Small Town Moon

[Calantha]

D a n t o o i n e .

Soft gales blew past the majestic walls of the academy. The various students and their masters were moving through the halls, busy with their daily activities and unhampered gossip. She moved through the corridors like a cotton-candy haired ghost; floating by unnoticed. She was silent, her bright blue eyes focusing only on where she was meant to be, and not where she was going. She cared not to stop for mindless chatter. A few nameless faces passed by her, their lips curved into soft smiles.

Normalcy.

The girl had strawberry blonde hair, eyes that bore through her soul like a fox. She moved gracefully, and she was calling out to someone. Surrounding her were people; A brother, a mother, a group of light siders with a mission.

The books she carried fell to the ground disrupting the state of tranquility all around her. She thrusted her back against the wall, eyes closing to see the vision unfolding in her mind. To the world around her; her eyes flashed a ghostly white, as she saw the immediate future of the fox-like girl and her vision. Her back slid down, her rear hitting the floor. Masters ran up to shake her, to ask her what she was seeing.

The vision beckoned the near future, perhaps an hour at most from now. The girl was seated, her mouth moving to explain something to her. The words, Calantha couldn’t make out the words that escaped her gentle lips. She was speaking of a vision, of a place for her to run to.

She was shaken awake, a migraine softly rapped her mind.

“A visitor.” She gasped. “We have a visitor.”

| [member="Aela Talith"] |

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Calantha"]

A visitor they did have.

Dantooine was not famous, at least not anymore. It was an agri-world of not much note, the most famous thing that had ever happened here had been the destruction of a Jedi Enclave thousands of years ago. Aela knew that because she had read the history books, though she doubted many others knew that.

Today she was here with her mother, Kira Talith. They had come here for some business pertaining to the Jedi Academy, training regiments that were supposed to be held here. Aela had come along simply because she had wanted to see if the ruins of the old Jedi Enclave still existed. Disappointingly, she had found out they did not. Perhaps that had been fate though, for now Aela found herself wandering the halls of the new Jedi Temple.

She carried the same stoic look she always had, her lips thin and her eyes half listless.

Her dress was a simple slash of orange and red, a belt sitting around her waist that held lightsaber. Normally she would have worn something more official on this trip, but Mother had assured her it wasn't necessary. So Aela wandered the halls of the Jedi Temple, moving closer and close to the woman who had sensed her.

 

[Calantha]

“Is she dangerous?”

“Can you tell us anything about her?”

“Is it the One Sith?”

“No. No. No.” Calantha said, bothered by those who had gathered around her.

Her gifts were not unique; though they were rare. She knew about others who had similar gifts that had warned the masters that roamed these halls about much graver things and had felt less while receiving them. To her, these gifts were a curse; her visions often detailing important news to what the whether was going to be the very net day.

“Excuse me. I’m going to get a drink of water.”

That was exactly it. She couldn’t waste time talking to others about things that were inevitable. If it really were an evil person, Calantha believed she would’ve seen more signs. This was nothing but a typical visitor, a person brought here by fate with a message for her. It would all be unfolded for her soon, she simply had to wait.

She was moving towards the kitchen area, before her eyes met the strawberry blonde coloured locks she had seen a few moments before. Was this…?

“Pardon me, but what is your business here?”

| [member="Aela Talith"] |

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Calantha"]

Aela stopped in her tracks.

The girl that confronted her was sheepsih, or appeared to be so to Aela. Her skin had an odd hue to it, and her hair was a bright pink. For a few moments Aeal didn't say anything, she only looked at the girl, her lips thinning.

Father had always told her that Jedi were an odd bunch. They were varied in species, color, intelligence stringency, and a thousand other ways, yet they all held to the same standard principals, or most of them did anyway. He had also stated that this was their flaw, these principles eschewed them and clouded their judgment when it came to important matters. She frowned slightly, and realized that she was being judgmental.

She had met the Grandmaster, she had met the Councilors, but she had never spoken to a padawan.

“I'm visiting.” Aela said quietly, then quickly added. “With my mother. She is a member of the Order.”

She very distinctly didn't title herself as a Jedi, she didn't want there to be any mistaken impressions. It was true that she used only the lightside of the force, but she followed her own code.

 

[Calantha]

For a brief moment, the other girl said nothing. She seemed to be looking at her—no—through her; as though this fox-like girl was trying to read to her. Calantha kept herself calm, her posture welcoming. There was no need to rush after all, fate always took its course. However, she wasn’t expecting the visitor to arrive so soon.

​

“With my mother. She is a member of the Order.”

There was a slight hesitation to her voice. A small delay in her words; as though they were unnaturally strung together. Calantha blinked, processing what the girl had said.

Mother.

That was all she needed to hear to confirm her thoughts. This girl was who she suspected her to be. She recognized her from her visions, and her visions were never wrong. They were bound to speak, she was bound by fate to be introduced to a foreign idea that would stir her mind.

The walls of this building were confining, suffocating, limiting.

She needed to move.

​

“Please, allow me to show you around. It is only the hospitable thing to do.”

A soft smile grew on the padawan’s face. It seemed forced, unnatural, as it truly was. She was trained all her life not to show emotion, it would only lead to weakness. The girl’s bright eyes seemed to hold the same amount of constraint.

And yet when I saw her, she seemed free.

| [member="Aela Talith"] |

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Calantha"]

For a few seconds Aela hesitated. Did she really want to go with this girl? Did she want to go off exploring? A glance over her shoulder looked towards where she knew her mother was, another back at the girl, then a quick look.

It couldn't hurt.

Micah would have run off and be somewhere in the middle of the fields by now, getting a tour of the academy, and from a student no less, wouldn't be that big of a deal. It was practically not even breaking the rules. She smiled at the girl, a quick flashing smile that was barely noticeable, about equal to a grin when coming from Aela.

“Sure.” She said quietly. There was still some hesitance to that, but only because she didn't want her mother to freak out. As of late Kira had been rather protective of her children, if only because she knew that very soon Aela would be leaving the nest. “My name is Aela.”

For a second she paused. “Aela Talith.”

It would be rude to leave that out.

 

[Calantha]

Hesitation was the primary aura Calantha was reading from the girl. She felt it earlier with the sudden skip in her words, and she could feel it now with the girl’s shifting glances. Calantha was patient; she knew the girl’s answer right before she even confirmed. It was simply fate. All things were destined to happen as she saw them..

“Sure.”

A ghost of a smile before the quiet word was emitted. Calantha nodded, her mind moving back to the visions she had received earlier today. They had to be somewhere…but where? She was almost too deep in thought to realize that the girl had spoken again. Her name. That was something Calantha had missed, the one thing the girl was allowed to reveal to her.

“Aela Talith.” Calantha echoed. “Aela.”

The name sank into her memory for a moment, before realizing she had forgotten to introduce herself. “Where are my manners?” She muttered, her fingers scratching the middle of her palm. “They call me Calantha.” Just Calantha, she wanted to add. No nicknames as much as people wanted to try, and they did try. Callie, Cal, and many other variations—Calantha refused to respond to them.

“Well, Miss Talith, would you like to see the study?”

| [member="Aela Talith"] |

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Calantha"]

The study?

Aela had always loved reading. She could read before she could walk, or so her mother had told her once. She had read nearly every single document she could find within their house on Borleias, and she had studied much of her Uncle Dissero's archives. Those were more...questionable in nature, but with the watch of her elders nothing had ever come of it.

“Please, Calantha.” Aela said, rolling the name off her tongue and trying to sound as friendly as possible.

It wasn't easy for her, especially not to someone she considered to be trapped. Padawans had little to no freedoms, or thats what her father had always said anyway, that their lives were structured and organized until they were made Knights. Aela didn't know the whole truth of that, she had never been a part of this Order or any other.

Yet she found herself wanting to know more, more about this process, and oddly enough more about this woman who seemed to be the same age as her.

 

[Calantha]

Was that a hint of enthusiasm Calantha detected?

Or was it merely a play of emotion; trying to sound much friendlier than she actually was. Calantha couldn’t put her finger on it, yet she forced a small smile to her face, and nodded. It was going to be a strained morning, and she need not the help of visions to see that. Regardless, she was a woman of her word and followed a path.

No matter how difficult that path could be.

“Have you had breakfast yet?”

Although she was a master of several language, small talk was not one of her strong abilities. Although confident, she often rarely spoke about things that seemed…pointless to her. And breakfast, oh breakfast, was simply one of the many things on her list.

They passed through the dining hall, where many different padawans were taking their early morning meals. It would be a short walk to the study, which meant less time for her to make a fool out of herself.

And how she hated looking like a fool.

| [member="Aela Talith"] |

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Calantha"]

“Yes.” Aela answered quietly.

Breakfast was her favorite meal of the day actually, her mother always cooked it and tried to make it...fun. Generally said fun was adding smiley face pancakes or arranging her nuna eggs and nerf bacon into odd shapes and patterns.

She was eighteen years old and ever day, without fail, her mother would arrange her breakfast in a way that was decidedly rather...cute. It made Aela smile, even if it was a bit silly.

“So what brought you here?” Aela asked the Padawan, curious about the young girls life. Then suddenly she stumbled over her words, realizing that what she said might have seemed rude. “Oh I'm sorry if that was rude.”

Aela realized that not every padawan had a pleasant trip to the temples.

 

[Calantha]

If Calantha was being truthful, she was glad Aela’s answer to her breakfast question was short and precise. She wouldn’t know what to talk about if the girl were to go into lengths about what she had that morning. In that case, Calantha assumed she would simply nod, smile, and answer the cliche ‘Oh, me too.’ However, as they progressed through the tour, another question had been uttered.

“So what brought you here?”

And before Calantha could answer, the girl spoke again:

“Oh I'm sorry if that was rude.”

“It’s okay. I don’t mind.”

And her reply was honest. Calantha didn’t mind talking about the past, nor did she mind bringing up the future. Everything was simply going to happen, be it at some point or another. It was simply…pointless if she were to cry about things that happened in the past.

Yet, it didn’t stop her from being bitter.

“I assume something happened to my family since I can vaguely remember them.”

In truth, her memories had been wiped, though she vaguely recollected events that happened in her past. They came to her through her visions.

“Something…dangerous happened to my home town. Or rather, something dangerous will happen. I assume my mother sent me here to protect me.”

Though she sent my sibling somewhere else.

| [member="Aela Talith"] |

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Calantha"]

Aela stopped in her tracks.

“Will happen?!” There was an excitement, and urging in her voice. “What do you mean by that?”

Unbeknownst to the other girl of course, Aela had a gift for precognition. She did not have entire visions, she could not predict the future, nor could she see it. Yet in her dreams, sometimes waking, sometimes when she slumbered, the force came to her.

They were small nudges, urges.

She had foreseen certain things, felt that they would happen. The founding of the Covenant, the rise of good in the galaxy. The blood, the war that would come at her hands. Aela had never spoken about these things, she had never talked to Mother or Father about them. Both of them knew about the force, and Aunt Amorella had told her of visions within it.

Yet the things she saw...

It was not something she ever wanted to share.

Yet if someone saw the same things, experienced the same feelings? Were they not the best ones to talk to?

 

[Calantha]

The excitement in Aela’s voice frightened Calantha, though she didn’t understand why. She didn’t consider her abilities as a gift, nor did she see it as a curse. They were simply there to confirm what were to already happen. Though they were inconvenient, they reminded her that people were first and foremost mortal.

There was a beginning to everything, and following a beginning would always be an end.

She stopped walking just as the girl had, but she urged her to go on. Calantha didn’t discuss the fall of her planet too much around people. She simply had no idea where it was. All she knew was there were cloaked men who had tried to take her away and it was up to her and the sibling she had once lost to destroy them. She had to become strong first. She couldn’t wipe out a planet as a padawan.

“I…see things.”

Calantha admitted it, as she stared into the strawberry blonde’s eyes. Perhaps there was something more to Aela’s question than she thought. She had an inkling, not necessarily a vision, that Aela had something to tell her as well.

“And as a child, I believed my memory was wiped. Though I often see visions of men in gold cloaks taking people like us away.”

And it was her destiny to destroy them.

| [member="Aela Talith"] |

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Calantha"]

She eyed the woman for a few seconds, watching, looking, thinking. Gold cloaks? Aela tried to think of something, anything regarding gold cloaks. For a moment her lips went thin, her mind scraping the very deepest recesses of her memories.

Yet she found nothing.

“I...” Aela trailed off for a few seconds as a Jedi Knight wandered past the pair of girls. Bright orange eyes followed him for a few moments, then returned to Calantha. “I don't see things. Not visions, not actual tangible things I suppose.”

It was harder to admit this then she had thought it would be. She had had these impressions for nearly twelve years now, ever since Geonosis when she had only been six years old. All that time in silence made it hard to talk about. “But I get impressions. Pressure points. When I take certain actions, I can feel exactly what will happen.”

Her lips thinned. Was that the right verbiage? It was difficult to assign any particular description to it.

 

[Calantha]

It frustrated her how much she didn’t know who these people were. No amount of searching, reading, studying helped her move closer to her goal. She was eager to learn about her past, yet it refused to reveal itself to her. She had told herself many times to stay calm, be calm and everything will unfold in the future. Yet…She felt as though she was running out of time.

There was still her other half to be found.

And a man with multicoloured eyes and his runaway bride.

She snapped back to reality as a Knight wandered between the two. As Aela watched him walk away, Calantha’s eyes stayed on the girl. They were of the same age, though Aela was much better trained than she was. At the same sense, she also seemed…emotionally stronger.

Calantha listened to the girl speak about getting psychic impressions. Time revealed itself to Aela in a much different way. She may not be receiving visions, but the future unfolded itself to her. It was a gift, Calantha knew.

“I understand. Perhaps we may be receiving the same premonitions. You simply…have it differently.”

Calantha was happy somebody else understood.

“I…knew we’d be talking today.”

| [member="Aela Talith"] |

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Calantha"]

Her lips thinned again.

She knew?

Aela supposed there was something odd about that, though not when she considered her own gifts. She never got such impressions, such powerful visions. Only small hints came to her, powerful moments of dejavu...that were placed in the future.

It was an odd feeling, strange, as though she were being ripped out of time and placed somewhere else. It had scared her the first time it happened, terrified her the second. Aela had seen war and death, blood and battle, all wrought by her. She frowned slightly, then looked at her the girl, trying to catch some insight into what she could have seen.

“Have you...” She trailed off for a second. “Have you seen anything else?”

Aela was scared of her own future, there was no doubt to that.

 

[Calantha]

“Have you seen anything else?”

Calantha bit her lip. As of now, there was so very little she knew about the girl except for that vague flash of images sent to her mind. She bit her lip, recalling the earlier waves of memories she had experienced. All she saw was them talking and perhaps a few people close to her.

“I…saw a boy with the same eyes as yours.”

She whispered. Was that important? Were they close?

The next bit was probably the most important thing she'd mention that night. Perhaps introducing the topic would lead to its discussion and open many more doors for her, which could probably get her out of this place.

“…And I saw vague flashes of a group.”

| [member="Aela Talith"] |

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Calantha"]

Her lips thinned again.

Micah. It was Micah of course. There was no one else, no boy, in the galaxy who had those eyes except for her brother. Father had said the eyes were a curse of the family, a trait that held through them both genetically, and through the force.

Aela had never completely understood it, had never really wanted to in fact, but she knew that the eyes were what mattered, what were important. They were a mark of the Taliths, and with what the girl said next it only confirmed her suspicions.

“The Covenant.” She breathed, then immediately smacked her hand over her mouth. “I...”

Aela trailed off, not quite sure what to say or how to go on.

 

[Calantha]

“The Covenant.”

That was the term Aela used. And like a match struck against the pavement, Calantha’s mind lit on fire. Her eyes widened, her irises lightened to a colour between pale-blue and white. She leaned back against the wall as the room started to spin around her.

A second vision.

The ship landed onto a planets surface. The girl Calantha came to know as Aela had a frown on her face before she ran from the bridge. There were more people in the new location. There was an objective, there were slaves to be saved.

Calantha wasn’t quite sure what was happening. Her fingernails dug into her palm as she trembled against the wall. Through her peripheral vision she could see the current Aela, though as she shifted her gaze, another Aela was doing things in different timeline.

The dropship was moving lower and lower, falling from the sky. “Keep going.” The words escaped her thin lips as the vision shifted to another man. A Sith Lord, Calantha assumed by the way he stood and the words he was speaking.

She found herself back in reality, clutching her head. A word materialized in the back of her head, forcing itself to be spoken.

“Ng….Titan Industries?”

| [member="Aela Talith"] |

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Calantha"]

She frowned slightly.

Titan.

It was one of their targets, one of the places they were planning to go. Nobody knew that, only Mara and she knew that. It was the first place they were supposed to strike. Her lips went very thin and she grabbed the girl, pulling her into a small alcove and placing a hand over her mouth.

“Please don't say anymore.” Aela said quietly. “It's not something you should know.”

She would never hurt the girl, try to confine her, or anything of the sort. Yet knowing this, knowing where the Covenant was going was a dangerous thing. The One Sith weren't onto them yet, but if...well quite frankly if Aela's parents found out that she was planning something like this, especially her mother, she would be killed.