The Wolf Pack

Chapter 3

Life at the Jedi Temple was rather slow paced. Mornings started with theoretical lessons. History, diplomacy, science, and medicine. Noon brought a resting period that was only cut short by the afternoon physical lessons. Acrobatics, endurance, and overall muscle building made up just a few of the disciplines. As children with developing bodies, there there was a limit to how far they could push us without exhausting us, so during the first few years, training would take up eight hours of the day as a maximum. That left me with a lot of time to explore the knowledge the library had to offer. Master Jocasta learned to expect my presence after lunch, and sometimes even late at night. There was an endless amount of knowledge stored in those holocrons, and it seemed like a shame not to make the most of them.

In time, I made friends with one other youngling, Ahsoka Tano. We had met during my first day in the temple and she seemed to remember me. One of the masters had taken her to the council because she had refused to study during class, and as a result had ended in the council chamber. She was three years younger than me, but neither of us minded the age gap. The other children seemed not to like us much. It's not like a troublemaker and a kid that grew up with raiders seemed like a good choice. So naturally, we ended up drifting together, as if by the grace of the Force. I helped Ahsoka with her studies and she kept me company whenever I needed it. It was almost instantaneous, she became my best friend in what seemed like days. We told each other everything, we guarded each other's backs, by the end of the first year, we had managed to become roommates.

We were much alike, Ahsoka and I. We both wore our hearts on our sleeves, but where she acted on it, I didn't. She used to tell me how I would explode one day if I kept bottling things up. She said she didn't want to be in my way if I ever got angry. But that was only partially true, I was reserved with my emotions, but I did show them to those I trusted, and Ahsoka was on top of that list. Age didn't matter, she was my equal, she was my best friend.

And then came the day when someone tried to mess with her. Bullies are everywhere, in the streets of the lowest levels of Coruscant and in the halls of the Jedi Temple. Brendon Kail was one of them. The eldest generation of younglings, the ones who would become padawans next. Ahsoka was five, I was eight, and this thirteen year old boy tried to mess with her. Ahsoka had taken the cafeteria's seat by the windows overlooking the gardens. She was waiting for me so we could have lunch together before going to the gardens and read under the sun. Brendon decided he wanted her seat. I arrived to a smirking kid and a furious Ahsoka. She was yelling and he was laughing. "Midgets should respect their elders" he said and then slapped her across the face.

"Back off before I break your hand." I said as calmly as I could.

Brandon and his lapdogs turned towards me.

"Ooh, another midget with a god complex! Get out of my way if you don't want to end up like your friend."

Ahsoka was now looking right at me, hand on her left cheek and eyes burning.

"You call yourself a Jedi and then slap younglings over a seat. I might be a midget, but I am closer to being a Jedi than scum like you."

The boy's face contorted in anger, his fist tightened by his sides and his eyes shot daggers.

"Back off, desert rat, or you'll regret it." He warned.

"I don't think I will. You better leave me and my friend alone or I will take this to the council and have them look at the security holograms. You'll be out of the Order faster than I can break your face. So I suggest you get going, midget."

He seemed to consider my threat for a second, but it was gone the next, like he didn't think I'd have the guts to snitch on him. And then, he gave me the excuse I needed, he took a fighting stance. Now, I knew I had little chance of winning against someone four years my senior, but there was no way I wouldn't stand up for myself and Ahsoka, so I moved my feet into a Form V stance and waited for him to throw the first punch. And he did. I went on the defensive, he would not coax me into engaging him head on, I knew a losing fight when I saw one. Instead, I prolonged the fight, dodged here and there and blocked and blocked and blocked. He started getting frustrated, yelling at me to fight back, calling me a coward. Still I dodged, and blocked. And finally, he slipped. One of his feet went out too far from his original stance, and seeing the opening for what it was, I took it. I crouched and sweeped my left leg underneath him and right onto his heel. And down he went. Brandon fell on his back and the impact forced the air from his lungs. I stood straight as I watched the boy wheeze and gasp for air. I wiped the sweat from my forehead before asking Ahsoka if she was okay.

"I'm fine, Sunshine here has a Hut's fist." She answered. "Why didn't you hit him though?"

"I wouldn't have won."

...

Of course we didn't get away with the commotion we had created. Younglings talked a lot when something exciting happened in the temple. There wasn't always much cause for gossip, so whenever the opportunity arose, they took to it like fish in water. It wasn't long before Ahsoka and I had been summoned to the Council's chamber. Of course, Brandon was there too, and I hadn't felt so nervous since the time I'd accidentally killed a sacred snake on Tatooine.

The masters asked the three of us for our version of the story, they listened and waited patiently until each of us was done. By the time Ahsoka was done talking Brandon already refused to lift his gaze from the floor. At last, Master Windu asked for the security recording.

"Clear the final verdict is." Said Master Yoda with what sounded like sadness in his voice.

"It is, Master Yoda," agreed Master Plo.

"Brendon Kail," said Master Windu as he sat straighter. "You are hereby expelled from the Jedi Order for abuse of power and predatory behaviors. A shuttle will take you to your family in the morning."

Brandon tried to fight it, to justify his actions, to beg, to cry for his place in the order. He got no mercy from the council that day. He was escorted out of the chamber by a temple guard.

"As for you two," Continued Master Windu. "You should pick your battles better, young Tano. Kriari won't always be there to help you."

"Yes, Master."

"And you, young Foreas," said Master Plo. "Don't let things escalate again, if it ever happens, have a Master handle things."

"Yes, Master Plo."

But it never came to that. The rumor about how Kriari Foreas beat up someone four years her senior spread like wildfire. No one ever bothered Ahsoka and I again.

...

We had been using training sabers since I'd arrived at the temple. But when I turned nine, they got us started on one on one duels. If struck by one, Training sabers stung the rest of the day, so it quickly became clear that the fastest way to not getting stung was relentless training. Ahsoka and I would get up early in the morning and duel each other. She was a faster learner than I was, and she quickly made it to the top of her class. It took me a while longer to master my chosen combat form, but eventually, I became good enough. The theory classes went rather well, some were more entertaining than others. Life at the temple was good, sheltered, and had I not lived with the Tusken the first six years of my life, my perception of life would have been limited to life on the temple. It was easy to be a pacifist in a place of knowledge, wisdom and worship, but I knew the real trials and lessons would come when I became a Padawan.

Padawan, the doorway to becoming a Jedi Knight, the true first step into the world of a peacekeeper. A glimpse, a taste, a touch of what being a Jedi is really like. An apprentice to a Master. A Master, they who we look up to but who don't have all the answers. They who guide us through a path they have walked before but of which they never got to the end. They who would become the closest thing to family us Padawans would ever have. A Jedi Knight, the keeper of peace, the bridge between worlds, the servant of the Force. The defender of the light. And the charging warrior against the Dark Side.

One day, that would be me.