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Mon Calamari/Dac


Nikolai Kolchak

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Since Kira decided to pilot the freighter to Mon Calamari on her own, Dashel had some free time on his hands. He decided to make use of it by examining the Jedi holocorn he had been carrying with him since he had left Triani. The item positively called to him now, and he knew that some secrets would be revealed. He spent the entire trip in the cabin he shared with Sahv, quietly examining the object. The occasional murmor escaped from him as he addressed the guardian, but the sound was generally to low to be heard over the ships backround noise.

 

 

Approximately ten minutes before the arrival at Mon Calamari, Dashel emerged from the cabin and accessed a small terminal. Into it, he issued several commands for Kala and R4 that would be delivered upon their arrival at Mon Calamari. Satisfied, he sat back a minute and pondered the situation. It was then that he ordered a small canister of marbles to be delivered to the Kira's ship upon touchdown. They were to be of all shapes and sizes. He also sent Kala and order to bring his speeder bike to Kira's ship and located a small, unoccupied island on Mon Calamari that he could commandeer for his training.

 

Finished, he cleaned and checked his equipment. All of it was in satisfactory order. Once finished he looked at the chrono and decided that a calm mind would be essential to any task he would face on Mon Calamari, so he found a comfortable spot, and entered into the place of calm where he knew the force always lurked. He extended his senses into and was in that state when Kira's telepathic message arrived.

 

He sent a short reply in the positive back to her, then added that his plans for doing so would be logged on the computer for her and Locke to find him by. He also set a com frequency that he could be reached at and after a moment, a message for Sahv to join should Knight Locke not give him anything to do.

 

As they passed the shipyards, Dashel simply stared. While his people had produced medium sized ships at their home shipyards, the massive scale of the ships being produced and the facilities which produced them left him feeling a little awed. Everywhere he looked, ships marked with the Alliance flag floated majestically in orbit, waiting for a command many no doubt hoped would never come. He buried himself in the text he been commanded to read, noting on his datapad relevant information that he could use at the sight he had decided he would use for practice.

 

Once Kira had docked the ship, Dashel left and picked up his order of marbles and placed it upon his speeder. He left the docking port and headed for the small island that was the planetary authority had told him would be unoccupied by anything besides himself and any guests that joined him.

 

Dashel quickly arrived at the island, noticing with distinct pleasure that his speeder bike had performed acceptably. He wondered how you could modify one to perform to a Jedi's skill. The thought delayed him from the practice Lady Kira had assigned him, but not for long.

 

Of the three topics assigned to him, Dashel looked forward to levitation the most, thus he saved it for last. That skill, according to the holocron he had viewed earlier, had greater implications for those whom mastered it. Besides,t he two physical skills would exhaust his body considerably and make conentrating on the levitation and associated skills much easier.

 

He started with the strength enhancements. From the tome's lessons, he knew that beginners rarely wrestled trees and other objects from the ground at first unless they threw caution to the wind and acted restlessly. Dashel had made that mistake on Coruscant and had decided to take things slowly. The padawan meditated, drawing the force into his body to enhance his knowledge of the various muscles of his body. As before, he had to contend with a rush of the force into his body, making him feel as if he was on fire. He let the sensation pass through him. Then, the force seemed to go away all together, but Dashel knew better. He waited, and when calm was restored around him, he focussed inward one last time. This time he felt the force enter the fiber of his being and knew that it would help his body as he needed it.

 

For two hours, Dashel sat surrounded and filled by the force, letting it fill him with a level of knowledge of his own body that he had never dreamt possible. He reveled in the sensation momentarily, then focussed on learning as much as he could on a semi-conscious level. The text had been adamant that using the force in this matter required the user to know each cell of his body and how much of the force was neccessary to enable that cell to function at its greatest capacity.

 

When he though he was ready, he slowly stood. EVery muscle in his body lay quietly. It was a quiet that was full of the promise of something wonderful about to happen. Dashel squatted and attempted a broad jump using the force to enhance his strength. He mistimed the surge of the force through his cells. Instead of going through as he leaped, the surge occured after the leap and Dashel kicked at open air. He felt something pull in his legs and had the time to register a slight shock just before he landed. He got up, dusted himself off, and tested the leg he had felt pain in. The leg was okay, and he began again. He repeated the process many times over the next few hours. He was so frustated by the number of complete catastraphes, near misses, and over extensions that when he got it right, he felt joy in his accomplisment only briefly. The joy was combined with a determination to keep working at it until he mastered this discipline at whatever level the force would allow him to reach.

 

He picked up speed next. This one appealed a great deal to him. Being a male triani, and therefore smaller than the females of his species, his training had been on speed and accuracy when delivering his strikes and the necessity of being quick on any battlefield. His enthusiasm quickly faded when he discoved how hard of a task this was for him. Unlike the force jump, where he could easily flood his muscles with force enhanced strength, he found his body badly suited for the discipline need to increase his speed. Dashel desperately wanted to master his technique and use it in combination with the light, quick twin lightsabers he had constructed or even the light-claw he had developed. Everything combined to cause Dashel a great deal of frustration. He set aside the technique eventually, knowing that his master could answer questions on it and help him achieve the desired effect in a way that was right for him. It was not a sign of him giving up, rather an admission that he needed guidance.

 

Blasting was an easy and addicting rush. Something in him reveled at the various subcategories of this, such as force push. Gleefully, he spent some time moving progessively larger rocks and trees around. When the chrono that he had set beeped its alarm at him, he continued for several moments enjoying the power that was his to command. That single thought set off alarms throughout his mind and he forced hmself to begin practicing levitation. He knew that that technique would be one he praticesed diligently with to know when its use approached the dark side and to discipline his joy in it.

 

Levitation felt different to Dashel. It shared various elemets with the other techniques, yet required even greater faith in the force on the part of the user. Dashel used the marbles he had ordered earlier, and practiced lifting them individually and in small sets. He found levitation a curious sensation, one that he knew would have to be explored at length as he practiced under his Master's tutelage. There was no exhilartion in it, yet it felt relatively natural. He failed to levitate anything larger than a softball and knew immediately that he had lacked both the proper amount of discipline and faith to do so.

 

When he had practiced all four techniques, Dashel knew he was not ready for what had been revealed by the Holocron. He reread the notes he had taken on the techniques, read what he had written about each one after his practice and meditated on what he had learned. He concentrated on examining each failure and success eliminating his emotional responses as much as possible and examining the truth beyond them. He knew that he was far from perfecting any of them, but the time he had spent on this lonely isle had given him a beginning that he could build on with his Master.

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Dashel was deep in the force when the summons came to him to return to the ship. He made sure that he took all contamination from the island, loaded his speeder bike, and proceeded to return to the ship. Halfway there, he diverted his course towards his freighter to give the bike over to Kala. He met her and handed the bike off. She had already summoned a small hover cab, and he boarded it to return to Kira's docking bay.

 

The trip to the landing bay was eneventful and allowed Dashel to rest a little before returning. Once again, he had discovered that his own percieved limitations were just that...limititations caused by his perceptions and that he could and should be striving to go beyond them.

 

When the small cab had gotten him to the bay, he announced his presence to the three beings he sensed on board through the force. He badly needed a shower but new he would be waiting on either his mistress's pleasure or Locke's.

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Dashel was deep in the force when the summons came to him to return to the ship. He made sure that he took all contamination from the island, loaded his speeder bike, and proceeded to return to the ship. Halfway there, he diverted his course towards his freighter to give the bike over to Kala. He met her and handed the bike off. She had already summoned a small hover cab, and he boarded it to return to Kira's docking bay.

 

The trip to the landing bay was eneventful and allowed Dashel to rest a little before returning. Once again, he had discovered that his own percieved limitations were just that...limititations caused by his perceptions and that he could and should be striving to go beyond them.

 

When the small cab had gotten him to the bay, he announced his presence to the three beings he sensed on board through the force. He badly needed a shower but new he would be waiting on either his mistress's pleasure or Locke's.

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Dashel stands quietly, his mind working to find an acceptable solution to demonstrating his proficiency with the tasks Kira had given him.

 

He smiled when it finally came to him.

 

Dashel bowed to Kira, then went into her ship and retrieved the bag of marbles he had purchased earlier.

 

Carefully selecting those boxes that are the heaviest, yet contain goods capable of enduring some severe jostling, he used the force to line them up on the ground. The line was far from perfect, yet it would suit his needs. It was also the easiest part of his self-examination.

 

Still using only the force, he levitated several of the marbles to a point fifteen feet from the farthest point of the row of boxes and set them gently on the floor.

 

He paused for a moment, gathering his strength and calming himself so that he was more fully in tune with the force. He let if flood through him, expanding his awareness to the maximum limit on both the micro and macro levels.

 

Shakily, the row of boxes simultaneously rose into the air, a little over double dashel's height. He ran, using the force enhanced speed to go under the first box as it dropped towards him. The second box, he leaped over and the third he ran under until the line was completed. For thirty seconds, boxes crashed to the floor while a gray streak narrowly avoided being crushed. When Dashel skidded to the end of the line, he was bleeding in a half dozen places from box fragments that were too small to have been dodged.

 

At the end of the line of boxes, Dashel skidded to a stop mere inches short of the marbles he had placed earlier. Starting at one end, every other marble exploded, while the ones between were shoved off at a respectable velocity.

 

Once finished, he stopped and awaited Kira's critique. While he waited, he reflected on what he had just done. Sahv's words from an earlier time came to him at the point, "Someday you will be a powerful Jedi if you have faith in the force."

 

Dashel knew he was far from being a Jedi, but at that moment Sahv's words fell into place for him. He had not stopped to think about the force, merely trusted that it would give him the tools to do what he needed to do an done it.

 

Looking back at the course he had thrown himself through, Dashel stopped reflecting and reached for some cleaning tools. He figured Kira's critique would come when she was ready. Meanwhile, he thought it would be extremely rude to leave a mess for someone else to clean up.

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Dashel went left, using the force to once again enhance his speed while Sahv went right. The missle tracked on Sahv and turned his direction.

 

Dashel, seeing the weapon was no longer tracking him, levitated three or four marbles from the bag he had set out earlier.

 

"Sahv," he said through the force, "keep running that direction, but curve a little as you do so."

 

Dashel stretched out to the force and waited until the appropriate moment and then said to Sahv mentally, "turn back towards me, now. Once you get to the halfway point I will cut inside your arc and have the missle follow me for a little while."

 

As the missle began following the new path Sahv was taking, Dashel began running to meet Sahv at the designated point while using the force to slow the missle down considerably. He strained to do so, and maintain the neccessary concentration to begin pelting the missle with the marbles he had brought out earlier. He knew that shredding the missle into inoperability was better than exploding in this area.

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"Sahv," thought Dashel, "I think I understand what you intend. There may be a better way."

 

Dashel lent his strength to Sahv, but also sent him what he learned from the holocron he had studied so often together. Perhaps the technique would escape one of them, but together they would blaze and scorch any obstacle they chose to overcome.

 

The idea the old knight had pursued was simple in thought, but difficult to do alone. Few jedi had the raw connection to the force to singulary shift an item from one point to another without passing through all the points in between.

 

<> Basic principle of geometry states that between any two given points on a line there is a infinite number of points between. <>

 

<> Except Dashel and Sahv had multiple targets to shift. Still, it was an easy problem to fix. Dashel reached out with several tendrels of the force and guided the rockets to a central point. He trusted Sahv to understand the techniques concept, and to use the new skill at the approprate moment.

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Dashel nodded to Sahv in thanks for the immense trust he had just placed in him. He then settled his mind and spirit for what was to come.

 

When the eight warheads had reach a point where they were relatively close together, Dashel surrounded them with the entirety of the his and Sahv's power. In his mind, he seized the lot of them and forced them down a narrow tube. The tube stretched itself out, just ahead of the blazing rockets and let them out only when Dashel had decided to do so.

 

For those in the warehouse, the individual missles seemed to be guided to a central point. When they got to the location they were being guided to, they were surrounded by a physical manisfestation of the force that flared with power. Each rocket began to stretch to an impossible length, then flicked with psuedomotion similiar to a hyperspace jump. The warehouse was filled with a pregnant silence, as a wary Dashel seemed to be come lost within the force for a moment. Seconds later, the building rocks with the sounds of the rockets exploding a safe distance up from the building.

 

All is quiet again until an odd crackling fills the air. Dashel is physcially lifted from the ground and surrounded by a bluish light that plays about his body. His hair stands vertically and soon the smell of burning flesh fills the air, as the backlash of energy goes through him and into the ground. When it was over, Dashel fell to the floor. He lay unmoving in a smoldering heap on the ground.

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Dashel heard Kira's voice close to him. His first major impression was a great deal of pain slightly abetted by Kira's healing abilities.

 

He gathered himself, then reached out to her through the force to let her know that he was still among the living. His muscles were just not responding the way they should. Rather humbly, he asked her if she would be teaching him some healing techniques after he managed to get up and about.

 

Exhausted, he willed himself to relax and trust Kira to know how to revive him. He had faith that she, Locke and Sahv would find someway to restore him to full function. He took the time to reflect on what he had done wrong in getting rid of the missles. It proved very difficult indeed to concentrate over the screaming of a tortured body, and he knew immediately that it would have to wait. For now he had to concentrate on getting better.

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Dashel was thankful for Sahv's help in cleaning the various burns and cuts that he had suffered. He had pride, but he had learned that even pride has its limits when one is training to be a jedi.

 

When his various wounds were cleaned and dressed, Dashel and Sahv limped back to their quarters and commed Mistress Kira Dashel's readiness to begin his lesson on healing trances.

 

As they limped the short distance to their quarters, Dashel quietly told Sahv what had gone wrong with the teleportation technique he had used. "You have got to remember that when you change the location of a moving object, you need to redirect the energy that it is already using. Best bet is too set up a link with an existing power grid before trying to teleport anything...if all else fails you can always use the earth as a ground. I wouldn't recommend that though unless you have some means of absorbing the energy that will end up coursing through you. Its an experience you will never forget."

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Dashel followed Kira's advice. He gave himself completely to force and floated among its currents. Its power suffused his entire physical being and his wounds quickly healed themselves. Once his body completed its healing, he found himself drifting to sleep.

 

He woke from a dreamless sleep and let Kira know through their bond that he was healed of injuries he had sustained and that he was ready to continue training or at least he would be once he finished digesting a very large meal.

 

The Trianii left the small sleeping area and proceeded to a com link to place an order with a local restaurant for a steak approximately the size of the planet Yavin along with enough side dishes that his appetite would be satiated for several hours. He paused, then decided that ordering a plethora of dishes for everyone else was in order. The order was soon completed and he eagerly awaited its delivery.

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Dashel gave a slow nod. He was obviously tired.

 

"Indeed, the Force has many mysteries." Sahv finished.

 

Tired he may have been but Dashel decided that his friend had the right idea. Not knowing what else to do, he grabbed his datapad and began researching the various lightsaber forms and the force healing techniques they were sure to need once they started practicing with lightsabers.

 

He became quite engrossed in the subject of healing techniques. The more he read, the more he wanted to know and expand his knowledge base. He stopped, looked up at Sahv and grinned.

 

"Sahv, how is this for a split personality: a jedi healer who practices lightsaber techniques designed to put one on the attack and that emphasize duals."

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Dashel looked up Sahv, his entire being still. He responded very quietly to Sahv's question. "I thought I was joking earlier. To me there was some humor in the two very martial and aggressive styles being used by a trained healer but when you spoke I suddenly remembered the corpsman who we always deployed with. She was quite aggressive, whether it was with a weapon or while fighting to keep one of us alive. Perhaps it is something I should meditate on."

 

After a moment's pause, he went on, "Yes I will go meditate on it. Thanks Sahv."

 

Dashel stood, stretched and walked into the small cabin figuring Masters Kira and Locke would call him if needed. Once in the cabin, he sat and began meditating, seeking the guidance of the force.

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Dashel walked out of the room that he and Sahv shared. His meditations had left him feeling very peaceful and with his feet firmly set on a path set for the future. The force had shown glimpses of the suffering to come and he had been among the carnage as a warrior.

 

The future after what lay ahead was less clear. A strong theme had been present in that he sought the healers of the Jedi temple. It had not been clear whether or not he was to master that skill or to be healed by them. The lesson about the future had been clear.

 

Shaking his head, he joined Locke and Sahv outside the ship. Before settling down to wait instruction, he thought of Kira's precipitous departure and shook his head. His ship was docked on Mon Calamari and he would have gladly lent it and his pilot's services to her.

 

He nodded to Sahv and Locke his readiness, banishing his master's departure from his mind. He had to focus on his now, not the negative feelings that might result from worrying over another capable warrior's actions.

 

<> edited for untimely content, Thanks Kakuto! <>

Edited by Guest
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Dashel stared at Sahv for a moment, then he activated his saber claw. The symbiotic weapon was already a part of him, that part was easy to understand.

 

He stood still and reached for the force. When he was calm and had fixed his concentration on the longest of the saber claws blades, he waited for the sensation Locke had described. Eventually, he grew tired of waiting and committed more of himself to the search for the cold fire of his blade. His aggressive probe found something around the blades fire, preventing him from sensing anything about it. He paused and contemplated why this might be happening. Dashel found his answer and was quite suprised. The barrier consisted of the force being used by the force itself. He deactivated the claw and examined the twin hilts he had also constructed.

 

Again, he extended his senses into the force and used that awareness to examine the hilts before him. One called to him and he activated it, unconsciously putting its mate back onto his belt as he did so. His green eyes sought the end of the blade, starting from the hilt up. Blinded by the yellow blades light, he never found it with his eyes.

 

Instead of his eyes, he found the force waiting for him, and through its guidance he found himself inside the blade. Sheathed in yellow flame, he traveled towards the heart of the blade. As he traveled downward, he was not consumed.

 

At the sword's bottom, he found the crystal that had sung just so when he had taken it as payment from Kala. Instead of the faintly warm crystal he had installed in this blade, he found himself descending into a blaze of energy so cold he recoiled from it. Dashel found himself staring at his blade, his eyes watering from not having blinked in his quest to do as Locke said.

 

He began again, determined to succeed. This time, though, he began with the basics. Dashel submerged himself in the code of the Jedi, letting the power of the code surround and nourish him on his descent through the cold fire that was his saber. When he got to the point where the blade and crystal met, he passed through and beyond the crystal and found a new fire waiting for him. It was cool to his mental touch, and oddly familiar. Not wanting to rush, he considered the familiarity of this fire and reached an understanding. While science could explain how a blade was built and worked, it could never know just how intimately a part of the Jedi each blade was. It was that connection, where the sword's heart, the Jedi's spirit, and the force all interconnected that united them all. Even as he learned the secret he felt his unconscious mind block any memory of the concept and instead replace it with the knowledge that the force now had another way to touch the galaxy at large. It flowed freely through Dashel, through his arm, down to his hand and out the blade and back again.

 

Dashel sat among the nexus of the three energies for a long time, simply observing the energies that seemed to crackle about him. As he gazed, he realized the ribbon of energy he had ridden here was actually composed of millions of small strands. Closer examination revealed even sub-bands among those and again each sub-band had individual strands of its own. He left the nexus and began the trip again. Instead of letting the force blindly guide him from the beginning of his journey, he used it to select a strand and follow it all the way to the nexus and outwards from it. It became another strand and fell back to the nexus and moved outwards again. Each time he completed the loop, Dashel knew he gained a more complete understanding of his saber. He completed another turn and another, knowing he would continue as long as he was not disturbed from the outside.

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Dashel was glad he and Sahv had discussed these forms earlier. Seeing them, however, provided an insight that would not have been possible with vidscreens or text.

 

"Master Starspanker," said Dashel, "for me the choices before me are fairly straightforward, or at least they seem so right now." He looked at his hands, and flexed the claws from their sheaths. "As I have said many times, I was a soldier. A soldier's duty is a constant struggle to know when to be aggressive and when to be defensive. I thought being a Jedi would supplant that training. Instead it seemingly complements it on more than a few levels. If the Jedi have no problem with it, then I will endeavour to master two styles.

Form III, the more defensive style fulfills one side of the equation, while Form VII fulfills the other."

 

He answered the question he knew would come before it could spoken, "Yes, master, I know that I will be training longer and harder than most."

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Watching their master teach them, Dashel experienced a strange exhiliration. He already knew much of these forms from his Ranger training.

 

The exhiliration was immediately followed by an equally deep sinking feeling. At the High Temple, he had been an indifferent student, caring more about succeeding than what he was actually learning. He looked at the Saber in his hand, the one on his belt, and the saber-claw attached to his wrist. No longer would he be afforded that luxury.

 

Dashel closed his eyes. A jedi could only function at peace, and being lost in the past was not calming for anyone. Instead, Dashel sought only the quietest place he could find. As always, he found the force waiting for him.

 

He used it now to enhance his memories of what his master had shown him. The former soldier concentrated on the images as they played out in his minds eye, examining and memorizing everything he had seen of the form he had asked to be taught. As for the one Sahv was now practicing, Dashel filed those memories away for later, as a thought occured to him. Immediately, he thought to and shared it with his fellow padawan and Master Starspanker.

 

"Sahv, when we began training we swore that we would learn and grow together, and that as knights we would support each other. I am assuming that means at some time we will be in battle together watching out for each other. Sometime in the future, we are going to have to learn each other's forms. Not to master to them, but for better understanding of each other. Then we will add the force in."

 

Calm, Dashel began practicing the sequences that Master Starspanker had shown him, taking his time to make sure he knew the form's routes perfectly before breaking them down to the basics and mastering them with power. Once he was satisfed he knew them with power and each route was still perfect, he went on towards speed. Quickly, it became apparent that he could not handle the weapons at his full speed or his full strength. It would take time and practice to reach both. For now, however, he had a thorough understanding of what had been taught to him.

 

He turned to Master Starspanker and bowed his thanks for the lesson.

 

"Master Starspanker, I know that most forms can be expanded two accomadate different weapons, form Great Lightsabers to Dual Lightsabers, but is there any record of three weapons being used?"

 

To demonstrate, Dashel whipped his prehensil tail around to grab and activate from his belt the twin of the saber he held in his hand, thought the activation of the saber-claw, while still holding the blade he had been practicing with in his off hand.

 

"Granted, I know I am a long way from being able to do this proficiently, but I though I would ask."

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Suitably chastised, Dashel deactivated the second saber and replaced it on his belt. The Saber-claw deactivated itself when the need for it was no longer in Dashel's mind.

 

Dashel refocussed his mind on beginning the entire learning process again. He began breaking down each and every step of his approach to his form. Mentally, he praticed against what his race's temple had always called the greatest enemy...one whom is an exact duplicate of you, bet better, stronger and quicker. Dashel sparred with this invisible enemy, pushing himself to achieve the greatest perfection he could.

 

He thoroughly enjoyed himself.

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"Sahv", said Dashel, "I may be hypocritical in saying this, but we are exceeding Master Starspanker's directions. No offense intended, but this is one of those things where we need to exercise patience."

 

Still Sahv was on the attack, and Dashel blocked the initial strike with his saber. He was shocked by the interaction of the two blades striking each other. Despite the nature of the weapon, he felt the shock of the blades meeting and the energy surge of one against the other.

 

It was enough to make him retreat hastily, using the force to augment the leap he made backwards. When he landed, he was fifteen feet away from Sahv and breathing hard.

 

"Know I know another reason why no Jedi seeks combat, ", thought Dashel, "when you are an extension of your weapon and vice versa, attacking is committing everything to battle."

 

"Sahv, please don't think less of me, but I am willing to wait until Master Starspanker says we are cleared for dueling before we duel. "

 

Dashel did not immediately returned to practicing. He was thinking things through in an effort to accomadate both their neeeds.

 

"Sahv, I would be willing to shadow box with you if that is okay. We don't really need to make contact to practice againt each other. At least for now. Please, let us continue but with more space between each other."

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Dashel nodded affirmation of Sahv's suggestion and levitated a marble from the bag he had purchased earlier then stole a page from the masters playbook and levitated a second one. Concentrating he sent them from opposite directions toward Sahv, moving them in a double pincer movement from either side.

 

As he waited for Sahv to deal with the two fast moving objects he levitated three more towards himself. Two of those remained hovering before him whilte the third he gripped in his hand.

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Dashel complied with Sahv's request, launching the next volley to to a point thirty or forty meters above Sahv's head before releasing them. Unguided, they fell straight at the top of Sahv's head.

 

Once Dashel thought that Sahv was fully concentrating on the descending pair of marbles he threw the third one in his hand with his normal strength at Sahv' knees. No sense make this easy on him...

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Dashel caught the first marble on the very tip of his left blade, looking very much like he was fencing with an unseen opponent. The blade, in keep with the Master's teaching, was still relatively close to Dashel's body. As soon as the force told him the marble disentegrated, the young padawan retracted the blade and swept his right hand blade over top of it so that it formed on outward sweeping shield. That blade caught the second marble which flared with momentarily light upon the blade. Dashel turned a double somersault over that blade, landing in a crouched position with both blades in a ready position. His tale twitching, he waited with both sabers in the ready postion, seeking the next set of projectiles.

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His hands moved before he even had time to acknowledge the incoming projectiles. The first marble blazed gloriously on a downward swept swing of Dashel's right hand which rose defensively to block the high gate while his left again snapped in and backout to take the second one.

 

Dashel's body followed the left hand, turning him completely in a circle and moving him slightly offline and to the right of the third marble. His left hand, the trailing blade, caught this marble and destroyed it. The Triani now stood with his body perpendicular to the line of attack with his right hand raised to block any attack against his body while his left hand trailed behind and low, ready to sweep into attack position. He paused long enough to find the fourth marble, which was just now coming even with him. He went low, sliding under the marble with his right hand staying high to interecept it while his left lead. When he was done he was on the left side of the attack, his left hand in the high guard position while his left was midguard, ready to strike or defend.

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Attempting to look casual as he finished off the last marble, Dashel said to Sahv, "You hungry?"

 

"It seems our master is dreaming of his lady-love again. We should more than a few hours to get something good to eat." Just to be sure, Dashel stretched out to sense where Locke was and verified visually his location.

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Dashel took a good long look at the menu the local waiter provided him. The nice thing about the Mon Calamari diet was that it consisted of seafood, something the Triani enjoyed themselves. He hoped Sahv's stomach was up to what he was about to eat. They would be going into battle before long, and among some more traditional groups, warriors prepared themselves for battle by taking their food alive if possible and dining on them without the benefits of utensils or cooking. The Mon Cal menu had numerous raw seafood items and Dashel ordered quite a few of them. One satisfied the requirements of the Triani warrior code because it was served live.

 

Bloody as the meal was, Dashel was still fastidious enough that there was little mess on himself or around their table. He felt the warm feeling flooding his body that indicated the beginning of the warrior state so prized by his people. If battle came to Mon Calamari, they would meet a Triani fully in the grip of blood madness, a condition which refined their focus and enhanced their overall physicality. When Dashel looked up at Sahv again, Dashel's eyes were the black of a predator sighting his pray. The moment passed, and instead Dashel was laughing easily with their conversation. But for those whom looked closely, the predator was only thinly veiled, waiting for the moment it would be released.

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Dashel looked at his friend for a long moment. Even someone without the force could see that he was uncomfortable with the situation he found himself in.

 

He finished his meal reflecting on Sahv's statements. When he finished he placed a napkin over his plates to conceal the remnants of the very excellant meal he had been served.

 

"Sahv," said Dashel, "For a former errand boy whose existence from what you have told me was doing what you were told when you were told, you have one of the most open and curious minds I have ever heard of. You have also seemed tolerant of others, even when their habits make you feel uneasy."

 

"I am not sure our place in the universe is that important. From what I know, our place seems to be determined by someone else after we get there. Instead, its our journey to that place that matters the most."

 

"Sometimes we are fortunate to find ourselves sharing the same path as others. When that happens, the path gets wider and we can spend a little more time looking at the horizon. We when we have the choice of an acceptable companion, we should not limit ourselves to a solitary journey.

"

 

Dashel grinned at Sahv, hoping the little speach had the opposite affect as his food had had on his fellow trainee.

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Dashel's commlink chose that moment to sound a quiet alert. He glanced at it, saw the code indicating Kala's frequency and thumbed the device to open the channel.

 

"Yes Kala?" said Dashel in to the link.

 

As an aside to Sahv he whispered, "Droids, go figure"

 

"Sir, an encryped communication came in for Knight Locke on a frequency reserved for use between Jedi Knights and the Chief of State of the Alliance."

 

"Go on." said Dashel, grateful the droid was being very discreet.

 

"She too is concerned with Knight Locke's continued silence. Would you like to respond to her query?"

 

Dashel looked across the table to meet Sahv's incredulous gaze. "My branch of the military on Triani often dealt with the interdiction and infiltration of various smuggler, bounty hunter, and other illegal groups. We whom were small craft rated were issued an astromech droid. Mine is and was unusual. I am not sure it has ever had its memory wiped and it has advanced far beyond what it is supposed to be. It continuously amazes me with what it decides to do on its own."

 

Into his commlink, he spoke to Kala. "No, we will not respond on that frequency. It is not the business of Padawans or their assigned droids to interfere with the business of knights or masters. Out"

 

He thumbed the frequency closed.

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Over the Master-Padawan link he had developed with Kirana during his training with her, Dashel flashed a quick warning about the imminent attack by the Imperial Fleet. He gave as many details as he could in a short amount of time with one extra admonition. "Sahv and I will deal with whatever Sith comes our way as best we can. Should we need reinforcements, we will be sure to yell very loudly."

 

He closed the link down. Dashel had no desire to lose master because he had distracted her.

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