The sun began to set over the cool desert plains of the planet Jakku as the six young Jedi trained outside. Eric Clark, hardly more than a trainee himself at nineteen years old, watched the young soon-to-be Jedi out of the window of a nearby hut.
"I worry about you letting them train out in the open like that, Eric," he heard a voice behind him.
Not this again.
"The Jedi have been gone for over eight months and we've been here for six with no problems. Relax, Jenna. Everything's gonna be fine. This place is in the middle of nowhere on a planet that's already in the middle of nowhere."
"Look," Jenna sat down in a nearby chair. "I know you're just doing what dad would've done if he'd survived, but don't you think this is a little too risky? What if they find us? Then everything we've done will be for nothing."
"They'll never find us out here, don't you remember why we chose this place? You can count on one hand the number of people who don't live on this planet who have ever heard of Jakku."
"You don't need to know a place when you have the Force to guide you," Jenna replied matter-of-factly, twirling her brunette hair absentmindedly between her fingers.
"I'm your older brother, Jenna. Just trust me on this one."
"By one year."
"And I've had one year more training than you have."
"If you think that gives you the qualifications to train six future Jedi on your own then you're delusional. You can't run to anybody for help or guidance and the Jedi Archives are all but destroyed, and we probably couldn't even get to them if we wanted to. As far as we know we're the last Jedi in the galaxy."
"That's why we have to train them, Jenna. This is so much bigger than me just doing something for dad."
"Do you actually think you can revive the Jedi Order with just the two of us and six kids?"
"Maybe not, but we have to at least try, Jenna," Eric replied exasperatedly. "We may succeed or we may fail miserably, but I could never live with myself if I didn't at least try."
"You're so difficult," she groaned and pushed a hand through her hair. "I respect your commitment, but I don't think the potential good that can come from this situation can even begin to make up for the risk involved."
"As usual, I respect your opinion," he replied, not looking over at his sister.
"I don't say this to nag you or to be the annoying little sister, I just don't want you to drive yourself crazy over this."
"I know, and I appreciate the concern. I just-"
"Stop," Jenna cut him off and held up a hand. "Did you sense that?"
"Someone's coming," he replied before leaning out of the window and whistling loudly, a signal for the trainees to immediately cease any suspicious activities and do anything else, which this time consisted of kicking a nearby ball back and forth to each other. "Can you tell who it is?" he asked as he reached out with the Force to try to found out for himself.
"I think it's the old man who lives on the cliff about halfway up the mountain."
"I can't imagine what he'd be doing down here. I don't think he's been down here once in all the time we've been here."
"Not that I can remember," Jenna shook her head. "It may not even be him. All I can tell is that it's a man, and the old man on the mountain is the only living person nearby, so it makes sense that it would be him."
Before Eric could reply there was a loud knock on the front door of the small hut. Jenna slowly moved to open it, and standing in the doorway was a tall man with graying black hair and a beard to match wearing a long brown cloak.
"Hello," Jenna said slowly as Eric moved across the room to lean against a cabinet that had his lightsaber hidden in one of its drawers.
"Hello," the old man replied gruffly, shooting Eric a glance as if he could read his thoughts about his lightsaber.
"Would you like to come in?" Jenna asked, unsure of what else to say.
"I won't be staying long," he held up a hand. "I just wanted to pass on that I heard in town that a big sandstorm is supposed to hit this area sometime over the next few days. I have some room in my house if you guys need a place to stick it out."
"Thanks for letting us know, and we'll keep that in mind," Jenna smiled at him.
"I'll be heading out then, enjoy the rest of your day," he smiled and gave a small bow before pulling his hood up and turning to walk in the direction of the nearby mountain.
"That was weird," Jenna said as she closed the door and returned to her chair.
"Probably feeling us out," Eric looked over at her. "We've never spoken to him before, so he probably just wanted to get a closer look at everything and used the sandstorm as an excuse."
"Probably right," she shrugged her shoulders.
"I'm surprised you're not paranoid about that too."
"He seems nice enough, and if he wanted to hurt us I'm sure he would have already."
"I hope you're right."
"So do I," she replied, sounding slightly unsure of herself.
