Soliloquy

[Avo]

Soliloquy​

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Endor - [member="Ran Aohki"]​

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Leaves rustled above. A gentle, soothing wind wove its way through the thick tapestry of trees and vegetation. It was a wondrous feeling, especially around these parts; near the ancient sanctuaries. From a species long gone, they sat in humble silence for all eternity. Greenery infected them, with shrubs and vines cropping up from nearly every crook and cranny that was exposed to the sunlight that broke the treeline. Walls were cracked, stagnant water pooled in deep stone crevices, and shadows danced with the rustling trees.

In the late evening, Master Lan Graendal had found it fitting to make his pilgrimage to this olden tomb. He walked easily, without a single ounce of trepidation in his steps. Green eyes glittered with fascination over the stone carvings, depictions of great victories and battles; festivals and feasts born of their heroic feats. It must've been a grand time for them - but what had happened?

While he was not here to discover their journey and undoing, it would surely unfold before him as he delved into the great waters of the Force.

Lan pulled his cloak tighter against his frame as the evening chill began to bite at him.

The Jedi continued on his expedition. Scouring the walls for more hidden signs and meanings, searching for any signs of life in this time-worn sanctuary. Erosion had taken quite a toll on this place, even walking beneath the stone doorframes didn't seem like the best idea.

Yet he still found his way in, ducking beneath a collapsed pillar.

He was a man on a mission. He needed to find it.

 

[Ran Aohki]

Her heart had always belonged to these forest. To its trees, the foliage on its floors, the water running down streams and rivers, the butterflies and birds that rode its winds. She could feel all the life bustling around her, it made her feel a happiness only the deepest of loves could create. The woods gave Ran a feeling of freedom nothing else could give her, every worry, every weight on her chest seemed to dissipate and disappear like the rays of lights that danced, trying to traverse the dense tops of the trees. She was siting by a stream, her bare feet lightly touching the surface of the water while the last rays of sun warmed her skin. Ran was accustomed to the colder climate of the Endorian dusk, she would not let it ruin not even a second of her blissful state.

She no longer knew how long she had been there, meditating in the very belly of nature. All she knew was that the sun had been high up in the sky when she had arrived. Now, it was time to return to the Temple. Most would have been concerned about their family or friends getting worried, but everyone in the temple knew she had a tendency to wander off for long hours into the woods. It was a habit she had never grown out of. She stood up, removing her feet from the water and gently extended her palm over her feet, the liquid droplets started to slide off at her command, returning to the stream. Once they were dry, Ran put on her leather boots and adjusted her light-grey robes.

The young woman was about to turn and leave, when a ripple through the Force guided her green eyes towards the opposite direction. She remembered the ancient ruins of the sanctuaries to be in the way the Force had pointed her. For a moment she looked at the darkening sky, and back at the general direction in which her hearth and home was, yet she turned her back on it and started swiftly, elegantly making her way to the ruins. She knew these woods better than she knew herself, it did not take her long to arrive. The young woman slowed down once she could see the tall, aged pillars of the sanctuary and from a distance, a man entering. She would have left him alone, return to her people and ignore everything. Yet once again she could feel that familiar trembling, and so pressed forward, contradicting almost every logical thought in her mind excepting the one that wished to warn the stranger that it was not wise to dwell this deep in the forest after dark.

[member="Lan Graendal"]

 

[Avo]

He crept deep within the gallows of the temple. Light splayed through cracks in the ceiling and the walls, painting the dusty ground with an orange hue. Cobblestone and dirt was everywhere, permeating this sanctuary to its very core. Water dripped all around, spilling into areas where even the miniscule amount of light was shed. A dank, wet stench assaulted Lan's nostrils as he explored every crevice this hallowed ground had to offer.

Kicking up dust, he moved to a wall. After fishing through his belt for a few moments, he produced a glow-rod. The Jedi promptly cracked it, emmiting a dull yellow hue as he drew nearer to the wall. He glazed over it first, dismissing the artistry as some meaningless muse. Sighing inwardly, he chided himself for easily pushing away this being's prose and decided to give it another glance.

The light of how glow-rod shone brighter. Just for an instant, the felt the wall shift.

"Force above," he breathed. Lan brought a hand up to touch it. The etchings deep within the stone had shifted in the blink of an eye, at least he thought they did. Perhaps the darkness of the temple had been playing tricks on his mind, but he could've sworn it depicted something different, something far more peaceful and vibrant.

Now it depicted a young man, his face contorted in anger. Even in its simplistic design, he could perfectly understand the gravity of the man's situation. The next glyph was the drawing of a hand, clutching the throat of a young woman. A sense of uneasiness and dread overtook Lan. He swallowed as his heartbeat quickened and breath caught in his throat.

Hatred, misery, and suffering. It chilled him to the very core. Pulling his hand away, the Jedi shut his eyes for a moment and lowered his head in silent remembrance. Both of them had been torn apart by passion and violence.

A shame, he thought.

[member="Ran Aohki"]

 

[Ran Aohki]

Soft steps carried her within the ruins of the sanctuary. Ran had been here before, yes, many years back. But she had never dared disturb the depths of the aging site, keeping to its surrounding and only the very first few meters of its entrance. Trusting the one thing that had always guided her, the young woman followed the man. It was at times like this when she would have been grateful for having her voice, at least some of it. Calling out to the man, telling him he should go back to wherever he was accommodated and return in the morning, with the Light of day would have been an easy thing to do. However, it was not a possibility and she knew if she ran towards him, or emitted any sudden noises she risked startling the stranger and generating a complicated predicament.

With this in mind, the young woman kept her calm, yet swift pace, gliding behind the stranger and focusing on the sound of his footsteps to follow him in the darkness within the sanctuary. Past a few minutes, she could see an orange light igniting in the distance and decided this would be her best chance to act and fulfill that which the Force was compelling her to do. Ran came through the opening of the corridor, the soft orange hue bathing her presence into visibility as her hazel green eyes were placed on the man. The slight doubt of how to approach rooted in her mind, for she did not want to invade the mind of a man who did not know her out of the blue.

Following the path that the man's eyes had, Ran took sight of the murals and its drawings, such powerful feelings rolling off of the ancient stone. For a few seconds she stayed immobile in admiration, yet soon her attention shifted back to the man, her timidness taking the best of her for the time being. Ran made sure to be ready as well, she did not sense the man as being evil, but what little she had seen of the galaxy had already taught her one did best in not trusting strangers.

[member="Lan Graendal"]

 

[Avo]

Lan heard her, or rather felt her, approaching behind him. The presence was no feral animal nor did it bear any semblance to a looming darkness desiring to snuff his life out. It was innocent and filled with trepidation, seeking him out like a moth drawn to a flame. As he slowly opened his eyes and raised his head in memoriam of the two beings caught in a whirlwind of emotion, Lan slowly turned to face the other presence in the room.

He lifted the glow-rod just slightly to bathe the figure in dull orange. Light green eyes, grey robes, and dark boots. She looked the part of a young villager, probably one who lived nearby. Yet something felt quite... odd. Just for a moment, his eyes remained locked upon her frame in complete silence, with nothing but drops of water into stagnant pools filling the void.

"This is an old, powerful place," Lan said, voice raspy before his lips curled into a curt smile. "Don't worry, young one, I am not here with bad intentions. Uncovering secrets and learning from the mistakes of others is why I am here."

[member="Ran Aohki"]

 

[Ran Aohki]

Her attention was taken away from the murals back to the man, as her ears perceived the flow of his voice in the air. Ran, in her travels, had learnt to not trust words as much as she used to. It had been an appalling, but necessary lesson, to know that people were more often than not filled with treachery and self-ambition. It had broken her heart to know that not many people accompanied her suffering on trying to resist and at the same time balance the pull of the darkest part of herself. She was educated, she was taught about the galaxy and its inhabitants. Yet it was not until she had left Endor for the first time that she came to know the truth.

And yet here she was, following a stranger into an abandoned and barely standing sanctuary when the sun was already retiring for the day and the dangers of the night would soon start to pace the forest's floors. For a second her mind told her to leave, to not risk herself any longer and just go back to her home. But on the other hand, there was the Force. It was anchoring in her place, telling her this man did not lie, that for some reason this encounter was bound to happen this day or the next, or at some point in her life. So Ran remained, ignoring the more logical side of her brain.

Now that her decision was taken, she was once again confronted with a predicament that would haunt her for the rest of her life. Ran could not speak, nor could she allow herself to penetrate the mind of a man whom she knew nothing about in order for him to hear her. It was not only dangerous for her, but it could also be taken as an offense by the stranger. So the young woman resorted to taking a few, timid steps forward into the light and slightly point her index finger towards her throat, the thin scar cutting across her skin from one side to the other. Ran knew her voice was not lost because of the cut, but the scar it had left had always served its purpose for people to associate her silence not with rudeness, but with the disability it was.

[member="Lan Graendal"]

 

[Avo]

It was hard to offend the hard-faced man. Quick to smile, slow to anger. An underlying intention laced each and every word every being uttered, and he'd learned over the course of his lifetime that there was far more than meets the eye. Discerning the truth and searching for the good in their words had become second nature to him. For him, it had been even harder to be on the sending end of such things. Speaking with truth and honesty in all circumstances had been one tough pill to swallow, especially during his formative years.

One slip up and your whole being yearns for it to be covered up and forgotten.

And it seemed like he slipped up here. After the echo of his rumbling voice faded in the distance, no reply came from the perplexed young woman before him. The evening rays of light slowly turned shifted to a darker orange hue, with shadows lengthening as the sun began to set far beyond the barely visible horizon.

Green eyes followed her hand, tracing a line down her throat. A scar. Lan's eyes widened by just a fraction as he looked away, fixating his gaze upon the mural. The dots had connected in just a second. However, the mural was gone. Those stone etchings of suffering and misery had been replaced by a display of grandeur. Feats of victory in war and the following festivities now took its place. The Jedi sighed inwardly, silently wondering what all of these things meant.

Lan turned back to her, pulling his cloak tighter about his frame as the cool air began to invade the interior of the ruined temple.

"It looks like it's getting very late," he tilted his head towards the dimming of light peeking through cracks in the ceiling, "Don't you have a home to return to? Loved ones?

"If I'm encroaching on sacred ground, then I can make my leave with haste if that is your wish."

[member="Ran Aohki"]

 

[Ran Aohki]

Curiosity started its intervention on her features. There was something different about the man, something that pushed the Force to compel her to calmness, there was no need to be afraid or weary of the stranger. Her heart was more easily convinced than her troubled mind, but slowly Ran was managing to make herself believe there was no danger represented in this individual, it was the will of the Force and the less she could do was trust it, the one entity that had kept her company and protected her since the moment she opened her eyes to this very second.

Slight nervousness took over her again, this time caused by the possibility of having offended the man with her lack of a reply. It had been hard to accept the unavoidable fact that some people just passed her off as an incredibly rude young woman, not everyone expended their time trying to think of another possibility. It did not seem to be the case with him, and one final ripple in the Force within her had given her the decision to approach communication through another front. Just when she was about to do this, the gaze of the man returned to the mural and hers followed it. The previous, despairing etchings had vanished, and the less touching yet still beautiful designs returned. She had never known this mural rested in this sanctuary, it was an intriguing thing.

Her gaze returned tentatively to the man as he addressed her once more, she processed his questions rapidly and remembered the first of her intentions: warning him it was not wise to stay out after dark. It was too late for that now, but still she could not have left the man alone. It was easy to get lost in the woods during daytime, nighttime was simply something to avoid. Gathering back the courage she had previously combined, the young woman reached to his mind, her voice resonating with its gentle and timid tones deep within the conscience of the stranger. "I do, sir. I...I had wanted to warn you about remaining in the forest after the sun downed, it is late for that now." Ran was a soft-spoken individual, language had never been her strength, and yet she bid herself to keep speaking, fueled by the hospitality in her heart that would have wailed with guilt had she not offered her aid to the man. "My home is not far from here. You are welcome to stay, if you'd like."

[member="Lan Graendal"]

 

[Avo]

The Force was always to be trusted. Whether it led into unfortunate circumstances or not, its wisdom and fate-deciding ways were crucial. Its ebbing and flowing had not failed him yet, and his own misfortunes were the result of himself going against the flow. As a young knight, he had stubbornly stood against its will and insisted that he could do every much better, using it as a tool rather than a gift granted to him by the gods above. Lan had to learn that the hard way - he was lucky he was still alive.

Before he had a moment to collect himself and his things to depart, he felt the mental prodding. It was light, sensitive, and ever so kind. A young, feminine voice flooded his mind. Lan's lips thinned as he watched the girl before him. She was doing it. Despite the jagged scar across her windpipe, her body language told him everything he needed to know.

The Master glanced towards the entryway, barely visible in the dawning light of the moon.

"That would be most appreciated, young one," the man smiled. "That is one special power you have there."

[member="Ran Aohki"]

 

[Ran Aohki]

She pondered on her words for a moment, was it a mistake to have offered him to stay with her people? The Temple of Tsche was built around the utmost secrecy, no one knew how to find it unless guided by someone who belonged in the Temple. The fear of possibly doing something wrong, and against the one place that mattered the most to her was difficult to calm, but taming it was something far superior than her own control and even the whole of herself. She felt, she was being told it was the right thing to do. That this was not a coincidence but maybe a step on a bigger plan, this was the way of the Force. And Ran took a leap of faith into it, pushing every doubt to the bottom of her being with the help of the living Force.

A small, shy smile stretched her lips at his comment and she nodded in appreciation, kindness shining in her greenish eyes. The girl had never gotten used to compliments, not that she received many but even if she did, Ran had a deep modesty, she was humble to a fault and it was not nearly as easy for her to see her rights as it was to see her faults. She did not have any more to say, at least not for now. With time, she had learnt that it was more practical to use as few words as possible, none if they were not needed. Leaning her head lightly towards the exit of the sanctuary, she signaled the man to follow her and started walking.

Soon they were outside of the sanctuary. Night had taken hold of the forests and the nocturnal noises filled the air. Her gaze explored her surroundings, analyzing them for a moment. Ran knew the forest's night looked far more peaceful than it actually was. Predators hunted at nighttime, with the cover of the darkness and the coverage of the insects' songs to better stalk their prey. Turning her head back, her green eyes were placed once more upon those of the man, bidding him to be careful now that they were upon to enter the mass of vegetation that surrounded the fallen sanctuary.

[member="Lan Graendal"]

 

[Avo]

He held his tongue for a moment there. Telepathy was a powerful and unique skill, one that most sentient beings didn't possess unless they were attuned to the Force. Some species had an innate ability but more often than not, it was learned. Seeing as the young woman could so much as utter a single word, probably relating to that jagged scar down her throat, it was a sensible course of action. However, one that Lan would keep his wits about.

She was friendly enough, and she seemed to harbor no ill intentions. Her offer of rest was happily accepted. The Jedi quickly snuffed out the glow-rod and followed after her as she departed the temple ruins. Endor was awakening as the moonlight splayed through the treetops. Insects buzzed about, predators rose from slumber, and their scampering prey darted about the underbrush before yelping in pain. It was a natural cycle - the cycle of life. There was no good or bad, it was just the way things were.

Lan was no stranger to being in the jungles, not by any means. The cautionary look the woman gave him, while appreciated, but not needed. Still, the master flashed her an understanding nod and began to trod a little lighter. Lan drew close to her side, flanking her as she walked.

"What is your name?" He asked, voice low.

[member="Ran Aohki"]

 

[Ran Aohki]

Her steps were ever so light and soft beneath her weight. The silence she kept while walking was almost impossible, as though her muteness had extended to the rest of her body. It was a skill she had learnt after years of walking the woods in its more dangerous hours, dawn and dusk, when every moving thing in the Endorian moon seemed to be more active than ever. Being so familiarized with her surroundings, the girl did not have any problems in navigating through the woods despite the low light and the treacherous likeness of every centimeter of the forest. Every tree and every rock near the Temple had grown to be special to her, and in her eyes everything was very characteristic and a telling land-mark, even if it was just an ordinary bush next to an ordinary rock.

Ran made a point of keeping her pace at a fast yet comfortable speed, not because she thought the man wouldn't have been able to keep up with him but rather because she feared it being interpreted as rude if she wondered too far ahead of him. So instead she kept to his side, ever so aware of her surroundings in case any unexpected occurrence -because it would be unexpected one way or the other- ensued. She knew they were not far from the surrounding village to the temple, where the locals, the ones who had decided to stay and share in the life of secrecy of the members of the Temple of Tsche was built, surrounding the place that had always been her haven.

Her green eyes were placed on the man when he addressed her. She did not respond for a moment, as though she was considering what to answer. Another pang of shyness had coursed through her body, but she finally lowered her gaze back to the floor and reached once more into the mind of the man. "Ran, sir. Ran Aohki." Again, her reply was short and delivered in a soft, delicate voice. "Yours?" she dared question, her inquiry sounding even weaker than her voice, revealing she was unsure if asking was correct.

[member="Lan Graendal"]

 

[Avo]

His love for nature was boundless. It held an exquisite, yet primal beauty that could always dwarf that of civilization. It all just felt so natural and even a bit surreal. Life swirled all around, the smell of flowers and berries upon the wind, and lifeforms lived their lives in simplistic peace and serenity. It was a place like no other, and Lan had spent nearly two decades living amongst it. Granted, Felucia and Kashyyyk were hardly as tame as Endor, but the effect was still the same.

Only for his own survival did he hunt. Many times has the Master slain his hunt, paid them respects through the Force, and used their sustenance to live on and better himself. It was not mindless killing or carnage, it was simply the natural circle of life.

Sucking in the fresh, cool nighttime air, Lan strode happily alongside his newest friend. And once more, her voice penetrated the measly defenses of his mind and spoke. Her name sounded very much like his.

He flashed the girl a wry grin, following her gaze to the forest floor. "Lan Graendal," he simply replied. "How long have you lived here, Miss Aohki?"

Her last name felt foreign on his tongue and he highly doubted he said it right. But oh well, at least he tried.

[member="Ran Aohki"]