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[Stace de'Lorne o'Breac]

Dreams.

Lorn had many dreams. He dreamt of water. He dreamt of sunlight, of soil beneath his roots, wind blowing through his branches, rustling his leaves. Lorn had many dreams for a plant. He often wondered if his fellow green brethren shared in his dreams; if they too concerned themselves with the changing of the seasons, the wetness of Spring's first rain, the warmth of the Summer's rays, the crisp breezes of the Fall, the deep, cold slumber of the winter. He was quite certain they didn't dream of moving like he did, of leaving the comfort of their sedentary lifestyle to freely wander and walk and dance; to see everything there was to see, and feel, and hear, and smell.

He wondered if his fellow green brethren dreamt about interacting at all.

Lorn did. Though his settings were always idyllic, there were always others about. Occasionally those others were nothing more than the woodland creatures of the island of Breac on Qiilura. Flitting about their daily chores, busying themselves with the ritual of life. But mostly the others in his dreams were the Lorn family, the family that had given him both of his names, names that seemed to stick to him like brambles. Lorn loved them; missed them. He dreamt of the times they had spent together, the joy they shared, the fun they had. He dreamt of everything they had taught him, and of everything he had yet to learn. He dreamt of dancing together at their festivals, of running through their fields. He dreamt of where they were now. Lorn imagined them snug in their beds, cozy and warm, as if mimicking Lorn's own habit.

Lorn dreamt as he hibernated, oblivious to the changing world around him.

Years passed and he didn't have a clue. Times changed, events happened, and all of these passed him by without consequence to the Neti. For over forty years he remained undisturbed, planted in the front yard of the Lorn household. Such spans of time were nothing to the sentient tree, and the more he slept, the deeper his sleep became, as he waited for any kind of sign that the Lorn family was still alive, still on Qiilura, still coming to visit him on their biennial vacation. Even if they were, the elder Lorn's would have passed on, the younger generations would have become the elder and they would have their own children running about. Such was the way of being human. But Lorn didn't know that. So he waited.

But they never came. And he didn't wake up. Not even when a pair of wandering looters came by. Their presence was entirely foreign to Lorn. The Neti wasn't phased. Not even when they delicately uprooted the odd looking tree from the ground, stuck him in a pot with some less-than-well fertilized soil and transported him to the nearby Bright Jewel system. They sold him to a kindly, old shopkeeper that collected rare plants for their storefront. Lorn's slightly human like face, as if someone had carved brows and cheekbones into a trees without disturbing its bark or deadening its structure, brought many to the shopkeeper's window. But there it remained for a few more years, Lorn still unperturbed by the passersby.

[member="Lilin Imperieuse"]​

 

[Liliane]

Ord Mantell was a planet not far away from where Lilin lived. It was rather near to One Sith space, so the girl had practically no difficulty at getting there. She just had to take a public transport and make it to the world. She'd never actually been to there, so it was a new place to be, just as always. But she did love exploring new places and making friends and new acquaintances everywhere.

Her foot had taken her to a shop -- one that was perhaps not the best, but it looked rather famous. When she made it to the shop, she noticed a huge amount of people around its window. And that grabbed her attention.

Even though she couldn't see what was the thing which made all these people so excited, she did decide to go into the shop and check it out. But when she stepped into the building, she did not see the famous thing either. It was blocked by people inside the building as well.

So instead, she had to walk to the cashier and ask what was going on.

"Hello. I saw your little shop and thought I'd step in," she said while approaching the man. "May I ask, what are the people looking there?"

[ [member="Lorn Breac"] ]

 

[Stace de'Lorne o'Breac]

The old man behind the counter, who served as not only the cashier, but also the caretaker, and sole proprietor of the botanical shop, was seated in an equally old wooden rocking chair. Between the wrinkles of his face, it was difficult to tell if he was smiling or not, but he had a twinkle in his eye as a young girl approached him from around the crowd gathered in his store. He had been watching on all day as his prized tree had garnered a greater and greater audience. The potted plant had often had many a visitor, those browsing the local shops stopped to observe, stare, take pictures. But most of the time it was a passing fancy. To see an item where nature, with all of its random variables, had done the carving rather than the hands of man was of idle interest to nearly everyone. And the tree had garnered him a great deal of business since he had acquired it around seven years prior.

The tree had been strange though. He couldn't truly determine its origin, save that the sellers had discovered it on Qiilura. But no other specie from the planet quite matched its description. But as a display piece, that detail was less important than its striking appearance, and after a few years of fruitless research, the proprietor had given up trying to discover the tree's ancestry. The strangest thing, however, concerned the action of the tree itself. Every once in awhile, he would see the tree move, and not from the wind or a draft. The tree seemed autonomous in those moments. The first few times it happened, the owner had chalked it up to seeing things in his old age. But the occurrence continued. It was always unpredictable. Sometimes the leaves would seem to shiver. Other times branches rattled of their own accord. Once the old man could have sworn that the tree stretched it's trunk as if it were straightening its spine.

But today was different.

When the young girl asked him what was going on, he waved her over behind the counter. There was a screen set up showing a two-dimensional live camera feed of the front vista to the store. Centered in the display was that very tree. And it was moving, nearly constantly. Never had he seen it look so alive. Its two large branches shook, its trunk swayed, and the head of the tree bobbed ever-so-lightly. Even more strangely, if one looked closely enough, those things all happened in some sort of rhythm.

[member="Lilin Imperieuse"]​

 

[Liliane]

Lilin's eyes flickered to the screen in a fast but swift motion. The thing she saw was ... amusing, to say the least. She'd never seen anything like that, even though she had heard of species who looked like trees. She guessed what she was seeing was one of this species. The girl couldn't be sure about that, so she made no comments. But she did have this rising tension building up in her -- the feeling like she was knowing the truth about the thing.

She turned her body slightly towards the window. She couldn't see anything, which was definitely sad. But she could feel something perhaps most of the people around that tree weren't. There was this strange ripple in the Force. Something stunning.

Her feet started taking her towards the window and as soon as she reached it, she tried to look past the people and see the odd creature, but she just couldn't. Her height was her weakness at that moment and she would have given everything to be about forty centimetres taller. She was no longer growing at all, so that was practically impossible, but she could dream, right?

So instead, she decided to go a different way. Her eyes turned to a person very close to her -- one who had a really nice view at the window, mainly because he was so pressed against it he could have touched the tree.

Lilin's hand rose up into the air and, while performing a swift swipe with it, she muttered, "You will let me see what you're looking at."

And even as a surprise to herself, the man made room for the girl. And then she could see the tree. It looked so cute, so absolutely adorable. Yet as strong as a tree at the same time. Well, mostly because that creature was practically a tree.

[ [member="Lorn Breac"] ]

 

[Stace de'Lorne o'Breac]

I feel...

The sensation was a different one, one with which Lorn was unacquainted. And yet, for some reason, it felt so... familiar; concentrated even. But he couldn't quite make out just what it was. For however long he had waited, Lorn had not had many feelings come over him. Occasionally he would feel lonely; a longing for his old friends. Other times he would feel sore, needing to stretch his branches or relax his trunk. And he dreamt. But this was not a feeling entirely within himself. It came from elsewhere, and it only seemed to come closer.

Why does it feel familiar... if I've never felt it before...? Or is it simply that I have never recognized it? More and more, thoughts swirled within Lorn's mind. Questions, ponderings. After sleeping for so long, having devoted so much time to patiently waiting, he had forgotten what it felt like to be curious. The Neti had forgotten the freedom of moving, of exploration and discovery and wonder. This sensation, it was a feeling the Neti could not shake from his boughs. His body moved on its own in response to this stimuli, his feelings flowing from him. What do I feel?

The Neti's eyes opened.

Images poured at him, none of which he recognized. But none of that was important. He regained sensory function as soon as he came to consciousness once more. Lorn stretched, grunting as he did so, feeling every inch of his physical being, from the leaves rustling on top of his head down to the roots buried in the soil beneath him. And once he made contact with those nerves, he removed his roots from the earth, shaking himself off, wiggling and wriggling in rhythm to some unheard song until his roots resembled feet, firmly planted on some kind of surface.

And then he turned, making straight for the feeling that had ignited his mind once more. In front of him stood a girl. She was taller than he at the moment, having spent several years in less than adequate soil for his full height. Lorn stretched again and his body grew, drawing water and carbon from the leaves that simultaneously receded on his brow until he reached eye level of the presence before him. The Neti looked her right in the eye.

"Hello," he simply stated, his throat croaking at first from misuse, though he paid it no mind, continuing to speak as his voice gradually righted itself. "You are... different. Why can I... sense you?"

In that moment, as he began to speak, he also noticed the crowd around the girl, and he turned his head from side to side to regard all these extra presences. Lorn smiled and waved. "Hello," he gleefully announced to the mass.

 

[Liliane]

The tree could speak? It seemed like some kind of sorcery, magic even. The sudden surprise when the tree opened his eyes, came out of the pot and talked to the girl was all a little bit too much to handle. Her mind couldn't just grasp what the thing was. She'd never seen anything like that, not even heard of a tree species actually talking.

"Why can you talk?" Lilin could only ask from the tree. She had no idea why the tree could sense her or what it was able to sense at all, so the sarcastic-witty-funny part of her brain had to start working.

People all around seemed to be frightened for a short moment, but after that they all came back with even more intrigue and enthusiasm. Although none of them felt exactly what she did. There was something interesting about this tree, the ripple she had felt before. It had to be the one thing that made the tree able to sense her, she understood.

"Who are you?" Lilin decided to continue questioning the creature. Perhaps she could get some useful information for future use. Or something.

Others didn't dare talk to the tree, at least it looked like that when Lilin's eyes moved around the room and nobody spoke a word. They barely breathed -- the room was even more silent than before. Even though logically thinking, there should have been a whole lot more euphoria around it.

[ [member="Lorn Breac"] ]

 

[Stace de'Lorne o'Breac]

"Talk?" the teenaged-appearing tree repeated as a question. One arm came up to idly scratch the top of his head, a human gesture he had appropriated from his time with the family on Qiilura. Lorn wasn't sure how to answer the girl. His speech didn't seem odd to Lorn after all. He had always had the capacity for it, so why should it be strange?

Then he remembered the first interactions he had with the Lorn family. They had been shocked by him. Though he only viewed the human family in wonder, they had been defensive and unsure; as if they found him impossible. He had been uniquely strange. It was only his naïve kindness that had broken that barrier to gain their trust. Such strange creatures humans are, Lorn mused as he put his hands together.

He looked down at his hands for a moment, his palms pressed against each other and fingers splayed out in opposite directions. His mouth transformed to various pursed shapes as he seemed to concentrate on his hands for half of a minute. Then Lorn's eyes returned to the girl standing in front of him. He reached his right hand out to her, palm up. There, a small yellow flower had sprouted. The tree returned to smiling warmly as well, his attention entirely on the girl, once again having forgotten all the others standing around them.

"I just... am. I am life. Alive, like you. Humans gave me a name. Breac was what they called me." His eyes sparkled for a moment while thinking about the loving family he had grown to know. Then he immediately became melancholy. "I was waiting for them. But they never came back. So I slept," Lorn stared off into the distance for a few moments, saying nothing, somewhere between daydreaming and searching.

But he quickly reverted to his previous cheerful demeanor. His gravelly voice grew lighter the more he spoke. "But I... felt you, from a distance... growing closer. As if I knew where you were without ever seeing you, or knowing you. So strange and yet, somehow, so familiar. Why is this so? Do I know you? Have we met before?"

 

[Liliane]

The confusion in the tree would only make the situation stranger. Lilin understood why the creature felt that way but she couldn't understand if it knew what it actually looked like. Her eyes remained on the tree, she couldn't move them away. There was just something so compelling about it that she had to stare at it for hours.

"I have no idea who you are. Maybe we've met before but I can't recall every single tree I see on my travels," the girl thought would save the moment with a joke. Or something.

"I am Lilin, by the way," she added after that, thinking it would come off as rude if she did not give the creature hers. The tree's name was something that didn't tell her its gender. Even though Breac did sound kind of masculine, she couldn't be sure. After all, she was not a name scientist or anything.

She moved even closer to the pot and thus, pushed everybody else a little bit away. The closer she moved, the more did she sense the ripple. It had to be the Force. The tree had to be Force-sensitive; otherwise he wouldn't give off such a Force signature.

"Can you use the Force?"

[ [member="Lorn Breac"] ]

 

[Stace de'Lorne o'Breac]

A joke. It had been awhile since Lorn had heard a joke. He forgot the proper response by the time the girl had continued speaking. Perhaps he was so odd because these humans saw many trees but none of them talked. What had they called me before? Neti! That was it. I wonder how many of them are out there? Apparently not many on whatever this world was if his talking was a surprise.

Lorn tilted his head slightly to the side, one side of his brow raised. This was another exaggerated human gesture he had picked up. Though all of those gestures always had held little meaning to him, they seemed to matter a great deal to those who knew their significance. He had observed humans and aliens alike having entire conversations with body gestures alone; especially children who often made games out of it. He had played with them, but never seemed to get the representations quite right. That was until he discovered over-exaggeration.

"The Force?" Lorn asked inquisitively. "What is that? Is this Force why I can tell where you are even with my eyes closed?"

The girl still seemed incredibly shocked by his appearance and she had not moved to take the flower from the palm of his hand. So he brought it back to himself, plucked it with his other hand, and once again offered it to her. "It's nice to meet you, Lilin."

 

[Liliane]

Lilin finally decided to take the flower. Perhaps she had not noticed it at before, with all these confusing and surprising factors around. She really didn't want to have the other people there so that they could disturb what was going on, but she couldn't just Mind Trick them away. She could have never done that, nor would it have been ethical to do that.

So she let them be.

"Nice to meet you, too, Breac," she replied to the tree while moving the flower closer to her face so that she could sniff it. It did smell amazing, just as floral as it should have smelled. Her eyes turned back to the tree-person and she could not prevent a smile.

But how the feth was she going to describe the Force to him?

"The Force is something great; it makes you feel everything around you, sense more than typical people can. Perhaps that's why you could see me with your eyes closed?"

[ [member="Lorn Breac"] ]

 

[Stace de'Lorne o'Breac]

The old man sat in amazement as his prized centerpiece became more than just a tree. The lifeform was more than just a decoration, it was a reminder that life came in so many beautiful and wondrous forms. He looked around at the rest of his shop, the various flora that adorned the shelves, the vines that crawled up their cages here and there. He knew none of them would get up and walk around or start talking to him. But he also knew they were alive, creatures to their own right, beings for which he cared. The old man had never felt closer to these plants. Sure he had appreciated their existence, but never had he truly understood what it meant for them to breathe.

His cheeks were wet with the tears that rolled down the wrinkles of his face. He couldn't really hear what the tree was saying. No that's not right. The person isn't just a tree, he's a Neti! Never in all of his years would he ever imagined meeting one. After all, it wasn't often you had the opportunity to meet a myth. And here the old man had been living with one in his shop for years. It didn't really matter what the Neti was saying anyway. What appeared as a young wooden boy was actively talking with the girl who had wandered in not too long before. None of the crowd around them had dared move closer.

Suddenly the proprietor rose from his seat. Such disrespect! None of these people care about the Neti! They just want to turn him into a spectacle! It's a living creature, not a freak show! His thoughts raced wildly as he began pushing people out of the shop one by one. Most were too dumbfounded to complain, but when a few gained a realization that they were being removed they began to get rowdy. "Get out of here would you!" the old man shouted as loud as he could over the growing noise of the crowd. "Give the Neti room! It doesn't need the likes of all of you to gawk at it! He's alive, just like you and me!"

Though Lorn was trying to concentrate on the conversation with the peculiar human, the crowd around them began getting restless. His warm smile didn't fade, but he looked around in confusion at the disturbance. That was really the first time he had wondered why so many were gathered around. Are they all here for me? Lorn wondered.

Then he heard a voice shout out on top of the others, though it grew more and more faint as the crowd burbled up in volume. But Lorn recognized the voice of the shout's owner. Again, he wasn't entirely sure why, but he felt like it was a voice he had heard often. Without thinking of the manners that go along with a one on one conversation, Lorn moved away from the girl he had been engaging with and ambled slowly towards that familiar voice. His footfalls were not light, as Lorn was still remembering what it felt like to move with his legs, and the clomps of his root-sewn feet were quite loud against the wooden floor of the shop.

That was all it took for the crowd of people to dissipate around the old man, at least in Lorn's mind. But perhaps, too, Lorn's curiosity was openly projected, as was his path, into the Force. He didn't know what it was, how to control it, or even recognize that it was there. After all, the Force had always been a part of him. Why should he feel different? None of these crossed Lorn's mind as approached the proprietor.

The old man stopped his struggle to feebly push the crowd out of the store. He found himself gazing in wonder at the Neti up close for the first time. But he quickly remembered his convictions and shook his head. Bowing, the proprietor spoke: "It is an honor to finally see who you truly are! Please forgive me! Had I know you were a Neti I would not have kept you in so public a place!"

Confusion came across Lorn once again and his expressive brow furrowed. "I know... your voice... You have spoken to me before"

Tears had returned to the old man's eyes. "Yes! Yes. I often speak to the plants here. This is my shop."

"Shop?" For the first time Lorn looked around at his surroundings. He saw potted plants in various stages of life scattered among shelves and display cases. They were within a wooden building in a place that he did not recognize. Glancing out the window, he did not recognize outside as being a part of town on Qiilura that he knew. He looked back at the shop owner, more sternly then. "Where am I?"

It was the shop owner's turn to be confused. He looked around for a moment before looking back upon the Neti as he answered as best he could. "Well,... you're in my shop. In Worlport the capital of Ord Mantell."

Lorn shook his head, closing eyes. None of these were names he recognized. Humans had too many labels for things, how would he ever learn them all? "Where is Breac?" The shop owner only gave him a puzzled but blank stare. Lorn struggled to remember more names. "Qiilura?" he managed.

"Well that's 40 light years from here." That meant nothing to Lorn. What was a light year to someone who had never consciously left his homeworld? The Neti shook his head again. But the old man only wanted to help. "Another star system. Not far a-"

But Lorn was already out the door, easily muscling past the crowd. He knew what another star system meant, and it meant he was in the wrong place. He would never meet his family again if he was here. Wherever here was.

[member="Lilin Imperieuse"]​