First lesson...(Kurzen Fox)

[Zeke]

Zeke waited in the Academy, spinning his saber through his fingers and bouncing idly on his toes. Nearby he had a bag of stuff he thought would be useful in training. Today marked his first true lesson as a teacher...now for his student to arrive so he could begin.

[Kurzen Fox]

I jogged down the corridor of the Academy, looking in door after door for Zeke. As had been instructed, I had come prepared for my training as a Jedi, and gripped the saber I had received as a gift from Hakob, my mentor for this endeavour to becoming a Jedi, firmly in one hand. Finally spying the cheery Knight, I skidded to a halt, my chunky boots squeaking against the highly polished fool.

“Yo! Zeke!”

Spinning on the ball of my foot I walked in the doorway and brought the butt of the saber hilt up to my temple as a salute, and form of greeting also.

[Zeke]

Zeke returned it and grinned.

"Kurzen! What's up? Ready for training?"

[Kurzen Fox]

“You bet I am!”

I wore my black and yellow hard-leather gloves on my hands, and as I rose one hand to ball it into a fist around the saber hilt, I pulled on the cuffs with my free hand, tightening up to the straps on my wrists.

“What’s on the agenda first… Master?” I added on the end, smiling.

[Zeke]

"Master? Jeez, man, Zeke works."

He scratched the back of his head and pocketed his saber.

"What first? Well, why not let you decide? Whaddaya wanna learn?"

[Kurzen Fox]

I gave an absent-minded shrug before following suit with Zeke and shoving my saber back into my jacket.

“Pftt... I don’t know really anything about the Jedi, to be honest. Think you could clue me in?”

[Zeke]

"The Jedi are a group founded on the priniciples of peace. It's our job to maintain order through mediating conflicts, defending the weak, healing the sick and wounded. We alone stand against the dark powers of the Sith, who would see this world we live in ruined and destroyed. We are aided by the light side of the Force, which binds all things as one."

Not a bad explanationg. A bit long winded, sorta cheesy, but then again, that was the Jedi as Zeke saw it.

[Kurzen Fox]

“Replace the Imperials with Sith, and my team with the Jedi…That’s sounds just like what I used to do, but with a few more added tricks and stuff up your sleeve!”

This sounded a lot simpler than I had thought it would be.

“So what about this Force I keep hearing about? That some kind of militia or something?”

[Zeke]

"Eh...not really. The Force...well, its like this..."

Zeke called the bag of stuff to his hand and retrieved two spherical remote droids. He threw theme up in the air and waved his hand twice up and down, the balls following his motion, then waved his hands back and forth in his birthday rap move, watching the remotes switch places as they slowly settled to the ground.

"Plus, you can use it...to boost your body's limits as well..."

Zeke's voice came suddenly from beside Kurzen, the Knight appearing there with Force boosted speed from his original position.

"The Force is created by life. Without living beings, there would be no Force. Some people are able to call on the power of the Force to do these things that I have demonstrated."

[Kurzen Fox]

I watched in sheer awe as Zeke seemed to command the balls. As the Jedi held them in mid air, I passed my hand over the space above them to check there were no wires or trickery in place. My fears that he was indeed doing this himself were affirmed when somehow he ended up a good 8 foot away from his original position in the blink of an eye.

“Holy…”

Wide eyed, I stared at Zeke.

“Man, you gotta teach me how to do that!”

[Zeke]

"K, then lesson one is Force boosting. Force boosting is fairly self-explanatory; use the Force to boost your natural abilities. But first, I guess we gotta get you in tune with the Force. Force acts on a feeling. For some, its a memory, a goal, an emotion. Mine is happiness." He smiled, as if punctuating the statement. "Find an emotion or a memory, anything, and draw on it. Let it fill your heart, and there you will find the Force."

[Kurzen Fox]

I nodded and closed my eyes, hoping it would allow me to concentrate further. As I did so, I recalled missions with the Red Lions. The camaraderie we had shown always made me fill with pride. I folded my arms over my chest, and rolled my shoulders to release a little of the tension in my body, and soon began to feel what Zeke had been talking about.

It was like a faint tingling in the back of my head, which spread to become a cool balming feel over the surface of my skin. I stretched out a bit and laughed as it felt like it was being encompassed by something invisible.

[Zeke]

"You got it. Now, that power you're feeling now? Move it into your legs and jump."

Zeke suited actions to words and leapt straight up, touching the hgh celing before he landed.

"Like that."

[Kurzen Fox]

I cringed as I opened one eye, watching Zeke hop like a leap-frog. Move the power into my legs? I raised an eyebrow and twisted my face a bit then jumped … but only to the normal height. For a moment I felt a flux in the energy I was concentrating from focusing on the Force, and almost froze up in attempt to keep a hold on it. It seemed as though if I let my mind off it for a second it would dissipate into nothing and leave me back at square one.

Never the less, I tried again, and this time felt something new. It was natural and I had to put little effort into it, but all of a sudden something tingled in my calves and I was propelled upwards, barely missing cracking the top of my head off of the ceiling. In mid air I flailed my arms and panicked, then shot back down and collapsed onto the floor, sprawled out.

With my face buried against the floor, I mumbled: “Ow.”

Coughing, I pulled myself to my feet and looked at Zeke, wincing.

[Zeke]

"Not bad. Just remember this about landing: no matter what height you jump to, the landing is always the same. Keep your feet under you and don't panic."

He leapt again, landing nimbly on his feet.

"Give it another try."

[Kurzen Fox]

I nodded and sighed somewhat. This time, having the experience of one jump, I was a little hesitant but more able to pull it off. I sprung upwards, and kept telling myself I was confident, and managed to not hit the roof. With a grin, I came down to land and did so on two feet, albeit wobbling a bit.

“Scooore!”

[Zeke]

"Hell yes!" Zeke shouted. "Now that you can jump, let's teach you how to run. Feed the power to your legs again, but run. Flat out sprint. Do a lap or two around the room to get the hang of it, then we'll race to the gardens for the next part."

[Kurzen Fox]

I nodded. Running, that was easy enough. Beginning to jog around the room, I quickened my pace and did just as Zeke stated – which unfortunately resulted in my being sprung up a few feet into the air. With a grimace a landed, shrugged it off, and continued running. My mind focusing upon the Force, as Zeke had instructed, I envisaged in my mind the energy infusing the muscles in my legs with added strength, though little seemed to happen …

Aside from things around me becoming blurred. As I looked to the side, I realised I had cleared the width of the room in at least double the speed I normally could, and skidded to a halt.

[Zeke]

"Oh cool," Zeke stated. "To the gardens! On your mark...get set..."

Zeke paused dramatically.

"GO!"

[Kurzen Fox]

Instantly I started off running, with another bounce, before my footing became habitual and I tore towards the gardens, determined to beat Zeke.

[Zeke]

Zeke matched his Padawan's speed, not to taunt him, but to assist if help was needed. He'd jumped at the start; they'd work on that later.

"You're doing well...oh, look out!"

A janitor's bucket was in the hallway marking the wet floor. Zeke leapt across the slippery floor and slowed to watch his Padawan.

[Kurzen Fox]

At first I thought it was easy, but then my feet began to stumble as the flow apparently lost friction – it was then that I noticed the bucket! With a grimace I curbed the speed I had picked up and dug my heels against the ground. Somehow I managed to slide right over the damp patch and was able to continue on running with Zeke.

“Close one!”

[Zeke]

"That it was."

A smooth move. Now that that was past, he'd let his padawan adjust.

"I'll see you in the gardens..."

Zeke was gone in a flash to the gardens to prepare the next exercise.

[Kurzen Fox]

After a laborious minute of running I finally found Zeke and halted, huffing and puffing. With a big inhalation to catch my breath, I looked to the Knight expectantly.

“What’s next, yo?”

[Zeke]

"Well, now that you can boost speed, and do some jumps, I figured we'd come out here to boost strength."

Zeke was sitting atop a large rock, and jumped down and gestured to it.

"Think you could lift that?"