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.