small things.

[quigonejinn]

Obi-Wan was Corsucant bred and born. Dooku, on the other hand, came from a clan of high-level Republic diplomats that moved from planet to planet and system to system as their careers dictated. There were a number of missions where Dooku found that his path being smoothed for him by an uncle who would know dear Orda's boy anywhere, even if he had been taken away by the Jedi as a baby. He had his mother's nose and his great-grandfather Morgat's chin, after all, and wouldn't his parents be terribly pleased to hear that their son was doing so well for himself?

Qui-Gon, on the other hand, never ran into any of his relatives in interstellar travel. His birth planet featured, as its primary characteristics, incessant rain, astounding poverty, and internecine warfare.

When he was fifteen, he and Dooku were dispatched to keep the inhabitants of that mudball from exporting its misery. There were indications that the high-level officials of one faction had obtained black-market space fighters, that they intended to use them against Republic and Trade Federation ships coming to do business with other factions of the planet, and it was made very, very clear to Qui-Gon and his Master that they were there to keep the lid on the pot. They were not there to fix things. The planet had an internal governance frame.

It was beyond the terms of the Republic charter to tamper with it, and after things were over, Dooku founds his apprentice standing rather miserably outside near the diplomatic compound.

They were at the bottom of hill country, and it was raining. Steady, fine drizzle that came down out of the sky and was even worse than a hard rain for soaking clothes through and through. Dooku had one of the tiny portable anti-grav units that he favored as a means of keeping the rain off of him, but Qui-Gon was just standing in the weather, staring up at the foothills. Water was running down them -- the soil was almost continually saturated during this, the rainy season, and there was little vegetation that could stand up to the constant rain, so there were little piles of eroded rock and soil at the foot of each hill. In fact, the ground that they were standing on was nothing but washed-down pebble, and there was a bruise across Qui-Gon's face from where he'd thrown himself over a dignitary to protect him from an assassination bombing attempt during negotition meetings.

The man, for his part, screamed and shoved Qui-Gon off of him. Cursed Qui-Gon for being another member of the traitorous, murderous Jinn clan, and instead of going to those who had actually been injured, his bodyguards came rushing over.

The rain continued; Qui-Gon continued to keep silent. He had his hands tucked underneath his robe. He was staring out at the mists over the hills, and eventually, Dooku used the Force to bring a small rock out of the mud, where it hung in the air for a moment, turning in the rain so that the mud would wash off of it.

Dooku gestured for his Padawan to take it.

Qui-Gon raised his eyebrows and looked at his Master as though he were about to ask whether some rain had trickled past the anti-grav unit, but then he saw that rock was glowing somewhat. It was hard to see in the drizzle, but it definitely seemed to be lit from within, and Qui-Gon's eyes went wide.

"Compressed ancient plant matter that was, while living, rather high in midichlorians." A pause. Dooku's voice was a little arch, but still fairly kind. "I suppose that part of the briefing materials failed to merit your attention, Qui-Gon, as it did not feature lightsabers and space pirates."

Qui-Gon shook his head and kept his eyes on the pebble. He reached out, tenatively took the stone in hand, and at which point it began to glow quite brightly. It was warm in his hand, too, and now he looked over at his Master.

Dooku put a hand on Qui-Gon's wet shoulder. "It is from the River of Light on this planet, Padawan."

"They have something like that here?" Qui-Gon swallowed, looked down at the rock in his palm. It felt like a living thing in his palm; he could see the faintest, lightest bands of the Living Force pulsing through it in time to his own heartbeat.

"It's high in the mountains. Untouched and quite beautiful, though I suppose if these savages could figure out a way to make those rocks into weapons, they would have."

Qui-Gon looked up in surprise. All through the trip and the negotiations, Dooku had been reprimanding him for having a negative attitude towards the inhabitants of his birth planet, for snobbery towards a foreign society, and here his Master was calling them savages.

Dooku saw the look. He was standing close enough now so that the anti-grav field covered half of Qui-Gon and kept the rain from falling on the left side of Qui-Gon's body.

"Remember, Qui-Gon. It is not our birth or our environment that make us, but instead, our characters. It is our commitment to the Force. It is the choices that we make. You should not allow small things to define or constrain you."

There was, for a moment, nothing in the air but rain and the weight of Dooku's words. Qui-Gon was staring at his master even though he had been taught that such direct looks were impolite in almost every Republic society, but even after the moment had passed, Dooku said nothing about it.

Instead, he patted Qui-Gon's shoulder and pulled him close so that the anti-grav field would cover them both on the way back indoors and to the landing bay where their transport was waiting. If Qui-Gon wanted to see the River of Light, there would be plenty of opportunity, no doubt, for them to see it on a return trip to the planet; in the meantime, Qui-Gon could just keep the pebble in his pocket.

In fact, Qui-Gon kept it clenched in his hand all the way out of geosynchronous orbit, and he died without ever seeing the River of Light.

In fact, as far as he knew, Qui-Gon never saw another pebble from it again.