Jedi Cool Posted March 25, 2017 Share Posted March 25, 2017 Prologue: A purella knows the time for the changing has come. Spinning her web, she thinks about the Melodies coming each year at the same time and how she will catch one in her web to devour. -------------------------------------------------------- chapter 1: Anakin Solo sits in the Great Temple on Yavin IV and watches the girl with red hair and yellow eyes. She’s about his age. He’s never seen her sit with anyone since he arrived. She must be a loner, like him. Studying the Force to be a Jedi Knight takes time and quiet, something Anakin’s new friend, Tahiri, doesn’t understand. It’s been a week since they’d nearly been kicked out after taking a trip through the jungle without permission. He can tell Tahiri wants to speak to him now, but he’s not ready to go into all the things that happened to them. In the Palace of the Woolamanders, they found an ancient sleeping Jedi Master named Ikrit who was guarding a golden globe containing the spirits of children locked within it by a curse. Luke Skywalker enters and tells them that they will be learning how to travel through the Force to places they may not remember. Tionne will help them, as well. They are told to pair off. Anakin and Tahiri are a team, but Anakin knows what it’s like to be alone and not know anyone. He invites the new girl to join them. She introduces herself as Lyric. Tahiri knows that she’s been here longer than the other new students. She’d tried to speak to Lyric the first day, but the girl is shyer than Anakin. She tries to get Lyric to answer all kinds of questions about herself before Anakin stops her. Lyric admits she’s a Melodie from the moon of Yavin 8.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------At the beginning of the chapter, Anakin is identified as Anakin Skywalker, not Anakin Solo.Luke had previously discussed letting older students teach the new ones at the Academy while he and the other Jedi Knights traveled with the most advanced students. In the first book in this series, Luke greeted his newest class, so I didn’t say anything as this would surely be something he does with every class. However, it now appears that he is taking a hand at teaching this youngest class of students. Did he change his mind about letting older students teach them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jedi Cool Posted March 26, 2017 Author Share Posted March 26, 2017 chapter 2: Tahiri asks Lyric if she has a memory she’d like to recall. While they talk, Anakin’s mind drifts back to the Palace of the Woolamander and the strange symbols he saw on it. He begins to doodle them. He remembers the stone steps, the evil voices, the golden globe and the image of Master Ikrit laying at the base. His thoughts are disrupted by Tahiri. When Lyric sees the doodles, she is stunned. Anakin realizes she recognizes the symbols. She admits she saw them on her homeworld. The Melodies are her people and they live in the purple mountain Sistra on Yavin 8. They hatch from eggs and live on the ground until they are 20 years old. That’s when they go through the change that will make them elders who live in the water. Until then, the children care for each other and the young. They gather trico to eat in groups, but sometimes that’s not enough. Avrils are birds of prey that feed on a number of different species, such as raiths which are giant rodents, the arachnid purella and reels which are serpents that constrict their prey. But the avrils prefer young Melodies. One time, she was part of a group of five gathering trico when they had to defend themselves against an avril by throwing rocks at it. They ran out of rocks and the creature wrapped itself around Lyric. The others left because they couldn’t do anything to save her.------------------------------------------------------------ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jedi Cool Posted March 27, 2017 Author Share Posted March 27, 2017 chapter 3: She had been taken to the avril’s nest where she saw the same symbols Anakin drew etched in the mountain. She didn’t have much time to think about who drew them before she realized she was going to be fed to the avril’s babies. Lyric explains she began to mimic the cries of the young birds to the point where the mother got confused and flew off. She made her way down the mountain and back to her city. They ask her why the elders live in the water. She explains that the changing involves their developing gills and their feet to become one large fin. They cannot breathe out of the water but for a short time. That’s why she was one of the first students for this session. Her people hope her connection to the Force will help them fight off predators. She will be leaving tomorrow because that’s when her changing is. This will be dangerous because she will be defenseless. The changing has to occur in the pool in the mountain because of the algae that creates enough photosynthesis for them to breathe while they develop gills. After the students are dismissed, Lyric tells Tionne that she doesn’t want to go back. The children wait with bags of rocks to toss at any predators but it sometimes costs lives anyway. Tionne had been there for the last changing and had seen how the avrils, reels and purelles seemed to know the time, too. But she’s also noticed that Lyric has had trouble breathing lately, too. She is reaching her transformation time. She will never be able to help her people fight if she doesn’t go back. Tahiri and Anakin volunteer to go with Lyric.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------In the previous chapter, it says that the transformation happens at 20, yet we were told at the beginning that Lyric is about 11. Is this a case where she just looks 11 and is really 20? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jedi Cool Posted March 28, 2017 Author Share Posted March 28, 2017 chapter 4: A courier pilot named Old Peckhum flies the Lightning Rod shuttle to Yavin 8, carrying Anakin, Tahiri and Lyric. He will remain with them through the whole journey. It had taken some persuasion before Uncle Luke was willing to let them leave. Anakin had quickly packed and seen Ikrit at his window. He’d asked the master if he was wrong to leave while they hadn’t yet solved the mystery of the golden globe. Ikrit had told him he must go where he is needed. Tahiri thinks they can’t even begin to figure out how to break the curse without understanding the writing on the Palace of the Woolamander. They may find clues in the writing on the purple mountain Lyric had described. After they land, the Melodies usher Lyric off for her transformation. Old Peckhum suddenly realizes he forgot medical supplies he is supposed to be delivering after this trip is over. He is already behind schedule. Anakin tells him to go back and get them. It’ll only take a few hours and they’ll be fine until then. He’s barely left when an avril shrieks down. The Melodie children start throwing rocks and Tahiri lands one right between the eyes. It only enrages the creature and it dives toward her. Lyric leaps to protect Tahiri and is grabbed by the talons, borne away into the air. -------------------------------------------------------------------------I would question Luke’s judgment in sending a harried courier pilot who is already behind schedule to protect three Force-sensitive students on a dangerous world. If Peckhum has to deliver medical supplies soon, wouldn’t it have made sense to send someone else, like an adult Jedi or something? Especially since Peckhum abandoned them minutes after landing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jedi Cool Posted March 30, 2017 Author Share Posted March 30, 2017 chapter 5: The Melodie children explain that Lyric is too weak to fight off the avril this time. She needs to be in the waters of the cove before sunrise or she will die. Anakin and Tahiri go to find her. After climbing to a higher altitude, they find it hard to breath. They find Lyric in the avril’s nest where she tries hard to convince it she’s one of the babies. It’s not working this time. Anakin pops out and shrieks like the avril, causing it to toss him in its nest. The confusion sends the creature off. Tahiri helps them both get out and they notice the etchings on the mountain. They support Lyric down the rocks until several of the Melodie children help them down and to the cove where she is taken to the water.--------------------------------------------------------------- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jedi Cool Posted March 31, 2017 Author Share Posted March 31, 2017 chapter 6: Anakin and Tahiri are given spears and bags of rocks to help defend their friend. Suddenly, a Melodie calls that the eggs are being attacked. They run into the dry caverns to find three rodent-like raiths held off by two Melodie girls. Anakin and Tahiri use their spears to impale the beasts. A girl named Sannah asks how they were able to do that when the Melodie children have been fighting all their lives. Anakin explains that he and Tahiri use the Force which is an energy field that gives them special abilities, such as a way to sense where an opponent is going to be or what it’s going to do. Sannah wants to learn these things so she can protect her people. Sensing that is true, but also knowing she is angry at how many of her people have died, Anakin warns her that the Force should be used only for knowledge and defense, lest it bring a user down to the Dark Side. He asks her if she knows anything about the etchings on the mountain. She says some think they are a message from an ancient race and she thinks they’re right. ---------------------------------------------------------------------I suppose in his lecture to Sannah about the Dark Side of the Force, Anakin might have thought to mention that she would have to have some ability in the Force to be able to use it to protect anyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jedi Cool Posted April 2, 2017 Author Share Posted April 2, 2017 chapter 7: The children explain that they have the ability to tie some of the algae at the bottom of the pool to their mouths to allow them to breathe while they check on those who are changing. Anakin wants to go see how Lyric is doing. Since Tahiri cannot swim, she can stay topside and help guard. After adjusting to the new way of breathing the algae provides, Anakin ducks under the water and sees the way the young Melodies are changing. Lyric’s eyes open and he can tell she’s doing fine. He gets a sense of danger above and comes back up to find that a huge reel is attacking the cove. Tahiri keeps yelling at a boy frozen in fear to throw her a spear. Others are throwing theirs to no avail and the rocks do not chase it away. Tahiri is knocked to the ground and the snake wraps itself around her, intending to crush her. Anakin tosses himself with his spear into the body of the snake, but it only breaks the spear in two. Then he reaches out with the Force and finds the heart of the beast. Slowly, the heartbeat wanes until it stops completely. The dead snake releases Tahiri who opens her eyes. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Did Anakin just use the Force to stop a living creature's heart? Isn't that kinda Vader-ish? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jedi Cool Posted April 3, 2017 Author Share Posted April 3, 2017 chapter 8: Once the reel dies, the cove is quiet until it’s time to remove the changed ones to the crystal pool where the elders are. They are interrupted by another raith that has already wounded one Melodie and is now approaching Sannah. Sannah dodges a lunge by it and whirls around, before plunging her spear into the creature. Anakin congratulates her and tells her she used the Force to do this. The elders welcome their children back into the pool. They will be safe here in the crystal pool. Lyric appears and says that they want to thank Anakin and Tahiri for helping save several of the Melodies. There is an elder who is the keeper of legends. He may be able to tell them what the special symbols mean.---------------------------------------------------- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jedi Cool Posted April 4, 2017 Author Share Posted April 4, 2017 chapter 9: Anakin and Tahiri don the algae filters again. Anakin and Lyric then help Tahiri swim under the depth to where the oldest of the Melodie live. The elder is called Aragon. He knows the symbols they are asking about but he does not know what they mean. He was told over a hundred years ago but it’s been so long he’s forgotten. Anakin and Tahiri volunteer to use the Force to help him remember.----------------------------------------------------- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jedi Cool Posted April 5, 2017 Author Share Posted April 5, 2017 chapter 10: They take Aragon back in his mind where he remembers his mother, the keeper of legends before him, telling him about the strangers who came to the elders for help releasing enslaved children. The Melodie could not help. However, the visitors inscribed their message on the mountain in case someone could help them. Aragon has seen messages like this in the cave where the purella live, but he doesn’t know what the symbols mean anymore. Tahiri asks if he knows what the message was. If they know that, they may be able to figure out what each symbols means and go back to Yavin IV to try to translate those symbols. Aragon remembers it from the deepest tunnel in the mountain and tells them the message which was essentially a greeting from the Massassi whose children were enslaved by Exar Kun under a curse that they cannot break. They promised to leave a message to those who can on their palace. After returning above water, they ask Sannah to take them to the deepest tunnels. She is afraid because the purella live there. It is unusual they haven’t seen one this year because it always shows up to drag one Melodie changling to its lair. She will take them to the beginning of the tunnel, but won’t risk a certain death by going further. Before they leave, they say a heartfelt farewell to Lyric. ---------------------------------------------------- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jedi Cool Posted April 6, 2017 Author Share Posted April 6, 2017 chapter 11: The purella had waited when the changed ones were being brought to the pool. She had thought to drop there but the Melodie had killed a raith with such ease that it had made her afraid. She is normally content to hunt in the mid passages of the tunnels. When she hears voices, she hides, hoping to find prey in her web soon.----------------------------------------------------------------- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jedi Cool Posted April 7, 2017 Author Share Posted April 7, 2017 chapter 12: At the beginning of the tunnel, Sannah warns her new friends and they go on without her. Tahiri mentions that they forgot to bring something to copy the symbols down on, but Anakin thinks he will remember. When they find the messages, Tahiri runs to them. Anakin gets a grave sense of danger, but can’t see anything. Then a red spider drops on top of her and she screams. Tahiri stops struggling, then the spider jumps at Anakin. He struggles but the spider is too heavy. With both children limp with spider venom, they are dragged to the web. For now, they cannot move and Anakin can tell that they will get bound tighter to the web if they struggle. Anakin hopes the venom wears off before the spider decides to eat.--------------------------------------------------------------- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jedi Cool Posted April 8, 2017 Author Share Posted April 8, 2017 chapter 13: Able to move now, Anakin tells Tahiri not to struggle. They both have free limbs and he thinks they should try to rock the web enough to make the spider get caught in it. They shake their free limbs so that the web bounces. The spider moves toward them. They use the Force to bounce the web up and down. It’s not enough to fling them from the web, but it does flip the purella over on her back. Tahiri pulls out a multitool from her jumpsuit and cuts them loose. They leave the tunnel, turn the corner and Tahiri screams.----------------------------------------------------------------- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jedi Cool Posted April 9, 2017 Author Share Posted April 9, 2017 chapter 14: They find they’ve run into Sannah who admits she couldn’t just leave the tunnel completely. She wants to come with them to Yavin IV to learn the ways of the Force so she can protect her people. She knows that she has problems with fury, but thinks she can learn to control it. They caution her that Luke could sent her back if he thinks she’s not strong enough. Sannah is willing to take that risk. At the cove, Old Peckhum is waiting, having searched for them for a long time. They tell him Sannah is coming along with them back to the academy. Grateful he doesn’t have to babysit anymore, he takes them back to the ship. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Babysitting? Old Peckhum dropped them off, beat a hasty retreat to get back on schedule and turned up to take them back to Yavin IV after they were nearly killed on this moon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jedi Cool Posted April 10, 2017 Author Share Posted April 10, 2017 chapter 15: On the way back, Anakin realizes that Sannah knows about their search for the carvings in the tunnels. He asks her to promise not to tell Master Luke about how he and Tahiri risked their lives to find those etchings. Luke isn’t pleased to see the disheveled looks of both Anakin and Tahiri. They explain they’ve brought Sannah back and describe the things she was able to do. He agrees to meet with her and sends them both to the medical droids to be patched up.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jedi Cool Posted April 11, 2017 Author Share Posted April 11, 2017 chapter 16: After being treated for their injuries, the two friends look over the symbols on the message they’d found in the tunnels. When the door knocks, they hide the papers as Luke comes in. He is glad they are back at the academy safe. Anakin knows his mother would be very unhappy if something happened to him here. Luke has spoken with Sannah and determined that she is able to stay here, even longer than Lyric. With help, the Melodie may someday be better able to protect themselves. Sannah privately tells Anakin she did not mention the carvings at all. After she leaves, they get to work on trying to decipher the ones here. ------------------------------------------------------- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jedi Cool Posted April 12, 2017 Author Share Posted April 12, 2017 chapter 17: After hours, they are still not close to figuring out the symbols. Sannah comes in and asks what they are doing. They explain they are trying to match the message with the symbols so they can decipher what’s written on the temple here on Yavin IV. Sannah tells them that they are writing the symbols left to right. On Yavin 8, Basic is written top to bottom. Anakin tries again and it reveals a message that invites children strong in the Force to enter the globe and free the enslaved. Ikrit appears at the window. Anakin and Tahiri know they are the ones, but Ikrit also knows that they will face many dangers along the way. ------------------------------------------------------- End of Book 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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