“Drox, a leopardess is here to see you.” Daint'an said, leading the way for Kalila. Drox was siting near one of the windows, his eyes shut. He came here sometimes to meditate when he wanted to get away from others. It was rare when Drox did not seek the company of others, but there were some days when he needed the quiet.
The grandmaster's steps came closer. Drox opened one of his eyes and looked at the lion and the leopardess behind him. He gave them a huge grin, before opening his other eye. When he stood up, he towered over both of them. He was used to being one of the larger members of the pride, though he was still dwarfed in comparison to the previous grandmaster.
When she saw the leopardess, he felt like he had seen her before. He thought back to his travels in the rogue lands. Then he remembered. “I met you in the rogue lands, years ago didn't I? I shared some of my food with you.” She first tried to steal his catch, but that was all in the past.
“I will leave you two alone. If you need me, I'll be over looking the young classes.” Daint'an said, bowing his head to them as he left.
Kalila stared at the lavender eyes of the lion. He looked so much like he did back then. “You helped me a lot back then and I appreciate it. My name is Kalila.” She said. They shared names only briefly the first time they met. “I came here in hopes that I could get some guidance from you? I know you already helped me so much, but I was hoping maybe you can help me once again.”
Drox gave her a nod. “I am truly honored that you sought me out for my advice. What can I help you with?” He knew that there were more qualified jedi in the pride that could help her, however he did not want to discourage her. She had faith in him and he did not want to disappoint her.
She took a deep breath in. So far she made it the first step of her journey. There was still much more to do. “I need to find my family and I have no idea where to start searching.” She said. More than anything she wished she could do this whole quest alone and rely on just herself. But she couldn't just search aimlessly. Her search could take up years and she might never see them.
How puzzling, Drox thought. He wasn't sure what he could do to help her. He shut his eyes and thought about it. When he met her the first time he didn't remember seeing her family. She was by herself when they ran into each other. “I'm not quite sure what I can do to help. I wouldn't know where to start looking.” He said truthfully. “I do not know anything about your family.”
“I know as much as you know about my family.” She wished her father would have told her more about the family that he had taken her from. He had refused to tell her anything other than he had stolen her. “My father, the leopard who raised me, told me that when I was a cub he had taken me from my family. He wanted a daughter and my family had more than enough cubs.”
She laid down. When she came here she had no idea how they would be able to help her. She just needed a place to start her journey. But if she couldn't get any help from the jedi, she wasn't sure how she would be able to start her search. “It will silly of me to think that I could come to you and get all my problems solved. Dainot'an told me on the way here that you would be able to help me the best of your abilities, but that I shouldn't expect the impossible.”
“He is right. There is only so much we can do. However, I do have an idea of something we can do. Some of our jedi have seer abilities. They can sometimes see events from the past, present and future. My padawan has that ability. I cannot promise she will be able to see your family, but if you are interested we can try?” Drox said. Tsiana was his padawan. She was a highly skilled young jedi, though she often rushed head first into action. Rather recently while they were on a mission they discovered that she could have visions. She wasn't too happy about it, but was learning to accept it.
“If you think it is worth a shot, then I would be willing to try.” Kalila said. At this point she would try anything, she thought as she got up.
Drox gave her a comforting smile. “Would you like to rest for a little bit? I can go get Tsiana and talk to her about your situation. I am sure she will be more than happy to help you.” Knowing Tsiana, she was probably out with her sister playing around instead of studying. He knew why the two of them were paired together. It was a healthy reminder about how he acted when he was her age.
He had caused trouble for different reasons then Tsiana did. She was kindhearted though. He couldn't ask for a better padawan. The two of them sometimes did not see eye to eye, but that didn't matter. Sometimes he needed someone who would argue with him.
“I'm not too tired, maybe I can have Dainot'an give me a tour of the pride while you talk to her?” Kalila thought that a tour of the pride would be nice, plus it would give Drox sometime to talk with Tsiana and see if she would be able to help. Also she would get to spend more time with Dainot'an. He was such a nice lion, that she couldn't help but want to get to know him better.
“We could do that. Dainot'an might be busy. If he is, I can find someone else to show you around.” Drox said. The grandmaster had a lot to do. He knew that Dainot'an wouldn't mind showing the leopardess around. But Drox didn't want to put too much burden on the lion.
“I'm not too busy to show Kalila around the pride.” Dainot'an came into the room. “I was just coming in to check on you and I heard my name. I have some time to show Kalila around the pride.”
A huge grin appeared on her face, she couldn’t help but feel happy about being able to spend time with Dainot'an. “Thank you so much. And thank you Drox.”
Drox nodded. She certainly was an interesting leopardess. “I will talk to Tsiana then. After that I will seek you two out and we can go from there.”
WC: 1,168
