Good day, everyone! Welcome to our second stab at a Star Wars story!
Creativity: Wait, isn't it the third?
Author: Second proper stab. The sampling doesn't count.
Anyway, not as much is going to be changed from the sampling. There'll be some updating, tweaking, added bits for better context and general polishing for the start. After that, well, then we can get into the good stuff…
Creativity: He's been hashing this stuff out for a while now.
Author: The pieces are all falling into place…
Creativity: Yeah, this might be all we're getting out of him for now. I'll handle the rest from here.
So, first off, we have a Discord Server! The password to join it is: xtydzBf
Next up, this story's gonna be shorter than our usual fare. Part of that is that we don't have the same amount of guff to get through, but also because we're kind of getting tired of the 100K words stories at this point. We've got New Dawn, AVBI, Limit Breaker, Before: KH getting close, so on and so forth. It's exhausting, and we have something big we want to do. However, we need this to do it. So, yeah. Keeping it short.
Well, that's enough of that! You're here for a chapter, you're getting a chapter! Now, we proudly present chapter 1 of Star Wars: Twilight Blade!
Today was a very important day for Alvya Geran. It was a very important day for any prospective Jedi. Thus, it was much more understandable why she was feeling incredibly frustrated by the fact that she was now running through the Jedi temple to the Archives, since a certain someone couldn't be bothered to check the time once in a while.
Alvya was a twelve year old human female with pale skin, black hair and brown eyes. She stood approximately four feet five inches and had a more serious personality than many of the other younglings she trained with, though she was not without a sense of humor. It mostly manifested in dry witticisms that she opted to deploy at 'key moments', those being typically when someone was making a fool of themselves. As such, she was busy formulating a fine collection of barbs for the target of her ire, once she finished dragging their absentminded rear to the landing pads by their tunic.
"Excuse me, I was looking for Arvos Moro? I was told he was seen coming here." Alvya breathlessly asked master Jocasta Nu when she arrived at the Archives.
"Yes, I believe I saw him down that way. He's been here for a couple of hours now." Master Jocasta answered with a kind smile as she gestured in the proper direction.
"Thank you, master. When I get my hands on…" She muttered as she hurried down the indicated direction. Jocasta could only shake her head with an amused smile before she turned to help the next Jedi who was requesting her assistance.
Soon enough, Alvya found the object of her frustration; a twelve year old human male youngling with shortish black hair and green eyes, who was completely engrossed in a holo from the archives concerning old lightsabers. This was Arvos Moro, a youngling that Alvya had been grouped with for as long as she could remember. For as long as she'd known him, Arvos had always had an obsession with lightsabers. However, it wasn't the typical youngling interest in the weapon of the Jedi. He was constantly researching theory and philosophy of the weapons, studying all the ancient designs he could, sketching out ideas for his own weapon with detailing to indicate purpose of design elements. More than a few of their teachers had indicated concern about how much time he spent researching the weapons, to the point of approaching members of the Jedi Council about it. However, the council seemed to be the least concerned about it; something that even Arvos found a little strange. Though perhaps they could consider speaking to him about it considering the situation they now found themselves in.
Normally Alvya would tap him on the shoulder but given the rush she was in and the frustration she was feeling, she instead opted to smack him upside the head before grabbing him by the back of his tunic and hauling him out of the chair.
"Ow, hey! What was that for?!" Arvos exclaimed. Alvya put her hands on her hips as she glared at him.
"Today's the Gathering! And if I hadn't come to find you in advance, you'd be running really late! As it is, we're both probably going to be a little late since I had to run across the entire temple to grab you!" Alvya thundered, causing the boy to turn pale before grabbing a bag he'd had resting next to his seat and taking off at a run with Alvya in hot pursuit.
"I swear, if we miss the shuttle because you couldn't bother to pull your nose out of that holo for the umpteenth time, I will never let you hear the end of it!" Alvya shouted as they sprinted across the temple at record speed, skidding to a stop on front of a group of younglings who were waiting not-so patiently for them to arrive.
"Where was he?" Asked Tala Mair, a twelve year old Zabrak female who had her arms crossed. She had virtually no hair, save for one stripe that ran from the center of her head back between her just barely starting to grow crown of horns to form a wolf's tail, and dark blue eyes. She was probably the most accomplished duelist in their group and probably the most serious about becoming a Jedi among them.
"Take a wild guess." Alvya replied dryly before giving him another smack upside the head.
"Gimme a break, you already hit me once!" Arvos shot back before rubbing his head.
"Well, on the plus side, you're probably the most well prepared among all of us for after the Gathering." Garo Jauk, a twelve year old blue twi-lek male, mentioned. He was tall and broad, easily the strongest of the group and had blue eyes to match his skin. However, he a much gentler disposition than his large physique would suggest, often trying to look at the glass half-full. That wasn't to say he was a complete optimist, but that positivity could go a long way.
"Are we all assembled?"
The younglings turned to see a padawan walking towards them. It was a Mirialan male, about seventeen years old by Alvya's estimate. He had short black hair, purple eyes and an intricate patterning of diamond-shaped tattoos on his face.
"Yes, padawan Dulme." Tala answered with a short bow. The other younglings followed suit.
"Then I will keep this brief. Today marks a pivotal moment in your journey onward as Jedi. Today, you will journey into the caverns of Ilum and retrieve the crystals that you will need to build your own lightsaber." The Padawan declared, leading to massive grins of excitement among the younglings. The padawan turned and walked into the shuttle. After seating themselves, they eagerly looked out the windows as the shuttle jumped to hyperspace. It was the first time any of them had been off-planet, let alone in hyperspace. Watching the chaotic blue spiral of hyperspace was an incredible first for anyone.
"So, what kind of lightsaber will we be making?" Tala asked the other younglings, eager to have something to pass the time with, conversation being the best option.
"I'll probably keep it simple to start. Single blade and grip made primarily with form three in mind." Alvya replied.
"Probably the same, though I'm more leaning towards form four." Garo chimed in. That wasn't terribly surprising to them. Despite his large stature relative to the other younglings, Garo preferred to approach combat with swiftness and acrobatics. It had confounded Tala more than a few times when they'd sparred.
"What about you, Arvos? Given how you've read every bit of lightsaber knowledge in the archives, back to front, in reverse and upside down, you must have some thoughts about what kind of lightsaber you want to make." Tala asked the youngling in question. Alvya groaned and rubbed her forehead.
"What have you done?" She grumbled.
"Well, one thing I spent a lot of time considering was adding a cross guard blade to my lightsaber to aid in preventing dismemberment, but I'm not sure how many duels I'll find myself in, so I'll probably pass on that. Aside from that, I really don't know what design I'm going to go with. I'll probably stick to a single blade with further modification in mind." Arvos replied. They were a bit surprised by the restraint that Arvos had just shown, considering they knew he could conceivably have gone on until the landed on Ilum. And probably even longer than that. It was kind of weirding them out, now that they thought of it.
"What about you, Tala? You were asking me about design elements better suited to form four a couple of weeks back." Arvos inquired. Tala shrugged.
"Well, I have been thinking about a constructing a saberstaff, but I dunno… I don't want to bite off more than I can chew just yet. I'll probably just stick to a basic single blade for now." Tala replied.
"I remember the same conversation taking place when I was a youngling."
The younglings in question looked up to see padawan Dulme had walked into the room they were all sitting in, leaning on the doorframe.
"What was it like? Finding your crystal, I mean." Alvya asked. Dulme suddenly had a coy smile.
"Oh, I won't be telling you that, at least not until after you retrieve your own." Dulme replied before he stopped leaning on the doorframe and kept walking forward.
"However, I will say that it's very rare for a lightsaber to come out the way you originally envisioned. The Force has a funny way of guiding you to the saber best for you, even if it isn't what you necessarily what you envisioned."
Dulme left them on their own after that, and Arvos got up to follow. Alvya frowned. Come to think of it, he'd been acting weird lately. He'd been the most excited about the Gathering out of all of them, and while he did have a long-documented history of getting lost in the Archives, she doubted that his obsession with studying the detail of the wiring of an Old Republic era lightsaber would supersede his chance to construct a lightsaber of his own.
Getting up from her seat, she followed him out into the shuttle hallway. He was sitting on a bench while looking at a piece of paper, deep in thought.
"Are you alright?" Alvya asked. Arvos jerked a bit when he heard her voice.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Why?" He asked. Alvya frowned.
"Well, you nearly missed your own Gathering, you kept it pretty short with the lightsaber discussions when we all know you could have gone until the heat death of the universe, and I could go on. Seriously, what's bothering you?" Alvya asked again. Arvos looked a bit reluctant to divulge, but he relented and showed her the piece of paper he was looking at. Drawn on the paper was a rather intricate sketch of a sword. It was a single edged blade, slightly curved back and had a strange box of sorts set just above the handle. Additionally, there were labels outlining various features of the weapon. To name a few, there was the length of the blade, that there was an oscillator of some kind attached to the blade, a pattern inlayed into the handle to allow better grip, the list went on.
"What is it?" Alvya asked as she took the paper and gave it a few once-overs.
"It's a sword." Arvos replied dryly. Alvya rolled her eyes.
"First of all, that's my shtick. Second of all, why do you have it? You feel like ditching the lightsaber in favor of an analog blade?" Alvya prodded. Arvos shook his head.
"Every night for the past two weeks, I keep seeing this blade in my dreams. I don't know why, but it's always there and I can't get it out of my head. That's why I've been going to the Archives more and more lately. I can't help but feel this sword is important for some reason, but I can't find any mention of it in the Archives." Arvos shared. Alvya frowned as she handed the paper back.
"Maybe you should talk to master Jocasta or maybe master Yoda. They might know something. Is there anything else to this dream?" Alvya asked. Arvos rubbed his chin a bit.
"I've heard voices, but I haven't been able to make anything out." Arvos replied.
"Yeah, you should definitely speak to one of the Masters about these dreams. Having them over and over again to the point of being able to draw that sword with such detail isn't something you should ignore." Alvya advised before turning to head back to the group. Arvos folded up the paper and stowed it in his pocket before going to join the others. He made it just in time as Dulme returned to the room a few minutes later and cleared his throat to get their attention.
"I'd suggest changing into your cold weather gear. We're about to arrive on Ilum" Dulme informed the. Immediately the younglings began pulling on the aforementioned cold weather gear before lining up in front of the boarding ramp. The ramp hissed and began descending, allowing a rush of frigid air and snow to flood the room and causing the younglings to all cover their faces as they'd never experienced anything like this cold.
"Follow me and keep close! It's easy to get lost in this blizzard!" Dulme called to them over the howling blizzard. As they fought their way through the buffeting of the snow and wind, they eventually made it to a massive wall of ice.
"Our destination lies before us. Together now; reach out with the Force and open the gate." Dulme informed them before he reached out his hand and began to use the Force. The younglings followed Dulme's lead and were amazed to see the very landscape began to shift before their eyes. As it fell away, a massive temple entrance was revealed to them.
"Quickly now, inside! We need all the daylight we can get!" Dulme informed them before he strode up to the temple entrance. The younglings all hurried after him and through the door. As it shut behind them, they were greeted by the sight of Grand Master Yoda seated atop a broken ice stalagmite.
"Greetings, younglings. Welcome, to Ilum. A sacred place to the Jedi, this is." Yoda greeted the younglings, who murmured in awe of this place and of Yoda.
"The Force made physical, a Jedi is. Comes great responsibility with that, yes? Protect others, how does a Jedi, hmm?" Yoda asked them before producing his lightsaber, igniting the blade and showing it to the younglings.
"Build your own lightsaber, you shall. But first, harvest your crystal, each one of you must. Enter the crystal cave and retrieve it, you must." Yoda concluded before he stowed his lightsaber and using the Force to turn what looked like a chandelier of some kind before they realized that it was a massive crystal that was refracting the light into another crystal, which finally concentrated the beam into a massive sheet of ice on the far side of the room. Within moments, the ice had melted into water, which was now cascading down the stairs, revealing a massive doorway.
"Within the cavern, find your crystals, you will. However, make haste, you must. Else, be trapped until daylight, you shall be." Yoda informed them ominously.
"A full cycle on Ilum is equivalent to nineteen standard days. Should you fail to return before the entrance refreezes, there will be nothing anyone can do for you. You will be on your own until the next light." Dulme informed them.
"Now, begin." Yoda declared. The group hurried into the caves, as the ice began to creep down over the entrance. However, nothing could prepare one of them for what waited within for them; the first steps on a strange, but arduous journey. And it all started with two black stars…
Well, that's where we'll end it for now! Yeah, I'm happier with this version so far. I'll be working on this on and off until I got enough for proper publishing, so it'll probably be a while before this is published (It's November 18th 2019 right now) But it'll probably be a much shorter project than my other stuff.
Well, that's about it for now! Thank you for reading, please review, hope to see you on Discord and we'll see you next time!