‘I was still sleeping in my bed when the air pressure lock on my door unexpectedly opened, jolting me out of my sweet dreams. My eyes shot open, and I jumped out of bed with my lightsaber in hand, already ignited.’
‘The silver light shining through the gloomy dark room.’
‘I was confused, still half asleep, but ready to counter any incoming blow. My master often pranked me as such, attacking me in the middle of a night to train my awareness.’
‘Sometimes he sent lightsaber training drones to do his bidding, other times he came personally.’
‘The painful spikes of low energy laser beams hitting against my skin were still a regular returning visitor among the other nightmares I meticulously accumulated in my years of training.’
‘I was waiting and waiting for any sigh of incoming danger, but no attack seemed to appear.’
‘My mind slowly began to clear as my adrenalin-powered tunnel vision weakened.’
‘Now, with a much more self-aware mind, I could look around to find another reason for the door’s unexpected opening.’
‘I reached out with the force to search the area. Which was still too dark for me to see properly.’
‘Almost immediately, I felt a frightened presence in the corner of my room. It was somewhat familiar. Where had I sensed it before? I wondered while slowly walking towards the spot where the presence was hiding.’
‘As I reached close enough for my saber to lighten up the dark corner. I saw a small human form, with black hair, wait is that Rika?’
‘I quickly gave voice to my suspicion.’
“Is that you, Rika?”
“Yes...” — ‘Sounded the shaky answer.’
‘I did not sense any lie in her voice, and the force presence was familiar, even if I hadn’t memorized it perfectly.’
‘I decided to turn off my blade and stop scaring the poor girl even more.’
‘I walked to her side; she was very small even compared to me, and she was trembling like a single leaf in the middle of a storm.’
‘I swallowed down a frustrated sigh. Good job girl… you managed to traumatize an already traumatized child even further.’
‘I picked her up, as she buried her wet face into my neck, hugging me and saying that she was sorry to walk into my room in the middle of the night...’
‘She also mumbled something about her master and that he would be disappointed, if he knew... I was not sure about that, but my hands were already full with trying to calm the terrified child. Patting her head and back to make her feel some comfort.’
“Rika, did I scare you that much? I am sorry, I was trained to be on guard even in my sleep, but I am not angry with you. Do you understand? You can come over if you need to, but please knock on the door next time instead of just walking in, okay?”
“Yes, I am sorry...” — ‘She mumbled.’
“There is nothing to be sorry about, you see?” — ‘I sat down on my bed, placing Rika in my lap. She was still hugging me like I was her lifeline.’
“Look at me, Rika.” — ‘She hesitatingly raised her face to meet mine.’ — “I was also scared of you. That was why I jumped out of my bed that fast! Did you see how big of a jump I did, even half asleep? I only jumped that high, because I was that scared of you, the fearless Rika bane of sleeping padawans.”
‘She giggled a little. What a relief! I patted her head once more.’
“Now, that’s what I like to hear. I bet your master would also prefer to hear your bell-like laughter.”
‘She tried to object to tell me something that I already knew. I stopped her.’
“No need for that, Rika. Your master loved you. He didn’t want to leave you behind.”
“He fought for what he thought would make this world safer for you. He wanted to stop the war, hoping that you would have no need to fight in it. That was his only wish.”
“He died hoping that you would not face the same challenges as he had to.“
‘Rika began to cry and tremble again, after I told her what I sensed from siphoning the dark miasma around her room, while I was there yesterday.’
‘Her story was not unique. There were many other padawans, just like her, scattered around the temple.’
‘The self sacrificing nature of the jedi was well known to me by now. There were fanatical extents to it, but in this case it was most likely naïve stupidity.’
‘There is no heroism in jumping before a blade, when the blade wouldn’t hit anyone if you just stayed still. Sometimes the jedi would want to be remembered as heroes taking unnecessary risks showing off their level of self-sacrifice. Think you fools. How many padawans did you leave behind without guidance?’
“I... I never asked him... to die for my sake!“
‘Her voice came back alright. She shouted that last part in my ear protrusion... I agreed with her, the selfish selflessness of a parent, or a parent figure, I guess.’
‘We often try to shelter our loved ones, even when there is no need for it. Sometimes, a parent needs to learn how to accept help from their children, not just to give it away. Allowing your family to feel useful is a wise trait.‘
“You are right about that.” — ‘I sighed.’ — “You see, you never had to ask him. He decided to do it on his own. Was it the right thing to do? I don’t know, but we should at least respect his decision.”
‘She sniffed, and I saw her head nod weakly as the first sunlight shined through the window.’
‘I hugged her close as I laid back down, with her already half-asleep form clinging to my side. I pulled the blanket over both of us.’
‘I dropped my lightsaber handle under the bed next to my computer device. Damn, it’s not even five AM; I guess I will have to sleep too. She will wake if I try to leave, anyway. I looked at the now much more relaxed form of the little human girl.’
‘She was holding onto my right lekku with her left hand while she was clinging to my torso with the other. Is this some kind of death grip technique?’
‘I smirked. It surely made me stop moving. That said, it was quite uncomfortable and ticklish to have someone grab my lekku in such a manner. Oh, boy, what am I thinking again... This is all because of those stupid wrestling videos I watched yesterday. What were their names again?’
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
‘Ah, the race was besalisk, that much I remember. They had four arms, no kidding. One of them was called Dreadnought, yeah, while the other? Dead Fet or Fat Death, eh... yawn... he was kind of skinny, so Dead Fat most likely... Anakin is so lucky, he wouldn’t have to think about what his wrestling name should be... I would love to see his costume though...‘
‘A few hours later, I was rudely awakened to the sound of heavy knocking on my door. I was still half asleep, but somehow managed to crawl out of my bed and open the door. Ahsoka was standing outside, looking quite frustrated when she saw us. She was both relieved and even more frustrated for whatever reason.’
“Yawn... eh, Miss Tano? What a coincidence… I was just having this dream about you facing Fat Death in the arena…” — ‘She blinked, turning her focus from Rika to me for the first time.’
“What are you talking about?”
‘I blinked this time… did I say that out loud? I coughed lightly and asked in a more serious tone.’ — “How could I help you?”
‘She narrowed her eyes, giving me a look that promised a through interrogation. I could only smile at her innocently.’
‘Her gaze then slowly wandered down my body, looking me all over with growing frustration.’
‘She eventually blown up in my face.’
“Don’t miss Tano me here, you... you shameless nudist!”
“What?”
‘I looked down at my body. I was in my undies, so what of it? Oh, man, she scared me a bit there for a second. I really thought that I was naked.’
“What? I am in my undies, you dummy. That is not what you should call a nudist. I didn’t get a pajama in the first place, and I am not allowed to leave the temple to buy one.”
“I will get you one later! Now go inside and get dressed...” — ‘She shoved me inside the room.’
“Okay, okay, relax, I am going to get dressed!”
‘I pulled up my pants while she was constantly throwing knives into my back with her angry glares. What a prima-donna jeez.’
“By the way, what did you want to ask? I mean, your purpose to come here wasn’t solely to call me names, yes?”
‘She looked at me, then turned to the sleeping form of Rika on my bed.’
“She was the reason. We were searching for her with a few other padawans. Since Vokara asked us to. She came to check on her in the morning and her room was empty.”
“She didn’t leave behind any message, so we thought that maybe something bad had happened. After searching for a while, I remembered that you said you met with Rika and ate together in the cantina.”
“I rushed here to check if she came over or something. Thankfully, I was right, but that is no excuse for your shameless behaviour. Finish dressing up already!”
“Shhh... stop shouting. She is still asleep.”
‘What’s wrong with these kids, or is this a jedi thing? Probably.’
‘While I finished dressing up, Ahsoka called Vokara on her wrist communicator.’
‘Seeing how slick that wrist com was, I decided to get one too.’
‘Ahsoka told Master Vokara that she had found the missing padawan. While I discretely listened into their conversation, I also learned that Rika’s sleep is usually troubled by bad dreams.’
‘She is in need of someone to rely on while she heals mentally. This was quite obvious to me based on her actions.’
‘She will never get over the loss of her master entirely, but it will be bearable, much easier with time.’
‘It seems that I was the only one she opened up to recently. No surprise there, I could handle children better than any jedi with all my memories of parenting.’
‘Some of my masters actually had their own families. It was not a taboo, but it was still complicated, as all family is. So most of the masters never bothered with it.’
‘Anyway, what matters is that I had the knowledge to raise children. That was something that cannot be said for the jedi. They generally treated children like small adults, with rare exceptions like Yoda.’
‘They never really knew how to deal with children; they were used to handling them in the way they were handled when they were young.’
‘I couldn’t blame them for this; it was how life worked. If people didn’t go out of their way to learn and change their behaviour, they will subconsciously follow the pattern which they received from their own parents.’
‘I will help Rika gladly. Not like I have anything better to do, except maybe buy a pajama, and a few more clothes.’
“Hey, do you have a sewing droid or something like that here?” — ‘I asked.’
“Yeah, we will go and order you more clothes after Rika wakes up. You did say something that your clothes were stolen by that droid you found in a ruin, yeah?”
“Along with my ship and my credits too, but I will catch and rewire it, so not that big of a problem, really.”
“You sure have confidence in finding a small ship in a large galaxy.” — ‘Ahsoka teased me.’
“Humph, I have a feeling that the droid will come to me, and I will not have to lift a finger.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because he will get bored on its own.”
‘Ahsoka looked at me with a funny expression.‘
‘“Are we still talking about a droid? You sound like it has a personality”
“Yeah, you will understand if you are unlucky enough to meet with him.”
“Hmm... but how did you end up in a ruin in the first place?”
‘Ugh... that is... what should I tell her? That I lived there, in a ruin on Hoth... I may as well tell her that I was living with the wampas. I will just drop a few partial truths, I guess.’
“It was one of my trials.”
“Trials, what kind of trials? Did you succeed? Was it hard?”
‘I had to face my master while he tried to lure me to the dark side; then he turned me into a holocron containing all the sixteen different masters memories that came before me...’
“It is a secret of my order. Yes, I succeeded, and it was pretty damn hard.”
“Ehh, always with the secrets, but congratulations on your success, I guess.”
“Thank you... and that’s life.”
‘A thin, dreamy voice interrupted our discussion.’ — “Is Master Vokara angry with me?”
‘We turned to the waking Rika.’
“Nah, she doesn’t seem to be, at least for me.” — ‘I answered.’
“No, not that much, but she will give you a rant for not leaving a note behind.” — ‘Warned Ahsoka from the side.’
“Well, I guess I will go and apologize right away...” — ‘She said, rubbing her eyes while climbing out of the bed.’
“Hop to it, then. If you want to come over again, just knock on the door.” — ‘I turned to Ahsoka and said.’ — “Now we should go to eat something.”
“It is already too late for that. You should probably wait for lunch.” — ‘Ahsoka answered, leaning it into the backseat comfortably.’
“What time is it?”
“Ehm, 10:37 AM you guys overslept.”
“What? So when can I eat?”
“At noon, of course. There is a tight schedule to everything in the temple. You will get used to it quickly.”
“Well, then I am going to wait for the food, but until then, would you like to play chess?”
“Chess? With carved figures of wood?”
‘My eyes glinted.’
“I didn’t take you for the traditional type. We are going to play holo chess, the rules are the same, but it looks wild.”
‘I could see that she was hooked.’
‘I bent over and fished out my holo communicator computer from under my bed. Than placed it down in the middle of the table, pushed a few buttons, and a chess table suddenly appeared in the form of a hologram hovering in the air.’
‘Ahsoka was pretty surprised by this. She walked to the other side of the table and sat down. Soon the figures also appeared.’
‘I had many skins for this game. And I knew my codes from memory so I could log in with my account easily.’
‘The currently activated skin was a custom one created by assigning already existing characters to specific figures.’
‘I created the battle of light and darkness. The black figures were represented by real historical characters from the Sith Empire. While the light side was the old republic jedi.’
‘Not all the units where jedi or sith lords, mind you, but the King and the Queen were definitely.’
‘On the dark side, the queen was Darth Traya, while the king was Darth Malak. On the light side was the brainwashed Revan as the king and Bastila Shan as the queen. The other units were random infantry troops from that time.’
‘I smiled widely.’
“Are you ready for a few rounds of battle chess? I am with the dark side just saying.”
“Wow, this looks cool. Is that a jedi? And those are sith? Strange, I don’t seem to recognize either of them…”
“Right on point, you are. I will tell you about them while we play. You better get ready for a quick spanking girl”
‘That line proved enough to rile her up.’
“Oh yeah? Let’s see about that…“
‘Rika watched our antics for a while. When she grow tired of it, she stood up patted down her clothes in a futile effort to straighten them. Then silently walked out of the room, going to the infirmary to apologize to Vokara, for needlessly worrying her.‘