Prelude: Acceptance

17 ABY, Yavin IV, forests outside of the Jedi Praxeum

It was a quiet, dark night on Yavin IV. It was scarcely past the day's changing. The students at the Praxeum slept soundly, preparing for another day of study and training. Their master, however, was not among them.

Jedi Grandmaster Luke Skywalker walked slowly through the forests of Yavin IV, softly making his way off of one the many beaten paths. He looked around cautiously, though not as one does when expecting an ambush - his surveillance was more amicable, as though making sure he did not miss any detail the wondrous scenery might offer up. The forest was a sight a behold during Yavin IV's spring season. Globular, luminescent insects swarmed about the moss-rich tree trunks, giving the appearance of hundreds of tiny, floating lanterns lighting a wanderer's path. Luke reached over his shoulders and took of hold of his brown, tattered robe, pulling the garment's hood over his head, shielding him from the light rain that made its way through the precipitous forest canopy.

He treaded an improvised route through the dense, wooden scenery - nevertheless, he moved with a sense of purpose. An observer would not have doubted that Luke knew exactly where he meant to end up. Finally, the Jedi came to a clearing, a small sanctuary having the appearance slightly of a swamp, but absent the unpleasant facets of such a terrain. Luke lowered his hood now, pausing his walk momentarily to examine the scenery again. He took a few careful steps forward, to the edge of large pond serving as the sanctum's centerpiece.

Luke looked down to the idle, dark water expectantly. Literally rising to the occasion, a cerulean form approached the surface, growing in size as it neared the waterline. Finally, the large water serpent reared its head, departing just enough to bring itself at eye level with the shorter human Jedi. Luke smiled warmly to the Dur Sabon, placing his palms endearingly on the sides of the being's face.

"There you are, old friend. I thought I might run into you out here, Akea."

Akea replied with what might best be described as a guttural noise, a primal sort of greeting among his kind. The Dur Sabon was a senior Jedi Knight in Luke's New Jedi Order. He had spent the prior two years studying at the Praxeum, having lost the five before that to a fruitless search for a cure.

Akea had once been desparate; Dur Sabon, Ootolans, and other polymorphic, aquatic species were especially susceptible to disorders affecting cellular regeneration - Akea was victim to one such disorder, and though its progress was slow, he could not ignore its subtle, ever present tug on the edges of his tattered body, worried that each attack might be the one to grab that thread necessary to unravel the whole tapestry. ((Obviously, still in progress.))