Private There Are No Accidents

[Ivy Maro]

Vodet

​

The shuttle descended through a blanket of brilliant white clouds, revealing a world awash in vibrant greens and endless stretches of turquoise coastline. From her window, Ivy caught glimpses of white sand beaches nestled against dense tropical forests, with the Kattadan sea glittering beneath the afternoon sun. It was beautiful. Peaceful in a way that felt almost unreal after everything she'd left behind.

The landing struts settled onto the durasteel platform with a gentle hiss. For a long moment, Ivy remained seated, fingers resting on the strap of her satchel as passengers filed past. Two months ago, she'd still been processing lab results beneath fluorescent lights, wondering why every day felt heavier than the last. Now she was stepping onto a planet she'd only ever seen in holobooks, chasing a path she'd spent most of her life pretending wasn't meant for her.

It was terrifying. Liberating. For the first time in a long time, the future felt like something she was choosing.

... ... ...​

A terminal attendant apologized profusely to Ivy while explaining the mix-up. Unfortunately, a minor scheduling mishap meant her transport had arrived at one of Kattada's larger civilian spaceports rather than the smaller landing zone adjacent to the Jedi Enclave. The next shuttle headed toward the Enclave wouldn't depart for several more hours.

Ivy smiled and shrugged her shoulders. "That's okay. It happens." She accepted the inconvenience with far more grace than she might have only a few months ago. After all, she wasn't in any hurry.

The attendant helped Ivy load a local topographical map onto her datapad. A blinking marker indicated the Enclave several kilometers away along the coast. A maintained footpath wound its way through the jungle before eventually reaching the beaches where the Temple stood, which wasn't too isolated to interfere with her datapad's short-range comm signal throughout the route. Only a few hours on foot, Ivy calculated. Fresh air. Exercise. Time alone with her thoughts. After everything that had happened to her recently, a quiet hike seemed nicely therapeutic.

Before setting out, Ivy ducked into a small neighborhood market tucked beside the terminal, picked up a few snacks and a bottle of water, and stuffed them neatly into her backpack.

... ... ...​

The first hour passed pleasantly. Warm ocean breezes drifted inland through towering palms, carrying the scent of saltwater and blooming flowers. Brilliant birds darted between the canopy while unfamiliar creatures chirped and clicked somewhere beyond the undergrowth. Sunlight filtered through broad emerald leaves, painting shifting patterns across the forest floor.

The jungle felt... alive. Not merely with wildlife, but something deeper... A subtle sensation she couldn't quite describe. Every now and then she'd pause, almost expecting to hear someone whisper her name before realizing it was only the wind moving through the leaves.

Eventually she reached a fork in the trail. One direction continued along the well-worn travelers' path toward the Enclave. The other wasn't exactly a path; more of a narrow game trail weaving deeper through the jungle. According to her datapad map, it would cut nearly forty-five minutes off the hike before reconnecting with the main trail farther ahead.

Ivy studied the map for another moment. The route wasn't marked as dangerous. Just... less traveled.

She shrugged to herself. A little adventure never hurt anyone. Clutching the datapad in front of her like a steering wheel, Ivy stepped beneath the thicker canopy.

... ... ...​

The jungle grew quieter. Not silent, but... watching. The air felt cooler beneath the dense foliage. Thick vines hung from enormous trees while giant flowering plants crowded either side of the narrow trail. Everything seemed lush beyond imagination. As Ivy admired a cluster of enormous blue blossoms, something brushed her ankle.

She looked down. A vine. Probably just moved by the breeze. She stepped over it.

Another vine curled gently around her boot. Huh? She bent slightly, reaching down...

The vine tightened. Not painfully. Just enough to stop her foot from moving.

A nervous laugh escaped her, trying to keep her cool. "Oh-kay...?" She gently pulled her leg free. The vine slowly retreated into the undergrowth. Weird.

She'd barely taken three more steps before another tendril wrapped around her wrist. Then another around her backpack.

Leaves rustled all around her. Ivy's heartbeat quickened. "Hey..." She pulled free again, this time more firmly.

Several vines recoiled—only for half a dozen more to emerge from nearby shrubs.

The hairs on the back of Ivy's neck stood upright and her smile disappeared. Nope. The young woman broke forward with a long stride, hoping to outrun the foliage.

The jungle erupted. Roots shifted beneath the soil. Living tendrils dropped from above and slid across the ground with surprising speed. Branches bent low, weaving together across the trail ahead. Vines latched around both of Ivy's ankles. Another wrapped around her waist. Ivy stumbled forward only a few steps before the living plants tightened their grip—not crushing, but impossibly firm. She pitched awkwardly against the restraints, catching herself before she could fall face-first into the moss.

Her breathing quickened. Think. Ivy tried to calm herself. She still had options... Her blaster. Her knife.

The thought barely crossed Ivy's mind before several slender vines darted to her utility belt, as if the jungle had sensed her intentions. They wrapped delicately around both wrists, pinning her hands several inches away from the weapons without hurting her. Ivy's datapad slipped from her fingers, striking the ground with a dull clack.

Panic surged through her. Ivy twisted, pulling desperately against the vines. The more she struggled, the tighter they became, binding her arms to her sides while thick roots coiled around her boots. Her breath came faster. Confusion mixed with fear until neither could be separated from the other. After everything she had been through and convincing herself to take this leap... Was this really how it was going to end?

"Help!" Her cry echoed through the dense trees. Ivy swallowed hard against the growing lump in her throat. She felt ridiculous. Scared. Powerless. Defeated. "Somebody! Hello?!"

The only answer was the sound of the swaying canopy. Ivy sniffled as she hung her head. Tears trickled down her cheeks as months of bottled-up hurt came rushing to the surface. She wasn't angry. She wasn't even certain she was in danger anymore. The vegetation wasn't hurting her. If anything it was almost... holding her. The jungle seemed to breathe, the vines surrounding her moving in slow, rhythmic motions like the rise and fall of a sleeping creature's chest, hugging her gently. Which only made the storm inside her feel worse. Past and present blurred together, bound by a desperate plea that had only ever tried to make sense of everything that was happening to her:

What did I do?
​

 

[Vodet]

The time that he spent away from the Kattada Enclave was getting to be more and more as his role as Waybinder took off. Keeping the Enclaves organized was a task but not one he didn’t enjoy. It allowed him to travel, and fulfil the task that he thought was central to a Jedi, spreading the teachings and letting it evolve. But he still preferred to be back at his Enclave. It wasn’t his world, no, as a Yinchorri this definitely wasn’t. The Jedi weren’t even supposed to be his people.

But it was who he had chosen, and who had chosen him. There was a long history of Vodet’s that involved war and fighting, but as he progressed through the world of the Jedi, that took a backseat, he entered his own isolation to allow the Force to speak to him, and it put him in the path of Enclave Leader for Kattada.

And not a bad place to be.

Plenty of fish, the Service Corp center here of the Exploration Corp was here, and allowed him to rub elbows with a Jedi he looked up to, that of Coren Starchaser. And he got to meet some of the witches. It added a new level of Force experience to the world. Helping to shape some of the Jedi slightly.

It made walking the world enjoyable. And always an experience. The lumbering turtle had his enhanced walking stick as he stepped into the Jungle. Jedi were supposed to be arriving today, but it wasn’t always on him to greet them. Padawans and low level Knights had to put their time in too.

However, this walk was calm and easy for him at the moment, until he could feel it in the Force, then hear it with his ears. A call for help. Moving, he knew there wasn’t any predators in this area, but the vegetation could be a bit troublesome to newcomers who weren’t keen on the spellwork the Witches did.

That was when he saw them, softskin, young, scared.

“Deep breaths. What got you into the vines?” He asked, his voice calm, collected. Unlike his lumbering size. But even in the Force, there was a cool breeze associated with him.

Ivy Maro

 

[Ivy Maro]

A presence approached through the jungle, calm and steady as the tide. Ivy felt it before she heard footsteps, and snapped herself upright. Her head jerked toward the sound, every muscle tensing despite the vines holding her fast. Her pulse leaped again, bracing herself for whatever new danger the jungle intended to throw at her.

A moment later, a towering figure emerged from between the broad-leafed plants.

Ivy blinked. It looked like... a turtle. Some sort of turtle-like sentient. Massive compared to her, carrying himself with surprising grace despite his size. Ivy had never seen a species like Vodet 's before, and for one brief, bewildered second, curiosity managed to show aside her embarrassment.

Thankfully, the stranger spoke in Basic. Ivy instinctively tried to wipe the tears from her face before remembering her wrists were still pinned to her sides. Her sleeve remained frustratingly out of reach. Instead she sniffled once, gave a small, self-conscious chuckle, and tried very hard to pretend the turtle guy hadn't just caught her crying.

"Oh. Um. Hi." Another awkward laugh escaped her. "Well this is embarrassing." She offered him an apologetic smile that was equal parts sheepish and mortified, as if she'd been caught climbing over someone's backyard fence. "Um... I have no idea. I was just walking and then these plants—" She gave one of the vines around her arm a somewhat indignant tug for emphasis, and the vine retorted by snugging itself tighter around her wrist. "—ow—" Ivy frowned at it. "—just attacked me outta nowhere."

Perhaps that was a slight exaggeration, but still, Ivy looked back at the turtle-like stranger with an expression that practically pleaded for him to validate her version of events, whichever magic words worked on him fastest, to help her get out of this mess. "Uh..." She said hopefully, her voice softening. "Can you help get me out? Please?"

The vines shifted uncertainly. As though whatever strange intelligence lingered within Kattada's forests had taken one look inside Ivy's heart—at the grief, confusion, fear, and emotions she'd spent months trying to carry alone—and quietly decided: No. Not yet. Yet the vines' subtle swaying also stirred toward the towering stranger, as though the jungle itself had acknowledged Vodet's arrival. The tendrils did not seem possessive or determined to keep him away. Instead, they waited.
​

 

[Vodet]

Jungles and the tropics were not new to Vodet, not at all, but they were not his native area, born in a small sea on Yinchorr, he craved the wider expanses of oceans, being of that small subspecies that was more sea turtle like than tortoise. Even if he did move with a small lumbering approach, Vodet was not like the rest of his brethren. Hearing the call, he knew he had to pick up his pace, to whatever level that meant to the outside observer.

Moving slow allowed him to see what others missed. What others passed on by. He made his way to the commotion, seeing a young no-shell. Human, maybe. Vodet affected what he could of a grin and nodded. “Its not your fault.

“Truth be told, we have a clan of witches and they are sometimes training to affect the world in ways a Jedi does not.” He waved his staff and concentrated, a spell-like skill that Brooke Waters, the witch’s impromptu leader, had taught him to reverse the effects of some magicks.

Simple things.

Tricks and nonsense, according to some.

“Here you go.” He continued after he released the spell, at least temporarily. “They didn’t recognize you, and neither do I. I am Vodet.” Jedi Master, Enclave Leader, blah blah blah.

Just Vodet.

Ivy Maro

 

[Ivy Maro]

"Oh. I see." Ivy was too entranced by the sight of Vodet performing the spell to fully register what he was saying. Her hazel eyes followed every movement of his staff, fascination slowly replacing the embarrassment that had been written all over her face before.

Then the plants released her. Rather abruptly. Ivy dropped with a startled yelp and barely managed to catch herself with her hands before her face met the ground. She remained there for a second, blinking at the dirt beneath her nose, before slowly lifting her head. "I'm okay." She pushed herself upright, rubbing the circulation back into her wrists and ankles. "Thanks." She smiled appreciatively at her rescuer.

Vodet spoke slowly. Not painfully so, but enough that Ivy realized his pace seemed to match the rest of him. Perhaps it was simply a trait of his species. The slower cadence gave her more time to process each word, which was rather helpful considering how much had happened in the last few minutes.

Ivy's eyes widened as Vodet introduced himself. "You're a Jedi?" The question came out with such excitement and relief that one might have thought she'd just encountered a celebrity. "Oh, thank goodness! I've been looking for you guys forever." A short, breathless laugh escaped her. "I can't believe I found you!"

Remembering her manners, Ivy straightened herself up, offering Vodet an eager smile. "My name's Ivy. Ivy Maro." She stepped forward and extended her hand for a handshake. She wasn't entirely sure if that was something Vodet—or Jedi in general—did, but it seemed like the proper thing to do. "I just arrived here today, and I'm looking for the Jedi Enclave here. I have a map—oh! My datapad, I forgot..." Ivy spun around. She walked back toward the spot where she'd been walking before the plants had decided to imprison her, nearly tripping over one of the remaining vines in her haste. Fortunately, the vegetation seemed to have lost interest in her, for now.

She found her datapad half-hidden beneath some leaves, snatched it up, and scurried back toward Vodet. "Here!" She held the datapad up for him to see, already pulling up the map. "I was supposed to land at the station next to the Enclave, but, eh..." She gave him an awkward little grin. "I decided not to wait, so I thought I'd take the scenic way there, heh." She tapped the map. "It said there was a shortcut trail here, so I took it, but, uh... didn't realize the plants were alive." She added sheepishly, "Sorry. Didn't mean to trespass."

For a moment, Ivy stood there with her datapad held against her chest, looking as though she realized she had been talking rather a lot.

"Um. I can do Force things too! Sort of." A nervous little smile appeared. "That's why I thought I'd come over to the Enclave and find out more about what the Enclave people do so I can possibly learn more about myself and what I should do and maybe become a Jedi...?" The sentence ended with an awkward, hopeful rise in her voice, as Ivy looked at Vodet expectantly.

She reached up instinctively to fix her hair braid, which was now a thoroughly tussled mess, loose strands escaping around her face after her encounter with the plants. Ivy's backpack sat crookedly on one shoulder, her relaxed trousers and lightweight shirt beneath her many-pocketed jacket rumpled from her flight through the jungle, while her boots were caked with bits of dirt and leaves. Ivy Maro looked less like a prospective Jedi and more like someone who had gotten spectacularly lost on a hiking trip.

"Also, what are these 'witches' you speak of?" Ivy tilted her head curiously at Vodet. "Are they friendly?"

The question was innocent enough, though the jungle around them seemed to give an ominous rustle in reply.

 

[Vodet]

He was always happy to see others come to this world, and to be able to educate them on things you didn’t learn on worlds like Coruscant. He may be a Jedi Master, but he held many lessons from the more shamanistic Force traditions close to his shell. And short of how a being broadcast in the Force, Vodet was unaware of how deep embarrassment ran for some beings.

“The Witch’s mean well, but sometimes their… songs can find vegetation where they expect no one else to find it.” And he really meant songs. The Blue Coral Divers seemed to be descended from sirens of the lore of ancient seagoing explorers. Not a bad thing to have on a world of space going explorers.

“I am a Jedi, yes.” The testudine affected a nod and a smile. As best as he could. “Jedi Master of the Enclave on this world. The smile, and more of his own natural affect of joy occurred as she hurried back for her datapad.

The youths.

“The world is wild and mostly unkempt aside from near the few establishments here and there. But yes, it should be a path. Normally.” He eyed the vegetation. Perhaps a learning experience for some of the padawans and younglings.

“You can do things?” He motioned for her to take a seat on a larger boulder. “What sort of things? And our witches? Yes, the Clan here was helped by the Enclave’s founder, and they’re capable of things Jedi aren’t.” Be with the Force or without. "And what is your name, youngling?"

Ivy Maro