal others; to work against the suffering around her, like a real Jedi. A hollow ache tugged at her chest as she stared into the bushes where the squirrel had fled. The Force wanted her to do more. At the same time, she was called to obey Master Edith.
“Someday, you will be able to heal softly. Or less so, if the situation demands it.” Master Edith knew of Kendra’s hopes. It would be impossible to hide them. “You must have patience.”
“Yes, master.”
“I can tell when you don’t believe me, you know,” Master Edith said. She bent to examine something at the edge of the water. “Have I ever told you I failed one of the trials on my first attempt?”
“What?” Kendra let out a nervous laugh. No, her master had not told her this. “Really?”
“Yes. I thought I was ready. My master did not. I insisted, and I failed.” Edith said.
“What happened?” Kendra asked.
“I cannot say,” Master Edith said. “It is a secret.”
“A secret?” Kendra asked. “Who would I tell?”
“You never know.” Master Edith winked.
“Of course, master,” Kendra said. “Of course.”
“I shouldn’t tease you so. Let me tell you a story I can share. Have I told you about my first trip with Master Orion?”
When Kendra shook her head, Master Edith continued. “Our relationship had been… tense, at first. But we were dispatched to a planetary dispute somewhere in the Outer Rim. Normal bureaucrats fighting with each other, if I had to remember. We stayed at the palace with the king there, and just a few days into the visit, Master Orion became the subject of much court intrigue.”
“Oh?” Kendra listened intently. Master Edith had rarely shared stories of her earlier life.
“Master Orion was an attractive man,” Master Edith said, “and the young ladies of the court grew very fond of him, very quickly. There seemed to be a race to determine who could convince him to abandon the Order and marry them.”
Master Edith continued, “This made me quite popular as well, once they realized I was not the competition. They wanted to know everything about him, and if I’d put in a good word with him, where he might be going next, that sort of thing.”
“He didn’t care, did he?”
“No, indeed not. These women were all less than half his age, though I’m sure they didn’t know that. I’m not sure I have ever laughed that hard. I teased him about it for decades.”
Kendra smiled, but the strangeness of Edith sharing two stories from her youth left her uncertain what to say next. The first drops of a morning rain fell through the leaves above the two women.
Master Edith opened her mouth as if to say something else, paused, and then said, “Well, we should probably get going.”
Of course, it would rain on a day they were to travel to Fernwood. Kendra rose and put her deep green cloak back over her shoulders, pulled the hood over her dark brown hair, and slung the blaster rifle over her shoulders. She picked her way across the large rocks back to the bank, avoiding the slippery and ever-loose one.
The two began their descent back to camp and the trail. The stream roared behind them, unbothered by rain or rules.
Read Chapter 2: Edge of Elsewhere
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