The Tree

[Rik Idannian]

Rik traveled through the undergrowth. His path ever upward. Years had passed since another soul had walked this twisting path but still, the forest had yet to reclaim it. It was almost as if those people of old, though absent, kept the way clear with their memory. As if every single footstep they took stamped out a message: We were here. Remember. The now weary Jedi continued upward and inward, eyes downcast by his personal reflection and the weight, the importance of this place.

It was different from the Nexus but similar. Nexus had been a visceral, organic place. Primal. The Temple he now entered was more lived in, built not found, but no less alive with the presence of the Force. These stones stacked upon each other bore witness to an establishment dedicated to the Light, though somewhat sad in their rooms emptiness.

Rik traveled down dark corridors still only aware of his surroundings by instinct. When his eyes and other senses told him to look up, for there was Light! Rik slowly lifted his chin and took in the room before him. Several stairs went down as the room’s ceiling opened up before him. It arched up and widened at the sides. There were sconces along the walls for some sort of artificial lights to be hung and the floor of the room stretched out a fair distance. A training hall perhaps. The only light in the room came from a hole in the ceiling at the far end of the room where symmetrical steps to those he now stood on rose. The forest was trying to take over it seemed for in the sunlight of that hole stood a massive tree. Its deciduous leaves stretched out to the sky yet did not reach the hole but rather seemed to grow outward, filling the space and reflecting green light from its canopy to brighten the room instead of adding to its darkness.

There was something familiar about this place as if Rik had once shared a meal with a friend under this tree’s cousin long ago and far away. So Rik approached the tree and found rest for his weary heart and body beneath its limbs. He sat at its roots and leaned his head back. Sleep.