Shuttle to Naboo

[Taum Swill]

Taum had bought her ticket to Naboo. It cost her a little, but she still had plenty of money. She adjusted her metal band over her eyes and turned towards the window. At least she thought it was a window. She reached her hand up and was met with cold glass. A window then. She couldn't see far beyond it when she focused but she didn't really care.

She took a seat and fixed her simple red dress. No one had questioned why she was alone. Ten years old and all alone. She wished it wasn't true, but her family was gone. She'd cry if she could, but ugly sobs just left her mouth. She pulled her bare feet up onto the seat and muffled her sobs with the crook of her elbow. It wasn't fair. She deserved to have her family again. She missed so much.

[Colton Hunter]

In the dark of space, a large fighter dropped out of hyperspace, codes being sent in, as it fell into a lane behind a shuttle, the Skipray Blastboat gradually descending into the atmosphere of a disgustingly blue and green planet. He had recently dealt with a quarry on this planet, and had returned home with not one, but two apprentices. A strangeness that he was not used to, his greatest protégé had been captured by the Sith, but he had felt her spark before he had been defeated by the Dark Lord, Tormentous... felt her spark change from dull grey, like himself, to blazing white.

If she had died, he'd have known... but where she was, he didn't know... he'd keep looking, however, keep tracking down every trail, every bit of information he could find... He was about to pull away from the shuttle's path, toward the nearby pad he was allotted, when he felt a small pull, his eyes fixating on the shuttle once more...

"What is it about this Force awful place?" he asked the air, pulling toward his pad, despite the momentary hesitance.

The Force is strong here, both the light and the dark, it draws all kinds... he sighed, then nodded, bringing the ship down, gently...

"Sid said they might have a library here with some star charts... Sith space, ideally..." he mused, as he stepped out onto the pad, he stared at the shuttle on the next pad over. The figure was decidedly Mandalorian. Golden armor donning his form, shimmering in the sunlight, his face hidden beneath a purple T-shaped visor, his weapons were left on the ship, Naboo was supposedly a peaceful world, though twin T-shaped objects rested on his hips, as if a piece of his armor.

Perhaps... but perhaps that was the Force working to draw you here... Colt considered that for a moment, then sighed.

"The Force is getting to be naggy," he muttered, making his way toward the shuttle...

[Taum Swill]

Taum tried to stop her ugly sobs. Sometimes she wished she could cry, then she could just wipe her eyes and be done with it. But Miraluka don't have eyes, therefore couldn't cry. She started hiccupping and she suddenly felt like a foolish child. She was supposed to be stronger than this. She was ten and she was sitting here sobbing over something that had started so long ago and only finished a year ago.

She looked out the window again. They hadn't moved, but she didn't need to use the force for that. The world beyond the window was still a fuzzy bunch of colorless blobs. She placed her hands on the glass, followed by her forehead. She heard the faint clink of her metal eye band tapping the window. She was going to miss Alpheridies, but she wasn't strong in the force like she needed to be. The force allowed her to see just like the rest of her people, but she was too weak to see things clearly, sometimes not at all. Naboo was a place of peaceful opportunities. She'd find someone to teach her the force there.

[Colton Hunter]

The golden clad Mandalorian stood, waiting for the passengers to start disembarking, the sight of him may have given a few people pause, but he knew better than to take off his helmet right away, his visage had turned into something just as intimidating, looking more like the grizzled warrior he often portrayed... he was experienced, sure... had many a battle under his belt, and a master in the Force. His eyes moved to the viewports, tinted as they were, he wouldn't see through it, not with his eyes, even his injured one...

Instead, he reached out with the Force, searching for the small signature there... his brows knitted slightly with concentration. He felt a slight flicker, a surge.... the figure he felt was young, very young... and he felt distress; pain... but not of the physical sort, it was emotional... he reached out for it, and fed it a bit of warmth, a soft blanketing of comfort...

You're not alone... his words moved through the Force, nothing lengthy or difficult, just a whisper, dark, cold, and masculine, mixed with light, warmth, and decidedly feminine. He beckoned the figure, called on her? Yes, it was a her... called her to step from the shuttle... he waited for her.

Seemed like Naboo would be the right place to find a teacher after all... perhaps not the one she had planned, though.

[Taum Swill]

Taum finally calmed her sobs and took her head off the glass. She felt someone speaking in the back of her head. You're not alone. . . It said. She cut off her sight and used her tiny bit of force and felt for a signature. It wasn't dark, so that was a good sign, but it wasn't necessarily light either.

The small girl stood from her seat, feeling a pull towards this confusing signature. Her red dress swayed with her movements. She had a simple black capelet over her shoulders to protect her modesty. Her silvery hair rested at her back in a single, long braid that reached her hips. She pushed her metal band back into placed. Miraluka weren't very fond of showing their eyes to strangers. It was mostly family and any partners they took that got to see them without anything over their eyes. It was a sign of comfort and trust.

As she felt her way from the shuttle, keeping all of her power on finding that signature and rendering herself blind, she felt the signature just before her. She stood awkwardly with her hands extended to feel for the person the signature belonged to. She was having trouble seeing when she shifted her power again. She was just able to make out a tall figure before her, but the rest was a complete mystery. "Wh-Who are you?" Her voice shook slightly, not knowing whether to trust this person or not.

[Colton Hunter]

He didn't hide his presence in the Force, not here... if there were Jedi nearby, they could come, he might be completely irreverent toward them, and tell them what vulgar things they could do to themselves, but he was no enemy to the Jedi, not like he was to the Sith. And upon seeing that the girl was a young Miraluka, he altered the flow of the Force around himself, moving to stand before her, as she reached out to him, he gently took one of her hands.

"I have many names, child," he said, his voice a silvery sound, not the rich baritone one would expect, but kinder, gentler... his voice modulator currently offline, so his words came through the speakers of his helmet unassisted. He knelt before her to look her in the eye band. "I am the Jensaari, Colton Hunter, Chief of the Mandalorian Clan Sorell, Commander of Mando Cabure; the Mandalorian Protectors, and I see you, child... you can call me Colt, it's probably easier," he said with a soft smile.

"I sense a great deal of conflict within you, it's natural, hurt, pain... they can aid you in working wonders in the Force, but also horrors," he mused, "I am a teacher in the Force, a master of it's power, but master to no one," he explained, "What turmoil brings you to this world?" he asked her.

[Taum Swill]

Taum felt him grab her hand. A man. Full grown and rather tall. He knelt down to match her height and she guessed he was looking where her eyes would have been if she were anything but a Miraluka. Slowly she started to see more of him, but nothing beyond his helmet.

Colton. His name was strong and simple. He told her to call him Colt, but that name didn't suit him. She listened to him talk about her hurt and pain. He was correct, she was hurt. Emotionally. "M-My mother died--" Her sentence cut out with her sobs again. She tried to composed herself to speak, but it was horribly shaken and sad. "A-A-And mmmy fa-a-ather went mm-m-missing whennn--" There was a long stretch of words that were undecipherable before they made sense again. "An-nnd I-I-I can'tt s-sss-see liike e-e-everyonnne elssse. . ." Her shoulders shook as she sobbed uncontrollably. Sad Miraluka were a mess. Most beings cried tears when they were sad, but without eyes they cannot have tears to shed.

[Colton Hunter]

Colt wasn't too terribly tall, to be fair, standing at, roughly, five foot six, he was small by Mandalorian standards, but then, his father had been Corellian, born and raised. He listened, and focused inward on the girl, again feeding to her his calmer influence... she could feel his rage, certainly, he was a being of pure emotion, while he appeared calm, outwardly, he was often a torrent, and he used that... but he was also at peace, calmer than one might have anticipated.

"Sh, sh, it's okay... Tell me what happened, dear one," he told her, "I am a hunter of men, I can track anyone, if your father is missing, then I can find him... did something come calling?" he asked. How many young force adepts were orphaned by the Sith in their aggressive attempts at recruitment? He had been among them, long ago... "Focus your breath, listen to the sounds of this planet, teeming with life... He touched upon her mind... and an image would begin to form.

"Enjoy the beauty that is Naboo..." he told her, the image would take shape as he mentally assembled it within her mind, bright greens, reds, purples, and orange flared through the vegetation, mixing with the pristine white of the landing pads, and the sparkling blue of the nearby lake... He merely showed her that which he saw, as he stared to the side, letting her take in the world through his eyes for a moment, with a brief, single, snap shot, before it'd fade again.(Telepathy)

"Now, tell me what happened ," he offered her.

[Taum Swill]

Taum once again tried to control her sobs. In a desperate need to feel better she rushed forward and wrapped her arms around his waist. She hardly knew him, but she needed the comfort of someone holding her. "H-HHe just l-l-left one dayyyy. . ." Her band had started to slip again and she pressed her face into his chest. He was warm and comforting despite her inability to see him.

Suddenly an image came into her head. It was unlike the fuzzy grey scale of the force sight she always used. This was more than grey and black. There were bright spots of color everywhere. There was a lake too, it was blue. That was blue! She saw blue! And red and purple and green! Miraluka never saw colors. "Were those colors?!" A large smile split her face, showing her crooked baby teeth that had yet to fall out.

[Colton Hunter]

Colt afforded her a small smile, one she wouldn't see even had she eyes, thanks to his helmet.

"Those are indeed colors, perhaps with some training we can teach you to see through the eyes of others... but you are still young, it will take time, but if you're willing, I can teach you... but be warned, my training is not easy, you will wake each morning, aching and sore. Pushed each day to your breaking point, perhaps beyond... but you will be fed, have a roof over your head, and have friends, perhaps family, not by blood, but by circumstance, people who will stand with you..." he told her, "It will be a warrior's path if you so chose it, but while you are young, small in the Force now... one day I believe you could do great things... your hurt, your sorrow, hold onto those and let them make you stronger, but think back too to the good times, to the times when you were happy, and reflect on it, that too can bring you strength," he said. He gave her a small, awkward pat as she hugged him... Adara had been the only person he had ever really hugged, and even then, it had been equally awkward.

"But know this, the choice will always be yours, and perhaps one day, you will have a student of your own as well," he told her. "But all journeys start with a single step, I can take you anywhere else you'd like if you chose not to go with me, there's a Jedi temple here... but the path is for you to take," he mused. Besides, he thought, our paths would merge once more if you became a Jedi, of that he was sure of.