| Foundling, Part 2 By Darth Ishtar By the time they got Obi-Wan to stop screaming every time one of them touched him, the rest of the villagers had helpfully decided to abandon their posts and let the Jedi deal with the child. This meant, however, that he had no familiar faces to comfort him after the blood-drawing procedure. Truth be told, he drew more of their blood than they did his by the time they got him to respond to a Force-suggestion and stay still, and then Qui-Gon had the heartlessness to suggest that G'emela keep him distracted while Qui-Gon run the midichlorian test. She had no idea what to distract him with until she found a cluster of julaberries in the cooling unit. She extended one and he warily took it, tapping it with one tiny finger as if in order to make sure the mean Jedi lady wouldn't make it explode. Then, he popped it in his mouth and grinned around a mouthful of seeds, extending his hand for more. She used the Force to nudge another berry off the stem, then floated it into his waiting mouth. He nodded approvingly, then extended his hand again. "Oh, no, Chumi-Wan," she muttered, "post-traumatic stress disorder or not, you'll have to work for this." In a second, his mouth was empty and hanging expectantly open, but she had set the cluster on the floor between them, picking each one off the stem and leaving them in a careful row. He looked first as if he were about to scold her, then as if he were about to use tears as a bargaining tool. Perhaps it was then that he realized she wouldn't be swayed by either, so he simply glowered. And then, he held out a hand, beckoning slightly, and one of the berries rolled towards him. "Are you watching this?" she stage-whispered to Qui-Gon. "Of course," he replied in kind, eyes on the child. "Try something other than food." She retrieved the cylindrical commlink from her belt and placed it before the julaberries, then moved her fingers in a slight rocking motion, sending the commlink towards and away from Obi-Wan before stopping it to see if he would respond. His face screwed up in an expression of long-suffering and he repeated the movement, then flicked his hand. Immediately, the commlink rolled to the side and he lunged forward, claiming the julaberries as his reward for cooperating with such silly games. "Ah," Qui-Gon observed. "Well, I think you've discovered the secret to his training." "Which is?" she queried. "Leave a bit of comestible compensation at the end of the task and he'll achieve the impossible." ***** "His midichlorian levels are well above average," Qui-Gon reported to Master Yoda, "and his skills are appropriate for a boy his age." "Affected him, has the disaster at his home?" "He seems..." Qui-Gon grimaced at the memory of three minutes of uninterrupted screeching. "...Wary of strangers. He didn't resist the villagers because he had seen them before, but when we tried to approach him alone, he fairly panicked." "A common affliction this is," Yoda said dismissively, though Qui-Gon could hear a hint of amusement in the old troll's voice. "Adapt well, he will, if to believed, your report is." "Yes, Master," Qui-Gon said dutifully. "We will be departing this evening, in that case." He returned to find G'emela pinned beneath Obi-Wan's sleeping form, her hand waving vaguely as she summoned objects with the Force. Upon closer inspection, they turned out to be biscuits. Apparently, Obi-Wan was not the only young Jedi in need of comfort food. Reaching out, he snagged two from the pile and resumed his seat. "Our work here is finished." |
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