Course 1: Elijah

[Chance]

It was near daybreak, about 7 am in the morning. The rising sun struck the outer facilities of the Arcan IV base with a soft caressing motion as Chance watched it. Of course, he could not see the light rays, but the monotone world of brush strokes he now lived in displayed the event slightly.

Letting a crooked smile onto his face, the Knight turned on his heel and jumped off the parapets to land into a crouch softly on the grass below. Standing, Chance strolled lightly along the stretch of stone and mortar until he reached a set of granite boulders surrounded by a thicket of smaller rocks.

He was waiting for his newest Padawan, Elijah Kalrico, whom had been recruited days before and requested to take a ship to the Arcan Facility. Chance loathed, somewhat, the Coruscant Base due to the massive amount of clouds in the air, it made it difficult to enjoy the rays of sunset which could be seen on the Arcan base.

Anyway, Chance shrugged in thought before jumping past the smaller rocks and onto the large boulder. Sitting, the Blind Knight closed his eyes and waited….

[Elijah Kalrico]

4 A.M.

BEEP--BEEP--BEEP--BEEP--SMASH!

Elijah rolled over in his bed and thumped the top of the crono that was attempting to wake him up so that he would not be late for his first day of training. Rolling his eyes as he realized what time it was, the young man turned back over on his side and tried to go back to sleep until suddenly the crono began going off again, this time, three times louder than before!

"SHUT THE HELL UP!"

He yelled and sat up in bed, then grabbed hold of the crono and ripped it out of the wall. Growling in anger, he chucked the device across the room and it smashed into several pieces as it made an impact with the door. Elijah rubbed the back of his neck as he put his feet over the edge of the bed and felt the cold floor beneath them. Sighing, he finally put his weight upon his legs and forced himself to get up and get ready for the day.

It was a challenge, or so he thought, to dress for such an occasion when he had nothing much to dress in any way. He opted for something simple: a black pair of pants with a white tank top and a black hooded cloak to complete the ensamble. Other than that, he could think of nothing he needed save for the transport ticket he had purchased the day previous so that he could catch his way to the Arcan Base.


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After two hours of hyperspeed powered flight, the ship finally was touching down upon the planet's surface. Elijah said nothing to anyone as he got off the transport and began his new journey, searching for Chance.

"But this time I ain't got no map.....how frelling convenient....."

He shook his head and began walking into the jungles, letting his eyes take over so that he could find Chance. After being smacked in the face several times with branches, stubbing toes upon tree roots, and nearly falling in the river......Elijah spotted his new teacher sitting upon a large rock with his blind eyes shut tightly. Deciding it would be wrong of him to say anything, Elijah quietly came up and sat before Chance....then he too closed his eyes tightly and wonderered why Chance was doing this since it was so pointless. Sighing, he crossed his legs and placed his hands upon his knees, then began to make the sound of:

"Ohm....ohm....."

Trying not to laugh as he did so. So many of these people did this kind of stuff and he had always had customers wanting to take them out. He continued his form of the meditation as he waited for Chance to speak......to say anything at all.

[Chance]

Well, Chance was lightly snoozing while he waited for Elijah to show up...

Waking up without a start, Chance opened one eye and grinned at the padawan whom was trying at least to meditate.. or something. Trying not to laugh at Elijah's concept of it, Chance flexed the force and levitated a small pebbled up into the air.

Moving it forward until it was right infront of the Padawan's face, Chance sent a metal message while closing his eyes to seem back into a state of meditation.

Hello! What are you doing? The stone seemed to 'speak'...

[Elijah Kalrico]

Suddenly a voice popped into Elijah's head and he opened his eyes with a start. A pebble floated before him and it was.....talking to him. He lofted a brow and nearly fell back while eyeing it with immense curiosity.

"What the hell?"

He said outloud, looking all around the pebble. Then something sprung into his mind. This was like the trick he could do with the drinks at the bar. He smiled to himself and nearly laughed.

"Heya.......I'm.......well, I dunno what I'm doing......I'm doing what he's doin'....I mean.....my Master......"

He stumbled over the words, still unused to the idea of having a Master. The word was foreign to his tongue and he had trouble speaking it. Sighing, he shook his head, not able to believe he was speaking to a stone.

"A lil' rock can't be talkin' to me.......there's gotta be more to it than meets the eye....."

He said as his eyes made their way up to Chance. He couldn't help but wonder if it was his Master pulling the stunt. Something told him that he was right, too.....

[Chance]

So, you where trying to sleep out here in the sun? The stone giggled, childish, That guy up there is snoozin' away, I'll wake 'em up for you!

The pebble flirted around in the air once more before flying above Chance's head and dropping like it should, like a rock. It struck Chance roughly and let a yelp out before opening his blind eyes and rubbing the spot tenderly,

"Ow, Darn stones, don't give proper respect when needed.." He grumbled, before straightening up and cracking a small smile at Elijah. "Good Morning, Elijah, I hope you found a room in the LQ pretty well?"

[Elijah Kalrico]

With his mouth hanging open slightly, Elijah's mind tried to figure out what was going on. He hardly heard Chance speaking when suddenly he was snapped back into reality.

"....Uh, yeah....I found my place alright. It's.....nice. Kinda lonely, though. Guess it's somethin' ta get used ta."

He said with softer tones as his eyes focused in on his Master. Looking past Chance for a moment, Elijah regained his focus and shook his head.

"Anyway....how'd ya do that...rock thing? That was you.....wasn't it?"

Not wishing to make a fool out of himself, the Padawan had a good comback in case Chance said 'no'. But he hoped that his Master would be honest with him....it was pretty interesting.

[Chance]

Chance nodded, "Yes, It does get quite... lonely... in the Living Quarters at times.."

Snapping into his own bit of reality, he listened intently as Elijah asked bout the rock. In the back of his mind, the Knight wondered if he should continue on with the ruse, or drop it altogether..

"Yep, that's was me by one half, and the other half was The Force. But before we get into that, Tell me a little about yourself so it makes the lessons easier. I find it hard to cooperate with someone you know nothing about, do you agree?"

[Elijah Kalrico]

Elijah laughed to himself...something he hadn't done in a long time. Nodding slowly, he decided where to begin.

"Well....I grew up with my Mama cuz' my bastard of a Father left her. We didn't have much of anything, but we made it. She raised me well and then I screwed my life up and left 'er livin' on the street. It kills me inside to think I did that to 'er...ya know?"

He paused as memories of his Mother flashed through his mind. Shaking his head, he took a deep breath and continued.

"So I became an Assassin....I drank a lot.....did a lot of drugs....and I became addicted to the lifestyle of it all. Then one day, I was almost killed myself. I OD'd on somethin'...don't even remember what it was now. But while I did that...I had weird visions, dude...er, Master. My eyes were opened, and so somehow my willpower...my conscience dragged me here. I dunno why, but I feel like...I really belong here or somethin'. I feel...lucky."

He stopped and looked at Chance, wondering what he would have to say about his life. Elijah's eyes fell to the floor and he sighed to himself, thinking of everything he had just said. It wasn't even the whole. So he decided to tell the part he left out.

"Sometime in between all that....I met a woman an' I feel in love wit' 'er. She was some kind of Force user, I guess...but then....yeah....someone killed her too."

Then he was silent as he turned away to hide the tremendous pain in his eyes that ached out from deep within his hard heart...calloused by so many years of such anguish.

[Chance]

Chance couldn't help but feel sorrow for the padawan before him, such a tortured life... it was familiar, near the same grounds: Chance went through nearly the same.

"I--.. I'm sorry for your losses, Elijah..." He spoke, shaking his head back and forth, "... Somethings are just too... nevermind it.."

Sighing softly himself, The Jedi thought about his own past... the mines... Kanji... all of it.

"I share a similar story to yours, I was borne on some backwater planet and taught slightly of my abilites. On the planet they called the ability 'Pyschokenesis' but most of us know it better as 'The Force'. The planet was raided and the survivors sold to mining camps across the galaxy, I spent my youth there, working nearly non-stop from day to dusk where I had one hour to sleep... It nearly killed me had it not been for a half-dragon named Kanji."

At the memory, his voice stuttered slightly, choking up. "He-- brought me back to the Arcan facility where Lady Xazor Dawnstrider took me as her student, from there I grew an--d learned until one day I took off with Kanji... We were just suppose to boost morale and help rebuild a town destroyed by war... but something possessed the townsfolk and-- and they killed him.."

Chance's blind eyes unfocused past Elijah's shoulder, a tear threatening to overflow. The feeling that he could not've helped the Dragon when it was needed most in return for help in the past overwhelmed the Knight... it was horrible to go through.

"Before that... event... I was blinded by a Sith Lord named Vega Van Derveld... which robbed me of sight to help my adoptive father..." Here Chance had to advert his own eyes.. it hurt too much....