Tales of the Temple Terrors: The Beginning of the Terrors
Looking back years later Anakin would say it was fate that they would meet, it
certainly did seem that way. During his first week at them temple, he ran into
her twice, literally ran into her.
Kitty was of a species that generally kept to themselves, the few of them that
were left in the galaxy. Several hundred years before a fanatical group had
decided the whole race was an abomination and had wiped out almost all of them
on the planet at the time. Renowned for their skills in battle and stealth,
those that were left were never seen unless they wanted to be seen. They never
wanted to be seen.
They had developed a wariness due to the massacre of their people.
Kitty had been raised in the temple, but she still had that wariness about her,
even at six. It was easy for her to avoid detection, she was very small, and
completely black. Her soft, downy black fur would eventually be replaced with
short, sleek fur as she grew older, but she would always be small. She had
excellent hearing; two sets of ears did that for you. The lower set were
humanoid in shape, except of course that they were covered in fur, while the
upper pair could rotate 180 degrees and stuck up out of her thick black curls.
The only parts of her that wasn't black was her eyes, teeth and claws. Her eyes
were huge and glowed softly a green yellow, the main give away whenever she was
seen. They were surrounded by long thick lashes that would hide her eyes when
she squinted, very helpful, but it hindered her otherwise excellent eyesight.
Although they had become much more civilized since then, at one time the sharp
Feralian fangs Kitty had had been necessary for survival on her home planet of
Ferlia, now almost completely abandoned. Sharp, retractable claws, however were
still used excessively by her people.
Hardly anyone knew about those two highly lethal attributes however, and no one
suspected, she looked like a stuffed toy, and those that saw her seemed to
decide she would act like on to. Wrong.
As an iniciate, she had developed the nickname ‘Kitten’ for the obvious reason
that she looked like one. Not wanting to have to change the name she had learned
to answer to, they had just slapped an ‘ira’ on the end. Kitty figured she had
grown out of the Kitten stage and had started calling herself Kitty instead.
Due to her excellent camouflage ability, it was no wonder Anakin kept running
into her. Finally after tripping over her, running her into a couple of walls,
almost shoving her over a stair rail and sitting on her in the mess hall, Anakin
decided that he might as well get it over with and introduce himself. So, when
he ounce again sat on her at lunch, instead of leaving he stayed and sat next to
her. After a coupple of awkward minutes he finally blurted out what he had
originally intended to say.
“Hi, my names Anakin, I’m sorry for sitting on you…..again.” Kitty looked at him
curiously, she had seen a lot of him lately, and he seemed kind of lonely. That
was when the six-year-old-ness kicked ina nd overrode the Feralian-ness.
“I’m Kittenira, but you can call me Kitty. You seem nice.” Anakin grinned at her
blunt honesty.
“You do to. So, have you ever built a droid?…….”
Obi wan Kenobi paced worriedly around the common room of the small apartment he
shared with his apprentice. Where could he be? Lunch had been over for an hour
now, and still no Anakin. Usually the boy hurried back from lunch, not having
made any friends among the other padawans yet.
Finally, he couldn’t take it anymore, he had been gone too long, he was going to
have to go find him. He left the apartment, muttering about losing padawans.
Several complicated twists of the temple hallways later, Obi wan was to
distracted to avoid a collision with another Jedi. Luckily the other jedi was
not and moved out of the way just in time. Obi wan bowed quickly.
“My apologies.”
“Don’t bother, Obi wan, are you alright? You seem distracted.” Obi wan suddenly
recognized the force signature and voice the other jedi was projecting. Several
years his senior, Yara Kli was a respected jedi with a special talent for
compassion. He felt a gentle force brush against his mind. “You’re worried.
What’s wrong?”
“Believe it or not, I lost my padawan.” Yara Kli raised an eyebrow, a small
smile creeping up her face.
“You lost your padawan? Obi wan nodded miserably. “And how exactly did you lose
your padawan?”
“I don’t really know, he should have been back an hour ago.” Yara Kli’s smile
widened.
“Obi wan, did it ever occur to you that maybe he’s just playing somewhere?
Children like to do that you know.”
“Yes but Anakin doesn’t have anyone to play with—“ Obi wan was cut off abruptly
as a familiar blond haired face came running into view, a little black shadow
with glowing eyes right behind him.
“Master Obi wan, I’m sorry I’m late, Kitty was showing me this garden with
fountains everywhere, and there’s water in them! A lot of water, water master,
tons of water, you should see it!” Anakin gushed, eyes sparkling excitedly. Yara
Kli was now grinning.
“Well Obi wan, it would appear you’re a little out of the loop. This is my
padawan, Kittenira Nite.” Obi wan smiled a little at himself. What had gotten
into him, of course Anakin was alright!
“Master, can I show Kitty my old podracer plans?”
“Of course Ani, go ahead.” Anakin grabbed Kitty’s hand and ran off down the
hall, talking excitedly about the Boonta Eve.
“Well that was sort of strange.” Yara Kli said, looking after the two padawans.
“What do you mean ‘strange’?” Obi wan asked curiously.
“It took me two years to get her to trust me and she already trusts your Anakin
after only an hour.”
“That is strange.” Obi wan agreed, looking down the hall thoughtfully. “This
could be an interesting friendship.”
And it was….