Arya memorized the routes as she went through them. Master Iami had told her that it was expected from Initiates of her age to know the layout of the Temple by heart. Arya was going to learn it as fast and well as she could. She was determined to know her way around her new home, just like she had known her way around Lianoros's village back home... back in her old home, she corrected herself again. She had no idea about how huge the Jedi Temple was, but she knew that she would learn that.
The valleys of Kiros were verdant, but the Room of a Thousand Fountains was something completely else.
"Come," Master Iami prompted. Arya followed the Jedi recruiter hastily and at the same time tried to see as much as possible. The room was humongous! And there were so many Jedi meditating, brooding or walking.
Master Yoda was sitting on a bench. A group of twelve children of Arya's age had gathered around him.
"Ah, very soon you arrived. A longer patience exercise I expected to keep before arrive you would," Master Yoda said. The children looked at Arya and Master Iami, curious. Arya looked at the children, being as curious of them as they were of her. Is this that Boma clan Master Iami talked about?
"Boma clan, here your newcomer is. Arya Deinden, her name is. With you from this moment on, train she will", Master Yoda told. The children said their greetings to Arya.
"Hi everyone," Arya said nervously. She did not know any of them, so getting into the center of attention was a little bit scary for her. None of these children looked like Lianorosians – the closest were the humans of the clan – and the foreign feeling of not belonging there frightened her. She knew she had to best her fear; she belonged here now!
"Go on. It'll go well," Master Iami said, her voice surprisingly calming. Arya nodded, mumbled a small thank and walked carefully to amongst the Boma clan and turned to look at Master Yoda, who spoke again, "Now continue the exercise, we shall. Important patience is. Cherish it, you should."
No one said anything. Everyone just stood still. Arya looked around herself, moving only her eyes. Soon standing still started to make her impatient. Would the day be spent to this?
She wanted to prove herself by doing well in her exercise, so she forced herself to stay completely still. It chafed her inside, but she wanted to prove that she could do just as well as those who had been in training from the beginning. Soon she noticed that she was twiddling the edge of her tunic with the fingers of her right hand and she could not make herself stop it. She noticed the glance of Master Yoda and forced her grip off her tunic. A frustrated huff could not stay from coming out of her nose. She fared the worst of them all, she thought.
Arya closed her eyes and tried to calm down, yet the frustration just accumulated all the time. However, now, as she kept her eyes closed, she could feel a connection to the Living Force. Despite of its unclarity, she felt the impatience of some others.
She was not alone with impatience.
That feeling was relieving, and Arya took a deep breath, intending to do it as silently as possible. She felt her fingers grab the edge of her tunic once again but this time she forced her grip to stay tightly. Soon her hand became numb and she let go. This repeated itself at a slow pace and Arya could not help being amazed by a brown-haired Wookiee – even though she could not recognize the being as a Wookiee – a bit taller than her, who had stayed completely still and patient for all this time.
Two hours passed by. Then Master Yoda looked like he had suddenly woken up from sleep and remembered that the Initiates were still there.
"Go now, you may. Over the exercise is," he said, got up from the bench and started to walk away. The Initiates bowed respectfully to the Grand Master, and Arya could hear some of her joints crack as she moved after staying immobile for a long time.
"Hey, for a first-timer you fared well!" a brown-haired boy said to Arya.
"Eh... Thanks. But I really didn't fare that well," Arya said, confused. The teaching she had gotten back with Lianoros tribe had been private teaching and the only one, who had taught her at all, was Seer Ni'Dea, who never complimented anyone much, and only when one performed notably well and beyond her expectations. Now the compliments only confused her. She had not fared very well at all; she knew she had not.
The Wookiee, whose patience Arya had marveled earlier, said something.
"Gomorrah said that usually the newcomers don't fare at the patience exercises kept by Yoda," the same boy told. "You did, and everyone could see it. I'm Qui-Gon Jinn, by the way."
"N-nice to meet you," Arya stuttered. She felt everyone's eyes on her back and looked the rest of the group. Many noticed her gaze and the rest of them introduced themselves.
As the conversation went on and Arya learned to know her clan mates a little better, she stopped being shy of them. The open-minded manner with which her peers took her to their conversation reminded her of how her own family had taken Jedova Wang to their conversation at the last night at the village of Lianoros tribe.
That night felt so far away already.
Thinking about her family hurt and Arya pushed it to the background. Master Iami had made especially sharply sure that Arya had truly understood that Jedi were forbidden to have attachments. That was why she pushed the thoughts of family and home on Kiros away. Now, the Jedi Temple was her home and the Boma clan and the whole Jedi Order were her family.
She knew that she had to do a lot of work to catch her clan mates. However, she did not doubt her ability to do that. Otherwise she would not have fared at the exercise as well as she had.
She could do this. She knew it for sure.
She would work hard and be big, strong Jedi Knight someday.
/Author's note: Star Wars (c) Lucasfilm, any characters you cannot find on Wookieepedia, Veledos, Veledosians and their language (c) Me/
