Public "We do NOT tie each other up here!"

[Zenda Tano-Bonteri]

Zenda nodded as Marina DeVoe asked her questions. "Roughly. Leehak and I were in different systems at the time. Each of us had one of them. They were three months old. Kuxirra was experimented on by someone named Veinstein. Shaalleesh, on the other hand..." She shook her head. "There's been no trace. It wasn't Sith who took Kuxirra, but maybe Sith took Shaalleesh."

 

[Marina DeVoe]

Marina's features blanked out...3 month old infants experimented on?
Of all life that was Holy, it were that of children.
Marina lowered her eyes. There were nothing that she knew she could say. But it were apparent in Marina's features that she were disturbed by it...very disturbed.
An otherwise happy-go-lucky blonde now seemed drained of spirit and life even.

Marina couldn't understand as to anyone, including sith could do such evil. Marina couldn't understand because she were no where near that twisted plane of thinking. She could never understand even if said mad doctor or scholar would explain as to the reason someone or some faction would do such things. It simply were beyond her own will to understand any justification.

"I'm here for you, Leehak and Kuxira if I can help you in any way." She then said, offering her friendship.
Marina wanted to also say that she would help search for Shaalleesh, but those would only be words at this time. She would have to do so on her own. Marina were already searching for her missing bestie Mariya Fleischer throughout the galaxy.... she would also do same for Shaalleesh.

 

[Zenda Tano-Bonteri]

Zenda smiled gratefully at Marina DeVoe . "Thank you." The disappearance of her children was the reason she worked with younglings. It gave her a chance to experience what she missed raising her own.

Spoiler: OOC

I think you've been in a thread with Kuxirra Tano-Bonteri before, tho on different objectives. Shaalleesh, on the other hand...well, she goes by Darth Faef now lol

 

[Marina DeVoe]

Marina returned a small nod of acknowledgement. There was nothing more to say that would have eased Zenda's loss for her missing daughter.
Marina knew there would be nothing that anyone could do to ease her pain. But she would search for the jedi's daughter...at least keep her ears open as she searched for her bestie.
No one just disappeared like that. If both twins were kidnapped at approx. the same time from two distinct different systems...then something very sinister had been at play and no doubt had stalked Zenda's family to pull such a dual kidnapping.

It also went to say that if Kuxirra had been found...then there was that possibility that her twin sister Shaalleesh could be found too. This were what was cooking in the blonde's mind. She'd have to keep this to herself till she found some evidence or leads.

During this time, the younglings were finishing up their lunches. "Looks like I best help clean up some tables..." Marina excused herself getting up and doing just that: clean off the tables as the children were done....otherwise all the uneaten food and drinks would find their way by force mischief off the tables and flying about.

 

[Zenda Tano-Bonteri]

Zenda nodded and stood to help clear the tables. "What about you? Do you have a family?"

 

[Marina DeVoe]

"Yes...." Marina replied.
She would love to talk of her family and siblings. But she knew it would not only be a good thing to talk about, but may also make Zenda feel bad about the tragic loss of her daughter and what the other had been put through.

Marina loved her family...her grandfather, parents and brother and sister.
She also didn't want to bring up that her brother and her were actually twins.

"Yes, my family resides on Alderaan....it's ...it's where I were born." was all she could say at this time. She didn't want to go off on a rant as to how great she thought her family were, despite her brother dissing her of late. They had been inseparable when they were young. Now he were off all over the galaxy, and she suspected he were keeping secrets from her. Still, she loved him very much and when they did get together, it were like they were children again.

 

[Zenda Tano-Bonteri]

Zenda smiled. "I've been there. Alderaan is a beautiful place. What is your family like?" For Marina DeVoe to talk about her family, it wouldn't hurt the Togruta...much. Yes, she felt the grief and the guilt, but she also knew those took time to heal. While talking about it might hurt, she felt it might also help her heal.

 

[Marina DeVoe]

"Supportive..." She replied, thinking of as how they were so tolerant of her endeavors. She were the daughter of a Duke. One would expect her to follow suit and be a Duchess by now. But her eyes and spirit had always been among the stars, despite her undying love for her beloved world. She were like her brother as far as being high spirited. He were knight and would take up their father's place when the time came.
Perhaps because maybe her elder sister Katie had fit right in since she were a young girl, and had been inaugurated as Duchess that Marina may have been given such liberties as perusing her dream among the stars. But one day she too would be inaugurated by the Royal family and take her place along with her mother and sister as Duchess...

"...they have been supportive of me and my dreams." She replied. What more could she say or explain how much love she had always felt from her family?

"I don't know of any other word upon which has a higher hierarchy than that of the word 'love' which can describe my family.
Despite being through so many wars...so many sith incursion upon Alderaan, we've never lost the spirit which bind us more together, despite the sith's efforts and design to separate us." It were now obvious as to Marina's earlier malcontent of the sith.
Still, she could not hate the sith as the sith had wanted her to do so.

"Anyway, my family has been loyal to the Royal House of organa for Millenniums. We were one of the few Great House to survive the destruction of our ancestral Alderaan by the then Galactic Empire.
My great grandmother had been off world at the time with her grandparents when the system were senselessly destroyed. Millions of Alderaanii and thousands of unfortunate souls visiting...died in a single moment..." Marina's voice wavered as she could feel and hear the suffering cries of old.

"I...I'm sorry. I seem to be very sensitive when it comes to such senseless sufferings of others.
I just can't seem to grasp as to why or how intelligent beings can be so cruel to others.."

 

[Zenda Tano-Bonteri]

Zenda smiled sadly, feeling the ancient pain. "I understand. Kuxirra is the same way. My husband's great-uncle Ashaa was on Alderaan visiting Bail Organa. He was eleven at the time."

 

[Marina DeVoe]

"I shall name him in my prayers..." Marina replied.
Yes, she would.
Marina visited the Alderaani Graveyard on an annual basis. It were a pilgrimage she would go on and say prayers for the lost souls among the now asteroid field which were once her beloved ancestral world. There, she would leave gifts...letters, thoughts and inspirations for the lost, so that they would know that they did not perish in vain...that the true spirit of Alderaan held strong, eternal.

"So many throughout the galaxy suffered under the iron boots of the former empire. So so many unaccountable deaths. To remember one is to remember them all." She continued before she heard a youngling stirring...waking up from his lunch nap.

"Oh my... looks like they are starting to re-energize again... hehe.." She chuckled, finally breaking the sadness which both were reflecting on.

 

[Zenda Tano-Bonteri]

Zenda smiled sadly. "Leehak has a holocron that's been passed down through the generations. It wasn't created until after Alderaan, but from what was mentioned about him, Ashaa was very wise, more so than even I am. They said he saw the future. The past. The present. That he was aware of his own death years before it happened." As the younglings woke, the Togruta approached one of them and began tickling the half-awake child. "Have a good nap?"

 

[Marina DeVoe]

They would have to get back on that subject later, marina realized as one by one were coming out of their nap time.
Of course, the first ew awakened nudged the others to do the same. The early day lessons and training were past them and usually after their lunch and nap, they would once again go outside to play.
Play it would seem to the younglings, but the jedi teachers were in fact still teaching them. Only it were in an informal manner due to their age and curiosity.

"Ok...." Marina checked over her holo-pad. The lesson outside would be one of discovery and identification.
"...I've got our list for this afternoon's adventure."
Today's afternoon lesson would entail them to go on a little hike just a few hundred meters from the school...the open meadow in the back of the jedi academy.
"We shall see how many blooming plants each one of us can find and see if we know their names." She repeated what the lesson of the afternoon entailed.

One little youngling asked if that meant bugs too.

"Hmm...that sounds like a good idea. But only if that bug is on that flower or plant. Then yes, it would be awesome to know it's name too and figure out what it is doing on that flower. What do you younglings think?"

 

[Zenda Tano-Bonteri]

The younglings whooped with glee and jumped on Zenda and Marina DeVoe , tackling them in a hug. The Togruta laughed. "I think that's a yes."

 

[Marina DeVoe]

No sooner than verifying the youngling's head count, they set off for the grassy meadow that stretched out over gentle rolling hills behind the academy.

Of course they sung funny songs which included all to participate. It were a good way in keeping some from wandering off. Of course the jedi teacher, Marina and staff were vigil in keeping track of the little heads around them as they trekked a bit away from the academy.
Finally coming to where the butterflies seemed to be favoring, they came upon many wild flowers.
The children were eager to look for different flowers and jotting them on their little holo-pads. Some flora, along with bugs had some funny names. many had been given to them by children of yesteryear and seemingly had found themselves passed down through generation somehow. How that happened were certainly a mystery. But Marina, and Zenda did their best to name these mislabeled flora and bugs their proper name. It were amazing as to how quickly the younglings took to naming them properly. But somehow or other, those names of old seemed to remain and take their place alongside the proper names.

Well, as long as the younglings knew the proper names, it were alright for them to keep calling them what they had first come to know them by.

The younglings attention would be short, that was certain. So the lessons were short in term, before the younglings were set free to find and discover new flora and bugs. many took to render them on their touch holo-pads while others simply took to recording them. Either way, it were a successful outing as the younglings were learning at their own pace and given a chance to discover life among the meadow on their own.

Marina couldn't have had a better day than this one. She simply adored children as she saw them as little angels...whether they were mischievous or not.

 

[Kuxirra Tano-Bonteri]

Kuxirra, as usual, sat in the trees. When she noticed Marina DeVoe and her mother approach with the younglings, she dropped down with a graceful somersault, landing on her bare feet. This was clearly a treat for the younglings, as the girl had grown fond of them, and they of her.

"Hi, Mom!" She said, grinning and hugging Zenda. Although she was sixteen, the Togruta often acted much younger, and despite the scars on her midriff, she had a childlike innocence to her.

Soon, however, she joined in with the younglings and enjoyed herself with the nature, eventually showing some of the kids how to climb the wroshyr trees.

 

[Marina DeVoe]

"Kuxirra?.." She asked, approaching Zenda... watching the young Togruta at play with some of the younglings.

Marina had been hopping from wild flower to wildflower with her group of children...chasing butterflies and simply having a blast. She hadn't taken notice of a figure watching them approach and then play about in the meadow. It weren't till her peripheral caught the jedi master and a smaller figure embrace for a moment. She then turned to look realizing it were a young Togruta..female.

Looking about to make sure her group were all together, she bade them a moment and made her way through the grass on over to the jedi master.
By the time she did, the younger Trogura was off playing with some of the children.
Marina wasn't certain as to whom maybe the young Trogura could be, but it certainly fit the age of Zenda's daughter.
She had to ask, for it lightened Marina's heart to see Zenda's daughter so lively and laughing as she played with the younglings.

"Is that your daughter Kuxirra?"

 

[Zenda Tano-Bonteri]

Zenda nodded. "That's her," she said, laughing as Kuxirra used the Mist-Weaving skill she had learned at the same time as her parents to create a rope, tossing one end of it around a branch a few meters away and jumping, laughing and whooping as she swung to the other side, landing easily.

The younglings soon followed, to Kuxirra's delight and Zenda's dismay. Yes, she wanted them to have fun, but she didn't want them hurt. The Knight stood on the platform beneath the space between the two branches, prepared to catch any child who fell.

 

[Marina DeVoe]

Marina had observed the younger Togruta playing with the younglings. They adored her, she saw.
Yet...
Yet as happy as Zenda was, she did seem a bit apprehensive as to their robust play. Marina then understood somewhat, seeing how the younglings seemed to want to do as Kuxirra did. And that were to swing from tree to tree somehow using what they had picked up in Zenda's classes. The younglings were able to create ropes and seemingly from wisps of pretty much the air around them.
Marina would say from mist really. But the mist were what seemed to form upon the younglings will and then somehow take on a physical form...like rope of some kind.

"Ahh... so that's where all the rope the children tangled themselves up before had come from." Marina said, realizing that the ropes the younglings she had found entangled in had not been found by them, but actually created by the younglings.
How amazing was that, she thought.

Of course Marina knew about the force and most of what jedi could do with it...but to actually create ropes? Now that was something!

For a moment she were just fascinated by the concept and the actual abilities of children so young. Then she realized Zenda's concern. The younglings were just learning this craft and weren't by any means proficient.

"Oh shoot!" Marina exclaimed suddenly taking off as one magic rope..a little too thin, were coming undone.
She reached the tree in just a few paces and readied herself in catching one of the younglings.
"Hey, come on now... don't swing like that!...it's going to break!" Marina shouted, positioning herself right underneath the possible falling child.

 

[Zenda Tano-Bonteri]

To Zenda's relief, the child landed safely in the arms of Marina DeVoe , giggling her little head off.
"Kuxirra, be careful! I don't want you breaking your ankle again!" the Knight said to her daughter, catching a little boy as he fell.

 

[Marina DeVoe]

Children were falling out of the trees like ripe apples...

The little girl had neither screamed nor even be frightened when Marina caught her. She simply giggled and upon setting her down was ready to climb back up and do it all over again!
Zenda took one in her arms soon after...a little boy. he too had enjoyed the free fall and were heading back up the tree too.

"No no no!.... no more!" Shouted marina.
"I can't catch you all!" And she weren't just saying that. As small as the younglings were, they still came down following the law of gravity and what Marina understood as building up terminal velocity. That of course came from her experiences as a pilot upon re-entries.

And thus the game of run and catch the tumbling younglings had gotten started.
Marina and Zelda below the two trees while the younglings and Kuxirra were continually swinging and jumping from tree branch to tree branch