Schla’tir

 

 

Even though Barabels are carnivores, the Gagafar tree have always played an important role in their lives.  Before the Barabel achieved sentience, their ancestors used the groves of Gagafar trees as breeding grounds.  It came to be that families of Barabel used the same grove of trees time after time until Barabel reproduction became dependent on using a specific grove of trees.  When the Barabels achieved sentience, this dependence remained and clans began to defend their groves and used the living wood to build their homes.

 

As clans of Barabel have spread across the planet they have taken cuttings of their clan’s trees with them.  Barabel can immediately identify a village’s clan just by sensing what family of Gagafar trees they have made their homes from.

 

The Jedi’s who discovered the Barabel did not understand the bond between them and the Gagafar trees.  The Barabel themselves do not understand the bond and do not currently have the technology to research the question.  The Jedi believed that the Barabel’s dependence on the trees and primitive state would make them too vulnerable to unscrupulous elements in the Republic, but they did not want to leave Schla’tir’s talents untrained.  They decided, with Schla’tir’s parents approval, to take Schla’tir away from Barabel.  But, they also decided that to protect the rest of the Barabel race that they would wipe their navigation computers when they got back to Republic space.

 

The Barabel know the Gagafar trees are required for them to reproduce, but did not know if Schla’tir would suffer any ill effects being away from the trees for an extended time.  To make sure Schla’tir would be OK, the Jedi prepared several cuttings of Gagafar wood from Schla’tir’s village to take with them.

 

The Jedi then remained on Barabel another week to ensure the peace they had established amongst the clans would last.  A week was enough time for them to meet with all the clan leaders and confirm the leaders were sincere about peace.  When the last meetings were concluded, Schla’tir said farewell to his family and the Jedi loaded the cuttings aboard their ship and once everyone was aboard, the Republic said farewell to Barabel for almost 4,000 years.

 

 

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