Bully

[Draiya Naaianeya]

"Oh come on! No fair!"

Already the informal duel was going poorly for Toma Jerso, and he hadn't even crossed blades yet with his rival padawan classmate. In fact, his opponent had extinguished hers altogether.

"Cheater!"

Tinkling laughter bounded by him with a rush of air, and he swung his training saber with a whrooom of angry force, hitting only more air.

The sound of a shoe scuffing at the prefabricated building's floor, and Toma swung hard, the training blade snapping angrily against the tile without leaving a mark. Instead, the shoe had apparently traveled to his face, kicking him across the jaw and opening his bottom lip as he spun around. At last a lightsaber appeared out of thin air, crashing with authority into Toma's ribs, winding him and sending him to the floor. As the padawan fell, his nemesis appeared from obscurity, a human girl in a training tunic, wearing a sheen of sweat and a defiant smile. She took a step toward her enemy, jammed a boot across his shoulder, and held her training saber with menace.

"Yourr lunches forr one week, Toma."

Toma's face reddened from where he lay on the ground, a hand wiping the bit of blood on his lip as he glared up at the duplicitous Draiya Naaianeya.

"Weren't a fair fight, Draiya. Weren't fair."

A hand went down to snatch Toma up by his collar, and Draiya hoisted him up as she squatted down to eye level.

"Fairrerr than when you pushed me out of that trree, Toya! I told you I'd get you! And now your lunches forr a week belong to me!"

Defeated, Toma sniffed, unwilling to look his victor in the eye.

[Bryna Belargic]

“Hey!”

A hand caught Draiya by the shoulder, pulling the girl a step away from her red-faced sparring partner and turning her to face a young woman in an almost identical outfit to her own.

Bryna's mind went blank. She had been about to say something else – presumably something about how gloating didn't exactly form part of the Jedi Code – but her mind had gone blank.

She frowned, not in the least bit prepared to be confronted by the face looking back up at her.

“H... ey.”

[Draiya Naaianeya]

Nostrils still flaring from the true and utter butt-kicking she'd delivered, Draiya whirled around with a cocksure smirk.

"Yeah what?"

And then something changed on the older girl's face, and Draiya was no longer sure she was being taken to task. Her smirk diminished, and her lightsaber was extinguished.

"I didn't cheat, Toma's a sorre loserr, lady."

Draiya's excuse wasn't asked for, but it also didn't change the weird look the lady was giving her. Now the Syragori Padawan was really confused.

"What??"

[Bryna Belargic]

Caught off guard, a beat passed and Bryna said nothing. A handful of the kids who'd been watching the duel were now eyeing the two of them. Get it together, Belargic, Bryna told herself. Coming face to face with people she knew, who had no idea who she was. She'd been through this before, and she would keep going through it again and again until she had confronted every last Force ghost of Life Day past.

The bridge of her nose wrinkled. “Don't lady me, kid. I'm a Jedi.”

Draiya hadn't shrugged away her hand. Bryna gave her shoulder a nudge as she glanced back at Toma, fighting a smirk that mirrored the girl's a little too closely.

“Come on. You already beat the snot out of him. Let's go get... victory milkshakes or something.”

[Draiya Naaianeya]

Draiya's eyebrows shot up at the mystery Jedi's unprovoked offering of a milkshake.

"Surre!"

Going from getting a scolding over a fight that wasn't strictly sanctioned (Loki might have kittens over word of it), to getting rewarded with a milkshake was a great reversal, and Draiya fell into easy lockstep at Bryna's side as they left. Before getting out of sight of Toma, however, Draiya turned back to her sulking adversary.

"Lunch forr a week! Don't forrget!"

The Syragori Padawan turned back around, a broad little grin on her features.

"I'm Draiya."

[Bryna Belargic]

“I know,” she almost said and couldn't help but smile as they left behind the fast-dispersing crowd of young Jedi on their way to the camp proper.

“I'm Bryna.”

It occurred to her that she had no idea whether there would be milkshakes. Was there even milk? There had been a herd of bantha on Vortex that kept the Jedi compound's kitchens stocked with blue milk. Bryna sniffed at the air – there didn't look to be any bantha on Ossus. Maybe that was the next step in Anbira's plan to turn the forest into a functioning farmers market.

“So, what's the deal with Toma?”

[Draiya Naaianeya]

Draiya smirked, chin up at the mention of her defeated adversary.

"Some loud-mouth who thinks his forrm one style can beat mine, so I showed him wherre he can put his saberr."

She smiled at the fresh recollection of how she'd cleaned his clock, and looked up at Bryna who had her full attention.

"You'rre a padawan too, huh? I've seen you I think. You must be in the advanced classes."

Curiosity lit up her eyes with a sparkle.

"Bet you know all sorrts of kuu'ai trricks!"

[Bryna Belargic]

“I do. Learned from the best.”

She spoke with as much nonchalance as she could muster. It wasn't bragging when it was true, right? At least most of it. Draiya had always been the one with the kuu'ai ability, though Bryna supposed that she could make a case for having accumulated a few kuu'ai points of her own.

“I'll be a Jedi Knight soon.”

[Draiya Naaianeya]

"You'rre taking the trrials?!"

Draiya's mouth gaped in surprise (and a little envy), as she looked up at the older Padawan.

"When arre you taking them? Do you know what you'll have to do? Is Loki going to grrade you?"

Stopping in her tracks, Draiya crossed her arms as she turned to regard her newfound target of admiration.

"Do you know how to..."

She glanced left and right, conspiratorially.

"Mind trrick?" came out in a whisper.

[Bryna Belargic]

“Maybe. Maybe I already pulled a mind trick on you.”

She shrugged one shoulder. As for the trials, that took a little of the certainty out of Bryna's smirk. Whenever a Knight-to-be had been put through their paces by the Jedi Council on Vortex, it had often been in secrecy. Even Draiya – the Draiya that Bryna knew – had kept the details of her own trials a closely guarded secret, much to Bryna's disappointment. She could hardly hold that against this younger version of herself, however much fun it might be.

“Master Tarkin will decide when I'm ready.”

[Draiya Naaianeya]

"Nuh-uh."

Draiya backed away a bit defensively, eyes narrowing as she was mostly sure there was no way Bryna could have pulled off a mind trick on her without knowing. Doubt creeped in the more she thought about it. What good would a mind trick be if she knew it was happening?

Deciding to trust in what she assumed was Bryna's better nature, Draiya thought about what she said.

"So it's a secrret test? You don't know until it happens? Huh."

They continued to walk toward the mess tent, and Draiya picked up the pace a little.

"So when you become a Knight, arre you going to teach a Padawan?"

[Bryna Belargic]

“Of course.”

The answer fell out of her mouth without a seconds thought. When she considered it for more than a second, it occurred to Bryna that this was – somehow – a new concept. Her own padawan. She had always been so focused on her own training that taking a padawan learner hadn't crossed her mind. Sure, she had helped out with youngling classes on Vortex, but who didn't?

“When you become a Knight, the Council assigns you a student.”

At least, that was what Draiya had once told her... with the added observation that the Council seemed to like pairing Knights up with whichever student would piss them off the most. Bryna kept that bit of wisdom to herself.

“Someday you'll have a padawan too.”

The mess tent wasn't far off now, the cacophony of sounds and smells a few feet away from slapping both of them in the face.

[Draiya Naaianeya]

Her eyes twinkled at that thought, a sly grin on her face.

"Kuu'ai!"

The notion of her charging head-long into battle with a similarly-minded padawan, slipping past everyone under cover of daylight and saving the day with all manner of surprise attacks, haymakers, and dirty tricks caught her up in a daydream that made her stop in her tracks. Realizing she was being left behind, Draiya picked up her pace and caught up with the older padawan.

"You can tell the Council I'm okay with it, you know."

Realizing Bryna probably didn't know what she meant, Draiya continued.

"Me being yourr Padawan, I mean. If they'rre gonna give you one, and they have to pick, then you can pick me. That would be okay."