Jarik POV...
"So let me get this straight: we've crashed on a planet in the Unknown Regions, out of contact with anyone and a ship in need of repair, and said planet happens to be the birthplace of the Jedi Order?" I ask in bewilderment.
"Yup," Ahsoka says simply.
"Kind of funny huh?" Mara asks.
"Funny... in a poetic sense I guess... how long was I out?" I question.
"Probably the entire day and a half." Ahsoka tells me. "And by the way, how in the universe did you survive the explosion and fly back through space?!" she exclaims.
"I what?!" I say in stunned confusion.
"Are you telling us you don't remember dad?" Mara asks with wide eyes. "Come on!"
I frown, thinking back intensely. We were under attack by the Empire... we were trying to escape and I was having our ship fire back at theirs... then the bridge exploded. My eyes widened in disbelief as I now remembered what had happened.
"...oh," I say quietly.
"Really. That's all you have to say," Ahsoka says in displeasure.
"Well, I don't know how! All I remember was the bridge exploding, and I thought I saw the Daughter, then I just have to desperate need to get back to you. That's all I got!" I say honestly, before developing a thoughtful and wonderful expression on my face.
"Do you think I could do it again?" I wonder aloud quietly to myself.
"No! Absolutely not, and don't you dare even consider it Jarik!" Ahsoka says, jabbing a finger threateningly at me.
"Yeah! Don't even think about it!" Mara warned, just as fierce as Ahsoka.
"Alright alright, I get it. Probably not a good idea anyways," I say in agreement.
"'Probably not a good idea' he says," Mara mutters mockingly in exasperation.
"Anyways..." I said, attempting to change the subject. "Are we going to try and fix the ship now?" I ask. "We can't stay here forever."
"I know," Ahsoka says in reply. "R5 is still with the ship, taking care of it while we've been gone."
"That's good I guess," I reply.
In the middle of our conversation, an old woman suddenly appears from another part of the house, and stares at us with thoughtful eyes. She then hobbles forwards in our direction, more specifically, in my direction.
"Oh, who are you?" I ask warily.
"That's Gothi. She's the Vikings elder," Mara tells me.
I nod my head, eyeing her in confusion as she moves closer. "Do you need something from me?"
However she doesn't answer, the response instead coming from Ahsoka. "She helped in healing you when we arrived in this village," she says.
"Ok, why is she not talking?" I ask them with a raised eyebrow.
Gothi then wacks me in the head with her staff, rather painfully in fact, and I quickly flinch back in surprise. "Ow! What was that for?!" I demand. All she does is give me a stern look, making a few gestures with her hands.
"I don't know, she doesn't really speak as far as I know. Also she probably wants to make sure you're in perfect health," Ahsoka suggests.
"Anyone who smacks their patients randomly should not be the designated healer," I mutter quietly to myself. Unfortunately she heard me, and raises her staff threateningly. "Ok ok, no offense Gothi, you're the Elder!" I quickly say in surrender. Mara snickers in amusement while Ahsoka grins to herself.
Satisfied, she begins her health examination, feeling my forehead, checking my eyes and a few other things before nodding to herself. Then she picks out a few small wooden panels, showing them to me. The script is a bit weird and hard to understand but I make out the words 'go eat' on them. Now that I think about it, I am absolutely famished right now, probably because I've been unconscious for almost two days.
"Where should I get food from?" I ask her.
"I think down near the village in the 'Great Hall,' right?" Ahsoka asks Gothi, who nods. She then begins to shoo us out quickly, and fearing a hit on the head from her staff all three of us heed her instruction, exiting the house. Gothi closes the door behind us, and I get my first view of the island we seemed to crash on.
"Wow. Nice place here," I admit, taking in the scenery. "How in the world was this house even built on top of a mountain though?" I ask incredulously.
"I don't know," Mara says with a shrug. "I think it looks cool."
After leaving Gothi's house, the three of us traveled down the long staircase to the village, moving in the direction of the Great Hall as discretely as we could, not completely comfortable with being out in the open. We traveled along the outskirts of the village, not in any of the actual streets. Unfortunately that didn't stop some of the stares we received, most in Ahsoka's direction at her appearance. They also accused her of being a witch for calming down a fire-breathing reptile called a dragon which I frowned at. Seriously?
If someone got to close for comfort, or glared at Ahsoka, then Mara would glare right back defiantly, not at all bothered by her age or size compared to the massive people that lived here. Ahsoka even said that the chief of this place was approximately seven feet tall! Just... wow! Along the way, we passed by a group of young kids just slightly older than Mara; three boys and two girls. The person who seemed like the dominant figure of the pack was one of the girls with blonde hair, and she watched us walk by with suspicious, yet curious eyes. The others didn't hide their expressions, openly gaping at us.
"Want to go hang out with actual kids you age?" I say jokingly to Mara.
"Are you kidding me? Nuh uh!" she immediately protested, and Ahsoka rolled her eyes in amusement.
Walking up the stone steps to what had to be the Great Hall, because what else would be this massive, I opened one of the doors and peeked inside, relieved to find that there was barely anyone inside, only a couple of Vikings simply chatting with each other, immediately stopping once we entered. Ignoring their stairs, we moved to the side of the room where there was a table of food, most of it gone since it was late morning by now, and picked out a few things, although warily at first. New planet, new food after all. I'm sure me and Mara would be fine since these Vikings are human like us, but Ahsoka isn't, so who knows what could be potentially harmful.
I can still sense the few Vikings in the Hall still staring at us, so I let out a sigh and turned my head to look at them. "Do you mind with the staring? Please?" I ask them.
Immediately, every one of them looks away, muttering a few words to each other before going back to what they were doing, although some also left quickly, out of embarrassment, wariness, or just because they were finished I don't know.
"With all the stares we're getting you'd think the Emperor was all 'fluffy fairytails' happy for us." Mara remarks. I snort in amusement at the image, and Ahsoka does the same, picking up her plate of all meat.
"More like there's a dead rat on our heads. And you are the gundark," I reply, gesturing to Ahsoka at the comment. She gives me an annoyed look and I shrug in response. "What? Compared to them you might as well be."
"Yeah I see your point," she says, shrugging as we all sat down at a corner table to eat. It started off awkwardly, with us picking at or checking out the food before eating it. Ahsoka lifted a piece of meat to her face and sniffed it, eventually judging it to be safe for her to eat.
"So?" I ask her.
"It's... actually pretty good," she remarked wondrously.
"Huh," was all I said in response.
Most of the time we were silent, not finding too much to talk about at the moment before I notice that group of younger kids walking through the doors. They all stare at us for a few moments before heading to another table and sitting down. Whispering too each other while glancing 'not-to-subtly' at us. Mara rolled her eyes.
"Wow. Very secretive," she said.
"Meh. I think its kind of funny," I commented, turning my head to look at them. Those who were staring at us immediately turned their heads away and I shook my head.
"Didn't you call out those adults for staring at us not five minutes ago?" Ahsoka asked with a raised eyebrow.
"And that was five minutes ago," I replied cheekily.
Then another kid walks through the doors, this one a bit smaller from the rest, and definitely more scrawny. He grabbed a plate of food and moved to sit down. The other kids all stared at him, some even moving to stop him from sitting at their table, but it was already clear he didn't bother going to their table anyways. With a quiet sigh, he sits down by himself and starts eating as the rest of the kids continue their quiet discussion about us.
"Whose that? You know?" I ask Ahsoka or Mara.
"Hiccup. I had a good chat with him last night, he seems like a good kid." Ahsoka replied.
"You did?" Mara asks.
"Yeah. Both of you were asleep, but I couldn't so I just decided to walk around when he tried to spy on me, obviously not realizing I could sense him." Ahsoka says nonchalantly.
"Why does he look so sad?" Mara questions, glancing over at Hiccup, who continues to pick at his food, only eating small amounts.
Ahsoka sighed slightly. "He's... more of the outcast in this village. A runt compared to the others, and it doesn't help that his father is the chief," she said.
Mara and I both gape at Ahsoka in surprise, glancing over to Hiccup. "Wait, that giant, bearded chief is his dad?!" Mara asks incredulously.
"I was just as surprised as you are," she replied in agreement.
"I haven't seen the chief but considering the size of everyone in this village he must be big right?" I ask her, and she nods her head.
"I'd say about seven feet tall," she tells me.
"Wow," was all I had to say in response.
"That's so mean!" Mara says with a frown, not understanding why the Vikings would treat him that way.. "Why would they be mean to him just because he's small?"
"Society," I replied. "If you're not similar or aligned with the same views as most of the people, then you become separated from the rest. Unfortunately many people are treated like that," I tell her, glancing at Hiccup with a look of sympathy.
Ahsoka then looks at Mara. "I think you should go talk to him," she suggested.
"Huh?" she asks with a furrowed brow. "Right now?"
"Well why not? He's a good kid, and I think you both would get along well with each other," she says.
"But... I'm still with you, a space traveler, it would be weird, you know what I mean?" she questions.
"Mara, I doubt you're the person to care about other's criticism of what you're doing," I said with a raised eyebrow, and she gets a determined look.
"Yeah, definitely. I think it's stupid they make fun of him just because he's small. I'll go say hi!" she declares, taking one last bite out of her meal before standing up. She rushes over to Hiccup's table and sits down across from him. He looks up in surprise, obviously not expecting anybody to come sit with the village runt, least of all foreigners from space with things they've never seen before. The group of kids all have the same reaction as well, opening gaping at her sitting with Hiccup in a mixture of shock, confusion, surprise and in one kids expression, irritation. They glance over at me and Ahsoka and I give them a cheeky wave and a smile.
Mara POV...
Sitting down at the table across from Hiccup, he glanced up at me with eyes wide in surprise, obviously not having expected anybody to sit with him. Once again I'm bewildered by the fact that his Viking tribe makes fun of him for being small and scrawny. Just looking at him I can tell he's smart and talented, like who couldn't see that?
"Hi! You're Hiccup, right?" I ask with a smile.
"Huh?" he asked in a shocked state before coming to his sense. "Oh- uh- yeah! Yeah that's me. Who're you?" he asks timidly.
"I'm Mara," I tell him in response. "My mom suggested I talk to you since she thinks you're a cool," I tell him.
He furrows his brow in confusion. "Your... mom?" he asks.
"That's her over there," I told him, pointing to my mom.
"She's your mom?" he asks in bewilderment. "No offense but... uh, you don't even look like her..." he says in confusion.
"Adopted, they adopted me," I explained.
"Oh, right. That makes more sense," he replies sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. "Are you a Jedi too?"
"No, not really. More of a Jedi-in-training, since I'm still a youngling," I explained. "How'd you know about the Jedi? From those old stories you guys seem to have?"
He nods his head. "Yeah, that and you're mom told me about them last night," he says.
"Oh." I replied simply. "Out of the three of us, I think dad is really the only full Jedi Knight- he's the one sitting across from mom," I told him.
"Really?" he asks in wonder and amazement. "Why's that?"
"He was actually made a Knight before I was born, and mom would have been one too if she wasn't blamed for killing people," I told him, frowning at the thought of my own mother (adopted) being considered a criminal. She's way too nice for that! And she gives good lessons about the Force! I'm still waiting for the chance to get my own lightsaber!
"That sounds bad, being blamed for something she didn't do," Hiccup says sadly.
"Yeah. Why does everyone seem to make fun of you? I think that's dumb," I said simply, frowning at that fact.
He lets out a long, sad sigh. "Well... I'm really just the runt of the village..." he says, glancing over at the other kids, who I notice are staring openly at us, much to my annoyance.
"You know it's rude to stare!" I called out, and they immediately looked away, although one, ugly kid with a punchable face scowled angrily at me, making a face. I stuck my tongue out at him as well.
Hiccup grinned in amusement before his face fell again. "I'm just the screw-up that constantly breaks things during a dragon raid."
"Thats ridiculous, I can tell you're a lot smarter than those people," I say firmly. He smiles lightly at me in gratitude, and deciding to stop talking about this depressing matter I change the subject. "So, you fight... dragons? What are dragons?"
"You don't know- oh right, you're not from here," he says sheepishly. "Well, every few weeks we get raided by dragons, who constantly take our stuff and destroy our village," he says.
"Destroy your village?" I question with a frown. "But everything around here looks perfectly fine!"
"We specialize in house repair," he says sarcastically.
"Huh," I say. "Well, if that's true then no wonder everybody seems so tense all the time."
"My dad even sleeps with an axe under his pillow," he remarks in amusement, and I snort lightly in laughter.
"Ha! That's even worse than my parents, although they sleep in the same room so they don't really do stuff like that." I replied. I glance over at them both again, and dad even has the nerve to grin at me and give me a 'thumbs up' in response. I glare at him and make the 'throat-slicing' motion silently as a warning. He rolls his eyes and I shake my head.
"Well, I gotta go, we've got some things to do later today. See you around?" I ask, standing up.
"Sure, no problem," he says with a smile, sounding eager at the prospect.
I jog over to Mom and Dad, who are both standing up too, having finished their meal. They both look over at me in curiosity.
"So, how was it?" Mom asks.
"It was good, and you're right. Hiccup is cool," I replied, nodding my head with a grin.
"That's good. Maybe I should meet him sometime," dad says as we walk towards the door.
As we walk passed the table with the group of kids nearby, one of them, who looks like a pig in my opinion, stands up and approaches me, wearing the most ridiculous helmet with horns I had ever seen.
"Hey, why'd you sit with him?" he demands, gesturing over to Hiccup.
Mom and Dad frown in disapproval while I glare at him. "Because I wanted to, so go away!"
"But he's so skinny, and stupid and useless!" the oaf of a boy protests.
"Oh the irony," Dad mutters and Mom smiles in amusement at his comment. Even some of the oaf's friends look a little irritated at him for saying that to us, the girl with blonde hair and a blue shirt in particular.
"Yeah? Well you look like a pig so shut up!" I say in annoyance, raising my hand and using the Force to push him back. He falls to the ground with a surprise cry, and his friends stare in shock while Mom and Dad shakes their heads in amusement. I nod in satisfaction and exit the Hall with them, and I'm sure the three of us can sense Hiccup's amusement and wonder at what just happened.
That oaf kid seems like a jerk.
