Well hello,

Welcome to A Different Dawn.

I've had the idea for this story floating around my head for a while and I thought I'd try and bring it to life. As much as a story can be anyway. So with that in mind I'd appreciate it if no one flames me too badly, constructive criticism is more than welcome though. Lastly, I did move around some characters' ages to make things fit better. With all that out of the way, let's see where this story goes.

ALL NON OC CHARACTERS ARE OWNED BY WHOEVER OWNS THEM, WHICH IS NOT ME.

First Chapter

25,810 BBY

Ten year old Izara Skywalker walked as quickly as he could through the stone halls of Padawan Kesh or the Je'daii Academy.

As much as he enjoyed learning about and using the Force, sword training was the best part of the day! Finally past the last doorway, following the paved paths towards the fields used for sword practice, dark green eyes scanned the crowd of initiates for familiar faces.

Spotting a lone auburn head walking farther down the path, Izara pushed jet-black locks of hair away from his eyes and jogged to catch up with his competitive friend.

"Lanoree!" Gray eyes filled with mirth turned to meet green as Izara caught up with his friend.

"So, you actually managed to survive Master Ruhr's lecture today, hmm Izara" Lanoree quipped.

Sighing in response, "Barely, I don't know how a Wookie ended up with a voice better fit for lulling babies to sleep!" Sigh turning into a snicker at the end, "Well, at least I didn't have to use the force to stay awake like with Master Ruhr's Je'daii Code class."

Shaking her head with a wry smile on her lips, Lanoree replied "That just gives me even more motivation to kick your butt during sword practice today."

Walking through the stone arch to the practice fields, Izara responded with a smirk, "Good! You were moving a little slow last week anyway!"

Right as Lanoree was about to respond the door to the armory swung open and Master Madog stepped out.

Master Madog cast a long shadow as he walked towards the initiates, standing at nearly six and a half feet. "Hello Initiates, are you all prepared for class today?" he rumbled.

Meet with many voices responding "Yes Master Madog." a feline smirk of mischief appeared on his face. "Goooddd," he almost purred "because many masters and rangers are planetside at the moment so we will have an audience for practice today. Everyone grab a practice sword!"

Izara felt the force begin to buzz with his fellow initiates' nerves as everyone moved toward the armory. He steeled himself and looked at Lanoree. "Well, this is what we've been training for."

Lanoree responded with a small smile, "Yeah, we'll be fine, we've trained hard"

Picking up a practice sword and making his way back outside, Izara saw a few Je'daii making their way to the edge of the practice field.

Master Mador grabbed everyone's attention back as he said "You know the drill young ones, warm ups and then prepare for sparring!"

Izara closed his eyes and sank into the force as he let his body run through the warm up routine he had done hundreds of times by this point. He began to feel the older force signatures around the field, looking to see if any stood out from the others.

One signature just popped up on the edge of his range, making their way to the field at a sedate pace. Right as Izara was about to examine it a little closer, Master Madog broke his concentration, borderline roaring, "Line up young ones, time to show your potential master what you can do!"

Lining up with the other initiates around the sparring ring Izara went between watching the fights and practicing his sword patterns in his head. After watching a Rodian and Wookie clash swords for a few minutes Izara looked to the opposite side of the ring where the rangers and masters gathered.

His gaze was drawn to a Je'daii that looked to be around his late teen years with wavy black hair, fair skin, and golden eyes. Izara realized the man was the strong force signature he'd felt earlier. His eyes widened minutely as the man turned to meet his own stare with an uninterested gaze.

Before he could think any more Izara heard Master Madog shout, "Skywalker! Arian! In the ring!" Izara walked to one of the starting spots, took a breath and centered himself as best as he could.

Looking across the sparring ring to the Kiffar boy standing across from him, Izara sent him a small smile and moved into his opening stance. His opponent did the same, with that Master Madog yelled, "Begin!"

Izara dashed across the sparring ring as quickly as he could, looking to use his speed to his advantage, he began with a compact overhead swing that was blocked Expecting this, Izara used his momentum to spin around his opponent executing a leg sweep to try and knock the Kiffar to the ground.

The Kiffar responded by jumping over his leg and sending a slash at his right shoulder that Izara ducked under. Seeing that the taller boy overextended on his swing a bit, Izara began his sequence with a swing to the Kiffar's left side that was dodged when he jumped backwards. Wanting to push the pace Izara quickly closed the distance between the two, aiming a thrust at his opponents right hip that his opponent responded to with a hurried block. Izara used his sword's momentum from the block to execute a quick left to right diagonal slash followed by a flurry of blows that he struggled to block until one nicked his sword arm.

Seeing an opportunity Izara focused his attacks on the Kiffar's ailing sword arm. Parrying a desperate blow, Izara snuck his sword inside his opponents guard and aimed his next slash for the bottom of the Kiffar's blade, knocking it out of his hands and to the ground a few feet away.

Breathing lightly, he stepped away and lowered his sword. Meeting his disappointed eyes, Izara smiled and said "Good match Lex."

Lex huffed, "Thanks but it'll be a good match when I can actually make it past a minute" Before he could respond, the Kiffar turned and walked back to the sidelines.

Walking back to his spot on the sidelines, Izara muttered to himself "I shoulda made that match last a little longer, I hope the masters saw enough that at least a few would take me as their padawan."

Before his thoughts could spiral any farther he felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to see Lanoree looking at him with a quirked brow.

"You didn't go all out" she stated

"Well yeah! I wanted to show the masters more of what I can do with a blade."

"But it would have been more impressive if you'd disarmed him after like three swings!"

"Ok, I wasn't going all out but I couldn't have done that even if I wanted to!"

Lanoree rolled her eyes at that, "If you say so, you're too nice Izara! If your opponent hasn't been training as hard as you then their loss is on them!"

Before he could respond to that, Master Madog's voice rang across the field, "Brock! Demorey! You two are up!"

Lanoree muttered heatedly, "Her! Really? She's barely picked up a blade outside of class!"

Izara snickered, "Have fun showing your skills in a ten second fight!"

Sending the slightly older boy a heated glare, Lanoree turned and huffed her way towards her starting spot.

After watching Lanoree quickly disarm her lacking opponent he focused on the last few matches of the day before Master Madog dismissed them for night time meal.

Talking with a few other boys about the matches of the day, Izara made his way back to the cafeteria, scarfed down his meal and made for the showers.

Feeling refreshed, Izara decided to walk around the temple before going to bed, knowing he was too excited/nervous about hopefully being chosen as a padawan to be able to sleep.

Walking aimlessly, Izara turned a corner, narrowly dodging a taller figure as he snapped to full awareness.

Noticing it was the young Je'daii who was watching the sparring matches earlier, Izara's eyes slightly widened. Lightly bowing, Izara apologized, "I'm sorry master! I wasn't watching where I was going!"

Golden eyes narrowed, "Yes quite clearly Initiate, try and be more aware of your surroundings."

"Of course master, I'll just make my way back to my room." Izara responded"

Nodding slightly, the young man responded, "Good night initiate."

Turning, Izara hurried back to his dorm room. Changing into his sleep robes he jumped on his bed and ran his hand through his jet black hair. "That definitely didn't help my chances of getting chosen as a padawan, at least with that guy."

Rolling on to his side Izara did his best to put his recent encounter with the unknown Je'daii out of his mind and slowly drifted off to sleep.