Author's Note: Greetings to all! This is a collection of stories all about life on Ansion and belongs to my Mockingbird universe. So naturally, I started with the day Ro was introduced to Shiv and Eda and came to live with them, around 23 BBY. Check out my story On Wings of Silver and Lead to see how Ro experienced this first meeting. Other than that, have fun.
P.S.: *Clears throat* I, impoeia, do solemnly swear to tell the truth and nothing but the truth, except when lying makes a better plot. In the spirit of this most serious oath, I declare that I don't own a womp rat's whisker, but am merely a leech at the creative temple of one Mr. George Lucas. Hey, everyone needs a hobby, right?
Teachers and Students
Shiv led his wife away from the two Jedi seated on their living room sofa, his furred hand automatically falling to the small of her back. It was such a habitual gesture that he no longer had to think about. Beneath the silk of her dress, Shiv could feel the tenseness of her muscles, the rigidity of her spine. Eda Ikuzu was a woman who did not like to be told what to do and who had no difficulty in making her displeasure known. Shiv was certain that he would most likely spend the night in his workshop, but he thought it would be worth it. There was something about that little Human girl Djinn had brought to them and he thought Eda might see it as well. Though knowing his wife, a crowbar would probably not be able to pry the words out of her. Besides, after his old friend had gone through all that trouble coming to Ansion, the least Shiv could do was help argue his side. The Mid Rim wasn't exactly on Altis's usual route and Shiv knew that aside from Eda and himself, the eccentric Jedi had no other business in Dashbalar. He might as well try and see if he couldn't help his old friend get his credits worth.
As soon as they had reached the far corner of the living room, Eda rounded on him, her almond-shaped, hazel eyes flashing like lightning. Oh, he was in for it alright. Shiv had to fight down a smile, knowing it would be his hide if she caught his amusement. Rings and moons, but he loved a feisty woman.
"What are you doing?" she hissed at him. "Finally gone senile? No students. Especially no Jedi."
"Now Eda," he said, trying to sound reasonable and placating. "Djinn is a dear friend and I think he deserves the consideration of us at least taking a few minutes to think his request over. It's not that unreasonable, you know."
Her hackles rose at his words and Shiv could not help but once again admire the fact that a mostly hairless sentient such as his Human wife could achieve that effect.
"She's a Jedi," Eda persisted. "We can't teach her. Not what she needs to know."
"As Djinn explained it to me, Ro isn't Force-sensitive enough to need extensive training. Those abilities she does have she has pretty good control over. Djinn says it's mostly a question of refining her abilities; putting on the final polish, so to speak. "
"What kind of talk is that?" she demanded, her voice rising with her outrage. She immediately composed herself again, aware that she might have spoken too loudly. They both knew just how good Jedi hearing could be.
Shiv cast a quick glance at the two Jedi out of the corner of his one good eye. Djinn was staring idly at the wall and at the display of exotic weapons. The man was actually twiddling his thumbs in an attempt to portray casual indifference to what was going on between the couple. The girl, Shiv noted wryly, wasn't bothering with such niceties. She was unabashedly staring at them, her open face revealing curiosity, fascination, but also a bit of wistfulness that Shiv found puzzling. His nose twitched in her direction, trying to get a better measure of her through his acute olfactory sense. There was the scent of vanilla and cinnamon from her skin, an artificial smell of apples which wafted from her hair. A more metallic tang came from the two lightsabers dangling from her belt, as well as a faded smell of ozone and lubricant oil. All in all, she appeared to be to Shiv a little creature, with both feet firmly in the world.
"She's too young," Eda was continuing, no doubt aware of her husband's subtle sniffing. After nearly twenty-five years of marriage, Eda missed none of his little tricks. "Too young to know anything. Too young to understand the life she's choosing. Too young to learn this."
"You were younger when you started out," he felt obligated to point out.
Eda drew herself up regally. She was a tall, willowy woman, but despite that, the top of her head only reached about the lower half of his muzzle; something that had always annoyed her. "I," and she enunciated each word carefully, "had no choice."
Shiv sighed. He'd known that of course. Born on Nal Hutta to a spice-addicted mother and an unknown man, Eda'd had to learn early on to take care of herself or be taken advantage of. Nal Hutta was a violent world, worse even than Nar Shaddaa and only the toughest survived on the Hutt ruled planet. Eda had survived and had gone off with a group of bounty hunters before she'd turned thirteen. She'd abandoned them later on, not liking their way of life and had joined the Mercenary Guild instead. The Guild had taken advantage of her beauty and her adaptability to turn her into a valuable member, one of the few who could easily slip in and out of the higher classes. Quite a feat for someone who had started out amongst the lowest scum of the galaxy.
"But Ro does," he told her firmly, putting one arm around her shoulders in comfort. He didn't like thinking about what her past must have been like and she didn't like talking about it. Eda did not shrug off his comfort, but leaned into his half-embrace completely unthinkingly. They had been married for twenty-five years, had known each other for thirty-two. Most of their interactions felt as smoothly practiced as a favourite and much repeated dance.
"Think about it Eda," Shiv said, his bass voice so quiet, it was mostly a rumble in his chest. "You can have the chance of teaching someone everything you had to learn the hard way. You can help this little bit avoid the mistakes you made, to keep her safe from the scum." He looked down at her, his remaining eye glowing gently in the semi-gloom of the living room. "And you know she will go after them, whether we help her or not. There's a stubbornness in her, I can tell. She wants this."
"She's seventeen." Eda too could be stubborn. "She doesn't know what she wants."
"I think she does. You know Jedi, Eda. They're far older than they might look. She might only be a teenager, but she knows her own mind." There was a grumbling chuckle from deep in his chest. "That's certainly more than I can say of myself at that age."
"That's because you have fur for brains," she said, her tone fond.
Shiv smile, pulling back the black, rubbery lips covering his sharp fangs in the process. Though few people might believe it, he actually did know how to handle his wife.
"I like the way she laughs, Eda," he told her sincerely. "She might be one of those who can laugh even in the face of danger." He cast another furtive stare at the girl, who was now staring serenely into the fire, her two pigtails trailing over her slim shoulders. There was a look on her face; one of complete relaxation, as if she were enjoying something that was wonderful beyond description, almost blissful. He knew that look. He'd worn one just like it on the day Eda had accepted his proposal. He wondered what love Ro was thinking about.
"I like her heart," he said thoughtfully. "I think it's a good one. It must be, for her to have joined Djinn instead of staying at the Temple. You know Djinn, Eda. He might be a little on the odd side of things, but the people he surrounds himself with are good ones."
"A good heart breaks easily," was her retort.
"Not if she has the right people to show her how to protect it." He gave her silk clad shoulders a light squeeze, pressing one furred cheek against her intricately styled hair. He could still remember when that hair had been as black as the space between stars, but he thought the white suited her just as well. But Eda would look beautiful to him bald and dressed in a topato sack.
"I want to teach her, Eda," he finally admitted. "You've heard the rumors as well as I have. Ever since the invasion of Naboo, there's been trouble on the horizon. It's been nine years and all that talk about secession and a Separatist movement still hasn't died down; it's only gotten worse. You know as well as I that when two fight, the third profits and the criminal gangs and crime syndicates aren't going to waste time to see who comes out on top. They'll use this opportunity to crank up business and while the law and peacekeepers are busy trying to calm the Core Worlds, the little folks in the outer territories are going to be left in the dust. You know that. You've seen what happened during the Stark Hyperspace War."
She gave a stiff nod against the fur that peeked out from beneath the collar of his rumpled shirt. Yes, she knew. They'd both been involved in that mess, as well as the Mandalorian Civil War and the Kol Huro Unrest, which had been going on at the same time. That had not been a good year.
"I'm too old to go hunting through the galaxy, love, I know that." And he wriggled the toes of his cybernetic right foot to show that age wasn't the only thing keeping him on Ansion. His body was still strong, a benefit of his Shistavanen biology, but decades of constant abuse made itself noticeable even in the most robust of physiognomies. And though her scars were far less noticeable than his, he knew Eda felt the same way. "But I'm still a soldier, Eda. I always will be and that part of myself wants to do its duty by the people of this Republic. If I can't be out there tearing into scum, then I want to send someone after the barves who I know will do the job just as well."
He tipped her face up to meet his with the claw of one finger. "Admit it Eda, you want that too."
"We've done our part," she said, her voice soft and a little sad, despite the sharpness of her words. "We've deserved retirement. Earned time for us. Only us."
"We've had over a decade of time for us." His ears cocked roguishly at her. "And what a time it was."
She turned away from him then with a noise of exasperation and he was glad to see that spark of fight back in her eyes. His Eda was not a woman made to wear regret.
He put both of his big paws on her shoulders, for a moment taking the time to admire the dress she wore. The pale blue of the silk and the pattern of small white flowers in the shape of snowflakes was perfect both for the time of year and for her outward appearance. His jaw dropped lightly in a smile. She had such exquisite taste, far better than his own preference for loose and simple clothing. But then, their needs as well as their personalities had always been vastly different.
How have we managed to ever stay together for as long we did? He wondered, not for the first time. Perhaps it was that their first meetings had been as opponents, each trying to capture the other. There was something to be said about bonds forged under fire, even if that fire came from the person you were bound to marry a few decades hence. The universe had quite a sense of humor.
"Think what it would be like to have her about the house," he said encouragingly. "This place is far too big for just two people and you've been complaining about what a chore it is to clean all those unused rooms." He nudged the back of her head gently with his wet nose, breathing in her scent of jasmine and blueblossom. "Think about it, Eda," he said, is voice taking on a wheedling tone. "Free labor in exchange for room and board. A willing hand to help around the place and in the shop and all you have to do in return is to thump some lessons in her head. It'll be like having a daughter all of our own."
He knew he was pushing the limits dangerously with that last statement. A Shistavanen and a Human could not interbreed and the lack of a child had been the one dark spot in their shared life. They had talked about adoption from time to time, but in their youth, the two of them had always been racing off to one dangerous assignment after the other. The time in which they could have raised a child as their own had passed them by before they had even realized it and when they had retired, they had first wanted to spend a few years just with each other, without the responsibility of caring for anyone else. By the time the topic of children had come up again, they had both realized they were too old to adopt a youngster. For Shiv, the loss was not as bad as for Eda. He'd been mated three times before Eda had finally made an honest wolf of him and he had pups from two of those – admittedly very short – unions, though he practically never saw them. But Eda had never had the chance to bear her own children and he knew it was a hole in her life that she was having difficulty filling, no matter how hard she denied its actual existence.
Beneath his hands, he could feel her shoulders stiffen, could practically scent the tension coming off of her. His ears pricked forward and he heard the slightly increased beat of her heart. Oh yes, he had touched on the forbidden topic and now he stood on the brink of either convincing her to give in to her deepest desire or to have his hide flailed off of him and used as a rug. Ah, the joys of married life.
"A student does not make a daughter," she said icily, but Shiv could see her resolve weakening slightly.
"Maybe not," he said carefully, "but you've heard Djinn talk about the bond between a Master and a Padawan. It's very much like the one between a child and a parent. She could be our Padawan learner, Eda. We could teach her what she needs to know and after that?" He shrugged his big shoulders, ruffling his dark brown fur a little. "Who can tell? Maybe you'll learn to like her. She certainly seems in awe of you and she didn't back up like a scared little mouse when you came stomping up those steps like a krayt dragon."
"I don't stomp," she said, offended.
"Of course not," he agreed, affable as ever. "You walk with emphasis. All I'm saying is that we shouldn't dismiss Ro out of hand."
She turned her head lightly to the side, thinking it over. That was a good sign, a very good sign indeed.
"What kind of name is 'Ro'?"
"I have no idea," he said cheerfully, his tail wagging a little behind him. Victory was in sight. "Why don't you go over and ask her?"
She stood stock still for a few seconds longer, as much to mull over the proposal as to let him know that she would make up her own mind and be persuaded by no one. He watched her avidly during those seconds, his one eye full of fondness and delight at the sight of her. By the Holy Stars, she was a fierce creature, as graceful and subtle as a daux-cat. And just as independent.
She spun suddenly on the balls of her slippered feet, her face set in determined lines. "I have questions to ask," she declared. "I will ask them. If I like the answer, then we'll see."
"Fair enough," he said and had to work to keep his face blank. Shiv was an old soldier with many a battle under his belt; he knew victory when he saw it. But to gloat about it now would mean having his one remaining eye scratched out or worse, enduring a month long exile from their shared bed.
Eda stalked towards the two Jedi, looking very much like a snowcat with her white hair and the cool shade of her dress. Shiv could only hope that the girl had the guts to stand-up to Eda when required. She might not like being opposed, but she did respect those who could. It was one of the reasons why the former mercenary had ever begun to show an interest in him, back when they had still been two pups trying to find their stumbling ways through the galaxy. She had tried to kill him and Shiv had shown her his fangs. From then on, it had been a chase that had turned into a game and which had ended in song. And if the girl played her cards right, then maybe a new voice would be added to that song.
Altis was the first one to notice their approach and he quickly nudged the girl in the side with one elbow. Ro visibly started; she'd still been staring into the fire and Shiv wondered that her eyes were still clear and bright. If he had looked into the flames as long as she must have, he probably would be reeling with sunspots right about now, or at least streaming tears.
Altis's eyes went from one to the other, though Ro's stayed fixed on Eda. Good girl, Shiv thought with some approval. Identify the most immediate source of danger and keep your eyes on it. Djinn was right, she has good instincts. And guts, he noted, watching as she kept her teal eyes steadily on Eda as his wife began her interrogation.
Shiv stayed carefully in the background, his face a mask of attentive but aloof blankness. He had already made up his mind about the girl. This was Eda's show now and he would not interefere. If Ro really did want to become an investigator then she had to learn to face off opposition on her own. That was why Shiv sent a single warning glare at Altis, when the older Jedi made as if to rise from the plush sofa to come to the aid of his Padawan. Altis, either noticing his old friend's look or feeling some hint of his thoughts in the Force cast an unhappy glance first at Shiv, then at the brusque Eda. But he settled back down on the red sofa without so much as a word. This was between Eda and Ro; the menfolk were to stay out of the way.
Despite his apparent indifference to the confrontation, Shiv listened attentively none the less. And he could only approve more and more of this little Padawan. She had guts all right and plenty of them. And pluck as well, for she never flinched from Eda's attention, but held her ground and answered honestly. Not an easy thing that. Shiv had seen Wookiees duck their heads like scared nunas at a single cool glance from Eda.
Humor, sass, a good heart and lots of pluck and courage, he thought appreciatively. And she has a good head on her shoulders; knows when to stop and think, too. His one dark eye took in the carefully composed, regal face of his wife and his lips twitched ever so slightly. And Eda thinks so, too.
When Eda reached out one long-fingered hand to grasp the girl's chin, Shiv knew that they would be teaching the girl. And he knew just as surely that his indomitable wife liked what she saw in the child. He was gripped with a sudden excitement, an energy he had not felt since his retirement from Republic Intelligence. He had a mission again and it felt good; felt good to be needed once more.
He watched Ro's teal eyes go wide as she listened to their explanations of what it was she would learn, saw how her brow gently creased in thought as she realized the amount of work ahead of her. Shiv knew that this was a crucial point; the second obstacle she would have to overcome to begin her training with them. The first had been to convince Eda.
She turned towards all three of the waiting adults and Shiv saw that her eyes were shining with more than the reflected light from the fire. "I want to be a monster hunter," this little bit of a Human girl declared, looking utterly ridiculous and very, very young in her checkered skirt and purple sweater. Or maybe that was simply an impression created by her pigtails. But there was nothing childish in her small round chin, stuck out in challenge to them and the galaxy at large, or in the firmness of her voice. "So I want to learn everything you can teach me."
Shiv saw Altis nod, obviously pleased by his Padawan. Eda's features relaxed, giving a hint of the slightest of softening. For his own part, Shiv let his jaw drop all the way in a very wide, very toothy Shistavanen grin. It would seem he had finally encountered a female just as determined and stubborn as his wife. Ro would do just fine and their sleepy little existence had just gotten a shot of spice.
Shiv found himself looking forward to the coming days very much indeed.
