"What exactly are you doing?"

Willow glanced at Cal briefly but continued her work. "I collected some plants earlier. I thought it couldn't hurt. I'm not sure what kind of plants they are, but I hoped BD-1 could help me identify them."

The metallic clatter on the floor signaled the arrival of the curious droid. "Speak of the devil. What do you think, buddy? Can you help her?"

BD-1 made a sound, climbed onto Cal's lap, and then jumped onto the table. His blue scanner moved over the various greenery, and the droid began beeping excitedly.
Willow didn't need to ask; Cal immediately started translating. "You haven't got your sorting quite right and it's bothering him. Here, let me help you."

Without waiting for her response, he moved closer to her to reach the plants. He leaned over the table, and with BD's instructions, he sorted the plants. She watched how carefully he handled them, gently placing them together. After seeing him fight, she was surprised at how delicate he could be.

"What is this?" The question wasn't directed at anyone in particular as he pointed to a few small seeds in a blossom in his hand.

"Oh, those are seeds," Willow explained. "Let's put those aside for now. Greez said I could plant the them in his terrarium." She gently took the blossom from Cal's hand, accidentally brushing his fingers. Almost immediately, she felt a slight tingling where their skin touched.

He cleared his throat and pointed to another piece of paper towel to her left. "Do you want to put the seeds on that?"
She nodded, pushing away the warmth that threatened to rise to her cheeks.

BD-1 gave a quiet „Beep-beep!" but this time Cal didn't translate. Instead, the tips of his ears turned slightly red, and Willow suspected the direction the droid's comment had taken.

Everything in her screamed to change the subject. She placed her bag on her lap and reached inside. After a few seconds of searching, she made a frustrated noise.

"What are you looking for?" Cal asked, his ears returning to their normal color.

"I'm looking for some string. It must be here somewhere. Hang on." Willow handed her bag to Cal. "Hold it open for me? I need a bit more light."

The boy placed the bag on his lap before opening it wide. "Whoa, it's like a black hole in here!"

The young student laughed. "I enchanted the bag to hold more. That's why it's so dark in there." She pulled out her wand: "Lumos!"
Using her practical light source, she leaned over the bag and reached in. It didn't take long before she found what she was looking for. "Ah!" she exclaimed happily, pulling out the ball of string. She held it up triumphantly before looking at Cal.

She held her breath as she realized how close they were. Their faces were only inches apart, but Willow was captivated by his gaze. She hadn't noticed before how beautiful his green eyes were. She let her gaze wander, studying his face closely. She saw that he had more scars than just the two prominent ones. A finer scar ran through his right eyebrow, similar to hers.
Willow examined his whole face before stopping at his lips. Even his lower lip bore a small cut.

Realizing what she was doing, she quickly moved away from him. "Sorry," she whispered, unable to stop the blush that spread across her face once again.

With a "Nox!" she extinguished the light from her wand and placed the string next to the now properly sorted plants. Cal beside her seemed uncertain, shifted in his seat briefly, and took a sip from his cup. But he didn't move further away from her.

She focused back on her initial task. She unwound a piece of string and cut it with "Diffindo!" Her hands still trembled with the adrenaline from her sudden staring. She did her best to wrap the stems of the plant bundles with the string, but her dexterity hadn't fully returned yet.

Cal noticed she was struggling and took both the string and the bundle from her. Willow was fascinated by the calm he exuded while bundling. She had noticed during the fight that he was very calm and calculated, which didn't make him any less dangerous.

"How do you do it?"

He didn't look up from his task but tilted his head towards her, signaling that he didn't quite understand what she meant.

"Your calmness. Even I can feel it. Your aura is so... strong."

A sad smile played on his lips. "I learned it as a child. It's part of the Jedi training."

"I understand. Well, no, I don't actually understand because I don't know what Jedi really are. But I understand that it was part of your training."

Cal took a deep breath. "Okay, I'll explain."

And he did. He told her about the Jedi and what the Force was. He also roughly explained why the Empire was their enemy. He mentioned that there weren't many Jedi left. As far as he knew, it was just him and, theoretically, Cere. He wasn't sure about Master Cordova, explaining to Willow that he had never met him personally.

While he explained, they bundled the plants together and set aside the seeds. Willow didn't interrupt; she just listened. She noticed that he left out an important part of his past. For example, he hadn't yet told her how he became part of the Mantis crew.

But Willow didn't ask. They hadn't known each other long, and she trusted that he would tell her when he was ready.

Their topics had now taken on a more cheerful tone. Cal and she were speculating about other possible planets when a hearty yawn overtook Willow. She turned away from Cal, not wanting to be rude, but he heard it.

He started to laugh. "Wow, am I really that boring? You know, you can just tell me."
Feigning offense, he placed a hand on his chest.

Willow joined in his laughter. "Can you blame me? You talk quite slowly," she teased him.

He pouted and looked at her with huge eyes. "Ouch, Willow! That hurt!"

She giggled and playfully punched his shoulder. "Keep dreaming, Kestis. That won't work on me."

He rolled his eyes with a smile and was about to say something when Greez stomped into the living area. "I hate to interrupt your party, but it's bedtime. We're halfway to Kashyyyk now. So when we wake up tomorrow, we'll be almost there." With that, he trotted towards his room.

Willow watched the pilot leave before standing up and turning to Cal. "To be honest, I'm pretty tired too. In a few hours, I'll see if all of this was just a dream."

"Oh, I'm pretty sure it's real. Otherwise, we'd both be sharing the same hallucination, and that would be really creepy," he said as they both walked towards the sleeping quarters.

They stopped in front of their doors. Willow gave him one last smile. "Good night, Cal."

"Sleep well, Willow. See you tomorrow."

And with that, she entered the guest room. She placed her things, as she had earlier that day, in the room. She quickly hung the plant bundles upside down from the ceiling to dry. Willow retrieved her pajamas and disappeared into the en-suite bathroom to get ready for bed. She glanced at her wristwatch. On Earth, it was now two o'clock in the morning.

Completely exhausted from the day's events, she shuffled to the bed and crawled under the warm blanket. Hopefully, I can sleep through the night.

_

The next morning, Willow felt exhausted. She hadn't been plagued by nightmares as usual, but the previous day had taken a toll on her. She kept waking up; her thoughts wouldn't give her any peace. One hour with Professor Binns, then she was on an unknown planet, joining a crew of strangers. Together they went to another planet, where she eventually had to fight as well. She shook her head. God, she could hardly believe it herself.

Feeling heavy, she leaned over the end of her bed and reached into her leather bag. She pulled out a roll of parchment and her quill. Her idea to keep a journal was put into action. If she experienced that much every day from now on, she definitely didn't have enough parchment with her.

Using one of her books as a writing surface, she wrote down everything. Every impression, thought, and feeling she had in connection with the events was now neatly written on the parchment.

When she finished writing, her hand ached. She let her utensils disappear back into the bag before lying back on the soft mattress. She lay there for quite a while, reflecting on the past hours.

With a resigned sigh, she concluded that she probably wouldn't fall back asleep. Willow shuffled into the bathroom and got ready for the day. After a long, warm shower, she returned to her room and got dressed.

She wouldn't need her school uniform anymore, so she chose her dueling outfit. It would make fighting much easier. She grabbed her olive-green pants, which fit snugly around her legs. She strapped a belt around her right thigh, where she could stow her wand.

Next, she reached for her white blouse, which fit more loosely. This was comfortable for the sleeves, providing good freedom of movement. Finally, she put on a blue corset to keep the blouse from shifting. She tucked the photo from the pocket of her school vest into her corset. As a final touch, she clothed her hands in fingerless, sturdy gloves.

Willow realized she hadn't thought to bring another coat. So she would have to wear her school robe once they landed. The advantage was that the robe was very warm and the hood offered a lot of wind protection. She could easily imagine that Kashyyyk had a wilder climate as well.

Fully dressed, she grabbed her wand and put on her wristwatch. A quick glance at the watch face showed that a good thirteen hours had passed since her portal mishap. She was hopeful that today she would find at least one clue.

Optimistically, she stepped through the metal door and moved to the center of the Mantis. Cere and Greez were already up and having breakfast. Willow couldn't quite identify the food, but the smell made her stomach growl. The two crew members waved her over and pointed to one of the two remaining set places. Hungry, the girl sat down and eyed the food. Greez explained to her what it was, but she remained skeptical. Nevertheless, she served herself a good portion and found that it actually tasted quite good. When Cal joined them, the four of them enjoyed a quiet breakfast together. And Willow felt a bit more at home.
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