AKwxlady Obi Wans Daughter Part four Chapter eight

It had been nearly a year since the Chiss visit. Ki’tia awoke in the early morning hours and gripped Ordo’s arm tightly. He sprung into alarm, turning on a light and grabbing the Verpine blaster kept by his bedside. He understood his wife’s Force senses.

“What is it, Cyar’ika?” Ordo reached out to Ki’tia. There were tears in her eyes. She responded with one word.

“Kal’buir.”

They rushed across the hallway to Kal’s suite. When they entered they saw him sitting in a chair near the fire, with his feet propped up on the hearth. The fire was just embers. One of Kal’s hands was on his chest, the other hung toward the floor. There was a glass of tihaar lying on the floor, where it had fallen from his hand. His head was tilted to the side. Kal was dead.

Ordo rushed to his father’s side. He looked to his A’nir wife. “Can you do anything?” He was crying. “Can you bring him back?” Ordo was pleading.

“Ordo, my love,” Ki’tia held his head to her. “Kal’buir was a hundred and five. He died peacefully in his sleep. Do you really want me to try to force him to come back to us?” Ordo sobbed and shook his head, ‘no.’ Ki’tia removed his comlink from his pocket and started calling the other brothers.

So many gathered to say farewell to Kal Skirata, Ki’tia lost count. They came from Kyrimorut, and other areas of Mandalore, as well as clone settlements across the galaxy. Although formal burial was uncommon for Mandalorians, it was decided Kal’buir would be interred on the mountain behind the Lake House. Once the body was covered by the soil, Ordo stood and faced the gathered family.

“Nu kyr’adyc, shi taab’echaaj’la,” Ordo recited the Mandalorian death locution. [Not gone, merely marching far away]

Their father was gone, but would never be forgotten. The man who had saved six small clone boys from extermination would live in the hearts of all of the family Skirata forever.

Ordo had been in charge of Clan Skirata for many years, Kal had gradually given Ordo command as he grew older. Kal’buir’s death formalized his place as the leader. Ordo’s one fear in life had always been going on without his Buir, but now he felt the strength of Kal’buir in every beat of his heart. He could go on because it was what his father trained him to do. More than that, Ordo was now the father of this large family Skirata, and he would make his Buir proud by how he cared for this family.

It was a few weeks after Kal’s death. Ordo stood in front of the Lake House, one arm holding his son, Kal’ika, sitting on his hip, the other arm around his beautiful A’nir wife, Ki’tia. War was coming, again. War with a new and formidable enemy. They would be ready to fight, even as secret allies, for now. Someday old prejudices would be overcome, Ordo was certain of that.

As they watched the sun setting, a pair of T-65XJ X-wing Starfighters lifted off from the field on the side of the lake. It was part of Genet Squadron, Etain was flying one of the fighters. Ki’tia’s daughter, who’s Grandfathers were so very different, and yet both had influenced so many lives in their own ways. Her paternal grandfather, Kal Skirata, who had fought with every modicum of his being to give men decanted from cold, motherless cloning vats the love of a father, and the rights of everyman. And her maternal grandfather, a Jedi Master, hero of the Clone Wars. A man who sacrificed the opportunity to love his only daughter, to watch over and train the boy who would save the galaxy from the evil of the Emperor. The father of Ordo’s wife, the daughter of Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Chapter 7, Obi-Wan’s Daughter main page