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Leia’s patience was wearing thin. Her clothes were damp, she had just escaped a battle that left her thankful that she was alive, and now she was stuck with some strange little green man who was simmering spices and plants instead of taking her to see a Jedi Master like he said he would. Her shoulders ached from being hunched over, and the skin under the tips of her fingernails was sore from how hard she’d been biting them.
With a strong stomach, she poured herself some soup, ignoring the slither and rattle of snakes that slid over tables and closer to her legs than she would have liked. “How far away is Yoda? Will it take us long to get there?” She rolled her eyes at a grumble about patience, wondering if searching for him was actually a good idea seeing how much she was sacrificing.
“Why wish you become Jedi?”
The question left Leia’s stomach turning. “Mostly because of my father, I guess.” The mere thought of her father left her hollow, sadness a soft blow to her current state. Having seen the man who killed him in person had left her unable to sleep for a while but now she had learned to set it aside. She wasn’t pleased with the reminder of it.
There was barely any time between her words and the man’s reply, and now she was more on edge. “Father? Powerful Jedi was he!” How could an isolated creature, on a planet thick with swamps and dark trees, ever know her father? Could there have been more legends about Anakin Skywalker than she knew of?
“Come on,” Leia huffed, “How could you know my father? You don’t even know who I am!” She turned away, looking out to where Artoo was peeking through the window. She went off about how much of a waste of time this was, the man’s hunched over back still facing her. Couldn’t someone listen to her for once? “I’ve come all the way out to the middle of nowhere, to some system I’ve never heard of, just to have some stranger stall me and go on about things that don't matter! Come on, show me some respect and let me get going.” Frustration whirred around in her mind and chest.
“I cannot teach her. The girl has no patience,” He turned to face her, “Much anger in her, like her father.”
At first, Leia ignored what he said, automatically thinking it was directed at her, but then the voice of Ben Kenobi spoke and everything crashed back down onto her. She couldn’t quite decide on whether or not she should be offended when her anger was commented on, or the entire insult on her character, but then the realisation hit her.
“Yoda?” She’d expected more than a tiny green man to be the powerful Jedi Master she was seeking, but that had started to become less of an issue than the situation that was actually at hand. “I am ready!” She was, and she knew she was. She hadn’t been at the front of the rebellion for nothing, and surely she could handle anything the force gave her. Thoughts all red fog, she spouted pleas.
“What knows ready?” Yoda grabbed his cane and stepped closer to Leia, getting a good look at her sleep-deprived eyes and the healing gash on her cheek. “For eight hundred years have I trained Jedi! My own counsel will I keep on who is to be trained.”
Suddenly, Leia had focus. Something washed through her, clearness and subdued frustration making it’s home.
“A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind.” Couldn’t Yoda see how committed she was already? Why else would she be on Dagobah if it weren’t for her drive?
Yoda looked off to the side, staring past the wall, Leia knowing that Ben must have been there. “This one, a long time have I watched.” That bit freaked her out. “All her life as she looked away, to the future, to the horizon, never her mind on where she was,” He tapped his cane on her arm, “What she was doing.”
“You are reckless!” He looked to the side, Leia’s gaze quickly jumping up when Ben spoke. She missed him and was hurting like hell that he wasn’t with her. He should be the one to teach her, not this grump. “She is too old. Yes, too old to begin the training.”
All of the anger in her was dying, longing sadness filling her. She was alone. No one understood her or how she felt, Ben having been the only person ever who had come close to doing that. She thought of her father, not even able to collect a thought on who he truly was, and how the dream of becoming like him was slipping through her fingers. If she thought there was nothing left for her when Beru and Owen died, that was nothing compared to now.
“But I’ve learned so much.”
Yoda sighed. “Will she finish what she begins?”
“I won’t fail you. I’m not afraid!” Somehow she could do this. There was no other option.
Yoda’s eyes widened and looked deep into her, and she could feel a light presence around her mind. “Good.” He looked harder, Leia’s heart thumping faster. “You will be.” She was starting to take back her previous statement, her strong will breaking. Suddenly it felt wrong to be there, preemptive regret tainting the edges of her thoughts.
“You will be.”