The Desolate Jedi | Luke Skywalker

Act I. iv.

"I still don't understand the importance of a clear mind." Luke mumbled from behind his hands. "Master Yoda is not very clear with instructions."

Eleri shook her head a bit, pushing their dinner back and forth across the pan as it sizzled slightly.

"The Force is a part of you, right?" She asked, and Luke, due to being behind her, called out an answer. "And emotions are a part of you, correct?"

"Yes, but how are they connected?" She could hear his foot tapping lightly.

Eleri lifted the pan and poured equal portions of the food into two separate bowls.

"Your body reacts when you have emotions; your fists clenched in anger, and you smile in happiness - it's not something you control." She explained, picking them up and walking towards Luke.

She placed one in front of him, and sat down across, finally able to straighten her back in the crammed house. When she was little, Eleri was worried she would grow a hunch back from how often she had to crouch inside.

"It's the same with the Force," Eleri continued, "if you're emotions runs free, then you won't be able to control it."

"Is that why you're always so stoic?" Luke asked, then shovelled a spoonful of food into his mouth.

Eleri nearly choked.

"Stoic? I'm not stoic." She protested with confusion.

"I don't think I've ever seen you smile." Luke shrugged and covered his mouth because he was chewing.

The girl stayed quiet for a moment, eating her dinner in silence. Luke didn't pressure her to say something, but Eleri did anyway.

"What's there to smile about?" She asked.

Her companion raised his eyebrows.

"Well what isn't there?" He countered. "We have the whole galaxy to explore and find something to smile about. And anyway, if you can't use the Force, why do you suppress your emotions?"

She bit her tongue a little too hard.

"You were telling me something about your friend, Han." Eleri hoped Luke didn't catch the pain in her voice.

And it looked like he didn't, because his eyes immediately lit up.

"Right! Han, Chewie and I were on the Death Star..."

Eleri blocked out the rest of the story as Luke listed off the things he and his friends had done. Just the simple mention of their names and she felt a stab in her heart about how much she was missing. She hadn't even thought about giving her imaginary friends names...

She truly didn't understand what it was like to be around people, and it was upsetting.

Listening to Luke talk about his uncle and aunt, his friends, the rebel army, it just teased Eleri in a way that she could never explain. If there were that many people in the galaxy, how many names were there?

And how many sounded bad? Or nice? Or we're too long? Or didn't match the face of the person assigned to it?

As she looked up at Luke's bright blue eyes, and sweat covered blond hair, his hands running through the air feverishly as he spoke - the one clutching the spoon dripping sauce onto the floor that Eleri knew she would have to clean later - she couldn't help but think that his name fit him perfectly. The kind smile he had, the tired look on his face at the end of a hard day of training, and the face of determination while they were sparring, all came together in harmony to create him.

"Luke..." Eleri mumbled, looking at her empty bowl.

And suddenly it was quiet. The story he was telling abruptly stopped as his eyebrows raised a bit.

"Yes?" He asked, hands coming to rest on the table as he waited for her to speak.

Eleri realized she said it out loud. She shook her head with a small smile that she couldn't help.

"It's a very nice name." She said, looking up at him.

Whether it was the compliment given, or the smile on her face, Luke broke out in a grin.

"Thanks, Ellie." He said, then finished off his dinner.

When he got up he reached for her bowl.

"I'll wash the dishes." He offered and she immediately shook her head.

"No, no." The smile dropped. "It's my chore, you don't have to-"

But her sentence was cutoff when, upon turning to catch Luke's arm, her back cracked rather loudly.

Eleri hissed a bit, immediately dropping her hand to clutch the tense muscle. Luke stopped, dishes still in his hands as he looked at her with concern.

"Ellie, you okay?"

She nodded.

"My back is just a bit stiff." She rolled her shoulders back, letting out a few more cracks that concerned the boy.

"Here," he said, placing the bowls on the counter quickly and rushing back to her, "let me help."

"It is fine." She assured in a lied. "I just need a good night sleep."

"You can't get a good night sleep on the floor." Luke's fingers touched the soreness along her shoulders and she froze. "I wish you would just take your bed back."

"No," Eleri tried not to hiss as Luke moved her muscles around. "Your training is more important than mine at the moment, you need a better rest."

"This is gonna hurt a bit." He warned, grabbing onto Eleri is a way that confused her. However, she didn't have time to think on his words as he twisted her, eliciting both a loud crack and a yelp from her.

Her first instinct was to hit him, but upon a second of rest, Eleri felt her back soothed. She twisted and rolled her shoulders freely with no tension.

"That did hurt." She said. Luke laughed a bit.

"Do you feel better though?" He asked, sitting back down in his seat. She guessed he wasn't going to do the dishes after all.

Eleri nodded.

"Thank you." She told him and he smiled.

"Besides, my training isn't going to mean much if one of my teachers has a broken back." He teased. "You need to sleep better."

"There's only two beds and I told you, you're taking mine."

Luke shook his head and sighed.

"You're just like her." He mumbled, under the impression Eleri couldn't hear him.

But she could, and when she was about to ask he spoke clearly.

"Can't we make another bed? I know it's a small house but it's no good if you sleep on the floor." He tried.

Eleri thought for a second.

"I guess we could..." she started, then looked up at Luke. "It won't be the best but it will be better than the ground."

"Right on!" Luke grinned and stood up.

Eleri's eyes followed him in confusion as he walked back to the discarded bowls and started to wash them. Her body froze - he actually was going to do the dishes.

A strange feeling washed over her as she watched him softly humming to himself while he cleaned, but, not understanding it, Eleri picked herself up and went to get a cloth to clean up the spilled dinner.