Tales of the Second Padawan

Ambition

Five months after Anatoli Amaris was given the rank Padawan....

Anatoli never considered himself as a peer amongst the younglings. After all, he was almost a year and a half older than most of those in his class. And his remarkable memory, made him hold grudges and note others short comings, a quality most did not entertain.

"How old is the boy?" He heard a a Jedi, Adi Gallia speaking to his mother.

His father, whom were one of the few things he couldn't remember was out at the tavern. Unlike other Mandalorian men, his father held no honor whatsoever.

"He will become a Jedi, correct?"

He knew what a Jedi was. The men his father would
bring around either had really nice things to say, or not so pleasant things. His mother on the other hand, when she saw the way he'd "lift" a plate off the table she started discussing it them more, secretly of course.

"How old is the boy? I'm afraid if he's over the age of 3, attachment has already set in and we cannot bring him into our order."

"He just turned three!" She lied through her teeth. He had just "celebrated" his 4th birthday five months ago. His mother fiddled with her fingers, the Jedi obviously did not believe her. "I...I have documentation. Come Anatoli." She grabbed his hand, calling him a name she hadn't used in two years.

She dug through her spare room, as the Jedi waited patiently. She pulled out a name and a date, that served as a birth certificate. She looked down at the death certificate besides it, "Anatoli Amaris" the dates between them were two years apart.

She bent down in-front of her child, who could speak, but brought himself to not. Ever since his little brother died, he refused to speak, though he learned to read and understand.

Once he sensed his little brother was dying, he was only 2 years old. He couldn't communicate with his parents, and watched his brother deteriorate for months until he died abruptly in the middle of the night.

"Listen to me Beskar." She held his small cheeks in her palms. "Your name means armor, you have to be strong." She smiled softly. "Honor your brothers name, and live the life I cannot give you." She pulled her sleeve down, scars ran down her arms but a brown birthmark sat in the middle. She rolled her son's sleeves up as-well, placing his forehead above hers, their identical birth marks touching. "Brave the galaxy as Anatoli, my first son."

He didn't know why he understood at that moment. A normal child would protest, complain, but he obeyed. Now, he thought it was the force subsiding the emotions he would have had in that moment, for its own plan.

"Here." She handed the documents over. "Will this do, Master Gallia?"

She looked over the documents carefully, everything seemed to match up. The boy looked a little tall for his age, she then looked at the mother, who was relatively tall herself. "I can take the boy back to the Temple tomorrow." The Jedi Master said.

Anatoli woke up from his unexpected nap in the archives. A human girl hovered over him. Two other humans stood behind her. He knew them, of course he did, it was Guinevere, who was studying healing. Cal Kestis, who was studying lightsaber combat alongside Caleb Dume.

"Hey Anatoli." She backed up once he started to awaken, displaying his usual unamused face. He was listening to an audio archive before he fell asleep and didn't feel like being around his peers, not like he ever did. "Did you wanna come hang out with us at the garden? Master Yoda's said to be giving an instruction there today, it's quiet rare since he's so busy nowadays."

He gave a straightforward answer. "No." Her cheerful smile dropped, "Thanks...for the invitation though." He forced a small smile on his face, to make her feel slightly better.

After the group left, he put the archive away. He didn't find what he was looking for. He wanted to ascend to knighthood without a Master. No Jedi had chosen him, and it's been almost five months.

All he wanted to become was a Jedi Knight. He owed it to himself, he owed it to the boy, his brother, whom he had taken the name of.

He knew no master would chose him. He had a history of being brash, nonchalant and slightly arrogant. The latter being what a few Masters called him.

If he ended up in the agricultural corps, he'd leave the order all together. He had the training, he could make it on his own.

Interrupting his thoughts of a back up upon back plans, was an urgent presence in the force. Anatoli was drawn to it, walking swiftly out of the archives he found a hovering pram.... not hovering whatsoever. It was tightly shut, but he knew someone was in there.

Using the force, he opened it. A small green person, that of Grand Master Yoda's species laid inside. He cooed and reached his hands out. "Your hovering pram...it seems not to be working." He said awkwardly.

The force guided his understanding of the infant. The hovering pram stopped working out of nowhere, and the youngling did not know what he should do.

"I recommend you get it fixed at the tech center." Anatoli said, "They could fix it there." The youngling tilted his head. "Oh, I can take you there." He had realized the tiny child definitely could not carry something three times his size.

He picked up the hovering pod with the child inside. As they walked down the halls the child babbled, looking at him. "My name is Anatoli." He answered.

The child babbled once more, asking why Anatoli had no companionship. "Having friends isn't apart of a Jedi's job." He said, the child asked him one more question. "I guess I never really thought about it." He lied, he always thought about what it was like to have friends, but he felt like they were distractions, something that would take him off course. And besides, he had a lot to be worried about currently, he needed a Master, not that he wanted one (he did), he just needed one for his goals.

The child went on and on, babbling so quickly Anatoli hardly could register what he was trying to say. It was like an exercise using the force to understand. "Of course you don't have friends, you're a baby." He replied back, saying he was almost twice Anatoli's age. "That doesn't matter, if you're really going to babble so much, you might as well try to say a few words."

The young child asked him one final question as they made it to the tech center. Anatoli hesitated to answer. "I will be your friend, Grogu."

"Found young Grogu, you have." Master Yoda hobbled over towards them.

"Yes Master. I felt him through the force, he needed assistance." Grogu looked up at Anatoli and down at Master Yoda.

"Fix his craft, I will. News, I have for you. Needed on Kiros, you are."

"Me? Kiros? Why?"

"Find Liyah Aviss, you must. Supervise your Jedi training, she will."

"I...I have a Master?" He said in disbelief, trying to cover his immense excitement.

"Get to the docks, you should." Master Yoda lifted the hover pram with the force and walked it inside, laughing to himself.