Twelve Thousand Seasons (Private, Story)

[Not Ordo]

[SIZE=10pt]“Twelve thousand seasons have these eyes looked upon the stars and sought my own kind. My years have grown many and my living friends few as I have looked and wondered and asked the force to guide me. How many worlds have I walked in the quest to find a people to call my own and find knowledge to dangerous to give others? From the elegant lands of the Kaeshanna, to the practical forest of Mandalore I have roamed. Over white capped mountains and into nearly black valleys my steady step has trod. Through forest and jungles of lands untouched I have placed root and stems, but as of yet, no place has been found for me and many things have I collected. Long I pondered where next I should place my feet, where my root should lay. Still I came up with nothing and so I roam. I make friends where I can but more often than not I remain alone with only myth and shadow for friends.” -Excerpt from Kalizka’s Datacron.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]He sat looking at the grove of trees that he tended. The sweet smell of spring rose into the air and the sound of a natural freshwater stream trickled nearby. The sun light streaked between trees and painted the ground and low plants with a golden glow. The myriad of plants that lived here beneath the canopy were beautiful each in their own way. They all had different qualities Arool was poisonous, and nearly self-aware, while the bafforrs were beautiful with the ability to communicate when in groves. There were other plants that had been brought from other worlds to be grown here. Pommwomm from the Sif'kric system[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt], [/SIZE][SIZE=10pt]the Barenth healing plant from [/SIZE][SIZE=10pt]Barenth[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt], and Grey Gabaki from many places all were here and all were alive together. Kal walked forward, his woody root covered feet padded gently on the soft loamy soil of the forest floor. He remembered when many of these trees were just seeds. His own hand had pressed them into the burned soil and their first drink had been water of his own tears. The Bafforr grove that was hear before had been his friend for a long, long time. For literally centuries, he had known and spoke with the grove of crystalline trees. They spoke of the Ithorians, the galaxy, plants, animals, weather patterns and more. Everyday they would spend time together as Kal tended the garden like jungles. He had been a seed himself in this ground he now walked. His parents were gone long before his germination was complete. The Sun fed him the stream, rain, soil watered him and the flora, and fauna kept him company. Life had been nearly perfect, but sadly, the dark times came, and many things changed. [/SIZE]


[SIZE=10pt]“I was born on Ithor or rather I germinated sprouted and grew. One hundred and thrirty year before “The Battleship Era” ended nearly two thousand five hundred years before the Battle of yavin that many mark as the end of an epoch. That was 3400 years ago now. Has it really been so long.” Kal said sitting in the dark. The glow of a datacron recording across from him. “The Battleship era, yes economy had become friend to the galaxy and restricted the war machines, and how happy many of us who were growing old were to see it go. Many military were forced to scale down and they favored smaller faster cruisers. They never could stop fighting, they always find a way. I remember the Bafforr grove told me “If they run out of ships they’ll throw rock at the sky”. How sad and how true those words seem now. I was on Coruscant helping to seed the garden at the Jedi temple, oh they had plants and trees of course, but they relied on the force rather than patience and attention to maintain them many masters were happy for me to teach their young ones the value of work done by hand rather than by force manipulation. I remember clearly that day two thousand five hundred and nineteen years before Yavin saw the Sith superweapon destroyed. The Jedi began building the Main hall of their archives. How I longed to have them scatter the knowledge they had and limit the people who could access it.” [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]“If you expand your archives and war comes back to call on you these items will be lost to your enemies.” Kal said to the old man Jedi, “would you have Ossus repeated?” [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]“Kal we aren’t so foolish as to let that happen again. Don’t you have faith in our ability to defend this temple?” the human said his voice calm and serene, “we won’t let the knowledge be stolen or destroyed ever again.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]“Still it should be copied and hidden, you know that overconfidence leads to ruin.” Kal said growing indignant, “hide it on Tython and send me away with the teachings of Odan Ur and my friend Ood Bnar then lock the rest away don’t leave it to chance.” [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]“Kal...” Bnar said from behind, “take the documents and the holocron and go where you see fit, we have everything on the Tedryn Holocron, thank you for your aid. Won’t you join us?”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]“Master Bnar.” Kal said placing a hand on the Master’s shoulder, “I’ll return to Ithor I’ve been too long away from the grove. I’m at your beckon call as always.”[/SIZE]


[SIZE=10pt]“I left then and returned home by two thousand and twenty before the battle of Yavin.” Kal continued his tale. “There I sat and read the teachings and listened to the descriptions of the powers and abilities the holocron of my friend described, but never did I attempt the things described. They didn’t seem like things I would need. To sever the force from a being? Telekinesis rather than my hands? Making lightsabers and the like? For what purpose were these thing to me? However, I did enjoy the histories and the lessons they contained. I remained there in peace and quiet while thins like the Safa paintings and Corsuca gem mining began. The later ended after a mere century. However, my peace ended two thousand years before the battle of Yavin when the new Jedi-Sith wars began. Wars that would last for a thousand years. Let me tell you about that time next.” [/SIZE]

 

[Not Ordo]

[SIZE=10pt]He continued to sit calmly across from the small cubical datacron as it recorded his face and words. His grey eyes shed a single tear as he relived the next events in his mind. He recalled so much and he felt it all as if he were there again. He had not participated in the fighting, that wasn’t his way, but he had helped save others who were displaced and in danger. Always he was the watcher then and a guide for those in need, like the gardener he was. Watching, guiding, helping to grow was his path, not wars. He took a trembling breath and continued to speak. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]“The war of a thousand years, the –New- sith wars, they called it. How much could have been avoided had the Jedi listened to the prodding from the force. The Jedi had grown complacent. Sadly Peace brought complacency unless the young were taught diligence. A Jedi master, if one can ever dare be called Master of the force, named Phanius resigned his commission. Ideological differences he said Jedi Dogma he called it, but in truth it was darker things that had grown in the Umbaran’s heart. He wanted what was forbidden and as always he was drawn out by his desire, when his desire was indulged it gave birth to darkness and in very short time Darth Ruin, Dark lord of the Sith emerged. To say I was unsurprised to see the Sith once again emerge from the Jedi is a kin to saying I was unsurprised when a leaf fell and landed on the ground. It was bound to happen. The complacency combined with dogmatic ritualism was destined to produce bad fruits eventually, and so it was. Of course no one knew that Ruin and Phanius were one and the same until much later but nevertheless it was so...” [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]“Though Ruin was merciless and extremely self-centered, or rather because of those things he was eventually killed by his own minions. However, the damage had already been done, and the rebirth of the Sith was complete. During this time while the Galaxy fought and was ravaged by the Sith, I once again left Ithor and worked behind the scenes with other likeminded souls to save refugees and displaced. While the Sith waged bloody war I had gone with some refugees to Yanibar. The situation on Yanibar was hostile and the existing people along with the refugees had a hard life. We all did what we could and I learned a great deal from the friends and families of the Jedi that were there. However, I left and went to offer aid to others. I copied down their stories and techniques and taught them some survival skills such as where to find food and water in exchange. Later I found out of just how much they had endured and I felt incredibly hurt to know that I could have helped them and didn’t. I worked alongside others whose goal it was to provide aid in the wake of the violence spread by the Sith and Jedi warring. I resurfaced near [/SIZE][SIZE=10pt]Malrev IV[/SIZE] when the unthinkable occurred. The long standing hostility between the Mandalorians and the Republic was put aside and the Mandalorians joined the fight against the Sith. At the battle I offered little aid other than first aide to the wounded but it was during the Battle that a Jedi Master slew the reigning Dark Underlord but lost his life in the process. Wars continued and I took to collecting histories and artifacts that were of use or that I came across. Among these things was a printed copy of the Sayings which was from the Atrisian emperor. The document is here and I have entered the location of my cache in this history, should I perish.”

[SIZE=10pt]Kal looked to the sky and closed his eyes as the clouds began to form overhead. It would ran soon and he would be glad for it. He turned and broke his train of thought for a moment. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]“How I need a good strong rain in these times.” He said as he looked back at the recording device, “though it doesn’t ease the pain of the next event I must relate. The Battle of Mizra.” [/SIZE]

 

[Not Ordo]

'Crack'

Kal looked up at the sound that was so out of place in his sanctuary home. no further sounds came. He looked down at the still recording device and turned it off with a hand that moved far faster than its size a look deemed possible. That same deft hand snatched the datacron and stuffed it in his deep satchel. He lifted his staff and looked into the darkness. It was still quiet, quieter than it would have normally been. The sounds of birds did not come nor did the sounds of other creatures that should have been on the search for their daily needs. Kal had suspected it would happen eventually the things he knew the items he held, it had always been just a matter of time. He thought of changing forms and just waiting for whom ever it was to simply pass but alas it would not be so. The silence suddenly broke and the first Vornskyr appeared in the trees some distance away. He looked at the datacrons in his bag and the datacards he had transferred the crumbling writings of the ancients onto. They were all there. Teachings he had been protecting for a thousand years. Fallanassi, Zeison Sha, Jensaarai, Aing-Tii, the teachings of Twilight, Luka Sene, Jedi Master Ood Bnar, the teachings of the Mind Walkers and more all under his care, almost completely untouched. He couldn't let them be found and used by the wrong people. He had taken a vow and that vow would not become a lie this day. He turned ad used the force for one of the only skills he had ever chosen to learn, He ran. His people were known for their ability to change shapes, though most were at least vaguely plant-like, and so to aid his flight he let his hips shift along with his legs and arms until they were better suited for a flight on all fours. The sounds behind him only grew louder as one snarling beast turned in to two and then two to half a dozen. There would be no hiding from them they could smell the force on him like a shark could smell blood in the water. He bolted through the thick underbrush of his jungle home crashing like a great wooden beast as he ran. Father back a humanoid form dropped from the trees and trotted after the Vornskyrs but Kal was too busy to notice. branches and limbs tore at his garments and the thick fabric soon gave way in places leaving shreds of his clothing hanging behind him.

He turned sharply as a large rocky outcropping he knew well stood before him and placed two hands upon it and pushed with all of his might as he made the right angle turn. He ran like a prey animal through the forest toward the ship that sadly he had taken without asking. He had left payment, after a manner of speaking in the form of a Corsuca gem but he had never asked for the ship. However, it was a long way and he knew as well as any that he would have to be very creative to escape in time. He knew his friend Je’gan would have used his tricks with the white current to conceal himself and simply disappear, but Kal had no such ability and he had not attempted to use the white current in nearly five hundred years. His flight took him onward but where he was filled with the desire to escape so to were his pursuers filled with the predators’ desire for the kill. It was not one hundred meters after the turn that the first of the canine creatures was upon him. Fangs and eyes gleamed in the light of the day as the beast leapt in from his right. Kal was fast but even so, the Vornskyr crashed into his loping form as he ran and Kal rolled his body as he fell tossing the animal into the trees. Pulling his bag closed tightly as he returned to his feet and upright stance. He knew he would not escape this pack now he had slowed too much. He called on the force and pulled his staff from his back. It was not a lightsaber and Kal was glad for that but with the force flowing through it was nonetheless powerful. The next beast came and Kal swung his gnarled staff. The creature flew at the Neti forelimbs outstretched, mouth wide for the bite, and was unceremoniously smacked on the head and sent crashing to the ground. Dust and leaves flew into the air as yet a third and fourth beast appeared. The large Neti stood with staff in both hands as he backed away from the hunting beast. His ancient eyes still sharp and his mind still quick. He watched as they circled him. The bright sun breaking through the trees as he stood alone against the beast one leapt at him while the other lunged for his ankle. The roar of a stiff breeze ripped through the upper branches as the staff swung and the leaping animal and struck it on the shoulder. The other creature’s maw found purchase on his woody ankle and Kalizka fell. He knew that the others would not be long behind these and he kicked the Vornskyr as it viciously flung its head from side to side tearing at his leg. The creature was stunned as the heavy limb collided with its head and once again, Kal was free. He shifted again and leapt into the trees his now long arms helped him to jump and catch branches as he went from tree to tree. He did not have to continue that way long before he was able to drop into the fast moving river he had been near before. With a great splash, he went under only to surface long enough to see the four remaining beast standing beside a fourth figure in a black twisted armor and mask. It was not a Sith, though he would not have been surprised if it had been. This was something that he could not have ever expected. It was a creature, a construct of the darkside, and it wanted things no one outside of the order should know he had.

It was long time before Kal allowed himself to surface. His ankle still bled sap although it had congealed to a manageable degree. He pulled himself onto shore and sat there for a moment. The thick fabric of his robe tore easily despite being soaked and he tied it around his wound before standing and continuing his escape. Grey eyes scanned the sky to ensure that there were no droids or creatures to track him from the sky as he dipped into the forest yet again. The air began to grow cooler as clouds began to move in. the rain was coming again and with it the shadows of cloud cover. Kal resumed his course after sometime and aimed for the opposite side of the caverns that held his ship.

The clouds that had come had done so with purpose and it wasn’t long before the first drops fell. It was good for Kal it would help hide his scent but his force signature was something altogether different. He raced along until he felt vaguely sure that he had some time and pulled a long fibrocord from his bag and began making his defense. It was true he had little training with the force and although his knowledge was great lack of practice made him little more than an apprentice, but what he lacked in force skills he made up for in skills of another kind. He shifted again to his normal size and lifted a downed log tying it off on each end and making a swinging trap. He set the trip wire along the path he had taken and went to the next spot. The 250kg log he had hoisted into the trees would swing down low to the ground when the trip wire was hit and collide with the pursuers. His next stop was several meters away where he bent a tree down and made a simple snare trap. If he had time he would dig a pit but what he had done so far would slow them and make them wary if nothing else. He reduced his size again his robes torn and tattered from the changing and the vicious Vornskyrs. He had to just reach the ship and then he could escape and take the items far from where this, thing, would find him….hopefully.

 

[Not Ordo]

Long strong limbs carried him like a whisper through the trees and shadows. His mind raced in a way it had not in a long time as he cycled through plans and plots as numerous as the seeds of a avabush. He carefully made his way along as the sounds of the hunting animals howling in the distance erupted. He could feel the lines in time tugging at his core, it was time to go again.

He raced along until the hidden landing arae came into view and slid across the ground beneath the vine wall he had made.

 

[Not Ordo]

His ancient grey eyes scanned the area like twin suns casting their rays on everything they could reach. His hands reached for the locks on his ship like an afternoon shadow stretching off into the distance as the sun slowly fades. He was nearly away. He was nearly free to escape and hide his secret treasures where the wrong hands couldn't grasp them. His simple robes hung from him like tapestries in a majestic hall as he pressed his long woody finger against the lock and sighed at the sound.

He thrumbed deeply in his chest as he slid the hatch to the side and climbed in. With a snap and siss he sealed and locked the door behind him. With his typicsl slow deliberation he walked to the cockpit and began starting the systems.