The Gift (Serena)

[Serena Laran]

Serena was not aware of Loklorien's past dealings with these freedom fighters, but she could tell that the bonds she'd formed with Chiltan ran deep, no matter the years that may have passed. She saw the looks that passed between them, and wondered what stories they shared.

The perforated Stormtrooper helmets did not shock her, though she felt sad that the young ones who surrounded them would not experience a true childhood. Of course, she hadn't either. It was a price that some had to pay in order that others might enjoy theirs. Serena's head threatened to become overwhelmed with cobwebs of thought, so she took a deep breath and cleared her mind as Loklorien began to follow Chiltan.

Walking along behind them, she began to feel the presence of something ahead of them. It was faint, but it was there - a flickering sense of the familiar.

[Morgan Evanar]

skip me please

[Brody Chiltan]

Of course. He knew why she had returned, after all.

"This way."

He led the group on a short walk beyond the village. On a hill overlooking, and old tree twisted out of the earth. It had been there for perhaps a century, its trunk contorted and showing knots and gaps that only age and change could bring. Knowing where to look, Brody peered through the snarled root base, and found a small hollow. Some fidgeting to remove detritus that covered it, and he stood up with a distressed wooden box.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

The song of the Crystals was intoxicating so close, but it was not anything that she could be distracted by. It was like an old comfort that she had missed dearly, and the Lupine gave a relieved smile as Brody moved close. Her eyes closed, and as he gently held out the box she reached out her own hands, fingers running along the aged wood to partially wrap along the underside.

Even through the wood, the power was tactile, and s'Il gave pause as her eyes closed in sudden and complete peace.

And as the box passed from Brody's hands to hers, she bowed her head.

It was like a great burden had been lifted from her shoulders, and a sigh escaped her lips.

[Serena Laran]

Serena was mildly surprised at the lack of security around the hiding place. Still, who would even think of looking for a priceless Jedi artifact here in the first place?

"May I see them?"

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Half-turning to Serena, the Lupine held the box out for her to take. The red-headed Jedi was the one who s'Il had intended the Crystals to go to in the first place, and she would never refuse the question now sent her way.

"You are the only one I can think of who would put them to the use that they are meant for."

[Morgan Evanar]

Morgan watched Serena hesitate, as if she were in a dream. And yet here it was, this incredible artifact, hidden in the middle of nowhere for decades. Serena slowly reached out and took the box. She held it, transfixed.

"I can pinch you if it would help." Morgan said, which somewhat broke the daze. The elder Jedi gave Morgan a smile and shook her head. Serena shifted the box to one arm, and removed the lid. There was a gasp of joy and awe.

Morgan moved a little closer.

"What do they do, Serena? I mean, exactly."

[Serena Laran]

She didn't answer for a moment, almost mesmerized by the shifting 'flames' within the crystals. They burned as vividly as she remembered, from the Halls of Healing in the Jedi Temple. Not that she'd ever used them before, or even gotten this close to them. The security was so tight, and only the Masters handled them...

"They are used to heal the most serious of wounds," she said softly. Reverently. "One properly trained in their use could bring someone back from the edge of death with one of these." She shifted a little so Morgan could see them. "A healer would channel the Force through one and into the injured or sick. The results were... incredible. I saw them used many times during the war. The Clone Wars," she amended.

She lifted her eyes to Loklorien, bright with barely held back tears. "This gift is beyond measure, my friend. The Force has blessed me through you."

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

s'Il stood beside Brody as the two old friends watched Serena. Each held a half-crooked grin on their features as she explained their powers. They knew intimately well the healing strength that the crystals held, and their shared experience so long ago had formed a strange, singular bond between the two.

They had been young, only separated by a few years, and now they were far older. The gravity of years and age given them a new appearance that held something with far deeper meaning in all that they did. And though the time they'd spent together had been fleeting, it had been heavy with emotion, each relying on the other for survival. What they gained between them in the span of a day and a night carried far past what some accumulated in a lifetime.

They stood; a pair that had come together in the unlikeliest of events to safeguard a priceless piece of history until needed once more.