The trip to Takodana had been rather uneventful, mercifully so as there was nothing Iona hated more then being stuck on ships, especially, crowded commercial flights. It had been rather easy to secure herself a flight to Takodana, it seemed it was a rather popular place and from her datapad, she could see why and she had been nearly bouncing in her seat to make planet fall. In an attempt, poor as it was, to distract herself, she had tried to read the mission brief, but after numerous giggles and sideways glances from the other passengers as she sounded out the words to herself, she had given up. Iona did have a general grasp of what she was supposed to be doing, help a fellow Padawan clear out old ruins of 'Ghost'. Obviously, ghost had to be some kind of uncreative smuggler or pirate name, so a normal name for them. She could almost remember her old masters talking about 'Ghost', but if she were being honest, she hadn't been listening as well as she should have during philosophical force discussions. Wasn't her fault, they were just dreadfully dull.... both the discussion and the old wizened master who tended to drone on. The only sticky part of the journey had been procuring a speeder. Many were more then happy to rent the young padawan one... until she mentioned where she was going. The old ruins were some kind of social taboo as she had to use some level of tact and persuasion to convince one kind old lady to let her borrow her speeder... Iona may have neglected to tell her where exactly she was going, but she would make it up to her... Probably.
But it had all been worth it. The second she step foot outside of the city, Iona fell in love. This planet was beyond anything she had ever seen before. The closest thing she had to compare to this wonder was Ciomia and she had yet to go to the grand forest that covered large parts of it, as much as she had dearly wished to, and outside of Ciomia, the only other place she had experience with was the undercity of Coruscant and to say this was like night and day was a disservice to Takodana. Everything about it was beautiful, the lush life, the animals she could feel through the force and who would poke their heads out to take a look at the stranger in their midst before going back on their way... The smells, by the force, the smells. Iona simply had nothing to compare it to, moisture, the dew of a thousand plants, the aroma of dozens of unknown flowers all bombarding her senses, and while she had a job to do, it could wait just a little while, she wanted to breath it all in, to engrave upon her memory of this lush place that she would take a bit of time to explore after the mission of slaying these uninviting Pirates was over.
Iona bent down, letting her fingers probe through the dense grass into the soil beneath, almost black in color, and she couldn't stop the large smile that spread across her face at the feel of it, the earthy smell and the thin layer of dirt that remained on her fingers, staining it with the life of this planet. A light laughter filled the air, and it took her a moment to realize it was coming from her and she reveled in it, lifting flowers to smell them, leaning her head against the trunks of nearby trees to see what she could hear from the heart.. and dirtying her robes and hair as she rolled in the wet grass to come to a stop and stare up into the great sapphire sky overhead, Iona knew one thing about this place... she truly loved this planet.
After more time then she cared to admit to anyone playing in the dirt, Iona arrived at the meeting place, the coordinates of which had been sent to her awhile ago that she rather forgot about in her child like exploits. The large fighter, whatever it was Iona was terrible with those deathtraps and never bothered to learn their names and models, told her this was the right place even before she jumped off her borrowed speeder, but the person meditating on the ground was not what she expected. She had never seen one in person before, but that was a Mandalorian. Everyone knew what Mandalorians were,even she did before becoming a Jedi. The other gangers would talk about them, sometimes a Mandalorian, or many, would be hired by gangers as muscle and they were always frighteningly efficient. Once a small gang called the Meer Rats had angered a much larger gang over a territory dispute, they had hired a Mandalorian and the Meer Rats had been hunted down like dogs,even after the gang had lost its territory and many of its members had fled, the Mandalorian had found and captured each one, no matter where they hid in the dark reaches of Coruscant, the Mandalorian had even found their lovers and surviving family members, the Meer Rats were extinct in barely a week, of course, it wasn't too uncommon for a gang, or large group of people, to all die within the undercity, but the fact that one Mandalorian had done it so efficiently was... well, it wasn't something Iona had forgotten. But it didn't make this Mandalorian's presence any less confusing, she was supposed to be meeting a fellow Jedi, but she could not sense anyone else around and, well, the Mandalorian was the only one here and unless they wanted to ride on each other's laps, that ship only had room for one and as hilarious as she may have found that idea, she doubted its validity.
"Uh.." Iona said as intelligently as ever, "Vaun?" She asked, tilting her head and letting her red ponytail dangle over her shoulder, a few leaves still caught in it as her azure eyes studied the even bluer armor the Mandalorian wore.
[member="Mereel Vaun"]
