What Happens Happens

[Tuatara]

Tuatara sat on his bed with his holo-desk in his lap. They say there's no Jedi Master's looking for padwan's right now. I may be skilled, but it looks like I'm going to get an assignment off world, he thought as he stared at the pictures flashing by on his desk. Often when Tuatara was bored he would he would sit as he was now and morph into the various beings that came on his screen. He found this almost as relaxing as meditating.

Tuatara sighed and turned back to being his pale self and closed the pictures. He opened another file that contained an article that he often read.

Shi'ido
Shi'ido's are a shape shifting race much like Clawdites, except for one small difference. As Shi'ido's age they become more adept at changing their shape, and generally by the time a Shi'ido is a century-and-a-half old (Shi'ido's are long lived, some of the oldest are reported to be five hundred years old!) they begin to acquire the ability to use compressed mass within their bodies to become beings with a larger or smaller mass than themselves. Shi'ido's rarely leave their home planet of Shi'Shunn except for educational trips. While Shi'ido's are force sensitive, so few have left their home world that there has currently never been a Shi'ido Jedi. This is ~

Tuatara closed the article and turned off his holo-desk. He seemed to never get past that part these day's. What happens happens, he thought as he left for lightsaber training.

[Tuatara]

Tuatara leaned against the wall outside the training room, his eyes closed as he thought of his predicament. The lights are off, I sense no one in there, and I’ve been told to not go in if no one’s here. What’s going on? Did I miss something; is there a master looking for a padawan? No, I would have heard. He opened his eyes and stood up. I don’t think they’ll care if I just go in and do a few forms.

Tuatara walked in and the lights flicked on. He looked over at the lightsaber rack and held his hand out. His favorite of the training lightsabers twitched and then shot out of the rack toward his hand. Tuatara felt the force flow through him and when the time came he tried to catch it. Anger flashed through his mind as he as he failed to catch the lightsaber that was now clanking to the ground. He stood for a few moments as he mastered his anger. He bent over and picked the saber up.

Walking over to the rack, Tuatara took another saber from the rack. He clipped it to his belt and ignited the other. The low powered emerald blade hummed to life and he squared of to an imagineary opponent. Lets try to use all the forms at once, he thought as he got into his attack position.

Tuatara graspped his lightsaber's hilt with both hands and brought it up by his face. His blade was held centimeters from his left elbow, the emerald blade pointing at his enemy and body permendicular to his opponent. He was in the classic samurai stance. He began to fight his opponent, the force flowing through him, changeing his shape when needed. I've never done this before, he thought as he continued training, oblivious to anyone who might of entered the room.

[Jax]

Master Race Bentarr leaned against the wall in the corner of the room and watched the boy practice, stroking his grey beard in piqued interest. He was impressed at the pupil's ability to not only swap lightsaber forms seamlessly, but to also switch his physical form without a hitch. Race knew that this student was a Shi'ido, but it was still impressive to see him able to shapeshift whilst in the midst of physically demanding swordplay.

After he was satisfied with what he saw, Race slowly started to clap his hands. This seemed to startle the boy, who had probably been so wrapped up in his training that he hadn't even noticed Master Bentarr's presence.

"Good work my boy," Race said, chuckling with delight. "Perhaps you'd like a live opponent to spar with?" he said, reaching out his hand and Force-pulling a training saber from the weapons rack at the side of the room. He ignited the lightsaber and pure blue light joined the green light of the boy's saber. He walked over towards the pupil and bowed before him, a traditional sign of respect at the commencement of most Jedi duels.

[Tuatara]

Tuatara was surprised when he heard clapping, and reverted to his normal form as he was addressed. When the man asked for a duel, Tuatara could refuse and bowed after the man that was obviously a Jedi Master. I don't remember seeing him before, he thought as he took up his stance.

Tuatara didn't want to attack first, so he began to circle the Jedi. When it seemed neither would budge, Tuatara morphed into a Shikir and speed toward the man, boosting his speed even more with the force. Don't lose focus, he thought to himself as he carried his lightsaber with both hands to his side. Let's see if he can match this speed.

[Jax]

Race circled the boy, waiting for him to make his first move. Bentarr was a skilled lightsaber duelist, and he found it always worked better for him when he knew what his opponent's preferred style was from the outset of the battle. The boy grew impatient with the circling, and then shapeshifted into some alien form and charged, swinging quickly and with energetic strokes. Bentarr shifted into a wide, defensive stance and focused the force through his limbs, seeing each strike before it happened and twisting his blade back and forth to parry each blow.

The two engaged in this elaborate dance for minutes, colored light flashing off the walls, their blades whirring back and forth like two dance partners who knew each others' bodies better than their own. It was like a work of art, and Race mused that it was a shame that there was no one else present to witness this beautifully chaotic duel. Race reached out with his feelings and felt the desperation behind his opponent's swings, and continued to try and block them off, waiting for the pupil to get tired and provide him with an opening.

[Tuatara]

I'm losing ground, not gaining or keeping, Tuatara thought with dismay as he realized his opponent wasn't tiring. This must be Master Race, he's an expert in lightsaber combat.

Tuatara jumped back from the fight and reverted from his bug-like guise, as it was obvious isn't helping him. Form four is fun. I saw Master Yoda demonstrating the other day. Tuatara tried to soothe himself with force as he took the other saber from his belt and ignited it. Master Yoda's words came back to him as he prepared to start the fray anew.

Over do it, do not. A line there is. Cross it, do not. Limit's you have. Know them you must. As these words ran through Tuatara's head he jumped over to the side of Master Race with the help of the force. He felt the force begin to flow through him as it had when he was training alone. He landed and dashed strait for his opponent, but this time he had other plans. Tuatara sliced at Master Race's mid section as he tried to somersault over him. He brought his other saber from behind, hoping that coming from two fronts might help.

[Jax]

Race smiled broadly, unable to contain how impressed he was with the boy's artistic combat. Master Bentarr was forced to slip into Form IV and force jump over the convening blades to avoid being burned with one of the two training blades. His force-aided jump brought him a good ten feet in the air, twisting in the air he landed behind the boy facing the wall, and in a neat and fluid motion he took his training saber and stabbed lightly behind him, applying the winning tap to the boy's back. Standing up straight, and breathing heavier than he ever expected to be after facing this boy, he turned off his lightsaber and clapped his hands in a thunderous one-man applause. Laughing heartily he said, "Very good work my boy! In all my years as a Jedi, I've never seen one pupil I found to be promising enough, to be interesting enough to deem them worthy of my time. But you remind me of myself when I was young, except better with a blade than I was then if you'll believe it. I would be honored to accept you as my Padawan learner." He extended his hand out with his offer, looking for his pupil's hand in acceptance.

[Tuatara]

Tuatara felt the sting of his opponent's blade and knew the battle was over. As he deactivated his sabers, he couldn't beleive what he waas hearing. I'm going to be a Jedi? And he's complementing me? Tuatara tried to stay calm and slow his already hard breathing as he put the sabers at his belt.

"It would be an honor ,sir," Tuatara said as he shook his new master's hand. Now I'm a padawan, he thought. Well, I'm only allowed one training saber, better remember to put the other one up.

[Jax]

Master Bentarr smiled broadly and clasped his hand on his new pupil's shoulder, "Good, good! Well you best finish up here and then hurry off to one of the Rotunda chapels; it is tradition after all. Then tomorrow morning I shall speak with Master Kallashhk and I will see where the Council deems we should go for your first mission. As the ancient Jedi saying goes, you've taken your first steps into a larger world. Now if you'll excuse me, I myself must be off to bed." As he said this, he pulled the training saber he had used into the air and guided back onto the rack with the force. Then he turned and left the room, the door hissing shut behind him.

[Tuatara]

Tuatara put the extra saber back and then headed for the Rotunda chapels. I'm actually going to be a padawan! he thought as he walked through various corridors.

Eventually he made it and sat in the Room of a Thousand Fountains. And then he began to meditate, letting the force flow through him. Little thoughts entered his mind, but as time progressed he began to have to have visions.

Tuatara saw an older version of himself running through a dark forest floor. Eventually he came to a clearing where there was a small fuzzy sentient being attacked by a monster. He saw himself selflessly protect the small child. And then it skipped , he was even older now and at his side was an older version of the boy he had rescued. They stood at the temple. And then he saw the blade of a red lightsaber.

Tuatara gasped as he opened his eyes to the new dawn. What could it mean? he thought as he stretched his legs. He made his way to the mess hall where he ate his breakfast alone, thinking of what he saw. Tuatara then wandered the Jedi Temple and eventually found himself in front of the Jedi Council's room.

[Jax]

Master Race was in the Jedi Council room, with its panoramic scenic view of the teeming skyline of Coruscant, talking with Master Kallashhk and Master Yoda. It was fairly early in the morning, the sun just starting to gleam off of the metallic skyscrapers around the Temple, and Race's muscles were still tense from the prior evening's duel. The boy wore me out, Race had thought to himself with an amused chuckle when he had awoken this morning.

Master Bentarr had approached the Council to announce his decision to take Tuatara as his Padawan learner, and to request to have an assignment granted to him and his new Padawan. Master Yoda had been pleasantly surprised when Race told him he was finally about to take a pupil under his wing. "I was beginning to think, never take a Padawan, you would," he had said delightedly in his strange pattern of speech. "Make a great pupil for you, Tuatara will."

"In all my 45 years, never have I encountered a youngling through whom the art of lightsaber combat flows so smoothly. It's going to be a fun ride teaching him. Does the Council have anything to assign us?"

Master Kallashhk started roaring in Shyriiwook, and Yoda translated, "Right, Master Kallashhk is; something the two of you could help us with, there is. A Tuskan colony, there is, near the outskirts of Mos Eisley. Beginning to cause trouble for the settlers there, it is. To violence, left alone the settlers might turn to. So, like the two of you to travel to Tattooine, we would. Causing the conflict, find out what is, and a peaceful solution, try to find. Yes, hmmm."

"Very well," Master Bentarr said, "We shall leave as soon as my pupil arrive-ah Tuatara, just in the knick of time. How did your meditations go last night?" Master Bentarr asked his new pupil as he walked into the Council chambers.

[Tuatara]

Tuatara was so lost in thought that when his master's voice broke through he flinched. "Huh? Oh, it was fine, Master," he said.

Please don't ask, Tuatara pleaded silently. He then noticed Master Yoda and Kallashhk. "Master's," he said with a bow.

"So are we going anywhere?" Tuatara said with mild excitement. He tried not to make eye contact with the other masters.

[Jax]

Ooc: sorry for my absence of late, I've been a bit busy with my new job and what-not. I should be back regularly for good this time.

IC:

"Glad you asked," Race said with a mixture of excitement and concern spicing his tone, "We've been assigned your first mission. We're to head to Mos Eisley and aid in a peacekeeping mission between settlers there and a local Tuskan Raider colony. It should prove a more than suitable first task for you my boy. Pack your things, we'll leave as soon as we are ready, now do hurry."

[Tuatara]

"Yes Master," Tuatara said, leaveing as non challantly as possible. Whoow, that was close, he thought. He made his was to his room where he took out a bag and looked at his room.

Going to his computer, Tuatara had it record information on all the various beings and their languages that live on Tatoine onto a holodisk. Next, he went to his clothes. Well, I know about Jawa's and Tuskan's, do I have anything they might wear? All he found was a small black cloak. Oh well, he thought as he packed some of his own clothes and put on his brown cloak.

Tuatara put all his stuff into his pack, grabbed the holodisk, and headed for the Temple doors.

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Tuatara stood by the doors waiting on his Master, trying to decide what lightsaber form he would choose. I like form four the best, but form three has it's perks. Maybe wen I'm older I could create a mixture of the two. He held his deactivated lightsaber. Yet, form four brings e better understanding of the force and lightsaber skill. I think I'll stick with form four.

[Jax]

Master Bentarr entered the Council's docking bay to find his apprentice standing by the doors, lost deep in thought again. The boy seems to like losing his head in the clouds, Race mused to himself. Then again, so did you when you were a young apprentice. Meditation is a healthy practice. Race chuckled at the hypocritical realization that he was criticizing his apprentice for being spacey when he himself was now lost deep in his own reflections.

He walked up to the young Shi'ido boy and clasped his hand to his shoulder, stirring the boy from his thoughts. "Are you excited for your first mission?"

He didn't really wait for an answer, as he knew the boy was indeed very excited for the upcoming trials that awaited the two of them. Instead he lead the two of them to the Theta-class T-2c freighter that was waiting for them in the docking-bay. It was one of many in the Jedi Council Spaceport and was emblazoned with the Council's logo on the hull. "This is the ship that will take us to Tattooine. Come, follow me," Race said, waiving his hand signalling for Tuatara to follow him.

---

Once on board the shuttle, the two of them had taken their seats, Race in the captain's chair, and Tuatara in the co-pilot's seat, and then had flown out of the Coruscant atmosphere. Bentarr was taking the opportunity to teach his pupil about the art of flying, claiming, "You never know when you'll need to be able to fly a ship. It would not be advantageous to not know how to do so." So he showed his apprentice about departure checks, take-off permissions, and calculating hyperspace routes. They were now in a hyperspace route that would take them to the Arkanis sector where they would make final calculations and adjust their path to take them to Tattooine.

Leaned back and relaxing in the leather pilot's seat, he turned to gaze at his pupil, who looked to be again lost in thought and decided to take advantage of the time they were spending in transit. "So, how about a refresher course. What is the Jedi Code?"

[Tuatara]

Tuatara listened intently as Master Race explained the various components of the ship. And then he was asked about the Jedi Code.

"Umm..." Tuatara said as he thought. "There is no emotion, there is peace......There is no passion, there is serenity..... There is no death, there is the Force.....There is no chaos, there is harmony. There is no ignorance, there is knowledge....." He paused. "That's it."

[Jax]

"Well that's a little out of order, but it will suffice. But as a student of the Force, you must learn not just the words, but how to live the life behind the words of the Jedi Code. Only then will you walk down the path of the Jedi. This is what I will teach you, and this will prepare you for the day when you must face the trials."

An alert beep went off on the control panel, alerting Race that it was time to pull out of hyperspace. He put his hand to the hyperspace lever and said, "Well then Tuatara," he paused to push up the hyperspace lever, causing everything around them to stretch and bend as their perceptions switched from faster-than-light to sublight and the form of the desert planet Tattoine slowly stretched out in front of them, with the twin suns Tatoo I and II gleaming over it's tan horizon majestically, like something out of a glorious dream, "Welcome to Tattooine."

---
Master Bentarr maneuvered the ship into the planet's atmosphere and towards the spaceport of Mos Eisley. The stone buildings were just coming into view, when the Spaceport Customs officer hailed the ship.

"This is the Mos Eisley Spaceport. Please submit your ship's ID Signature and state your business here in Mos Eisley," he said in a monotonous voice, probably having said the same phrase about a hundred times just this morning. From the inflection of his voice, Race guessed that it probably belonged to a Twi'lek.

Race pressed the transmitter button and in a calm, polite, and courteous voice he said, "Submitting our Ship's ID Signature now. This is Jedi Master Race Bentarr and my apprentice Tuatara and we are here on a peacekeeping mission."

The Twi'lek sounded intrigued when he replied, but didn't press the Jedi Master further, "Very well then. Welcome to Mos Eisley Master Jedi, we shall have a representative from the Mayor's office meet you when you land. Please proceed to Docking Platform Alpha-4."

"Thank you," Master Bentarr said, closing the comm link, and turning to Tuatara he said, "Well, what do you think of Tattooine?"

[Tuatara]

Tuatara listened the best he could, but when they came out of hyperspace he couldn't keep his eye's away from the plastisteel windshield.

"It look's amazing," he exclaimed. "Did you know that it's thought that Jawa's and Tuskens used to be one species? It's amazing how things change."

Naturaly, Tuatara being a Shi'ido and all, he was fasinated by the various species of the galaxy. He was alway's in the Jedi Archives, reading about various beings and their lanuages.

[Master Bentarr]

Bentarr veered the shuttle towards the designated docking platform and eased the ship to the ground with a gentle lurch. He opened the shuttle doors, and unbuckling his seat fastener, waved for Tuatara to follow him. Race could practically taste the heat on his tongue as the planet's twin suns were practically baking the desert planet. He chuckled to himself as he saw his apprentice react to the planet's climate and thought to himself, Was I ever that young?

The Jedi Master scanned the duracrete landing bay, his eyes passing over many passengers either trying to get used to the planet's heat or clearly looking forward to being soon rid of it, and coming to rest on a female Twi'ilek in conservative tan business attire. He raised a hand and waved to get her attention, and when she saw them she curtly strode across the platform over to the two of them.

When she had reached speaking distance she reached out her hand, and after shaking Bentarr's hand she said in a tone befitting her attire, "Master Jedi. Young one. I am Aaylana Tor'Hala, the mayor's assistant. He would like me to welcome you both to Mos Eisley, and to extend our most sincere gratitude that you have taken the time to aid us in this matter."

Bentarr smiled and said, "The Council is always ready and willing to help whenever there is need for our assistance."

Tor'Hala returned his smile, a goofy looking toothy grin that suggested that this Twi'lek had perhaps once had a fun-loving nature to her. She extended a hand in the direction of the city and said, "Shall we? The mayor is eager to meet you both."

Bentarr extended both his hands and said, "Well let us not keep him waiting then." And the group headed into the main area of Mos Eisley.