The Kenobi Saga Book One:The Clone Wars

31. Hurry Up and Wait

AN: I don't love this chapter title, suggestions for renaming are welcome

Padme was missing. She'd left a few weeks ago, telling Lore-Val she was going to meet a friend. No one had heard from her since then and now Anakin was going to find her.

Rex and Jesse didn't know what to do with themselves without their general. They were covering for him of course, neither wanted to be the one to say the general had run off in search of his lady friend. To avoid questioning they were spending a lot of time with Lore-Val and Solitaire.

Lore-Val was teaching them Mando'a to distract them all from worrying about Anakin and Padme. In return the troopers were teaching her to fight, dropping her daily five kilometer run down to three so they could spend more time on blocks, kicks and punches.

They'd pushed the two couches to the edges of the living room creating a space to practice simple sparing techniques. Rex and Solitaire were correcting Lore-Val's posture while she threw punches at Jesse's gloved hands. With each hit she quizzed him on Mando'a vocabulary.

"Family?"

"Aliit. Put your weight into it," Jesse told her, "I want to actually feel these hits."

She readjusted her feet and threw another punch. Jesse nodded his approval and let her go back to testing him.

"Droid?"

"Beskar'ad."

"Child?"

"Ad'ika?"

Lore-Val shook her head, "Ad'ika is little one. Child is ad."

Jesse frowned, "Okay. Then what's adiik?"

She threw another punch, "A child between three and thirteen."

"What about under three?" Rex asked from behind her.

"Babies are called ik'aad," she told him, turning around. She immediately got a hard tap on the back of her head. She spun back to Jesse, "What the heck?"

"Don't turn your back on an opponent."

Lore-Val stuck her tongue out at him, before muttering something under her breath.

Solitaire rolled his eyes, "Maybe it's time to take a break for lunch."

"No," Jesse disagreed, "I want to know what she said."

"I said you're a di'kut."

"Well I don't know what that means."

"That's the idea," she sing-songed.

"I am begging you to take a lunch break rather than going at it," Solitaire said, pulling Lore-Val away by her shoulders.

Lore-Val flashed a very Kenobi smile at Jesse before disappearing into the kitchen, saying something about heating leftovers

Jesse looked at his brothers with desperation in his eyes, "What's a di'kut?"

. . .

Padme and Anakin had arrived back early in the morning and Lore-Val had been trying so hard to be patient about going to visit Padme. First she'd waited for Padme to get some sleep after coming home so early. Then she'd waited an extra hour to make sure Anakin had left, trying to avoid that awkward conversation.

Now lunch had been eaten and Lore-Val was waiting anxiously in front of Padme's door.

Padme opened the door and Lore-Val let out a happy squeal, "You're back!"

The two girls hugged and Padme ushered Lore-Val and Solitaire inside. Lore-Val could tell Padme was tired, the woman looked drained. But she was uninjured, and she was home.

Padme sat on the couch, motioning for Lore-Val to follow. "Have you kept the boys in line?" Padme asked with a tired smile.

"Of course! Okay, where did you end up? Noone knew where you were."

Padme yawned, "Mokivj and Batuu."

"Batuu? That's practically Wild Space! Even further than Mandalore!" she turned to Solitaire, "What's the furthest out you've ever been?"

"Felucia."

"Congratulations Padme, you have been the closest to the Unknown Regions, that should earn you an award."

"Do you want to hear a secret?" Padme asked and Lore-Val nodded eagerly, "Anakin and I met an Alien from the Unknown Regions."

Lore-Val blinked, "Are you aloud to tell me that?"

"Probably not," she said, her lips twitching into a smile, "But you've spent fourteen years keeping secrets."

Lore-Val bounced on the couch cushions, jumping up to sit on her knees, "Tell me everything!"

Translate- di'kut= idiot (BTW all the Mando'a I use is from mandoa.org there's a whole dictionary of the language, it's really cool)

AN: This chapter gets a lot from the book Thrawn: Alliances by Timothy Zahn. If you haven't read Timothy Zahn's Star Wars books you're really missing out, seriously you should go read them :) That's my official recommendation.