Hey! thanks a lot to my fist reviewer, I do share her taste for the
general and Ewan McGregor *devious smile* and thanks again for encouraging
me!
Do not ever hesitate to contact me to tell if you hate or like or think of
any kind of suggestion about this story which will be a long one. The plot
is already complete in my head but comments are very welcome
Enjoy!
*****
CHAPTER 5
Noor intuitively knew where he was taking them: this was the way to the gardens. She had to admit that sometimes he wasn't completely clueless. She noticed that he had slowed his usual long-legged stride to walk in step with her.
The young woman sent him a suspicious glare, this kind of delicate gesture was very singular coming from Kenobi as far as she was concerned. However he remained silent, his eyes cast down on the floor lost in thoughts. Noor felt herself bristle, she hated the way he was toying with her, even if half of the time it was unconscious---She lost track of her annoyance when they exited the building and reached the outdoors. At last she breathed.
At least that part of the Temple was untouched; the humming of the Force carried on soothingly here, undisturbed. The night was slowly descending on the disproportionate arrow shaped skyscrapers of Coruscant drowning the feverish agitation of the day in its inky peace. The thick foliage of the tall trees, rustling mutely in the twilight wind, bowed slightly to shelter the place from the din of the City. A warm breeze came to brush her brow, yes, she was home---for now---
They ambled aimlessly along the narrow winding paths in a companionable silence until they reached a section where the lane forked in three different directions. Noor raised her head and immediately recognized her surroundings. With a grin on her lips, she hopped out of the alley without a sound and ventured further among the flowers beds.
During this time, Kenobi had carried on his meditative stroll, oblivious to his padawan's disappearance until he caught a muffled rustle in the bushes on his right. Frowning a little, he called her but nothing responded. He rolled his eyes and he headed out of the path, wincing as his cloak caught the delicate flowers Master Yoda grew with so much dedication. Noor Alrahan would have a hard time once he would grab hold of her.
The garden was dark now and the lush vegetation reduced even more his visual field. He started to think of an exemplary punishment for making him play hide and seek like that when they were wandering outside on *her* request, not to mention that this idiot could have trip and fall or God know what.
"Women," he muttered. In the distance, beyond the entanglement of the undergrowth, he made out a faint flicker in the night, like a flame. Narrowing his eyes, he strode in that direction, soon catching a flutter of the Force. He suddenly snapped his head to the left where a heavy curtain of greenery fell, his light saber ready in his hand. The leaves moved and parted to reveal Alrahan's impish face. Before the Jedi had a chance to tell her a piece of his mind, she raised her eyebrows and said:
"Well, are you coming?" With that she vanished again behind the hedge.
Noor passed on the other side and waited for her master's good will. 'This should tie up the score,' she thought with a quiet snigger.
::Wait until we return to the Temple *Padawan*:: responded a deep voice in her head.
Kenobi appeared in turn, his face closed. " Let's call a truce, shall we? I know you are forced into this by the Council and that you don't exactly relish at the prospect to get stuck with me." She promptly applied a finger on his mouth as he began to speak, silencing him immediately. "Before we start this whole Padawan-Master thing, I'd like to show you something."
" Please trust me," she said hastily when he began to make a movement of stern refusal. Still frowning, he finally surrendered and let her guide him around another hedge.
Past the vegetal wall spread a fairly large terraced garden he had never seen in the long years he spent at the Temple. The various flora, unknown to the planet, was leveled on the flank of a bank divided in its middle by a stairway. The steps were paved with old-looking brown baked clay tiles and canopied with wisteria which violet flowers were pressed in scented clusters. Bordering the terraces and the stairs, torches cast a tawny shade of gold on the glossy leaves of the rose bushes, varnishing the bark of rare fragrant species of trees he could not name with a dancing sheen. On the sides laid an artful disarray of plants and blossoms arranged in a foamy combination of rich shapes and colors. The effect was breathtaking to the tiniest detail.
From the corner of her eyes, Noor observed Kenobi caught in earnest surprise. The frown faded as his whole face showed a delighted wonder. She allowed a furtive smile cross her features. Seeing Kenobi loosening up for the very first time in front of her was completely worth unveiling one of her most well kept secrets. He took a couple of steps down the stairs and turned towards her.
"What is all this?"
"My own suspended gardens master," she said with proud grin.
"Oh I see, your *own* fragment of Babylonia? Well, it's--" he gave a circular glimpse about him, "-- quite a chaos indeed," he finished wryly.
" Hey! It faired pretty well, I haven't been here for ten years. Master Yoda did his best to keep it in shape, it's just a bit wilder than the original model. Besides--" she climbed down the staircase until she stood two steps above him, leaning down close to make her point, " I do know that you're bloody impressed, Obi-Wan."
He only answered with a crooked smile which lit up his eyes with a warm twinkle, rendering her momentarily speechless and somewhat nervous.
She straightened up quickly and moved past him, " Follow me, there's more to see."
At the foot of the stairs she had to bodily push away the overgrown rhododendrons and rosebays blocking the way but her wide sleeves and her hair got tangled in the branches, she gave an aggravated groan when she realized that she couldn't move anymore and heard a low chuckle behind her.
" I'm glad to see you are having fun Kenobi," she began evenly but as he did not move she lost patience. " Will you just shut up and help me, damnit!!"
Two larger hands came to immobilize hers, " Keep still."
She identified the unmistakable hiss of a light saber, "Umm, Kenobi, are you sure that sacrificing me is ness-" she felt a heat swiftly graze her body through the material of her clothes and then she was free.
Smoothing down her rumpled attire in a useless gesture to regain her dignity, she lifted her gaze to meet Kenobi's who tried to suppress a smirk and look casual. " Don't. Say. Anything. Just cut through the mess."
As he deftly attacked the growth with a smug look on his face she paused to observe him discreetly.
He had changed in ten years, a calm power emanated from him. His external looks and demeanor were much more mature, more poised just like his former master. She noted with amusement that he had grown a short beard and that his hair reached his shoulders as though he wanted to increase the resemblance between them. However, he did not possess Qui-Gon Jinn's easy ways or share his taste of highly idealistic quests. More practical, Obi- Wan Kenobi was a Jedi by the book although he often showed dry wits and sense of humor.
There was an edge in him though for a keen observer who could see beyond the impeccable and appealing presentation of this man. It was as though he always kept a check on himself. Maybe it had to do with the images and emotions he had poured into her earlier through the link.
Her eyes traveled over his lean well-muscled frame that could only be guessed under the ample Jedi uniform. He was not a handsome man in the classical term of the word, no matter what was gushed about him with silly enamored giggles in the women locker room. His features were a bit rough, he could definitely use a haircut not to mention a good shaving and there was undoubtedly something raw about him under his smooth wide brow and the refined inflections of his voice. And yet he had an infinite charm that won anybody eventually. Just with one of his rare smiles or a look of his changing eyes--
"You flatter me."
He had opened a way in the vegetation and was now gazing her with an unreserved self-satisfied expression etched all over his face.
That conceited bastard.
Biting back her embarrassment, she raised her chin: "You are far too arrogant for one man, Kenobi."
"Admit your sorry defeat Alrahan, you *were* staring."
" And you *were* prying."
"I didn't need to, your whole face gives your unadulterated admiration away," he shot back.
She rolled her eyes and took the passage slashed through the brushwood with a shrug, Kenobi in tow.
"Stay here," she ordered as they emerged to stand in a pitch-dark area. This secluded section was cleared of the overwhelming vegetation and looked as a small square. The ground seemed to be covered with the same tiles as the stairs'.
She disappeared behind a solid form he could not quite discern in the obscurity. After several minutes, he heard her muffled curse followed by a hushed rumbling coming from under the floor. All of a sudden, the massive shadow lit up revealing a beautiful fountain covered with moss. Noor reappeared with her face and uniform smeared with dirt as the water started to flow with a gurgle.
" Et voila!" she said beaming.
They both sat on the stone border and listened to the quiet song of the water for a lull moment.
"I remember that when we left Ireland to live in the Middle East, I use to smile at the natives people's crazy obsession to have fountains all around them. They would build them everywhere even in the most dry and remote places where nobody stay for long just to hear the sound of running water. It seemed rather odd to the little girl coming from an ever crude green country that I was."
"The sound that reminds them that they won't die of thirst yet," he answered.
"Exactly." She considered him for a while caught a bit off guard by his insightful remark.
"Noor," he said, trying the word on his lips. "Where does it come from?"
"Libya. It was an eastern whim of my father. Noor means daylight in Arabic, he used to saying that it was a patch of the desert's sky he had brought back home," she added almost shyly, unused as she was to have this kind of conversation with him.
"You were born there I take."
She nodded. "And raised in Dublin."
" You bear an empress name.I like the sound of it, it's round and soft."
She stared at him wide-eyed, as far as she remembered Obi-Wan Kenobi had never shared explicitly this kind of considerations given the fact that he hardly expressed his thoughts outside the business of the Jedi. Not to mention the compliment.
" Neither of those adjectives fits me though."
Everything about her was contorted, following the irregular pattern of an impassioned temper. She was far from the Jedi ideal of unflappable composure and balance.
She saw a faint smile appear on his face.
" What does your name tell me of you then?"
Noor felt a sudden hollow in the center of her chest she did not identify. She liked to have his undivided attention and the person she was discovering but his openly steady gaze never leaving hers was unnerving. Somehow, she was more in her element when they were at odds, she sensed that he had the upper hand in this new turn of the discussion and she wasn't sure she knew how to deal with that.
"Well, first of all, a solid work on your mental shields would be helpful I'm sure," he said with an unconvincing innocent look on his face.
She opened her mouth but she couldn't find any smart retort. Fortunately, he let her off the hook.
" Listen I know that your return was all the more brutal and how difficult-- "
She stiffened a bit and cut him short before he could serve her the sympathizing master purple patch.
"My name tells you that I never stay long in the same place, that my whole life is built on change and that my return to the Order is no exception."
The words had flown from her mouth almost without premeditation but she now realized how true they were and how unsettling it was.
"The light always disappears at the end of the day," she finished with a slight shrug.
"Only to come back the day after," he replied quietly.
She had no answer to that. Not yet.
"Will you trust me?" Kenobi suddenly said breaking the silent that had fallen between them.
"What?"
"We are both "stuck" together as you put it. I want to know if you accept me as your master."
Noor raised an amused eyebrow. " Kenobi, that's the weirdest proposal I've ever heard."
His expression grew mildly sardonic, " Should I understand that you have had many of them?"
She gave him a wry pointed look. "Aren't you supposed to be the one choosing me, master?"
"Perhaps. I am not conservative."
She openly scoffed at that : " Kenobi, you're the living epitome of Jedi conservatism."
"So will you have me Alrahan?"
" In the garden?!" she said gaping mockingly.
He crossed his arms and leant forward his face suddenly serious, expecting, "Noor?"
She paused for a short moment. Then her hand went to her hair, pulled a long lock off her ruined bun above her right temple and presented it to him with a solemn smile. Kenobi rose noiselessly and went to kneel down in front of her. Taking the small strand from her, he divided it in three equal parts and braided it. She observed his strong hands roughened by the saber practice carefully weaving her hair. He moved to tuck almost tenderly the long plait behind her ear and smoothed it down her shoulder, looking intently in her eyes. A ghost of a smile softened his features as a silent understanding passed between them.
Then he reached for something in his belt inside his oversized cloak that seemed to swallow his frame. The Jedi style was definitely more practical than aesthetic. He handed her a metallic cylinder. A light saber. Her light saber. Each of them were unique from the hilt to the color of the blade, she didn't have to look at it twice when she grasped it in awe.
" You kept it all those years?" she asked as she got up from her sitting place. He nodded and watched her ignite it. Instantly a blinding white blade erupted from the handle with a quiet humming. A rush of energy filled the place. She didn't see Kenobi give a smile and slowly retreat in the shadow of the garden. When Noor detached her eyes from her saber to address him, he was gone.
*****
*****
CHAPTER 5
Noor intuitively knew where he was taking them: this was the way to the gardens. She had to admit that sometimes he wasn't completely clueless. She noticed that he had slowed his usual long-legged stride to walk in step with her.
The young woman sent him a suspicious glare, this kind of delicate gesture was very singular coming from Kenobi as far as she was concerned. However he remained silent, his eyes cast down on the floor lost in thoughts. Noor felt herself bristle, she hated the way he was toying with her, even if half of the time it was unconscious---She lost track of her annoyance when they exited the building and reached the outdoors. At last she breathed.
At least that part of the Temple was untouched; the humming of the Force carried on soothingly here, undisturbed. The night was slowly descending on the disproportionate arrow shaped skyscrapers of Coruscant drowning the feverish agitation of the day in its inky peace. The thick foliage of the tall trees, rustling mutely in the twilight wind, bowed slightly to shelter the place from the din of the City. A warm breeze came to brush her brow, yes, she was home---for now---
They ambled aimlessly along the narrow winding paths in a companionable silence until they reached a section where the lane forked in three different directions. Noor raised her head and immediately recognized her surroundings. With a grin on her lips, she hopped out of the alley without a sound and ventured further among the flowers beds.
During this time, Kenobi had carried on his meditative stroll, oblivious to his padawan's disappearance until he caught a muffled rustle in the bushes on his right. Frowning a little, he called her but nothing responded. He rolled his eyes and he headed out of the path, wincing as his cloak caught the delicate flowers Master Yoda grew with so much dedication. Noor Alrahan would have a hard time once he would grab hold of her.
The garden was dark now and the lush vegetation reduced even more his visual field. He started to think of an exemplary punishment for making him play hide and seek like that when they were wandering outside on *her* request, not to mention that this idiot could have trip and fall or God know what.
"Women," he muttered. In the distance, beyond the entanglement of the undergrowth, he made out a faint flicker in the night, like a flame. Narrowing his eyes, he strode in that direction, soon catching a flutter of the Force. He suddenly snapped his head to the left where a heavy curtain of greenery fell, his light saber ready in his hand. The leaves moved and parted to reveal Alrahan's impish face. Before the Jedi had a chance to tell her a piece of his mind, she raised her eyebrows and said:
"Well, are you coming?" With that she vanished again behind the hedge.
Noor passed on the other side and waited for her master's good will. 'This should tie up the score,' she thought with a quiet snigger.
::Wait until we return to the Temple *Padawan*:: responded a deep voice in her head.
Kenobi appeared in turn, his face closed. " Let's call a truce, shall we? I know you are forced into this by the Council and that you don't exactly relish at the prospect to get stuck with me." She promptly applied a finger on his mouth as he began to speak, silencing him immediately. "Before we start this whole Padawan-Master thing, I'd like to show you something."
" Please trust me," she said hastily when he began to make a movement of stern refusal. Still frowning, he finally surrendered and let her guide him around another hedge.
Past the vegetal wall spread a fairly large terraced garden he had never seen in the long years he spent at the Temple. The various flora, unknown to the planet, was leveled on the flank of a bank divided in its middle by a stairway. The steps were paved with old-looking brown baked clay tiles and canopied with wisteria which violet flowers were pressed in scented clusters. Bordering the terraces and the stairs, torches cast a tawny shade of gold on the glossy leaves of the rose bushes, varnishing the bark of rare fragrant species of trees he could not name with a dancing sheen. On the sides laid an artful disarray of plants and blossoms arranged in a foamy combination of rich shapes and colors. The effect was breathtaking to the tiniest detail.
From the corner of her eyes, Noor observed Kenobi caught in earnest surprise. The frown faded as his whole face showed a delighted wonder. She allowed a furtive smile cross her features. Seeing Kenobi loosening up for the very first time in front of her was completely worth unveiling one of her most well kept secrets. He took a couple of steps down the stairs and turned towards her.
"What is all this?"
"My own suspended gardens master," she said with proud grin.
"Oh I see, your *own* fragment of Babylonia? Well, it's--" he gave a circular glimpse about him, "-- quite a chaos indeed," he finished wryly.
" Hey! It faired pretty well, I haven't been here for ten years. Master Yoda did his best to keep it in shape, it's just a bit wilder than the original model. Besides--" she climbed down the staircase until she stood two steps above him, leaning down close to make her point, " I do know that you're bloody impressed, Obi-Wan."
He only answered with a crooked smile which lit up his eyes with a warm twinkle, rendering her momentarily speechless and somewhat nervous.
She straightened up quickly and moved past him, " Follow me, there's more to see."
At the foot of the stairs she had to bodily push away the overgrown rhododendrons and rosebays blocking the way but her wide sleeves and her hair got tangled in the branches, she gave an aggravated groan when she realized that she couldn't move anymore and heard a low chuckle behind her.
" I'm glad to see you are having fun Kenobi," she began evenly but as he did not move she lost patience. " Will you just shut up and help me, damnit!!"
Two larger hands came to immobilize hers, " Keep still."
She identified the unmistakable hiss of a light saber, "Umm, Kenobi, are you sure that sacrificing me is ness-" she felt a heat swiftly graze her body through the material of her clothes and then she was free.
Smoothing down her rumpled attire in a useless gesture to regain her dignity, she lifted her gaze to meet Kenobi's who tried to suppress a smirk and look casual. " Don't. Say. Anything. Just cut through the mess."
As he deftly attacked the growth with a smug look on his face she paused to observe him discreetly.
He had changed in ten years, a calm power emanated from him. His external looks and demeanor were much more mature, more poised just like his former master. She noted with amusement that he had grown a short beard and that his hair reached his shoulders as though he wanted to increase the resemblance between them. However, he did not possess Qui-Gon Jinn's easy ways or share his taste of highly idealistic quests. More practical, Obi- Wan Kenobi was a Jedi by the book although he often showed dry wits and sense of humor.
There was an edge in him though for a keen observer who could see beyond the impeccable and appealing presentation of this man. It was as though he always kept a check on himself. Maybe it had to do with the images and emotions he had poured into her earlier through the link.
Her eyes traveled over his lean well-muscled frame that could only be guessed under the ample Jedi uniform. He was not a handsome man in the classical term of the word, no matter what was gushed about him with silly enamored giggles in the women locker room. His features were a bit rough, he could definitely use a haircut not to mention a good shaving and there was undoubtedly something raw about him under his smooth wide brow and the refined inflections of his voice. And yet he had an infinite charm that won anybody eventually. Just with one of his rare smiles or a look of his changing eyes--
"You flatter me."
He had opened a way in the vegetation and was now gazing her with an unreserved self-satisfied expression etched all over his face.
That conceited bastard.
Biting back her embarrassment, she raised her chin: "You are far too arrogant for one man, Kenobi."
"Admit your sorry defeat Alrahan, you *were* staring."
" And you *were* prying."
"I didn't need to, your whole face gives your unadulterated admiration away," he shot back.
She rolled her eyes and took the passage slashed through the brushwood with a shrug, Kenobi in tow.
"Stay here," she ordered as they emerged to stand in a pitch-dark area. This secluded section was cleared of the overwhelming vegetation and looked as a small square. The ground seemed to be covered with the same tiles as the stairs'.
She disappeared behind a solid form he could not quite discern in the obscurity. After several minutes, he heard her muffled curse followed by a hushed rumbling coming from under the floor. All of a sudden, the massive shadow lit up revealing a beautiful fountain covered with moss. Noor reappeared with her face and uniform smeared with dirt as the water started to flow with a gurgle.
" Et voila!" she said beaming.
They both sat on the stone border and listened to the quiet song of the water for a lull moment.
"I remember that when we left Ireland to live in the Middle East, I use to smile at the natives people's crazy obsession to have fountains all around them. They would build them everywhere even in the most dry and remote places where nobody stay for long just to hear the sound of running water. It seemed rather odd to the little girl coming from an ever crude green country that I was."
"The sound that reminds them that they won't die of thirst yet," he answered.
"Exactly." She considered him for a while caught a bit off guard by his insightful remark.
"Noor," he said, trying the word on his lips. "Where does it come from?"
"Libya. It was an eastern whim of my father. Noor means daylight in Arabic, he used to saying that it was a patch of the desert's sky he had brought back home," she added almost shyly, unused as she was to have this kind of conversation with him.
"You were born there I take."
She nodded. "And raised in Dublin."
" You bear an empress name.I like the sound of it, it's round and soft."
She stared at him wide-eyed, as far as she remembered Obi-Wan Kenobi had never shared explicitly this kind of considerations given the fact that he hardly expressed his thoughts outside the business of the Jedi. Not to mention the compliment.
" Neither of those adjectives fits me though."
Everything about her was contorted, following the irregular pattern of an impassioned temper. She was far from the Jedi ideal of unflappable composure and balance.
She saw a faint smile appear on his face.
" What does your name tell me of you then?"
Noor felt a sudden hollow in the center of her chest she did not identify. She liked to have his undivided attention and the person she was discovering but his openly steady gaze never leaving hers was unnerving. Somehow, she was more in her element when they were at odds, she sensed that he had the upper hand in this new turn of the discussion and she wasn't sure she knew how to deal with that.
"Well, first of all, a solid work on your mental shields would be helpful I'm sure," he said with an unconvincing innocent look on his face.
She opened her mouth but she couldn't find any smart retort. Fortunately, he let her off the hook.
" Listen I know that your return was all the more brutal and how difficult-- "
She stiffened a bit and cut him short before he could serve her the sympathizing master purple patch.
"My name tells you that I never stay long in the same place, that my whole life is built on change and that my return to the Order is no exception."
The words had flown from her mouth almost without premeditation but she now realized how true they were and how unsettling it was.
"The light always disappears at the end of the day," she finished with a slight shrug.
"Only to come back the day after," he replied quietly.
She had no answer to that. Not yet.
"Will you trust me?" Kenobi suddenly said breaking the silent that had fallen between them.
"What?"
"We are both "stuck" together as you put it. I want to know if you accept me as your master."
Noor raised an amused eyebrow. " Kenobi, that's the weirdest proposal I've ever heard."
His expression grew mildly sardonic, " Should I understand that you have had many of them?"
She gave him a wry pointed look. "Aren't you supposed to be the one choosing me, master?"
"Perhaps. I am not conservative."
She openly scoffed at that : " Kenobi, you're the living epitome of Jedi conservatism."
"So will you have me Alrahan?"
" In the garden?!" she said gaping mockingly.
He crossed his arms and leant forward his face suddenly serious, expecting, "Noor?"
She paused for a short moment. Then her hand went to her hair, pulled a long lock off her ruined bun above her right temple and presented it to him with a solemn smile. Kenobi rose noiselessly and went to kneel down in front of her. Taking the small strand from her, he divided it in three equal parts and braided it. She observed his strong hands roughened by the saber practice carefully weaving her hair. He moved to tuck almost tenderly the long plait behind her ear and smoothed it down her shoulder, looking intently in her eyes. A ghost of a smile softened his features as a silent understanding passed between them.
Then he reached for something in his belt inside his oversized cloak that seemed to swallow his frame. The Jedi style was definitely more practical than aesthetic. He handed her a metallic cylinder. A light saber. Her light saber. Each of them were unique from the hilt to the color of the blade, she didn't have to look at it twice when she grasped it in awe.
" You kept it all those years?" she asked as she got up from her sitting place. He nodded and watched her ignite it. Instantly a blinding white blade erupted from the handle with a quiet humming. A rush of energy filled the place. She didn't see Kenobi give a smile and slowly retreat in the shadow of the garden. When Noor detached her eyes from her saber to address him, he was gone.
*****