Sarenda grew up with too many sisters and not enough space in a farmstead on the planet of Taanab. She was close to her sisters, and protective of them. More than one farmhand found himself face down in the dirt after a rude comment or a teasing gesture. As much as she was protective of her sisters and others, Sarenda did always enjoy seeing bullies get their just deserts.
But Sarenda also craved space to herself. She got some of it by helping her father and aunt in the garage and machine shop, repairing speeders and other farm equipment for hour after peaceful hour. She had a natural talent with machines, and learned a great deal from her father an aunt. But the true escapes were her regular trips out into Taanab's wolderness, exploring wooded glends and rocky caverns, climbing trees, and scaring grunn dogs.
On one such trip, she found a secluded cave that opened up into a chamber with smooth, hand carved walls. There were ancient statues and carvings in the chamber, and the skeleton of a long-dead alien with a strange machine clutched in one withered talon. She brought the device home and worked on it in the machine shop. After hours of experimentation, she managed to activate the small cylinder, only to discover that it projected a blade of pure energy. The blade could cut through absolutely anything, and -to her satisfaction- proved very good at scaring away the local boys. Sarenda ran to her father to find out more.
Her father told her that the weapon was called a "lightsaber." Her aunt said that the fact that she was able to repair it meant that she was sensitive to something called the Force. And it also meant that Sarenda had to leave Taanab. Her aunt gave her the name of one of her dear friends, a scholar named Hethan Romund, and told Sarenda to see the scholar out. Unfortunarely, Romund had been captured and taken to the planet of Spintir....