The Story of Eland Losid

Her Youth...

Eland grew up comfortably on Bakura, in the capital city of Salis D'aar. Surrounded by loving family and good friends, she was very happy - despite the fact that she was being pressed into Engineering as a career and there was nothing more she wanted than to go off and become a *Jedi Knight*.

Her parents disapproved - though understanding of her urges they needed her to stay, wanted her to stay. She had a younger sister at eight years old, Lanae, and so responsibilities when she was older.

So Eland was happy, if not totally content - her family she loved; she and her best friend Hasmi Poric were often found carousing through the safer streets of their upper-class district 'til late at night. But when Eland was fourteen, things inexorably changed, for the worse.

Her parents left her in charge of Lanae, now an excitable and cute six-year-old, and things were easy. Hasmi had come over for the evening, helped Eland get her younger sister to bed - a feat in of itself - and had left for her home, Eland left in charge of the large and empty house.

No one could discover the cause of the fire. It was supposed that it was a fault in the main power wiring, or something like that. Eland soon forgot any explanation anyway; that wasn't important to her. What mattered was that early that morning, in the middle of the night, there was a fire in the downstairs of the house. Lanae had woken first, being a restless sleeper, and had traipsed downstairs to investigate the heat and smoke.

Eland was woken by her younger sister's crying, echoing from downstairs. She ran down, to find Lanae curled up in a ball against the cold tiles in the kitchen, trying to escape the intolerable heat coming from the other rooms. Eland managed to carry the child to the hallway and almost to the front door, when Lanae squirmed out of her grasp and ran back upstairs.

Saving her was the only thing on Eland's mind; she ran after the young child and grabbed her roughly, dragged her out of the house screaming.

Lanae had come out of the house alive but had hurt herself, tripping on the slightly slippery kitchen floor and causing major head trauma; that and the smoke she had inhaled proved too much, and she died even as the Emergency Services had brought her into the hospital.

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Eland's parents were naturally distraught, but never once in their grief did they ever think of blaming Eland, of placing any responsibility of what happened onto her shoulders. Yet they became painfully distant within days of the fire, emotionally cut off and unavailable.

It was interpreted by the surviving daughter as absence of love, absence of care, and blame. She felt at a loss, entirely responsible for what had happened, and no one thought to tell her otherwise - except for her best friend, Hasmi, and the other girl's older brother Torem.

The other girl, fourteen as well, adamantly insisted that it was no fault of Eland's, and slowly the feelings of guilt diminished. But still she was left with an intense protectiveness of those she loves, and an urge to try and keep them all safe from harm.

The years slowly passed and the two girls grew closer to each other than to anyone else, and about a month after they both turned sixteen they realised they had fallen in love - romantically. This was a problem. The area they were in, the people that they knew, their attitudes...there was an undercurrent of hostility to that kind of thing, to same-sex relationships.

Torem though, he was wonderful to the two of them. His closeness to the both of them meant he noticed early on, and encouraged the two of them - promising that he'd look after the two of them if anyone acted openly hostile.

This arrangement proved more than satisfactory, it was perfect, and Eland was feeling happy again.

But on her and Hasmi's one-year anniversary, when they were out together, Torem was attacked.

He was stabbed and poisoned by an unknown attacker, and left in a back alley near the restaurant where the two girls were dining. Feeling something was wrong, Eland led her girlfriend out back and the discovered Torem lying unconscious in the garbage, covered with his own blood. He was rushed to hospital but by then enough damage had been done and he was doomed to die a slow death. The poison acted on his nervous system, meaning his nerves slowly degraded down to nothing.

Eland couldn't deal with another person painfully close to her dying. She tried to convince Hasmi to leave with her - at Torem's urging - but Hasmi refused, he was *her* brother and she wouldn't leave. She promised, however, that she would find Eland as soon as...she was able to leave.

So Eland left Bakura, quickly heard about the Jedi Academy on Yavin IV, and there she was.

At the Academy...

At the Academy she found herself being trained by a newly-promoted, fresh-faced Knight called Anoon Brkil...her, three other Padawan and a Jedi, Ancha Theri. The Padawan she quickly befriended - Jo'tra Gibur, Chnei Thmel and Sc'har Pewal - and she found her training to be enjoyable, if rather fragmented and, say, hectic.

She grew particularly close to Chnei - they had a fight, and through the make-up they both admitted fears to each other that others at the Academy were unaware of. Chnei, in particular, had serious issues about the whole ethic of being a Jedi...Eland tried to help her but wasn't that helpful - she was no more experienced than Chnei herself.

Jo'tra and Chnei were taken to Coruscant on a training mission by another Knight, Co'bal Th'chi. There, Chnei was kidnapped by the Dark Lords of the Sith; Jo'tra and Co'bal returned wounded and upset.
It was a terrible blow. It was hard for Jo'tra and her to concentrate on anything when their young friend was taken hostage by the evil Dark Lords.

When Eland returned from a mission with Anoon and Ancha to help Rogue Squadron, she felt no happier, even though she had earned herself a medal in the process. Jo'tra left with Anoon and a new Padawan, Ba'mic, to Corellia - Jo'tra's home planet - and Eland hung around at the Academy, training half-heartedly.

Then, the totally unexpected happened - Hasmi arrived at the Academy. Much was left unspoken between the two lovers, but one thing was well understood: Torem had died a slow death, but gone now he was. The two were unable to spend any time together, however, as both had training from different Knights - Eland from Anoon and Hasmi from Co'bal - and soon the still-Padawan Hasmi was sent on a mission to Coruscant.

Jo'tra returned, upset by his traumatic family history, and Eland helped him as best she could - trying to ignore the echoes of pain, no matter how different their troubles were.

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A time later, Eland had been made Jedi, and Jo'tra also. Jo'tra took his Trials to become a Knight...but failed. Dramatically. Eland was rather scared by it, wondering at his obnoxiousness - even if rightly placed (and Eland had no idea about *that*) - and if he failed, what was she to do? How would she pass, when he was such a skilled Jedi?

Then Chnei returned, and with her came absolute chaos.

Things were blurry, fast to change. Chnei had been permanently changed by the Sith - had been won over to their side, but she was torn inside herself. It hurt Eland to see her friend like this, and Chnei attacked her, each time she couldn't do a thing to help herself.

Anoon ended up locking herself, Eland and Chnei in the Containment Chamber. Eland had lost hope and Anoon tried her best to help - and succeeded. However Anoon herself was not doing well. She started singing childish songs at Master Puppet, calling him strange names, and when Jo'tra let her out she rushed to her chambers.

Eland put Jo'tra in the containment chamber with Chnei, and followed Anoon. Her Master was trying to drown her sorrows.

She couldn't let it happen. The intense protectiveness reared up and Eland grabbed the bottle out of Anoon's hands. She went into the bathroom and smashed it in the bath, with the intention of setting it on fire - what first came into her mind - and Anoon attacked her.

Eland fell, lighting the alcohol, but hit her head and fell unconscious. The fire caught her robe, and the sleeve started to burn. Anoon, with little self control left, did drag her into the shower and put out the fire but when Eland tried to talk sense into her she set the room alight and locked Eland in it.

There was no other way to get out but run through the flames and jump through the closed window. It left her with little strength, and though she managed to stagger to the Temple Hangar she had no energy to stop Anoon. She opened the Containment Chamber with the last of her strength and passed out as Jo'tra ran into the Hangar.

Times have Changed...

When she was finally released from the Infirmary things had completely changed. Anoon had left, Co'bal and a new Jedi, Craxus, were going up to destroy a ship that Chnei had control of...Jo'tra and Mihar - another Jedi, but newer and less experienced than her or Jo'tra - were locked in the Containment Chamber, apparently because they both had romantic feelings towards Eland. Things had gone very strange.

Jo'tra put himself into a hibernation trance, to get himself taken to the Infirmary, where Eland was...her voice took him out of the trance. It was good to see him again, she decided.

But things were still completely out of the normal. She talked to Jo'tra, asked him about his *feelings* for her...and there were none. She felt confusion but a definite relief. But Mihar...he did. And he thought that she and Jo'tra were involved.

She had to tell him on no uncertain terms that she wasn't interested. Her heart belonged to Hasmi - though she didn't tell him that.

He spurned her, the both of them upset from the whole matter. Chnei's ship was taken care of, Co'bal returned, and told Eland that if she wanted to pass the Trials and become a Knight she'd better sort out her life and emotions and get a grip on herself.

She tried to block her emotions out entirely, but Jo'tra called her out on it. She couldn't hide it from him.

But more happened...Anoon came back, engaged to her ex-Master, the renounced Jedi Ma'rol Mannan; Ba'mic Be'abe commited suicide, an entirely unexpected event.

But still Eland dealt with it all; she had too. She needed to.

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Later again, though not by so much, she and Jo'tra went to Naboo for Anoon and Ma'rol's wedding. It was a mixed affair, with Anoon getting cold feet just beforehand. Eland went to her and tried to stay her fears of doing the wrong thing, of not actually being in love. She did this by letting Anoon see how she felt about the most important person in her life: Hasmi - though she hid who it was about. The wedding occured, and Eland returned to Yavin IV after dropping Jo'tra off at Corellia.

Soon afterwards she took her trials. In them she was confronted by a fully Sith Chnei, but saved her unconscious friend anyway. She saw fire in her past, too much - the event with Anoon had left her severely shaken, with half-forgotten memories resurfacing. And she saw a part of the future, Anoon's child.

She passed, and is now a Jedi Knight. Anoon returned from the Hammerhead, and confirmed Eland's suspicions of her being with child. Anoon left, and then returned again.

Things also transpired with Jo'tra. After a friendly sparring match, to relive old times - where she got him to give her his red lightsaber - the atmosphere took a more serious note and Jo'tra confessed to her that his feelings...whilst before, he hadn't felt anything but respect and friendship for her, now his feelings had developed into something more.

Shocked, she finally admitted to him her troubled past. Her relationship with Hasmi. And understanding friend he is, he decided to help her.