‘I was still sleeping in my bed when the air pressure loy door uedly opened, jolti of my sweet dreams. My eyes shot open, and I jumped out of bed with my lightsaber in hand, already ignited.’

  ‘The silver light shining through the gloomy dark room.’

  ‘I was fused, still half asleep, but ready to ter any ining blow. My master often pranked me as such, attag me in the middle of a night to train my awareness.’

  ‘Sometimes he sent lightsaber training droo do his bidding, other times he came personally.’

  ‘The painful spikes of low energy ser beams hitting against my skin were still a regur returning visitor among the htmares I meticulously accumuted in my years of training.’

  ‘I was waiting and waiting for any sigh of ining danger, but no attack seemed to appear.’

  ‘My mind slowly began to clear as my adrenalin-powered tunnel vision weakened.’

  ‘Now, with a much more self-aware mind, I could look around to find another reason for the door’s ued opening.’

  ‘I reached out with the force to search the area. Which was still too dark for me to see properly.’

  ‘Almost immediately, I felt a frightened presen the er of my room. It was somewhat familiar. Where had I se before? I wondered while slowly walking towards the spot where the presence was hiding.’

  ‘As I reached close enough for my saber to lighten up the dark er. I saw a small human form, with bck hair, wait is that Rika?’

  ‘I quickly gave voiy suspi.’

  “Is that you, Rika?”

  “Yes...” — ‘Souhe shaky answer.’

  ‘I did not sense any lie in her voice, and the force presence was familiar, even if I hadn’t memorized it perfectly.’

  ‘I decided to turn off my bde and stop sg the pirl even more.’

  ‘I walked to her side; she was very small even pared to me, and she was trembling like a single leaf in the middle of a storm.’

  ‘I swallowed down a frustrated sigh. Good job girl… you mao traumatize an already traumatized child even further.’

  ‘I picked her up, as she buried her wet fato my neck, hugging me and saying that she was sorry to walk into my room in the middle of the night...’

  ‘She also mumbled something about her master and that he would be disappointed, if he knew... I was not sure about that, but my hands were already full with trying to calm the terrified child. Patting her head and baake her feel some fort.’

  “Rika, did I scare you that much? I am sorry, I was traio be on guard even in my sleep, but I am not angry with you. Do you uand? You e over if you o, but please kno the door ime instead of just walking in, okay?”

  “Yes, I am sorry...” — ‘She mumbled.’

  “There is nothing to be sorry about, you see?” — ‘I sat down on my bed, pg Rika in my p. She was still hugging me like I was her lifeline.’

  “Look at me, Rika.” — ‘She hesitatingly raised her faeet mine.’ — “I was also scared of you. That was why I jumped out of my bed that fast! Did you see how big of a jump I did, even half asleep? I only jumped that high, because I was that scared of you, the fearless Rika bane of sleeping padawans.”

  ‘She giggled a little. What a relief! I patted her head once more.’

  “Now, that’s what I like to hear. I bet your master would also prefer to hear your bell-like ughter.”

  ‘She tried to object to tell me something that I already knew. I stopped her.’

  “No need for that, Rika. Your master loved you. He didn’t want to leave you behind.”

  “He fought for what he thought would make this world safer for you. He wao stop the war, hoping that you would have o fight in it. That was his only wish.”

  “He died hoping that you would not face the same challenges as he had to.“

  ‘Rika began to cry and tremble again, after I told her what I sensed from siphoning the dark miasma around her room, while I was there yesterday.’

  ‘Her story was not uhere were many other padawans, just like her, scattered around the temple.’

  ‘The self sacrifig nature of the jedi was well known to me by now. There were fanatical extents to it, but in this case it was most likely upidity.’

  ‘There is no heroism in jumping before a bde, when the bde wouldn’t hit anyone if you just stayed still. Sometimes the jedi would want to be remembered as heroes taking unnecessary risks showing off their level of self-sacrifice. Think you fools. Hoadawans did you leave behind without guidance?’

  “I... I never asked him... to die for my sake!“

  ‘Her voice came back alright. She shouted that st part in my ear protrusion... I agreed with her, the selfish selflessness of a parent, or a parent figure, I guess.’

  ‘We often try to shelter our loved ones, evehere is no need for it. Sometimes, a parent o learn how to accept help from their children, not just to give it away. Allowing your family to feel useful is a wise trait.‘

  “You are right about that.” — ‘I sighed.’ — “You see, you never had to ask him. He decided to do it on his own. Was it the right thing to do? I don’t know, but we should at least respect his decision.”

  ‘She sniffed, and I saw her head nod weakly as the first sunlight shihrough the window.’

  ‘I hugged her close as I id back down, with her already half-asleep form ging to my side. I pulled the b over both of us.’

  ‘I dropped my lightsaber handle uhe bed o my puter device. Damn, it’s not even five AM; I guess I will have to sleep too. She will wake if I try to leave, anyway. I looked at the now much more rexed form of the little human girl.’

  ‘She was holding onto my right lekku with her left hand while she was ging to my torso with the other. Is this some kind of death grip teique?’

  ‘I smirked. It surely made me stop moving. That said, it was quite unfortable and ticklish to have someone grab my lekku in such a manner. Oh, boy, what am I thinking again... This is all because of those stupid wrestling videos I watched yesterday. What were their names again?’

  ‘Ah, the race was besalisk, that much I remember. They had four arms, no kidding. One of them was called Dreadnought, yeah, while the other? Dead Fet or Fat Death, eh... yawn... he was kind of skinny, so Dead Fat most likely... Anakin is so lucky, he wouldn’t have to think about what his wrestling name should be... I would love to see his e though...‘

  ‘A few hours ter, I was rudely awakeo the sound of heavy knog on my door. I was still half asleep, but somehow mao crawl out of my bed and open the door. Ahsoka was standing outside, looking quite frustrated when she saw us. She was both relieved and even more frustrated for whatever reason.’

  “Yawn... eh, Miss Tano? What a ce… I was just having this dream about you fag Fat Death in the arena…” — ‘She bliurning her focus from Rika to me for the first time.’

  “What are you talking about?”

  ‘I blihis time… did I say that out loud? I coughed lightly and asked in a more serious tone.’ — “How could I help you?”

  ‘She narrowed her eyes, giving me a look that promised a through interrogation. I could only smile at her ily.’

  ‘Her gaze then slowly wandered down my body, looking me all over with growing frustration.’

  ‘She eventually blown up in my face.’

  “Don’t miss Tano me here, you... you shameless nudist!”

  “What?”

  ‘I looked down at my body. I was in my undies, so what of it? Oh, man, she scared me a bit there for a sed. I really thought that I was naked.’

  “What? I am in my undies, you dummy. That is not what you should call a nudist. I didn’t get a pajama in the first pce, and I am not allowed to leave the temple to buy one.”

  “I will get you oer! Now go inside a dressed...” — ‘She shoved me ihe room.’

  “Okay, okay, rex, I am going to get dressed!”

  ‘I pulled up my pants while she was stantly throwing knives into my back with her angry gres. What a prima-donna jeez.’

  “By the way, what did you want to ask? I mean, your purpose to e here wasn’t solely to call me names, yes?”

  ‘She looked at me, then turo the sleeping form of Rika on my bed.’

  “She was the reason. We were searg for her with a few other padawans. Since Vokara asked us to. She came to che her in the m and her room was empty.”

  “She didn’t leave behind any message, so we thought that maybe something bad had happened. After searg for a while, I remembered that you said you met with Rika and ate together in the tina.”

  “I rushed here to check if she came over or something. Thankfully, I was right, but that is no excuse for your shameless behaviour. Finish dressing up already!”

  “Shhh... stop shouting. She is still asleep.”

  ‘What’s wrong with these kids, or is this a jedi thing? Probably.’

  ‘While I finished dressing up, Ahsoka called Vokara on her wrist unicator.’

  ‘Seeing how slick that wrist was, I decided to get ooo.’

  ‘Ahsoka told Master Vokara that she had found the missing padawan. While I discretely listened into their versation, I also learhat Rika’s sleep is usually troubled by bad dreams.’

  ‘She is in need of someoo rely on while she heals mentally. This was quite obvious to me based on her as.’

  ‘She will never get over the loss of her master entirely, but it will be bearable, much easier with time.’

  ‘It seems that I was the only one she opened up to retly. No surprise there, I could handle childreer than any jedi with all my memories of parenting.’

  ‘Some of my masters actually had their own families. It was not a taboo, but it was still plicated, as all family is. So most of the masters never bothered with it.’

  ‘Anyway, what matters is that I had the knowledge to raise children. That was something that ot be said for the jedi. They generally treated children like small adults, with rare exceptions like Yoda.’

  ‘They never really knew how to deal with children; they were used to handling them in the way they were handled when they were young.’

  ‘I couldn’t bme them for this; it was how life worked. If people didn’t go out of their way to learn and ge their behaviour, they will subsciously follow the pattern which they received from their own parents.’

  ‘I will help Rika gdly. Not like I have anythier to do, except maybe buy a pajama, and a few more clothes.’

  “Hey, do you have a sewing droid or something like that here?” — ‘I asked.’

  “Yeah, we will go and order you more clothes after Rika wakes up. You did say something that your clothes were stolen by that droid you found in a ruin, yeah?”

  “Along with my ship and my credits too, but I will catd rewire it, so not that big of a problem, really.”

  “You sure have fiden finding a small ship in a rge gaxy.” — ‘Ahsoka teased me.’

  “Humph, I have a feeling that the droid will e to me, and I will not have to lift a finger.”

  “How you be so sure?”

  “Because he will get bored on its own.”

  ‘Ahsoka looked at me with a funny expression.‘

  ‘“Are we still talking about a droid? You sound like it has a personality”

  “Yeah, you will uand if you are unlucky enough to meet with him.”

  “Hmm... but how did you end up in a ruin in the first pce?”

  ‘Ugh... that is... what should I tell her? That I lived there, in a ruin on Hoth... I may as well tell her that I was living with the as. I will just drop a few partial truths, I guess.’

  “It was one of my trials.”

  “Trials, what kind of trials? Did you succeed? Was it hard?”

  ‘I had to face my master while he tried to lure me to the dark side; theurned me into a holo taining all the sixteen different masters memories that came before me...’

  “It is a secret of my order. Yes, I succeeded, and it retty damn hard.”

  “Ehh, always with the secrets, but gratutions on your success, I guess.”

  “Thank you... and that’s life.”

  ‘A thin, dreamy voiterrupted our discussion.’ — “Is Master Vokara angry with me?”

  ‘We turo the waking Rika.’

  “Nah, she doesn’t seem to, at least for me.” — ‘I answered.’

  “No, not that much, but she will give you a rant for not leaving a note behind.” — ‘Warned Ahsoka from the side.’

  “Well, I guess I will go and apologize right away...” — ‘She said, rubbing her eyes while climbing out of the bed.’

  “Hop to it, then. If you want to e ain, just kno the door.” — ‘I turo Ahsoka and said.’ — “Now we should go to eat something.”

  “It is already too te for that. You should probably wait for lunch.” — ‘Ahsoka answered, leaning it into the backseat fortably.’

  “What time is it?”

  “Ehm, 10:37 AM you guys overslept.”

  “What? So when I eat?”

  “At noon, of course. There is a tight schedule to everything iemple. You will get used to it quickly.”

  “Well, then I am going to wait for the food, but until then, would you like to py chess?”

  “Chess? With carved figures of wood?”

  ‘My eyes glinted.’

  “I didn’t take you for the traditional type. We are going to py holo chess, the rules are the same, but it looks wild.”

  ‘I could see that she was hooked.’

  ‘I bent over and fished out my holo unicator puter from under my bed. Tha down in the middle of the table, pushed a few buttons, and a chess table suddenly appeared in the form of a hologram h in the air.’

  ‘Ahsoka retty surprised by this. She walked to the other side of the table and sat down. Soon the figures also appeared.’

  ‘I had many skins for this game. And I knew my codes from memory so I could log in with my at easily.’

  ‘The currently activated skin was a one created by assigning already existing characters to specific figures.’

  ‘I created the battle of light and darkness. The bck figures were represented by real historical characters from the Sith Empire. While the light side was the old republic jedi.’

  ‘Not all the units where jedi or sith lords, mind you, but the King and the Queen were definitely.’

  ‘On the dark side, the queen was Darth Traya, while the king was Darth Mak. On the light side was the brainwashed Revan as the king and Basti Shan as the queen. The other units were random infantry troops from that time.’

  ‘I smiled widely.’

  “Are you ready for a few rounds of battle chess? I am with the dark side just saying.”

  “Wow, this looks cool. Is that a jedi? And those are sith? Strange, I don’t seem ther of them…”

  “Right on point, you are. I will tell you about them while we py. You better get ready for a quick spanking girl”

  ‘That line proved enough to rile her up.’

  “Oh yeah? Let’s see about that…“

  ‘Rika watched our antics for a while. When she grow tired of it, she stood up patted down her clothes in a futile effort thtehen silently walked out of the room, going to the infirmary to apologize to Vokara, for needlessly w her.‘