Usually when Obi-Wan entered the library he was greeted with a hushed silence. Even the birdsong which should have been loud and piercing through the open windows often seemed muted somehow. But when he entered the library today from one of the outside entrances, he was instead greeted with the sounds of his padawan's rather loud and high spirited voice telling someone a story.
He moved closer to where Anakin was sitting at one of the long library tables, ostensibly studying. Sitting on the ledge of the window was Eraan, not at all to his surprise.
Eraan had been hanging around Anakin as much as he could for the past week. Obi-Wan should have been more annoyed with this, but he hadn't mustered the will to shoo the boy away as much as he should have. He couldn't help but feel pleased that his padawan had made a friend, especially after the rough start they'd gotten off to. Anakin had always had difficulties forming close bonds with the other students at the Temple, something that had worried Obi-Wan a little. There didn't seem to be much to be done about it, though; Anakin may have been a friendly and outgoing boy, but so many friendships between Jedi were forged in their earliest days in the creche. Through no fault of his own, Anakin had always been something of an outsider.
Anakin stopped mid-sentence when he saw his master approaching, offering him the sheepish smile he always seemed to wear when he was caught doing something wrong but wasn't quite sorry for it.
"Eraan, do you have somewhere you need to be?" Obi-Wan asked the boy in the window.
"I'm on a break," said Eraan simply.
I'm sure you are, Obi-Wan thought
"Well, Anakin is not," he said.
"Aw, Master," Anakin said, resting his chin on his hand as if utterly exhausted. "I've been here all morning."
Obi-Wan walked over to where his apprentice was sitting and peered down over his shoulder at his datapad. He frowned."Yes, a whole two hours. And you don't have much to show for it, from the looks of things."
Eraan was looking on curiously and made no signs of budging from his window seat.
"You can stay here," Obi-Wan told him. "But if you do, you will join Anakin in his studies."
To his surprise, Eraan smiled and hopped down off the ledge. "Okay, what are we learning?"
"Anakin is writing a freeform essay of the history of this planet. Eight thousand words," Obi-wan replied, surprised at the boy's enthusiastic response.
Eraan's smile widened as he moved toward the seat next to Anakin.
"Oh, no." Obi-Wan shook his head at him. "Anakin is far too distracted. You'll need to sit over there." He gestured toward a table on the other side of the library. He looked down at the boy, wondering if he'd take this opportunity to flee, but Eraan only nodded solemnly. Obi-Wan picked up a couple books and an extra datapad and handed them to him.
"Aw, Master," said Anakin again.
Obi-Wan ruffled his padawan's hair. "Get to work, please. I'll be back in two hours to see what you have for me."
"Yes, Master," Anakin said, not unhappily.
Obi-Wan smiled to himself as he left the library. About a week had passed since their journey to the vergence, and things had been fairly smooth between them. They'd settled into a routine of recreation, study and work, just as Obi-Wan had hoped they would. There was balance. The only challenge now would be in keeping it.
Obi-Wan had known it was only a matter of time before he'd be recruited to help out in the fields. It had been naive of him to think he might be able to escape it. This was AgriCorps afterall. The Jedi who lived here spent the majority of their time tending to the crops - much of the other work on the farm could be done by droids and hired farm hands. The goal in the fields of Agricorps farms was to connect with the plants through the Force and persuade them to yield as much fruit as possible without causing them strain, often in conditions which were not typically optimal for farming. To do this well required years of practice, and even more patience, but any Jedi could help.
He approached the bean fields with a little trepidation, though there was probably little reason for it. He'd done this before, and he had gotten better at it, over the years. But communing with plants had never been his strong suit, and not exactly something he looked forward to. He probably never would. Obi-Wan's natural connection to the Living Force had always been a little hit-or-miss. It was more solid now after years of training, but as a boy tapping into it had always felt a bit nerve wracking. The Force around him in the present was always changing, shifting, full of different, often confusing feelings. The varied, dancing energy given off by all living things at any given moment. It was hard sometimes to make sense of it. He much preferred losing himself in the infinite Oneness of the Cosmic Force.
To his credit, but to his padawan's disappointment, Qui-Gon had made Obi-Wan spend a lot of time in the fields when they visited Helia, honing his connection with the Living Force through the growing things around him.
"All we have to do is find the unhappy ones and see if we can't make them a bit happier," Qui-Gon had said the first time they'd come here. "But it's not something you become an expert in overnight. Be patient with yourself."
Obi-Wan walked through the rows of crops, centering himself and getting a feel for the place. Unlike animals, which were easier to understand, plants had a subtle energy and it was difficult to pick out the signature of a single plant in the Force, especially when there were thousands of them grouped so closely together. He picked one plant at random and stood beside it, caressing its leaves gently. He thought of his botany teacher at the Temple who'd worked in the AgriCorps for years before coming to teach at the Temple. Now that was someone who'd understood both the physical and subtle nature of plants.
"You can't expect them to react like something with a nervous system," she'd told her students. "But they have their own way of interacting with the world. You need to meet them on their terms."
Obi-Wan sat with his chosen bean plant for a while, doing his breathing exercises and meditations on openness that Qui-Gon had taught him so many years ago.
He wasn't sure how much time had passed before he heard a woman's gentle
voice behind him.
"This one is very happy with you."
He turned to see Coral, her red eyes shining like Hapan rubies in the bright sunlight.
"I'm glad to hear it," Obi-Wan said. "If it hated me, I don't think I'd be able to tell the difference."
"It does take some practice," Coral said. "But you may have some natural aptitude. Your padawan was telling me the other day that you are quite good with animals, after all."
"They've just always liked me," Obi-Wan said. "Nothing I'd really consider a skill."
Coral nodded. "But isn't that wonderful? Sometimes just being yourself is enough. Being present. I've found that with the plants, if you try and push and probe them too much, even if you mean well, it has the opposite effect. They'll stop producing fruit, sometimes. They often just want you to be with them, as you were."
Obi-Wan stood up. "That's a lesson my master would have loved, but I think you've put it more succinctly than he would have. Did you ever meet Qui-Gon?"
"Once or twice, when I was much younger," Coral said. "I started out here, but spent several years on Darmasco until the facility closed there. I only got transferred back two years ago, and that was after -"
She stopped herself.
"After he died," Obi-Wan said gently. "It's all right."
She smiled. "I'm glad I got to meet him, even if it was a long time ago. He was very kind. You're fortunate to have had him for a master."
"I was," Obi-Wan agreed. "We challenged each other quite a lot, but I think for the best." He looked up toward the sun which was getting high in the sky. It must be getting close to midday, and he had hoped to check on Anakin before lunch. "I must be getting back to see how my padawan is doing, but I shall return today."
"I'll walk with you," Coral said.
They headed toward the cluster of buildings that had once made up the old academy.
"How was your trip to the vergence?" Coral asked after a few moments of silence. Her voice, Obi-Wan noted, was not as bright as usual.
"Anakin learned a great deal," Obi-Wan said. "Which is what I'd hoped for."
"He said you sent him into the cave there."
Obi-Wan noted a hint of disapproval in his voice. "Yes. As my master did with me when I was about his age."
"Isn't it...well, isn't it filled with the Dark Side?" Coral asked. She'd stopped, and Obi-Wan did as well.
Obi-Wan looked at her curiously, not really understanding the question. "Tests for Jedi often involve facing the Dark Side," he said. "Within and without."
Coral dropped her gaze. "Yes. I know. It's just that I know what that place can do to people. Kenji went in there last year and he..." She trailed off.
"What happened?" Obi-Wan asked. He'd spoken with Kenji only in passing, and knew him only as a quiet boy of around eighteen or nineteen. He was the second youngest member of the farm after Eraan.
"Well, I don't know. He never was terribly cheerful to begin with, but after that...he barely talks to anyone anymore." Coral began walking again.
"Does Declan know?" Obi-Wan asked. "What does he think?"
"I'm not sure," Coral said. "They do talk, sometimes, I think. But it must be hard for him to know what to do. With Kenji's history and all."
"His history?"
"I suppose it makes sense you don't know yet," said Coral sadly. "He's only been here a couple years. He arrived at about the same time I came back. He was a padawan before he came here."
"Oh?" Obi-Wan asked, surprised. As far as he knew, it was rare for padawans to join the AgriCorps. In fact, he didn't think he'd ever heard of it. If a padawan left their apprenticeship, or was removed, they typically ended up leaving the Order altogether.
"Yes. It was awful, what happened to him. He and his master were taken hostage by a Zygerian warlord. His master was already badly injured when they were caught, and Kenji was unconscious. He woke up to seeing him being tortured to death. The Force was with him and he managed to get away, but I don't think he ever forgave himself for letting his master die like that. The Council tried to get him another master to continue his training, but he didn't want it. After a month at the Temple, he cut his braid off and asked to come here."
Obi-Wan exhaled. "That is unfortunate. Perhaps he should have stayed at the Temple. They have healing programs that can help immensely."
"Declan wants him to go back for some treatment," Coral said. "But Kenji isn't ready yet. He says there are too many memories there. He wants to put in some distance, he said."
Obi-Wan wasn't sure that was the wisest course of action, but it wasn't his place to make that judgement. Declan really does have his hands full here, he thought.
He entered the library again. To his relief and amazement, the place was silent and Eraan and Anakin were sitting at their respective tables, their heads bowed over texts. But Anakin leapt up upon seeing his master approach.
"Done!" He thrust his datapad into Obi-Wan's hands. "Can we go outside now?"
"Not so fast," Obi-Wan said, smiling patiently. "I'd like to review what you've written." He looked over at Eraan, and reached out his arm." Both of you."
Eraan came forward and handed Obi-Wan his own assignment. Obi-Wan looked through it, skimming the contents. He was planning on doing a more thorough review later, but wanted to at least have an idea of what the boys had been working on.
Eraan had produced quite the essay, even longer than Obi-Wan had asked for. It was perhaps a tad overambitious, covering the whole history of human settlement on Helia - how the two main "native" tribes, the Helia and the Cheen'jo, had likely become stranded on the planet at different times thousands of years ago, how they had warred with one another through their history. The essay discussed how over the years the planet had attracted adventurous types who hunted the fearsome animals of Helia or captured them to sell offworld. When the populations of those animals had dwindled, farming on Helia had become more common and the planet less wild. The Jedi who occupied the planet and ran the school had helped negotiate a tentative peace between the clans of the Helia and Cheen'jo, even if they never could get them to join the Republic.
Eraan's essay, aside from this, didn't mention the Jedi presence on Helia much. But it did mention that once the school had closed, tensions between the Cheen'jo and Helia had begun to bubble up once again. The essay ended on something of a pessimistic note.
All in all, Obi-Wan was a bit surprised by Eraan's essay. It was well written and nuanced in a way he hadn't expected for a boy who had supposedly fallen short at the Temple.
"What about mine?" Anakin asked, breaking Obi-Wan out of his reverie.
Obi-Wan took a little less time with Anakin's essay. It was the boy's typical work. Accurate and to the point, if a little stilted. Anakin wrote essays grudgingly, but after years of training with Obi-Wan knew what his master expected of him, and knew how to write them well enough. Anakin had mostly covered the history of the Jedi's presence on the planet and the school, but not much about how the Jedi had interacted with the planet as a whole or their influence on the history of Helia. Perhaps he would talk to Anakin more about that later.
"Well? Did you enjoy this exercise?" Obi-Wan asked Eraan, setting the datapads on the table.
"I guess," Eraan said, shrugging. Clearly he was much more articulate with his writing than his speaking.
"Has anyone ever told you your manners could use some work?" Obi-Wan asked him.
Eraan looked him in the eye. "Yeah."
Obi-Wan held back a laugh. An odd boy, but harmless. There was something earnest and guileless about him that Obi-Wan liked. He had a feeling Qui-Gon would have liked the boy immensely. There was a reason, he felt, that the boy had been so present lately, and a reason that Obi-Wan had felt prompted to give him work to do. He would have to think about it more, and would definitely need to speak to Declan.