The Desolate Jedi | Luke Skywalker

Act I. vii.

Making a bed was a lot harder than Eleri anticipated.

For one, Eleri was not much of a carpenter, she could do what she was told, but the instructions Luke gave sounded like a whole other language - filled with words she did not know.

Master Yoda had been very distant, and as a result, she could not ask him for help. It would have been done very quickly if he had used the Force, but for whatever reason, he sulked off into the dense vegetation of the forest before Eleri could talk to him.

"What was that, R2?" Eleri whispered to the droid, who repeated his series of beeps for her. It took a couple seconds for her to decipher his speech. "Oh, is that what this is for?"

She lifted up the tool given to her, flipping it over before giving up and letting it drop to the dirt.

"I don't think I'm too good at this." She confided in her companion and R2 responded with an affirmation that was not too encouraging. Eleri frowned. "Well you don't have to say it like that..."

Another series of beeps and Eleri narrowed her eyes a bit - she quite liked the droid, but he was a bit too sarcastic for her taste.

"Why don't you help then? If you know everything!" She got fed up, but upon seeing Luke return with more material, Eleri quickly picked up the tool again.

She did not want Luke to get the impression that she had no idea what she was doing (although that was exactly what was going on) and threw a look to R2 that meant 'don't say so much as one beep.'

"How's it going, Ellie?" Luke asked with a smile, placing down what he was carrying and wiping his hands on the side of his pants.

However, after glancing at Eleri and noticing that she was holding the mallet wrong, he hummed.

"We still need to make you a mattress." He said. "Could you stuff the sheets?"

Eleri silently sighed, both in embarrassment because Luke knew she was doing it wrong, and out of relief because she no longer had to build the frame.

"Why don't you just use the Force to construct it?" Eleri asked, sitting down in front of the deflated sheet that would soon be her mattress. "It would be much quicker."

"You said no Force using with you." Luke explained. "You and I are equals."

She bit her tongue.

"I meant that when sparring." Eleri turned away from Luke so he wouldn't see her face. Did he think he was better than her? And by not using the Force then they were equals?

Of course, Eleri feared this. She thought that Luke was better than her, but hearing it come from his lips was like a stab in the back.

"Oh, sorry, Ellie." Luke responded. "I just thought it would be fun to do things together."

Eleri didn't say anything back, instead she stuffed the mattress as quickly as she could, and when she was finishing up the stitching, she accidentally pricked her finger while rushing. She didn't bother doing anything as she felt Luke walk towards her, no doubt seeing the drops of blood.

She stood up just before he reached her.

"I'm going to go get a drink." She said, before rushing into the house without looking at him. She heard R2 beep something that she didn't bother to try and translate.

Instead of getting a drink, Eleri went to wrap her finger. She shouldn't be so careless, letting her anger get to her like that and distracting her.

Eleri didn't feel like cooking dinner, even though it was getting darker and cooler outside. Her master was still not back and the sickening feeling in her stomach at Luke's words put her completely off food.