Constructive Criticism Welcome!
Awareness came to the child in the presence of a cold, dark fog. She shivered as she moved through sinuous tendrils of chill vapor, searching for... something. What was she looking for? A frown furrowed a brow plastered with damp curls.
"Father?" she called into the murk as she felt a faint whisper of a familiar touch. He felt so far away. "Father, wait! I'm coming..."
The gray mist swirled thick and thin, but never clearing and leaving nothing to mark the young girl's passage but the faintest rippled echo. Her dark eyes ached with the effort to penetrate the gloom as she strove towards the last echo of her father's warmth.
All too soon, that slender guide was vanquished by the pervasive cold. The blonde girl stood still and shivered in the fog's grasp. Her senses cast about fruitlessly for some lingering hint, some tiny clue. The thick ropes of mist to her right appeared to thin and reform, revealing a dark human-shaped figure far in the distance. Hope buoying her tender heart, the child fled in that direction. "Father!"
The figure became more clear as she ran, became stooped and drawn inside a vast black cloak which writhed and furled as a life unto itself. Anger and hatred reached out to pluck at her awareness and bite at her flesh like a swarm of hungry swamp-suckers. For the first time she felt true fear as the dark shape began to turn towards her.
She was frozen, her feet a sudden prisoner of mist-turned ice, and still she tried to flee. A sudden rush of warmed cracked her bonds, and strong arms pulled her free just before that dreaded dark face turned it's burning red orbs upon her.
A sense of motion carried through to her as she clung to her rescuer. His silver-shot beard tickled against her ear as he whispered, "You are safe, now, youngling... do not fear."
"Qui-Gon..."
obsessedwithSW posted:Interesting begining. Silence is nine years old and sick in this post and the voices are Rev and Nala. Is that Darth Vader searching for silence in the force ? As always cant wait for more.
jpauln posted:Nice beginning! Mysterious and tension filled... and Sidious almost seeing Silence; thank God for Qui-Gon! I can't wait to see where this goes.
MoeTharen posted:Whoa! Very intersting begining! I love it. Keep me posted!
Luna_Nightshade posted:Indeed, yay for Qui-Gon! I only wish he could have stepped in like that in some of Anakin's visions... Good job!
Silence shivered in the cool damp of the ever-present gray swirls of cloying mist after the bygone Jedi Master set her down on her feet. Where they were now looked no different from where they had fled from, save that the dark, palpable aura of evil was much less. Questions bubbled up in her youthful mind, fighting each other for position as she turned her dark eyes up towards her savior. The nine-year-old girl found herself silenced before the flood of words could pass her lips with nothing more than a gentle, rebuking gaze from Qui-Gon Jinn's wise blue eyes. The discorporate Master sank down cross-legged and motioned for her to follow. Patience. Her father wanted her to learn patience, and Master Jinnwas firm in his agreement, but it was so hard! She tried not to squirm or fidget, sitting on her own hands to still them while she waited for the Jedi Master to speak. She knew from past lessons it would not be until she was quiescent and serene.
Qui-Gon had difficulty in concealing his amused smile, despite the gravity of the child's current situation. Little did younglings ever suspect that it was as hard to teach them patience as it was for them to learn it. He kept himself carefully attuned to the swirls and eddies about them while he waited for the young girl to compose herself, alert for any hint that the dark presence so narrowly escaped. It was, he knew, only a matter of time before Darth Sideous would probe more deeply for the disturbance left by their flight. He had played this game with the Sith for some time now. If both he and the girl remained calm, they would be more difficult to find. He felt more than heard Silence reach the virtue for which she'd been renamed. Sight and sound and touch were simply comfortable illusions in this place, metaphors that kept mind linked with soul. All that he'd learned since his death had only shown him all that there was yet to know, and key among those new mysteries was sitting before him now. The corners of his mouth twisted a bit again at the thought. Unlike his former Padawan, he thrived on the unexpected. "Now, child... " the Master Jedi let a fuller smile warm his bearded face. "We will address those questions of yours."
She was supposed to be at peace, silent within herself, but the little whisper of relief at the Master's approval and permission could not be supressed. Silence smiled in return, for one brief moment, before her own question wiped the expression away. "Master Qui-Gon... am I dead?" "No." Qui-Gon Jinn's answer to Silence's quietly voiced question was immediate and authorative. His straight-browed blue gaze bore into her own soft brown eyes with an almost frightening intensity of will, as though he could by this keep his declaration true. Almost, because she could not even begin to conceive of the gentle Master as ever posing her a threat despite his emmense power. She trusted him, even loved him, on par with her own father, and Raanan, and Nala. Instead of fright, she smiled, "I'm glad... I've been very sick." The discorporate Master's visage relaxed as he gave the child a sober nod. "Indeed, you have been, Silence. I think perhaps that is part of what enabled you to come here, but it is not safe. You must return." "Where is here, Master Jinn?" The blonde girl gave a little shudder as an errant wisp of cool fog brushed past. Her dark eyes followed the tendril until it merged with another eddy at an unjudgable distance.
The older Jedi sat in quiet contemplation for a moment, putting together his thoughts to provide the child her answer. "Recite the Jedi Code," he finally instructed her, offering a soft smile in the wake of her confused glance. Blinking back at him, Silence strove to smooth her brow and quietly gave voice to the creed taught her since she could first form the words. "There is no emotion; there is peace. There is no ignorance; there is knowledge. There is no passion; there is serenity. There is no death; there is ..." The light of intuition and understanding burst into vibrance behind her chocolate-hued eyes, "The Force! This is the Force!" She glanced about herself and puzzlement furrowed her young brow once more. "This is the Force?" It seemed... wrong. Not the shining light it should have been, that her father said it was. "Your dismay is a shared one, young padawan," Qui-Gon kept his low voice deliberately soothing. The dark, obscuring shadows had been sensed by the Council, by even himself, but he had never expected what he'd found in its direct embrace, any more than this girl did. "The Dark Side clouds everything, but look about you again. It is still denied it's victory. You, and I, and your father, we strengthen the Light. Every being who embraces compassion and kindness aids the fight." Silence's lips twitched into a faint smile as she turned her gaze back to the luminous Master Jedi. "White and black make gray... but it takes a whole lot of black to make a gray this dark" She remembered that from the paints Raanan let her mix and play with, and adopted a more pleased smile at Qui-Gon's nod of approval for the childlike analogy. "Exactly, Silence." "But... Master, if I am not dead, how did I get here?" Qui-Gon answered the question with honest sincerity and a brief shake of his tawny, silver-shot mane. "I do not know, young one. Together we will meditate on this for the answer. I think that is how we will find the way back for you." He offered his broad, rough hands and smiled reassuringly when Silence met them with her own smaller, smoother fingers. "Now, clear our minds..."
It could have been hours, or even years in this timeless place before two pairs of eyes, brown and blue, snapped open in triumph. "Illness loosed your tether..." began Qui-Gon's warm baritone. "But another strong link, I can follow back!" Silence finished in an excited voice. "Father! My bond with Father!" Master Jinn nodded his head, a smile breaking through behind his grizzled beard. "Yes. Your instincts to seek your father were correct, but your efforts were unfledged and led you to another. I will help guide you, this time, and so will Jedi Faidhe." The spectral Jedi rose to his feet smoothly, and silently urged the child to do the same with an upwards gesture. "How, Master?" The girl gazed up at him with trust shining in her eyes. "Father doesn't know where I am." "Then, little Silence, I shall have to tell him," Qui-Gon Jinn's blue eyes sparkled briefly in mischief, " and you shall help me."
"Did you know him?" Silence queried in a whisper, the question surfacing before she could quell it. "Know him? No. Know of him? More or less... there were many padawans in those days, and I had Obi-Wan as my own. Your father was still a youngling, around your own age, when I passed into the Force." Anakin's age. The thought brought a stab of heartache through the discorporate Jedi. If only... At Silence's concerned glance, he banished both pain and regret and focused on the girl. "No more questions, child. Time is short. You must concentrate on your father, as will I." He turned her about with a gentle touch, and rested his broad hands on her slender shoulders. "Together, now."