Finally after this dreadful experience Maren, his companion and the robot left the councilchamber. The woman's ecstasy was nearly not containable. The whole way back she seemingly did not even take a breath while talking about all the great things that are going to happen now. Maren only really listened with one ear. One reason was that in her euphoria she was inclined to repear herself, something even though he did not know why was quite endearing for him. The other reason was a bit more complicated. On Dathomir beside the chaos of the life on this deadworld, his lifepath was all in all pretty clear. He would try to survive until he reaches adulthood, then rise in the ranks of his clan and hope to be recognised by a Nightsister who let him sire her child. In the end he would plausibly be killed like all the others and be just as insignificant as them. Well Maren was sure he was built different and would stand out amongst his peers. Overthrow everything, but he knew it could also most likely end in failure. The people of his planet do not like people who rattle at their throne. Victory or death, all in all pretty narrow. But now it all changed. Now he only felt how an infinte amount of paths he could choose from just opened up in front of him but more importantly now he can gain the strenght to walk them without interference.
"So now let us go to officially integrate you into the order than you get your own room, extra clothing and will be put into group with other initiates."
"Sounds great, but I thought you would personally oversee my training."
"Weeeell, technically you have to go through some trials and theeen the masters have to accept you becoming a Padawan and after thaaaat assigning to me, but I'm preeetty sure they make me your master", she said with a big, selfassured smile on her face, "but let's beginn by officially enroll you into a group."
"Well at least something", Maren answered dry, even though he does not like the sound of the group part.
"Beebop."
"Indeed."
As the three walked through the corridors to their new destination, they came across a pletheror of jedi, all of them looked at them with suspicion.
"Seems like the incident already made its rounds. I think they do not welcome me here.", the boy noticed.
"Ah you're seeing things, they all are happy you're ine of us now."
"If you say so" the answer came back plain, while he returned their looks. They quickly glanced away, Maren was a bit disappointed. After a while they stood in front of a sleak white grand door not unlike the others in the temple. It swung open without making a sound revealing again a gigantic room with multiple desks and his future master led him to one of them.
"Hi Sera how are you?", she asked a young looking alien, seems be from the same race as the bald one, only female, white skinned and the most profound difference: hair. Other than that she was unremarkable, unlike his future master. Her clothes were similar to all the other robes everyone wore in the temple, only hers were darker than the blind woman's one. She sat behind a desk with some kind of device in front of her.
"Another one?", she looked at him over her table with uncertaintity, "this one seems quite... special, doesn't he."
"Yes, isn't he great!", she shouted exitedly, nuzzling Maren's cheeks between her hands. If it were anyone else he would have ripped out his throat, but she was different.
"Can I ask where did you find him?"
"Taris!", she answered happily.
"Dathomir", Maren interchimed.
"Beep", the robot agreed.
"Oh...OH! Pfhtia do you not know what place this is?", she whispered to the woman as if he could not hear them.
"Ah, you worry too much he is perfect, just look at him. He will be my Padawan"
Maren looked the lady at the desk deep in the eyes. She hastily looked away.
"You mean that thin...Yeah he seems... remarkable. Just let us check were we can put this unique student of yours. Well one possibility is..." Suddenly she stopped and looked intensly at the apparatus. Maren raised one eyebrow.
"What is it?"
"No no, we just have a little problem with the computers hahaha, don't worry. Come in a few minut...", she glanced at the computer and corrected herself, "maybe a few hours hehehe. I will call you when the matters are settled."
With that the trio left the clearly distressed clerk and went their way.
"Weird with the last ones they always found immeadiatly a group for them."
"Hmm, yeah weird."
Maren knew what was happening, but something was not right. Regardless right now he wad incapable to change it.
"You know what", his would-be master said with her regular cheeky smile upon her face, "I will show you my special place."
Maren did not know what that meant or why, but somehow he really wanted to explore her special place. The three of them went again through a labyrinth of corridors, but it appeared even the others here do not know of this, because the further they went the less people were there. At some point they even had to jump up quite high platform. The woman just effortlessly took a single jump to get up there. Then she turned around and held her hand out. Maren did not accept it. It would hurt his ego, not that he would acknowledge it. On the othet hand he wanted to show her his capabilities. So he glanced around and spotted at both sides of the plattform were pillars. The hallway even though rarely visited had a bunch of statues and these statues had rectangular fundaments. So Maren ran up to the nearest statue to one of the pillars, jumped on the elevated fundament, used the momentum and sprung on the pillar. The pillar was not a smooth cylinder, but was corrugated round about the center. He always had a strong grip, so he grasped the wavy parts of it. Then he used his arm strenght to boost himself upwards and finally after he reached a suitible height he pushed himself off the pillar and jumped to the edge of the plattform latching on to it with his hand. Now he just lifted his body over the ledge. Mighty proud of his actions, but too cautious of his immage, to not show it in his fullest, Maren gave her a challenging look, expecting sheer awe from her. The Miraluka one the other hand stuck up her nose into the air and said, giving him a sideeye, even though she had no eyes: "Showoff."
Slighly miffed she quietly opened with the force a hatchet in the wall. Still mumbling to herself about how she just wanted to be helpful, but Mister apparently didn't need it. The robot meanwhile sighed a long gratutios beep, then a flap in his body opened and a grappling hook came out of him. He shot it to the ceiling, at which point Maren noticed the multiple holes in it. It then escalated itself onto the platform.
The hatchet was they went through was big enough to crawl comftortably, but not enough to stand. Well Maren could walk it slightly bent and the robot had no problems, but his teacher had to go on all fours. She went first with Maren second, she was still huffing and puffing. The walls of the shaft were made out of grey metal, plain would be the right word, but Maren was more intrigued at what he saw in front of him. The view was quite lovely. The automaton was happily buzzing behind them. After a bit following her the woman stopped at another hatchet, opened it and jumped out of it. The boy peered straight out of the opening and was met with a bequtiful view. They were high above ground, Maren could see the rumbling of the flying vehicles as well as the supertowers in the distance. The sun was steadily setting, maybe an hour of sunlight maybe left in the day. His would be master was down on another platform fairly down below. It was encased by three walls on the side one of which was the one Maren looked out of. The lad thought about how to get down on the plattform. He survived much higher falls on Dathomir, but he did not want to stress test it.
"It's okay I catch you", she shouted upwards.
'How do you catch me from that high up?', he asked himself, 'But I already ruffled her feathers, so I do not really have a choice, but on the other hand...'
Before however he could conjure up another great plan the three legged traitor behind him pushed the boy out the hole. While cursing this soulless machine in his mind, Maren instictivly prepared himself to make a emergency roll to dampen the fall. As he started to make the necessary movements, he suddenly stopped dead in the air. He felt how something is around him, holding him. His first instict was to violently thrash out, to release himself from it, but he halted as he felt that this something came from her. He looked at her. She stood below him on the plattform, sun shining behind her, giving her somewhat of a radiant aura. She smiled at him self-assured, a smile he wanted to see everyday, as she let him carefully down.
"See it's not THAT hard", she huffed high and mighty with an intense "stare" and puffed up cheeks, but maybe this was only in his imagination.
Normally he would REALLY not like someone talking to him in this kind of manner. On his homeplanet, cases like this easily ended in at least a broken jaw... or neck. But whenever he eyed the jedi, a warm feeling rose in his chest and he had to force himself not to smile like a child, this would not appropriate to the situation and more importantly to his self. Another reason was she could probably kill him with ease. Irregardless he would never validate such a thought. The traitor in the meantime beeped like a madman and hovered down by using some weird fire coming out of his legs.
"I am astounished by your wisdom, Master. I should not have evet doubted you", Maren praised her surprising himself with that, but he felt this was something she wanted to hear. He would probably do it again sometimes in the future, despite his animosity towards bootlicking. Somehow it enlivened him seeing her like this and she was praiseworthy.
"Oh "Master" hihihi", she giggled to herself, "but I am not yours yet."
"I does not matter we are bound by the force, the only matter is when and despite being apart right now it will be dwarfed by the time we will be together... as master and student." The last part came a bit later as Maren would have liked.
"Oh really, you mean it. Hihihi, I like to hear that", she snickerd while playing with her hair and giving him a shy side look. Maren could be wrong, because she turned herself away, but he was sure her face had a more red tone than usual.
"BEEEEP"
"Oh, right the training", she caught herself. She went to one of the corners. There she took away a blanket and revealed a crate. Maren was impressed, if you did not take a really hard look at this spot you would never find it. She rummaged through it for a while before an "Aha" came from her and she came back with two jedi weapons.
"Normally you're not allowed to use these yet, so shhhh", she hissed with a finger in front of her lips.
"Oh why not?", Maren asked innocently.
"Well, you first have to complete the three pillars, to show, that you're ready to wield such power. Because if not... you saw what happened today."
"Than I am honored for your trust in me, Master."
He thought to see again a light reddish shimmer on her face.
"Well you may not know it but I am a pretty great person", she answered triumphantly and one okatave higher.
"I always knew you were a pretty great master...Master", the boy finished with a bow.
Maren could now definatly see how pleased she was with herself as she proclaimed happily.
"Then take your lightsaber, Padawan."
He did as told and as he touched the weapon he could already feel an immense power flowing through it. He took it in his hands and weighed it in it. It was weirdly heavy for something that small, he had more trouble holding it than he should have. Despite that it layed good in his hand, not perfect, the balance of the weapon was of, it was too thin and in general too short for his taste. He was sure when he will be an adult he could only hold it bately with one hand.
"That's my old trainingssaber, I am amazed it fits."
"Yeah it is acceptable."
"Now then, turn it on", she expressed giddily.
And so he did. A shining blue light emitted from the end. It must have been more or less one meter in lenght. Maren was astounished that the blade itself was weightless. The boy spun it carefully around. He saw what it could do to a person. As he got more familiar with it the woman ignited hers. The white blade buzzing the same as his.
"Now I will teach you the dirst firm of lightsaber combar Shii-Cho. First take position."
She put her blade in front of her in a 45° degree angle.
"Now this is important. This form is very simple, but can easily overwhelm someone who goes into it with the wrong mindset. You have six points to attack: The head, right arm and side, left arm and side, back right foot, left foot. Let's start easy so you can get a feel for the lightsaber. Attack one of these points in diagonal motions. Okay."
"Understood", Maren answered. Both of them took their robes off. Maren was ahain taken aback how formfitting her clothes were and how they pronounced some of her bodyparts were. Or his mind just exagerated grosly. But he was too young to make that dustinction.
"R6 give the command."
Beep
Beep
Beep
"Beeeep"
And with that Maren rushed forward, making a diagonal strike upwards to her right leg. The woman answered by pushing the tip of his saber away easily with hers. Maren lost his footing and hoped past her but regained his balance quickly. He was not used to a weapon where its weight layed solely in the hilt. Well one point was the back and so he swung at hers, but again it was blocked without effort from her. She simply turned around and swatted his blade away. Maren got more and more confused. This should not be that hard. He wanted to test something. The boy grit his teeth and swung again this time as hard as he could. The weapon crashed into hers and they stood blades interlocked for a while. She gave him her usual smile and gave not even a finger width in regardless how much Maren pushed against. This confirmed his suspicion. He severed the lock and jumped a good bit back.
Maren replayed the last seconds in his head. Even though he is not a full adult yet, this last attack normally made even Nightbrothers much older than him whince. Not to say she was not a stupendous warrior, he saw what she did to the Nightsisters, but she should not be that unmoving. Each strike against her either feels like fighting against a mountain... or air. He concentrated himself a bit and tried to reach out and he found the reason.
"You using your powers, don't you. Isn't it a bit mean to play with your apprentice like that?", he asked one eyebrow raised.
The Miraluka stuck out her tongue and scratched her head.
"Yeah you hit pretty hard for your age ooorr anyones age, so I buffed myself a teensy bit up. Otherwise we couldn't have our fun and you found it out so fast and you still didn't back down. I am so happy I found you", she gave a big silly smile.
'Well what else could it be. Was not that hard to figure out', he thought to himself.
"Now want to play the defender for a while?The steps are the same you just have to block this time."
"Sounds doable."
"Then let's go."
Now she rushed forward. She was so fast one surprised foe might think she vanished. Maren on the other hand was prepared and saw her comming. She ran a light arc before attacking diagonally from the right. Maren obviously blocked even though just in time. The saber hammered against his and the boy had to reinstigate his footing. It was unnerving how quick and hard an unassuming woman like her struck. One moment the Miraluka looked like she would not even hurt a fly and then she layed into him like she wanted to crush his every bone. This continued for the remainder of their training session. Sometimes he was the attacker and then she took the role. It was surprisingly hard, but he experienced tougher situations on his homeworld, so even inspite of his numbing extremities he continued and he LOVED it. When they started he could barely see her movements but then with time he got used to it, became faster, stronger, adapted. He even got some good hits in and right at the end as he swung at her with all his enjoyment of the fight... he made her flinch.
"Okay, okay puh. That was freaking AMAZING. I didn't have this much fun in ages. We are so compatible."
Maren made a slight questioning face at the meaning of the last word, but quickly discarded it as he was hugged by her. That he was face first in sometimg he found quite lovely was of course not a factor. The hug stopped when a button on her wrist started blinking and beeping to the indignation of the boy. The jedi read through the textmassage flaring up for and then said with her usual smile: "They're done with deciding which clan you will be part of. But first let's go eat. Somehow it's already night."
How long were they fighting? It felt only like minutes. Maren stared at the now nightsky. He could not distinguished between what are stars and what are starships but he would not have it any other way. This is his life now.
"Kill her."
'What the-' Maren explored his surroundings without trying to seem too suspicious. The woman right now had her back turned to return the weapons back in their casket. Lucky for him, as she because of that did not notice his strange behaviour. The boy finished his observation and could not find the source of the voice. Only thing he heard was the buzzing of the ships flying in the distance and he was pretty sure they do not talk. The robot seemed to glance at him confused. The young boy simply put his finger in front of his lips. He did not want to worry the jedi and the droid understood. He already made too much of a commotion for one day. Besides the evil voice was gone like the wind... but he had a bad feeling about this.
"Soooo, ready to go back?", the woman asked innocently
"Agreed, let us."