New Kid on the Block

[imported_J'ktal Anajii]

Plain. That was quite possibly the best way to describe the current Temple Grounds. Grey, blue and beige dominated the interior of each hallway, and the living quarters, other than having a less grand view, were quite similar to those in the Coruscant complex. J'ktal dreaded the thought of having to revamp yet another room to his liking, but knew it could be done in short time.

For the moment, the grey mongoose simply set down a cardboard moving box with his basic needs on the plain bed of his new room. The new complex was considerably smaller, and a car cry from the great city-planet that was Coruscant, but the smell of fresh air, and the jungle visible from his window made up for it entirely. Having come from a desert world, the sight of lush forest always made his heart leap in wonder. It would be quite the change from what he was used to, that much was for sure, but at least he would be around Jedi that he already knew, and he would not be as suspect among them.

Still, the grounds would take getting used to, and his room would require heavy modification. Hopefully with the smaller number of rooms, he would actually have neighbors that would talk to him.

[Morgan Evanar]

Morgan had been combing the ancient Massassi temple for a more suitable quarters than what he and Rie presently occupied. Rie was setting up garden space, mostly for edibles. While he enjoyed things with Rie, it was best that they each had their hobbies.

He had spent the morning below ground trying to get the old sensor systems back online. Much of the equipment had been worn by time and curious insects. Apparently the wiring from that era was tasty to some of the native fauna. Morgan had replaced most of it, but Rie had suggested he look for nicer quarters too. The job stood partial at this point, and laden with notes not to touch.

There wasn't really anyone else about, although Ryla was supposed to arrive at some point.

He sniffed as he started on the stairs.
Nehanite? Morgan raised an eyebrow and sniffed again. It smelled more like J'ktal than Sejah. Ryla must have met up with Rie.

"Hello?" The Jedi Master knocked on the half-open door twice.

[imported_J'ktal Anajii]

The knock on the old oaken door suprised J'ktal, for he wasn't expecting someone to find him, but the other way around. His paw was gripping his cloth-wrapped katana, and he pulled it from the box as he turned and called back, "Come in, I am just unpacking."

To be quite honest, J'ktal did not look like his normal, dressy self. His dress clothes were replaced by blue jeans and a tee shirt, making the Death-Shadow look far more approachable.

"Ah, Morgan, come on in."

[Morgan Evanar]

Morgan entered, and looked out the transparisteel. He whistled apreciatively. The temperate jungle rolled out before them, the tops of trees swaying in the wind. A flock of birds in shifting formation cruised in the distance.

"I think that Rie and I will also be on this floor." The Jedi Master stared for a moment longer before returning to J'ktal. While not dressed in his formal garb, he still carried a somewhat formal air. Figrin was one of the other few people who seemed to wear it most of the time, like a hat, or a pair of gloves. Morgan looked down at his hands, noting that his were absent, leaving the nearly six inch talons visible, laying folded on the back of his hands. J'ktal still made part of him nervous.

He glanced about the room, noting the wood-pulp based packing containers. He supposed old habits died hard. J'ktal also had a lot of things Morgan traveled light out of habbit, and Rie just didn't have a lot of possessions due to her nature.

"Do you need any help? Rie and I tend to travel light."

[imported_J'ktal Anajii]

J'ktal glanced around at the amount of boxes he had carried in already. He certainly wouldn't mind the help.

"Some assistance would be much appreciated," he repleid with a nod, untying the cord on the silken sword bag. With careful grace he slid the striped fabric down, revealing an elegant handle and tsuba over an artfully laquered and detailed scabbard. Laying the bag aside, J'ktal drew the sword and examined the blade, making sure it had endured travel well. A few practice swings--not in Morgan's direction--reassured him that it was also still tight-fitting in the handle. With a fluid movement, he sheathed it once mroe before upending the blade and placing it in an ancient sword stand on a low table.

"Every time I go somewhere with it, I am always worried that something might damage it. The sword is many times older than you and I together," he explained. "But right now, I think getting the kitchen in order is first on my list. Care to grab that box over there? It has my pots and pans in it."

Pacing over to the kitchenette that had been hastily added to the room some time ago, the mongoose opened a box and began to remove crystal tumblers. For being packed in so nondesrcipt casing, J'ktal's kitchenware and dishes were such as would be found in gorumet restaurants.

"This will be quite the change for me," he said, looking at the empty cupboards and then back to the glass in his paw.

[Morgan Evanar]

"It's a little bit like parts of Tanaab." Morgan said, removing various pots and pans from the large box.

"Although the trees are much taller." He added after some thought. Everything was five star kitchen quality. He picked a cabinet and transfered the items with celerity and precision. J'ktal would likely re-arrange things to his better liking later.

He examined the glassware the Nehanite was sorting. For his job, in a way, he supposed it made sense. Morgan felt it was extravagant and, for him, silly. It fit J'ktal though.

"It does lack a metropolitan element, though. Personally, I'm fine with that, but it seems to be part of your life."

[imported_J'ktal Anajii]

Sliding the last of the crystal tumblers into line behind the others, the mongoose replied, "Well, yes, it is. This will take some getting used to, but a Death-Shadow is nothing if not adaptable and able to learn."

As Morgan opened another box, J'ktal rushed over and staved Morgan's hands away, "Woah there, let me get those," he said, lifting out a stack of flat boxes, and then pulled a very large knife block from another box.

As he opened the first of the flat boxes, a line of exquisite chef's knives came into view, though not all of them had steel blades, and those that did varied in color.

"Some are stainless, some are high-carbon," he explained away the color variance, and then picked up a slim knife with a pure white blade. "Ceramic. It will hold a razor edge far longer than its metal counterpart. Excellent for peeling fruit, and trimming meat from small bones. That next one with the white blade is actually cobra ivory, carved from a single fang. I have a few more like it, all for various purposes, and a full set of steak knives, too."

All told, there were nearly forty knives that each had a particular home in his long knife block, and other than his steak knives, no two were alike, instead each serving particular purposes. His kitchen was starting to take shape, and so the conversation grew more friendly. "You know, when Garfife first made Nehantites, he told us that we were meant for great jungles. I find that a little cruel, considering that he made most of the planet an arid desert. All green lands are specifically reserved for natural forests or for farming. I think I will like it here, if a jungle is what I was truly made to inhabit."

[Morgan Evanar]

"I do cook, if you didn't know."

Morgan helped J'ktal sort the knives into the block. It made the Nehanite a bit uncomfortable, but he never erred with his placement of the various knives.

"Jungles are intense places. Wild Coruscant, in terms of density. Vertical, and different types of life in every spot. You can travel a hundred kilometeres and the ants will be a slightly different speices at the same height."

"Have you ever considered that there could have been a massive climate changing incident? An errant meteor or something similar could have boiled off an ocean."

"I don't take much stock in "Gods", J'ktal. Even if the word was pure, it had to be interpreted by simpler beings with bias."

[imported_J'ktal Anajii]

"There was no cataclysmic event," J'ktal replied with dead certainty. "We were created with the ability to read and write, and we have texts dating back to the dawn of our species."

Flattening a cardboard box, the mongoose continued, "If you consider me a simple being with bias, I am sorry. But I have spoken with him personally. Garfife is very, very real."

Glancing back out the window, he changed subject. "I have only seldom been in such lush vegetation, so I would be unfamiliar with it. Would you be willing to go on an exploratory journey into it with me?"

[Morgan Evanar]

"I'll take your word for it." Morgan kept his tone even and factual. The whole Nehanite system of government was an abomination in Morgan's eyes. Yet Another Despotic Regime with the average individual on the bottom with little to no chance for advancement. He didn't begrudge J'ktal personally.

"Certainly. I brushed up on Yavin's specifics on the way over. Its been several years since I've had the oppertunity of going on a jungle walk."

[imported_J'ktal Anajii]

"If you give me a few minutes, I would be ready to go," J'ktal said, closing a cupboard. "I at least need to locate more suitable footwear," he added, looking down at his casual shoes.

"Excuse me a moment, I will be back shortly."

With that, he disappeared into what would be his bedroom, and emerged again a few minutes later completely transformed. He was dressed in well-fitting olive drab clothing that looked somewhere between military fatigues and safari dress. Around his belt, as well as across his chest and over his left shoulder was strapped matching webgear, and a pair of black boots that reached nearly to his shin capped his footpaws. Wandering over to one wall, he dug around before withdrawing his lightsaber, as well as along item wrapped in newspaper.

"Machete," he explained as he unwrapped it, clipping the leather scabbard to his belt. When he saw the look he was getting from Morgan, he looked down at how he was dressed, then back up.

"What? I have a large closet, and thought this might come in useful someday. Nothing so odd about that."

[Morgan Evanar]

"I think your overly extensive clothset takes away from your creativity." Morgan said with a chuckle. He was dressed in his usual brown khakis, boots, white wrapped shirt, and a grey spacer's jacket. His long-handled lightsabers were in thigh scabbards. One rather large over/under rail pistol/blaster rested in a belt holster over his left hip, and a sturdy looking vibroblade over his right. The only time he was dressed differently was for a formal occasion, or a Senate meeting.

"We're going to be in the jungle. We don't have to match it."

[imported_J'ktal Anajii]

"Blame my father, I inherited his tailor," J'ktal replied with a caustic smile.

Cocking and holstering an old model .45 semi automatic, he added, "Guns are my vice, though. So, shall we?"

It was less a request than it was an offer to go. Unlike his normal jackboots, J'ktal's combat boots made little noise on the stone floor of the Arcan complex. He had to admit that the structure of the buildign was errily familiar, but he pushed that thought back in his mind for the time being. "What form of an excusion are we planning? Few hours, few days?" he asked nochalantly as they neared a pair of large doors.

[Morgan Evanar]

"I think we'll be home for dinner. My padawan would be confused when she arrived with the third transport and I wasn't there."

After a brief stint on a turbolift, they were ground-level. A short passage spat them out into the jungle, which had encroached on the structure some since the Alliance had warded off the Death Star many years ago. The original Yavin Academy had been in the southern outpost, where it was more humid, but easier to scramble fighters.

Morgan and Rie had opted for the more temperate weather of the smaller northern outpost. She was thrilled at the prospect of seasonal roses from a natural environment. Coruscant's weather only varied vauguely since it was almost entirely permacrete.

The Jedi Master inhaled, and was almost drunk on the multitude of scents.

"This is almost as good as a starving man's first meal in a month." J'ktal looked somewhat confused.

"The smells. There is oh, about two hundred different species plants within ten feet. Come." Morgan strode into the jungle with a silence that seemed impossible.

[imported_J'ktal Anajii]

J'ktal's natuarally sensitive nose also was bombarded by the natual fragrance, but he was inexperienced in such odors. Trusting Morgan, he followed along, takign note of new and interesting things that he saw.

Here and there, he would catch sight of a very interesting flower. It was white at its center, but faded to pink, then to orange at the tips of the long, deep petals. Like a lilly it formed elegant cones, but the scent was nearly intoxicating. His head slightly woozy, he carried on.

The Death-Shadow did have to admit that many times he felt oddly at home, even though he had never been so unfamiliar with his surroundings in his life. The light from a warm sun filtered through the canopy hundreds of feet above him, casting golden shafts of light down onto mossy and fern-covered grounds. Vines and moss hung thick from teh trees, and everywhere there were sounds of life.

"It's beautiful..." he nearly whispered, staring off into the glowing green of the jungle, his pink eyes wide in wonder as he stood, slowly turning to take it all in.

[Morgan Evanar]

Morgan scampered up a nearby tree with practiced silence.

"If you climb up six meters you're in a different species zone." J'ktal looked up. The Jedi Master hung upside-down from a branch.

"See?" He pointed at a bug on his finger tip. "Striped tree honeydancer. Their jaws are designed to cut leaves from Inra trees. Green honeydancers" Morgan pointed at the bush to Sejah's right, "they like Frith bushes." He popped the stripe bug in his mouth.

"Striped honeydancers taste better."

[imported_J'ktal Anajii]

Not one to be outdone so easily, J'ktal scampered up a nearby tree to similar height. He found it came naturally to him, though the boots did make him a little clumsy.

All around him, life exploded in hundreds of forms. Plants, animals, insects and other cultures, the jungle was host to countless billions of living things. Reaching his paw out, he let a black beetle of some sort climb onto his paw, then he pulled it back, watching the insect walk across his fingers ad he turned his hand over and over, his eyes intently watching his newest catch.

"What of mammals and reptiles?" he asked, "What larger beasts live in the surrounding areas? I would imagine that like any land, this jungle has its predators as well as prey."

[Morgan Evanar]

Morgan's mouth was about to answer but stopped. He dropped from the tree, twisted, and landed neatly on his feet.

"Rie needs something. Its important." He dissapeared into the jungle, running full tilt. (see tilled earth)