Jack was currently swinging around a wooden Longstaff and practicing some martial moves with it. His eyes were glowing with Focus in them and the sweat that trickled down his naked upper body slowly traveled down until it was caught by his cloth pants.
The sweat on his face still dropped down to the ground. Exhaling deeply he went into a relaxing stance and then sat down to meditate a little bit.
While in meditation the air around him slowly felt cooling. He was currently channeling the Force and refreshing himself, fixing his tired and aching muscles, densifying his bone marrow. This was also pretty much the only time he ever used the Force when training his body.
And it didn't take long and even his sweat disappeared.
"Alright, next is a round of Shii-Cho.", he said and went over to put away his wooden staff near a wooden sword, spear, and ax. There were actually various weapons lying about on the floor or leaning on the wall.
Even exotic eastern weapons like Tai Chi Swords or Katana had their place together with other rarer weapons like a Yumi Bow or Naginata being also present.
And all seemed to have been self-crafted from wood.
The only items that were not made out of that material were the big lightweight helmet and the training lightsaber that he now took and equipped.
Before he could activate the training remote droid and throw it into the air and let himself train to deflect blaster shots the door opened to the room.
"Are you still training?", sounded a joyful voice.
Jack pushed his helmet up so he could see again and then grinned at Ahsoka. "Yep, only the early bird catches the worm."
"You and your phrases. Do you know it's already time for the light saber training? Master Cin Drallig's lightsaber instructions are about to be held. Do you want to be late?", smirked Ahsoka while she crossed her arms in front of her chest.
"Right...I wondered why it felt like I forgot something. But why should I go? It's only Shii-Cho that he teaches. Look, I even do it on my own by now anyway." Jack pointed at the helmet and sighed about going to the lessons. Maybe he became somewhat annoyed and bored with the form training but he still went ahead doing it.
And that even in his free time, which actually leads to him making all this weaponry in the first place and training in other styles on his own. Somehow they would bring him some insight into various ways to improve his lightsaber combat.
He could already feel his Shii-Cho improving to a level where it felt natural and sometimes he came to realize that he was adapting it to other footwork from the other weapons and changing the basic stances.
Then again, Shii-Cho was also a basic lightsaber form that was created after Force users changed from cold weapons like swords to lightsabers.
Over the thousands of years, Form I probably lost most of its old style and became a shadow of its true form.
Or maybe there was never such a perfected form since no one invested enough time into this form before going straight towards the other forms that were more built to fight certain adversaries with other energy weapons.
But there should have been a few masters that perfected it to some degree to actually change it and create the other forms in the first place.
And because Jack was slowly training himself in the cold weapons, it also influenced his Shii-Cho. The old Shii-Cho had 6 basic moves that were easy to execute and from them, one could change into the other Forms to implement them better.
But Jack's current Shii-Cho now already had 12 different stances and moves that complimented each other. They were subtle changes but they practically made this Form one that could stand on its own ground. Maybe he even already created his own variant of Shii-Cho.
He would only find that out after he could study the other forms.
"I know and I would have liked to join your training as well, like always, but it seems that Grandmaster Yoda is also going to be present. I think it is about our own lightsabers! You got at least be interested in that, right!?", she explained and became a little bit excited.
"The visit to Ilum. I nearly forgot that we are going to construct our own lightsabers soon. Well, maybe I just haven't been here long enough to anticipate the day. But looking at you, I can clearly see that grin tells stories.", said jack with a smile.
He was 13 now and it really has been about a little bit more than 2 years already. Less than a year remains now until the clone wars started. Looks like 13 was also the age one built their personal lightsaber.
Come to think of it, he wondered if he would make it in the trials and become a padawan. He is especially interested in who his master would become if he decided to stay. That was another thought that was on his mind for a while already.
The nightmarish scrambled visions that he gets in his sleep the nearer the wars come definitely did not make it any easier on him.
"Of course I am excited. Just thinking about constructing my own real lightsaber means so much to me! We all have been trained for that exact day. And I wonder what color mine will have."
"Hmm, how about a green one like master Yoda's? I can see you being a counselor.", suggested Jack with a sly grin.
"Really? Do you think I am that wise? I would rather see myself as the fighting type, though.", said Ahsoka back and thought about it.
"You at least got a friendly spirit even though you get us into trouble from time to time. The little, rebellious and hyperactive Togruta Ahsoka Tano. Wonder how the younglings you teach would turn out. Hmm."
"I am not little! And it's not that often that I do get us in trouble..." she puffed her cheeks and sulked a little.
Jack only smirked at her response and could see she was smaller than him. His own body was already slowly starting to grow back to his old height. He stood at 167 by now and that only at 13. Guess the near 2 meters average height for Sith was no joke.
"Let's just go, okay?"
"Sure. By the way, what do you think the chances are we make it through the Jedi Initiate trials? They are approaching fast", asked Jack after getting his clothes and making himself presentable.
He couldn't just go with his upper body exposed like that after all. It was already bad enough that Jack got used to it that Ahsoka always came charging in and seeing him like that.
"With the spartan training that you went on us? I think everyone from the Wolf Clan will nail it with flying colors."
"Hey, I am not the one that asked to join my training regime. But I am happy to hear from you that it is effective.", said Jack back with a smile and shrugged his shoulders lightly.
"True, but it mainly was because it was more interesting than the Jedi training and thinking back now. It really did improve us far above what most other clans go through. I still remember how master Yoda was standing around and watching our training. I am sure he was amazed by it. I saw some other clans also doing it by now. He probably had something to do with it."
"That's true? I thought he was only keeping a sharp eye on the things I teach you. So that the evil Sith does not corrupt the little children. Muhahaha!" Jack made a zombie walk with his arms outstretched into claws when saying those last words with a mocking laugh that was not a real one.
Well, Buddhism was basically in touch with the Jedi way. So tempering the body was useful for later trials of the flesh the younglings would come across in their padawan live.
And with the exhaustion through rigorous and systematic training without using the Force was a refreshing feeling of inner calm and focus that later helped to connect deeper with the light side of the Force.
All in all, Jack probably really did give the order more than he actually thought he did. Somehow he also wondered why the Jedi never came to that realization themselves and seemed too focused on applying the Force to everything without molding the body as a foundation without it.
Ahsoka giggled. "Tough guy, maybe it's just secretly a ploy and you actually do plan to do so?"
"Hmm, would you be coming with me if I ran away from here?", he asked curiously with a smug smile.
Ahsoka actually blinked a few times at him when she heard his question and a small blush surfaced on her cheeks that made her white markings look like they changed color to a faint pink.
But before he could dwell on her cute reaction, she looked away and shook her head in the end. "Nope." And with a grin, she started sprinting away. "Don't be a snail!"
Jack sighed and also started running after her. On the way, some Jedi shouted after them to stop running in the halls. Like as if the temple was some sort of library.