{{ urbania's void - chapter 21
...invitation to empathy (day negative two-thousand eight hundred fifty-nine / -2859)
Jacen Solo heard his chamber door slide open. It was the door of his guest quarters in the Palace on Hapes. Jacen and his companions were visiting their friend, the Princess, Tenel Ka. He didn't need to look to know who was standing behind him.
"Jacen. Come with me."
He turned around to face the person and opened his mouth to reply when her image silenced him. A royal blue robe worn over a Hapan silk nightgown of the purest white. Her hair was like a waterfall of fire, cascading in waves down her back. Jacen could see her calm gray eyes piercing the dimness of the chamber.
"It's late. Won't we get in trouble?"
Normally, Jacen wouldn't reject to slipping out with her and gallivanting around the hallways of the Palace. But he knew that the watchful eyes of Ta'a Chume were on him like a hawkbat... and he didn't want to get on her bad side.
She held out her right hand, "Trust me. It is worth it. You must see this."
As Jacen took her slender hand in his, he smiled slightly and she led him out of the room. As she tugged him down the long, majestic hallways of the Palace, he hissed after her. "Tenel Ka! Where are we going?"
She never responded. Before he knew it, they were out of the Fountain Palace, bounding under the moonlight, through the tall grass towards the woods, both in their nightclothes. As they reached the edge of the forest, Jacen stopped and let go of her hand, trying to catch his breath. "Hey, Tenel Ka, you gotta remember that I'm not as good as you when it comes to this kind of stuff." He let his eyes lock on her.
She hadn't even broken a sweat.
"Why won't you tell me where we're going?"
Glancing around, Tenel Ka responded absently, "We are wasting time. They are going to be gone by the time we get there."
"What...?"
Jacen couldn't finish his inquiry as he was grabbed and pulled into the lightly wooded area. Tenel Ka jogged through the brush with Jacen in tow, dodging vines, pushing branches out of the way. And then abruptly, she just stopped, her head turning slowly from the right to the left as her hand brushed locks of fire away from her face.
To the right was a clearing. It was the clearing surrounding Karina Lake. The glow from the seven moons of Hapes reflected off of the surface of the water, sending dazzling beams of pale moonlight onto the features of the Princess of Hapes. Jacen wanted to just stop right there and admire her, but she wouldn't let him. She wrapped her fingers around his hand again and they were off, speeding past the lake.
Running, dodging branches, running.
"Here..." Tenel Ka slowed down, sliding behind a natural curtain of vines. Jacen was about to follow her but he stopped and watched as Tenel Ka suddenly growled. Her robe had caught on a branch and was tugged slightly, but Jacen reached down and batted the branch away, smiling up to Tenel Ka. "Thank you." And motioning him behind the curtain he followed...
He gasped.
Tenel Ka stood behind him, her right hand on her hip as she nibbled on her lower lip.
They were standing in the middle of a rough grove, the canopy overhead dense, but with enough slits and holes in the vines that pinholes of moonlight seeped through. The main light source of the grove wasn't from the moonlight though...
Jacen let his brandy-brown eyes land on the ground in the middle of the area. It was a pool of water, he couldn't tell how deep it was, but he was drawn to it. There was a sheen above the top of the water and it shimmered with a soft golden light, illuminating the grove. Jacen couldn't tear his eyes from it. Kneeling in front of the pool, he reached out over the water and slowly lowered his hand.
The next thing he knew, the layer of gold shattered and the hundreds of pieces began to spread around the grove, floating along on the breeze. Jacen shot up from his kneeling position and spun around in a circle, trying to follow all the glimmers at once.
"They are called dravells." Tenel Ka said softly, from her spot near one of the grove's crooked entrances. "I meant to show them to you last time we were all on Hapes... but I had forgotten."
Jacen let his eyes wander to Tenel Ka’s, which were lit up by the tiny, golden creatures. "This is incredible!"
Jacen swore he saw a slight smile across his best friend's face but he didn't want to pry to find out. His head turned upwards as he watched the faintly lit sparks float above him and around him. Fully opening himself to the Force, the collective presence of the dravells poked hundreds of living pinpricks into his mind. They calmed his nerves, their shade and motion soothing the mildly tense feelings snaking through his body. Reaching out to one of them with his mind, Jacen outstretched his hand and the tiny dravell flittered down to his fingers, gently landing on the knuckle of his left pointer finger. A soft breeze blew at Jacen's back, through the crisscrossing wall of vines, pushing locks of hair into his eyes. He whispered softly to the insect, whose luminous wings were slowly flapping happily at the sound of his voice.
Jacen's eyes focused past the dravell on his hand to Tenel Ka, who appeared a tad uncomfortable. "Come here..."
She stepped out of the shadows and joined Jacen in the migrating pillar of dravells, who seemed to be moving in a ponderous, sweeping circle around Jacen. It was like Jacen had just invited her into some secret society or something. He always fell into a somber and serious mood when it came down to communicating with animals and creatures. Tenel Ka found his slight mood swings oddly attractive.
"What?" She inquired softly.
Jacen lifted his hand in between their faces, the dravell still moving it's wings, their twinkle casting delicate shadows onto the teenager's faces. Suddenly, it took off and fluttered only inches away, landing on Tenel Ka's cheekbone.
"Hey!" Jacen chuckled slightly. "He likes you!"
A silence engulfed the two for a few hesitant moments after that and Jacen stole it away by closing the gap between them and gently pressing his lips to hers. The dravell had sensed him moving closer and ascended, from Tenel Ka's cheek, back to its companions before their lips had met.
Cupping her cheeks in his hands, Jacen pulled back after the lingering kiss and whispered, "I... I do too."
Tenel Ka smiled inwardly at Jacen's confession. She could tell that he felt awkward doing it and she just acknowledged it by grasping the collar of his nightshirt and pulling him in for another kiss, this one slower and more intimate. They had pulled back away from each other and sat by the pool, talking for most of the night. Their conversation bordering on inane and pointless babble --- but everytime they caught each other’s eyes in the dim light, they would realize something more and more.
Destiny had chosen a path for them. It was a difficult one. But they knew they would get through it. And they knew they would get through it together.
After that night, dravells had become one of Jacen's favorite creatures, for their beauty, grace and the memories they held. Jacen vowed that one day, every dravell in that grove would represent a memory he shared with Tenel Ka. It might have been a silly childhood notion then...
But Jacen never forgot it.
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