Warning: SPOILER ALERT! This is a collection of one-shot stories for the OC characters from my Star Wars Fanfiction series "Adventures of the Templars". My suggestion is to only read these stories until after you have finished reading Book 4 as these stories are background stories of the characters and so will have massive spoilers for the plot as well as the background of certain characters. You have been warned.

Now that that is out of the way. This first one-shot is about how Daly and Raven met on the streets of Nar Shaddaa and then a few years later how they meet Eric and then wind up at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant to start their Jedi Training.

Dream of the Future

Raven-Cordis Vitalis woke up to the usual noise and chaos that was constant on the streets of Nar Shaddaa. He crawled out from under the small shelter he had built out of scrap durasteel that had a thin sheet for a door.
"Now to find some breakfast," Raven said to himself casually as he climbed the wall nearby and up onto the ledge above so that he could look for an opportunity from up above the streets. He had always found it to be a good vantage point ever since his parents were killed a year ago. As the five-year-old boy was walking in a low crouch along the ledge he spotted a small grocers stall with Gapanga fruit.
"Perfect, not every day those are around in this dump," Raven stated simply as his stomach grumbled, "Oh shut up, will you?" he requested absentmindedly.
Raven sat down on the ledge and waited patiently for an opportunity to present itself for him to go down and take a few. It wasn't long until the merchant was talking to a customer with his back turned to the goods and the young orphan took the chance.
"Excellent," Raven said to himself as he dropped down over the tarpan and grabbed three pieces of the purple sweet-smelling fruit. Then he leapt back up onto the ledge and was out of sight before the merchant noticed anything. Dropping gently back down into his alley he sat down in front of his shelter and bit into one of them.

Daly deflected shots of blaster fire, one after another, with the small lightsaber until eventually once again he blew up the remote device.
"I'm bored," Jaira complained loudly from behind him.
Daly rolled his eyes at his sister, "Well how about you actually do your training. If father finds out you'll be in trouble again," he growled in annoyance.
"Well, I can't very well do that now can I?" Jaira stated as she pointed at the mangled device on the floor of their room.
"Not my problem," Daly said in aggravation as he left the room.
Jaira followed right after him which caused her brother to groan loudly, "Go do something else will you," he growled as he walked out on the balcony leaving his twin sister inside the apartment.
Daly didn't feel like witnessing their father abuse his sister again as he knew that's what would happen when he returned to find Jaira had done none of what he had asked them both to do while he was gone.
"Can you tell father I did the training?" Jaira requested simply as she wanted to avoid punishment for disobeying orders.
"No I'm not," Daly said without hesitation, "You know that he will tell that I am lying and you know what he does when he is lied to."
"But he said he would kill me if I didn't do what he said," Jaira begged as tears began to roll down her cheeks.
Daly sighed and thought to himself how his father wouldn't kill his sister because he wanted his son to do that when the time came. However, the young boy knew that he would never be able to kill Jaira not even if his own life depended on it. His twin sister was, of course, oblivious to their father's plans and Daly was determined to keep it that way.

It was midnight when Daly awoke silently as he got up out of bed and walked over to Jaira's. He stood there for what felt like hours just watching her sleep, knowing with every fibre of his being that what he was about to do was for her, was to keep her safe.
"I'm sorry Jaira," Daly whispered, "This life isn't for me and I won't be the one to kill you."
Then he turned around, opened the window as quietly as he could before slipping out of it and onto the ledge below. Daly ran along the wall until he reached a point where he could drop down onto the streets below him. When he got to the end of the street he turned around to look back at the building, his chest filling with guilt-stricken grief.
"Goodbye sister," Daly farewelled softly before disappearing around the corner, vowing to himself and Jaira that he would never return.

The following day, Raven found himself doing his favourite activity as he climbed across one of the many garbage barges as he always found something interesting on the large ships that travelled around Nar Shaddaa collecting more trash every day. On this particular day, it was normal so far, he found a few droid parts that he had been looking for as well as an old holo-communicator which he could sell for a fair amount of credits, of course, it would have to be repaired. Then he heard something not too far ahead of him which caused him to freeze to the spot. Raven crept towards a pile of trash in front of him and cautiously climbed up it in order to look over the heap. The young boy quirked his eyebrow at the sight in front of him. A boy around the same age as himself was walking through the mountains of trash. This boy had blonde hair which was obviously usually well-kept but at the moment it was messy and was very dirty. Not that he could talk as living on the streets was not very glamorous and he himself had not had a shower for at least a few weeks. Raven then proceeded to follow the other boy from a safe distance.

Daly was walking through piles of trash on a garbage barge when all of a sudden he heard a noise behind him and turned around sharply. Nothing was there and he frowned slightly in confusion, as he was about to turn around he spotted something or someone out of the corner of his eye and then proceeded to stare at the spot for several minutes.
"Hello, who's there?" Daly called out and it wasn't long before he got a response.
A boy around the same age as himself came out of the shadows and started to walk closer, this boy had reddish-blonde hair which was longer in length than his own and light blue eyes.
"Sorry I didn't mean to scare you," the boy said as he stopped right in front of Daly, "My name is Raven, Raven-Cordis Vitalis."
"Daly, Daly Solak," Daly introduced himself politely and then he regretted giving the boy his real last name.
"You're new around here, aren't you?" Raven inquired curiously.
Daly nodded, "I ran away from home."
"That bad huh?" Raven asked sadly.
"Yeah and I'm never going back," Daly said determidly.
Raven suddenly got the prompt to offer this boy help seeing as living on the streets might not be so bad with someone else his age.
"If you want you can hang with me?" Raven offered, "I have a shelter in a sector not far from here and an alley all to myself."
Daly was silent as he thought the offer through and was about to dismiss it when he got a sudden prompt from the Force to accept this offer.
"Okay thanks," Daly replied before following Raven through the mountains of trash to a section of the barge where Raven knew from experience no one would stumble across them by accident.
"It'll take a while for the barge to get to the sector but I always bunk here until it reaches the area where I usually get off," Raven said as he crawled under a pile of durasteel.
It was half an hour later before they finally jumped off the edge of the barge and landed on a ledge below that stuck out of the building. Daly followed close behind Raven as they crept silently along ledges, climbing up and sliding down pipes. Eventually, they came to an alley that was completely deserted all except a small shelter made out of scrap durasteel.
"This is it," Raven announced, "It's not much but I have managed to stay out of the way of security here."
"How?" Daly inquired curiously.
"Well nobody knows it's here because - well - when I started living here I somehow managed to make the entrance to this alleyway collapse," Raven said as he pointed out what would have once been the entrance from the street which was now all blocked up by a large mass of debris.
"Wait you did that and you don't know how you did it?" Daly inquired in complete shock that this boy was Force sensitive and didn't know it.
"Yeah I was running away from Cartel Security after attempting to get some breakfast," Raven explained as he sat down on an old wooden crate, "I got back here and then it just happened," he added. Raven took the broken holo-communicator out of his pocket and proceeded to see how he could repair it.
Daly walked up to the mass of debris and looked at it curiously and then he got an idea, turning back around to face Raven he asked, "May I?"
Raven looked up from his work, "Sure after all, you'll need a shelter but luckily for you everything you need for one is right there in that pile," Raven replied, "It's just a matter of getting it out of the pile without the wall coming down on top of you."
Daly stood back from the pile and raised his hands with his palms facing the pile as he dug down deep inside himself to use the Force. In a few moments, he managed to pull a few decently sized pieces of scrap durasteel without the entire pile coming down. When he was finished he turned around to find Raven watching him with the most dumbfounded look on his face.
"How-How did you do that?" Raven asked completely speechless as he rose from the crate and approached the other boy.
"I used the Force," Daly responded, "You must have it too because that's the only reason I can think of as to how you managed to cause this," he added, gesturing to the pile behind him.
Raven looked at his hands and then back up at Daly before turning to holocomunicator that he had left on top of the crate beside his shelter. Suddenly he felt a rush of a strange feeling through his hands as held his hand out towards the small device. Raven willed the feeling to extend out of his fingers and very suddenly the holo-communicator shot through the air and into his hand.
"See told you so," Daly said as he walked past him with the durasteel scraps floating along in front of him. It took only a few minutes and his shelter was fully built and ready to be used except it was missing a few crucial items.
"You will need some blankets or sheets otherwise the cold night air will get you before anything else will," Raven pointed out.
"Hmm, good point," Daly said as he looked around and his eyes laid on something that caught and held his attention. He picked it up and pressed a button on the device which caused an image to appear, two people standing side by side.
"Oh those are my p-," Raven started nervously.
"Parents," Daly finished for him as a guess and the other boy nodded in confirmation, "What happened to them? If you don't mind me asking," he inquired curiously.
"I'm not all that sure, to be honest," Raven said hesitantly, "My dad owed the Hutts a lot of credits and one day some guards came to our house and took him and mum away. Mum managed to hide me in a room and when the coast was clear I did what she had told me to do," he added quietly.
"And what was that?" Daly asked.
"Run."
The alley was dead silent for a few moments as Daly processed this information and then he broke it, "My mum died after my sister and I were born, I only know my dad," he said.
"What happened to them?" Raven asked.
"They are alive but I ran away because I don't belong there," Daly stated simply without any emotion.
"Well, who needs them," Raven said as he stood and up, "Brother," he added as he reached his hand out to help Daly up off the ground.
Daly hesitated when once again he got a very strong feeling from the Force so he took the offered hand and after standing up he responded, "Brother."

It was a completely normal day as Raven and Daly approached the Spaceport. In the past few weeks, they had managed to get goods to sell in the streets for decent credits and the allure of the ships and star pilots was too much for one of them.
"Can't you see it, Raven? You and me in a ship of our own travelling through the galaxy with nobody to tell us where to go and what to do?" Daly said for what felt like the millionth time that morning.
"Again I hate to smash your dreams Daly but in case you hadn't noticed we live in an alley and have to steal food to survive," Raven said gloomily.
"Yes I know but there is a larger galaxy out there to explore and most of these pilots started out with nothing. Don't you remember the stories some of them told us?" Daly said in excitement.
Raven rolled his eyes skyward as they came to a stack of wooden crates which smelt of wine and then very suddenly the air was polluted by the most ghastly smell that sadly was not that hard to identify. Covering his nose and mouth Raven coughed, "Hutts."
"Krakta, you better have the credits that you promised me for this shipment," a voice said sternly from the other side of the crates.
"Do mu-moolee?" Krakta asked, "Oto myo spastika yuna," he added.
"Not on my life last time you got the shipment first you took off before paying me, getting this stuff here wasn't cheap you know," the other voice replied.
"Nobata ulwan bosa je haku dee boonkee," Krakta demanded.
"Fine then, I will be taking this shipment to another seller then," the voice replied. The Hutt obviously tried to argue but eventually gave up and left. Upon picking up one of the crates Raven and Daly's hiding spot was revealed which caused the man to stop suddenly.
"Well what are you boys doing hiding behind my shipment?" he asked, "Name is Eric Tao. Come on, you can help me load this stuff if you want."
Daly jumped at the idea upon seeing the Smuggler's ship while Raven, however, was extremely cautious but after it was obvious Eric meant them no harm he relaxed slightly while still keeping his senses on overdrive.
At the end of it Eric asked them curiously, "If you two are interested I can take you both to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant," Eric offered, "You're both Force sensitive and you would have a better life there."
Raven and Daly exchanged a look, both had completely different expressions. Raven was mildly curious and saw it as a great opportunity while Daly was concerned as he remembered his father mentioning the Jedi none too nicely.
"Again it is totally up to the both of you to decide and I won't be offended if you don't wish to leave your home and family," Eric said to release the pressure of the decision making.
"I'm in I have heard amazing stories about the Jedi," Raven said but he was still cautious as to whether the Smuggler was telling the truth but he would just make sure he was extra careful.
"Well it's gotta be better than living on the streets," Daly said when truthfully he was only really going because Raven decided that he wanted to go.

"I can't believe it, we are on a ship and finally leaving this planet," Daly stated excitedly for the millionth time in the last hour. It seemed to Raven that his friend was taking a really long time to process this piece of information.
"Yes, Eric said he is going to take us to Coruscant," Raven confirmed what Daly had said and rolled his eyes when the other boy said the same line again.
It was silent for the next few minutes while the two boys stared out of the windows into space when, "I can't believe it, we are on a ship and finally leaving this planet."
"Okay Daly, can you please stop saying that mate? I know," Raven exclaimed in frustration.
"Wait we are going to become Jedi," Daly said out of nowhere.
"Finally you say something else," Raven commented happy that it was starting to sink into his best friend's head.
Then Daly opened his mouth to repeat it again but was interrupted by Raven slapping his hand over his mouth to stop him from saying it.
"Please don't repeat yourself again," Raven said in an almost begging sort of way.
The cockpit door opened and Eric came through the door, quirking his eyebrow when he saw Raven's hand covering Daly's mouth.
"We just entered into Hyperspace, it shouldn't take any more than two days to get there," Eric mentioned simply.
"Can we go have a look around?" Daly asked eagerly.
"Sure just make sure you don't touch anything," Eric said simply and then Daly and Raven jumped up from their seats and ran down the corridor towards the back of the Scoundrels Constellation.

The Wolf Star-Runner landed in the hangar of the Jedi Temple and shortly after the loading ramp dropped down Eric appeared with the two young boys not too far behind him. Daly and Raven were looking around them in awe as they were led further into the Jedi Temple by Eric. It wasn't long until they reached what was obviously their destination and entered a lift which went up. At the very top, the doors opened and the three occupants exited into a spacious entrance chamber.
"Good morning, Triska," Eric greeted the lady who was sitting behind the desk who looked up at the sound of her name being said.
"The Council is in session at the moment you will have to wait," Triska said sternly.
"I won't be able to stick around for long sadly I have places to be, how long do you think they will take?" Eric inquired hoping the woman would be able to hurry the Council along or at least allow him entrance into the Chamber.
"Wait here," Triska said as she rose from her seat and entered through the doors which she did not exit through again for a good ten minutes.
"You may go in now Mr Tao," Triska announced as the doors remained open.
"How many times have I told you now to call me Eric?" Eric asked fervently.
The lady ignored the Smuggler and so he entered the room with Daly and Raven behind him, he was greeted by the usual.
"More children you have Eric?" Yoda asked curiously.
"Yes, boys this is Grand Master Yoda of the Jedi Order," Eric introduced the old Jedi to them and then Raven proceeded to do as the Smuggler had instructed them to do back on the ship.
"Raven-Cordis Vitalis," Raven introduced himself bowing slightly with respect while feeling like an idiot the entire time.
"Daly Solak," Daly followed suit but did not bow as he thought it would be ridiculous and his father would not be pleased if he found out where he was now standing.
Eric coughed lightly as if trying to subtly prompt the boy to do as he had been instructed in case it insulted the Jedi Masters in the room.
"Come from a respect free home do you hmm?" Yoda questioned Daly.
"No the complete opposite actually," Daly growled softly while trying to stay as polite as possible.
"Respect and trust earned it must be," Yoda stated and then a Jedi Knight entered the circular room, "To Vicente Clan take them you will Master Kiko."
"Of course Master Yoda," Master Kiko replied as he bowed his head slightly before turning to the two boys and gestured for them to follow him.
Daly and Raven followed him out of the room, down the lift and back through the Jedi Temple halls.

A/N: I hope you have enjoyed this addition to the series. There are two other one-shots that have been planned and not yet written. One is for Jania and the other is for Inoma. Please leave a review and let me know what you think of this one-shot.

Ashlyn.