Feast of Fright on Dantooine

[Tysyacha]

Dantooine was sometimes called "the bread-basket of the galaxy", even though this phrase dated back to archaic times when people still ate bread made from grain instead of synthetic-based polymers. Every fall in the most ancient of days, the people of Dantooine would celebrate their harvest and also participate in a heyday called the Feast of Fright. Upon this autumn evening, they would disguise themselves as the person or thing they most feared and dance and sing together (not to mention gorge themselves).

 

Apparently, the Padawans and Knights at the newly-restored Jedi Enclave had discovered some rudimentary holocrons describing this Feast of Fright. With the whole-hearted and uproarious support of the local populace, the Jedi decided to hold a rebirth of this millennia-old, long-forgotten tradition.

 

The only problem for the most-recent crew of the Ebon Hawk? Guises!

 

All of them thought and thought, racking their brains for the source of their deepest, darkest fear so they could laugh at it upon this joyous night. When it came, they were quite surprised at each other, and also not so surprised.

 

"Atton!" Mira, now Jedi Apprentice of the Sentinels, slapped both hands over her mask-covered mouth to keep from guffawing. "You dressed up as HK? Why?" She marveled at the ridiculous way his boxy costume "filled him out".

 

"I hate droids," grumbled Second Apprentice Rand, "especially that one. He's still around, and even though I could chop off his fat metal head with one stroke of my lightsaber, I still can't count on his droid reaction time to be slow enough for me to do that. Bucket of bolts. Good thing he's not around."

 

Atton gawked at Mira's mask. "What's that jumbled-up thing you're wearing?"

 

Mira sighed. "All the bounty hunters I've ever known and ever feared. See? It combines Hanharr, the Twin Suns, an HK-50 droid, and even G0-T0's eye." The faces were amalgamated in a striped fashion, and Hanharr's even had genuine Wookiee fur (shed) on it. "I'm a Jedi, and that makes me even more of a target for any bounty hunter roaming around than I had been before."

 

Mira turned to Mandalore and almost toppled backward. "Zerg! It's him!" She pointed and shuddered at the dark mask, completely covering Canderous' face. "Darth Revan has returned!" Then she laughed. "Seriously, Mandalore, why are you scared? Revan's way out there in the Unknown Regions now."

 

"A Mandalorian faces his fears, not avoids them," he said. "I'm afraid of what I shall do to Revan, and what he'll do to me, if we ever meet again. He'll slaughter me, I am afraid. Yet I must make him pay for abandoning me. He set me to the task of uniting my clans instead of allowing me to come with him beyond the Outer Rim. Mandalorians don't handle betrayal well, Mira."

 

As much as the tone of Canderous' voice made Mira's blood run cold, she nodded. "Mandalorians also don't handle slaves or masters who rebel very well. Revan is of the Light now, not the darkness. I know you're angry, but we need his help if we're ever going to find out the threat that's out there."

 

Mandalore stood there for a moment and then crossed his black-gloved arms. He wasn't going to back down, and only one person could ever influence him.

 

That person, or at least her student Visas Marr, emerged from the Enclave.

 

"What?! HAHAHAHAHA!" Everybody howled with laughter. "Vogga the Hutt?!"

 

"I still have trouble removing the thought of dancing for him from my mind," grumbled the Grand Master of the Sentinels. She waddled about in her bulky and weighty costume, lacking every trace of the grace she normally had.

 

"Say, where's your--oh..." Everyone fell silent. This guise was truly scary.

 

A figure walked toward them, lithe yet sinister, cloaked in a black garment with tiny, glowing pinpricks in the fabric. A ghost, for no sign of the figure's face could be seen. More than one participant in the Feast of Fright cringed.

 

"Who and what are you?" Atton was perturbed, hiding his fear. "You give me the heebie-jeebies, and I--Exile?" He was perplexed. "What costume is that?"

 

"Visas helped me," said Tysyacha softly, "and I am the unknown. I still don't know if I'm going to leave alone for the Unknown Regions or if I'll take you with me. My husband, Mandalore, is very right to fear Revan even now. I am afraid of what lies beyond the Outer Rim, and I hoped that through wearing this starry guise, I could face my fear instead of hiding behind Jedi 'peace' and 'professional distance'. I'm no true Jedi, and I hate not knowing..."

 

"The future?" asked Mira. "None of us knows that. Not even Masters can see."

 

"Or Knights," seconded Atton, "or even those who can't feel the Force."

 

"Revan" turned to embrace "the Unknown", his bride whom he wed upon Dxun.

 

"Tsyacha Dvukh Ordo," he said, "it is good you face this fear. Let us take part in the Feast without any hesitation or reservation. It may be the last bit of pleasant diversion we have before we go on a possible suicide mission."

 

So the crew of the Ebon Hawk danced and dined, putting Fear to rest.