Tell me again what that big glowing thing is. (Sejah)

[Kale]

It had been two days since Kale and Oriadin had returned from their mission into the Coruscant interior, and Kale's experiences had enlightened him on a number of points. One was that the life of a Jedi was a lot more exciting than he'd initially bargained for. Another was that it sure bites to be stuck in a room full of angry thugs and not know how to defend yourself.

Oriadin had given him yesterday off to recoup, and today Kale was wandering through the combat training sector. He honestly wasn't sure what he intended to do there, but it felt like he ought to start familiarizing himself with the Jedi way of fighting. As he passed through a few glassed-in training chambers, he saw a number of Padawans and Knights alike honing their lightsaber skills with an uncanny grace. It was a sight to behold.

Kale found himself in one of the starker sparring rooms down the hall. There was no raised central platform, just a well-used mat laid across the middle of the room, and a full-length mirror down the far wall. On the right-hand wall was a set of lockers. Out of curiosity, Kale tried the nearest handle and found it unlocked. He reached inside and pulled out a lightweight training saber.

Suprrised to find such a thing left sitting in an old locker, he glanced around him for anyone who might be returning to claim it. He was going to put it back when he caught a glimpse of his reflection in the mirror.

Kale smirked at the figure he cut, then marched out to the center of the mat and struck a dramatic pose. Fading to the side, he raised the unlit saber and swung it at a few imaginary enemies, then finished off with a spinning upward slash. A sharp fizzzzz startled him, and the saber went spinning out of his grasp. He caught a glimpse of the nonlethal white blade cutting through the air for a moment before the saber's safeties deactivated it. The metal cannister struck the floor with a resonant clatter, and Kale dashed over to pick it up before someone noticed.

[Sejah Haversh]

Like a tossed wrench, the trainign saber spun across the smooth floor until it stopped suddenly under the toe of a very large canvas sneaker.

"I see you've stuck around, kid," Sejah grinned as he bent down to pick the training saber up and buffed it on the sleeve of his shirt. HE looked different than Kale has seen him before, dressed in brand new knockaround clothing with various brand labels on everything., almost as if he were now being sponsored by clothing companies.

With a light flick, he tossed the saber back to Kale and stepped into the room from the doorway. "Glad to see you're still here, and Oriadin tells me you're his padawan now. He's a good guy, one of my friends. But, it looks like he hasn't gotten to the saber yet, has he, Kale?"

[Kale]

Kale hadn't seen Sejah in the doorway, and the sound of his voice gave him a start. He didn't recognize the mongoose for a moment, then he remembered that Sejah was the one who'd brought him into the Order.

"No, not yet," Kale replied. Distracted, he made a clumsy grab at the tossed lightsaber with his left hand. The cyllinder bounced up like a hot potato before Kale snagged it between his hands.

He cleared his throat and stowed the saber behind his back. "Of course, he's been busy with Council stuff since we got back from the Southern Underground. I've just been takin' the time off."

[Sejah Haversh]

"That's right, he did get elected to the council. didn't he?" Sejah mused to himself as he drew into a conversation distance.

"Well, no offense, but, it does look like you could use a little help. I've got the day prettmuch free if you'd like to learn a bit," the mongoose offered as he pulled his old and battered lightsaber out of one of the cargo pockets on his pants.

[Kale]

"Uh..." Kale glanced from the saber in Sejah's paw to the one in his own hand. "Sure, why not? I guess I gotta learn sometime. Just... y'know, this is the first time I've really held a saber, so we'll have to start pretty basic. But I guess you, uh, already figured that out."

He stepped back and extended the saber, studying it from several different angles before he finally looked up sheepishly at Sejah and asked, "How do you turn it on?"

[Sejah Haversh]

Sejah couldn't help but chuckle as he stepped over and looked at the saber Kale was holding. "There should eb a little red button on it somwehrre there; just make sure that you are holding it right side up. Wouldn't want to turn it on and run yourself through, now would you?"

He then proceeded to ignite his own saber on the training setting, the blue blade shoothing forth from the handle and glowing blue. A few practice swings to refamiliarize himself with the lack of weight were all he needed to get himself back into the right frame of mind, but he could tell that Kale would need some considerable help.

"Well, now that we've got them on, the next logical step would be to learn how to swing them. Just try swinging it like you think you would, and I'll watch for a bit, okay?"

[Kale]

"Oh, thanks."

Kale turned the saber over again and spotted the red button hiding underneath a safety switch. All it took was a sweep of the thumb to move the switch aside and trigger the button. Clever.

The white blade shot from the emitter coil again, and this time, Kale kept his grip on it. The saber gave off very little heat, but he could feel the surge of power vibrating throught the cyllinder, and it sent a shiver up his spine.

"Okay," he said, "I'll give it a shot."

He stepped over to the center of the mat where he'd begun his imaginary duel moments before, then checked his stance in the mirror. Everything he knew about swordfighting he learned from a few old action flicks he'd sneaked into at the holotheater, so he mimicked what he could remember.

Rolling forward onto the balls of his feet, Kale cut a quick figure-eight in the air, then stepped forward with a downward slash and reversed it into an uppercut. Then, with a flick of the wrist, he swept the blade around at throat level, which, if he remembered correctly, was how the hero finished off the bad guy in "Seven Flaming Fists." Pulling the saber down at his side, Kale stood and waited for Sejah's judgment, then realized the blade tip was leaving a scorchmark in the floor.

"Aw, shoot..."

[Sejah Haversh]

Sejah shook his head. Not in dissapointment, but to keep from laughing.

Kale was quite obviously not accustomed to fighting of any kind, and his techniques was sloppy even for a beginner. But rather than berate him right off, the Nehantite decided to try a little casual instruction.

"Well," he started, rubbing his neck while he slowly began to circle the youth. "You are going to need to learn form before anything else. Don't worry about the floor, those can buff out, trust me. But in order to make yourself better, this is going to to take a lot of practice."

Having rounded a full circle, Sejah came back before him and held his saber at the ready. "First thing we'll work on is how to strike. The upper body is a great target, because it is big, and it's in the middle of whoever you're trying to get at. So, aim for that first, and we can work on the tricky stuff next. Now, watch me."

Slowly, the mongoose stepped forward, bringing his traning saber in a slow-motion sweep from high to his right, down across where Kale's chest would be. "There, just like that. Now you try."

[Kale]

Kale was a little disappointed at Sejah's assessment of his skills--he didn't expect to be a natural, but he'd hoped to at least get a commendation for effort.

Practice. He'd practiced before. Klaus Malborn had made sure he practiced diligently at the art of thievery, and he'd kept it up out of necessity. He could apply the same diligence to saberplay.

But as he watched Sejah's demonstration, his face fell. "Uh... Isn't that sort of, well, kid stuff? I mean, anybody can swing a stick."

[Sejah Haversh]

To answer Kale's insolence, Sejah wheeled his saber around and struck up from below, whacking Kale hard in the groin, a crafty smile on his face.

"True, anybody can swing one, but putting it where it will do the most damage is the key, wouldn't you say?"

[Sejah Haversh]

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[Kale]

Kale emitted a noise more akin to the howling of a gundark than anything in the human vocabulary. His face tight with pain and rage, but more pain than rage, he bent double and squalled, "What the frellin' dren was that for?"

[Sejah Haversh]

"Oh, nothing really,"Sejah replied. "You just happened to say the wrong thing was all. You should see what happens to students who disobey my instructions in my class back home. We use steel or wooden blades there."

Though he sectretly was sorry for whacking Kale in the gonads, Sejah knew that the boy would have to develop a lottle respect, and a proper backbone if he were to learn how to fight properly. Demonstrating the same slash as he had before, Sejah raised his eyebrows and looked to Kale quite innocently. "Care to give that strike a try, or do I have to hit you again?"

[Kale]

"No!" Kale replied as emphatically as he could muster. "All I did was ask a question. All right, fine. I'm giving it a try, see?"

Carefully, he stepped back well out of Sejah's immediate strike range and copied the mongoose's stance as best as he could from memory. Lifting his saber around the level of his right shoulder, he swept the white blade down through the torso of an imaginary Sejah whose imaginary face reflected what Kale deemed the appropriate level of imaginary contrition.

Taking another step back, he looked back up at Sejah. "There. Uh, what do you think?"

[Sejah Haversh]

"You've got the spirit," Sejah credited him. "But you lack any form of grace. But don't take that the wrong way, it just means that you'd get whooped in a fight right now."

"Tell me, have you ever watched a boxing match, Kale?" Sejah asked, turning his saber off.

[Kale]

Tevit's softer tone eased the tension considerably, and Kale came a little closer. "I've seen street fights," he said. "And part of a shockboxing match. Sorta blundered onto it and hung around until a bouncer chased me away."

[Sejah Haversh]

"And when you watched," the mongoose questioned him further, "Did you notice how smoothly the fighters could move, and how they could throw the same punches over and over? They can do that because of practice. Constantly repeating the same motion over and over trains the muscles to follow a set path faster, and with moe power. By practicing what you would call basic strikes, you get better and learn how to do that same strike to an exacting level of perfection.

"Once you reach that level, you may progress on to new moves, and add to your library of attacks and defenses. From there it is your turn to learn how to properly access all you have learned quickly so that you can actually use it. Thugh anybody might eb able to swing a stick, many can't put it where they want it to go, or follow it up with another swing. Are you getting what I'm talking about?"

[Kale]

Kale nodded slowly. "I think so. I just... well, never gave it that much thought. I'm more used to runnin' than fightin'."

He gave his training saber another experimental twirl and was gratified that it didn't fly out of his grasp. Then he glanced back up at Sejah.

"But, geeze, couldn't you have said that in the first place instead of rackin' me with your saber?"

[Sejah Haversh]

"Would you have listened to me so intently if I hadn't hit you?" Sejah asked, tilting his head.

[Kale]

"Well--" Kale found himself at a loss for a suitable retort. Letting his shoulders sag, he said, "Maybe not. But warn me next time, okay?"

He walked a few steps just to make sure everything was still in order. "All right, so, what do you want me to do now? Same thing over again?"

[Sejah Haversh]

"However did you guess?" Sejah asked with a smile. "Now, as you swing, don't just swing with your arm, but with your whole body. Start from your feet."

[Kale]

Kale was about to make a comment about the impropriety of swinging a saber with one's feet, but he thought better of it.

This time, he put a little spin into the maneuver. Woah--that did make a difference. Enough of one that his blade knicked the floor mat again.

From the look on Sejah's face, he could tell it still needed work--somewhere. Not waiting for advice, he tried it again, then added a little spinning slash on the end of it as he turned to face Sejah.

Dang, there was no impressing this guy.

"Got any more pointers?" he asked.