| An Auspicious Start By Jemmiah He hadn't been normal. That was what people had said about the child. Tethrys was a sparsely populated planet new to the ranks of the Republic: a small but highly prized little world with recently discovered resources hidden within its rocks and minerals. Rich in precious stones and gems, it had not taken the Republic long to recognise its true wealth, or ratify its request to join the ever-swelling number of worlds huddled, protected and cherished beneath its banner like a Tooni chick under the wings of its mother. And so those invited by the Republic to help extract and exploit the riches hidden deep beneath the surface joined the original inhabitants of the planet. It was an uneasy alliance at the best of times, with suspicion and resentment abounding on both sides. As the Tethryn population started to dwindle over the passing decades those native to the planet began to feel increasingly isolated from the Republic incomers, their simple, peaceful way of life eroded by the technological wonders that the Chancellor had granted them. It appeared that being part of the Republic was a double-edged sword. When the child had been born - the product of a hasty and much frowned upon alliance between Tethryn and settler - things began to go from bad to worse. The Tethryns were not ill educated or particularly primitive, even if their plain way of living seemed very much out of step with the rest of the galaxy. It was merely the fear of the unknown that had driven the infant's family to take the terrible step of abandoning their offspring: they knew nothing of the force, or of the Jedi, let alone what a midichlorian might be. From the start the unwanted babe had lain in its crib, watching with the world go by with an unsettlingly knowing look quite inappropriate for a tiny, wriggling child. Objects would suddenly launch themselves off the wall and start crawling inexorably across the floor towards the toothless, smiling baby: his open hand and tiny pink fingers almost beckoning them towards his grasp. Toys once left happily on the shelf in the evening would mysteriously find themselves in the crib in the morning. It was just not normal. Aejja, barely seventeen at the time, had not wanted to give the child up but her father had insisted that it was for the best. Whatever devil had spawned the child, its offspring was not to be given houseroom. And so the baby was left, as in the tradition of their ancient religious books, on the mountainside to perish: exposed to the elements so that nature might reclaim its own. The child however refused to die. The cold did not seem to affect it at all. The dog-like Reynis creatures that foraged and scavenged in the woods for food refused to attack the whimpering infant, and whilst the heartbroken Aejja was forced to watch and wait for hunger to take its toll on the child, something unseen seemed to be sustaining him: keeping him alive where others before him had perished. In the end it had been too much for Aejja. She had fled to her one-time lover and confessed the child's existence, and begged him to do something before it was too late. Aejja's father, impatient yet suddenly afraid of the child who refused to die, had attempted to speed matters up by constructing a pyre to purify the creature of the devil that surely existed within it. Even as the flames had licked around the wicker cot the child had not seemed particularly concerned, which most took as a sure sign that there was evil at work. Then enter the Jedi: the dark-furred Togorian with the gleaming eyes and his apprentice, the headband wearing Corellian with a dreamy expression that suggested he'd really rather be somewhere else (or maybe already was in his own mind). Brown cloaks flowed from their shoulders as they descended upon the scene: the Corellian youth raising a hand in the air and lowering it as if to pat out the flames with a single wave. Which he did. A simple plea to the Jedi had saved the day. The love of a mother for a child she knew she was never destined to raise and that of a father who, acknowledging his part in the infant's existence, had combined to rescue the boy at the very last moment. The protestations had died down with the flames, and the Togorian had taken the child in his arms and wrapped him in a blanket: a little soot stained perhaps but otherwise all right. The Corellian had sought to comfort the mother, telling her that the temple was the best place for her unwanted bundle of joy, and that she shouldn't be too sad as he was fairly ugly as babies went, but the joke had fallen on deaf ears as Aejja had said goodbye to the infant. Before the Jedi had departed she had given the Togorian Jedi her most precious possession: a ring fashioned from a very rare and expensive stone that could only be mined from deep within the rocks and quarries of Tethrys. That was the last that Aejja was to see of her son. She remained saddened that her special child was gone, but overjoyed that he had been given a new start in life befitting his wondrous skills and talents. In time she and the boy's father would marry and leave Tethrys behind them in search of a new future, just as they had left the fate of their first born to the will of the force. Having survived an eventful journey home the child formerly dubbed as 'Ugly Baby' gained a new name, and was dispatched in due course to the crèche to start his formative years of training in the ways of the Jedi. From then on two illustrious and respected Jedi would shape his life: the revered and esteemed Yoda, then latterly the astute Knight Dooku, both instilling within him their own brand of wisdom and cunning. More than sixty years would pass before the flames that had so nearly taken his life would eventually reclaim his body on the funeral pyre. An auspicious start it may have been, but at that point there was no way the infant Qui-Gon Jinn could possibly have known the profound affect he would have on the Jedi order, and on those who would follow after… |
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