tapani day, standard year 24935
I had another nightmare. Both my Masters fighting and killing each other. Well, I won't listen. I won't listen.
*****
Apart from the nightmare, today was the best day since...since then. We- me and Tahl and Clee and Plo and Nela and Mace and Somti and Binn-were in The Room Of A Thousand Fountains. In the corner we've started to call our corner. By the side of the smallest waterfall. It may be the smallest but it's my favourite.
Anyway, Binn told us about a game he'd heard of from a friend outside the Temple. Tahl said we were too old for games, but the rest of us leaned in to listen and she did too, but not without whispering that if her Master knew she was playing games all day she'd get in trouble.
"It's called Truth or Dare," Binn said importantly. "We take turns asking each other if they'd like to tell a truth or do a dare. If the person chooses 'truth' they get asked a question, and they have to answer that question truthfully, no matter how embarrassing it is." Clee and Nela smiled. "And if they choose dare, they have to do a dare. The only rule for that is nothing stupid or dangerous."
We nodded. Tahl nodded too, grinning a little now.
"Sit in a circle," Binn instructed. I sat inbetween Tahl and Mace. "We'll start with me. So, Somti, ask me."
"Er...truth or dare?"
"Truth!" he called dramatically. Clee shushed him.
"Truth...." Somti mused. "What sort of truth?"
"The whole truth, and nothing but the truth," Binn said cheerfully. "It can be funny or serious. Whatever you want."
"Okay...." He considered this for a few seconds, then finally said. "What's your favourite colour?"
Clee shook her head. "That's not a...."
"No," Binn said. "You have to answer whatever question you're given. So....." He pretended to be in deep thought for a second and then said, "Orange. Right, my turn. So I have to ask you, Nela."
"Fire away."
"Truth or dare?"
"Truth."
A few more seconds of deep thought, then he grinned mischeviously. "Tell us all one thing about your sister that she wouldn't like us to know."
"I don't think that's very...." Tahl began, but Somti and Plo shushed her. Nela smiled at Clee.
"One thing...I don't know much about my sister, you know. She's a Knight now, remember?"
Nela is the oldest out of all of us. She's seventeen, nearly eighteen, and Vell is twenty-five and past her Trials.
"Anything. Go on," Somti urged.
I noticed her begin to smile too. "Alright. When she was little, she had this blanket. It was meant to be pink, but it'd faded to grey. It's all sticky and never gets washed and has holes in it. Now, you'd think she'd have thrown it out when she reached her fifteenth birthday...but she didn't. She's still got it."
She looked around hopefully and Clee snickered. Tahl grinned. "So Nela asks me, right?"
"Yep," Binn said.
Nela turned to Tahl. "Alright. Truth?"
Tahl pondered. "Truth."
"Right," Nela pondered too, trying to think of a clever question. I remembered it was my turn next.
"When will time end?" she finally said, rather proudly. Binn looked irratated that he didn't come up with that one himself.
"Time? Time is an illusion," Tahl said teasingly. "What sort of question is that?"
"A deep and profound one."
"Rightttttt....how am I meant to know the answer? I thought you were meant to ask personal questions...."
"Just answer it!" she said.
"The....year 24974!" That earned her some very odd looks. She turned to me.
"Truth!" I said quickly.
"Describe yourself in one word." She smirked.
"....arrrgh."
"Arrrgh?"
"It's one word and it describes me perfectly!"
There was more after that, of course. Binn wound up admitting he was scared of the dark, Tahl admitted she hated heights, Mace told us if he wasn't a Jedi he'd like to be acting at a theatre in Coruscant, Clee had to stand up and sing-she can't sing at all!-and Somti was dared to hide in Yoda's closet for a full five minutes, and he made me go with him! We wound up being chased through the corridors with Yoda waving his stick at us, and that was where the game ended. As punishment, we had to skip lunch to clean up the waterfalls. That put a bit of a damper on things. (literally. We all got wet).
The last question I was asked was interesting, though. Tahl asked me it. "What do you fear the most?" she asked, and then I saw a slight panic in her eyes, as if she wasn't sure she should have asked that question.
"What do I fear?" I ran through a million things in my mind. I'm afraid of being tortured...you hear so many stories around the Temple of young Padawans being kidnapped by pirates or tyrants and tortured because they think they'll break easier. I'm afraid of certain insects...don't laugh! I'm afraid of embarassing myself in front of someone important, or failing to protect someone, and failing so badly that they get killed. I'm afraid of nightmares.
"I'm afraid of losing someone."
Her eyes said what she didn't: Someone...else?
There had better not be nightmares tonight. I'm so sick of them...and I think Master will take me to a Soul Healer if any more of them come, and I don't want that either.
*****