Title: Questions and Answers

Author: Katieelessar

Rating: G…oh, sooo G

Category: General

Characters: Obi-Wan, O/C, snippet of Qui-Gon

Time Period: Obi-Wan's 17

Summary: Obi-Wan is asked a few questions about the Jedi from a very nosey little boy. :) Fluffy clouds and randomness galore.

Author's Note: This dialogue just popped in my head one night and wouldn't go away. Little Namil kept asking me questions and wouldn't let me live in peace….so here's the finished product. Sorry for the lack of angst, I preferred chocolate covered marshmallows this time. Yum. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Everything but my nosey-rosey Namil belongs to Master Lucas. : )

Questions and Answers

'So you can see into the future, huh?'

'No, never. The future is always in motion.'

A young Namil stared at the Jedi, only a decade ahead of him in time, sitting across from him in a small oasis of flat land in the large field of tall wheat where he had found him practicing. His eyes were a bright green, alight with curiosity and begged the cerulean-eyed young man to tell him more. He had heard tales about the great swordsmen and guardians of peace since he could remember, and he never forgot how willingly his own mother would speak of their kindness and courage as she settled him down to bed every night. She had lived in Coruscant for a few years and been helped by one of the Jedi in her time of need when she was a young girl.

And now, in the middle of a large wheat field, on the outskirts of his small village, he had come across the one who came to their village, using his brilliant sword of light to fight the invisible foe only he and Namil seemed to see. The young child would have given the Jedi all of his three E'dren coins he had back under his pillow just to see the amazing blue ignite again, but the Jedi had sadly turned it off when Namil had come too close.

Now, here they sat, amidst sunset and swaying wheat fronds, the Jedi answering Namil's incessant stream of questions, explaining to him kindly and carefully about the ways of the Jedi and wonders that Namil's mother had only begun to tell him of. She had never told him that Jedi could lift or pull things with their mind, or even change other people's minds. It was a power he wished he could have when his schoolteacher gave the children far too much work for one day. With a simple 'suggestion' as the Jedi called him, he could make his schoolteacher give them a whole day, maybe a week off without work if it was 'strong' enough.

He told the Jedi this who laughed brightly.

'It's not that easy. It takes Jedi years and years to gain that power and when they do, they only use it sparingly. When Jedi use the Force to influence others, it's only when there is no other choice, if we did it all the time, it would be against the Jedi and the Code.'

'Oh,' Namil asked curiously. 'What's the Code?'

'A set of rules that all Jedi live by from their time as an Initiate until…until either they die or leave the Order. Here, it goes like this:

There is no emotion, there is peace.

There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.

There is no passion, there is serenity.

There is no death, there is the Force.'

'The Force, mum told me a little about that. She said it was like a great power source that Jedi get their powers from.'

Obi-Wan smiled widely and didn't answer for a moment. A large breeze blew down from the sky and flattened the walls of wheat that stood around them. One brushed his shoulder and, plunking it from its roots, handed it to Namil. The tiny hands wrapped around the outstretched branch uncertainly.

'What's this for?'

'This, little one, is the Force.'

'A plant?' Namil asked incredulously and Obi-Wan laughed.

'No, it's what in the plant that is the Force, Life.'

'So the Force is life? …but I'm alive…am I the Force?'

Obi-Wan nodded, but Namil felt even more confused. What was this Jedi telling him? That he was the Force? And if he was the Force, why was there no death? He had seen plenty of death in his village to know that it was real enough. And what did this have to do with his sword of light and mind tricks?

Obi-Wan noted the young boy's confusion from the ever knotting creases between his brows and carefully took the time to explain.

'The Force is what binds us together, Namil. It is made up of everything living and non that constantly surrounds us and brings us together. The Jedi are able to sense the Force, they are born with this…ability, and because of this, we protect what makes up the very thing that makes us; life.'

Namil began to shake his head. 'It's too complicated.'

Obi-Wan smiled, 'Exactly what I thought when I first came to the Temple, but now, it's part of my life and it will always be.' At the mention of the Temple Namil's green eyes sparkled with recognition.

'Oh, the Jedi Temple right? My mum, she me about that too. She's seen it you know, says it's the biggest Temple in the entire galaxy and surrounded by nothing but huge buildings and skyscrapers that are.' Namil stood and raised his hands above his head. 'This tall!'

Obi-Wan chuckled, standing up higher above Namil and raised his hands above his own head. 'Even higher than this…even my master.' He laughed deeper at his own personal joke. A good thing Qui-Gon wasn't here by now, although he could most possibly feel the amusement coming from Obi-Wan's side.

'Wow,' Namil said, awe-struck because he knew no one taller than the kind, older Jedi who had come with this young, bright blue eyed one. 'It must be huge! And do all the Jedi live there?'

'A lot of them do. It is where all the Jedi are taught the ways of the Force and the Jedi Code and train…a lot.'

'Then why aren't you there right now? Learning at the Temple?'

'Because I'm past the part where I have to learn from the Jedi masters with my friends. I am in the next part of my training, my Padawanship.'

'Is that why the older man is with you? To teach you? What's his name?' Namil looked up at the sky and saw that the sun had finally sunk in the far west and stars were beginning to prickle and pop onto the sky. Obi-Wan, too, noted this and they began walking towards the distant lights of the village.

'Yes, the older man, Master Qui-Gon Jinn, teaches me now. He will train me until he sees it right for me to become a Knight and then, I can travel the galaxy by myself and perhaps take on an apprentice myself to train.'

'That seems awfully lonely.' Namil commented and idly plucked the small seeds from the wheat branch, throwing them carelessly into the wind. 'If I had a friend like that I would never want to just leave him.' He paused again. 'It would be like throwing away this little seed to the wind and never getting it back.'

Obi-Wan was impressed by the child's deep insight. He had not told the child and didn't think it was right to now, but he felt the Force gather brightly around this young being like it did to many of the Initiates and Padawan's close to him. There was no doubt, Namil was Force-sensitive, and, found earlier, could have been taken into the Temple to be trained, but then there would never be this carefree spirit about him that was came from living this small, simple life in a tiny village on a planet that was no more than a speck in the night sky. And if he were found, this meeting between Obi-Wan and curious youth would never have never have taken place.

It was odd how one small moment in life could change the future forever.

Obi-Wan knew, he had been to that moment many times.

'I don't think I would ever.' He answered thoughtfully. 'I think even after I were Knighted, my Master and I would still be as close as we are now. We share a bond that is not easily cut, and it would be very painful if either of us grew apart. He is like a father to me.'

'Do all Jedi have connections like that? Like a dad and son or a mum and her daughter?'

'Some do,' Obi-Wan answered. 'Though it takes many years and many hardships for that trust to be born. Most Jedi achieve a teacher and student relationship but only a few can become so close that they can almost speak to each other without words.'

'Can you do that with your master? Speak with your minds?'

Obi-Wan nodded silently, remembering a time when he could not. Now, the feeling seemed almost foreign to him, but that was before the past was forgotten, before things changed, before those startling episodes that had twisted and shaped his life into what it was now.

'But you'd have to eventually cut the bond right?' Namil continued, not noticing Obi-Wan's faded glance. 'I mean, if you had a student yourself you would have to have a bond with him or her or something?'

Obi-Wan pulled himself back to the present, grinning with the joy that he felt at the moment from the rightness of how everything was. He nodded to Namil's question and answered, 'True maybe I will grow apart eventually, when I decide to teach someone of my own, but that is years and years away. It seems odd just to talk about the future, it's hard to think that in ten years from now I could be a Knight looking for a Padawan. There was a time when I didn't think that.'

'Oh,' Namil said. 'Why did you think that?'

'A couple years ago I left the Jedi Order.'

Namil's eyes widened instantly. He left the Jedi….?

'Why?'

For a moment, the Padawan didn't speak, his blue eyes held that look Namil's mother usually had when he had asked too many questions.

'Sorry,' he said quickly, feeling slightly chastened but Obi-Wan stopped him and stooped down to stare levelly with his eyes.

'It's alright, Namil. I was only thinking. It wasn't an easy thing to do, you have to remember that, It was the last thing I wanted to do, but considering the circumstances at the time, I thought it was the best.' Not wanting Namil to feel like he intruded too much into his personal affairs, Obi-Wan took the time to carefully tell him about Melida/Daan and how it took a long time for him and Qui-Gon to regain back their trust since.

'Wow.' Namil could only say when they began walking again in silence. War, Telos, the Temple under attack, murder…so many things coursed through his mind at once Namil didn't know where to start asking questions, but for once, he found the need not to. There were some things best left unasked.

'So that's why you never thought you would be a Jedi again, hm?'

Obi-Wan nodded.

'It's kind of like your saying.'

The Apprentice turned a questioning look to the small children beside him who was now bright and youthful again. He still held onto the wheat blade in his hand, twirling it like the glowing sword.

' 'The future is always in motion.'' He recited proudly.

'Very good. You are well on your way to becoming a shining Jedi Knight.' Obi-Wan laughed joyfully. He suddenly realized he would miss this child very dearly when he left tomorrow back for the Temple.

'Really?' The child asked eagerly, interrupting his thoughts. 'Can I learn the ways of the Force and learn how to flip and spin just as you do?'

'I don't think you're old enough,' laughed Obi-Wan.

'I'm seven!' Namil cried indignantly. How dare this Jedi call him little? He was already taller than all of the other children his age. He could learn to spin in the air just as easily as he had seen the other do.

'You need to at least be seven and a half.' Obi-Wan teased but stopped and took the wheat stick from Namil's hand, winking slyly. 'But I won't tell anyone. Now you can't tell anyone what I teach you here, Namil, it's very secret and it won't be as special if everyone starts doing it. Promise me you won't tell your mother or my master, at least until we leave, that I taught you a few things about the Force.'

Making it seem like a mythical ritual he was about to partake in, Namil nodded very seriously and very, very eagerly, his eyes were as alight with enthusiasm as the night sky was with the stars. Finally, the moment he had waited for, for many, many years, longer than he could count on one hand, had come. He felt a thrill of nervousness and excitement all at once.

Obi-Wan gently handed the stick back to Namil and pulled the cylinder tube from his belt.

'This is a kata I learned when I was about your age. It's the very basic techniques. Here, stand like this. Good, now follow my moves.'

A shout of laughter came from the young child when the icy blade shot up out of the night suddenly and he very soon forgot all about his own stance and watch as Obi-Wan spun into the elaborate dance of a well-practiced kata, that soon turned into a long string of flips, rolls and swings.

To Namil, with his mouth hanging to the ground, it was a dream come true.

And to Obi-Wan, it was the life he was meant to live.

At the edge of the field, Qui-Gon Jinn stood staring out at the thick night, illuminated by a full moon and blue blade on the horizon. He smiled lightly as the wind that whipped around him carried the laughter of his Padawan and the young village boy who was watching him reverently as Obi-Wan spun his 'saber in an intricate design. It was in this moment that Qui-Gon knew that his apprentice, his child of light, would grow into one of the finest Knights the Order had ever seen, and whether he was still standing by his side or not, Qui-Gon would always be proud of him.

Questions he had once had were banished away by this sight, for tonight, he was not the only one's who questions had been answered….

The End

Talk about sporadic randomness. If you liked, tell me! If not…find something better and tell me because I'll read it! LOL. Thanks for reading. : )