Guest Poster - Young Erifia [Topic - When I was young; Part 2]

I sat at the hover bus terminal, it was cold, all I had were my black clothes from capture the flag, and they were not warm, and Coruscant’s lights provided no real warmth for me at night.

“You’re going to need some money,” said a familiar voice from behind, “I’ve got a stack of credits here for you.” I turned up to him. The familiar face of my master was buried in the hood.

“No thank you, I’ll make it on my own,” I told him.

“That’s not the question, I am sure you are more than capable of making it by yourself, but let me give you a few credits to get by with,” he said to me.

“I’ll make my own money,” I said with my arms crossed on my chest.

“I know you can do that too. You’re a very pretty young girl, and I’m sure someplace would hire you as a bar-maid until you are sixteen, and you can become a dancing girl.” He sat down next to me on the bench, “You don’t have any food.”

“I don’t need food,” I said.

“You’re right,” he said, “You don’t need food either. The Force can let you survive for weeks without food.”

“Yes sir,” I said to him.

“Do you want a map?”

“No, I don’t need a map.”

“Erifia, You’re an amazing student,” he said to me.

“That gets me beat up,” I said.

“Do you remember when I told you it was okay to defend yourself, so long ago?”

“Yessir,” I said, “But whenever I do, Quinlan Vos always takes me to Master Yoda for punishment and I wind up having to do KP duty.”

“Erifia, do you know why I allow this? Why I don’t beg and plead to Master Yoda to not punish you?”

I looked at him immediately, he knew?! I knew he knew she beat me up, but he knew I was unjustly punished and still he did nothing!

“Calm down,” he said, “It’s because every time it happens, you become stronger. I noticed that with all the lifting and working of your body, you become stronger, and you learn to fight by defending yourself.”

“No master, you are wrong,” I said, “I may get stronger, but you are allowing unjust actions to go on.”

“You know, when I told my master that, I was your age. And I was going through the same thing, this bully named Quinlon Vos kept beating on me when I was younger.”

“You’ve let it continue another generation?!”

“Erifia, calm down dear, you have every right to be mad. But don’t let the anger control you. Control it, if you want to hit me, hit me.”

I looked at him, and I stared into his eyes, and I saw Aayla, and I swung in, and when I connected with his flesh, his head went to the side, and I kicked him in the chest. He coughed and laughed.

“Now, how do you feel?” He asked me.

I closed my eyes. I felt better. I don’t know what happened. I felt better. I opened my eyes. I released a sigh.

“Ready to come back to the temple?”