Anakin watched as Eraan and the remote droid circled each other. Eraan was blindfolded as usual and holding his 'saber high. Too high, Anakin thought. But, all in all, he was doing pretty well. Even in the past week, he'd improved a lot. His years of training and conditioning were coming back to him, just as Obi-Wan had said it would when they started.
The three of them had made the old school's courtyard a place of active Jedi training as it once had been many years ago. Before they'd started, it had been overgrown with weeds and vines, and Obi-Wan had put the boys to work getting it cleaned up and looking almost as pristine as the training balconies at the Temple on Coruscant. Anakin had faith that when they left Eraan would keep it looking nice. That is, if he really did have to stay at the farm. He hadn't brought it up again with Obi-Wan, but he really did hold out hope Eraan would get chosen as an apprentice, somehow. Afterall, there were some kids at the Temple who were fifteen or even sixteen and didn't have masters yet, and no one gave up on them.
He glanced over at Obi-Wan who was watching Eraan intently, his arms folded. Without warning, the remote droid began firing erratically. Anakin had toned it down a little, at Obi-Wan's request, but it was still fierce. Eraan rose his blade to meet the blasts, and the ones he didn't manage to deflect he at least got out of the way of, dodging and ducking as skillfully as any Temple student.
The droid had been timed to fire only in short, intense bursts, and the fight was over quickly. Eraan took off his blindfold, smiling.
"Good, but still a little erratic," Obi-Wan said. "I want you to go through the first defense sequence again."
"Oh, Master, not again," Anakin cried without thinking. Mostly he didn't want to watch the basic blocking drill sequence yet again, even though he knew Obi-Wan was devoted to the idea of repetition to the point of perfectection - and exhaustion. Anakin had gone through the same drills, years ago. But he didn't exactly want to watch someone else do them now.
Obi-Wan looked over at him and frowned. "I believe I asked you not to interrupt when I'm instructing."
An apology would have been wise, but Anakin forged ahead. "Can't we spar now, Master? He's good enough." Obi-Wan had not let them spar yet, but Anakin was eager to cross blades with Eraan, especially as the boy was beginning to remember his old skills.
"That's enough, Anakin. How many times do you need to be reminded about outbursts during training? Go and do fifty push ups."
Scowling, Anakin got to his feet and stalked away from the training circle. He may have brought this on himself, but he didn't have to like it. He began doing his push ups quickly, trying to show his master how much he wasn't bothered by them. Fifty push ups were easy. Who cared? Obi-Wan seemingly paid him no mind as he began to get Eraan started on his next exercise, speaking to the boy in a gentle tone.
When Anakin was done he got up, a little sweaty from the speed of his exercise and from the heat of the late afternoon sun. He was about to sit down again, when Obi-Wan turned toward him.
"You won't be rejoining us," his master said, fixing him with a stern expression. "I want you to go do a one-handed balance for the remainder of this lesson."
"Why?" Anakin blurted out rather rudely. He noted Eraan pausing in his drills to watch with interest. "I did what you asked."
"Because I can still sense your obstinance," Obi-Wan replied. "Not that I owe you an explanation."
There was no use arguing, that much was clear. Obi-Wan had really gone full tilt into Strict Master mode since Eraan had begun training with them. When it was just he and Obi-Wan Anakin might have been able to get away with some mouthiness, but now, probably because he was outnumbered, his master had started coming down a bit harder. Anakin enjoyed training with Eraan, but still wished things might be more relaxed. He could only hope Obi-Wan would loosen up eventually.
He walked off again, sighing to himself. The One-Handed Balance always felt cruel. Not because it was particularly difficult or painful, but because to do it without falling required his whole concentration and that meant letting go of his negative feelings and resentment and stubbornness. That's why Obi-Wan made him do it. It was not like a normal seated meditation that he might fake his way through - it hadn't taken long for Obi-Wan to get smarter than that. There had been a couple times where Anakin had flat out refused to do it when ordered to, thus subjecting himself to harsher discipline rather than let go of the emotions that were holding him back. Now would not be one of those times. He thought it in his best interest not to mess with Obi-Wan right at the moment, especially not with Eraan watching.
He took a deep breath, centering himself and finding the balancing within, before placing his right palm on the ground and hoisting himself aloft. It did feel good, he had to admit, as if his cares had begun to drift away into a vast ocean. It lasted only a moment though. Something about the sound of Obi-Wan's voice instructing Eraan brought up a tremor of irritation springing up from within him. Anakin found himself crumpled to the ground.
"Anakin, focus," said Obi-Wan sharply.
"Sorry, Master," Anakin said, doing his best to swallow his pride. He shouldn't have let himself be so sensitive. He had to show his master that he could be a real Jedi. He could do this. He took a breath, attempting to center himself again, but Obi-Wan wasn't done addressing him.
"I think doing your meditation up there might give you incentive to keep your concentration." He pointed to one of the pillars that stood in the corners of the courtyard. Anakin looked up. He hadn't noticed before, but these were evidently the same type of columns they had meditated upon when they had gone to the vergence a little while back. Just a bit shorter, and they didn't have such intricate carvings.
Anakin dutifully scrambled up the pillar.
"I read about a padawan a long time ago," Eraan chimed in, "who laughed during a lesson and they made her meditate on one of those pillars for three rotations."
"Don't give Master Obi-Wan any ideas," Anakin quipped, looking down at them.
"Padawan," Obi-Wan said. "I don't want to hear any more comments from you until the lesson is over. Is that clear?"
"Yes, Master." Anakin was tempted to make a face at Eraan, who was smirking up at him from behind his master, but thought better of it. It seemed fully possible at the moment that Obi-Wan might really make him stay up here for three rotations.
Obi-Wan turned to Eraan. "That goes for you as well. Understand?"
Eraan nodded.
"Yes…?" Obi-Wan said.
"Yes, Master," Eraan said quietly toward his boots. He'd seemed reluctant to say it the whole week, or to call Obi-Wan anything at all. Anakin wondered why. Maybe he'd gotten used to how informal things were here. Declan wielded a sort of quiet - and sometimes not so quiet- authority that everyone seemed to respect, but other than that, there was no real hierarchy or chain of command. No bowing. No one was called master. But Obi-Wan had made it clear that if Eraan was going to train with Anakin he was going to follow the traditional Jedi ways like Anakin was expected to. He had also insisted that Eraan wear shoes, which Anakin thought might have bothered his friend more than anything.
Anakin suddenly remembered that he had come up here to meditate, and began his balance before Obi-Wan could reprimand him again. This time it went more smoothly, and he found his concentration. He even enjoyed the feeling of the Force holding him up, as if it was an extension of himself.
Some time passed, and Obi-Wan's voice called to him gently. "All right, Anakin, come down now."
Anakin opted to flip back to his feet, then jumped down off the pillar. Obi-Wan and Eraan were already sitting cross legged in the training circle and Anakin joined them. Obi-Wan liked to end combat drills with some kind of Jedi wisdom or story, which Anakin liked. Just as long as it wasn't a meditation on the Code.
"Eraan, do you remember the opening five precepts of the Jedi Code?" Obi-Wan asked.
Anakin groaned internally.
"Sure," Eraan said. "I mean, yes, Master."
Obi-Wan waited a moment, but Eraan was silent. A bird crowed loudly in the distance.
"And will you recite it for us?" Obi-Wan asked, sounding just a tad exasperated.
"Oh, you should've said if you wanted me to," Eraan said, his brow furrowed. "Didn't want to speak out of turn."
Anakin couldn't help but let out a snort, which he quickly tried to disguise as a cough. Such a statement might have been interpreted as insolence by some teachers, but with Eraan, sometimes it was hard to tell if he was really being serious. He had a feeling even Obi-Wan had a hard time knowing.
"Please recite it, Eraan," Obi-Wan said calmly.
"There is no emotion, There is peace
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge
There is no passion, there is serenity
There is no chaos, there is harmony
There is no death, there is the Force"
"There is no passion, there is boredom," thought Anakin, remembering a parody of the Code someone had written in the margins in one of the texts he'd gotten out of the library. He'd have to tell that to Eraan later. "There is no chaos, there are a million rules."
"And what do you suppose the first line means," Obi-Wan asked. "Is a Jedi never supposed to feel emotions?"
"We are supposed to look beyond our emotions," Eraan said.
Obi-Wan looked pleased. "Exactly. We must acknowledge the truth of our emotions, our passion, or ignorance, but we must strive to see truths and realities that lie past them. If we get stuck in our own feelings about things, we only limit ourselves, and cannot grow."
Anakin had heard all this before. It was kind of little kid stuff. They spoke about the Code for a few more minutes, then ended the lesson.
"You miscreants can go have some fun now," he told them as they all rose and Obi-Wan picked up the training equipment from its place on the ground. "But not too much," he added.
"Come on," Eraan told Anakin, leading him to the school's entrance at the other side of the training balcony. Once Obi-Wan was out of sight he sat down on one of the stone benches outside the doorway, and began to remove his boots.
"Your master is kind of strict, huh?" He asked.
Anakin leaned against the wall. "I don't know. Sometimes, I guess. He's not as strict as some masters." It was true. Anakin might have usually been the first one to complain about discipline, but he knew Obi-Wan wasn't really severe so much as he just believed in things getting done a certain way. Which, unfortunately for Eraan, involved the wearing of boots. A worried thought crossed his mind. "You're not thinking of quitting, are you?"
"No," said Eraan simply.
"Good," Anakin said. "You're getting good with your lightsaber. I think Obi-Wan will let us spar soon."
"You just want to beat me up again," Eraan said, smiling.
Anakin laughed. "I'll go easy on you this time, I promise."
"I want to show you something." Eraan popped up off the bench, leaving his boots abandoned underneath it, and headed into the school. Anakin trailed after him. They jogged through the wide halls of the old academy building which had long stood empty. It wasn't a terribly large building, yet there was a feeling of importance there that reminded Anakin of the Temple. The weight of several centuries. He wondered if this place was built on a vergence as well.
Eraan ran down a staircase and pressed a button on a panel of the wall, turning on the lights. The corridors were narrower in the lower level. They made a couple turns and finally came to stop in front of a door at the end of a hallway. He pressed a sequence of buttons on a panel next to the door and it flashed green, then Eraan pushed the door open.
The lights in the room flickered on revealing a large store room, filled with various artifacts and crates.
"Wow," Anakin exclaimed. "Is this all stuff from the school?"
"Yeah," Eraan said. "I haven't been in here before, actually. Mora gave me the code today. She said if I was going to be doing Jedi training maybe there'd be some stuff in here that we could use."
Mora was an older lady who was the oldest member of the farm and had been in the AgriCorps for several decades. Anakin remembered how thrilled she'd been at breakfast a few days ago when Eraan had talked about doing some training with Obi-Wan.
"Look at how much stuff they left," Anakin said in amazement.
"Yeah," Eraan said. "It's mostly training equipment from the school, but there's a lot of random stuff in here. I don't think they wanted to store it at the Temple, but I guess they didn't want to throw it away, either."
"They shouldn't." Anakin moved toward a large bin filled with ropes and cables. "We could make some stuff with this. Like a training course. You could use it even when we leave."
Eraan looked up at him from the bin he'd been rifling through, and smiled. "Yeah! Oh - look at this."
He pulled something out of the box and held it up for Anakin to see. A helmet. Unmistakably a Mandalorian helmet.
"Wow," Anakin said. "Is that real?"
"No way," Eraan laughed. "Can't be, it's too light. Probably someone did it for a project."
He tossed it to Anakin, who caught it and studied it in his hands, turning it around. It was light, but well made. There was a name etched into the back of the helmet in very small, neat letters. Q. Jinn.
"Do you think anyone would care if I brought this back to the Temple?" He asked, putting the helmet on. He didn't mention that he wanted to keep the helmet for himself, in his own room.
"Don't think anyone would," Eraan said. "All this stuff belongs to the Temple anyway, more or less."
Anakin took the helmet back off and looked at it fondly. He couldn't wait to show Obi-Wan what he'd found. But first, he and Eraan had a lot of work to do.