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Merrin had once hated the color green. Back during her life on Dathomir the color green had always brought up bad thoughts, memories, and emotions.
The being that had come to slay her people and had cut down her Ilyana had wielded blue and green blades of light; lightsabers she thinks Cal Kestis calls them. But it was the green lightsaber that she remembered most, for it had been the one that had slain Ilyana, bisecting her beloved at the waist.
Green was also a sign of sickness and poison on Dathomir. Plants with green leaves or flowers often meant that it was poisonous, or at least pretending to mimic an actual poisonous plant to avoid being eaten. Poisonous animals ranged in several colors, but more often than not they were predominantly green.
Bane Back Spiders the insects that infest the many mountain and rocklands of Dathomir shot a green acidic poison, and upon death the creature’s body would erupt, releasing this acidic poison to harm whichever creature was dumb enough to pick a fight with the large spiders.
The unclean water of the swamps of Dathomir were green on the surface of the water, often due to algae. Drinking swamp water could cause a multitude of problems including diarrhea, a multitude of deadly and debilitating diseases, or blindness. Getting the green swamp water into a wound would at best lead to a loss of a limb and at worst the loss of a life.
When Dathomirians grew sick their skin usually took on a light greenish coloring. And in Dathomirian culture a Nightbrother being born with green skin was seen as cursed, and often grew up to be the lowest ranking members in their village hierarchy, if they even survived past infancy or childhood. More often than not Nightsister mothers would just end up killing a child if they were born with green skin.
Merrin’s own magick was green, but that was not by choice. The ichor of the planet that Nightsister’s summoned to perform their magicks was a dark green, causing Nightsister magick to adopt the same color. But the ichor of the planet was dangerous and often scolding hot, or highly acidic, and when Merrin had been just a child she had learned those facts the hard way. The ichor also naturally had a horrid smell that could make those of low constitution sick, and if mixed with the scent of burning skin it had the potential to render others unconscious. Nightsisters, including Merrin herself, usually used magick to suppress the natural smell of Dathomirian ichor, because of its overwhelmingly horrid aroma. It was not difficult for Merrin to associate the color green with the smell of the green ichor.
On Dathomir the color green means death, and all life forms upon the planet either learn this fact or die. It was only natural that Merrin hated the color.
But when Cal Kestis, the young redheaded Jedi had come into the Nightsister’s life, and Merrin ended up joining the Mantis as a member of the crew her view on the color slowly started to change.
First it was the beautiful planet of Bogano. It had been the first planet Merrin had ever been on other than her home world of Dathomir. If Dathomir is the planet of red, then Bogano is the color of green. Looking upon Bogano for space and there is little that you see that is not green. Upon landing the planes utop the mesas of the planet are blanketed in lush green fields that go on forever. Upon first viewing of this Merrin had found herself gazing upon the view for hours.
Secondly had been the grand jungles of Kashyyyk, and the magnificence of the origin tree that steals Merrin’s breath away every time the Mantis finds itself on the Wookiee homeworld. Seeing the beautiful forests reflected on the surface of the clear clean waters of the planet brings a calmness to emotionally damaged Nightsister. When Cal had come through on his promise to show her the Shyyyo bird, the last of its kind, Merrin had gotten a chance to fly over the jungles of the ancient planet. The fear of the height could not overshadow the absolute wonder of a view that Cal Kestis and the Shyyyo bird had shared with the Nightsister.
Thirdly was the emerald green coloration of her Jedi companion’s eyes. Eyes that were always filled with honesty, determination, care, and bravery. Of course Merrin had known what Cal Kestis’ eye color was since she had met him, but it was only after several months of travel as a member of the Mantis crew that she really started to take notice of the eye color. At first the eye color had confused her. Dathomirians could not have green eyes; brown, red, gray, yellow, and blue were all possible, but green was not. She had thought the same as human’s. After all, Malicos had blue eyes, and Cere had brown eyes much like Merrin. After traveling on the Mantis for months and meeting a few more humans she had yet to meet another than had green eyes. When she had asked the Jedi in question about his odd eye coloration he had told her that while it was a natural human eye color, it was not all that common. After that she had found herself gazing into the Jedi’s eyes more and more often when Cal Kestis was not looking. It was only when Greez pointed this out to the Nightsister did Merrin realize that there was more than one reason that she had begun to take notice of the Jedi more.
When, four years later, while Merrin was looking into the eyes of her newborn daughter for the first time she had noticed that Ilyana had inherited her fathers emerald green eyes. Eyes that the Nightsister had fallen in love with during her time upon the Mantis.
Merrin had hated the color green until the Mantis came into her life, or more accurately until Cal Kestis came into her life, and changed her life and future. And looking into the emerald eyes of her daughter fully aware of the other gaze of emerald staring at both the mother and daughter Nightsisters, Merrin finds that she has found herself to be fond of the color green.