14. Christmas

Maul wasn't someone who even knew about Christmas until much later in his life. it wasn't something he had ever celebrated and it would never be. Why then did he think of christmas as special?

He was an avid follower of the Force and when the Force urged him to simply wander around in Coruscant, he did so. he wasn't sure exactly what it was that he needed to experience but eventually it would find him, it always did.

Christmas time in Coruscant wasn't Christmas per say. It was a mix between new Year and the forming of the Republic, but it was a time of happiness and gift giving regardless with countless cultures bringing something small into the celebration.

He was walking around when he happened to pass by a very small stall that wasn't quite like the rest. An old woman was sitting behind it, knitting and these products of knitting were displayed in all kinds of colors in the stall.

The Force told him to simply observe for a while and observe he did. Skillfully those old fingers made the thread that she was using into a small pair of seemingly very soft and nice looking red and grey socks. Clearly meant for a small child.

Soon a small orphan girl came to the stall dragging a slightly older boy with her babbling about different things only as a child can, she pointed the just made little socks and the boy quickly looked trough his pockets before pulling a few credits from his pockets before looking mournful.

He didn't hear what the old woman said to the two children, but the girl and the slightly older boy left with the socks with them, without paying at all, a smile that lit the girls face seemed to light the whole place.

Maul went to the stall and simply asked why had the woman done as she had done.

"This is the time of the year when things such as money doesn't matter. It s all about giving and cherishing those that you hold dear. It doesn't matter if the only thing you can give is a smile, you have still made someone's day. It didn't inconvenience me and so I gave those socks to the girl. In the end I think I got more out from it tan they did.. I got to see the happiness and the light how it radiated from her and that boy and the simple pleasure of having something nice." She explained.

Giving and cherishing wasn't very familiar to Maul. But now he understood at least partly and so nodded seriously to the old woman. He looked for a while around the stall and after a while of looking found something he himself could use. It was a black and red pouch that was knitted from a quite hard thread but he saw that it would hold for a long time and would be perfect size to hold all matter of small knick knacks he could find.

He simply pointed at it, the woman giving it to him and he examined it a moment. He didn't see a price anywhere, but he was someone who appreciated a work well done and so simply took his pouch of credits from his belt - which probably was enough to buy the whole stall - and simply put it in front of the woman before spinning at his heals and leaving the small stall with the new pouch already tied to his belt.

Later when his master asked him where he had find such a fine crafted thing, he had told the truth that the force had led him to a woman who sold such things and in the end it wasn't anything special, but it would save him more than once and later in life he would contemplate the meaning of it all..