((NOTE: As an aside, I've never written a story before. This is something I got a little carried away on doing, when writing out the "short RP" for the application process. I know the two are slightly different, but this was the original. I am aware it needs tweaking, but hope you enjoy.))
- Chapter 1 -
Lethana was founded to be force sensitive even when she was an infant, where sometimes her parents would walk into her room to find all her toys floating around her cradle like planets to a sun. Her parents were reluctant at first to let her go to the Jedi Temple to train as a Jedi, but they realised it was the best future for her - despite how much they loved their daughter, they were not rich, and credits were hard to come by. Her father was forced to work for the Hutts, doing unsavoury work to get but a drop of an income, having taken one too many credit loans to try to keep his family alive. Her mother, as part of the deal for allowing her husband to work for them as repayment, worked at one of the Hutts’ clubs in the city. They knew that a life with them on Mirial would not be a life for their daughter at all. They knew she was gifted, and that she shouldn't suffer the same fate as they did.
Her father, knowing that it would break her mother's heart to hand their daughter over to someone else took Lethana from her cradle in the middle of one stormy night. Wrapped in rags, her father took Lethana to the spacesport in the city. He had overheard in a local cantina that a Twi'lek Jedi named
Zarrah had arrived on the planet on official council business, and bribed the patron to find out where she was staying. He had to avoid several security officials to be able to get into the spaceport so late at night, the noise of the storm covered his footfalls, and the shadows kept him from sight. Upon reaching the chamber of the Jedi, he paused for several moments, rain soaking the pristine rich red carpet that adorned the hallways of the spaceport. He brushed away some of the rags so her face was better nestled in and he playfully touched the tip of her noise. He wasn’t sure if Lethana had been awake the whole time, but she was now. Her face looked serene, almost as if to say she knew what he was trying to do for her, and she was in support her parents’ decision. He thought, just for a moment, that he could just see a glimpse of her future - of how she would look like years from now, strong, healthy, wise, beautiful…Perhaps that is what the parents tell themselves, he thought, as they give away their only child, to make it easier for them. “This is for the best” he said aloud.
*pow phwow pow* Their last moment was suddenly cut short, the security feeds had alerted security personnel to the intruder - a known criminal that worked for the Hutts - and they had closed in on their location.
*pow phwow pow* Blasters were fired at the them, scorching walls and the chamber door. In shock, having been lost in his last moment with his daughter, he almost dropped Lethana to the floor. Managing in a split second after to grab her from the air and place her in front of the door, before making a run for the exit. The chamber door opened just as security personnel rushed past, and the Jedi stood in the doorway, looking down to a rain soaked bundle in front of her.
The Jedi later learned that the mysterious Mirialan male had been unsuccessful at escaping the clutches of the spaceport security. He had been cornered near the entrance to the compound and had been apparently raising up his hands in surrender when he was suddenly shot down. One of the security officers had been a little on edge, and thought he was trying to reach for a weapon.
While unwinding the rain soaked bundle of rags, in order to put the babe in a warmer set of clothes, Zarrah found that very last rag had lettering scrawled on to it. Some words had faded and smudged, due to the rain soaking through the layers. However she could just make out
“Ple…ase…daugh…ter…Lethana”. Without finding any knowledge of the infant’s relatives, Zarrah realised she was the Mirialan’s
only hope. As tribute to her unknown parents, she named the babe Lethana, in honour of their last wish. She began feeling a strong sense of attachment, of duty, to the survival of this child – the Force had clearly guided them together, and she wasn’t going to hand over the child to be processed through the system as an orphaned child. She heard some terrible stories, and horrible rumours as what happens to those poor children – and she wasn’t going to allow that to happen to this girl. She could sense the infant had a strong affiliation to the Force also, which only reinforced her belief that it was the Force who made their paths meet. Zarrah, without more delay, adopted the child as her own and gave her her own last name -
Braska - she then took Lethana with her to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant to train her in the ways of the Jedi, and of the Force.
In her years growing up at the temple, the tutors of Lethana found her to be a superb student. A passion for histories, she spent a lot of her time studying in the Archives. She may not have been the strongest in lightsaber combat, but her Force abilities were incredibly focused and strong for someone so young, and she showed a great aptitude for healing. Zarrah, the Jedi who had found her on Mirial was a Sage, and Lethana had always looked upon her with admiration, likening her as the closest thing to her parents, and she hoped that one day she would be as great a Sage as Zarrah was.
When the Sith attacked the Temple on Coruscant she was only 12, and was among the handful of younglings and Jedi that were able to escape the unexpected betrayal. They almost didn't make their escape as a duo of Sith had trailed the group to the planned exit. The two Jedi that had attempted to lead the desperate group to safety, fought valiantly but were cut down by their burning red lightsabers. As the Sith closed in on the cowering group of younglings, Lethana found herself pushing to the front, in a last ditch attempt to save them from their deaths, was going to call upon her own abilities with the Force. However, a flash of green light behind one of the Sith stopped her short. As the dead Sith fell to the ground, the Jedi Zarrah could be seen brandishing her lightsaber. She shouted out to Lethana to go through the emergency exit as green lightsaber crashed with red. Herding the others to the exit, Lethana called out to Zarrah to escape with them. But this caught Zarrah off guard, and the Sith's saber cut at her leg. Her lightsaber fell from her hand and she yelled out in anguish. The Sith stood before a kneeling Zarrah and looked to Lethana. Lethana could not see the face behind the plate mask, but she could assume the expression. Zarrah, sensing her demise, shot a glance to her student, her emerald green eyes flashing defiantely and yelled for Lethana to seal the exit. Lethana, as if her limbs didn't belong to her pulled the door shut to do as she was commanded, but was just slow enough to witness her closest link to her past, be cut down with a flash of red.
