As Destiny Grows...
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Prologue
It wasn't often that Obi-Wan Kenobi thought about his childhood anymore. At least not the early years, the years that he had spent at the Jedi temple on Coruscant. In Obi-Wan's mind, his life began when he was thirteen and was banished from the temple for failing to get picked by a Master.
The children that were brought to the Temple were raised in the crèche as Initiates until they were above the age of nine but under the age of thirteen. During that period they were eligible to be picked by a Jedi Knight or a Master to be a Padawan. If they hadn't been chosen at the age of thirteen they were 'banished' from the temple to work for one of the many companies that served the Jedi. A few of those were the Pilot-Cops and the Agri-Corps. Most Initiates that were refused hoped to be chosen for the Pilot-Corps since it was well known that most that was sent to the Agri-Corps rarely lasted a whole year in the harsh environment on destroyed planets.
Obi-Wan had been one of the best Initiates in his age group and everyone said that he would be picked by a master before he was twelve. But by the time he was twelve no one had picked him. Master Yoda had told him to have faith in the Force and that he knew that Obi-Wan would be chosen. Obi-Wan had smiled at the old Master and tried to hide his fear and disappointment.
His hope rose again when he whispers reached the crèche, apparently Master Qui-Gon Jinn had arrived at the Temple and had reluctantly agreed to Yoda's order to go see the Initiates and find a new Padawan. Obi-Wan hoped that this Master would pick him since he was only a few weeks from reaching his thirteenth birthday.
When he saw Qui-Gon for the first time Obi-Wan knew that Qui-Gon was his, he did not know how he knew this but he did. So it felt even worse when Qui-Gon had walked right passed him and then turning to Yoda saying that no one of these Initiates would be his Padawan and then walk away. It was a miracle that Obi-Wan had managed to stay on his feet and the glances he got from his crèche mates made it worse.
The day after he got his orders, he was to join the Agri-Corps on Bandomeer. The gasp that traveled around his age mates at that made even the Crèche Master apprehensive. They had sent six Initiates to Bandomeer the last four years and the one who had lived the longest had survived barley three months. No Initiates left Bandomeer alive.
Obi-Wan knew that he would not last long enough to be able to leave on his own, so when the Crèche Master left him at the landing pad he took his chance and ran as fast and as hard as he could. Before long he was swallowed up by the chaos that was Coruscant.
He lived hiding in the shadows, using what he knew of the Force to stay hidden, for a few weeks. Running from the slavers, they liked to pick children from the streets, and the less scrupulous citizens that saw the street kids as expendable.
He spent days finding the places where he was relatively safe to sleep and the best places to find food and water. There wasn't a lot of parks or green spaces in Coruscant, hadn't been for centuries but there was a few biodomes where nature had been allowed to grow almost unchecked and everyone was welcome to visit, a few of them had springs and ponds.
He even managed to find a few friends, other kids that lived on the lower levels of Coruscant, in the smog and the filth. They took care of each other as much as possible and they took in Obi-Wan, mostly because he was pretty enough to con people out of credits or food one way or another.
But all that stopped when he heard the news from the temple, there was a bar in the middle level of Coruscant that was for the use of Jedi only, that Master Jinn finally had picked a Padawan. That in itself might not have been too bad, no the bad thing was who Master Jinn had chosen. He had picked Bruck Chun, a boy who had competed with Obi-Wan in everything from a very young age. That had hurt.
The news caused Obi-Wan to be less attentive than usual and resulted in him being caught by the slavers. He had been sent from Coruscant on a slave ship less than an hour later on the way to one of many auctions that he would be a part of in the following years.
For a few years he was sold from master to master and taught to do a wide range of things from cooking to the pleasure arts. In the end he had a few bad masters and a few good once before he was sold to the Pleasure Guild.
The Pleasure Guild sent him to Naboo where he spent four years learning to be an Artisan. Artisans were entertainers but they rarely slept with their clients, no instead they arranged parties, sang, painted or otherwise amused the people that hired them.
Obi-Wan became popular with the royal court of Naboo and Queen Amidala often hired him. At first he was only there as the entertainment, to sing or dance but eventually he was well liked enough that the court started asking him to host their parties and he got more and more freedom to create the dinner and parties. That made Queen Amidala sure that she could hire him herself without anyone saying anything. Amidala grew to like him enough to let him in on the state secret of her handmaidens. She saw him as her little brother and Obi-Wan loved her like a sister.
It was at this point in his life, in Obi-Wan's twenty-second year that he finally began to live.