80 BBY, Coruscant, Core Worlds
Arya was one of the last ones to leave the starship. "Finally! Master, let's go already!"
"Arya, what have you been taught about rushing?" Jedova asked gently.
"That I should not rush if I don't need to... But come on, I'm so excited! I actually got through my first mission as a Padawan!" Arya said. She could only barely keep herself from jumping up and down just like when she had been chosen as a Padawan.
Jedova could not help smiling. "I can believe that, Padawan, but stay calm. The Temple is not going anywhere and we will get there even without rushing." He let his concern fade his smile away. "Do you think that you can walk all the way there after that Temenneree poisoning?"
"I can, Master," Arya replied. It seemed like she would not have it any other way.
The Jedi duo had arrived at Coruscant after their mission on Bimmisaari. Jedova had to admit to himself that it had most likely been his roughest first mission with a Padawan. As far as he had theorized, the High Council gave beginning Master-Padawan teams easier and less dangerous missions than to more experienced teams. He understood why they had gotten such a tough mission, though; his choice to take Arya as his apprentice had been rather abrupt, perhaps even slightly impulsive. However, he did not know whether he regretted it or not yet.
Nevertheless, he did know was that a lot had to be solved before they would go on another mission. The start had been unusually rocky mainly due to the neglecting the necessary discussions. That was one of the reasons why he had decided that they would walk; that gave him some time to talk about some more pressing matters with the girl.
"You know, I was surprised to hear that you still have a training lightsaber," he said. "I thought that you already had a fully functional saber."
Arya blushed in embarrassment. "Ah... Well, you see, Master, as I thought that I might not become a Padawan, I decided to wait and see. I mean, if I had gotten a proper lightsaber, especially if I made it myself, but hadn't gotten chosen, it would've been a waste."
It sounded logical, Jedova admitted inwardly as he nodded. "Well, now that you are a Padawan, that has to be fixed. When were you planning to tell me about this?"
"Well... I don't know. Maybe at this point or... when that just had become relevant. There didn't seem to be a good time to mention it before we left," Arya told. She could not help feeling self-conscious about the blush on her face. She had been scolded before but it seemed to her that Jedova was doing it without actually looking like he was scolding her.
"I see," Jedova replied calmly. While it had definitely been a breach of protocol, he could not pin all the blame on the girl; he, the adult Master, had made the wrong assumption instead of making sure he was right like he should have.
There seemed to be some commotion up ahead so he chose to postpone discussing other matters.
"What's going on here?" Jedova wondered aloud. The Force had not warned him about any threats as they had approached the area. As they got closer, they found out what was going on.
"Another protest," Arya stated and looked at her Master. "They've been usually common recently, or so I've heard."
The Coruscant Security Forces were present and calm, so Jedova said, "You're right about that, Padawan. Let's keep going; this seems to be under control."
They continued their walk without further discussion until they reached the Jedi Temple. A Fosh Padawan was on guard duty. Jedova would have merely nodded to them while passing by as he did not recognize them.
However, a huge smile rose to Arya's face when she saw the Fosh. "Hi there, Airka!"
"Hi there, Arya!" Airka replied and bowed to Jedova. "I see that you have caught a runaway Initiate, Master Wang."
"Actually not. Arya is my Padawan," Jedova replied, surprised by the Padawan's attitude towards Arya.
"Whaaat?" Airka gasped and turned to look at Arya. "So you were really chosen?" Arya fingered her Padawan braid as the answer. "That's so cool! You know, I always had faith in that."
"Do I hear a senior Padawan lying?" Arya gave a laugh.
"I had faith! A bit. Although no one knew what was going to happen. And what 'senior'? We're clan mates, the same age, don't you remember?" Airka's feathers turned from green to orange.
Arya chuckled. "Yeah, we're the same age, but you've been a Padawan for longer than I have. You're more experienced."
"Yeah, more experienced at guard duty," Airka noted. His feathers got a gray undertone. "I got back from one heck of a mission today and half an hour after that I was told to come here to stand for half of the rest of the day!"
"That's a lot of half to you!" Arya smirked.
"I know. And even the mission I was on was about half longer than it was thought to be."
"You need to tell about that later."
"There were more politicians captured by the bounty hunter than we had heard of. We stayed to help them all. The end," Airka compressed the mission. "Listen, as far as I've heard, Gomorrah along with some other Boma clan people are looking for you now that they have gotten back. You should start looking for them from your usual spot in..."
"The Room of a Thousand Fountains. Yeah, gonna do that. Thanks," Arya said. "Well, later then."
"Later. How was your mission? First one, wasn't it?"
There was a challenge in Airka's eyes. The Fosh was excellent at compressing missions to few sentences and he liked to challenge Arya – and anyone else – to do that.
"Voting results had been tampered. We watched over the re-vote. I got poisoned with a drug invented by a Sith and 'treated' by a false medic. We figured the 'false' out and caught him. The end," Arya told.
"That's good. Have you been practicing that or something?"
"How did you guess that?"
"It was obvious. You did not do that well two months ago."
"Yeah. Your mission was supposed to be just a month, so I decided to practice when it became evident that you were taking more time."
"Excuse me, but I think we should already go," Jedova interrupted.
"Oh, yes. Sorry, Master," Arya apologized. "Let's chat more later, ok?"
"Sure! See you at the dining hall at 1900," Airka said.
"See you there," Arya said.
She and Jedova continued to proceed to the halls of the Temple.
"So... You and Padawan Airka are friends?" Jedova asked, confused by the discussion he had just witnessed.
"Yup, the wittiest that I have," Arya answered. "He really loves to compress missions to few sentences."
"And he attracted you to do the same too?" Jedova asked.
"If he hadn't, I wouldn't have even half of the wit I have now!" Arya grinned.
"Now that would be a real loss," Jedova said light-heartedly and let out a dramatic sigh. "Sounds like you should look for your friends in the Room of a Thousand Fountains. Shall we head there right now?"
"If you are ok with that, Master," Arya answered.
"Then that will be our destination," Jedova told.
Arya did not need her eyes to notice a Wookiee waiting at her spot. She could hear him growling. However, she did see that Gomorrah was not alone: Qui-Gon and Tahl had returned from their missions, it seemed. Arya kept herself from rushing to them, waiting for her friends to notice her instead.
It did not surprise her at all that Gomorrah, who was much taller than any of his age mates, noticed her first. His call for her startled some Jedi meditating nearby.
"Hi everyone," Arya greeted them as she got to them. Jedova stayed a bit behind her, observing the situation with a small smile on his lips. The Force bubbled with questions that craved for answers.
"Where have you been? You just suddenly disappeared! We thought that you had already left!" Tahl said.
"I did say that it did not make sense," Qui-Gon noted.
[Where were you?] Gomorrah asked.
"I was on Bimmisaari," Arya said. "It was quite a mission!"
"You haven't seen anything yet, Arya," Jedova noted, amused. Arya turned to grin at him.
"Wait... You have become a Padawan? " Tahl asked.
"Yup!" Arya answered.
"Awesome!" Qui-Gon exclaimed.
[I knew someone would choose you!] Gomorrah roared, startling nearby Jedi again, and took Arya into a strong hug.
"Can't breathe..." Arya gasped.
"Gomorrah, don't crush her just when she's become a Padawan!" Qui-Gon told, although his smile betrayed his amusement.
Gomorrah let go of his friend. [Sorry.]
"It's ok. No bones broke," Arya said. "And I was really excited about it, too."
"So, what happened?" Qui-Gon asked.
"You were on Bimmisaari a year ago, right?" Arya asked.
"Yes, Master and I tried to track down a guy named Tokra. He was posing as a medic," Qui-Gon told. "He had his ways to hide from us, some strange stuff."
"You can tell Master Dooku that Tokra has been caught now," Arya told. "He was behind first poisoning me with a drug, then he 'treated' me as we had no idea about him having something to do with it."
"What? How are you on your feet then?" Tahl asked.
"We found another medic. A real one," Jedova told. "Although, I have a feeling that it was all a close call."
He did not mention about the possibility of Arya having gotten permanent damage from the drug. The Jedi healers had to see if Arya had any damage.
[Well you got a rough mission! Did the Council think it would not be that dangerous?] Gomorrah said.
"They were not actually expecting me to suddenly choose a Padawan just when they were about to send me on a mission," Jedova noted and snorted. "Only Master Tug knew about it some hours in advance, I think. Besides, this is not really anything when compared to what I've seen. Things can get scary with me."
"By scary you mean 'deadly', don't you, Master?" Arya asked.
[Arya!] Gomorrah gasped. The Veledosian snickered.
"I'm quite sure no one has died near me because of scary things, so please don't use that word, Padawan," Jedova said. Yet, he added to himself behind his smile.
"You know, it would really be nice to keep talking, but I need to go to my diplomacy lesson now so I won't be late. It was nice to see you all here. Bye!" Qui-Gon hurried towards the nearest exit.
[He is constantly on the move. I mean, he returned just three days ago and he has been on lessons ever since,] Gomorrah remarked. [I don't know how he has the time to eat and meditate.]
"Qui-Gon has been off Coruscant a lot lately. I think he's just trying to catch up with us," Tahl explained.
"And what the heck am I going to do? I'm like over a year behind all of you since I haven't been allowed to join the Padawan classes." Arya made a face. "I still feel like an Initiate!"
"I'm sure that after a couple of more missions you won't feel like that anymore." Jedova chuckled. "At least after the first near-death moment."
[I am curious, Master Wang. How many times have you actually gotten to a near-death situation?] Gomorrah asked.
"I lost the count after 160. I had just gotten the rank of a Jedi Master back then," Jedova told. The Padawans exchanged startled glances.
"Arya, you better pray for your Ancients to guard you," Tahl noted.
[Are you coming to the Form I lesson today, by the way? Clee said that we most likely have katas today,] Gomorrah asked.
"When is it?" Arya asked.
"In half an hour," Tahl told. "I'm coming too."
Arya twisted her mouth. She was not sure if she could make it.
"If we go and give our report to the Council right away, you can make it," Jedova noted.
"Then yes," Arya said.
[Am I imagining it or is everyone constantly on the go now?] Gomorrah asked.
"Hey, I was stuck in one place for months! Moving around is nice after that," Arya noted. "But if I really am going to come in time for the lesson, we need to go now. See you later!"
"See you. And don't be late!" Tahl noted.
"I know Master Gla will get angry if I am late," Arya noted and shuddered. "I haven't forgotten what happened to Chirda when we were nine."
Jedova and Arya left, with Jedova nudging a bit to get Arya moving. The girl had a lot to talk about but no time for it.
He did remember what it had been like when he had been a Padawan, though. There was a lot to talk about and things stacked up but never enough time to catch up with friends enough.
Sometimes he felt like there still was not enough time even though the number of topics to talk about had been reduced along the years...
/Star Wars (c) Lucasfilm, any characters you cannot find on Wookieepedia, Veledos, Veledosians and their language (c) Me/