Hey, everybody. Back with another chapter.
I actually originally didn't have this in the chapter plan, but realized it was kind of necessary, and just fun.
Alright. Let's get to it.
Starranger2: I'm not sure. I mean, it would make for a good chapter, but their reappearance will be in the midst of the end phase of the war, and they'll be very busy immediately.
fb111a: To some degree, there will be a gang war, yes, and you are somewhat on point about a solution to the Hutts, but that will not come for a very long time, and the Hutts' involvement won't even be evident for a while.
MatbeK01: Oh, the Hood's return will be a huge shock, but we won't get to that for a long time. As for what Nelson left on Ossus, well, you'll see
Chapter 32- Here's to a Long Life and a Merry One
(October 28, 2049)
Rey takes a deep breath as she slightly shifts position. Then, she carefully does a small leap, shuffling her feet.
"Alright, not too bad."
Rey looks at the woman in front of her, a little confused. The woman is only 5 feet tall, and is wearing tight black pants and a sheer gray workout shirt.
"You're getting the up and down action pretty well, but you're a little off on the feet motion. It's not quite as random as you're doing. It's a little more defined," she says.
"Okay," Rey says.
"Like this," the woman says before repeating the step. As she does, Rey pays close attention to her feet. When she's finished, the woman looks at her and says, "Do you see the difference? I'm not just moving my feet about to move them."
"Yeah, I see," Rey says. She then turns her head to look at Ben, who is standing next to her in a workout outfit of his own. "Are you really sure that this is going to help me be a better Jedi?"
Ben chuckles before saying, "Rey, not only have I been Irish dancing since I was young, but my dad even learned a little bit of it. Said it actually helped him a lot. It's all about the grace yet extreme control over your movements. Really helps with agility and being in tune with your body."
"If you say so," Rey says, still feeling very uncertain not only about the usefulness of this, but also if she can actually master this.
Rey has been on Earth for almost 2 months, continuing her Jedi training under the Skywalkers. After a month and a half of hard work, the Skywalkers had taken Rey on a trip to Europe. They would of course continue her training while in Europe, but also take some time to relax and begin exposing Rey to other cultures on Earth. Right now the quartet are in Ireland.
While there, Ben had insisted that she take lessons in Irish dancing. Ben had always been proud of his Irish heritage through his grandmother, and had first taken lessons in Irish dancing when he was 11 years old. Since then, he had gotten very good at it, and the year prior, had even performed with the famed Riverdance company the previous year at a show in New York City as a way to draw more attention to Riverdance. Ben thought it really helped in the realm of agility and learning how to control his body and make it more fluid, especially given he had to try and not use any gifts of the Force during the process.
They had had two lessons with the instructor, a former Riverdance dancer, and were now on their third lesson. Rey had been picking up the steps somewhat well, but was still struggling just a little bit with getting the footwork down.
"You're making good progress, Rey. You've almost got it," the instructor says, "Just remember that part of Irish step dancing is the contact with the ground, producing the sound. But it's not a single strike. It's kind of a shuffling, skipping step. Understand?"
"I think so," Rey responds.
"Alright. We're going to give it another shot," the instructor says. She then demonstrates the step one more time.
"Ready for another try, Rey?" Ben asks, drawing Rey's attention. He then does the step to demonstrate again for Rey. Rey watches him carefully before she focuses on herself, closing her eyes a bit. Then, she leaps a little bit, and comes back down with her feet moving. She smiles brightly to herself as she hears the clack of her shoes hitting the dance floor, making almost the same sound as the instructor and Ben did.
"Excellent. That was almost perfect!" the instructor praises her.
Rey opens her eyes, and sees the instructor and Ben both smiling at her. In the corner, Luke and Kelly are both also looking proud.
"Alright, I think we'll end there for now. This was a good day. I'll see you back here tomorrow," the instructor says.
"Of course. Thank you," Rey says gratefully before heading towards the door to take off her shoes and switch to her normal boots.
"You're picking this up rather well, Rey," Kelly says encouragingly.
"Thank you," Rey says as she slides her boots back on and ties the laces.
"Alright. I think today can be a day off from training. Let's go out and enjoy ourselves in the city," Luke says.
"I'd like that," Rey responds.
A minute later, the quartet of Jedi exit the dance studio, and Rey smiles as she looks around at the bustling, cheery streets of Dublin.
Since coming to Ireland, Rey has come to think it may be one of her favorite places on Earth. She had been excited to visit the country since Ben first told her about it on Ahch-To, and it hasn't disappointed. Not only has it been incredibly beautiful, but Rey has found the Irish people incredibly friendly, and has already grown to love the culture she has seen here. Dublin has been her favorite city she has visited so far, and she's had a great time in the Irish capitol.
Her attention is drawn as Kelly lets out a loud whistle and raises her arm up high. Moments later, a speeder comes pulling up. In many cities, taxies and other forms of public transportation had begun to be replaced by speeders. So far, the movement had been a great success across the planet.
"Ah, the famous Skywalkers. Welcome!" the driver greets them in a thick Irish accent.
"Thank you," Kelly responds as the four of them board the speeder.
"Where to?" the driver asks.
Kelly looks up, taking stock of the setting sun, then looking back at the driver before asking, "Take us to Grafton Street."
"Aye, you've got it, miss," the driver responds before speeding up, heading for Grafton Street.
Rey smiles as she leans against the side of the speeder, watching the sights of the streets of Dublin flash by. After a lifetime on Jakku, and mostly exposure to minimal civilization since then, the bustling streets of Dublin are a sight to behold for the young Jedi apprentice.
It doesn't take long before the speeder comes to a stop at the end of Grafton Street. The driver stops the speeder and says, "Alright, here we are!"
"Thank you much," Kelly responds, handing him over his fee as the four of them climb out of the speeder. As soon as they're off, the driver takes off again.
Rey stares in amazement at her first look at Grafton Street, which is packed with evening shoppers and tourists. "Wow. What is this place?" she asks.
"This is Grafton Street, one of the primary shopping streets in Dublin and one of its most famous spots. Many small shops, street performers, cafes, and pubs. This is one of the centers of social life in Dublin," Kelly says proudly. Grafton Street is her favorite spot in Dublin.
"Well…where are we going first?" Rey asks.
"Well, first, we need to get you something to keep you warmer. You are definitely still not used to the cold," Kelly says before directing Rey towards a small clothing shop on the street. Luke and Ben just smile at each other at Kelly's excitement before following them into the shop.
(A few hours later)
As the sky over Dublin darkens as the night begins, the door to one of the pubs on Grafton Street opens, and the Skywalkers and Rey walk in, all laughing and chatting with each other. Rey is now wearing some new clothes bought for her by Kelly, including a warm jacket and a scarf decorated like the Irish flag.
"So, this is a restaurant?" Rey asks. She had been to restaurants in the United States, and so knew the term.
Ben chuckles and says, "Oh, no. This is not just a restaurant, or even a bar. This is an Irish pub. And it is in a class of its own."
"What do you mean?" Rey asks.
"You'll see," Ben says with a chuckle before leading the way in.
The host leads them to a table along one of the walls, while Ben pauses at the bar to place orders for the group. He then joins his parents and Rey at their table.
"Hope you don't mind, Rey, but I ordered you fish and chips. Kind of a traditional pub food," Ben says.
"I suppose I'll try it," Rey says with a smile.
Their order soon arrives, with several servings of fish and chips and large mugs of beer for each. The Skywalkers and Rey dig in, enjoying the taste of their meals and their swigs of Irish beer.
As the quartet are enjoying themselves, Rey looks around the pub at the other guests. All of them are laughing, eating, drinking, and all around having a good time. As she is watching everyone else in the pub, she feels a true sense of content come over her. She's never seen such general enjoyment in her life. And in the midst of it, she feels a sense of longing, realizing the kind of life she has missed for so long, the kind of life that she longs for deep in her heart.
Then, as he takes the last swig of his mug of beer, Ben slams it down on the table and calls out loud, "Ah, I love Ireland!" Everyone at the table laughs in response.
Ben then looks at Rey and says, "Hey, Rey, why don't I show you one of the things I love most about pubs and the Irish in general?"
Rey looks at Ben in confusion. Ben grins, then raises his mug and begins to sing, loud enough to be heard over the chatter and bustle of the pub, "Well I took a stroll on the old long walk of a day-i-ay-i-ay!" People begin to look towards Ben as he continues to sing "I met a little girl and we stopped to talk on a fine soft day-i-ay!"
Then, two slightly older, bearded men at the next table raise their beers up and begin to sing along, "And I ask you friend, what's a fella to do? Cause her hair was black and her eyes were blue!"
Ben grins like a madman as he sees the other two men joining in. The three of them continue to sing along, "And I knew right then I'd be takin a whirl round the Salthill Prom with a Galway girl!"
Right then, a table of four other men in the corner cheer loudly, and one of them who is holding a banjo begins to play. This brings a round of cheers from everyone else in the pub before Ben and both tables of men begin singing the second verse of the song.
As Rey watches, she can't help but smile uncontrollably. When Ben had first explained what alcohol was to Rey after she came to Earth, one of the things he mentioned about people drinking together was that one common tradition among some people was drinking songs. When they came to Ireland, he had re-mentioned this, as he said drinking songs were very popular with the Irish.
Now, as she watches Ben leading several other men in what she presumes must be an Irish drinking song of some kind, Rey can help but feel a sense of joy. She had started to get a sense of what family meant from her time with the Skywalkers. Now, she is starting to understand the feeling of community.
Ben is soon as his feet, arm in arm with some of the other men as they loudly continue singing as other people in the pub clap and cheer. Finally, Ben and the others reach the end of the song, drawing out the last word before finishing with a loud yell. A fresh round of cheering and table pounding sweeps the pub, and one rather drunk Irishman steps up from his table behind Ben and dumps his mug of beer over Ben's head. Rey feels a bit shocked at first, thinking the man very rude at first. However, Ben and others just laugh and cheer, and Ben claps the man on the shoulder.
Rey laughs aloud. This…this is the good life.
And, Ill end there.
I hope you liked this calm, easygoing chapter. I wanted to show Rey and the Skywalkers just enjoying themselves, since most of this story will show them very busy.
You may remember that I mentioned earlier in this story that Eliza, Samuel Adam's wife, is Irish in descent, so I decided to have this chapter take place in Ireland. I made this story choice mostly because I have Irish heritage myself on my mother's side, and the more I've been learning about the Irish in recent years, I just love Ireland, it's people, and their culture, so I just wanted to showcase it here.
Some of you may raise eyebrows at the Irish dancing part. I included it in part because Im a huge Irish dance fan, and am actually going to see Riverdance on their US tour this year. But also, I know Irish dance is very challenging, and some athletes have learned how to Irish dance in order to give them advantages in their sports, to great success. I thought, for the unconventional Jedi that the Skywalkers are, and the different characteristics of Irish dancing, they might think learning it would help with the physical aspects of being a Jedi.
Also, for those wondering about the song Ben sang, it's my favorite Irish song. It's called Galway Girl. Not the one made famous by Ed Sheeran, but a different, older song called Galway Girl that's more like and Irish folk/pub song. I thought about using Rocky Road to Dublin, since this takes place in Dublin, but ended up going with Galway Girl. I highly recommend looking up both songs. They're so fun to listen to.
Alright, next chapter will take us back to the action, and it should be up soon. Until it is, please leave a review, and stay tuned!