Over the River and through the woods

[Leina Snowfire]

"It’s twinkies; it’s twinkies. For fun it’s a wonderful joy. What goes in your mouth, alone or in pairs And makes a nom nom nom sound? A sponge, a cream, a marvelous thing! Everyone knows it’s twinkies. It’s twinkies; it’s twinkies. For fun it’s a mouthful of joy. It’s fun for a girl and a boy." The sounds came out of her mouth dancing around the temple. Leina was well she had been one of the youngest padawans to ever be made a jedi knight after working with her master Sky against the Rex. Now she was being tasked with something important... To taste test these space cakes that she had dubbed space twinkies.

Oh and she was also set to meet her grandpaddy.... Her padawan Dune had trained the zeltron Joza Perl.... silly name and a zeltron to boot so she was more then happy to meet her since Dune had vanished from the galaxy... Maybe he never ate any space cakes and starved. it would be just like him to go on and do that as he never seemed to fully embrace the awesome nature that was traveling around the galaxy in the friendship one and doing good deeds for people. He was always so serious so she was wondering what type of padawan he might ave trained as she danced around.

The red skin covered in tattoos and wearing traditional twi'lek inspired robes were a sight to behold but more then that her room full of tables of snacks, candy, food and lots of sugary drinks because you wanted to have energy to properly train and teach. Beast taming as well as the skills needed to go with her own project of constructing with Matsu and testing the taming talismans that she had on the table. The desh-terethium was super lightweight for this purpose when she bit into another cake getting a burst of banana flavored cream to go with everything.

[member="Joza Perl"]

 

[Joza Perl]

What’s a wayward Knight to do? As far as Joza had known, her Master had disappeared. Dune Rhur left for the Galactic Republic shortly after knighting her, and the two had lost contact soon after. She hoped that nothing had happened to him, and her one solace was that she hadn’t sensed his demise via the Force. So she chose to believe that he was holed up in some library somewhere, safe among the books and tomes he seemed to love so much.

He’d be so disappointed if he knew how far I’ve fallen.

Seeking help, the Zeltron had arranged a meeting with her own Master’s Master—a twi’lek by the name of Leina Snowfire. Joza had to wonder what type of person would have trained her own serious and no-nonsense Master, and figured that the woman would be stern. Much to her surprise, she came across a red skinned twi’lek bouncing around the temple like a child on a sugar high.

“Are you…Leina Snowfire?” She questioned, cautious eyes peeking out from beneath her hood. Her last interaction with a Silver Jedi had ended with her attacking one of her friends, and it was a mistake she didn’t want to repeat.

[member="Leina Snowfire"]

 

[Leina Snowfire]

[member="Joza Perl"]

Leina heard her name and stopped bouncing for a moment as she made a face, if she had had eyebrows they would have raised up but she settled nodding her head. "I am, are you one of the jedi from the kitchen? I promise I have no idea where the chocolate chips went." She was standing there for a moment and went to the side moving a bag with her foot away from sight. Leina offered a smile seeing Joza now and.... hmmm she was in her hood and all brooding attire yep she definitely was Dune's padawan. Yep yep she was sure of it walking over by her with a look on her face as she looked in the hood for the girl. "Hello hello hello.... echo echo echo." She said it calling into her hood offering a large smile.

"I am the great and powerful Leina, master of the candy here in the temple and we shall be having run my grandpaddy. I am so happy to see you." Leina moved a little looking over some of the things they had here and there. She turned towards the tables. "Now lets see when you go over to your grandmasterss you should totally be able to have some sweets but only if yu can smile... Now smile and talk with me. We can discuss all the old stories and I'll tell you about when in my days." She said it giving a larger smile then might seem possible while walking and dancing a little. " I like to move it move it, Joza like to move it move it, jedi like to move it move it..... MOVE IT."

 

[Joza Perl]

Well. This was not was Joza had expected. Was this…maybe it was some sort of trick? Was the twi’lek Jedi testing her? “…hello?” Her voice came out smaller than she had imagined as she parroted the greeting back to Leina, and after a second thought she pulled her hood down, revealing bright red locks of hair nearly the same shade as the twi’lek’s skin.

“Grandpaddy?...You’re happy to see me…?” Trying to keep up, a look of genuine surprise settled onto Joza’s face. Her Master’s Master was happy to meet her? Deep down, that thought made her happy, but the feeling wouldn’t quite surface.

Still utterly confused, the Zeltron forced a small, awkward smile onto her face. “I, er, it’s an honor to finally meet you, Master Snowfire. I’m afraid that I haven’t had contact with Dune for a while. But it’s…it is nice to meet you.”

[member="Leina Snowfire"]

 

[Leina Snowfire]

[member="Joza Perl"]

Leina listened to her and then something happened.... Joza removed her hood showing pink skin as Leina gasped. "La gasp." She starred at her coming her hear and speaking. "You are so pink, like a newborn baby after crying... we need to get you some cream and handle all of this sunburn." She said it with a smile trying to keep getting a smile from her. She was a lot more pretty when she was smiling at least looking like someone hadn't kicked her puppy. "Also someone might have a frowny face." Dancing a little back before she stood there. "It is nice to meet you, looking at all of the things we can do now and all of the really fun stuff here on the planet. Just you, me and fluffy." Yep yep, she said it crossing her arms over her chest before grabbing one of the packs with candy, snack cakes and drinks in it. "We are going to have so much fun and stay up for hours and hours."

 

[Joza Perl]

A baby? Cream? Sunburn?! Clearing her throat, the forced smile dissolved from Joza’s face and was replaced swiftly with a well-practiced look of controlled indignation. “It’s not sunburn. It’s my natural skin tone. All Zeltrons look like I do.” It didn’t occur to her just yet that Leina might have been joking, and Joza was quick to rush and defend her physical traits. “I do not have a frowny face.” She added with insistence, her tone bordering on serious, still unsure of how to handle the Jedi Knight in front of her.

“Who is fluffy? And we’re going to stay up for hours?” Though she had pretty good stamina, something told Joza that she would have trouble keeping up with the hyperactive twi’lek.

[member="Leina Snowfire"]

 

[Leina Snowfire]

[member="Joza Perl"]

Leina looked at her starring for a moment as she pointed to the table at the smooth stone that was there. "That is fluffy." She said it looking over at it and nodding her head. "He is asleep right now, when he gets older he'll not be able to be carried around." She looked at Joza and few really believed her but the stone was from Mount Sorrow one of his children... a sentient mountain that when it cried had tears able to heal people. Leina was watching Joza while going over towards it and she spoke. "And that is princess." Leina pointed to the krayte dragon looking in the window as it stuck its head in licking at her and one of the tables. "No no no... no licking princess." Leina wiped at some of it as the dragon seemed happy and friendly.

 

[Joza Perl]

Seeing that Fluffy was…a rock…was not all that surprising, Joza realized. “Er, hello Fluffy.” Not wanting to offend her Grandmaster, she attempted to greet the rock with respect. Maybe all that sugar caused hallucinations or something. When Princess was introduced, the Zeltron didn’t know what to expect—and it certainly wasn’t a friggin dragon in the window! How did she miss that?! Joza jumped, clearly startled as the dragon stuck her head in the window to lick it’s Master. “…and hello to you as well, Princess.” Blinking, she cleared her throat and took it all in. At least Princess seemed tame. “You’ve certainly got quite the collection of pets, Miss Snowfire…how in the galaxy did you acquire a dragon?”

[member="Leina Snowfire"]

 

[Leina Snowfire]

[member="Joza Perl"]

Leina looked at Joza as she thought about it and spoke with a nod of her head. She stood for a moment taking a sharp intake of breath for a moment as she was preparing. "Well okay.... So first there were these people who were really bad and created this galactic plague called the dark harvest, then they spread it all around the galaxy making the dead come back to life, so the jedi fought them on Dagobah [swing, varum, hiss snap clash sound effect] and that led us to Elrood where the Dark harvesters set out to kill a bunch of people by sending a Black hex star destroyer into the city but the jedi masters and all the othrs in the city melded together and used their combined power to create a hyperspace wormhole that sent the ship off back into space and we saved the day, and then we got this secret coded message saying Je'daii but we couldn't investigate it at the time because we had to go and try to help at Polis massa but things went wrong and people died leading to a new election and there was a parade with games and rides and leina won the parade with some cookiee [insert cheering sound effects as her voice got a little more high pitched] then we went to Dagobah and fought against them all again this time arming a super weapon that was able to neutralize the infection."

Leina took a breathe as she stood there and didn't realize she had been speaking quickly, her linguistic skills were great for talking to everything but basic was... well she was super excited to explain the inner workings of what they have been doing. she took another sharp intake of air. "So then after the infection was stopped Grandmaster Watts sent us to Metalorn to retake the planet from the sith and we would have done it but they kept cheating and more people got killed and then WAR CRIMES WAR CRIMES WAR CRIMES was being shouted about all the people around us leading to the republic signing a peace treaty with the sith empire as well as honoring the treaty of Ithor that master Boolon had created, then finally we were able to investigate the planet when master Syn reminded everyone it was there and close to Teyan in the deep core, so we all went and found a desert world with an ancient je'daii ship that had a star map and while we watched it it went VROOOM ZOOOOM ZOMP KAPOW and showed us a bunch of planets that were in real time since a star map self repairs and is accurate to the date, ryloth was among them and that is how Princess hatched."

She said it but had to think about it... oh right Joza wanted to know how she got a dragon like princess.. and that required talking about fluffy junior as she gave a nod of her head. "But to say where I got the egg means we have to go back to when i was little and a padawan running around and it was the last time i met templars as a padawan they were attacking on Tattooine and Fluffy junior had to stop them as I got away. It was really exciting he came in going ROAR RAWR and they went EEEEEEEE then I went FLUFFY JUNIOR and we all ran away cause he was hungry and Krayt dragons eat meat. It was a very fun tea party."

 

[Dune Rhur]

Dune had been gone for some time, now, retreating to meditate and refresh himself. He'd struggled to find his purpose and his identity so he'd vanished into the ether. Leina had found him somehow in the reaches of deep space, sending a short message. He still couldn't quite understand how she'd done it, but one didn't try to understand the Twi'lek without breaking one's sanity.

Now he was back to an old haunt, the Silver Temple on Voss at Snowfire's gentle insistence. Joza had come back home in search of guidance. She had strayed from the path of the Light and he would help her return. She was his student, his friend and he owed it to her. Now that he was here, he would become once again a teacher.

With a purpose he walked towards the Temple, aware of surprised expressions on the faces of the beings around him. The Bith had come back and he nodded politely to them without breaking stride. Up the steps and through the great entrance, the sounds and smells filled his auditory and sensory organs. Left, the prodigal son turned and continued his path, turning left again at the first intersection.

Compared to the places he'd been, the Temple was massive and open, full of light. Dune didn't forget the way to his Master's rooms, though, and he found himself down the hall from her door. Through the Force, he could feel Leina with her jubilant energy just as he knew she could sense him. There too was another familiar presence, but different than last they'd met, more clouded.

He was surprised to find that he'd stopped there. Apprehension fill him, uncertainty gnawing, but why, he wondered. Perhaps he was afraid that Joza would've thought he'd abandoned her. No, he told himself, I have to face whatever happens. I owe it to her. He drew in a deep breath to steady himself before he continued, stopping to knock....

[member="Joza Perl"] [member="Leina Snowfire"]

 

[Joza Perl]

When Leina inhaled, Joza did too in preparation of what was coming. Typically someone only took that deep of a breath when they were about to tell a long story, and boy was Joza on the mark with that. Her eyes widened a she tried to take in everything Leina was saying, conveying tales of a battle and war crimes, and how she eventually acquired Princess. It was actually pretty impressive how she could pull up such a large amount of knowledge and verbalize it that quickly, and she seemed pretty excited too.

As the dialogue ended, a familiar presence crept into Joza’s mind, startling the young Zeltron. She couldn’t quite place her finger on it at first, mentally filing through her archive of familiars to try and place a name and a face to the newcomer. It was someone she hadn’t seen in a while but still held a decent bond with. Mullarus? No, someone she had been closer to. And then whoever it was stood directly outside of the door, and she knew.

Joza’s hand twitched, aching to place her hood over her head and clasp it closed to hide from him, to hide her shame from him. No doubt he’d be upset with her actions after she’d been Knighted. He’d left, but she couldn’t blame him for it. She was no longer his responsibility, but she’d still slipped through the cracks all the same. Hell, she’d lived on Coruscant for a few months.

Glancing over at Leina, she arched a brow as if to ask if she’d invited Dune, but said nothing. Instead, she extended a hand, nudging the door open enough with the Force so that the Bith standing on the other side would become visible.

“Master. It’s been too long.” Her voice was low, carrying a wavering note of suspicion. Why was he here, now and all of a sudden? Was this planned? An intervention of sorts? Her eyes slid back to the red skinned twi’lek, wary of them both. Perhaps as a warning, her free hand retreated into the billows of her robe to retrieve one of her saber hilts.

[member="Leina Snowfire"] [member="Dune Rhur"]

 

[Dune Rhur]

Rather than the happy reunion Dune had hoped for, he walked into something much more tense. Joza had yanked the door open harder than she needed to punctuate the suspicion and displeasure in her voice. The message had been sent loud and clear to the Bith and he winced internally. Not from fear, but from the sensation he read from his erstwhile student as she reached for a weapon hidden in the folds of her cloak.

"It has been too long," he said quietly without taking his eyes from hers. "I'm sorry I've been gone, Joza, but why are you reaching for your weapon?"

He looked to Leina for a second and her joyful expression was so typically out of place. If he knew his old Master, she was fully aware of what was transpiring. Nothing escaped the Twi'lek's notice no matter how oblivious she seemed. But Leina Snowfire existed on a plane others didn't and you either accepted it or you didn't.

Anger and suspicion flowed through the Force and the Zeltron's green eyes burned. Despite all of that he made no move physically or through the Force. She was still his student, still Joza, and more recent events couldn't change that. He knew what she suspected but he remained quiet for a long moment before he spoke again.

"Leina did ask for me to come, but not for the reasons you think. We aren't here to punish you. I came back because I want to help you regain yourself again."

[member="Leina Snowfire"] [member="Joza Perl"]

 

[Leina Snowfire]

[member="Dune Rhur"] [member="Joza Perl"]

Leina was finished and she saw the look on Joza's face while she was working on some of the things with her senses expanding outwards. All of the attention to some of the things when she saw Dune and gave a nod of her head. "Mister Shiny Head padawan... you have returned." She shouted it out a little running up and going over a couple of the things as she was excited. "Dune... you are here, I missed you.... did you miss me?" Turning all of her attention on a few of the things. Then she noticed Joza reaching for her weapon and glared for a moment something that was very surprising before she held out her hand and suddenly a bottle came from the table as she was squeezing the trigger of the spray bottle. Small jets of water going towards Joza to sprits her in the face. "No, bad very bad. Now go to the corner and think about what you have done."

 

[Joza Perl]

Joza’s gaze tightened, but she did not make any hostile moves despite the uncertainty rolling from her presence. She wasn’t mad at Dune for leaving, but she was consistently ashamed of what she’d done and would continue doing. Above all, she was embarrassed that someone she’d revered so much would see her in this state. Not that this was the worst she’d ever been, but she was unused to dealing with negative emotions. After all, Zeltrons were taught to smother negativity.

“Because I don’t know if I should believe you or not.”

Her response was curt, but not biting. In truth, she felt safer with it nearby, but a part of her did not want to exacerbate the situation. What she did want to do is crawl in a hole and be alone with her thoughts…but that wouldn’t help anything.

Let them help you, silly girl. Push past your own embarrassment. They care.

And then, Leina actually glared at the Zeltron. Even after only knowing her for a short time, Joza found this surprising. She didn’t seem like the type to produce such an expression, and it had caught her off guard. Continuing with the trend of unexpected actions, the Knight recoiled when the red skinned woman sprayed her with water like she was a cat who wasn’t allowed on the counters. “WH—stop that!” She sputtered, waving her hands wildly in front of her face. Thankfully, her makeup was water proof or this place would have been going up in flames. “I’m not going to the corner.” Her insistence was firm, as she was not a child. Well, not physically.

[member="Leina Snowfire"] [member="Dune Rhur"]

 

[Dune Rhur]

Dune shifted his gaze back to Leina, ever inappropriate and irreverent. Before he could react, she was spraying the Zeltron like one would spray a small animal chewing a shoe. Unorthodox and very effective as Joza went from being angry and suspicious to befuddled. Hands poised to draw a weapon came up to shield her face.

The Bith kept his face neutral as he made his reply a moment later. Amusement wasn't the appropriate response in this situation. "I have never deceived you. Why would I do so now?". His voiced stayed eerily calm to one not accustomed to a Bith's expressions and minimal inflection.

Beneath the pond, the duck's legs kicked. He feared for his student, knowing she was on the precipice of the abyss that was the Dark Side; This was not something in which he could calculate the odds, his intellect for once not the greatest asset in his possession. All of this was dependent upon the choices of the Zeltron woman.

[member="Leina Snowfire"] [member="Joza Perl"]

 

[Leina Snowfire]

[member="Joza Perl"] [member="Dune Rhur"]

Leina looked at Joza and she stopped thankfully with a look on her face seeing Dune and Joza as she gave a nod of her head. "Good then, now that everything is all calmed down. You can all hug." She said it crossing her arms over her chest.... then held up the spray bottle narrowing her eyes on the two of them before she was laughing. "THis is going to be so much fun." She had ideas and was movign around as she grabbed her stuff with a look on her face. "Come on you two we can get to work on the cool things... there are some talismans we were wanting to make for beast taming and trainers that gave some of the ideas." She had plans and thoughts and ideas and pie and smarticles and snack cakes and friends and things grown up things.

 

[Joza Perl]

Her concentration had been broken, but Joza was still irritated. Only once had she fully devolved into a blade-swinging monster with only murder on her mind. Thankfully she hadn’t managed to murder anyone. But she didn’t want to turn into that ever again.

“You never have.” She affirmed. “But there’s a first time for everything.” A poor excuse, but that wasn’t what she had a problem with. “Why…why did you leave?” Her voice came out lower than expected, almost muttering. She was aware that every Jedi had to follow their path and had their reasons, but she couldn’t deny that his sudden absence had hurt her.

When Leina interjected, Joza nearly glared the spray bottle square in the nozzle. “I’m not hugging anyone.” It might have sounded childish the way she had said it, but she didn’t remember Dune to be a very huggy sort of guy. “Sure, whatever.” Grumbling her way through, she figured that perhaps it would be best to submit to Leina’s wishes lest she get sprayed again.

[member="Leina Snowfire"] [member="Dune Rhur"]

 

[Dune Rhur]

"I left because I'd lost my way," he answered while ignoring the spray bottle "I didn't know what my purpose was and I wandered."

He'd been gone many months as he traveled into the depths of space. Seeking answers, meditation, these brought him no closer. Until the message that had found him most improbably. That had made him see the truth.

"Leina's message found me several weeks ago. It struck me that the answer had been there all along, that I was needed to teach and to guide here and now. So I returned in the most direct way I could and landed less than fifteen minutes ago."

He regretted hurting her but a Jedi had to learn to face hurt and bitterness. They must learn to come through it intact and still following the Light. That was what it meant to be a Jedi, most of all, following the path no matter how hard it became. And there would always been some obstacles to challenge them throughout their lives.

@Leina Snowbird [member="Joza Perl"]

 

[Leina Snowfire]

[member="Joza Perl"] [member="Dune Rhur"]

Leina was looking at the two of them and she was the elder jedi... kind of she was totally ana dult while she skipped around listening to them talk and thought about new ways to lighten the mood and have some fun. Now that Joza was behaving and not going to attack things and Dune was behaving. The jedi knight would be working on some of the things for the beast hunting talismans. She turned around looking at Dune and then at Joza. "You two are so serious and going to have a grouchy face. I think it might be time to cheer you both up with tickle torture." Leina said it herself while she was moving and motioning for them before grabbing to get their arms to go out of the temple. Herself in the middle and making it more like a mom and dad with a child in the middle while she was skipping. "Oh we're off to find the animals the wonderful animals of Voss. Because because because.... because of the wonderful things we've made.... oh we're off to see the animals, the wonderful animals of of voss." She was skipping and bouncing through the temple as she spoke. "Sing you two and lets go into the jungle."

 

[Joza Perl]

[member="Leina Snowfire"] [member="Dune Rhur"]

Despite the anger that flooded her senses, Joza retained enough tact to reign it in. Admittedly, it was done in part because she didn’t want her Master to be ashamed of her—she’d come to realize that despite finding her own dad, Dune was the closest thing she had to a father in her life. So even her teacher can feel wayward? This realization seemed to placate her for the time being. Joza was not the only one feeling out of place.

“I understand.” Her words were soft but firm, and she truly did understand, or at least thought that she did. “A lot happened while you were gone, Dune.” She’d faced her own share of challenges without his guidance, but knew that the Bith wouldn’t want her to be babied. Despite her darker presence, she’d become more resilient and sure-footed in certain areas.

Even though she was only joking, Joza visibly winced as Leina mentioned “torture”, even though “tickle torture” wasn’t something to fear. Yet, anyhow. “What sorts of animals, Leina?” The Zeltron was perceptive enough to recognize that the Twi’lek was trying to lighten the mood, as one would find on Zeltros. Negative emotions were shunned, and those that felt them were encouraged to smother them with joy, often in the form of substances. Being a halfling, the way depression and anger were handled on her home planet often rubbed her the wrong way. But she recognized that Leina had a good heart and was trying to help, so she offered a bit of small talk in return.