Titel: You can take the farmer from the land, but…

Author: Lora Kael

Charactors: Luke

Disclaimer: Yeah, I don't own Star Wars, never did, never will, though I'll admit I wouldn't mind, if I did... ;) So, none of this is mine, except for the story in itself. The universe, Luke and whatever belong to GL. This is just me playing around in my favorite fandom.

Notes: I wrote this as a 'what happens in between NJO and DN' just as a little explanation for myself for one thing that are mentioned a few times in DN. Some spoilers for NJO in case you haven't read. Oh, and please give a review after reading; I crave reviews! :D

Morning. Another beautiful day on Ossus. It would be a clear day with plenty of sun and fairly good temperatures, Luke thought. Not that it really mattered, not to him. It was a spring day and therefore it was still a bit cold in the morning. Some were irritated by the cold and the fact they still had to wear warm clothes in the morning and evening time, but Luke found it refreshing. It was something that truly woke him up, like it had on Yavin 4. How he missed Yavin at times with its green jungles and strong rivers. It was so full of life! But there was nothing left for the jedi there now; hadn't been since the Vong had been there and had once and for all effectively destroyed the temple. It wouldn't do them any good to cling to the past. The Yavin Academy's time was over and the time for the new temple on Ossus had begun.

Luke walked quietly along the pathways in the gardens. Oh, the gardens. There he felt at peace, at home. Ossus was mostly mountains, rocks and grass, but the gardens were nurtured by the jedi and a quiet place of meditation and contemplation. They were full of life, but in a different way than the jungles of Yavin. They missed some of all the teeming animal life any sheltered garden seemed to lack.

Perhaps he'd just gotten too used to Yavin, Luke thought as he left the gardens and left the academy buildings behind. Yavin had been overripe with life. And he'd spend more than a decade there.

So many memories. Luke shook his head slightly of himself. He really was getting 'sentimental' as Mara put it. He didn't mind overly much.

He turned down between some rocks, some of them almost small mountains and had to climb or jump over some of them. From now on there wasn't a path to follow anymore, but Luke could always find a way through. It had been a long time since he'd first stepped on Ossus, but little had changed; when they came here after the war the old temples(or rather their ruins) were still standing in the same way they had almost two decades before. The jedi had searched the planet for a place to place the new academy and it wasn't very far away from the old one. The place Odd Bnar had guarded for a millennia…

Luke again fell into old memories and hardly noticed where he placed his feet.

Yes, the jedi had explored the planet to find a place for the academy, but after that was found they'd concentrated purely on the construction of it. Luke hadn't.

It might seem incredible to some since Luke had overseen it all and approved of it (or at times disapproved), but Luke had found time for exploring of his own. And he'd made a far more throughrough investigation of the surrounding area than any other jedi. Which brought him back to why he was walking here; he had a destination in mind.

When the academy was under construction Luke had found this place. And he'd quickly seen it was perfect for his needs. Since the academy was only in the first stages of construction it had been no problem for Luke to order a little extra here and a little extra there, so nobody would notice the amount of equipment he was pulling out for his own little project.

Not that any of the jedi would have complained or spoken out against it, Luke just wanted to keep it a secret, to keep the place a secret. Not even Mara knew its position, though she probably had her guesses to where and what. She, of course, knew he had a little secret, but she hadn't poked very much. She was waiting for him to tell. Someday he would.

There it was. The cave. It didn't look like much from the outside; in fact you couldn't even see it was a cave from this point, not until you were practically at the mouth of it.

When Luke had first found this place he'd just been wandering aimlessly around and the Force had guided him here. Luke was so attuned to the Force that he couldn't always tell whether he'd been using the Force or not, but in this case he probably had though subconscious.

Luke entered the cave. It twisted immediately to the right in a tunnel that sometimes almost doubled back on itself while still going deeper into the mountain. But it didn't go on for very long at least not before Luke's destination came. The tunnel split in two and following the widest one it soon opened up into a large cave, where the ceiling was some three floors up at it's tallest. The floor was almost smooth and the walls where uneven, but beautifully so. But here the comparing to an ordinary cave stopped. The ceiling had been fitted with a hundred glow panels, the walls had heaters spaced evenly all around the cave and the floor had been filled with rows of dirt and plants.

This was Luke's private garden as he liked to think of it. He smiled be the sight of it. Beautiful. Truly beautiful.

He walked down between the randomly placed rows of dirt and small trees. The entire cave was filled with them; little trees, the largest not much more than a meter tall. But then this wasn't much more than three years old. And getting enough seeds had been a problem, because of the shortage the war had created. So he'd started with a few and then expanded through the seasons. And now the cave was full of trees.

Luke let a hand caress the leaves as he walked by. He sometimes stopped to talk to his trees and let the Force flow quietly from him into the trees; it made them grow and flourish. Any botanic or farmer would be impressed with the result of Luke's efforts. Luke thought of this place as his gardens, but in reality 'orchard' would have been a more suitable word. 'Cause that was what it really was. And Luke cared greatly for it and for keeping it secret.

And for a good reason; because of the war only six planets now produced the beans and if it was known that he grew cacao trees and harvested a good portion of beans he would be overrun by investors and buyers, all hoping it would drop the skyrocketing prices.

But Luke didn't do it for profit. He did it for relaxation, to think and because he liked hot chocolate. Once a farmer, always a farmer. He smiled to himself and let the positive energy flow into the trees. And his students and other jedi also liked hot chocolate. This way they could get some from time to time.

Ten years ago Luke would never have thought it would become a sign of status to drink hot chocolate. Then his status would have to be very high since he not only drank it himself, but gave out to the whole Jedi Order. That thought made Luke laugh out loud. Oh, how things changed. Some for the worse, some for the better.

The strain on the jedi were enormous. Demands were made from all sides and in particular from the Galactic Alliance. The Bothans still wanted to exterminate all the Yuuzhan Vong, so the jedi had to protect them and Sekot from being found, and he saw his family less now than during the war with Ben as the exception.

Well, that was a plus. So was this garden; on Yavin any attempt on a domesticated garden would have been for naught. The jungle was just too wild and the climate hadn't been right either.

The galaxy was healing. Slowly, but it was healing nonetheless. That was a big plus. That was what the jedi fought for, sweat for, bled for and died for every day. Luckily the last didn't happen very often. Luke did all he could to make Ossus and the temple a sanctuary. A place where his jedi could get away from the struggles of rebuilding a galaxy and find some peace and quiet.

And hot chocolate was part of his plan. People relaxed when sitting with a cop of it. It certainly made him relax.

It was time to leave. Luke checked the controls controlling the glow panels and heaters; soon the latter wouldn't be needed. He smiled as he looked around the cave one last time. Yes, things were getting better and like his trees would grow, so would the peace.

He turned and began walking back to the temple.