Chapter 2

The next morning he woke to eerie silence. The Jedi Academy was always a flurry of activity and especially during the early hours, trainees were up before dawn with their Masters or friends. When the three of them were home, someone was usually moving around, or chatting on the visual comm, their voices fluttering beneath doors and around corners.

He stumbled, bleary-eyed and hair askew, into the main room. His parents were sitting together, talking almost in whispers, which ceased when they saw him.

"Danyon, did you sleep well?" his mother inquired, too earnestly.

"No, mother, I did not."

"Oh… let me fix you something to eat."

She moved off the seat and towards the kitchen. Danyon slumped into the nearest chair, aware that his father was observing his every move.

"It's only been one day and already you've forgotten how to behave and how to present yourself", his father said, directing his eyes away from his son as if the very sight of him was too distasteful to look at.

"Rukar please don't bother him", his mother gentle but firm voice drifted in from the next room.

"The boy will be trained, Alinna. If he's too lazy and undisciplined to travel to Yavin then I'll train him myself."

Danyon clenched his fists and pressed them into the chair. "Father don't you see? Please try to see! I'm not Force-sensitive. I'm not going to be a Jedi. I have the lowest midiclorian count in four generations of our family. It is not my fault. I tried, father. I tried though it cost me all of my self-respect. I'm not like Keller and Rhianne… I'm not like you." Shakily he stood. "Mother, don't worry about breakfast. I'm leaving."

"Leaving? But where will you go? Danyon, please wait…" He disappeared into his room, rummaging around, collecting various essentials.

"I've been waiting for nineteen years, mother! I don't know where I'm going. I don't know what I'm going to do. I only know I'm going!"

"If you don't even know what you're looking for, how will you know when you find it?", his father's even voice spoke calmly in contrast with Danyon's harsh tone.

He came to an abrupt halt, then closed his eyes. Rukar Solo. The voice of rationality. He had never despised his father more than that moment. He here was, finally taking control of his destiny, and his father couldn't even support that choice.

He didn't turn around, but replied "I will know because my heart will be at peace and when I look at myself in the mirror I won't be ashamed of what I see". He crossed the room and kissed his mother softly on the cheek goodbye, then marched straight to the door and exited without looking back.

He paced the lower streets of Coruscant for hours, fuming with anger at everyone, but mostly himself. At the Academy, they had been taught about the dangers of giving in to anger and hatred, but Danyon justified that not even the Dark side would want him. He hadn't noticed that he'd paused by a shuttle pickup sign and jumped a little when one hissed its way beside him and the pilot opened the side hatch.

"Where to?", grumbled the creature.

Danyon paused, about to wave off the shuttle when at the last second he jumped aboard.

"What's the stop furthest from here?"

"Joltanga Central."

Danyon nodded, paid his fare and settled in for the journey towards the rest of his life.