Chapter 11: Epilogue
The two lightsabers clashed together in a blur of green and blue. The figures out on the dojo floor were moving faster and faster and sometimes they appeared as shadows amidst a kaleidoscope of colors. The smaller of the two shadows was clearly on the offensive in what sometimes seemed to be a deadly combat and sometimes seemed like a well choreographed dance.
It had to end some time. The taller one leapt and the smaller one hooked his right leg while he was still in the air and he went down with a loud 'thump'. Mere seconds later the blue 'saber tip was pointing directly towards Qui-Gon Jinn's throat.
"Solah, I yield," he said.
The young one man audience who had sat silently near one wall while the duel developed sprang up from the bench he'd been sitting on.
"Yesss!" he shouted, "You really did it, Master Tahl. I knew you could when he didn't want to talk about your duels."
"Awwww," Tahl said, and reached out for the boy and hugged him thoroughly,"I have my own one man fan club."
"Ewww, what did you do that for?" Obi-Wan pulled out of the hug with a teenager's typical reluctance to displaying emotions.
Because I wanted to give you a hug to remember when you're in your exile many years from now. Maybe I overdid it, but blast it - you need it, or you will need it, whatever… I could feel that in your hug when we parted down in the cave on Auratera. You will be so lonely, and yet so…accepting. You said I wouldn't be there to see it happening. In some ways I'm grateful. On the other hand, I truly need to give you the warning when you're old enough to carry the weight of the knowledge. I have watched you these couple of days since I came back and I'm no longer in doubt that he really is…was you. You're so much alike, despite the maturity he had gained throughout his years in the galactic war and in the exile. How could I doubt that you are the Chosen One? No man without special gifts would have been able to move through the cave so undisturbed by the dark Force that was present there. You didn't even seem to notice. And you survived the war and in a way you even survived your own death, so you could cross the time and space to give us the warnings about the future.
She kept quiet. Obi-Wan must not know about the future that awaited him. Not yet. Not until it truly began to unfold. Instead she said with a huge grin: "I told you, you're my fan club. I've never had any of those before so let me cherish it for the moment it lasts. And of course I have beaten your Master on numerous occasions before."
"A couple," Qui-Gon tried to correct.
"Numerous!" Tahl emphasized, "We were always trying to beat each other when we were initiates and later padawans, and I think the score was about 45 - 55."
"I think,"Qui-Gon said sternly before any more questions about whom had the higher score could come from his impertinent Padawan, "that Tahl and I should go clean up a bit and then we can all go to Dex's for a well earned dinner."