Of Love and War Book 1: Dawn of a New Life

Chapter 10: Stress, Fear, and Comfort

All of them were on the landing pad not too long after the wreck of a Council Meeting. Zelina and Anakin stood next to each other by the little astromech droid called R2-D2. Anakin was tinkering with the droid, with its consent of course. It seemed the droid had a mind of its own, and was very opinionated.

Anakin had been venting out his frustration to Zelina for the past few minutes since they had been alone.

"Why am I not good enough for them?" he asked for the hundredth time, scowling down at R2's dome. "And what was Qui-Gon talking about when he called me the Chosen One?"

Zelina sighed. "I don't know Ani..."

Anakin sighed, turning to look at her. "I should have said it earlier and I'm sorry I didn't, but congradulations. I'm sure you're going to make a great Jedi."

Zelina shook her head. "I'm not going to be a Jedi if you're not going to."

"Zee, don't go passing this up because of me! I'll be fine if things doing work out for me. You should still be a Jedi no matter what, all right."

Zelina smirked. "I believe that's up to me, huh Ani?"

Anakin rolled his eyes. "You're impossible."

She giggled. "I learned from the best."

Anakin stuck his tongue out at her in response, and she did as well. They both started giggling, though hushed whenever Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan came their way.

"...they all sense it, why can't you?" they heard Obi-Wan say.

"His fate is uncertain; he's not dangerous. The Council will decide Anakin's future; that should be enough for you. Now get on board," Qui-Gon said, his tone sharper than normal. Zelina and Anakin glanced at each other, and Zelina was curious to know how the part of the conversation they had missed had gone.

Obi-Wan bowed his head, a look of dejection flickering across his face. Zelina felt a pang of sympathy for him and trotted after the Padawan while Anakin walked up to Qui-Gon.

"Qui-Gon sir, I don't want to be a problem..." she heard Anakin say as she walked away. Picking up her pace, Zelina came to stride alongside Obi-Wan.

"Are you alright?" she asked him timidly, following him up the ramp.

"I'll be fine young one, don't worry about me," Obi-Wan reassured her. "Shouldn't you be with Anakin?"

She shrugged. "I wanted to see how you were."

He smiled a little. "Well, I'm thankful for your concern."

He paused in front of a door, and Zelina continued to follow him, hopping up in a chair as he strode over to a counter and started rummaging through drawers.

"Our name's rhyme," Zelina said randomly.

"What?" Obi-Wan asked, confused. Obviously she had caught him off guard with the statement.

"Our name's rhyme. Du'ahn, Obi-Wan." She giggled. "I think it's funny."

He stared at her for a moment before a smile twitched across his face. "That is amusing."

She swung her legs back and forth, peering at him curiously for a few moments. She had a feeling... "What are you sad about?"

Once more, Obi-Wan glanced up at her in surprise. "What do you mean?"

Zelina frowned a little more. "You seem...sad...grateful...and confused...personally, I'm confused how your feeling both sad and grateful at the same time."