Seeking Council from a Grumpy Old Person (Dagobah)

[4ND-R0]

The old, junky A-Wing blinked into realspace after seeing a glitter of stars through hyperspace. The Acolyte Witch, Allara, had travelled through deep space to the world of Dagobah. The swamp world, also legendary, the former home of the prestigious Jedi Grandmaster Yoda. The young force sorceress had heard whispers of another who currently dwelled among the swamp creatures. Someone wise in the Force, named @Kiara. She guided the ship into the planet's atmosphere, manuveuring through the trees and thickets that dotted the swamp world's surface. The old starfighter landed on what appeared to be solid, albeit marshy, ground.

Allara got out of the cockpit, briefly taping into the Vongsense to alert her pet amphistaff, Raksha. The dark serpent uncoiled itself from its resting spot around her waist, slithering up her arm into her hand. The Vong-creature's semicrystalline body erected itself into its two meter-long staff shape. Though the acolyte came to seek counsel, there was no telling what beasts made their home out in the swamp. There, she felt out into the Force, trying to find the presence of the rumored wise-woman. But, the Force was about as cloudy as the steep fog that rolled from the marshes, making the witch go out into the wilderness essentially blind. A test of her faith in the Force.

 

[Kiara]

The deep swampy parts of Dagobah weren't places for the untrained - and those who didn't know any better. Many creatures, varying poisons and deadly bites roamed from one part of the planet to the next. Amist the deep of all of these, sat an aging hermit who was quietly told around the galaxy to keep to herself, and even rarer occasions, told of her stories in the Force - where almost no one knew of her origins. Even if they did, it was likely made up.

Positioned on a small wooden stump, the woman in the mud hut cramped in the thick of the woods was fiddling with pairs of parts, that much looking like they were gathered from the leftover scrap-overs from scrappers. She was working on creating a nearly foot long item, with multiple buttons, switches, and a few tiny holes for insertions. Before long, her eyes quickly flickered over the screens, and just as she was to turn away, an unknown shadow flickered in the monitor.

Another visitor. She stared at the next screen, with it's hidden camera leading from the next, this time giving a slightly bigger picture of the being who nearly escaped her sight. She didn't know who it was quite yet, but it sure didn't look like someone who belonged. Slowly putting down the materials, the woman stood up and grabbed a long metal pole, nearly two meters long and a few inches thick for itself. She slid into a pair of worn brown slippers, and disappeared out of the door fit into the mud structure, disappearing into the bushes surrounding the house.

Visitors weren't usually so curious to be heading specifically in her direction.

[member="Allara Ven"]

 

[4ND-R0]

[member="Kiara"]

Allara walked carefully, being somewhat twitchy with sudden sounds and movements. More than likely, it was some creature minding its own business. She kept her grip on Raksha steady, weaving through the bush and swamp. "I don't much like this place." She whispered to herself, sensing a nexus of the Dark Side off in the distance. It gave her a cold shiver up her spine. She sighed and kept trudging through the swamp.

After a few minutes, she stopped and sighed. She looked around the immediate area. The young witch was seeking any source of light or civilization amidst the mist and fog. She became rather dissatisfied with her results. Nothing but a continual maze of trees, vines, mud, and very likely numerous creatures that were deadly in some capacity. "Why would someone want to live in a death trap like this?" She pondered out loud.

 

[Kiara]

This woman was not like some of the others that came into the swamps at this part of year - in fact she was a lot more brave than Kiara first imagined. She didn't need any further tests from the old hermit, at least not when it came to the parts where you had to dig in deep to find what exactly you were looking for.

With little preparation, the red headed mysterious figure took a headset into her hands, and fitted what was left of the old pilot's helmet onto her head. She connected a few links together on her various hooked and taped holopads leaning all on the same wall, then spoke into the nearest microphone to the camera that was focused on the dear stranger. "Perhaps to stay away from people like you," a gravely metallic voice sounded - that much of a lowly and aging robot.

"Leave this place." The voice continued, before going silent. There wasn't more message from it besides a small echoing of it's own voice in the near distance, then falling silent. It was a truthful result - the hut was literally right behind the microphone, hidden very cleverly into the environment it could be looked over three times over.

Perhaps a leading clue to the mysterious noise would be the faint light disappearing in the small cracks of the few bushes. If this stranger truly came to see her - she would be in luck, more than most.

[member="Allara Ven"]

 

[4ND-R0]

[member="Kiara"]

Allara was immediately startled by the sound of the unknown voice. She turned and looked around, trying to pinpoint the source of the strange, seemingly omnipresent voice. "Hello? Are you the one that I have heard about? The wise sage known as Kiara?" The young witch called out to answer. She noticed small blinks of light between the foliage, piquing her curiosity. The witch crouched down, Raksha in her hand as she did.

Allara followed the lights, seeking their source. She was very tenacious in her resolve, rebelling against the warning of leaving. She had come so far to this world to seek answers. The witch was not going to leave now. As she crept closer, she tapped into the Vongsense once more, calling Raksha to retreat back. Her amphistaff companion relaxed from its quarterstaff form, crawling its way around her waist. Whomever this Kiara was, Allara did not want to come off as wanting to mean harm.

"If you are still listening, I come for help, wise one." She said, addressing her so far invisible conversation partner, "The Force speaks to me in ways I cannot understand. I seek counsel with you. I mean no harm."

 

[Kiara]

Long moments of silence filled the empty presence that was Kiara's. The figure on her screen was heading to her house even closer now - only a good two meters away. With nothing more to do, and sure she had already seen her, the hermit unplugged her headset and grabbed her long metal staff for support and a good weaponry if the creature was in fact lying.

Small steps lead to a simple wooden door, and past that right against the dirt hut that was behind the bushes that hid it in the first place. Her eyes were hidden in the deep of the helmet, but her lips were formed into a small scowl of unamusement.

She waited without responding. The new witch should know already by all those stories - that she was in fact a grumpy little thing.

[member="Allara Ven"]

 

[4ND-R0]

[member="Kiara"]

Allara peeked through the bushes and came upon a lonely hut in the middle of the swamp. It must have been the home of the other individual that had been speaking to her. She followed the stone path to the front of the wooden door of the quaint home, and gently rapped on it to be polite. Then, she sat herself down, cross-legged at the base of the path. Like a student sitting before a teacher. She wished to show the older sentient the respect Allara believe she deserved, despite her grouchy mood.

She kept there, silent, not saying another word out loud until the old sage addressed her first. All was in gesture of respect, and most of it appeared to be of someone who once sat before their own Jedi Master. She took a deep breath and calmed her nerves, being somewhat anxious about meeting such a renowned wise-woman of the Force, event despite being obscure to most of the galaxy.

 

[Kiara]

[member="Allara Ven"]

"Do you plan on remaking that path, or are you going to keep punishing it with your behind?" A more firm and old voice sounded from the outer left side of the house, coming to Allara, instead of it coming from inside where it seemed the young woman was waiting for her.

This was the woman who had stories about her? This old grump who greeted her strangers with such a strange and quite rude question? Whatever the case, Kiara was in for a chore, seeing this young woman had came all the way to her house - and seemed content in staying there.

 

[4ND-R0]

[member="Kiara"]

Allara had to admit, she was surprised and off put by the rather impolite retort. Even still, she stood up , and used her hands to shape the stones back into their positions before she had sat down. "I apologize if I have defaced anything, wise one." She said, following the voice.

"My apologies for not introducing myself, Sage Kiara." She continued, "My name is Allara Ven. I am of the Awoken. Neither Jedi or Sith."

She kept walking to towards the voice, looking around for the wise sage. She was sure she heard her outside.

 

[Kiara]

[member="Allara Ven"]

"Sage? Most people just call me crazy." The woman stepped from the shadows and positioned herself right to the side of Allara, squinting her eyes just barely. Well, she supposed she could use some chores here and there. Training was a reasonable excuse for those.

If this stranger truly could see with the Force - or sense hers at all now that they were within meters, it was not a pretty sight. A mess of one side fighting to overlap the other in a train of Light, Dark, and Grey, with grey at it's most center point, gently grasping the two together with small strands of hope. The rest seemed to be void, with occasional sparks of what could only be identified as knowledge or wisdom. "Why are you here? Why do you think I'm going to help you?"

 

[4ND-R0]

[member="Kiara"]

"It's a title of respect, Kiara. What I have heard of you and your wisdom is worthy of you being called a sage. Despite what I've heard about your....stubborness." The young witch said simply to the old hermit, doing her best not to offend.

"In truth, I have no reason why you would help me. I just know that your wisdom could help me." She said, "I am here because the Force calls to me in visions and dreams. Rather frightening and vague dreams that I am not able to understand. The figures always speak of my legacy and destiny."

If Kiara was able to, she would be able to sense into Allara as well. Like the older Force-Sensitive, Allara's signature in the Force was also between light and dark. However, it was not as balanced, but more like an inner struggle that pulling the young witch apart.

 

[Kiara]

[member="Allara Ven"]

At least she was honest, that was usually a good step to getting into a good form of bonding. Kiara slowly removed the helmet, washing about her red hair wildly and uncleaned in the mist of the swampy thickness. She put it to the side of the wooden door, then pointed into the forest with a random direction of her staff.

"If you want my help you're going to have to live like me while you get it. Find yourself some clothes, and throw your old attire away. Even if it's moss, it's better than thinking you can have everything handed out to you." She smacked her staff on the ground with a single swing, then went into her dirt hut with the helmet, putting it back on it's proper place of an old thin droid's frame, it's body, dressed with the rest of an ancient Empire pilot's outfit.

 

[4ND-R0]

"This outfit was not handed to me. It is all of what I scavenged during my time with...a former mentor." She said, not daring to say that she spent many years with an exiled Vong Shaper, "Besides, I doubt you want a naked youth running through your home." Indeed, while her outfit appeared hand me down, most of it bore simple sittches like the light material was retrieved from older clothes nobody wished to have or that she found. "Even so, the belt stays. It's not what it appears to be at first." She stood there, a small flush on her face on thought of removing her clothes.

[member="Kiara"]

 

[Kiara]

[member="Allara Ven"]

Slurping sounds of the door closing in it's mud encasement gave away the impression that the old hermit wasn't in the mood for excuses. Instead, sounds of gentle rattling of various metal parts filled the silence in her house - aside from the occasional hum of the generator that powered her house. "When you are serious about my guidance, counseling, or "teaching", whatever it is you want, you can talk to me again. This time without your words of avoidability."

Some of those stories calling her grumpy and self-together were very much so making sense right about now. She wasn't any old Jedi teacher who would wait around and let you go at your own pace - nor was she a Sith, forcing people into things where they can't adjust in time. She was just herself, only traits of all the sides coming to form what she had to offer.

 

[4ND-R0]

[member="Kiara"]

Allara sighed, and gave in to the old woman's demands. She removed her clothing, folding it up and setting it to the side. Exposed, she moved about the nearby swamp, rooting around in the nearby resources. The young witch covered herself in mud, lichens, moss, and other foilage. She once again presented herself to the old wise-woman. "I'm very serious about your guidance." She looked very primitive now. The combination of her haphazard attired made of the nature around her, and her esoteric tattoos of both Dathomiri and Vong origin, made her appearance look like a savage from a world untouched by the technologically advanced galaxy. She spoke in the Vongsense, making Raksha into its staff form, using it now moreso as a walking stick. "This creature is one I have bonded with."

 

[Kiara]

[member="Allara Ven"]

Kiara walked out of her home with just her own metal staff, looking at the stranger who visited her just moments before. Without questioning it, she went into the nearby deep woods and looked around. She didn't care about her pet snake or anything, it wasn't relevant to her. "Search for clay in the muddy swamps, there you will collect it and bring it back here."

She sat herself down on a small pile of leaves, with nothing but herself, a few sticks, and the scattering insects fleeing from the interruptions. "Go on."

 

[4ND-R0]

[member="Kiara"]

The witch sighed and nodded. She should have suspected that the old sage would be unorthodox in her training. Allara walked her way out to the swampland, using Raksha to poke around the mud. The quest was seemingly impossible to complete. Mud would feel rather similar to that of clay. The acolyte obeyed the order either way, moving around the swamp, continuing to look for clay.

Eventually, she sighed and leaned against a nearby tree. She was exasperated by the task. She closed her eyes and cleared her mind in the hopes could find clarity to accomplish her task.

 

[Kiara]

[member="Allara Ven"]

Soon a small fire was created in the place of nothing, and to the side of it a small pile of sticks and twigs. Kiara herself was up and going not moments after it was made, gathering larger sticks, even small trees, and carrying them back to the place of fire. Every time she wasn't as warm as she wanted, she tossed in another stick or broke the dead trees against other trees, to throw in their remains.

S​he didn't give her new trainee much to work with - but a fact remained that clay wasn't normally found in the swamps, but rather, around the bodies of water.

 

[4ND-R0]

Allara moved around the swamp more, coming to the edge of a small pool, still feeling around the soil. Then it clicked in her mind. "Force awakens, I am dense." She shook her head, She remembered that clay was not a topsoil product. It was mostly found near the edges of water. She put Raksha in the water, feeling through the submerged granules. She brought it back up, the black serpent was cover in a greyish, pliable dirt-like material. Clay. She smiled to herself, and reached out in the Force. She telekinetically lifted a large clump of clay.

She walked back to the fire where the old woman was waiting. She kept the clay levitated and away from the fire, as to not snuff the blaze with the wet material. "Clay, as asked for, teacher." She did nothing with it until the elder gave her the next instructions.

@Kiara

 

[Kiara]

[member="Allara Ven"]

For long moments she said nothing, then her eyes trailed up to look at the clay. She nodded her head once, then pointed to the ground. "Make pottery with it. Use dirt to give it extra supporting texture it needs. Do you know how to make pottery?" The woman herself had only two pots hidden about in her house - and it didn't quite make sense why, as of now.

Though Allara would need a lot more clay for what she was going to do...