Juju Dekè

Aliases: General Juju Dekè

Relatives

-Wife - Henle Dekè (Deceased age 51)

-Son Oldest - Strep Dekè (Deceased age 22)

-Daughter - Abbes Dekè (Deceased age 25)

-Son - Tetè Dekè (Deceased age 25)

-Son - Unknown (Deceased age 0 \*Still born)

-Son - Jaja Dekè (Terrogate)

Affiliation: Cathar Royal Military

Date of birth: 4029 BBY

Place of birth: Cathar

Date of death: 3963 BBY

Place of death: Cathar

Gender: Male

Height: 198cm

Weight: 104kgs

Eye color: blue

## Biography

Juju Dekè was a famous Predator warrior who rose to the rank of General in the Royal Cathar army. Once retired he became a professional Hunter for his tree city and trained his son Jaja Dekè (Terrogate) in the art of hand to hand combat. He was present during the Battle of Cathar and presumed to have died trying to save his wife from Mandalorian Neo Crusaders. He survived although badly injured. Burnt, blind and mute due to the savage attack he made it to the tree home and was found by the priests who had been raising his grand daughter unbeknownst to him. He survived for ten years at the Temple before his wounds finally took him to meet the rest of his family in the afterlife. But in his time in the priests care he forged a close bond with the young girl of the temple. The girl with the same name as his own daughter.

( \*\* taken from The Lion, The Witch and the Wedding, Terrogate returns to Cathar and discovers the truth of his family’s legacy. \*\* )

Within a matter of only a few minutes the elderly Cathar woman releases her touch and lowers her hands slowly to her sides. Terrogate opens his eyes and lifts his gaze only to see Kadji staring at him, near toothless mouth wide open and a bewildered look on her face.. “I…..I…..it’s…….that means.....Wait here!..” she said abruptly and turned almost bumping into Aires who was standing holding her tea causing him to spill some. “Out of my way boy…. I need the tapestry..” she said moving as quickly as she could to a set of open wooden draws.

“Here.. Look here Jaja..…..” she said excitedly as she moved back to the fire now holding a loosely folded large piece of very old light brown material close to two meters long, on it were many hand-sewn symbols and lots of writings all in Catharese stretching down to the very end. “What’s this?” asked Terrogate.. “Why.. It's the story of our family…. And of the gods” she replied excitedly, eyes as bright as the stars on a clear night as she unfolded it getting all the way to the bottom..

She handed it to Terrogate to read and without even needing to look at it she started to recite the story as though she had been the one to write it..

“Our story.. Well…..what is known….Began shortly after the time known as the great darkness, when the tree cities of old burned and our people fell to the first invaders…. It was over four thousand years ago..” Kadji continued and took the tea from Aires.. But her hands were shaking so much now that her tea was sloping over the edges.. She didn't seem to even notice..

“The tree cities were all abandoned after the great darkness, blackened and lifeless for decades they stood idol waiting for the earth goddess Arkana and the deity of birth & rebirth Tzu to heal them from within.....” she continued as Terrogate hung on every word.

“The invaders now gone for some twenty plus years, the Cathar who had once fled the war started to return to our planet and along with the survivors began to repopulate and recolonize our ancestral home.”

Terrogate followed the tapestry, reading the original words and symbols as Kadji recited the story flawlessly.

“It was around this time that a group of traders on their way to Joffa city set up a camp here, at the foot of this very tree. The weather became poor and they were forced to stay many days before the road was dry enough to move their carts again. On their second night they noticed light coming from the mountain God temple high in the hills.

The traders decided to investigate the light high up in the mountain temple, several of them moving camp to the foot of the sacred steps. There they waited at the foot of the temple's steps for several straight days watching the entrance.. But they saw no one either enter or leave the temple mouth for that entire time. So, they then decided to go and see for themselves what, or who possibly could be living inside the old ruins..

After making their way up the sacred steps they finally arrived at the top, and entered the temple of the mountain god. Inside they found a creature.. A Cathar.. A female, about twenty years old. She was mostly uneducated, and starving. Her name was Abbes.”

Terrogate lifted his eyes, looking with shock and disbelief back to Aires and then to Kadji.. “but…. But how can that be?? It makes no sense…?? Abbas died.. And she would have been in her forties by then?” he protested..

“Yes..” said Kedji looking at Terrogate as though she was looking into his very soul.. “\*Your sister would have…” she said cryptically..

“There's more… Look..” Kadji added, still not having touched her tea she continued and pointed a shaky boney finger to the tapestry...

“The girl told the traders about her past as best she could... That she'd been saved by a man, a man who found her very pregnant mother in an open field near a burning tree city. And this man through the power of the gods brought her back from the brink of death.. Just long enough to take her to safety inside the mountain god temple where several priests were in hiding.

Aires, feeling the sensitivity of the moment, places his hand on Terrogates shoulder as the knight feels tears begin to well in his eyes while he followed the story on the tapestry”

“Before she died the pregnant woman, who was carrying wounds beyond saving even by the priests, told the man her name and that her baby was special. She begged the man to keep her cub safe after he cut it from her body. The man, also able to feel the power of the gods inside the unborn cub agreed and soon after he performed his promise with the help of a temple priest the mothers body gave in completely, dying in the temple.”

Tears were streaming down the Cathar knights face as he heard of his sister's fate.. but also ones of joy and hope.. he said nothing, listening to Kadji as she continued the rest of the story.

The Man quickly named the new cub, a girl.. after her mother and wrapped her in his cloak. He then removed from the dead mothers neck an amulet, the amulet read “a heart of a Warrior.”

He gave the amulet to the priests to look after until the cub was old enough to have it and shortly after, the man departed never to be seen again.. and there in the temple of the Mountain God the priests raised young Abbes. The proof of the miracle of life and the resiliency and kindness of the Cathar peoples.

There were others that had been brought to the temple in the days and weeks following of course. But, most died soon after arrival and their bodies burnt, the priests performing the ancient traditional dusk rites... The girl told the traders of one male however. A male who had been found a week after her birth at the bottom of the destroyed hometree. He was very badly burnt, blind and due to his injuries he also couldn’t speak.. Thankfully the healing goddess Nyarah was watching over him, the man managed to live for nearly a decade with them in the mountain gods temple before he finally perished in his sleep.

Abbes would visit him often and talk to him, and he would hold her hand with his one good arm and she could tell in his unseeing eyes that he was smiling. She told them she had felt a special bond with the old male but didn’t understand why. She had described him as being large, heavily muscled despite his old age and his eyes… His eyes although unable to see were as blue as the purest sapphires”

Terrogates heart grew heavy.. feeling like it would explode inside his chest and he raised his left hand to wipe away the tears on his cheek and whiskers.. could it have been who he thought it was.. he dare not say the words.. not out loud. Not now at least.

“Of course the problem was..” continued Kadji.. “The priests were all males, sworn to celibacy and already well into their twilight years..  She cared for them as best she could, but slowly and surely they died out.. leaving young Abbes, now a teenager alone in an abandoned yet dangerous world she did not know. And there she stayed, alone in the empty temple halls.. with the ghosts of her mother, the priests and the burnt man. The only people she’d ever known. Each night lighting the fire of the mountain god entrance.. hoping someone, somehow, would come and find her.”

Terrogate couldn’t believe his ears or his eyes.. but there it was… the detailed history written down on what it looked to be, now he thought about it… very similar to the same kind of fabric used in making traditional Sith and Jedi cloaks.. and he couldn’t help wondering if his niece, named after his dearest sister, was once wrapped in this very material…

“What…. What happened to her?…” Terrogate asked, no longer following along with the words and symbols, but looking teary eyed at the old Sharman Kadji, who was looking straight back at him.

“They then sacrificed her to Khan the god of death and ate her.” she said bluntly and straight faced..

Terrogate flattened his ears and tilted his head before squinting his eyes at the eccentric old lady, trying to get a read on her.

“Silly boy.. well what do you think happened?” She said letting out a light cackle and finally drinking a sip of her tea.. “ aggrrhhh…. Aires, this tea is cold boy! Here…” she said, handing the ceramic mug to her grandson then turning her attention back to Terrogate who wasn’t sure whether to laugh, be mad or anything else right now...

“Well she went with them of course.. to Joffa city. Little of her life in Joffa city is known, but it is written she returned here near on ten years later with a handful of colonists looking for a fresh start and also several religious families.. including her own as she had never taken a vow of celibacy and felt a need, a responsibility even to keep her bloodline going..

It seems in her time in Joffa she had continued her religious path in the large city, spreading the knowledge and stories of the gods she had learnt from the priests who had raised her, bringing hope to many after such a long time in darkness.

Here they started to rebuild the tree city… this very hut is where she and her family first lived…. It is written that each night Abbes would spend outside, looking out to the Mountain god temple.. thinking about her mother, the priests and the burnt man… slowly, over generations the tree city expanded and new people came, and with them came trade and opportunities. This hut became the tree city home for the city Sharman.. as it still is today.” She said, bowing her head.

“The home to the daughters of Abbes.” She said finally.. “the keepers of knowledge… and your family.. although it seems I am the last of the daughters….” She said, glancing sharply sideways to Aires.. “for now Grandmother.. for now.” He said, rolling his eyes. “Your Sakari needs to visit the fertility temple Aires.. I’m telling you boy.. I won’t die until you give me a great granddaughter.” She threatened… Aires sighed..”Grandmother you know she doesn’t believe as we do.” Kadji sighed and then turned back to Terrogate who was still trying to process this story..

For a long moment Terrogate couldn’t speak, the story was incredible… unbelievable…yet here it was.. the evidence was written into the cloth in his hands and he folded it back up gently. At the very bottom suddenly he saw a symbol that took his attention instantly.. It was a picture of his sister's amulet.. And the knight's heart swelled with love.. this was the evidence… the proof that everything Kadji had said was the truth.. his sister had survived.. and deep down he had a feeling, at least for a while…so had his father. The greatest man Jaja had ever known, who he and his siblings thought the world of, had somehow found a way to survive and he had known his granddaughter before he died...