7 BBY - Ahch-To, Temple Island
Jarik POV...
Since moving here, the Temple Island on Ahch-To has revealed plenty of things that I didn't know about during my first visit. For starters, there is an ancient, hollowed out tree covered by mist and tall rocky cliffs on almost all sides. The tree has a powerful presence in the light side of the Force, and inside is a small collection of ancient, Jedi texts. The first text of the Jedi Order. For being thousands of years old, I'm surprised that they aren't simply dust at this point. Sure, the books were worn and dirty, with everything faded, but despite the yellowed pages and brittle cover, the words inside were still visible enough to read. I'm going to say the only reason the books haven't decomposed into nothing at this point is because of the Force keeping them intact in some way.
Another thing that surprised us was a small village on the far side of the island, with a small species actually living there! On our first meeting, they confronted us, demanding to know who we were. I didn't understand their dialect, but Ahsoka fortunately did, and explained who we were, as well as why we were living here. Once we proved to them who we were, they greeted us happily with open arms and a celebration that night in their village. They called themselves the 'caretakers' of the Temple, and now I started to understand why everything still seemed in fairly okay conditions despite being thousands of years old. They stayed behind after Ahch-To was abandoned by the Jedi to take care of the Temple, and had a huge respect of the Jedi, to the point where some even tried to worship us, which we immediately refused, uncomfortable with that kind of treatment.
However not everything on the island was happy and full of the light side of the Force. Further than the caretaker village and near one of the cliffs was a part of the island strong with the dark side. It didn't feel like a Sith Lord's presence in the Force, terrifying and unnatural, however. The place was more rocky and less green, with a large hole leading into a deep cavern where the dark side felt most strong. The darkness wasn't dangerous compared to how the Sith felt, rather it was more of a natural darkness, countering the natural beauty of the light side that the island glowed with.
Ever since arriving at the Temple, I've taken the opportunity to compare the aspects of the Force with what I've felt in the past. Beings like Dooku, Maul and Vader have felt cold and full of fury in the dark side, twisted and unnatural. The Jedi Temple on Coruscant was full of the light side for sure, but comparing it to Ahch-To, that light now seems unnatural in comparison as well. Both aspects of the Force on Ahch-To are just... pure. Natural. As if this is how the Force should always feel, and it feels right.
Yet another testament to how both the Sith and Jedi have strayed from their original ideals over time without noticing.
This doesn't mean that the dark cave isn't dangerous though, it still is. Seeking to tempt us with its claims of power and knowledge, although subtlety. So until Mara is prepared, Ahsoka and I have agreed to make that area of the island is strictly off limits to her, no exceptions.
Along with the things that were already here on the island, we made some small additions as well for more comfortable living conditions. The Knight Hawk's landing pad was essentially the flat expanse of rock that stuck out from the island, where I first originally landed my speeder earlier, next to the staircase that leads up to the Jedi Village, as the caretakers have called it. On top of the ship was the sensor array dish they managed to snag over a year ago, pointed up towards the sky as it constantly connected with the galaxy's holonet and communications.
Within the Jedi village, we decided to move our rooms there instead of the ship, as well as our most important things. Mostly as a precaution to not lose our things incase our ship blows up, or someone boards it and takes stuff. Ahsoka and I chose one of the larger huts, which was set near the higher levels with a wonderful view of the island and the ocean. Mara eagerly chose her own place a bit lower, excited at the prospect of doing her own room 'makeover.'
Because the huts were ancient, with nothing special about them except for the stone blocks itself, we had to add a few things to them for better comfort during the night and harsh weather, because Ahch-To's climate was damp and cool, but had harsh storms and a colder temperature to the point that large areas of ocean would freeze during the winter's. This place may look like a tropical island paradise, but it gets to low temperatures for most of the year.
To adapt to it, we added doors made from spare pieces of metal, and sealed in the windows with glass that we picked up from Bail. He obviously didn't know where we lived, we just explained the climate our place was in, and he happily lent us the needed materials, with it being such a simple request. Inside me and Ahsoka's hut was a simple bed large enough for the two of us, and a table with chairs near storage cabinets for any important items we have. That was usually where we did most of our Fulcrum work, a small portable terminal wirelessly connected to the ship.
Mara's hut had her bed too, along with a small shelf of Jedi training materials, from lessons on datapads to our training remote, and the practice sabers, which were essentially just lightweight sticks capable of absorbing a remotes laser blast. She also had some of her own personal entertainment items, consisting of some epic, action novels and a datapad she would play games on if she was bored.
R5 stayed on the ship, preferring the structural surroundings compared to rocks and greenery, which didn't surprise any of us at all.
Then there was to unexpected and sometimes annoying problem, despite their cuteness.
Porgs.
They were a small bird species that was native to this island, and were named by the caretakers a while ago. They were most definitely not afraid of people, and were so curious that they would constantly poke into our stuff whenever they thought we weren't looking, alongside the tiny dragon species that the Vikings called Terrible Terrors.
They certainly lived up to the name of terrible.
Between those two flying animals, life was certainly difficult, and even the caretakers would express their annoyance every once in a while. Yet despite that, none of us saw the devilish, bloodthirsty monster in them that the Vikings claimed them to be. Maybe that's just the larger dragon species, we aren't sure yet. And while we may not fully agree with their views on the dragons, it isn't our call to judge them or try to change their way of life.
Once every month we'd visit Berk for usually a week at a time, getting to know the people better. The one's that we like the most are Gobber, Gothi, Hiccup, Chief Stoick, well... when he's in a good mood, and a few others. Mara enjoys Hiccup the most out of the rest of the kids their age for several reasons, which I agree with as well. His devotion, determination to never quit, his sarcastic and funny personality, and his smart and creative personality. She also likes how Fishlegs is intelligent, although in my opinion Mara likes to make fun of the kid in her 'own way.'
For example, scaring the kriff outta him as much as possible.
She may be polite to him, Mara isn't disrespectful unless she or someone else is being disrespected. But Ahsoka and I know she isn't a fan of how easily Fishlegs gets scared despite being the strongest of the group. With the twins she things the same thing that everybody else things about them, which is that they're annoying. She may be raised to have the Jedi temperament, but there have been numerous instances where she's made it plainly obvious that they absolutely infuriate her from time to time. There have been a couple of times when the twins even tried to pickpocket us of our lightsabers, which obviously failed. Snotlout is still the usual egotistic guy of the group, they don't get along to well at all.
As for Astrid, I'm not entirely sure. They both respect each other as warriors and can be friendly, but Astrid's colder demeanor and focus on being the best shield-maiden of Berk's history has Mara uncomfortable and irritated with her at all times. Mara would rather put her devotion and loyalty to those she cares about over being the best of the group, so there's going to be tension between the two, at least until they can get over their differences or Astrid gets a change of heart.
Speaking of Mara, she's going to be very excited soon. She's now ten years old, which is the age Jedi younglings get to attend the Gathering, in order to find their own kyber crystal and construct their very own lightsaber. Me and Ahsoka both attended the gathering at age ten, and to this day the green and blue tinged crystals still glow warmly in each other's presence. Ahsoka's white crystals are always glowing two when in the vicinity of her old one and mine, which has always been something we've loved. I had to wonder how her yellow shoto blade would have acted but sadly, that weapon is truly lost.
Since our only experience as mentors in the Gathering was our chaperoning with Katooni's clan, Force be with her as the only survivor, we didn't have the best idea to proceed, especially without Ilum at our disposal or the vast Jedi Archives, or better yet an actual Jedi Master like Yoda or Obi-Wan. So we decided to do some research in the old Jedi texts within the uneti tree, as well as anything Gothi has related on the subject of the Jedi. During our visits we would spend some time to copy down her books about Jedi into our database with her permission so that we could read them from our island without having to be on Berk.
"Hey, look at this." Ahsoka says, looking through one of the older books. I looked up from my datapad questioningly in our hut.
"What is it?" I ask her.
"There's a page in here about kyber crystals and where they came from, it's pretty fascinating," she tells me.
Curious, I get up and move to her side of the table to look over her shoulder, where she points out a paragraph to me. To my surprise, this writing is actual a personal note from the Prime Jedi himself, explaining how kyber crystals were first brought into use for the Jedi. Ahsoka reads it out load.
"My followers and I were searching the galaxy for a suitable place to call home, which would eventually lead us to Ahch-To. During our travels, we discovered a planet by the name of Ilum, far into the Unknown Regions. The Force flowed very strongly there, unlike most places we had encountered. Our search of the planet showed promising, as a large deposit of Force-filled crystals covered the surface, going deep into the planet's crust. We gave these Force-filled crystals the name of 'Kyber.'
Our search of the planet also revealed lifeforms of a strange design. Beings that were not even from our own galaxy, who were massive compared to us, and were made of living metal. They communicated with us, and we learned from them that the kyber crystals were actually a source of energy from their home planet, which they called 'energon.' Hundreds of thousands of years ago, a massive comet completely composed of this 'energon,' smashed into Ilum, where the Force increased their energy levels over the years, allowing it to spread across the entire planet, forming the Kyber we have today."
I raised an eyebrow in surprise at the Prime Jedi's notes, not expecting something like that. "Kyber crystals came from another galaxy?" I asked with wide eyes.
"Apparently so," Ahsoka said, nodding with an obvious sense of awe. "Who knew there was life outside of our own galaxy?"
"As well as the fact these beings from another galaxy are massive, and made of living metal," I remarked. "Does it say anything else about them?"
Ahsoka scans the page, shaking her head. "Not much after that, besides the fact that the beings they encountered died on Ilum pretty quickly. It doesn't explain why though," she says.
"That's too bad," I remarked.
"Yeah. I'd like to know more about this, 'energon' stuff though, sounds interesting." Ahsoka admits.
I nod my head in agreement. "True."
I then pull out my lightsaber and sit back down, eyeing it in both hands for a moment before setting it down on the table. I closed my eyes and then focus on the Force, quickly using it to disassemble the lightsaber carefully, revealing the blue kyber crystal inside which floats up. I reopen my eyes and pick the crystal up out of the air, holding it between my fingers. The crystal pulses gently in the Force.
"Another galaxy huh," I recall, looking at my crystal curiously.
"What, you think you're suddenly gonna go on an 'epic journey' to find the source or something?" Ahsoka jokes with a snarky grin.
"No, not really," I tell her. "For two reasons: I don't know where I'd look, and I don't really care about looking right now."
"Don't even act like you don't want to try this," Ahsoka says in amusement, calling me out.
I stay silent for a moment before shrugging in agreement. "Ok I'll admit it does sound tempting."
"There you go," she says, snickering and I sigh in exasperation, placing the crystal back into it's slot and using the Force to snap the pieces back together.
"So real talk... how will we go about the Gathering for Mara?" I ask.
"I suppose we could try a similar ceremony like when we chaperoned Katooni's clan," she suggested. "The problem is trying to figure out a place to find kyber crystals, since Ilum is obviously off limits now."
I nod my head at the obvious problem before recalling something I read in one of the Jedi texts. "Well if I recall correctly, there was some sort of Gathering that the first Jedi would've had to have done, since they introduced the lightsaber, and since they were stationed here they obviously had to do something."
"Like what?" Ahsoka questions curiously.
"In another book, it didn't say anything about another galaxy or those mechanical beings, but it did describe how the brought some of the kyber back to Ahch-To and stashed it in tunnels underneath the island for their ceremonies." I informed her.
"Really? That's great news! If it works the same way as Ilum does then that's just what we need," she replies with a smile. "Did the book say where the cave entrance is?"
I nodded grimly. "Yeah, and that's the only problem. The only entrance to those tunnels is the dark side cave."
The smile immediately fell from her face. "Oh. That is an issue."
"Uh huh..." I replied sadly.
We were silent for several moments before Ahsoka sighed, speaking up again. "You know, back when we were younglings, the Order taught us to never give into the dark side."
I nodded along, listening to where she was going with this. "You know better than anyone else the faults that the Jedi had with their code, and their arrogance. It eventually led to their downfall. And part of that was because they continued to tell us that once we were on the dark side path we couldn't leave it, yet we never knew how to recognize that dark path."
"So you're saying that maybe Mara should go through the cave?" I ask for confirmation.
She considers for a moment. "I'm not entirely sure yet, this is merely a suggestion. But if we don't show her what the dark side is like, then she won't have a defense against its temptation. That's part of why the old Order fell, because no one could recognize the dark side for what it was." Ahsoka reasons.
I thought about it and nodded my head in agreement. "That's a good point, and you're definitely right about that."
"So should we go through with this?" she asks me.
A moment later I reply. "I guess we should. We just have to make sure Mara is prepared to face whatever may be down there, and trust in the Force."
Ahsoka smiled, reaching over and grabbing my hand, squeezing in reassurance. "And I have no doubt that Mara will succeed."
I smiled back in return.
