Date: November 23, 2026.

Sarah, despite waking up earlier than she had in the past week, couldn't wait to start her day. Without hesitation, she grabbed her new dress and Togruta sash and laid them on her bed. Realizing that it was cooler than it was on Shili, she decided to wear white tights.

That should help since I'll be sparring in a dress, she thought,

Once she finished dressing, she went downstairs for breakfast.

"Hey, Sarah," her father greeted her, "I thought that was for special occasions."

"Today is one, as far as I'm concerned. Besides, I want to show everyone that we use more than just the teeth of the akuls we hunt."

"In that case, it's a great idea."

After breakfast, Sarah and her parents drove to the Jedi Order. Upon entering at the main entrance, Knight Ashley greeted everyone.

"Master, Knight Ahsoka, Initiate Sarah. Welcome back. How was the trip?"

"It was incredible," Ahsoka replied. "Sarah and I learned a lot about our people."

"That's great. Sarah, you look a bit fancy today."

"It's how our people dress," Sarah replied proudly.

"Very nice. I can't wait to hear more."

Sarah froze and looked at Knight Ashley. "Wait, you're going to see my presentation?" she asked in disbelief.

"I guess I didn't tell you: given how important this trip was for you, I decided to call for an assembly of all the initiate classes and have you give your presentation in the assembly hall," Tim stated.

Why didn't you tell me?! She quickly thought to her father.

"Sarah, you've always struggled with acceptance. Perhaps making your presentation to everyone will help people understand you better, even if just a little."

Sarah nodded. It wasn't all the long ago that one of her classmates seemed to take pride in being rude towards Sarah or bullying her. Fortunately, they slowly buried the hatchet after their Upper Initiate Retreat.

"I guess you're right," she finally conceded.

"You'll be fine, Sarah. I'm looking forward to what you say," Ashley stated.

Sarah nodded. "Thanks."

As Sarah and her parents walked to the assembly hall, Ahsoka looked for her first-year initiate students while Sarah caught up with her classmates.

"Hey, Sarah. Boy do you look nice in that outfit. I bet my mom would love to have something like that. Me, too," Molly told her.

"Umm, thanks. I actually helped make everything. I did the headdress myself, and I did some sewing on my dress and sash."

"That's great. So, when are you going to tell me more about the trip?"

"Yeah? We missed you last week," another of her classmates interjected.

"You'll just have to wait until my presentation," Sarah replied with a slight smile.

"Let's go set up, Sarah. We don't have much time before we start," her father reminded her.

Sarah nodded.

Sarah looked at her notes one last time and reviewed the pictures she felt comfortable sharing with everyone. She took a deep breath, doing her best to remain calm.

"Well, Sarah, are you ready?" her father asked.

"I hope so," Sarah replied.

"You'll be fine. Just wait here while I introduce you."

Tim exited the side room and stood at the front of the assembly hall.

"Good morning, everyone," he said.

"Good morning, Master," the initiates repeated back.

"This morning, we have a brief assembly. I'm sure most of you have seen my wife, Ahsoka, and my daughter, Sarah, at some point."

Ahsoka, sitting off to the side with her students, smiled at the mention of her name.

"In the past week, they traveled to Ahsoka's home planet to visit their extended family. As a Senior Initiate, Sarah will make a brief presentation on her experiences. This is not a question and answer session, but it's intended to remind us that Jedi will encounter people of various backgrounds and we should do our best to respect both our common ground and our differences."

Sarah slowly walked out to the podium. She adjusted the microphone and checked her notes again.

Sensing her anxiety, Tim used their telepathic bond to discreetly tell her, You'll be fine, princess. I know how eager you are to help people better understand your Togruta self. So, here's your chance to teach them. You'll be fine.

Sarah took one last deep breath. This was the moment everybody was waiting for.

"Hi," she began nervously, having never spoken to a large group before now. "Last week, mom and I went to Shili to visit family, like my father said.

"Where we stayed, the weather was warm all the time, just like it is near the Earth's equator or in the grassy lands of Africa. Our family lives in a tribe, similar to our own Native Americans. Some tribes are nomadic and move around; but, ours has stayed in the same place for several generations.

"One thing I found particularly interesting is that they don't use last names quite the same way we do. There, they refer to themselves by their first name and usually say they are 'of the Tano' when asked which tribe they are from.

"Even though they live far simpler than we do—they don't have the technology we use every day—they work together and teach their children similarly as we do. The only difference instead of schools and datapads, many lessons are held out in the open and stories are shared by adults telling them to the children.

"The people I spent time with proved to be very skilled at different tasks. The same woman who teachers younger students also knows how to sew and how to work with jewelry."

Sarah smiled as the next picture was one of her headdress.

"While I was there, I had the chance to hunt. It wasn't as easy as it looked, and the animals our people hunt can be deadly if they attack. You can imagine how excited I was that I was able to kill one."

Both initiates and adults gasped in awe.

"Not only is it a big deal, but they use what they hunt for different things. First, anyone who makes a successful hunt uses the teeth for some sort of jewelry—often a headdress or a necklace. Also, it also provides an extra source of meat for the next couple of days. I also had this dress and leather sash made from its skin."

Sarah briefly stepped away from the podium to show everyone her outfit. Sarah noticed Molly smiling after hearing about her outfit.

I won't tell them about the thimiars. Nobody needs to know I puked my guts out, Sarah thought. After one more breath, she continued her presentation.

"This is our tribe's chief and his family. We learned we're cousins, but they treated mom and me more like closer relatives during our stay. Everyone else we met was very nice and accepting of us. I hope we get to go back again someday.

"In addition to speaking their version of English they call 'Basic,' they also speak a language native to our people, Togruti."

«Hello, everyone,» Sarah told them before repeating it in English. "Because some words require us to twitch our front tails slightly, it's impossible for humans to be very fluent in our language. But a lot of basic words and phrases don't have that, so they can at least learn those.

"Even though they live differently than we do, they seem to do some things as similarly as we do. It was nice to see how resourceful and how smart they were."

Sarah then moved away from the podium and turned off the projector showing her pictures to let everyone know she was done.

The audience's collective applause impressed Sarah. She wasn't sure if her presentation was too short or if she should have talked about different topics, but she felt happy to see everyone seemed to like what she said.

"OK, everyone, we'll give you all time to return to your classrooms and start you day in ten minutes. Have a great week," Tim told everyone. Turning to Sarah, he hugged her and said, "Good job."

"Thanks, Sarah replied."

Ahsoka and her students walked by next. "That was great, Sarah. I hope everyone else liked it," Ahsoka said.

"That was so cool!" Amy, one of Ahsoka's students—and the girl Sarah mentored—exclaimed.

"Thanks, Amy. You really liked it?" Sarah asked.

"Yeah. Will you tell me more when your class sees ours again?"

"You bet I will."

Other Jedi and initiates offered their own feedback. One Jedi's comment, however, startled Sarah.

"Tim, very impressive. I didn't know Sarah was your daughter," he said.

Sarah shook her head. How can he not know? I'm the only hybrid in the Order, she thought.

"Yeah, she takes after me so much, people don't know we look alike," Tim deadpanned.

After Sarah's class entered their meditation chamber, there was still excitement buzzing about Sarah's presentation. Madame Andrews, knowing it was best to let the class have a chance to talk about it before trying to get them to meditate, spoke.

"OK, class. We need to get started. But before we do, does anyone have anything to tell Sarah about her speech?"

"I'm glad you told us about your outfit," Molly stated.

"Everything sounded so cool," David added.

"You're pretty brave, Sarah. I don't think I could talk like that in front of everyone," Madison said.

"Me either," Molly admitted.

"Does anyone else want to add anything?" Madame Andrews asked. After receiving no response, she said, "OK, then. Sarah, if you turn in your notes and I find them satisfactorily-written, I'll give you extra credit on the next Social Studies assignment you submit for grading. Now, let's get ready to meditate."

As the school day ended, Ahsoka walked out to the main entrance.

"Hey, Ahsoka, Sarah gave a nice presentation. Tell her I said, 'Good Job,'" Knight Ashley stated.

"Thanks. If it wasn't for you, we probably wouldn't have gone," Ahsoka replied.

Ashley blushed slightly. "I'm flattered to hear that."

"Well, your news about the others was sad, but receiving news from my tribe was unexpected. I don't know how you did that, but I'll always be grateful."

"And I can't tell you how, but I'm happy to know Sarah and you enjoyed your trip. Will you go back?"

"I don't know," Ahsoka admitted. "It's still too dangerous there. Between us, there were times I was watching my back, just to make sure nothing bad was going to happen."

Ashley nodded. "I hope and pray you can visit again. It'd be a shame to meet family and never see them again."

"Agreed. As surprised as I was to have Sarah meet her grandparents back on her birthday, it was just as nice to introduce her to the other half of our family."

"I'm glad," Ashley replied before she turned to answer a call.

Ahsoka left for home, happy to be back and happy to know the trip—and Sarah's presentation—both proved to be largely positive experiences.

Pronunciation Guide:

Raenna [reɪ 'i: na:] – Ray-EE-nah.

Shalene [ʃeɪ 'li: ni:] – Shay-LEE-knee.

Closing Commentary: This is the first of at least two stories under the "Trips to Shili" designation.

Ahsoka's emotions had to be running crazy to first learn nearly all of her Jedi colleagues didn't survive Order 66 and its aftermath. To receive a message from her family tribe had to be just as emotional, no matter how pleasing it was to hear Da'Meon's greeting.

Da'Meon's name comes from the B-52's song, Is That You, Mo-Dean? If I remember, I was listening to it when I was trying to come up with his name. As a result, I always think of this song any time Ahsoka and/or family travel to Shili.

Meeting cousins aside, I think it's safe to say both Ahsoka and Sarah learned a great deal about their Togruta heritage. Ahsoka, in particular, had to be appreciative because her former Jedi Order discouraged attachment. As a result, her only known trip to Shil was years ago, and long enough in the past that Ahsoka considered the current trip more of a chance to better understand and appreciate her people's ways.

It's no secret that to this point, the idea of Sarah learning more about her Togruta self was very minimal, given Ahsoka's own limited knowledge. Sarah seems to have largely enjoyed and embraced her maternal culture—even if thimiar hunting won't be something for which she is renown. Suffice to say, Sarah was glad to have new people accept her after learning she's a hybrid. However, she remains mindful that just maybe not all might be quick to accept her.

Another significant topic is Ahsoka's canon fate in this time period. With the recent revelation Ahsoka is now part of the rebellion under the moniker of Fulcrum, I imagine some may wonder how I resolve the clash between canon and this series. Fan fiction, as a general rule, is alternative universe. Sure, some people may choose to write virtual episodes, or even entire seasons, of a particular franchise that don't change what already exists. Most stories, though, take what we already know and change it in some fashion—even if very subtly.

For those curious how I might resolve the conflict, I posted a Star Wars Rebels one-shot that is a deleted scene from the previous chapter of this story. There, Ahsoka declines an invitation to join the Rebellion. It will not be canon for either Rebels or my Ahsoka's Legacy series.

As you may have seen, the person on whom my Knight Ashley character was inspired and based passed away while I drafted this story. During one of our last conversations, I asked if I could continue to use her character posthumously—just in case this happened sooner than either of us anticipated. She graciously agreed, so her character will remain a part of my AU until I'm ready to retire the character as part of the story line.

Finally, thanks to those who supported this story.

END