The Healer of Dhomanda A'lainn

"There you are, my little friend." The woman pushed aside the mulch from the forest floor, revealing a lone beacáin, fleshy cap supported by a slender stalk. With a gentle touch the woman harvested the fungi, depositing it into the pouch tied about her waist. She pushed herself up to her feet, and breathed deeply of the cool twilight air. Through the quiet forest, the healer walked on soft leather boots, tied about her calves with leather thongs, making little noise to mark her passing.

She had lived almost half her life amongst the people of Dhomanda A'lainn, which roughly translated to 'the beautiful world' in their own tongue. They were simple in the eyes of the Imperials who had one of their outermost outposts on the planet, but the Roghnófar Daoine were a noble and proud group. The Chosen People had no technology beyond spears and swords crafted from metal mined in the mountains, and spoke only their own language. A few of the men that traded with the Imperials (long on the planet, with no respite from the Core in many years) understood a smattering of Basic, and could carry on a short conversation, but they made no effort to learn the language of the coimhthíoch, or strangers.

The ise nach sláinte was also a coimhthíoch, although she lived away from the Imperial compound. The name the Roghnófar Daoine had given her meant "she who heals," for whenever there was a sickness in a caer that was beyond their own ken, the healer in the forest would be sought out. She asked no payment for her power, but one chieftain had insisted on gifting her with matching silver armbands after she saved the life of his son. Rather than embarrass the lord by refusing the gift, ise nach sláinte had graciously accepted, and wore the trinkets at all times.

She lived alone - hermited away in the thickest parts of the forest on the foothills of the Cos Bhriste Mountains. The healer refused none that came to her, but did not encourage the visits.

After she had first come to Dhomanda A'lainn, the healer had prophesied of a coming famine, a blight on the crops of the next planting season. She had lived among the people then, convincing the lord of the caer to listen to her advice, and helping prepare for the coming food shortage. All had come to pass exactly as she had said, and because of her forewarning many lives were spared suffering.

The healer had left the caer, and taken up her solitary residence. They called her a prophetess (banfáith), and a healer. She was all these things, and more.

She was a Jedi Knight, exiled on the planet RX-271 in the Outer Rim. And she was gathering healing herbs in the forest.

They had set up a camp, far enough away from the coimhthíoch to feel safe, but close enough to return and trade with them with the sunrise. Their small caravan was all family, extended family and family by marriage. It was their way to travel together.

After the evening meal, meager but filling fare cooked over an open flame, the spit had been cleared away. The men had settled down leaning against tree trunks, or sitting upon fallen logs. The first sounds began, haunting the nearby woods with a melancholy twang. Soon enough other strings were plucked and a lively tune began to play.

The women, already glistening with a sheen of sweat from the task of cleaning up the camp, began to filter out from tents and rickety carriges. The children were allowed to watch from their sleeping places, but only the young adults and the elders partook in the revelry of the night, the giofóg damhsa.

Sensual and graceful, the women and men moved in intricate steps and leaps around the fire, always in time with the music. Rhianna, younger sister to the present ruling male, was one of the first dancers to dare to leap the flames. She danced with no fear, laughing and taunting her male relatives and other young men who would eventually ask to court her. In time she'd have to acknowledge them, but for right now, this night.. she was free.

Turning her face to the fading sunlight, she was as happy and carefree as she could ever hope to be. She began to twirl and twirl in a mad spiral, her brothers had seen her do this before so long that she had fallen down in a heap, but this time she wouldn't. Laughing in sheer delight she continued, catching the eyes of her family who looked on and joined her laughter. Just when she would have slowed down to stop she heard the first sound, followed by a woman's scream.

"A Dhia dhílis!!"

"Coimhthíoch's!!"

She stopped so abruptly that she went down, dead weight. Her spinning head wouldn't let her focus, but she could hear! Her peaceful and defensless family was being slaughtered! Her head slumped to the side and met the eyes of her brother, he was already dead. There was a burning hole in the center of his chest, a wound from one of the weapons of the coimhthíoch!

Grief tore at her heart, but also the need to get up and try to help her family. She rolled over to her hands and knee's, startingto rise and was crushed back down by one of the white armored coimhthíoch.

"I've got one of them! Grab a few more and head back to base! Leave the rest for dead. The less we have to report, the better."

"Yes, Sir!"

Rhianna screamed. She could hear things happening. Sounds that would haunt her soul for a very long time. She was being dragged up by her hair and hauled away, useless to her family. She began to fight, to kick and scream and hit.

"Be still !!!! Ouch! That's it, join them then!"

She was once more thrown to the ground and without any ado, shot at close range. The pain in her ribs was blinding, tears streamed down her face, but no more screams came from her throat. It was just too late. No one was left to help her. She closed her eyes and faded into darkness.

At the first sounds of blaster fire, the healer turned away from the herbs she was gathering, and picked up her long brown shift near the hem. She cound sense the pain, and knew that only the Imperial Scoutroopers ventured this far from their military base. Only Imperials would have blasters on this planet.

The night was warm, so she had stayed in the woods, but now a chill ran down her spine. Serena hoisted her skirt and ran noiselessly through the woods, towards the sounds. As she neared, a scream ripped through the air, shrill and panicked, only to be silenced by another blaster shot.

The banfáith slowed, creeping towards a bonfire in a clearing as speeder bikes whined and left the area. Serena stood just out of the firelight in the treeline, and took in the sight of the group of gypsies that had been slaughtered. She knew some of them, as she had traded with this group only three days previously. She reviewed the carnage with a cool eye, searching for any survivors.

A whimpered cry caught her ear, and almost at the same time she saw the remaining scoutrooper. A girl lay in the dirt where she had fallen, blood dripping from her ribs, and the Imperial was bending over her, tugging at her blue dress. Serena raised an eyebrow, and stepped quietly from her hiding place.

His attention was all on the girl, and the campfire made it difficult to see into the darkness around him. His utility belt dropped to the ground as he yanked the girl's mantle to her hips.

"Stad!" She spoke in the language of the people, hoping that enough life lingered in the girl that she would understand help was there. The tincéir girl moaned, but she seemed senseless, her forehead bright with sweat.

The scoutrooper righted himself immediately, reaching for his blaster. Unfortunately for him, he had already laid it on the ground in anticipation of the banéigin. He spoke haltingly in their language. "Bog ar shiúl!" He reached behind him for his blaster.

The healer made no move to stop him, only continued walking towards the girl. "Stad. You must stop."

His helmet was also on the ground, and so she could see the expression of confusion as he heard this native woman speaking Basic. "Bog.. move away!" The blaster was up and pointing at her as she knelt by the side of the girl on the ground.

"It is an evil thing you do to these people." A quick touch of two fingers to the girl's neck, and Serena could feel the thready beat of her heart. Still alive. "Let me take the girl and go."

"Go away! Old woman, you are unwanted here!" He gestured with the blaster.

"No... no it is you who are unwanted here." Serena stood, her face still hidden in the hood of the robe she wore over her shift. His finger twitched on the trigger, but the bolt never met it's mark. He gaped at the blue lightsaber that had made a sudden appearance in her hand, deflecting the blaster bolt into the fire.

Serena took one step forward, and neatly sliced off the end of his blaster. "I suggest you leave." The scoutrooper backed away quickly, and ran for his bike.

Just as quickly, the healer bent over the curly haired girl, and lifted her in her arms. Then, it was the work of a moment to fry the speederbike's communications equipment. He could not call for back up now - he would have to catch up to his fellows. The girl in her arms mumbled, and then lay still, arms and legs flopping as Serena carried her into the forest.

Once under cover, the Jedi carefully positioned the girl's arms so they would not dangle, and hurried through the forest. It would be a day or so before the troopers would find her hut in the forest, but she would be gone by then. Serena cursed silently, but did not regret saving the girl. She could find another planet to hide on, but this girl would never get another life.

She had never been a bad girl. She had been a good daughter to her parents. She had been a respectful, if not always obedient sister to her brother. He had been leader of their small caravan and advisor to the high cheiftan of the Tincéir , she was used to a fair amount of leniency. She hadn't considered herself to be corrupted in any way, yet it seemed upon the end of her life she had been cast straight into the flames of Damnú.

The flames were at once scorching to her tender skin and so icy that her bones seemed to rattle with her unending shivers. She wouldn't have believed where she was if the torture hadn't seemed so.. unending. Damnú was a tricky place too, far away in the distance she could hear, what she thought to be her mother's voice urging her to drink cool water that would help her. Her mother would never be in a place so wicked, it could never be her mother. So she had resisted. She could feel the icy trickle of the water spill down her neck, and her efforts to resist had brought the shivering back.

Finally unable to struggle anymore, she was forced to drink the waters of Damnú . Slowly at first the waters trickled down her throat, too cold to be anything of Dhomanda A'lainn. Her submission brought her some measure of comfort though, the shivers ceased. She let herself drift off again, hoping to hear her mothers voice, even if it was only an infernal echo.

The girl was shivering as she lay on the healer's simple bed of spruce covered with a clean sheet. Her clothes were in a bloodstained pile near the firepit, and her chest was swathed in a clean bandage. Blood was soaking through from the wound, and Serena knew it would take more than a canny mind to heal the gypsy girl's wounds.

The fever had to be taken care of as well. With steady hands, the Jedi lifted the girl's head, pouring a little bit of tea down her throat. Water steeped in a special mix of herbs that would help regulate the body's internal temperature. It took time to work, however, time the tincéir girl did not have.

Serena pulled back the blood soaked bandage, dropping it to the floor beside the bed. The blaster bolt had taken the girl just under her left breast, a firey hole of puckered flesh that was nearly an inch and a half in diameter. As she examined it, blood oozed out, thin and watery, with a yellowish tint. It was already getting infected, most likely because of the trek through the forest.

In her initial examination of the wound, she had determined that the bolt had punctured the left lung, but missed any other vital organs. She had used up the last bit of bacta fifteen years previously, which would have helped immensely in this paticular case. Eyes closed, Serena laid her cool hands on the girl's ribcage, bracketing the wound.

Opening herself up to the abhairt saoil, the Life Giver, Serena descended into a Jedi trance, her consciousness growing more alert as her body melted away. The wound was all encompassing, and the healer gave herself freely to the will of the Force.

Hours later, as dawn was peeking through the trees, the girl awoke. She was covered with a finely woven blanket, a newly formed pink scar under her breast. The firepit had been banked high, and still filled the hut with warmth against the morning chill. Beside her, on the floor, lay the banfáith. Her long red hair was covered with linen and tied into a single tail, and she wore a light beige shift that was bloodstained.

Sitting up, Rhianna winced, not from pain but from the stiffness that had settled into her muscles. She was confused on many levels. Had it all been a brionglóid? Had the rumored little folk of the Dhomanda A'lainn stolen her away?

Looking about, she didn't see any fey visions, only a simple but clean dwelling and on the floor beside her, the woman known to her only as banfáith. The Banfáith, more appropriately. She was known to Rhianna, although Rhianna had never spoken to her. She was considered blessed, even holy, among the tincéir clans.

Suddenly it all came flying back to her. She reached down to her chest to feel for, what she thought would be, a huge gaping wound. Nothing remained except a pink line, that she knew she would always carry. A soft moan escaped her. It had all been real. Her whole family was either dead already or dying in the woods they had called home. Tears spilled over her cheeks.

Her muffled sobs seemed to stir the Banfáith.. Rhianna pulled the soft covers around her body, self consciously and waited to see if the great healer wound awaken.

Serena stirred, pulling herself up from the floor to kneel by the bed. The tincéir girl was crying, hugging the blanket to herself. The Jedi spoke to her in the language of the Roghnófar Daoine.

"Do not be afraid, you are safe here for now." She got to her feet slowly, the healing trance had been long, and her joints were stiff. A quick glance at her shift revealed all the blood, and the healer turned her back, pulling the shift over her head and replacing it with a clean one. She took a white linen shift from the chest that held her clothing, and brought it to the weeping girl. "Here, clothe yourself, and we will eat together."

As the girl complied, Serena busied herself preparing a simple meal of bread, cheese and goat's milk for them to break fast with.

"Go raibh míle maith agat.. Thank you very much, for your help and care. "

After expressing her thanks to the Banfáith for her rescue and healing, Rhianna accepted the food. She sat cross legged and broke apart a few chunks of bread. Sipping at her milk, she inquired if the healer knew if any others had lived. The look of sadness spoke more than any words could have. Rhianna knew she was truly alone.

She had no idea what would become of her. She had no training to live on her own. Always she had been taken care of by her brother. The only task appointed to her was to amuse passing caravans and coimhthíochs alike by telling them their fortunes. She had quite a gift for it and many times had earned enough to feed her family. But reading the lines of peoples hands would not shelter her.. She would no longer speak to any coimhthíochs.

She realized that she was being watched closely by the Banfáith. She was being urged to eat her food, she would need her strength. But the truth was, she really didn't care.

As the girl ate, ise nach sláinte moved around the one room hut, packing clothes and food into a pair of soft bags that could be slung around the neck and shoulder. The two women finished at about the same time, the girl wiping the last bit of crumbs from her face as Serena re-joined her at the table. The will to continue was not in her, but she had eaten her fill, her body needing replenishment after it's ordeal.

"I am Sámh," she supplied, breaking off a crust of bread to eat. Sámh was the word for 'serene,' which was the closest she could come to her own name.

My greetings to you, Sámh. I am called, Rhianna.

She couldn't help but worry, the way that Sámh was packing. It seemed that she was preparing to leave in a great hurry. Rhianna felt useless sitting there feeling sorry for herself. She rose and moved to where she could help.

"You are leaving? What can I do to help you? Where will you go?"

She had tried to keep the rising panic out of her voice, but she was unable. It seemed the one person left in the world that was to be trusted was getting ready to leave. With or without her, Rhianna couldn't be certain. Was she to accompany the Banfáith somewhere? Perhaps they would seek out other tincéir for Rhianna to stay with? The thought was depressing.

"What is to become of me..?"

Serena stilled her hands, and held out one of the packed slingbags for Rhianna. "You will stay with me. We are tired from the night, but the coimhthíoch are not as tired as we. Even now they are searching these woods for you, and for me." In her hands she held a green over-mantle which she slipped on over her shift. Long fingers deftly tied up the bodice, her shift peeking through the slit skirt. A similar brown mantle was found for Rhianna, and the girl dressed quickly enough.

The Jedi quickly slung her heavy bag across her body, the weight carried in front and under her arm. The bag she had given to the tincéir girl was much lighter. "I believe you were spared for a reason, Rhíanna." Tears welled up in the girl's eyes again, but Serena banished them with a steady look. "There will be time enough for tears later. For now, we must flee this place if we are to survive today."

The healer checked the placement of the bag Rhíanna was carrying, making sure it would not overtire the girl during their trek. She seemed sturdy enough, but she would have to delve the girl again to see how the healing had taken. They cloaked themselves in thick wool, and exited the simple hut.

Before heading into the woods, the older woman stayed the girl with a hand, and turned back to the still open door. One long, searching look drank in the interior of her home for the last twenty odd years, and then Serena knelt by the threshold. She fastened something to the simple doorframe, and pulled the door shut. Satisfied, the Jedi caught up Rhianna's hand, and the two women fled into the forest, heading up the foothills towards the Cos Bhriste Mountains.

She trusted Sámh. She was the only one left she had to trust.. Which was why without question she didn't protest when she was taken in hand like a small child and led away from the wreckage of er life. In fact, she was rather like a child, for all intents and purposes. She had no idea how to care for herself, thrown to the world alone. So without a word, she dutifully kept pace as best she could and carried the sachel without complaint.

The shadow of a great sliabh lay in their path. Rhianna realized she was being lead straight to the area locals called Cos Bhriste. It was not terrain she had ever crossed before and therefore a little intimidating. She said nothing and made no complaints as they waded through ankle deep freezing rivers. She was patient as they had to cross between incredibly sharp low hanging pine. But as they began an upward trek, her curiosity got the better of her.

"You don't mean to attempt the Cos Bhriste, do you?

Sámh turned to give Rhianna a hand up over a steep bit of ground, and shook her head. "I do not mean to cross the sliabh, if that is what you mean."

The sound of a far off explosion caused both women to look back the way they'd come. Serena nodded, "The coimhthíoch have found my hut. Hurry, we must go quickly now." They had not been walking slowly before, by any stretch of the imagination, but the Jedi quietly helped her charge along as she picked up the pace. Rhianna was too dazed from her experience to question anything, and for that Serena thanked the Force.

The two women reached the treeline shortly before sunset. Serena sat them down under the cover of the forest for their evening meal. "It will not be long now. Rhianna, how are you feeling?" She reached across to touch the girl's forehead but felt no fever.

Pulling her knees up to her chest, Rhianna sat hugging herself and rocking slowly. To say that the day had been a strain for her would be putting it far too mildly. She was exhausted and bereft. Also she had no idea why the coimhthíochs that her family had traded with in the past would do this vile thing, or why they would continue to pursue her. A thousand thoughts raced through her head.

"I feel fine. But I shouldn't. I should be dead, like the rest.

She rolled to her side and lay down upon a bed of fallen pine needles, greatful for the borrowed mantle protecting her skin. Staring straight up at the sky, she let out a long breath.

"How is it that I lived? And why do they follow us?"

Serena brushed some loose hairs from around her face, pulling the long linen-wrapped tail of her hair over her shoulder. "In truth, you are not the one they want. I am a..." She faltered, then shook her head. "I am what they call a Jedai. A healer, and a prophetess at times. I listen to the Abhairt Saoil, the Life Giver. Your people know of this... force. It lives in everyone, and everything, holding the ...galaxy together. The cruinne, the universe.

Your people, the tincéir, who travel from place to place, never resting except during the snows of Gheimhreadh - they know of the Life Giver. Those women that have an affinity toward listening to the winds, and to the heartbeat of the earth, they are set apart. They become healers, and banfáiths, taught by their elders. It is much the same with the other Chosen People who live in caers, never moving."

Even in her bewildered state, Rhianna offered up a disdainful grunt towards the people who lived in houses without wheels. Serena smiled, and the girl realized that Sámh did not move from place to place, and looked halfway apologetic. The Jedi continued, getting to her feet and helping Rhianna up as well. She talked as they walked, emerging from the treeline under the cover of darkness.

"I have not always lived here on Dhomanda A'lainn with your people." Serena paused to hitch up her skirts, and Rhianna did the same as their trek took them over a pile of boulders. "I am not like the white armoured coimhthíoch who mistreated you. They are not my people, and they wish to kill me." Serena paused, looking back at Rhianna to make sure she was doing alright. She was still following her, which was a good sign. "Rhianna, because I saved your life, you will never be safe on this planet again."

Wincing a bit as she pushed herself up onto a boulder, Rhianna accepted a hand up. She knew some of what Sámh was saying to be true. Her grandmother had been such a woman, the look of disdain had been an echo of past days. They had visited Rhianna's Grandmama once when she had been little, in one of the caers that did not move.

In the ignorance of her age, Rhianna thought her Grandmama to be too feeble to keep up with their caravan and so she had been left there with other older women. In the days they had spent there, Rhianna had leanred to read the lines of fate in peoples palms. She also had learned other things which over time she had forgotten. Perhaps it was time to relearn them. Something about always listening for the voice of the abhairt saoil to guide her on her path. Over time, Rhianna had ceased to listen, believing it to be a childs tale.

But Sámh knew the tale... She lived it.

In her silent reverie they had climbed quite a distance and Rhianna was startled by Sámh's words. "Rhianna, because I saved your life, you will never be safe on this planet again." She stopped in her tracks and looked back down at her home, the Dhomanda A'lainn. She seemed frozen, as if by not blinking she could imprint the image on her mind.

Serena looked back with the gypsy girl, over the dark sea that was the forest beneath them. She clicked her tongue and pointed over Rhianna's shoulder towards the west, where the Imperial base was. The girl jumped, but focused as Sámh directed her attention to a triangle of moving lights. "They have brought their flying thing to hunt me with. Among the coimhthíoch a person who listens to the Abhairt Saoil is to be hunted down until they are dead."

The Jedi hurried up the side of the Cos Bhriste, Rhianna close behind her. Just a little further... The crack in the rock wall was still there, and Serena pressed herself into it, calling back soft encouragement for Rhianna. The narrow passage through the mountain was rough and dirty, but their skirts were not torn as they scrambled through.

Serena called up a small orb of light to illuminate their way, the act calming her as she manipulated the Force. A few minutes of panting through the tiny space, and the women came out of the passage into a large cave. The Jedi used only the one small light, afraid that anything greater would be noticeable from the large entrance on the northface of the mountain.

It was in this cave that she had hidden her ship, twenty years earlier. A flood of memories were remembered as Serena sent the light darting towards the little yacht, a Mon Calamari design from the Clone Wars. She had called it Serenity, in part because of her own name. The moving orb of light shone on Serenity's smooth, rounded curves, and Serena moved purposefully towards it.

Being cramped in close quarters was not unfamiliar to Rhianna. She had traveled her whole life in small spaces with her entire family. This hall of unmoving cold rock up against her back and less the an inch from her face, however, made it extremely hard for her to breathe and focus. A panic was quickly settling in and she feared she would be trapped. That was when Sámh brought forth the ball of light and the end of the tunnel could be seen. Immediately her fears ceased.

Stepping into the caverous room, Rhianna saw the thing that Sámh had brought them to. She was a bit rustic, but not slow. This thing would fly through the air the same way the coimhthíochs device did - and with them inside it. She had not come all this way to stop now. She had no more reasons to stay. None living anyways. Perhaps Sámh's knowledge of the arts her Grandmama had practiced could be her connection to her family and to Dhomanda A'lainn in her absence?

Either way, it seemed it was time to go. Rhianna took a deep breath and nodded as if having concluded an important discussion with herself.

"I'm ready."

Sámh smiled gently at the girl's blind faith as she tapped her security code into the panel next to the ramp. "First things first. I have not visited my ship in many, many years. I must determine whether it works, or not." She'd left it powered down, except for the subroutine that powered the keypad and ramp. Still, after twenty plus years...

The panel chirruped, lighting up as it accepted her clearance, and then the ramp came down out of the side of Serenity. Lights were coming on inside the ship, and Serena stepped into it. "We will have to leave soon, before the Imperials start sweeping the sliabh. Come." The tincéir girl stepped up onto the ramp next to her, unhesitating. Serena paused, and took Rhianna by the shoulders. "I swear by the Abhairt Saoil that I will watch out for you, Rhianna."

"I swear by the Abhairt Saoil that I will watch out for you, Rhianna."

Of that, Rhianna had no doubts. She wouldn't have been saved from certain death to have been brought this far and once again lost to fate. Sámh was right, the Abhairt Saoil was speaking to her again and it was telling her that her path in this life had changed, but that she had much yet to do before it was ended. She had been spared for a reason. The answers to her questions lay with Sámh.

"I know.. I am scared, but I do feel a strange sort of understanding. I will try to not be bothersome to you. I owe you my life."

Rhianna steeled herself to leave again and moved deeper into the ship.