Sticks and stones (sejah)

[Marcus Telcontar]

Waiting in the gardens is the Jedi Master, with a rather large stick and a pile of stones

[Sejah Haversh]

Sejah hated digital clocks. They were hard to read. Fortunately, he had equipped his room with an anolog clock, and looked up at it in time for a lunch break.

Glancing back at his refirgerator, the mongoose shuddered at what toxic fumes might be released if he opened it. He didn't think that eithe Corin or himself had opened in in two weeks, that that prospect was fightening. So, pickign up his lightsaber out of habit, the mongoose tucked it into his belt and flicked off the holovision. Lunch at the B&G sounded good.

His sandals thawckign lightly on the packed dirt path, Sejah cut through the gardens, and out of the corner of his eye spotted his master. Veering to the right, Sejah decided that lunch could wait.

"Hello, Master Q'Dunn, what brings you out into the gardens today?" He asked, smiling in a friendly manner as he approached.

[Marcus Telcontar]

"Catching practice"

The stick was in fact a bat of some kind. He picked up a stone, threw the stome upwards, then with a fearful whack, he sent it skying high..... reaching ut with his mind, the stone stopped, high in the air.

"Been figuring out a way to teach you telekinesis without leaving holes in scenery. If the stone explodes, we aint going to be harmed. But that's no the point - the point is to catch the stone with your mind"

[Sejah Haversh]

A light grumble sounded from Sejah's stomach, but, he had gone longer without trainign than food, so the opportunity would be more than enough to counter his hunger.

"I have to catch them with my mind?" he questioned Marcus' statement, but, before he could be taken as soundign whiney, he sported a deep-cheeked nervous smile and cracked his knuckles to show he was ready. "Okay, but, I hope you don't break a window..."

[Marcus Telcontar]

"Well, fortunantly, there is no windows for a few hundred meters. Okay, let's firstly see what happens... BATTER UP!"

With this, Marcus picked up another stone a smote it high into the air

[Sejah Haversh]

Sejah watched the stone as it flew upwards, and he tried to get a fix on it in his head. But, naturally, he couldn't and it fell back to the ground with a thud about thirty feet to his right.

"Sorry, could we-," he was about to ask if Marcus could bat another one when the bat cracked again and another stone was launched into the air. That time, Sejah began to focus harder, never having tried to get a movign target before. There, in flickers and flases was the rock, but, again he couldn't get a fix on it.

IT was three battings later that he finally acheived a lock on it, and ass soon as he did, it seemed to jerk for a moment, and then blow out one of it's sides. "Garfife!" Sejah shouted, slamming a fist into the side of hos leg, "Why can't I do this? Everybody else can do this but me! Why is it so frikking hard!"

[Marcus Telcontar]

"Because your thinking the wrong way - remember that doing some thing the Force is started by visualisation of what you want to do, then putting it into reality. Try this - think of a catching glove. Think of it outstretched. And think of catching the stone in that glve. Understand?"

[Sejah Haversh]

Taking Marcus' words to mind, Sejah calmed his personal rage and forced his bitterness to subside. Gripping one paw in the other, he performed a quick stretch before shakign himself out and waiting for his Master to bat another stone skyward.

Like a catcher's glove... he recalled in his mind, and then thought, "What's a catcher's glove? Is it from some sport or something?"

He had little time to ponder as Marcus belted another pop fly and the Nehantite did what he thought Marcus had told him to and imagined a large paw reaching up to catch it. And momentarily, it worked. For half a second the stone stopped falling, but he lost control, and it plummeted back to the ground. But it was enough to boost Sejah's spirits, and he smiled as Marcus cracked the bat again.

The next three stones were a total failure, but he kept trying. The fourth was a frightenign experience, as he somehow imagined it shooting straight down at him--and it did so! Narrowly side-stepping, Sejah yelped as it bit into the ground where he had been standing. "Well, that was different..." was all he said.

It turned out that it was the fith time that was the charm. As the flying stone began its downturn, Sejah reached out with the Force and slowed it gently to a stop. Focusing on it, he pulled it down, and carefully plucked it out of the air with his paw. Happiness radiated form him as he smiled in sheer awe of what he ahd done. "I did it..." he whispered, then turned to Marcus and said emphatically, "I did it! Did you see that! I got it! Look!"

In his elation, Sejah didn't stop to think how much of a big deal he was makign about so minute an accomplishment in the Force. Somethign liek what eh had done was purely commonplace to his master, but he couldn't see that.

[Marcus Telcontar]

"Good! Good! Yousee, all that it can be is that you look at the problem a different way. Now, blow this one up"

How long ago was it when Marcus caught his first stone out of the air? 100 years ago? Memory of that time of his boyhood was now dim because of the length of time, but he could still remember the dance of joy.

A smart crack sent the next stone skyward

[Sejah Haversh]

Atom.
Particle.
Cementing bonds.
Cells.

Those were the things Sejah saw when he looked at things through the Force. They did not appear as a whole, but as a collection of parts. By a scattered focus on seperate molocules, the mongoose tried to exert his will in the Force, and it had disastrous results. But now he understood why.

As the stone shot upwards, he dropped the one from his paw and focused in his loose manner on the one in the air. Clenching a paw, he focused harder and pulled in all directions on his closely-set targets.

The pressure on the small areas caused the natural faults int eh stone to split, and it blew up into hundreds of pieces as if he had shot a clay pigeon with a shorgun.

"Bam" Sejah whispered as he watched the pieces fall. "Think I got that one down right."

[Marcus Telcontar]

"Catch!"

The next stone went up in the air much quicker

[Sejah Haversh]

The stone hit the ground in pieces. Sejah had fumbled again.

"This is going to take a lot of practice," he admitted as his master fired off another one. He was reminded of problem students he had as a teacher. Not ones with attitudes or disrespect, but those who took longer to figure out how to step, and when to block. Those were frustrating to teachm because you wanted to see them do well, but they continued to struggle, and it hurt. Sejah hoped he was not having the same impact on Marcus.

An invisible hand snagged the stone out of the air, and began to lower it down, but about twenty feet above the ground Sejah lost concentration and it fell with a dull thud.

[Marcus Telcontar]

"Explode!"

The falling stone was hit with an invisible hand, sked high upwards.

[Sejah Haversh]

Instead of letting his mind pick the focal points, Sejah let a small smile turn up the corners of his mouth as he tried to set up a line of molocules down the center of the stone. One side went to the left, one to the right, and the rock sheared almost in half. He was getting the hang of it

[Marcus Telcontar]

Even whie that stone was being shattered, the next stone was sailing upwards.

"Catch!"

The lesson would now be obvious - to cement the idea of what to do under some pressure.

[Sejah Haversh]

It was almost too fast, and Sejah scrambled to get a fix on it. But there were too many pieces of the other one still in the air, and he missed completely.

The next one he blew up again with ease, scattering his pull points and seperating them. And again he couldn't track the next stone. "What's the trick? What am I not getting?" he paused to ask, getting frustrated that he could only get one out of two, and it was the lesser important skill at that.

[Marcus Telcontar]

"There's no trick.... dont be hard on yourself and relax. You've only just found out how to do it. You think I'm expecting you to lift boulders now? No. I'm only expecting you to relax and have fun"

Incidentally, Sejah was now about to find he was floating about a few centimeters off the ground.

"Catch!"

[Sejah Haversh]

He should have known better. But he was foolish and tried to do what Marcus said and catch himself as he had tried to catch the rock.

Unfortunately, he was better at blowing things up than at catching them. A loud snap could be heard, followed by a pained cry as the mongoose hit the ground and fell back, holding his left forearm in agony. He had tried to make a brace on nothing to support himslf on, but he had instead focused on the bone in his arm, and had just broken it in several places.

"Garfife! You frikking jerk! OW!" he cried trough grit teeth as he got up on one knee, cradling his deeply injured arm. "You knew I don't do good with that! Gar, it's broken! You made me break my frikkin arm!" he shouted, backing away from Marcus as he did so.

[Marcus Telcontar]

"Made you break your arm?"

Marcus was from view a quiet Jedi, reserved and polite, but he hid a Master whom was fearful and powerful, a Jedi of much lore and learning. His eyes almost glowedas his true power became evident, as his voice took on power and authority

"DO NOT blame me for your mistakes! What YOU do was of your own actions - how you react to a situation is up to you, not me. Are you going to blame a Sith for a lightsabre cutting a limb off, if it is your own mistake? This is no game we play, even if it seems that way!"

Faster than physically possibe, he pounced, one hand slapping the back of the Padawan's neck and with the Power of the Force, sending him unconcious. He fell to a heap.

"Allright my friend. You asked for a demonstration of Jedi powers? I'll give you one that you will never forget"

Within the Force he focused and with a finger, traced out a line on Sejah's broken arm. Closing his eyes, he concentrated, feeling each piece of bone and wher eit was... then stroking the arm slowly, used the Force to drag each piece into place. Then he placed both hands over the breaks an let the Froce flow.... for an hour he sat there, using the Force to knit bones together

--

The sun was in a different place when the Padawan came to. A hooded figure sat on a tree trunk, smoking a pipe and leaning forward.

He had been waiting.

"When you learn to concentrate, this is what you can do" said the calm, clear and cool voice from under the cloak. A rock leapt into the air, skying for over 100 meters, before coming to a stop.

"Dont speak. Watch"

The rock hung in the air, beginning to glow. For a minute it grew brighter, shing brightly while the Master used the atoms to create heat - an extreme of heat, held together within a tight Force grip - the gri was released and the energy released, the rock disappearing in a thunderous fireball that spread out for many tens of meters. A backwash of heat cold be felt on the ground, even at this distance.

"That is what you are capable of doing. You can see and influence molecules, of which among the Jedi I am one of the few ever to be able to do that. It seems you can too. It is called Telekinesis and you have a remarkable goft of it. Now, do you feel anger I push you to your limits? Maybe you should, but I will do so again and again and I will not apologise. When you push your self, you could get hurt. I could show you a few training scars that would make you wince. That matters not. If I did not train you to be all you could be, then I will have failed. I do not fail. I will push you to your limits, because I know they are far greater than you realise - and I think you will find your arm is quite fine"

A puff of smoke ended his speech. Calm and polite... but there was still the undercurrent that surrounded Marcus of deadly seriousness.

[Sejah Haversh]

He felt like one of his own worst students. Sejah had prided himself on his ability to keep his head and control his temper, but he had just blown it in grandious scale.

Lighlty he stroked the fur on his arm, finding the pain gone and nothing out of the ordinary with it. The rock demonstration was another sobering experience that further grounded his spirits. IT was unfair to ask for light treatment when he himself had been a hard teacher. There was no viable excuse he could convince himslef of, and no way to ride the fence of indecision any longer.

Hanging his head, the mongoose felt quite the fool. "I respect your methods, Master Q'Dunn, I was much the same way with my own pupils. But mine had not the possibility of destroying themselves if they focused wrong. My anger was out of like, btu not fully so. What would you ahve done had I not focused on so unimportant a part of myself? What if that had been my liver, or lungs, or even my brain? I know the benefits of pushing one to thier limits, but don't do so until they have grasped the basics."

Sejah slowly lifted his gaze as he clenched and unclenched his left paw. "I am a poor student, and I realize that. But I will not use it as an excuse, or a barrier behind which I hide. Someday I wish to be as skilled as you, but it will not happen overnight."

[Marcus Telcontar]

"So be it, then. If you are killed in training, you would not be the first."

The statement was bone chilling, for all it's calmless and lack of emotion. But that was not what Marcus was focusing his thoguhts on.

"Now I know what's wrong. It is not ability, or willingness to learn, or even lack of understanding. You simply lack control. You have marvellous skills already, but you dont have control. You picked up how to catch a rock swiftly, much quicker than others do. Yoru beginning to learn how to change from micro to marco. But even you temper shows what is really wrong and what hold you back. Now, I wonder how does one learn that? Hmmm, ponder this you will. Telekinessis of this level is dangerous... so that is what will be taught. Control. You will learn it"

[Sejah Haversh]

It was true; coltrol had always been a problem that plauged him. He had the skill and talent for it, but, to control it was a great task that he had endeavored to master.

But for the seriousness with which Marcus adressed him, Sejah replied in an out-of-place smile and cheerful tone. "Well, it seems I would have little choice else but to learn it. After all, I suppose I would feel rather bad if I suddenly ture you in half instead of moving you out of the way of danger if it ever came to it in the future."

[Marcus Telcontar]

"I'm sure my enemies will give you a note of thanks"

Said deadpan, but with a smile on his unseen face. A rock came flying into MArcus' hand, landing with a meaty thump. He put his hand out, palm facing upward, rock on it.

"Use the glove or paw from before and pick it up"

This had to be stupid - but the Master was alrady bringing up a precautionary Force Shield, portecting himself from possible side effects. But Sejah wouldn't know that. This would be an interesting test.

[Sejah Haversh]

"Are you, are you sure?" Sejah questioned tennatively. "O-, okay, if you say so." He then ventured.

From where he sat, the mongoose eyed the stone carefully as he tried to find it with the Force. Marcus was radiating so strong a signature that it was difficult to locate the chunk of rick, but eventually he found it, though after finding the bones in Marcus' thumb first.

Think soft, thing steady. See it as a whole, and not as pieces... he thought to himself. Locating it as a whole, he imagined himself pickign it up, and lo and behold, it worked. IT lifted from Marcus' palm as if he himself had reached out and taken it, even with how it seemed to turn over as the invisibale hand rotated on its wrist to show the viewer more closely what they had just grappled. It was a most interesting rock, banded with layers of sedimentary minerals through it. Down its center it contained a thin stream of quartz crystals.

SNAP!

He had forgotten it was a whole; Sejah had become too interested in it again and it blossomed in a small explosion of fragments before him. But something happened then that the mongoose did not intend--it stopped. In his worry for his Master's safety, Sejah had called all the fragments he could to a halt. When eh realized ti however, he almost got an isntant headache and the shards fell to the earthen floor harmlessly as he rubbed his temples. "I almost had it," he muttered.

[Marcus Telcontar]

Even with the Force shield up, he instinctively ducked..... to be quite surpirsed to see the fragments in roughly the same area and not flying to all corners.

Waht the...?

Somewhat puzzled, he stood back up, while running thorugh his mind what happened.

And he had to smile.

"I'm not sure what impressed me more...... lifting the stone or containing the blast. Both is more than I expected. You have done well, very well indeed! "

[Sejah Haversh]

"Yeah, but now I've got a splitting headache," Sejah mumbled before lookign up and then grasping one of the fragments in his paw.

"I need to practice this, I'm too dangerous still," he added.

[Marcus Telcontar]

"But you also achieved much. Go back to your room and rest - callme in twelve hours after you have done so and have eaten"

The eyes of the Master narrowed, thinking.

"No, on second thoughts, meet me at docking bay 94 in 24 hours, packed and ready to go on a trip. I need to go to Coruscant to sort out a problem. I will take you with me. You need the experience"

[Sejah Haversh]

Blinking his eyes hard and pinching the ridge of his buzzle near his eyebrows to alleviate his headache, the mongoose shook his head and looked up to Marcus.

"A trip? What kind of a trip? And what should I pack? I've never been to Coruscant. What is it like?" he asked curiously.

[Marcus Telcontar]

"Well, there is a local dispute I've been aked to step into. Rival gangs that the local police cant handle. I'm afraid we are more than likely going to see some swordplay if things are are bad as I have been told. Oh, nothing we can't handle, it just will take a Jedi's hand to fix the issue - if it can be fixed at all. Otherwise, we are going to have to use other means to quell it - likely your goign to see me negotiate with my sabre. I wish it were not so but.... it's sometimes what a Jedi must do.

Now Coruscant.... it defies imagination. A Planet devoted to one huge city, so vast not a single bit of land remains. Trillions live there.... the buildings are like mountains, the streets like deep valleys. It has every single being you could think of,there are marvels and wonders as far as the eye can see."

He picked up the bat.

"I hate the place actually. It's just not natural. It's also full of corruption and misery, suffering and evil. You think the lowest at your home are low? There are beings where that would be a mere flight of fantasy. But, Helenias is there now, she is to be the Senator of the Arcan Sector. I hope we both may find some time to ee how she is settling in"

[Sejah Haversh]

Sejah had grown up in a ghetto of a large city, but, if Coruscant were one giant city, then he could only imagine how much worse it could be there.

If they were going as Jedi, the Nehantite knew what clothing to bring, and defintiely to bring his saber. It would be his third real excursion, but this time he had a Master, and knew what the game plan would be. Nodding to Marcus, he replied, "I hope I will like it better than you do, Master Q'Dunn. Would you mind if I brought my camera? I'm sure my mother would love to see some pictures of it, and all. And I'll be ready, gate 94, you said? I'll be there."

[Marcus Telcontar]

Camera? What the....??!?!

"Why ummm.... yes, of course, do bring one. That will not be a problem. Also bring some armour if you have any. I could be useful if things get really rough. Docking bay 94, I expect you in 24 hours"

With that, Marcus bowed, then took his leave, a new thought comign to his mind.

I wonder.... should I take Sejah to Dexter's?