Journal of a Jedi Knight

[Eqin Ilis]

My name is Eqin Ilis. I'm 11 years old, and I'm writing this journal because Yhto-Rod wants me to. (Yhto-Rod Sworrab is my tutor.) So I'm writing about what I do everyday, even though it's really boring.

Every morning, Mother drops me off at Yhto-Rod's house. Then I go feed all the animals, and do all my exercises. After that, I get out my lightsaber and do drills. Sometimes Yhto-Rod comes outside and watches me, but most of the time I do all that alone. After he comes outside, we get to spar. It's really fun! He likes to use the things in the yard, so I have to watch out for more than just his blade. After we finish sparring, I go inside and study. I don't like studying, but Yhto-Rod says that I'll need it if I ever want to be a pilot.

Yhto Rod said I had to write at least one more sentance before I could go, and it has to be thirty four words long, so here it is, I get to go now!

[Eqin Ilis]

Today was great! Yhto-Rod came real early. (Right after I finished stretching!) He said to stop before I even did my pull ups, because we're going to Coruscant! At first I thought he was joking, but he took me home in his speeder and told me to pack my stuff. I asked him if he told my mother about this. He said yes, she doesn't mind. So I packed all my clothes and other stuff.

On the way to his ship (He's a pilot.), I asked him if I could fly. I think he was going to say no, but I reminded him that I've been doing really good on the sims, so he let me. We left right before noon, and I've been piloting ever since. Until now anyways. He wanted me to write this and then go to sleep for a few hours. I wonder what we're gonna do on Coruscant. Yhto-Rod acts like it's something really important.

[Eqin Ilis]

Today I got to land the ship, but that was the only good thing that happened.

After we landed, the first thing we did was go to a Jedi Temple. Yhto-Rod told me that everyone here is force-sensitive. At first I thought that was really great, but then I remembered how much I still have to learn. Yhto-Rod is lightyears ahead of me, so everyone else probably is too. I hope everyone won't think I'm stupid.

Yhto-Rod took me into this big room, with alot of old sentients sitting in a circle. He stood in the middle of the room, and I stood behind him. He told me before we went in there not to talk unless someone asked me a question. That was ok with me. I didn't want to talk with everyone staring at us like that.

The Council Members (that's what all those old sentients are called) wanted Yhto-Rod to go to some planet I've never even heard about. They said that he was the only one they could trust. He said ok, it would be a good learning experiance for me. They said no, because I wasn't trained. He said he'd been training me for almost 5 years, and I was prety good with a lightsaber. They said lightsabers aren't everything, and I couldn't go. He said he wouldn't go without me. They said he had to. They needed him, and they weren't letting me go with him. So I'm supposed to stay here with a bunch of Jedi (force-sensitives) when he leaves tomorrow. Not happening.

[Eqin Ilis]

Today was the worst day of my life.

I stayed up all night trying to figure out how to go with Yhto-Rod. By the time I had it all figured out, it was morning. So I got my stuff and found my way back to the ship. After I put everything away, I crawled under my bags so Yhto-Rod wouldn't see me. Then I concentrated on keeping my presence hidden. Yhto-Rod taught me how to do that last year, so I'm pretty good at it now. It didn't work this time though. When he found me, he had to drag me out. Then, he told me that I couldn't go with him as a stowaway, so I said, ok, I'll go with you as a passenger. He laughed, but said no. He made me go stand next to 4 grown-up Jedi, so I couldn't do anything. Then he left.

After that, the 4 Jedi took me back inside. Only one of them stayed with me after that. Her name was Master Alpeq. She told me I would be taking classes with the other padawans tomorrow. So I had to cut my hair and get new clothes. While I was getting my hair cut, she told me how the Jedi are supposed to act, and what the classes are like. I told her I was worried that I'd be behind the others. But she said not to worry, I'd catch up soon. I don't think so though, I only started when I was 7, and everyone else started before that.

I hope no one will think I'm stupid just because I'm behind.

[Eqin Ilis]

Today was almost as bad as yesterday. I'm still tired from the other night, and I hate my haircut and my clothes. The tabbards keep falling off my shoulders, and I keep tripping because these boots are too big. Next week I'm getting clothes that are my size, but I don't know how I'm supposed to practice saber techniques until then.

Speaking of lightsabers, when I went to class, we didn't even touch a lightsaber. Master Nuspo gave us a lecture about how to do force-assisted leaps instead. Then he showed us 6 times before he let us do anything. That was really boring, because I learned that when I was 9. But I was happy that I was good in that class, because I'd probably be awful in the next one.

I was wrong. The next class was even easier. Another kid even asked for help because he couldn't levitate a little rock. But he'd just come from another temple, so everyone knew why he was behind. I thought maybe I would sound like that in the next class. Wrong again. Every class today was easy. Maybe I was just lucky though; tomorrow will probably be hard.

[Eqin Ilis]

Boring. I didn't learn anything new.

I miss Yhto-Rod.

[Eqin Ilis]

Still bored.

[Eqin Ilis]

Today someone asked me why I'm so sad all the time. I told her my best friend went to a strange world and I had to stay here. She asked if I meant Yhto-Rod. I said yes. She said she thinks I'm wierd because he's too old to be my best friend. I think she's wierd because she can't fight very well, but I didn't say it.

[Eqin Ilis]

I got my new clothes today. I'm alot more comfortable now, but I still prefer my old clothes. They're easier to put on when I'm half-asleep.

I also explored the temple. There's alot of good hiding places and places to play pranks on the others. I think I'm going to start setting up buckets over doors tomarrow.

Still didn't learn anything new.

[Eqin Ilis]

I got in trouble today. A bucket of spaghetti emptied on a Master. How was I supposed to know the Masters here are unobservant?

I learned something new! The Master who got "sauced" is willing to spar with me in his free time. And he taught me a new parry!

[Eqin Ilis]

I turned 12 today!

I've started learning lots of stuff, but most of it is outside of class. Some of the droids are teaching me how to repair ships. There's some things I can't do with normal tools, but I found out I can use the force to fix things that are that small. Maybe I can learn to program droids that way too...

I'm also learning alot in my sparring sessions with Master Kypriotis. I'm used to Forms 4 and 5, and he uses 3, so I'm most of what I'm learning is parries.

[Eqin Ilis]

Today I asked Master Zableckis why everyone here learns so slowly. She said it's because it's hard to teach large groups of kids. Most of the classes have 20-30 students, and only one teacher. She thinks padawans at smaller temples can learn at a faster rate because the teacher has more time to help each person. That's part of the reason for the Master-Padawan system. I guess that's why I'm ahead of them. Yhto-Rod was my Master in a way.

[Eqin Ilis]

Today I started training with the older padawans. It was alot of fun! All my old teachers told me they were happy for me, but I think they were just happy to get rid of me. They thought I was a show-off. Hehe...

[Eqin Ilis]

I found out what the downside is today... Most of the older padawans either admire me, or they're jealous. Aaarrrrrrggg!! Why can't I just be normal?!

[Eqin Ilis]

I found out what I'm bad at today... healing. I can't even heal a bruise! This is really good. Some of the other students use to come up to me and ask me for help all the time, and it was annoying. But now that I'm bad at something, most of them leave me alone. The only bad part about this is that some people started teasing me. I don't care, 'cause I know I'm better than them in combat.