Memories Ch. 2-2

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Anakin silently followed his uncle through the halls of the Jedi Academy, memorizing the layout as much as possible. Finally they stopped at one the many, featureless doors.

His uncle gestured towards it, and said, "This will be your class. They are one of the more advanced classes, but as you have had previous training I believe that you will do fine in this class.

Anakin frowned towards the door. "But I don't really remember that training."

"Maybe, but your body does. You might be surprised at how much will 'instinctively' come to you. Trust yourself and me in this."

Anakin considered the request for a moment and then he nodded his head, saying, "I'll try to make you proud, Uncle Luke."

"I know you will," Luke said with a confident smile. Luke then pushed open the door and stepped into the room. Anakin took a deep breath and then slowly exhaled. An instinctive dislike of large groups struck at his heart, cold fingers of tension and anxiety. Pushing past the emotional response, Anakin stepped into the room. About twenty students made up the class, Jaina and her friends Raynar Thul and Kiori Dinn among them.

Anakin slowly allowed his eyes to flicker between each of them; gauging and grouping them mentally as his uncle introduced him to the class.

Then Luke addressed Anakin, "And this is your primary instructor, Jedi Master Corran Horn."

Anakin turned and looked at the man. He appeared to be about the same age as Luke, but with dark brown hair, a goatee and vibrant green eyes as opposed to his Uncle's sandy blonde hair, boyish features and pale blue eyes. Remembering the proper greeting for the Jedi Academy, Anakin bowed towards the elder Jedi. "Hello, Master Horn."

As he straightened, he saw the happy expression on his Uncle's face and knew that he had done the right thing. Corran gestured towards the back corner where Jaina and her friends sat, and the only empty seat in the room was. "Go take your seat, please."

"Yes, sir," Anakin replied and headed back towards the corner. He glanced towards Jaina as she happily smiled at him, all but bouncing in her seat. He sat in the empty seat which was right in front of Raynar and directly across from Jaina. A wide bay window was to his left and he glanced out of the window. For a moment, he was certain that he had seen this view before. He knew that there was something inherently familiar about the view. Anakin tucked his worries over the view into the back of his mind and focused on the lecture.

Kiori Dinn, who sat immediately behind Jaina leaned forward and over and said, "That was an incredibly normal and boring introduction."

Anakin considered it for a moment, and then shrugged his shoulders. "How else would it be done?"

A harsh cough from the front of the room drew their attention. Corran was leaning against his podium, staring in their direction. "If the two of you are done, we can begin our lesson."

Anakin and Kiori replied at the same time, "Sorry, Master Horn."

Corran stared at them for a moment longer and then began the day's lecture.

Hours later, He felt someone poking at his shoulder, an attempt to get his attention away from the window's view. Blinking hard, he turned towards the room, and found Jaina standing over him.

"Class is over for the day, Anakin."

Startled he looked around the room, to find that everyone else had already left.

"Oh."

Jaina laughed at him. "You need to stop daydreaming during class, or at least hide it better."

Anakin frowned at her, as he gathered his belongings. "You don't have to be so mean about it."

"I'm your sister, of course I do. But now I have to get down to my practice. Do you think you could go into town and get something to fix for dinner?"

Anakin nodded his head. "Yeah, I think I can do that."

"Good, now come on, I'll take you down to the main entrance."

Anakin stood up, as Jaina started from the room. "I think I can find my own way."

Jaina glanced back over her shoulder at him, and said, "Nonsense. This place is confusing to me; I don't want you getting lost on your first day of training. Now, hurry up, I don't want to be late for practice."

Anakin sighed and followed after Jaina, knowing that arguing with her would be an exercise in futility. They rushed through the halls, Jaina speeding up as they did so. She was at a near run, by the time they reached the main staircase. Anakin was quick on her heels as they started taking the steps two at a time.

Later, Anakin would wonder which group actually ran into the other; all he knew at the time though was that three girls ended up in a pile on the landing. A gaggle of arms, and legs tangled around each other. At the time, he had to bite back a laugh.

He finished getting down to the landing at a more sedate pace than Jaina had set, and went about getting her separated from the two redheads that she had collided with.

Trying to stifle the laughter that he felt inside, Anakin painted a look of concern on his face, and glanced between the three girls. "Is everyone all right?"

"I'm fine," Jaina responded, a terseness in her voice that Anakin had never heard before.

The two red heads nod their head as well, one with short-cropped hair, the other with a number of braids, tied with beads and other trinkets. The one with the short-cropped hair, stepped forward, and ignoring Jaina, bowed in Anakin's direction. As she straightened, she gave him a large smile. "I'm Eyrl Besa and this is my friend, Tenel Ka."

Anakin returned the bow. "I'm Anakin Solo."

Anakin noticed that Tenel Ka seemed to be staring off into space, trying her best to look at neither of them. He frowned slightly, trying to figure out the girl. Her head slowly shifted towards Anakin. When she was fully facing him, she asked in a flat, neutral voice, "What?"

"Oh, uhm... nothing."

"Come on, Anakin, I'm running late," Jaina called out.

Anakin turned slightly and noticed that Jaina had already once more resumed going down the stairs. He smiled at the two girls in front of him, then slipped past them and darted down the stairs. Jaina gestured towards the front doors.

"There ya go. Don't forget to go and get something for dinner."

Anakin walked past her, waving at her over his shoulder as he did so. "Yeah, I'll get something."

He walked through the doors, and out into the courtyard of the Jedi Temple. He frowned at the manicured gardens, and small meditation paths which dotted the landscape around the Temple. Something about the innate structure, the cultivated format of the gardens, bothered him. Shaking off the odd feelings, he began to walk through one of the gardens.

A rustle sound from behind him stopped him, and he turned back to find a large white-furred animal standing in the middle of the path. Anakin frowned at the creature. It was about a meter long, with wide-spaced eyes that were so round that the eyelids stuck out several centimeters. Long, floppy ears dragged the ground, and as Anakin watched, the creature tilted its head, and lifted one of its ears.

He waved his hands in the air, in the thing's direction. "Shoo!"

The creature dropped back to its haunches, and it calmly watched Anakin.

Anakin frowned again. He stomped his foot hard against the ground. "Shoo!"

The creature spoke in a high-pitched whistling voice. "Ikrit!"

Anakin edged away from the creature, which just sat and watched him. As soon as he got a clear way around the creature, he darted forward and ran past the creature. As soon as he got out of the garden, he turned back around to look at the creature again, only to discover that it had disappeared. Anakin frowned as he wondered what the creature was. He shrugged his shoulders to himself and turned back around to resume walking.

A few minutes of travel time found Anakin in front of the grocery store. He paused, for some reason, not wanting to go in. Then he heard something.

He turned around in a circle, looking for whatever was making the noise.

The sound grew clearer, more distinct. "Get out of the way!"

Frowning, he glanced to see Tahiri running towards him, a small paper bag in her hands.
She screamed again, "Move!"

Anakin's mind whirled through the possibilities as he turned to face her. After a moments thinking he called out, "Jump towards your blaster hand."

As soon as he said that, he jumped to the right, fully expecting the girl to jump to her right.

But he was disappointed. Even as he was moving to the right, she jumped towards her left. He had but a moment, to brace for the impact before he was struck in the middle of the chest. The force of the impact threw Anakin backwards, and he fell hard onto his butt and skidded a few centimeters backwards.

He looked down at her, only to see a mass of blond curls, framing a fear-filled face and wide open green eyes. Tahiri rubbed at her nose with her hand.

"That hurt."

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