Adopted by a Stray Cat (Joelle)

[Hijinks]

Jink awoke to the sound of the shuttle rattling through hyperspace. For the fifth time that trip, he wished that Carliah was lying next to him. She would've understood, possibly, about this strange disturbance he'd felt from Naboo. Or she would have poked fun at him until they were both laughing too hard for him to worry. But he was alone, and he was worried. When the Tower appeared in his visions, something important was going to happen. Something that would affect him a lot, at the very least. But the feeling of the disturbance was distinct. Raw emotion... Somebody feeling trapped, or scared, or abandoned.

But there were so many such in the galaxy... Why had the Tower chosen this one? His mind stretched towards the disturbance, and he felt a mind. A sleeping mind. That made sense, as it was very early in the morning. He touched the young, confused, mind, and spoke.

"It's okay... I'm here for you, youngling."

[member='Joelle Dain']

 

[Carliah Dakrone]

Carliah had learned of Jink's little trip and had decided to follow in a shuttle of her own. She wondered where it was the cat was planning on going, and what he planned to do once he got there. She hoped this would be a relatively short trip. The Mad Queen hated to leave Widek unattended. She was eager to return to her palace, Sheoth, as soon as whatever business Jink had here was dealt with. [member="Hijinks"] [member="Joelle Dain"]

 

[Alatar Istari]

Joelle had been having the dreams again, fire, children screaming, her own screaming as fire caught hold of her dress and burned against her leg, watching as her old orphanage burned to the ground, waking up in the hospital, but tonight instead of waking with a scream, she heard a voice that comforted her in her dreams that sent away the bad ones, and slept on.

She felt the first ray of sunlight beam into the new orphanage that she had lived in for the past few years, and woke up. The dreams started to come after her 13th birthday, a few weeks earlier, and she hadn't got a decent night of sleep until that last night. The lack of sleep had almost sent her back to the hospital. But the full night of sleep had been a good change for once, and it made Joelle feel as if something was about to change her life, extremely.

[member="Hijinks"] [member="Darth Vivaldi"]

 

[Hijinks]

The shuttle landed, and Jink stretched as he stepped down the boarding ramp. Something was still bugging him. There was a familiar presence, though... A slightly comforting, if dark and slightly malicious, one. He could hazard a guess as to who it was. Carliah. He grinned, and looked up at the second shuttle that was landing. His worries about the strange presence all but faded, and he waited by the ramp for his lovely Queen, and the one person he could trust to join him on this little foray.

[member="Darth Vivaldi"] [member="Joelle Dain"]

 

[Carliah Dakrone]

Carliah exited the shuttle, hoping off of the ramp before it was fully lowered and landing beside her precious kitten. She smiled at him and took his hand.

"Next time you run off on some secret adventure, please bring me along. I have no problem going with you so long as I have time to put someone in charge back on Widek," the Mad Queen told him, leaning up to steal a kiss. [member="Hijinks"]

 

[Alatar Istari]

Joelle quickly ate her breakfast and avoided most of the kids as she went into the kitchen, where most of her duties were done during the day. She was thankful that the cook liked her, and let her help with the dishes, because it was a way to avoid the other children, who bullied her for her height, her clumsiness, and her crying. She couldn't stop the dreams, they just tormented her, day and night, she couldn't change herself to be more like the other kids, but she was cunning, and found ways to avoid the bullies, and after she was done with the morning dishes, climbed up onto the roof of the orphanage to look down and silently watch the other kids try to get up to her. I can thank my smallness and agility for getting up here at least.

Once the bullies had gotten tired of trying to get to her, she jumped to the front part of the roof and watched the passerbys walk by, doing their daily business or taking a random stroll around the city.

[member="Hijinks"] [member="Darth Vivaldi"]

 

[Hijinks]

Jink snuggled Carliah up close to him, and smiled at her, returning her stolen kiss.

"You know, I was just thinking about how much I wished you were with me... Your old stray had to sleep in an old rustbucket, all cold and alone. No mad temptress to hold. So sad."

His expression turned more serious, but still happy.

"Apparently, I'm adopting somebody today."

[member="Darth Vivaldi"] [member="Joelle Dain"]

 

[Carliah Dakrone]

"Well you're both welcome to ride back to Widek with me, and you can both stay at the palace if you'd like. I love children," the Red Queen smiled as she held the cat's hand. She allowed him to lead her to where ever it is they were going.

"I'll even let the child call me 'Mommy' if you'd like," Carliah said with a grin up at him. [member="Hijinks"] [member="Joelle Dain"]

 

[Alatar Istari]

Joelle decided since she had about 4 hours before she needed to be back for lunch, she decided to take a rooftop walk, using her agility to jump the roofs, nowhere in particular, but at last found herself at the docking bays. She perched on the corner of a building, made a confused face at a weird couple, a cat and a mad-looking lady, who had apparently taken different shuttles and we're glad to see each other, grew bored of watching shuttles leave and come, and decided to head back to the orphanage, unknowingly using the Force to find her way back.

Once back, Joelle climbed down the wall then climbed up a tree, and sat on a branch high enough she wouldn't be noticed by the other kids, chuckling to herself about the weird couple she had seen, and that one porter who had dropped the luggage of a very important looking lady and had to be dragged unconcious away from the lady, who had been enraged and beat the porter senseless.

[member="Hijinks"] [member="Darth Vivaldi"]

 

[Hijinks]

Jink's attention shifted quickly from Carliah, to the presence from before. The presence that had just felt even closer. He looked back over at the Red Queen, and squeezed her hand.

"Did you feel that, too? That disturbance is coming from a child. The child who I am trying to adopt, whoever they happen to be."

[member="Darth Vivaldi"] [member="Joelle Dain"]

 

[Carliah Dakrone]

"It would appear they have the Force. I could teach them if it were something they'd wish to pursue," Carliah commented, searching for the source of the small presence she had felt. Having Force Sight was rather useful and she managed to catch a glimpse of a small form jumping from rooftop to rooftop above them. She smiled and gestured in the direction the figure had been moving.

"I believe you'll find the child that way," Carliah explained as she point down the street. [member="Hijinks"] [member="Joelle Dain"]

 

[Hijinks]

Jink looked in the direction Carliah was pointing, and smiled back. He held out his arm for her to grab onto.

"All aboard, then. Looks like another rooftop stroll."

[member="Darth Vivaldi"]

 

[Alatar Istari]

Little did they know, by the time they got there, Joelle would be napping in a tree behind the orphanage, hidden from sight, and whereabouts unknown to anyone but the tree itself and the birds in it. The dreams didn't come when she was napping, only the scene of the incident with the porter, which made her smile in her sleep.

[member="Darth Vivaldi"] [member="Hijinks"]
(Nvm first edit)

 

[Carliah Dakrone]

Carliah grasped Jink's arm and giggled as she felt herself be pulled up into the air. Their mid-air strolls still amazed her and she couldn't help but smile like a small child as the walked above the rooftops.

"How do you do this, Jink?" she finally had to ask as she stared down at the ground below her. [member="Joelle Dain"]

 

[Alatar Istari]

Joelle jolted awake when the tree she was in started shaking. She looked down and panicked as she saw the orphanage bullies climbing the tree, having spotted her by a glint cast off by a jade bracelet she got from the hospital as a pity gift from the doctor. Joelle climbed higher to the thinner branches, where, like a mountain goat on a ledge, only she could climb without the branches breaking. "Leave me alone," she called to the bullies, a slight lisp from not talking enough when she was younger, "I've done nothin' to you." The bullies still climbed until they couldn't anymore, then waited, they knew she couldn't stay up the tree forever. Silently, Joelle prayed, Help me! They've surrounded me again and I don't want to be hurt again. She looked around desperately.

[member="Darth Vivaldi"] [member="Hijinks"]

 

[Hijinks]

Jink reeled as a voice cried out in his mind. With a grunt of effort, he managed to keep him and Carliah from falling down to the rooftops below, but he recognized the feel of the mind. Setting the two of them down on the roof, he looked around, bewildered, for the one who was touching his mind. Finally, he saw a girl climbing a tree, and three bigger kids down at the bottom, looking up. Now he understood.

His hand whipped out, and a chain snaked out through his sleeve, to wrap around the first guy, covering his whole body in a metal cocoon. The end of the chain leapt like a living thing, around the next one's neck, silencing him as his eyes grew wide. A second chain snaked out from his sleeve, and wrapped around two more, wrapping them like mummies. Then the chains stopped moving, and Jink sat down hard.

"I fly the same way I do that, Carliah... But I haven't had to use more than one chain in a long, long time. The sky-walking, I do all the time."

[member="Joelle Dain"] [member="Darth Vivaldi"]

 

[Alatar Istari]

Joelle heard the taunts of the bullies suddenly silence. She looked down and gasped as she saw three chain metal cocoons in place of the bullies, and the chains led to a cat and a woman, who she recgonized as the weird couple from the docking bays. Afraid of getting wrapped too, she stayed in the tree, looking at the couple with awe and terror in her intelligent blue eyes as they looked up at her.

[member="Hijinks"] [member="Darth Vivaldi"]

 

[Carliah Dakrone]

"An impressive trick. I'm afraid my talents at silencing rude people are... not suited for children," Carliah commented as she peered up into the tree. She could make out the form of the girl and smiled. She had found their little Force user.

"Come down now sweetheart, I promise we wish you no harm. My kitty here has taken an interest in you," Carliah called, offering the girl in the tree a motherly smile as she waited for the child to climb down. [member="Joelle Dain"] [member="Hijinks"]

 

[Alatar Istari]

Promised with no harm, Joelle climbed down cautiously and approached the couple. She gestured towards the bullies, "Thank you. They have never stopped teasing me since the day I came to the orphanage." She looked at the cat, "I don't know why anyone would want me, so I am curious as to why you would want me."

[member="Darth Vivaldi"] [member="Hijinks"]

 

[Hijinks]

Sitting on the ground, Jink grinned up at the girl. She was right to question his motives. After all, having two powerful Force Users in one place could be considered an odd occurrence. He grabbed Carliah's hand, and held it loosely.

"Honestly? I had a vision about a disturbance in the Force on Naboo. You're it, kiddo. You felt alone, so you subconsciously reached out, and found my Tower. The Tower gave me a vision, and so I'm here."

He shrugged, and a mischievous grin appeared on his face.

"Of course, your wonderful friends are probably unconscious by now. You could leave by yourself, if you want, or you can come with us. But it's clear that you probably shouldn't stay here."

[member="Darth Vivaldi"] [member="Joelle Dain"]