Chapter Five:
"Has the boy been spoken to?"
"Yes, he insists it was an accident and we didn't sense any deception..."
"Will she be alright?"
"Yes. She'll have a bad headache for a couple of days but other than that... lucky, if you had gotten her here any later she would have been stuck with a not so interesting scar..."
"Live with a headache, she can. Thankful no worse damage was done, am I."
"Funny thing, really..."
The voices seemed to float around Depa from a great distance away, flickering in and out of her semi conscious mind.
As the darkness of unconsciousness released its noose tight hold around her mind, she became aware of several things at once.
Firstly, her head hurt. Bad. There was a steady throbbing in her temples that refused to go away in spite of her best efforts to numb it with the Force.
Second, she was no longer in the training room, but on a very comfortable cot she suspected was in the medical wing.
Third, there was something very cool and pleasant resting on her forhead.
And finally, she was undoubtedly surrounded by people. She could here them and feel them, though the concentration it took to do so hurt considerably.
Slowly, almost hesitant, she opened her eyes.
And had to cut back a scream.
Hovering over her, her hazy vision vaguely made out what appeared to be a big green blob with large, pointed ears...
Eventually her vision began to clear and she realized that it was only Yoda, grinning down at her happily.
"Master...?" She started to sit up but a gently firm hand pushed her back down.
"Oh no you don't, not yet. That was quite a hit you took."
Depa looked over to see the speaker was one of the healers, an elderly woman she didn't know.
She complacently settled back down on her pillow. Moving was dizzying and she wasn't in any particular hurry to do so again.
But the brief movement had given her a wide enough range of view that she saw who her other visitors were.
Knight Randon D'Kridge, looking a little pale, stood at the foot of her bed. Having been excited with receiving the honor of overseeing the Apprentices' tournament he had never even considered that there might be a semi serious injury to any of the students, and he was obviously ill prepared to handle it.
Next to him, she was pleased to note, was Kit. His wide black eyes gazed at her with what she could only assume was concern, his many headtales twitching and writhing anxiously.
But the one she noticed above all was the tall, dark skinned man standing behind them, keeping his distance from the small group.
Master Mace Windu's stern face was as unreadable and impassive as ever, but Depa took comfort in the fact that he was there all the same. Maybe he wasn't TOO disappointed with her violence earlier...
"Scared us, you did, when unconscious you fell." Yoda said from next to her. "Hit you so hard, young Juan did not mean to do."
Depa nodded silently, and reached up to feel her forehead. There was a bacta patch resting snugly just below her hairline, and she felt the faintest sliver of skin where she was quite certain there should have been hair.
That was a potentially embarrassing mark, but she could live with it. It'd grow back soon enough.
"Where is he anyway?" She asked suddenly. After all, this was his fault. You think he would have the nobility to at least come and see if she was ok.
"I think he was a little upset. He plays at being this big strong warrior, but when it really comes down to it...welll... I think I saw him slip off to meditate somewhere." Kit supplied by way of answer.
Yoda chuckled softly. "Much growing up to do, he still has."
Depa sighed, dropping her hand to rest it in her lap. "It was my fault, really. I wanted to beat him so bad..."
"Learned a valuable lesson, both of you have. Never again so arrogant will he be. And learned something of true victories, you did."
Depa found herself blushing with shame. "Still... if I hadn't been so aggressive... all I wanted to was..." she stopped, glancing over at Master Windu.
Yoda chuckled again. "Seeking to impress, you were. Not so foolish am I that this I could not see. Used all the wrong methods, you did." he jabbed his gimmer stick in her direction, nodding to himself. "Yet realize this, you have. What say you now, apprentice?"
"I was a fool. In seeking to impress...someone, I may very well have completely ruined their image of me."
"Hmm, indeed. Ruined, you think your chances are?"
"Yes. I'm not ready... I am impulsive and reckless. If I am to be anything but a farmer I need to work on these weaknesses."
"Understand well, you do."
Depa smiled wryly. "No Maser, not yet. But I will."
Yoda smiled himself, exchanging a significant glance with Master Windu.
"Learned the point, I think she has. Make up for her errs, she is willing to do. Refreshing it is, to such wisdom see in one so young, yes? Many more experienced, to admit their wrongs willing they would not be."
Depa's blushed deepened. "Not wisdom, Master. Just a majorly wounded since of pride and the only logical explanation."
"So certain are you, that ready to be a Padawan you are not?"
Depa shook her head. "I thought I was. But now I'm thinking maybe I shouldn't even be a Jedi..."
"Ah, shame, that is. No someone who will be very disappointed to hear this, I do." Yoda glanced significantly at Master Windu, and Depa felt a dim hope rise within her heart once more.
"I would hate to disappoint someone, Master."
Yoda waved his gimmer stick in the direction of Randon and Kit.
"Leave us, you will. Talk to young Depa alone, we wish. Tell you of what is said, later I expect she will."
Depa watched the pair file quietly out of the room with growing trepidation. She could think of only one reason why they would wish to speak to her alone, and she couldn't imagine... it was too good to be true.
At last only the Healer remained, but a slightly amused glare on Yoda's part sent her off in the other direction to find something else to do.
"Master Yoda I do not understand..."
Master Windu interrupted her. "You were completely accurate in your analysis of yourself- you are aggressive, impulsive, quick to anger. And I've noticed a certain lack of self esteem..." At this Depa blushed again. "A dangerous combination. I've thought about it and thought about it and the more I've thought the more I've come to realize that what you really need is a good teacher, someone who can guide you and instruct you and train you to over come these faults. It is obvious that even the best efforts of instructors here in the temple have failed, and I would hate to see all the potential you possess thrown to the wind because of poor training."
Depa wanted to sink right in to her blankets and disappear. It wasn't the teacher's fault, she knew, but her own... if she only worked harder, trained more, put some initiative into it she was sure...
"Master Yoda and I have thought long and hard on this matter." Mace continued. "And finally we came up with a solution..."
Yoda nodded his agreement. "A good Master you need, and who better to teach of peace than one who reckless himself once was? Master Windu's Padawan, you are to be, should you object not." His eyes twinkled mischievously. "But all, that is not. Know you, of your heritage?"
Depa took in a sharp breath, hardly daring to believe her ears. She looked at Master Windu to see him smiling, and a profound happiness filled her. It took her a moment to realize that Yoda had asked another question,
"What? Oh, yeah, sure." she replied, frowning. Her loner attitude had left her with much time to learn about her own self. From the time she was first able to realize what she was, her species, she had longed to know everything there was to know about them. So she had searched, absorbing the information like a sponge.
She'd even gone so far as to look for any Chalactans sharing her surname, but hadn't succeeded in finding any.
Depa knew that such information would have no place in her life as a Jedi, but she had longed to know, to have some sense of self and meaning.
"I've studied my people some. I find it rather fascinating." She said shortly. She got the feeling that the two Jedi Masters would not approve if they knew of her obsession.
"Good. Then easier for you, this will be. To learn the ways of a Chalactan adept, you are. Such adepts your parents were, except you for the learning they will, when of the right age you become. Teach you calmness and control, it will."
Depa felt her heart skip a beat. In her studies she had learned of the Adepts, leaders of the Chalactan religion. They were an eerily intuitive lot, with control and serene calmness that rivaled the Jedi's.
"My parents were Adepts?" She asked numbly. Information on a Jedi's parents was not something they came by often. Such attachments were forbidden.
"Indeed. But matter now, it does not." Yoda said gravely, giving her a look that told her quite plainly that any further questions on the subject would get her no answers.
"When? When am I to go? Where? How long?"
Yoda chuckled. "Slow down, slow down. Many questions have you and think so fast old Yoda can not. To the temple of the adepts you will go, when thirteen you become. Stay with them you will, for one standard year."
One standard year? That was a long time for a Jedi to be away from traditional training, Depa knew. But she dare not question the Master's reasons for doing this. She was excited, and why ruin a good thing?
"Until then and after," Master Windu said, "I will train you as my Padawan."
Depa was silent for a long moment, absorbing it all. At long last she asked tentavly, "What if I remain by my decision that I am not ready to be a Padawan? What will happen them."
Yoda frowned. "The to the Agricultural corps, most likely you will go. Many other Jedi capable of handling such a wild spirit, there are not."
Master Windu smiled warmly. "There is so much that I can teach you. And I'm not any were near as stodgy as the other apprentices make me out to be, I promise."
Depa laughed. "Ok, ok, I'll do it. I am honored that you would want to teach me, Master Windu."
"And I am honored that you would allow me to do so, Padawan Billaba."