At some point, Jedova could feel something nudge at the small thread of the bond between him and Arya. The touch was hesitant and shy, as if apologizing for bothering. It was Arya. There was worry but also curiosity in the careful venturing, as if the girl was testing the limits from the distance, yet alongside the worry was some sort of an innocent childlike wonderment which made Jedova smile. The innocence was not his; such a thing had not been for most of the decades of his life. He was not exactly sure when he had lost it, but he could tell it had been before Master Xurego had gone mad. Jedova had always suspected that his innocence had been slowly drained away by the galaxy around himself during his youth and the final strand of it had dissipated into the Dark Side during his trouble with mental health – then at the latest, if not before that.

Jedova sent an amused reply to her, his action much more confident and knowing. It felt like it had startled Arya, but then there was a quick, hesitant answer. Jedova deciphered it as a question about how he was doing.

That woke him to wonder, How well was this actually going?

It could be much worse.

The Jedi Master told the Padawan that. He would tell her more details later when the time would be right.

With hesitation, Arya receded. She was going on a lesson now, it seemed. Jedova, on the other hand, knew that he had to head for the temple now; it was almost noon now.

By the temple, some boys were fighting. It reminded of the rough plays of the boys which Arya had participated in before she had left. Jedova could not help wondering if Arya would be there now, fighting alongside the boys, had she not left to become a Jedi. No one around them seemed to be worried; this was normal and the boys knew to not go too far.
"Hi there, Master Wang!" Tureq's voice greeted Jedova. The man turned to look at the younger one of Arya's brothers. Arak was coming right behind him.
"Hello Tureq, Arak," Jedova greeted.
"Things are pretty much fully figured out. But since you're an outsider and there are other things going on here too, an agreement is needed for our deal," Arak told.
"Alright. You have decided my payment, then?" Jedova asked.
"Yes, we have," Tureq told.
"So what am I supposed to do?" Jedova asked.
"You'll help with a lot of people here; farmers, our master blacksmith Ta'koa, the Seer, our hunters and also Purono at the breko stable. And you will take some of our patrolling shifts when you don't work on something else. And of course you do your own part on the gift. Are you ok with that?" Arak informed him.
That doesn't sound too bad at all, Jedova thought. "I am. But for how long will I be here?"
"It depends on how much time is needed and used on everything. Don't worry, we'll keep track on it. You should be here for a month at the most," Tureq told.

Jedova's delighted mood dissipated. A month was a lot of time, considering that he was apart from his Padawan who needed him now. However, he had chosen to do this. He only had to work as much as he just could.
"All right," Jedova said.
"Now, if the agreement passes the proofreading of Seer Ni'Dea, we're good to sign it and begin," Arak noted.

He could barely finish the sentence, as the Tribe Seer came out of the temple with a clay-like slab in her hands.
"Tureq, if you want to keep on planning to go to work outside our village, you need to brush up your written Basic a lot," Seer Ni'Dea told sharply. "Otherwise, you are not going anywhere from our area, I guarantee you that."

Jedova was taken aback by the harshness of those words, but Tureq only twisted his mouth in dissatisfaction and nodded.
"Sure," the young man said. "Well is it understandable, anyways, or shall I make a new one?"
"I'll let Master Wang determine that," the Seer replied and handed the slab over to Jedova. "If it is not good enough, then bother me about in the evening. I'm busy." With those words, she disappeared back to the temple, almost slamming the door behind her.
"An epidemic or something?" Jedova asked carefully from the brothers.
"No, I guess she is just worried," Tureq noted. "There's a lot of stuff going on inside this village right now."

Jedova held his tongue. Whatever "stuff" was going on, it was not his business even though he knew that his appearance there must be at least part of it. He turned to look at the slab and started to read. There were grammar errors, but he could understand it. At least with a little bit of imagination and understanding of the context.
"I think that since this is between us, we can do with this despite the grammar errors," he told.
"Good. Then we can go to sign it. Follow us!" Arak said and took the slab. Wondering how that would be done, given that the slab was already hard, Jedova followed the shorter men.

They walked into a building. It was dark and hot inside. There was a fireplace with a big fire burning.
"Achentan Ta'koa!" Arak called out. As an answer a man shorter than Tureq but much more muscular than Jedova appeared.

Jedova recognized the man from the early morning, and suddenly he realized that they were in the blacksmith's workshop. For a moment, the blacksmith glared at the Jedi Master but then spoke up in hoarse Basic, "So, you came for work right away, huh? Come in, come in."

As Jedova followed the two brothers who walked closed to the furnace and the light which came from the fire, he could sense the roof very close to the top of his head. He realized that his usual clothing was way too much; he was already sweating in his tunics and robe.
"You need to sign that thing, then? It passed our Seer's proofreading, did it?" Ta'koa said.
"Not exactly, but we can carry on with it this time," Tureq told. "Since you are part of this thing, we need you to sign this too."
"Sure, sure, Arak told me that," Ta'koa said and eyed both Arak and Jedova. "Now let's sign this thing then and get to work. The forge is hot and the alloy is ready." He looked at Jedova once again. "I suggest you get most of the clothes off, Master Jedi. You'll get baked here in those." Jedova was more than happy to nod, mutter something incoherent and get his robe and upper tunic off as Ta'koa scoffed to the two brothers, "You two younglings too."

Jedova could hear the young men grumble something; most likely they were not happy about being called "younglings". Meanwhile, Ta'koa had already taken something that looked vaguely like a stylus and started to carve something on the slab.
"Go on, sign it so that we can get over with it," he then said, and the stylus floated to Jedova. The Jedi Master took it and walked to carve his own signature to the slab – it was easier than he had expected it to be. Arak and Tureq followed him and once that was made, Tureq put the slab aside.
"Now let's get to work and we may have something to continue from tomorrow before nightfall," Arak said.

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