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Cassandra Millicollins

Cassandra Millicollins (pronounced Mi coal lee) was curled up in a small white furry ball. Small furry balls are by far the most comfortable and warm things to sleep in unless of course you are using a small furry ball as a pillow in which case that might be slightly more comfortable. There are actually more comfortable positions to sleep in, but a small furry ball is the most comfortable if you are a dog and that is exactly what Cassandra was at the time. You see, Cassandra was a Necorian and Necorians can be all sorts of interesting things.

Cassandra didn't like to go by her full name. If she had friends with her, they would have called her Cassie, but she didn't really have very many friends right now. Most of them were all back on her home planet. Cassie was on a ship she had been on twenty times before bound for a planet she had never been to, to go play student to a guy she had never met, with a pilot who seemed to hate her as much as she hated lasagna, and Cassie really hated lasagna. Her only other ally on the ship was Atlas her beloved dogan (aka dragon dog, dogans look like German Shepherd dogs most of the time, but they can turn into dragons and horses, a useful feature). He was a small black and tan furry ball as well.

The ship was very cold. The captain was a Baltarian, a creature that came from a very cold planet and so Cassie huddled with Atlas and tried to hold out.

She was in rather poor physical condition, skinny like she hadn't had a good meal in a long while. If she had taken girl form in front of you, you would have seen lots of bruises and small cuts on her body, especially on her back. As a dog, her fur covered all that up, but there were still some signs of unhealthiness. She had small bald patches dotting her shoulders and hips and her fur was ragged in some places as well. She was filthy.

"We are setting in for a landing", the pilot said, "get ready to get off kid." Cassie stood up and let her shoulder length, light blond hair fall about her face. Cassie had thin pale eyebrows set above sea green blue eyes that were large and thoughtful. She wore a general Jedi outfit, a black tunic with black pants that had a hole in the back for her light blond, furry tail and long black boots. Her hair cascaded in front of her face like a simmering gold waterfall. Cassie liked that it covered her, allowing her to hide behind it like a mask.

She pushed her hair behind her pointed ears for a moment and took a look out the window at this new place she had landed into. It seemed mostly rolling fields and Cassie's heart leapt when she saw it, she loved grass.

Cassie had a second pair of ears a top her head that were shaped like a German shepherd dog's ears covered in light blond fur, the same as Atlas's except his were black. He wore an expensive collar around his black and tan neck, red with obsidian implants that were polished smooth. Cassie too wore a collar, light blue with diamonds.

The doors opened and light flooded the dimly lit ship. Cassie covered her eyes as her pupils contracted to compensate for the greater amount of light then she had seen in nine hours. There was activity surging all about the ship, clones and republic droids were everywhere along with many tanks, heavy cannons, and barrels full of blasters.

"Get off the ship", the pilot said, "and I hope I never have to see you again."

"The feeling's mutual", Cassie mumbled to herself and stepped nimbly over the cargo in the hold and out the door.

It was much warmer outside then it had been in the ship, but Cassie folded her arms anyway, Atlas by her side. She stepped off the ship and stood in front of the ramp, feeling lost. She had a strong urge to just run back and hide in the ship, but she stayed where she was and waited to be noticed, even though that seemed unlikely at the time. The ship pulled up and flew away and Cassie was still standing where she had been.

She longed to be like the droids or the clones, to have a reason to run and stress, but she felt like she was a standing rock in a flowing tide. She scanned the crowd, trying to find signs of where she was supposed to go, and then she spotted them, two men standing by a table wearing similar clothes to her own. Cassie took a deep breath, adjusted her backpack on her shoulders.

Then, she strode foreword. She stopped by the table and had to wait about half a second before she was noticed.

"Well hello little one", said the older looking man with the beard, "Who are you?" Cassie gulped.

"I'm Cassandra", she said, "I'm the new padawon."

"How old are you", the man asked.

"I'm fourteen", said Cassie.

"Oh, well, you certainly don't look it. I'm master Kinobi and this is Jedi knight Anakin Skywalker. I'm your new master."

"With all do respect sir", said Cassie with cautiousness in her eyes, "You must be confused, I've been assigned to master Skywalker."

"What!" the younger man with the flashing green eyes said, "I didn't ask for an apprentice, I don't even want one."

"Well, she's yours now Anakin, until we can get this mess sorted out."

"Come here", Anakin beckoned to Obi-won, taking him over a few feet away and talking softly. "Look, she's a Necorian and she's a small girl, I can't deal with her right now, if you wanted to set me up with an apprentice, you could have gotten me one that was a little easier."

"I didn't set you up Anakin", said Obi-won, "and come on, she can't be all that bad, you've only just met her."

"Face it Obi-won, she's a monster that just needs a little while to grow into herself. I could never train something like that."

"Well, I think you're being judgmental."

"I'm just being rational", Anakin replied.

Cassie sighed and started to walk away, having heard enough. Her second ears were quite powerful and though the two Jedi had been whispering, she had heard everything. She had barely lasted three minutes in this place, but this had happened before. Necorians, her race, were considered monsters by most other races simply because of a few wild rumors, some accidents, cases of mistaken identity and lack of actually knowledge.

Stories told of eaters of men and killers for blood lust, but Cassie wasn't any if those. She looked back over at the arguing Jedi and then lowered her head and stared down at her feet, trying not to be noticed as she waited for someone to call a ship to take her back to the temple again. Cassie was no stranger at all to this process, it had happened twenty times before.

"Look", said Anakin, "She looks ready to leave, lets just call a ship to come get her."

"Come on Anakin", said Obi-won, "Give her a chance."

"Fine", said Anakin, "but if she kills me, I'm holding you personally responsible. You better help me train her though, I don't know how."

"Neither did I", said Obi-won, "but you turned out all right." They both walked towards Cassie and Obi-won put a hand on her shoulder. She flinched and whipped her head around.

"Anakin has decided to give you a chance", he said kindly. Cassie looked into his kind blue eyes with confusion in her own. She turned her head towards Anikin. As soon as her eyes met his, it seemed an electric shock bolted through him.

"Yea", Anakin said, a bit distracted now. He shook his head and then came to his senses. "Come on kid", he said, "I'll show you around." Cassie walked cautiously after him and looked back at Obi-won who nodded at her and then nimbly followed Anakin, weaving in and out of the clones and trying to keep up. Everyone got out of Anakin's way, but let Cassie find her own way through.

"What did you say your name was", he asked without turning around.

"Cassandra", she replied.

"What about the dog?"

"His name is Atlas."

"I suppose I should let you keep it, even if it gets blown to bits."

"He won't," Cassie replied, He's not actually a dog, he's a dogan and he's special."

"All right", said Anakin, "whatever you say."

"What do you want me to call you", Cassie asked.

"Master is fine", Anakin said, "and by the way, try not to get too comfortable here, I'll probably be sending you back, not because of you (although Cassie suspected it was) but because I just think an apprentice will slow me down and I don't really feel ready for one right now. Obi-won might take ya though, and you'll do fine with him."

Cassie's heart sank and the thoughts running through her head at that time were, damn it, I blew it, why me.

"Well", she said, "I can stay out of your way for now if you'd like."

"Nah," said Anakin, "its alright we're not fighting in a battle so you can stay with me." Anakin didn't know why he offered to let the girl stay, considering the fast that he didn't really want her there. Her eyes kind of creeped him out. They were deeper the most people her age, as if she had already seen more then her fair share of life. It made him feel strange when he saw her flinch at Obi-won's gentle touch, like someone unused to being handled, practically fearing it. He wondered exactly who this girl was, and what she had been through to make her this way.

Rex came up to Anakin. For those of you who don't know and/or don't care, Rex is Anakin's clone commandeer person and close personal friend. He is also bald, which doesn't quite agree with me at all, but what ever. Anyway, so Rex came up to Anakin.

"I rounded up that squad for you commandeer", he said, "they should be able to deploy in…" his eyes fell on Cassie. "Who's she", he asked.

"My new apprentice."

"I thought you said you'd never have an apprentice."

"Yes well, I'm not sure if she's staying so right now she will be running around after me."

"All right", said Rex, "anyway, as I was saying, they should be ready to deploy…"