By Sapadu
Chapter 1: Trial
tri·al /ˈtraɪəl, traɪl/ Pronunciation Key -[trahy-uhl, trahyl
–noun
1. Law.
a. the examination before a judicial tribunal of the facts put in issue in a cause, often including issues of law as well as those of fact.
2. the act of trying, testing, or putting to the proof.
4. an attempt or effort to do something.
5. a tentative or experimental action in order to ascertain results; experiment.
8. an affliction or trouble.
9. a trying, distressing, or annoying thing or person.
Kendalina rose early the next morning.
Master Yaddle had wanted to meet with her to become acquainted and begin training. Kendalina wasn't sure if this was normal or not, and she couldn't ask Master Retaw any questions about it- she didn't know either. But, while she was waiting, Kendalina was going to think up questions that she had for Master Yaddle- since she was begin asked to get up early and meet her, anyway, she might at least get use out of it.
Kendalina pulled the sleeping cap off her head and changed into a tunic. It was too big for her, and a different cut than what Master Retaw wore- as far as Kendalina could feel- but that was okay, considering that she'd never cared about stuff like that. She rolled the sleeves up so they were up to her elbows, and folded up the ends of the pant legs before leaving for the Council room, where she'd been told to meet Master Yaddle.
She was glad she'd gotten up early- the Temple was so big and unfamiliar to her that it took what seemed forever for her to find the way to the Council room, especially as she had to use her hand to feel her way along the walls.
It was to Kendalina's great relief that someone- it sounded like a man- asked her if she needed help. With a smile, Kendalina extended a hand and she was led up the floors until they came to a stop. Tugging at the man's arm, Kendalina raised her arms to press her fingers along his sleeve, before he knelt and she could trace along his face- the man's brow was firm, but not heavy. His nose was straight, and not long, but not short, eyes set close to it, and Kendalina felt short, coarse hair along the edge of his jaw, but not over his lower cheeks, until it reached under his nose.
"May I ask what you're doing, little one?" He asked, his jaw moving under Kendalina's seeing fingers. Kendalina frowned.
"If someone asks who helped me up here, I'll be able to tell them what you looked like." She answered, and she felt his cheeks round up as a smile tugged at his lips.
"Shall I make it easier and give you a name to pass on?" He asked, and Kendalina shrugged, "My name's Obi Wan Kenobi."
Kendalina smiled.
"I'm Kendalina Orewahime."
"Aah, the new padawan that Master Retaw brought in the other day?"
Nod.
"Well, then... Padawan Orewahime, someone is waiting for you inside the Council room." There was a noise of Master Kenobi standing and his robes rustling with the movement, and then a beep, and the sliding of a door. Kendalina waved goodbye and walked in, thankfully not bumping into the doorway.
Master Yaddle said hello, and from the echo in the room, they were quite alone, and she seemed to be in the very middle of it. Kendalina took a few steps in, then sat down on her heels. There was a scratching noise and the sound of very small feet crossing the room.
"Eyes that do not see, you have..." Mused a voice that sounded like what Master Yoda might have sounded like if he'd been female, and much younger. Kendalina felt her cheeks rise in color, before a small, three-clawed hand touched her cheek.
Instantly, Kendalina felt her mind flooded with some kind of image- she'd had moments like it before, when she'd been even younger, so the sudden occurrence didn't startle or frighten her, but it was different. She was in a different place, that much was sure... Kendalina supposed that Master Yaddle was transferring an image into her mind of what the room looked like- the ceiling was high and vaulted, with large windows all around the room, bright, yellow light flooding the room and glinting off the warm cream and brown colored tiles and casting shadows on the red cushions of the chairs, making everything seem big and welcoming...
And before her, Kendalina's mind had the image of a small creature with greenish-brown skin and large, pointed ears. Her nose was small and pudgy, and there were creases in the forehead, but they seemed almost normal... Her hair was a reddish brown- like a kind of redwood tree that had been made into furniture and then stained to a more brown shade- and hung in long, soft curls down the back and side of her head.
This was Master Yaddle, then.
"Wow!" The hand disappeared, but Kendalina still saw it in her mind's eye- her real eyes still saw a great blackness, just as before, "There's COLOR..."
"Not used to color, are you." Master Yaddle said, and Kendalina's mental picture helpfully supplied a slight frown on her brow.
"A little- I used to have flashes like this when I was younger... like if my brother was holding my hand or if Master Retaw was helping me get dressed... but my family's house was so dark that I could never see that much color... It would always be in muted shades... unless someone was standing right in the spot of light..." Kendalina explained, and Master Yaddle's frown deepened.
"Like this, since you were born, you have been..." She added. It wasn't a question.
"Yeah..." Kendalina said slowly, and recognized the look on Master Yaddle's face as disappointment, then all the seeing vanished.
"Then, impossible to heal you, it is..." Master Yaddle thudded onto the floor, and Kendalina felt her spirits sink.
"...So... if someone is born a certain way... you can only heal them back to that state..." Kendalina murmured, unhappily. Master Yaddle sighed a little, and then began to ask questions.
"Why, to become a healer, do you want to be?" She asked. Kendalina traced patterns on the floor with her finger.
"I guess when Master Retaw first told me that there was such a thing as a Jedi Healer, I started thinking 'What if I could heal my eyes and see for myself for once'... then, before we finally came to the Temple- Master Retaw had to kind of take the long way around the quickest route- we landed on a few other planets and I learned that there were other things that could go wrong... someone can be born without arms or legs... a person could be born with a damaged stomach or liver... someone's skeleton might only be half complete... and I thought 'What if a Jedi Healer knew about stuff like this?' and I wanted to know if it could be done..." Kendalina shrugged.
"Possible to help, it is... however, impossible to make perfect, it will be..." Master Yaddle soothed. Kendalina's eyes widened, "Learn to see without your eyes, you must."
One week later Kendalina stretched and yawned as she left the room that she and Master Yaddle had been training in.
Her first week had passed the inspection of the Masters- she'd progressed quickly, substantially, but not TOO quickly or substantially. Just on that fine border line of being an excellent opportunity, and being 'too risky' and 'may go out of control'. She'd even learned how see without her eyes- Master Yaddle had explained that the flashes of seeing she'd had in the past were the channeling of other people's visions into her mind. Now, she could see completely by herself in the same manner.
Kendalina hadn't been too surprised at the reactions of her fellow padawans- they'd all seemed to find her... intriguing... but in the sense that she was a specimen in a zoo for them to ogle at. The bars stayed between them.
Master Yaddle had given Kendalina a lesson in the sciences of healing today- she said that even the most talented Jedi could not be a healer if they did not know the sciences of anatomy, physiology, chemistry, biology, and about fifteen other sciences.
Unfortunately, learning about the different anatomies and physiologies of so many different species had gotten Kendalina excited, and now, there was nothing to do with that energy.
Kendalina looked up as a droid walked past her.
"Master Retaw, where's that droid goin'?" She asked, as her Master walked past, following the droid.
"Loading dock. A shipment with supplies that we need for training you littluns 'round here. That one's just gone to unload it, and I'm going to sign for the shipments." Master Retaw explained without breaking her stride, so her learner jogged next to her.
"Ooh! Can I help them unload?" The girl asked, her eyes lighting up to a color of silver, "Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease?"
The Jedi Knight cast her a sideways glance and shook her head.
"I don't think that would be a good idea." She said, a little too dismissively. Kendalina crossed her arms and pouted.
"So the real message here is 'Be lazy.'?" The child questioned. Master Retaw sighed, shot her learner another glance, and decided to give in with grace in the beginning.
"Well, fine. You can help unload, but don't let anyone see you or get in trouble." She said, picking up her pace as Kendalina followed.
The trip to the loading dock was quite uneventful, with a particularly silent and solemn Kendalina jogging at the older woman's heels.
Mehgan entered the cool shade of the cargo ship, with a mental list of supplies which should have been ordered and sent. Kendalina thankfully scampered off to either find a good place to hide, or to check the back of the ship and make the job easier.
Kendalina, meanwhile, had journeyed to the farthest crates of the ship. It impressed upon her exactly how much went into the training of the Jedi- she'd found crates of scratchy material composing Jedi robes and tunics of all sizes, trunks of medical supplies, cartons of mechanical units to build lightsabers, and buckets upon buckets of food. She'd been tempted to taste it, but something in the back of her mind told her that it was the kind of food that would keep you alive, but wouldn't make it very worthwhile- at the very least, army rations, and at the best, frozen fruits, meat, and dairy. But the closest she'd come to finding anything that could be labeled 'sweet' had been the fruit.
How long did it take for one to become a Jedi, it occurred to her, and to see this supplies, it became clear that it was a lifelong dedication- that one never stopped learning or growing.
She held in a scream as a loud thump sounded and a crate toppled over onto her. She gathered her wits enough to use the Force to stop it from crushing her and then set it back up. More noise, and shelves of metal clattered and boxes and crates of steel banged into each other.
"MASTER RE- TAAAAW!" Kendalina shouted, righting herself and, though her ears protested, throwing up a Force-based shield to protect herself from the falling items as whatever knocked them down darted from place to place.
Master Retaw was over in an instant, scooping Kendalina up and having the nerve to run after what it was bumping into shelves.
"There's something in the shipment, docking port 4, level 8. Requesting a second inspector." Master Retaw said, speaking sharply into a comlink. There was no reply, but in a few moments, a noise sounded from the comlink noting that someone had gotten her call and was coming.
Kendalina wriggled out of her Master's grip and darted after the sound, ignoring Master Retaw, who was shouting at her to come back.
The shaking stopped after a few seconds, as Kendalina found herself next to an upright shelf with piles of boxes on it. There was a rustling behind it, which told her that SOMEthing was behind it, something big. Kendalina shoved the box aside enough that she could stick her arm back. There was a vibration and the slightest of brushes of cloth which told Kendalina the thing back there was moving away from her.
A noise came from the shadows and the shelves rattled as Master Retaw lit a lamp to get a better view of him.
The extra inspector that Master Retaw had requested arrived at their elbow- Master Plo Koon- peering at the stowaway in the supplies. Kendalina reached out and pushed the box completely out of the way, letting the other two see the being behind the shelves
It looked human, and distinctly male, but it was possibly the most ugly specimen of the human race that either of the two older Jedi had ever seen- his hair was white and stringy, despite how it kept in flowing clumps, and his skin was the sickly pale shade of yellow a person's skin turns when they've never seen sunlight. Heavy wrinkles, creases, and scars were embedded into his face, and his hands seemed big and bulky against his bony wrists as he wrung his hands in front of his face. Eyes as green as sea water gleamed at them, watering up with tears as the bright light from Mehgan's flashlight shone on him. The being was cringing, tattered clothes hanging open to reveal skin that just barely covered the work of bone, muscle, and arteries beneath it, lines of blue and red distinctly appearing against the yellow with the bump where the blood vessels were.
And incoherent wheezing and mumbling came from his throat, as though he couldn't find the words to speak. A loud wailing noise that sounded as though his lungs were clogged with some semi-fluid came out, protesting the light that persistently followed him.
Kendalina reached out her hand, even as the creature cringed away.
"It's okay... we're not going to hurt you, you can come out..." She whispered, softly. The small noises that she made, like hums, encouraging the creature to uncoil, seemed to work their magic, as the bulky hands lowered and the green eyes peered at her. One of the heavy, big boned fingers stretched out to touch her hand, as though examining it. It tapped her palm a few times, before the hand grasped hers and started to tug. Kendalina tugged, slowly, in the opposite direction.
Slowly, but steadily, the boy crawled out from behind the shelves, and followed Kendalina out towards the Temple, with the two Masters leading the way.