When I woke up from my dream, with tears in my eyes, I found my father in the living room, he was doubled over and in tears. He was watching a news program on the Holonet. In bold letters at the bottom, it said “Cathar in flames after a brutal attack by Mandalorian raiders.” Cathar… that was where my mom had been. That’s when I knew… that she was never coming home.
A few weeks later… Father just left me with a strange woman. A Mirialan old enough to be my grandmother. He threatened her… told her that if she didn’t train me, she would tell the Jedi Council where to find her. She agreed… but I didn’t really know what I was being trained for. I begged him not to go. I had barely seen him since the night of the dream. He didn’t listen though. He left me there, with a strange woman I had never met.
We didn’t really get along. Not at first anyway. I resented being left with her, and she resented being blackmailed into teaching me. I refused to listen to anything she said. I was stubborn, and I didn’t want anything to do with her. One day though, a group of men showed up, carrying another man, he was bleeding really badly, and I could see the inside of his stomach. An animal had torn him open… it was horrible.
The old woman though, she didn’t hesitate. She had them lay the man on a table and then… over the next few minutes I watched a miracle happen. She put him back together… I could give you the science of it. Say how she employed medicine and the force both to great effect but… really I just saw it as a miracle. I still do.
I knew at that moment, that I wanted to be just like her. Once the men left, she told me her name was Nehqio. I told her my name, and then I said “I want to learn from you. I want to save people like you did!” She smiled down at me and then knelt down to my level. “There is power in your little one. The power to do great good, but also, a great evil. I will teach you to know the difference. One day, if you’re working hard enough, if you become wise enough, you may even become a greater healer than I.”
We started training the next day. It was a good thing… finally having something to work for. Something to take my mind off the emotions that were tearing me apart inside. And… I didn’t realize it at the time but… it was nice, not being alone anymore. I still wonder sometimes if my teacher felt the same. If finally having a companion in her little hut eased her own loneliness as much as it did mine.
In the end… I suppose it doesn’t matter much. I’d like to believe it though. To believe that I made her final years a bit happier. It wouldn’t come close to repaying her for everything she did for me… and everything that happened. It would be a start though.