In the next morning

Arya walked to the same place in which she had been yesterday. In which she had always been, waiting for Jedi to come to her. She did not feel like going there anymore, not after being turned down once again by another Jedi yesterday. But she had decided that she would go there every day until the outcome would arrive, be it either becoming a Padawan or leaving back to the Lianoros tribe.

She had expected the place to be silent and without anyone meditating there but she noticed a figure there. When she came closer, she noticed that it was Master Wang. The Jedi Master opened his eyes when Arya arrived.
"I was waiting for you," he told, smiling. "I heard that this is your favorite spot."
"I don't know about favorite," Arya noted and sat down next to the Jedi Master. "But this is a good spot if one wants to be found."
"It truly is. Many Jedi go by on that walkway. I noticed while I was waiting," Jedova said.
"Why were you waiting for me, Master Wang?" Arya asked, curious.
"I wanted to talk with you," Jedova answered as if it had been the simplest thing in the world.
"About what?" Arya asked. Jedova turned to look at her with a twinkle in his eyes.
"Anything. You pick the topic," he told.

Arya blinked in surprise. What could she, a mere Initiate, possibly talk about with a very experienced Jedi Master? First question came to her tongue, but she knew she should not ask it. She was not supposed to. Therefore, she pushed it away.
"Well... Let's see... um..." she did not know a good topic to talk about with the elder Jedi.
"You seemed to have a topic already in your mind. Why did abandon it?" Jedova asked.
"I am not supposed to even think about it," Arya noted. "Even though thinking about it is quite important now."
"Then why not go on and ask? It is not like I go and tell others about some normal conversations," Jedova remarked. Arya looked at him, not sure if she should trust that sentence, but she decided to leave her suspicions be and asked, "Have you heard anything about my tribe ever since I left?"

Jedova had already suspected that Arya's question would be about her tribe as the girl had noted that she should not think about it.
"Unfortunately, I have heard nothing," Jedova answered. Arya nodded to show that she understood and turned to look at the distant waterfall.
"Has it been difficult to be apart from them?" Jedova asked.
"At first I missed them and worried about them. But as I got into the clan and made friends, as I worked to catch up with other Initiates, the homesickness eventually disappeared. This is my home now and my clan has been my family," Arya told. In some way, it felt to Jedova like it was a mantra Arya had repeated to everyone. There seemed to be only a very tiny bit of emotion in those words. That emotion was not happiness or contentment.

It was, Jedova realized, frustration. Frustration about repeating it dozens of times to others and herself. Frustration about the message not being received by those it was sent to.

Frustration about being a lost cause; rejected of her dream she had worked for.

Jedova looked at the waterfall. There was something different about it than those on Kiros.
"You know, all the time before I thought that our meeting was the will of the Force. But as I heard about your reputation and all the times you had gone through a similar situation, I have come to think that it was just a coincidence that we ever met," Arya said.
"I don't think it was just a coincidence. It was meant to happen," Jedova mused. "I do not think there is coincidence in the Force."

Arya turned to look at him, her gaze telling what she thought, You're just saying. Then the girl turned her head back to gaze at the waterfall again.
"It just is not fair," Arya said very quietly as she forgot the Jedi Master's presence; she did not mind it, actually, that Jedova could hear her quiet ramble. Somehow she felt comfortable with the tall Master.
"What is not fair?" Jedova asked.
"You had such faith in me and I've worked very hard to be worth of it. Yet still I see others around me advancing while I'm stuck as an Initiate just because of where I lived and how I lived in the past I left behind for this. I left everything I had ever had for the Jedi path. Now it feels like I have to give up everything I have gotten ever since that day because I am... I am... a..." Arya talked.
"A lost cause," Jedova ended.

Arya buried her face to her palms. Tears were running out of her eyes again. She had not said it out as words ever before, but now as they came, her emotions came out too. And they brought tears.

Jedova wrapped his arm around Arya's shoulders. Short trembles shook the girl's body.
"I've done all I have been able to do in order to be worth of your faith. Yet I have managed to do anything else than fail," Arya said, trying to control her crying. "I'm such a failure."
"Hey, Arya, you are not a failure," Jedova said, trying to comfort the girl.
"You're just saying," Arya whispered.
"I am not. You did well yesterday, I saw it, and if you have gotten past Initiate trials, you have been doing well. Not everyone can pass them," Jedova told. "You are anything but a failure, Arya."
"I really appreciate that you think so, Master Wang," Arya told, sniffing. She wiped her tears away and took a few deep breaths. Jedova did not take his arm away.

And yet one thing. If Arya's birth element is fire, as I fear, she may become very unpredictable. I've heard a lot about normal Veledosians of fire having problems especially on controlling their feelings. It may turn out as a problem at least when she is a Padawan. If she ever becomes a Padawan... Seer Ni'Dea had once said.

Even Arya's own aunt, the Tribe Seer, had doubted Arya's possibilities on becoming a Padawan, Jedova realized. Did I take a lost cause here?

He remembered how he had felt back when he had been in Arya's situation.
"Master Wang," Arya said, now voice stronger and also sterner. "You brought this up deliberately. Why?"
"Well, Arya, there once was, many years ago, a time when I was in your situation. It seemed that I was not going to become a Padawan," Jedova told. "When I was near 13, I attended my last Exhibition Day. There I attracted the attention of a Nautolan Jedi Master whose vocal cords had been destroyed. Everyone thought that he, Xurego Odyrogo, was a lost cause on training Padawans. That he could never again train a Padawan to Knighthood. But he decided to take me as his Padawan. I believe that he either wanted to save a lost cause or then he related to what I felt and decided to prove that neither of us was truly a lost cause," Jedova told and turned to look into Arya's eyes. "I don't believe that he thought that much about my skills or potential I had shown back there."

Arya frowned. Jedova could see the faint glimmer of hope in the girl's eyes, yet there was suspicion; the girl did not want to get her hopes up and have them crushed once again – that had been done to her too many times.
"Why are you telling me this, Master Wang?" she asked slowly, considering every single one of her words very carefully. She knew she was walking on a very fine line.

Jedova only smiled, looking at the girl for a short amount of time. Arya stayed patient as she waited for the Jedi Master to speak up. The girl, who had once listened to his stories, nearly bursting with excitement, had grown into someone more mature.
"You have done a lot of work to be worth of my faith, indeed," Jedova noted. He could notice the girl stiffen and suddenly he saw from her eyes that she was whispering in her mind, Say it! Say it!

Otherwise Arya's appearance stayed mostly expressionless, only curious. Jedova kept another pause and he felt amused as he saw now that Arya's expression started to slowly become irritated. Just spit it out, for the love of the Force! seemed to be what she wanted to snap at him.
"Arya, would you accept to become my Padawan?" Jedova asked, knowing as well as Arya herself that the Veledosian girl had waited for that sentence.

Arya's eyes widened and her chin fell with rest of the girl utterly petrified. It was a truly eerie reminder about the reactions of her older brothers to that Arya was leaving for Jedi training, Jedova thought. Arya took a moment to recover and find her voice.
"R-really..? You... you serious?" she stuttered as she struggled to get her voice out of her throat. "M-me? As your... Padawan?"

Jedova nodded.
"What do you think, young one?" he asked.
"Well achekaar-kio, I accept, Master Wang!" Arya said, not bothering to apologize for the Veledosian curse she had let out; it was not like Jedova knew it was a swear word, anyways.
"What was that Veledosian word, if you don't mind me asking, Padawan?" Jedova asked.
"Oh, that... that was just some emphasis. No need to mind about it, Master," Arya told. Blush came to her cheeks and Jedova raised the other eyebrow. He had asked out of curiosity, but now it seemed that Arya was hiding something.
"Really?" he asked.
"Well okay, it was a Veledosian curse. I'm sorry, I got caught in my excitement, ok? Will be the only time if I can do anything about it," Arya answered. The frustration in her voice had a completely different tone now; it was relieved.

Somehow Jedova knew that if Arya had not been taught discipline, she would be jumping around the Temple already. Then the girl suddenly hugged him tightly and he could not help being surprised by this.
"Thank you," Arya whispered to his ear.

Jedova held the girl in embrace with his right arm for a moment. Then they let go of each other.
"Please remember that you may not get through my training," he reminded the girl, staying serious.
"You had faith in me. I won't let you down," Arya promised, putting her fist to her chest without enough force to hurt herself – it was the Veledosian gesture which emphasized a promise. Jedova did not know the gesture but he saw the eagerness and zest in the girl; something had not changed during difficult and effortful training as a Jedi Initiate.
"The Jedi Council asked me to come at 1200 to the High Council Chamber. It seems that they have a new mission for me. And from now on, for us," Jedova told.
"That's great!" Arya said and smiled as widely as she just could. "Then we'll see if I get killed by the first trouble which gets to you this time!"
"Arya, please," Jedova begun.
"Just joking, Master!" Arya told, grinning.

Jedova gave a short laugh.
"Remember to get your Padawan braid done. I'll meet you at the lobby of the Council Chamber at 1130," Jedova told and got up.
"I won't be late, Master!" Arya promised. This time she emphasized her promise more mildly, but none less seriously. Jedova nodded to her and walked away.

Arya could barely contain her happiness. She could not believe it. She had become a Padawan after all! She knew there were no words in any language to thank the Jedi Master enough, but she knew that if she did her best and became a Jedi Knight, she would not only prove that she had been worth of her Master's faith but also thanked the Jedi Master for everything in that way.

Jedova knew he had just saved a lost cause, but after experiencing the feelings which had bugged Arya for long, he could not abandon the girl who had once saved his life before being brought to Jedi training.

Yes, he had never forgotten that. Degu had not let him, Jedova reminisced and smiled for all the countless times the young man had teased him about having his life saved by a five-year-old girl.

Arya may have been a lost cause, but something in taking the girl as his Padawan felt right. Jedova now felt like the girl had always been meant to be his apprentice. Probably my head just messes up with me. It felt great to see Arya's expression become so happy, Jedova thought. Or maybe... maybe this was the Force's doing after all. Maybe me taking on Arya was its will.
"You didn't stay there for long, it seems," Reg Tug's voice returned him back from his thoughts.
"I wasn't meditating," Jedova told.
"What then? Don't tell me you decided to take the girl you asked about as your Padawan learner," Reg Tug said.
"Actually, I did," Jedova told.

Reg Tug groaned. He had been glad to deal with Jedova alone, but another decade of Jedova and a Padawan? He did not feel like standing it.
"Am I not retiring from my position in the Council soon anyways?" Reg Tug muttered to himself and walked away.

Jedova kept on to go back to his quarters; he had left his comlink there in order to stay uninterrupted for the time he had talked with Arya. Jedova did know that he should not do that but for this once he had decided to do it. And nothing bad had happened.
"Well, it's a new leaf turned in our lives, then," he muttered to himself as he picked up his comlink. "We shall see if I did a mistake or not. We shall see."

/Author's note: Star Wars (c) Lucasfilm, any characters you cannot find on Wookieepedia, Veledos, Veledosians and their language (c) Me/