Private Ducks Fly Together

[Jonyna Si]

TAG: Corazona von Ascania

It wasn't often that Jonyna got to show off her world.

She had invited Cora over, mostly as a friend. Jonyna spent so much time being a jedi, she often forgot to be a person. A friend. But today, she had a mission.

She wanted to find a Je'ka Lairi.

The birds were practically myth on her world, but she knew they did exist. She saw one, as a child. She just needed to retrace her steps, yeah?

As she sat at the city-tree's starport landing pad, she smiled, humming to herself as she waited for Cora to land. She had never had the chance to show Cora her world. Now was the chance to really see it. The savannah, the jungle. Everything.

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

A nondescript light freighter touched down on the great tree's landing pad. A few minutes later, the boarding ramp lowered with a hiss.

There was a long list of planets that Cora had yet to visit. Cathar was one of them. Fortunately, she had a friend and tour guide in a native - Jonyna. There was a task that the feline Jedi wanted to complete, and from her message, it hadn't sounded particularly urgent. She seemed fairly relaxed, too, when Cora caught sight of her as she descended the ramp.

"Jonyna," she bowed at the waist, "it's good to see you again. Thank you for inviting me to your home."

Smoothing back blonde strands, Cora took a moment to peer at their surroundings. Ukatis didn't have any jungles, and the terrain almost reminded her of New Cov. It was also similar to the temple on Dagobah, which sat atop twining vines and sturdy roots.

With that thought in mind, Cora brought her gaze back to Jonyna. Her expression was more congenial, her smile more familiar.

"And…allow me to congratulate you on being named not only a Jedi Master, but a member of the council. Both titles are well deserved."

Jonyna Si

 

[Jonyna Si]

TAG: Corazona von Ascania

"Certainly doesn't feel that way at times." Jonyna admitted with a soft, embarrassed smile. "You feeling better after Coruscant? I know that battle was rough for all of us. Didn't hear what you got up to during it."

Jonyna looked to one of the few people she could call a friend with a worried look. Coruscant had been a turmoil that most of them could say they have scars from.

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

Cora mirrored Jonyna's soft smile. It was certainly a big change to go through - not only being anointed as a Jedi Master, but given a new role with new responsibilities could take some getting used to.

The mention of Coruscant almost had the blonde pursing her lips.

"We managed. An allied Mandalorian warrior, Jenn Kryze, and myself clashed with a pair of Dark Empire Force users in the temple."

Cora had emerged from that conflict with minimal physical damage, but the toll that Isar's white current had taken on her mental state was yet to be determined. Oftentimes, it had her lapsing into contemplative silence.

"What about you? How have you fared since the invasion?"

Jonyna Si

 

[Jonyna Si]

TAG: Corazona von Ascania

"Tired." Jonyna admitted with a sigh. "But, happy to be back home. Rebuilding the temple has been a chore, but we're slowly starting to make some real progress."

Jonyna let out a chuckle, before gesturing to the tree behind her. "But let's not get caught up in out own laments. We've got a bird to find, yeah? Lemme show you around the tree a bit."

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

Tired.

If Cora had to choose one word to describe the aftermath of the invasion – of any battle, really – it would be tired. A hint of an empathetic smile twitched the corners of her lips.

Trees did not make a proper home on Ukatis, but there were not trees there large enough to construct an entire spaceport upon. It was fascinating - how far did it stretch? How did a tree grow to be so massive?

"Oh. Yes, please. I'd be delighted to learn more about your...tree."

Her smile grew, more genuine but also a hair awkward.

Jonyna Si

 

[Jonyna Si]

TAG: Corazona von Ascania

"You any good a climber? We got a long way down, unless you want me to show you how to tree-surf." Jonyna chuckled, leading her down the massive branch that led them deeper into the canopy. Cora could see Cathar sliding across higher branches like they were on surfboards, while others bound from branch to branch. The smell of various flowers filled the air, and the tree was alive with noise, like walking down a city street. "We'll need to get down to the forest floor to get into the savannah."

Jonyna probably could've met Cora out in the grasslands, but she would never turn down a chance to show a friend her home-tree.

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

No one had ever asked her if she was a good climber before - and Cora didn't know how to answer. Her response came with a lilt of humor.

"As good as any Jedi, I suppose."

Her attention was easily stolen by the sights around them. Above them, Cathar rode the branches smoothly like waves on an ocean. It was odd, yet energizing to be directly in nature with a city-like bustle.

"…I'm sorry, tree-surfing? Is that what-" she gestured to the Cathar above them "- they're doing? What happens if you fall?"

Jonyna Si

 

[Jonyna Si]

TAG: Corazona von Ascania

"Fall?" Jonyna asked, as if that was a foreign concept. "Cora, I was tree surfing before I could walk upright. We got tails for a reason. Helps with balance, and catching yourself."

She eventually led Cora to a set of ladders that led downward. Denik weren't the only ones living in the home-tree, and accommodations had to exist for those who couldn't manage the acrobatics of the jungle. Still, Jonyna couldn't help but show off. Instead of taking the ladders, she grabbed a vine, slid down it until she landed deftly on a branch, and surfed the rest of the way down. "Come on!"

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

Cora blinked. The idea of tree surfing was foreign enough, but now she was picturing a baby Cathar sliding along the branches.

That thought had her lips almost twitching into a smile.

Jonyna took off, sliding down a hanging vine and gliding along the wooden network of branches with an impressive feline grace.

"W-wait up!" Cora called, and hurried to clamber down the series of ladders. She paused to glance down at the amount of rungs that were left and grumbled to herself.

"I wish I had a tail."

Jonyna Si

 

[Jonyna Si]

TAG: Corazona von Ascania

Jonyna was happy to wait each step of the way. Each branch she waited as Cora made her way down ladder by ladder, but eventually, they got to the bottom.

And from the bottom, Cora could finally see the whole tree. A tree that poked into the clouds, and looked more like a mountainside than a plant at it's trunk. Looking up, it almost looked like a deity of some sort. An unending source of life, birds and bugs and animals of all sorts living inside.

At one point, Cora could see a bird sized dragonfly sitting on a branch, looking curiously at her.

Cathar was alive, certainly. And yet, Jonyna didn't pay it any mind at all. The creatures almost seemed to give them both a birth, as if they respected them in the same way a person respects a speeder going down the grav-lanes.

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

Climbing downward wasn't as taxing as climbing upward, but when they finally reached the roots of the great tree, Cora shook her aching fingers. It was nice that Cathar had the hospitality to provide an alternative method of navigation for guests, and she suspected that installing a grav-lift into the tree's bark probably wouldn't have been a welcome idea.

An enormous dragonfly perched on a nearby branch and Cora grimaced, pulling back.

"Oh," she cleared her throat and straightened out upon realizing that it wasn't hostile. The giant insect looked as though it could carry her off if she wished.

"Are all of the bugs here…"

She waved to the dragonfly, following the motion of her own hand upwards. From her new vantage point Cora could see how truly massive the tree was, taller than some of the skyscrapers that decked the Coruscanti skyline.

"How old is this tree? It must've spent so long growing."

She imagined a millennia, at least.

Jonyna Si

 

[Jonyna Si]

TAG: Corazona von Ascania

The Dragonfly looked to Cora with a tilted head, almost as if a dog would.

"Older than I am." Jonyna chuckled. "The house I grew up in is still up there. Word from the elders was that this tree was planted shortly after the mandalorians were defeated by the old Republic. I see you found a Ziio" Jonyna smiled, walking over and...petting the bug. "Hey dude, you hungry?"

The bug opened it's mouth and let out a noise, flittering it's wings and leaning into the touch.

"Aw, he's just curious. Go on little guy, go find some grubs."

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

Cora grimaced at the Ziio, watching the giant insect carefully. It didn't appear aggressive, but she'd just discovered her aversion unusually large bugs.

"That's...it's had quite a long time to grow. There are trees on Ukatis that are said to have been hundreds of years old, maybe even thousands...but this dwarfs them all."

And Jonyna was touching the bug. Ashla, some Jedi were just built different. For a prim noblewoman, Cora wasn't entirely unused to critters - she'd grown up in a respectable manor, but one that was situated in Ukatis' countryside rather than it's capital city. Insects there were rather small compared to Cathar.

"What does...this little guy eat?"

Jonyna Si

 

[Jonyna Si]

TAG: Corazona von Ascania

"Other bugs, mostly. Sometimes they eat fruits, but mostly they hunt Horned Hoppers. Part of why we domesticated them." Jonyna smiled as she let the Ziio flitter off into the branches of the trees. "They're like....dogs to us. Predators we lured into camps and taught to work with us rather than against us. For most people, it was canines. For us, it was dragonflies that used to be about the size of an eagle."

Jonyna looked up to the tree, before smiling. "The jungles of Cathar are older than some planets. We're a very old system. Ran Dom Kuun is just another one of the newest generations of the city-tree. I can show you what a sproutling looks like if you want."

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

Cora watched Jonyna interact with the Ziio. She'd never envisioned that there existed giant instincts that could be domesticated like dogs, but the galaxy was home to far stranger things.

"So they're good for pest control, then."

It made enough sense to her. "Racyons on Ukatis started out similarly, I'm told. Only we did not domesticate them - they domesticated themselves by wandering into camps and towns, hunting the vermin in our food stores. They learned that wherever we went, so did the vermin, I suppose."

The rest went without saying, that humans appreciated lower rates of vermin, and racyons appreciated having a steady supply of food, and eventual belly rubs.

Even if comparisons could be drawn between Cathar and Ukatis, they were still separate plants in separate systems. Their differences were just as interesting as their similarities.

"How big is a sproutling?"

Cora could only imagine what counted as an immature tree on Cathar. "And…how many trees like this are there?"

Jonyna Si

 

[Jonyna Si]

TAG: Corazona von Ascania

"Across the planet? Oh, thousands. Cathar have used them as homes for generations, long before the Mandos came here."

Jonyna led them through the tangled web of roots that sat at the foot of the tree, before finally...

Savannah. Endless golden grassland that seemed almost untouched by the generations of intelligent life. The only real sign of infrastructure were generational footpaths that seemed to be made not from laying down actual roads, but rather the natural process of stunted plant growth due to repeated stamping down of them under the heels of feet.

"Come on!" Jonyna called, leading Cora deeper into the grassland. "It's only about a couple miles this way."

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

Jonyna lead her further down the ladder of roots until they reached Cathar's surface - a flat, dry span of grassland that was so very unlike being among the shade of the lush city-tree.

Once again, Cora had fallen behind while pausing to observe her new surroundings.

"I'm coming!" She jogged to catch up with Jonyna, falling in step beside the Jedi Master.

"Now I know why every Cathar I've seen is so lean." She murmured with a thread of amusement. No wonder, they were constantly either walking, climbing, or tree-surfing.

"So, you grew up here?"

Jonyna Si

 

[Jonyna Si]

TAG: Corazona von Ascania

"Kinda." She admitted. "When I was five, I got sent to join the Jedi...and, well...that didn't end well."

Jonyna let out a cough. She was sure Cora knew at this point Jonyna's story. "Came back years later, found out I had 8 new siblings. That was wild. Looked them up when I came joined the NJO. My 4th sister apparently became a jedi master later in life. Fought alongside Luke and his order." She smiled. "It was nice to hear my siblings made a name for themselves."

Jonyna led them through the grass, A pair of massive antlers poking out and looking Cora dead in the eye. Before her, about a street-length away, a strange leather skinned creature stood about the same height Jonyna was, massive elk-like antlers that made it's silhouette look as if it was three times Cora's size.

And it was just standing there. Munching on grass.

"What about you?" Jonyna asked. "You still exiled from your kingdom, or did that ever get nullified?"

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

Cora nodded, her expression creasing with empathy. Like Valery, Jonyna had come from a tumultuous period in Jedi history. Still, the mention of her family brought a spark of geniality back onto the Knight's face.

"A similarity between us - we both have eight younger siblings. Is that considered large on Cathar?"

Jonyna charted a path through the tall grass, and Cora didn't notice the elk at first given how well it blended into their savannah surroundings. Much like the ziio, it seemed content to remain undisturbed.

"Hm?"

Cora had been eyeing the creature carefully when Jonyna posed her question. It took a few long moments for it to sink in, during which the blonde's pale cheeks slowly flushed red.

"It's…complicated."

Her exile - and the reasoning behind it - wasn't something she'd been particularly open about, but she supposed that rumors had a tendency to travel, even among the Jedi.

"I suppose I'm testing the waters. They didn't bother me too much when I was directing aid after the Enclave's attack, but I’d imagine it would look bad for them if they jailed someone for doing charity work."

Jonyna Si