Jedi Temple, Coruscant, 38 BBY
I concentrate on my connection to the Force, and the training lightsaber on the other end of the room flies to my hand and ignites, the green blade lighting the otherwise dark room. Acting on instinct and the guidance of the Force, I lash out, deflecting the training probes' blasts back at them. The drones clatter to the floor, deactivated.
"Good, good," says a voice from the other end of the room, and the lights turn on, revealing Master Yoda and a group of younglings. "Good focus, you have. And very strong will, as well."
"Thank you, Master Yoda," I say as I turn off the training saber and bow.
"Come," he says, "See this you must."
He leads me away from the other younglings and then turns and looks at me. "Something of great importance, this is," Yoda says, "Important matters, this regards."
He leads me into a room where all of my siblings are waiting; Ca'kal, Bev, Sepac, Dominic, and Lasaree. Before I can say anything, Master Yoda steps past the door and closes it, turning the lights off and leaving the six of us in darkness. I reach out with my senses, sure that this is some kind of test. I can sense my five siblings, but also one more. The last one is strange, yet oddly familiar. He gives off the impression of one who has seen many years, and a fair share of battles.
I step between my siblings and where I think the mysterious being is, and say, "I know you're there, show yourself."
The lights flick on, and I gasp as I see a Mandalorian standing in the room, wearing orange armor and holding his hands behind his back. I drop into the fighting stance Master Plo taught me, prepared to defend myself and my siblings.
"If you want to kill them," I say, "You'll have to get through me first."
The Mandalorian laughs, "I like you, ad'ika. You have the spirit of a true Mando'ad. But I'm not your enemy. Your Master Yoda let me in here."
"What are you talking about?" I ask, realizing that he might be right - he couldn't have gotten in here without someone noticing, unless he was supposed to be here. I slightly relax my stance, but not completely.
"I am Orar Skirata, of Clan Skirata," the Mandalorian says.
"Wait," I say, making the connection, "If you're here, and you have our name, that means we're part of Clan Skirata too, correct?"
"Kandosii, ad'ika," Orar says, clearly pleased, "If all of you are as smart as this one, my job here should be easy."
"What exactly is your job?" I ask as he puts a bag on the table in the center of the room. He pulls out something that looks like a flat cake.
"My job," Orar says as he starts cutting the cake, "Is to educate you about your Mando'ad heritage. That includes teaching you Mando'a, teaching you the history of the Mando'ade, and preparing you for your Mandalorian training."
"Mandalorian training?" Ca'kal asks.
"Elek," Orar says, "Just after you kids were born, the Jedi came to take you here. We let them, on several conditions, including a condition that you all get trained as Mando'ade once your Jedi training is complete. This all means that once you become a Jedi, you come to Mandalore to become a Mandalorian. You even get your own armor."
"Cool!" I say excitedly, "I want green!"
"Udesii, ad'ika," Orar laughs as he puts a piece of cake in front of each of us, "That's in the future. But right now, this is called uj'alayi. That's 'uj cake' in Basic. Haili cetare!"
We all look at him, confused. "It means 'eat your fill'," Orar clarifies, and we all happily dig in. He laughs, and says, "Val guur'skraan," to himself. The cake is extremely delicious, and it's gone within a few minutes.
"Heh," he says, "I'll have to bring more next time. You like that, eh?"
We all nod eagerly. "Alright," he says, "Now, who wants to learn how to count in Mando'a?"
...
An hour later, we leave the room to find Master Yoda standing outside.
He chuckles a little, "Enjoy the lesson, you did?" We all nod. "Good. Show him to the guest quarters, one of you shall."
"I'll go," Lasaree says, and waves to Orar, "Come on, follow me." Orar laughs and follows her.
Suddenly, I notice the silhouettes of other younglings huddling around the corner. "Um, Master?" I say to Yoda, and when he looks at me, I nod towards the other group.
"Know they are there, I do," he says, then turns to them, "Come, come. Hurt you we will not." He adds a little laugh at the end.
The children sheepishly walk over to us, and I finally get a good look at them. One is a Twi'lek girl who I saw earlier in lightsaber training, I think her name is Kalei. She has dark blue skin and green eyes, and she's faster than anyone else. The other one is human, a boy with short brown hair and red eyes, who seems very quiet.
"Hmm," Yoda says, "Why are you here?"
"Master," the boy says, "I felt the Mandalorian in there, and I heard him talking about teaching them to be Mandalorians."
Kalei steps in now, "Master, with your permission, we'd like to join them."
Yoda pauses for a few moments, thinking deeply.
"With all due respect, Master," I say, "I really don't see any harm."
"Right, you are," Yoda says, "Linked, all of your futures are, but in what way, I know not." He turns to Kalei and the human boy, "Kalei, Baas, join them you can, but only if Orar allows it."
"Thank you, Master," the young boy, now known as Baas, says.
"Thank you so much, Master," Kalei adds.
Yoda turns back to me, "Bring them to Orar and bring them up to speed, you shall."
"Of course, Master," I say, and beckon for Kalei and Baas to follow.
...
We arrive in Orar's guest quarters, and Orar comes to the door, still wearing his armor.
"Ah," he says, "Su'cuy, Naver. And who might these two be?"
"Su'cuy," I respond, "These two are Kalei and Baas. They have requested permission to join us in learning to become Mandalorians."
"Now why might that be?" Orar says, looking the two over.
"Well," Baas says, shifting nervously, "My parents were in the Death Watch, until they left when I was born. The Death Watch killed them for leaving, and I somehow wound up here."
"Ah," Orar says, "So this is a matter of honoring your parents?"
"Yes," Baas says, looking relieved that Orar didn't outright reject him.
"And what about you?" Orar asks, turning to Kalei.
"Well," she says, "I've always had a strange interest in Mandalorians. I don't really know why, but doing this just feels right."
"Alright," Orar says, "Naver can get you caught up on what we learned today. I'm going to rest now."
"Okay," I say, "Ret'urcye mhi, Orar."
"Ret'urcye mhi, Naver," Orar says, and the door slides shut.
I turn to Kalei and Baas, "Come on, let's go find somewhere quiet. We only learned a little today, so getting you caught up should be easy."
...
Later that day, I walk into my living quarters, exhausted. However, all of my things are missing. There is a note that says I've been assigned a new room, and I sigh tiredly. After a few minutes wandering the halls, I find my new room. The door slides open to reveal all of my siblings plus Baas and Kalei.
"Why are you all here?" I ask, confused.
"Turns out we all got the same room," Ca'kal says as he collapses onto a bed and immediately falls asleep. I see my bag lying on the floor, and I move it to a bed with a good view of the door. Coincidentally, the bed I choose is right next to Kalei's.
"Wow," I say, "What are the odds, right?"
"Yeah," she laughs, "I'm sorry, I never introduced myself, did I? I'm Kalei Vatras."
"Naver Skirata," I say, shaking her hand, "Nice to meet you."
"Same," she says, looking me over with appraising eyes, "You know, you seem like a smart person. Strong too."
"Thank you," I say, giving her a mock bow, "I couldn't help but notice how fast you are. We'd make a great team, probably."
"Yeah," she says, grinning, "You, me, and all of the others. A team that no one else can beat."
"Heh, yeah," I say, looking over at Baas, who seems uncomfortable. "Hey, listen, it was nice meeting you, but I've got another new kid to welcome into the family, so to speak."
"Yeah, sure go ahead," she says, waving me onward, "Just be warned, he seems kind of quiet. I think he prefers to keep to himself."
"I'll keep that in mind," I say, then I walk over to Baas, nodding a quick goodbye to Kalei. I sit down next to Baas, who's working on getting his effects sorted out.
"Hi," I say, causing him to jump, "Baas, right?"
"Yeah," he says, a bit nervously, "That's me."
"Okay, so, I just came over to welcome you to our little group, make sure you're getting adjusted, you know."
"Yeah, thank you, I'm fine."
"That's good to hear. Listen, let me know if you need anything, alright?"
"Sure," he says, returning to organizing his belongings.
We all say our goodnights, and I turn out the lights and we all fall into our beds.
...
After lightsaber training the next day, our small group heads to the room where we're scheduled to meet Orar, and we find him talking with a Verpine and a Kel Dor, both our age.
"Ah," Orar says, "Here they are now. Ade, these are Kir'ik Olis and Lok Jiib, the newest members of your group. Make them feel welcome." As he says this, he indicates the Verpine and the Kel Dor in turn, then signals for the two to walk over to us and say hello.
"Of course," I say, and we immediately welcome the newcomers. After a few minutes of talking, we sit down as Orar pulls out some uj cake and begins cutting it into pieces. I sit next to Kalei, and I lightly nudge her with my elbow. She grins at me and nudges me back, then we laugh a little and bring our focus to Orar, who is beginning to tell us about the history of the Mandalorians.
"The story of our legacy begins here," Orar begins, "On the planet we sit on at this moment..."