Ready to learn....(Morgan)

[Quay'Na Rakai]

Quay'Na leaned against the stone railing that circled her favorite garden as she looked out at the buding sun as it peeked between Coruscants highrises.

She'd already been up for a couple of hours and had done her morning workout, eaten breakfast and allowed her ferret, Jax the luxury of running about in the garden.

The night before she had left a message with her new Master asking him if they could begin training this morning.

She was ready, more than ready. Quay'Na wanted to start learning again, but first she guessed that they would have to discuss things to kinda get to know each other a little better. She wasn't exactily sure what they would do, but whatever it was would be a lot better than sitting around doing nothing.

So, for now she waited, hoping he would be there soon....

[Morgan Evanar]

"G'mornin." She almost jumped. Morgan walked quietly, and his presence was less noticable than most beings.

"I think we should probably train out in the garden somewhere. That is your element, correct?" Quay nodded.

"Well then. Lets see if you can find me in your element. I'll be on the West side. Right... now." The light around Morgan twisted until he was no longer seen, and his presence seemed to thin and waver into nothing. Quick steps echoed oddly through the room before fading out altogether.

[Quay'Na Rakai]

Quay'Na took a double take as her master just disappeared right before her eyes.

With a deep breath, she closed her eyes and drew on the Force. Feeling the essence of nature ripple from everything around her, she reached out to feel his presence towards the west.

At first, he seemed to blend in with everything. He moved almost like a shadow in the Force. But, she caught onto the flow of the air, the rustle of the leaves and the faint echo of his footsteps.
He was definitely not an easy one to detect, especially in his invisible mode, but she used the Force of nature to trail him.

Morgan came to a stop in the midst of some large leaves of a Tappoli tree.

Quay'Na stopped only a few feet away, she stepped closer and closer. Until, she was basically right beside him and reached out to touch...him. It was definitely him. "Tag." She smiled.

[Morgan Evanar]

He tagged her back. "You're it!" Morgan took to the air, making a lazy, open backflip to a branch six meters up. He looked down at Quay. This was mostly to assess her abilities, and she probably knew that. Supposedly she had a degree of animal kin, but like Hayes' empathy, it was foriegn to him.

[Quay'Na Rakai]

Her new Master was testing her.

Quay'Na felt the rush of air with his jump and she knew it. He had gone up, but exactly where he was in the tree was unknown to her at the time.

The Padawan glanced up and studied the tree, each limb how it swayed, whether it was by a breeze or whatnot.

A couple of animals were perched about and had taken off as the invisible Jedi Master landed on a limb. That was a dead give away, for the anilmals had been communicating rather rapidly in their hurried scuffle.

Quay'Na smiled and closed her eyes. Her gymnastic abilities were about to show. With a calm relaxing breath, she jumped and Force boosted herself up into the tree, landing lightly. She was on a different branch than he was, but that's how she had wanted it. With graceful ease, she ran along the limb and soon jumped again, to the very branch Morgan was on.

[Morgan Evanar]

Morgan dropped as Quay was about to tag him. He swung forward and up, catching another branch. Morgan used the momentum to twist and land on the branch he used as a swing moments ago.

He reappeared. "You're not using your eyes, Quay. That is good. Try and knock me off."

[Quay'Na Rakai]

He was once again above her now as he reappeared. Morgan was good.

Knock him off??? That was a strange request, but she would attempt to do as he requested.

"Ok," she answered as she glanced at the array of branches that she could go. Not looking down in the least, she took off running along the branch and catapulted herself up to another just past Morgan.

She was above him at the moment and with graceful ease dropped and swung herself down holding onto the branch, hoping to knock him off with feet.

[Morgan Evanar]

Morgan grinned and caught Quay'Na by her ankle. He used her momentum to turn her upside down and let her dangle in the air.

"No, I don't think you can quite manage that yet."

"You've a strong sense of physical balance, Quay'Na. That's a pratical asset. Just don't lean on it too hard. What else are you good at?"

He held her over the branch, and lowered her so she could handstand and regain her feet.

[Quay'Na Rakai]

"Well," she said as she stood back up beside him. "My animal sensing abilities, my balance and gymnastic skills are my best qualities. I'm a good pilot and mechanic. My lightsabering is pretty good....and I can feel some emotions in others, but it has to be strong and I have to pretty much be right there."

She stopped and thought some more. "Everything else is pretty much non-existant. I can't Force push and I can barely move things. Then, telepathy and healing beyond the animal kingdom I can't do yet, whether or not I'll be able to I don't know. I guess, that's about it. Pretty sad, huh?"

[Morgan Evanar]

"My tail of woe is far worse than yours. I'm a Jedi Master, technically, yes. But beyond my spacial awareness and being able to bend light, blur my presence in the Force, I'm pathetic. Empathy? Barely. I have a beating heart and a social conscience. Healing? Nope. Telekenesis? I can make my saber roll around a little. Mentalism? Totally unpredictable. Mediocre telepathy, gives me a terrible headache with some species. A lot of things, like my base speed and strength, come from my genetics." Morgan pulled off a pair of everpresent gloves: four five inch claws lay flat against each of his hands.

"I'm not exactly human. Bit of an Imperial science project, mostly. Can't really talk about it, most of it is top secret. Mom was... whatever I am, Dad was some guy. Her genetic code is dominant. Half the time I cheat with emotions. Pheremone shifts for moods are drastic." he tapped his nose, and then pointed at his eye. "Nictitating membranes." A clear eyelid, found on most aquatic mammals slid up, covering and protecting his eye.

"Lots of little subtle differences in my skeletal structure, especially my feet. My nervous response is only about eight times faster than yours, probably. You likely get the idea, lass."

[Quay'Na Rakai]

"Wow," was about all her mind would allow her to say. She had no idea about any of the background he had just explained. It was very interesting to say the least.

"I had no idea, Master..." She shook her mind from her thoughts. "About all I know about my past is that my 'real' dad had the Force and I just met him about a month ago. I don't know anything on my mom and that is kinda funny, because I was supposed to be with her." She slightly grinned as she thought of this.

"I was adopted by the Rakai's when I was three months old and they had been my only family until my real dad and Yasmin showed up. That was quite strange." She realized that she was in a tree and rambling. "I'm sorry, Master this has nothing to do with learning..."

[Morgan Evanar]

"It has everything to do with teaching. How am I supposed to teach if I know nothing about my student?" Morgan sat down on the branch, and gestured to the empty space next to him. He was not a University professor with thirty students after the disinterested had fled his class: Morgan had two students, and if he wanted to teach them right, he needed to do some learning himself.

"So tell me more about yourself."

[Quay'Na Rakai]

Quay'Na nodded and took a seat beside her Master. "Well," Where to begin...

"I was recruited almost five and a half years ago on Corellia, after an incident with some animals at a carnival. My uncle contacted the Temple after he thought I was Force-sensitive, he was right and much to my adoptive parents dismay I left with Master Ira Valko."

"She brought me here to the Temple for like three days and off we went to system after system to work on my animal sensing abilities. It was quite thrilling to say the least. But, then it all ended when she was killed about six months ago." She sighed. "And that really sucked...pardon my slang, Master."

"I took that one pretty hard, I was at the controls when we crashed. Some poachers we had arrested on Kabal had some friends who planted a bomb on our ship. Shortly after we took off, it exploded and I had to make a crash landing...Master Ira's restraint broke when we hit."

Quay'Na looked up at some birds on a branch. "I don't deal well with death. Master Sage did help me a lot when I returned here. He took me on as his Padawan not twenty minutes after I got to the quarters Ira and I shared here."

[Morgan Evanar]

"Death and birth are the most natural things in the universe, Quay. Its a big recycling vat out there." He spun his pointer in circles a few times to illustrate the point. "Master Valko will return, in one form or another. You didn't have time to grieve, I think. If you'd like, we can see his room now."

She's so unstable. Maybe this will bring her a measure of peace.

[Quay'Na Rakai]

Quay'Na thought about it for a few moments. Ira had been like a mother to her, the mother she never had. It hurt so much when she died.

It had been six months since she'd been in there and the last time, she'd lightsabered a holo-projector and table in two.

Perhaps, it was so, perhaps she hadn't had time to grieve, for the very next day after Sage had taken her on, she moved into his apartment and began training.

"I know, Master." She said as she nodded solemnly. "I just...I don't..." She stopped.

Quay'Na had to collect her thoughts. She took in a deep breath and relaxed. "I would like to go see her room again."

Why is this so hard? It shouldn't be...

[Morgan Evanar]

Morgan and Quay walked side by side in silence. It took fifteen minutes to reach the quarters. The Jedi Master slid a passcard through, and the lock clicked.

He pushed the door open, and the pair stood in the doorway, staring into the vacant space.

"Do you want me to stay?" he said, breaking the silence.

[Quay'Na Rakai]

Quay'Na just stopped and stared into the room. She wondered if it were really such a great idea after all. "Yes, Master. If you wouldn't mind."

A shiver came over her as she stepped in. The place seemed almost like a tomb now. Cold and shadowing, unfriendly to her presence.

I can do this... Quay'Na thought as she closed her eyes and tapped into the warm rush of the Force. A safe place.

Once in tune with the Force, she felt her former master's presence in everything around her. The chair, the kitchen, her room.

It no longer felt agonizing to be here, it was as if Ira had placed a warm blanket over her Padawan's shoulders. Quay'Na felt comforted for the first time since her death. Tears stung her eyes as she walked further in. "I can feel her in the Force, Master." She spoke blindly, as the tears she had hoped to conceal fell down her cheeks.

Quickly, she wiped them away, she felt stupid. Quay looked at her new Master. "Why is death so hard to take, Master? I mean, it's like you said, we all come back."

She stared around the room for a few more moments and then shook her head. "I can't stay here." She turned and quickly exited. Where had the warmth of Ira gone, it had disapated as quickly as it had came.

Quay'Na breathed deeply as she hurried back down the hall towards her favorite garden, not stoppjng until she reached it.

[Morgan Evanar]

Morgan followed, his long legs covering the distance with ease. He stood beside his padawan.

"Answering your question won't make the truth any easier. When you care about someone, and they go away, for whatever reason, you are missing a small part of yourself. Sometimes you adapt, and it makes you stronger. Sometimes a person collapses under the weight of grief."

Quay nodded, but didn't acknowledge him otherwise.

"I think that you should come along and see what a mess the Senate can be. There is a debate on imports from Abregado-Rae, and they're bugging me to moderate it."

[Quay'Na Rakai]

Quay'Na took a deep breath to calm the uneasiness within her and nodded. "I've never been to the Senate, Master. So, indeed this should be interesting." It was a step in a new direction for the Padawan.