Strike Hard! Strike Fast! No Mercy!

[Draiya Naaianeya]

It was her favorite part of the week.

Not her studies. Not her meditations. Not calisthenics. Not even lightsaber katas. The two hour weekly session of practical sparring held by Abarai Loki to test the mettle of the best of the crop of Padawans the Jedi Order had to offer. You got sweaty. You got dirty. You got cuts, bruises, welts, little burns, and the occasional broken bone. But if you were really really good, you got to win. And that made all the pain worth it.

The rules were simple. Two combatants entered the 30 meter wide circle. They only left when one combatant yielded, or when one combatant was forced out. Thanks to low intensity practice sabers, it was probably the only time a Jedi would ever take a body blow with a saber and not be out of the fight automatically, although usually that involved enough pain to make a fighter seriously consider throwing in the towel.

The crowd of Padawans huddled around the dueling ring suddenly sounded their "Ooooohhhhh"s in unison as Drax, one of the male Rodian padawans, tumbled through the dirt as his lightsaber tumbled from his grasp. His thin trumpet mouth honked as he gasped for the air that had been kicked out of him by his attacker...who was now charging at him at breakneck speed with a lightsaber she fully intended to use as a golf driver to physically punt him out of bounds.

"Yield! I yield!" Drax gasped between coughs, big limpid tears welling up in his bug eyes as he cradled his head defensively with his hands.

His attacker paused at the very last moment, her green lightsaber blade mere inches from the Rodian's face. The blade extinguished, drawing back up into a utilitarian handle that was gripped tight by two hands with bleeding knuckles. Draiya Naaianeya glared down at her latest vanquished foe, a severe expression on her face as her nostrils flared, taking in oxygen greedily as she cooled down from the exertions of her battle. The Syragori Padawan's shoulder's rose and fell with each breath, and she turned her hard eyes onto the crowd gathered around.

"Next!" she shouted.

[Wei Wu Wei]

It wasn't really in Wei's nature to join in on events like these. However, he felt he needed to see what the Padawans were like. When Draiya called out "Next!" he felt his time to participate had arrived.

The Force Cripple stood, entered the ring, and thumbed his lightsaber on. "Very well," he said as he offered the Makashi Salute. "Let's have some practice."

[Draiya Naaianeya]

It was a slight breech of protocol to have a Jedi Knight join in the Padawan sparring circle, but like hell if Draiya was going to balk at it. If she blinked in the face of a challenge like that, she'd never hear the end of it. The very sight of Wei among the Padawans had the entire group astir, and already a few of them had taken to becoming runners, sprinting away from the circle with shouts of "You guys! You guys! Wei Wu Wei is gonna duel Draiya!"

The Syragori human could feel dozens of pairs of eyes on her, and she stood up straight as she faced her opponent.

"Alrright, Grrandpa! But don't expect me to take it easy on you!"

While her talk was full of swagger, inside Draiya had to tamp down her nerves. She could feel her excitement rising. It was a tendency that she'd been scolded over, as that type of thinking could be dangerous. Instead, she had to live on the knife's edge of perfection of sense and reflex. You either won, or you lost. It was a binary state, she reminded herself. Remove passion from the equation.

Draiya paced Wei like a vornskyr cornering an eopie. She looked for the weak flank to attack and kill. Her right hand tensed and relaxed in rhythm as it held her unlit lightsaber. She couldn't feel the sting in her bloodied knuckles.

And in an instant, what had been a stroll right became a leap left. Draiya's saber came alight, hooking a twirling underhanded Ataru jab that she didn't stop to gauge, moving on to the next aggressive stab as her senses granted her focus to overwhelm her enemy with aggressive energy.

[Akasha Khan]

Akasha Khan was two rings over, having put the finishing touches on a duel with a rangy human boy whose name she'd never bothered to learn, and was enjoying a well-earned quaff from her water bottle when the buzz of excitement reached her twitching, half-moon ears.

Draiya was fighting Wei? This she had to see. The Orryxian pressed her way to the edge of the ring, which rapidly filling up with eager onlookers.

[Hwooroc]

Word travelled fast, and had in short order arrived to the training den for the Katarn Clan of Jedi younglings. Try as Master Laran might, she had a hard time competing for attention when there was a big duel happening, and in a moment a dozen furiously pumping pairs of legs were beating a hasty path toward the dueling ring. Among them was Hwooroc, who desperately circled the throng to find a place where he could see. Even a few off-duty Cizerack soldiers had wandered over to catch a glimpse, their tall frames further serving to block his line of sight. Frustrated, Hwooroc shook his arms and stomped as he Hrrraaaaaaghwawawa'ed, until seeing a possible solution. A familiar Orryxian stood at the periphery, and Hwooroc whuurrfed as he bounded onto her back and then her shoulders, perching with each leg dangling off the top of Akasha Khan as he held onto her ears.

[Wei Wu Wei]

The whispers started, and Wei knew the Padawans were keenly interested to know why a Jedi Knight would barge in on their training time. "Oh, don't worry about me," he said. "I'm just going to be a few minutes. I just want to get to know all you Padawans."

Wei approached, watching Draiya, sensing her rush of emotions. Wei had never known a Padawan without passion. This batch of learners were no exception. The Force Cripple started with a quick thrust that would fall a few inches short of the target zone. The strike came fast, but not at a blistering fast pace.

[Draiya Naaianeya]

Draiya nearly tumbled as a saber blade slid through her guard and nearly unseated her as she swatted it away. How'd he do that? Jaw clenching, the Syragori rebounded in a leap, twirling her blade to slap across Wei's own while she twisted above to spin into a roundhouse kick that would hopefully ring his bell and allow her to really pummel him.

[Wei Wu Wei]

It was a good tactic. Wei took the kick, but spun with it to lessen the impact. He continued spinning, crouched low, and used the momentum to power the next slash.

Wei had to admit, Draiya had a talent. Just a little more, and he'd let the Padawans get back to their thing.

[Draiya Naaianeya]

She made contact with her kick, but instantly knew it wasn't enough to do the damage she needed. Worse still, she was coming down in the path of Wei's well-placed counter-strike. Draiya brought her blade around at the last moment to parry, but it put her in poor position to strike again as she dropped low into a three point stance. Twirling her saber into an inverted grip behind her back, she looked up from her crouch with a determined frown on her face, blowing away a strand of hair from her eyes as her free hand grabbed a handful of dirt from the ground.

Draiya sprang back into action, swatting her inverted blade into an uppercut to get her opponent to commit to a parry or block. As she peeled away, her off hand threw a handful of dirt in Wei's face, and at the same moment, she traced and index finger as an illusion of her thrumming saber blade cut through the dust cloud on an intercept course with Wei's head.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei did commit to blocking the uppercut. Sand flew, and Wei jumped backwards--apparently just in time.

"Well, I can see you use all your resources," he said.

The Force Cripple lowered his saber. "If everyone here thinks like you do in combat, the Empire has its work cut out for it. Master Loki trains you well. Maintain that kind of lateral thinking, and you'll go far."

Wei waved over the next Padawan. "This old man will let you guys get back to what you were doing." Wei smiled. "Thanks for sparring with me."

[Akasha Khan]

Applause rippled up from the crowd of spectating Padwans, most of them disappointed that the spectacle was over so quickly. Akasha reluctantly joined in, not nearly as enthusiastically as the unwanted burden sitting on her shoulders. She'd rather been hoping to see Knight Wei send the little Syragori braggart tumbling heels over head out of the ring, or at least give her a few stinging welts to remember the next time she tried a sneak-attack on a poor unsuspecting Orryxian in the mess tent. But instead he'd gone easy and complemented her. Maiur's eyes, the girl would be insufferable for weeks.

It crossed Akasha's mind to ask Wei if he was game for another bout, just to see what it was like dueling the best swordsman in the camp, but he probably wouldn't hold back in her case. She settled for swinging Hwooroc off her shoulders and stepping into the ring herself.

"Yes, yes, nicely done," she said. "Now are you ready for an opponent who isn't drawing a pension?"

She reached down to her belt and unclasped her training saber, but instead of igniting it she tossed it to a surprised spectator. Then she grasped something smaller, an unassuming white cylinder just a little longer than her paw. With a subtle shake and twist, it expanded in both directions into a seamless white staff.

[Draiya Naaianeya]

Draiya was slightly winded by the exertion against Master Wei, and immediately began to center herself. She was frustrated. Frustrated that she'd thrown some of her best ability at Master Wei and that he'd been so glib about the experience. Frustrated that she hadn't ended the fight decisively. Frustrated that she knew in her heart that he could have easily put her away in front of everyone.

Her dark eyes locked onto Akasha the moment she heard her purring voice. Ever the opportunist. The Syragori extinguished her lightsaber briefly, clipping it to her belt as she quickly worked at her errant hair, drawing her ponytail back tighter with the elastic band that held it in place and making sure that any straggling strands were out of her face. The brief hair distraction tended to, Draiya flexed her hands, clenching them repeatedly to make sure that her bloodied knuckles weren't swelling.

"Brring it on!"

Draiya squared her stance, digging her booted toes into the dirt as she watched Akasha brandish something a little special for their fight. Her pulse quickened, eager to put this bit of unknown to the test. The human sneered defiantly as she stared Akasha down, turning briefly to spit into the dirt as she waited for her opponent to make her move.

[Abarai Loki]

While Draiya went at Wei like an ape swatting at the moon, Loki monitored the few remaining sparring pairs; on more than one occassion he was forced to order them back to their circles to finish their duels. The confrontation between knight and padawan had become the main event, and, perhaps aware of that and the detrimental effect it could have upon the padawans' concentration, Wei drew the engagement to a premature end. He could only imagine the effect that would have upon the gundarkian sensibilities of the Syragori brawler. That in itself was not a problem; the person to pick up Draiya's gauntlet, on the other hand, was. Where Draiya was brutish and unpredictable, Akasha Khan was aggressive and relentless, and both were as unorthodox as each other.

"Aluth, Bopie," he said to the last remaining duelists, "You are done."

Jaws dropped on the cusp of objection, but both padawans thought better of it, and extinguished their lightsaber blades in unison. Wasting no time at all, they ran to the bustling circle, and nudged a path through the ranks of spectators. Loki followed, and secured for himself a place on the inside of the crowd, with an unobstructed view. He did not cheer, or chant, or clap like the rest of the would-be troglodytes, instead he watched, with surgical scrutiny, as the girls sized each other up like a couple of ravenous nexus.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei sidled up next to Loki.

"Is it just me, or do the Padawans enjoy fighting a little too much?" He kept his tone light, but the question was serious. "I know they're young and still learning, but I sense they bring their emotions into their duels much more willingly than they should."

The Force Cripple glanced down at Loki to see if the taciturn Knight had heard him over the noise of the young ones.

[Akasha Khan]

Akasha paced out a lazy circle around Draiya, deftly charting her stance, her center of gravity, the angle of her lightsaber and the readiness with which its tip followed her own movement. She'd sparred with the Syragori before, but never with her Echani handmaiden's staff (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Handmaiden%27s_staff). It would have been useless against a real saber blade, but against a weaker training saber, it was a fair analogue to her beloved lightstaff, which had no training setting. She was curious how Draiya would handle a weapon that could attack her both coming and going.

Right, that was enough posturing. Akasha spun an elegant pinwheel with her staff, meant to dazzle as much as anything, then seamlessly wound it into a punishing barrage of rapid-fire strikes. One end of the staff struck high and to the right, the other low and to the left on the rebound, then a lunge for the heart spun away as the other end came wheeling down like a guillotine. This was the soul of Ataru: every motion an attack, every attack in motion, controlling the pace and direction of the duel with focused and unrelenting aggression.

And Akasha meant to drive her foe straight out of the back of the ring.

[Draiya Naaianeya]

Draiya's blade was out the moment her hilt cleared her belt, swatting the high feint as she barely had time to clear the follow-up low with a hop. Her dark eyes were serious, following each end of the energetic staff as if the weapon was coated in poison. Her face drawn taut, she felt the rush of air as she side-stepped the strike to her chest, nearly losing her poise as the follow-up cleaved at her from on high. She'd already given up a few paces to the onslaught, and seeing her chance, Draiya's own Ataru instincts kicked in as she pressed close to jam Akasha before she could get momentum on the staff. Striking hard with the hilt-side edge of her saber, she raked outwards to slap Akasha across her face, only to find the felinoid had managed to maneuver the trailing end around into guard. Still, Draiya liked the closeness, snapping her blade at Akasha's epicenter, keeping the Orryxian in check where she couldn't easily bring momentum to bear. And if she managed to rap her dextrous black paws, so much the better.

Even still, breaking Akasha's guard on the staff wasn't likely. Even a strike with momentum could be resisted with ease if she braced. Draiya locked onto the staff, pressing with strength and testing her opponent's resolve.

And then the world around them exploded in a flash of brilliant light. The spectators surrounding the fight drew their hands to their eyes on instinct, coronas appearing in retinas as the blinding effect worked indiscriminately.

[Abarai Loki]

"Is it just me, or do the Padawans enjoy fighting a little too much? I know they're young and still learning, but I sense they bring their emotions into their duels much more willingly than they should."

"While enthusiasm is not to be discouraged, the padawans wield it like babies with rattles."

There was a blinding flash, like a miniature supernova detonated at the heart of the battle. Loki grimaced at the offensive light and shielded his eyes until it was gone. When he returned his attention to the dueling padawans, his vision was peppered with bright colourful spots.

"It is a symptom of ill-discipline."

[Wei Wu Wei]

The Jedi Knight watched the two duelists practice Ataru. Akasha's staff certainly gave her some help getting more out of Ataru's philosophy, but neither Padawan seemed to be using the physical spins, twists, and somersaults the form was known for. The light flashed and Wei simply shut his eyes. A moment or two later, he opened them again.

Wei half-smiled at Loki's analogy. "I wonder..."

The pair stood locked for a moment. Wei considered what he would do in that situation. With all seven forms at his disposal, he had options. His top three were: Ataru, jump over the opponent and maintain the opponent's direction for a ringout; switch to Soresu and wait for the opponent to wear out; or last of all, switch to Niman (his Niman, not the classic one), and use all that energy and momentum against the opponent.

"Have you spent any time instructing either of those two?"

[Akasha Khan]

Holy Maiur, they'd just been bombed!

Akasha threw herself free of the blade-lock with Draiya's saber and staggered back, dazzled by the starburst, and flattened her ears in anticipation of the oncoming roar of a Starkiller on the horizon -

And then something stung her unguarded shoulder, bright and sharp and irreverent, and she yowled in surprised rage and swatted Draiya's blade aside. "So that's how you want to play, is it?" she snarled.

What followed was a blistering barrage from both sides of her staff, which struck like a two-headed snake - left, right, left, left, leg sweep, overhead, backside lunge - a breathless assault calculated to make Draiya shrink her defense, focus on protecting her core, so that when Akasha planted one end of her staff in the ground she'd bite and try to parry a ground attack, when in fact the Orryxian was using her staff as a launch point. Akasha soared over Draiya's head, twisting gracefully in midair like a gymnast, and when she landed she swung her staff into Draiya's unprotected back.

[Draiya Naaianeya]

"Gaah!"

She'd committed to breaking Akasha's offensive combo on the low strike, which she knew was foolish, and was now proven such in spades as she was welted cross the back from her wicked staff. The human pitched forward with the momentum, rolling over a shoulder as she planted her feet, her face a grimace through the pain from the thrashing the cat had given her. She looked back defiantly at Akasha, who was already bearing down on her like a rabid Acklay. Draiya jumped up to her feet, bounding in two opposite directions as an illusion of herself split seamlessly from her real visage. The two Draiyas both carried lightsabers, and both stared daggers at Akasha. Neither one of them gave the felinoid a moment to think it over, as they both leapt into the fray.

[Akasha Khan]

Akasha skittered to a stop in the dusty turf and backpedaled so she could keep both Draiyas in front of her. She could maneuver her staff to parry two blades, and the moment one failed to connect, she'd know which one was false... or ones.

Oh, frack!

Overriding every instinct screaming in her brain, Akasha ignored the Draiyas falling on her from either side and sent a concentrated Force push directly in front of her, toward the last place she knew Draiya had been standing.

[Abarai Loki]

"Have you spent any time instructing either of those two?"

"Wei Wu Wei, there is not a padawan here who I haven't instructed in the ways of the lightsaber," he said, arms folding in silent objection, "Hard-pressed, though you may be, to presently see that influence."

It wasn't pretty, but it was plain to see that the padawans were putting everything into their confrontation. Draiya's unique gift often put her opponents at a disadvantage, and that was a good thing in his eyes, as it kept the other padawans on their toes. In this instance, however, the Orryxian appeared to be coping admirably.

"I am often informed that there is strength in such... discord. And yet, so rarely do I see evidence of it."

[Draiya Naaianeya]

The Draiyas smiled.

Akasha fired off a squall, a channel of dust whipping up where her force push blasted ahead. The torrent found a target, but not its intended one. With no one in the ring present in the empty space to catch it, the gale hit a group of padawans at the edge of the ring, knocking several onto their backsides, including the unlucky Rodian Drax, who kazooed in shock as he went upended. Already, Akasha's green eyes were widening in recognition of her folly, but by then the Draiyas were upon her. They struck in unison. One Draiya faded into ether. Another - very much real - slipped under Akasha's guard, "gutting" her like a fish up the middle before belting her across her jaw to add insult to injury.

As Akasha pinwheeled from her staff, Draiya caught the annoying Echani weapon with a toe and kicked it to the edge of the arena - far from her enemy's grasp. The Orryxian was still in the circle, and hadn't yielded.

Draiya's eyes narrowed, and scabby knuckles choked up tight on her lightsaber hilt.

Fair game.

[Akasha Khan]

Maiur's spleen and kidneys, that hurt. Akasha tumbled to the dirt, lifted herself to one knee, and realized with a tensing note of panic that her staff was out of her grasp. She narrowly spotted the gleaming white blur as Draiya kicked it spinning out of the ring. And then she realized that Draiya did not intend to let up.

And neither did Akasha. She shook the dust from her arms, assumed an empty-pawed fighting stance, and waited for Draiya to commit herself.

[Wei Wu Wei]

"I meant personally," Wei explained. "Have you spent any sizable amount of time in one-on-one sessions with them?"

Wei shook his head in amusement when the Padawans fell over and noted that Akasha was already better at telekinesis than he was.

"I'm not talking about the quality of their technique. I'm wondering how well you know the pair as individuals. Not just their strengths and weaknesses as fighters, but how well you know them." Before Loki could respond, Wei hurriedly clarified. "I just wonder how they think is all."

[Abarai Loki]

"It is of no consequence to me how they think, Wei Wu Wei. I am a lightsaber instructor, and I must keep my responsibilities uncluttered if I'm to do my job well."

Draiya's trickery had once again gained her the upper hand and he was curious to see how the Orryxian would respond; Akasha was not known for going down without a fight. He sensed his answer would leave his companion dissatisfied. After all, Wei appeared to be developing a personal interest in the dueling pair. Loki knew that he could not afford to dedicate that kind of intimate training time to the likes of Akasha or Draiya, not out of a sense of duty, but principle.

"Besides, I am not their master. It would be inappropriate of me to meddle in their personal development."

[Draiya Naaianeya]

It was time to put Akasha out of this fight. Draiya charged, her saber twirling in her grasp as she kept the busy blade in motion, chewing up the air between her and her opponent. If Akasha seriously thought she was going to lay a hand on her, then Draiya was happy to welt that hand up properly before punting her out of the ring.

[Akasha Khan]

If Draiya seriously thought Akasha needed to lay a hand on her, she was sadly mistaken.

The Orryxian nimbly danced away from Draiya as she advanced, kiting her around the edges of the ring, and threw punch after punch into the empty air. Each phantom blow sent a blast of Force energy hurtling at the Syragori padawan, regrettably not strong enough to send flying, just enough to keep her off-balance.

Then, without warning, Akasha slashed at the air with an open paw, claws extended. A thick lock of black hair dropped from the right side of Draiya's head, and, simultaneously, a thin, stinging cut opened along the line of her right cheekbone.

[Draiya Naaianeya]

That was close...

Draiya fell back on instinct and nearly fell back physically as well, backpedaling as her brain connected the dots to realize exactly how close she'd just come to losing an eye to that dirty-fighting cat. She backpedaled, her saber extinguishing as she vanished. Under her unseen veil, the human winced, drawing a hand up to her free-bleeding laceration as she schemed on how to regain her momentum once more.

Her sanctuary was short-lived, however, as Akasha had seen this gambit before, and could tell that Draiya's footfalls in the dirt were betraying her. Again she pummeled in her direction with a force push, which found its mark, forcing Draiya to brace hard against its effect. The moment it subsided, Draiya threw her illusion away, leaping through the air as she somersaulted, lightsaber screaming down upon the Orryxian.

[Akasha Khan]

Akasha turned to pounce away, but she was betrayed by the loose soil they'd been pounding into a slurry for the entire bout, and she stumbled to the ground just outside the range of Draiya's diving attack. But the Syragori was quick to find her footing and round on the Orryxian as she scrabbled away, and the saber descended like an executioner's axe--

Destruction.

It was instinct, dredged up from her memories of training on Onderon, the training that no one else on this world knew about. As Draiya's saber swung toward her, Akasha put up her paws to intercept it, and pinpricks of fiery Dark Side energy bloomed at her clawtips, invisible to the crowd, imperceptible to all but the most sensitive, but enough to form a barrier between her paws and the angrily buzzing blade. From all appearances, she'd caught Draiya's strike by the blade and was holding it there.

She might have enjoyed the shock on Draiya's face if not for the energy blowback scalding her paws and scorching the fur from her fingertips. Fear gripped her as she realized what she was doing, that she was risking being found out for the sake of a silly schoolyard brawl, when the training saber's weak electromagnetic coils gave out from the strain, the crystal inside shattered, and the blade simply shorted out and disappeared. With nothing left to push against, Draiya tumbled forward and landed on Akasha in an ungainly heap.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Wei sighed, and decided to drop any more attempts at conversation with Loki. Loki was a good person, but seemed entirely too task-oriented sometimes than was strictly necessary. He decided to watch the match. Practice sabers were just as capable of providing Wei his connection to the Force, so he was able to enjoy the same experience as his fellow Jedi.

His visual perceptions of the Padawan's techniques and battles overlaid on his senses of their dispositions. The Padawans' serenity fluctuated. Akasha wavered, then suddenly there was a dark energy around her. Draiya's attack fell short.

"Loki," Wei said in an even, serious tone, "we need to help Akasha. I suggest we handle this as discretely as possible. Take Akasha out of the ring without making a scene and alerting the other Padawans to what happened. We don't want to embarrass or shame Akasha publicly. If she chooses to resent our intervention, it may only push her further into the Dark Side."

Wei looked at the younger Knight. "If you will organize the Padawans for another activity, I will separate Akasha and Draiya, and take Akasha somewhere else to speak to her about what's happening. This could be a fear reaction in her, or this could be intentional. No need to be aggressive or accusatory until we find out more."

[Draiya Naaianeya]

"Wha..uuaaagh!!"

Draiya crashed to earth like a meteor, body-checking against Akasha as they both rolled with the momentum towards the edge of the circle. Her bell was well and truly rung, and Draiya lay on top of the felinoid for a moment, attempting to divine through the force which direction down was, and consequently, which direction up could be found. She attempted to climb to her feet, failing spectacularly as she collapsed into a dazed heap.

[Abarai Loki]

Loki gave Wei a nod and departed; the man certainly took a long time to say: "I will speak to Akasha."

"Padawans," he said, as he stepped into the centre of the sparring circle, "There will be no more dueling today. Return to your dormitories and make yourselves ready for your evening duties. That was not a request, Padawan Drax. Move it!"

The congregation started to disperse, with stragglers, both curious and concerned, steeling glances at the floored duelists. Wei was at Akasha's side, and Loki crouched beside the unconscious Syragori to rouse her from her torpor. It wasn't the first case of concussion he'd had to deal with during his tenure at the dueling rings, and it was almost certainly not going to the last. He placed his hand on her forehead, where her skin was hot and wet, and watched as her eyes flickered open.

"Do not get up. You have taken a blow to the head."

[Akasha Khan]

"That is not my fault," Akasha felt compelled to say as she raised herself stiffly to her feet. Smoke curled around her paws, and she sighed despondently as she inspected them, her finger scandalously bald of any fur. "Maiur's fangs, this'll take weeks to grow back in."

The Orryxian's eyes slid over to where Loki knelt tending to a very hazy-looking Draiya. Suddenly the heat of the duel seemed very far away, and she felt shame pounding at her ears. "Is... is she all right?"

[Draiya Naaianeya]

Draiya's glassy, dilated eyes blinked heavily at Loki. He'd told her not to get up. That seemed like overkill. It wasn't like she'd taken a blow to the head or anything! What was that buzzing sound.

"Did I win, Masterr Loki?"

[Wei Wu Wei]

"That's ok," Wei said to Akasha. "Let's get you up and to the infirmary."

The Force Cripple untangled Akasha from Draiya and helped her along. He stopped to grab the Echani vibrostaff so the Padawan wouldn't have to look for it later.

[Abarai Loki]

"Did I win, Masterr Loki?"

"I would not go as far as to say you won," he said, after some thought, "Rather, that Akasha was defeated."

Draiya tried to seek out Akasha but Loki was quick to set her right, one hand clamped on her shoulder, and the other, her chin. He met her heavy stupified gaze and couldn't help but feel a flicker of approval for the brutish padawan. Undisciplined, though she was, when Draiya was faced with a challenge, it was met with confidence and enthusiasm: she wanted to be the best, and that was something he understood. Her unique gift, on the other hand, was something of a mystery to him - a mystery best left for better Jedi to unravel. Draiya was a Jedi who, sometimes quite literally, threw herself at obstacles, and she had the cuts and bruises to prove it. Discipline was the medicine to cure her faults, and that would come in time, he was sure. But, if there was something he knew from experience, it was that, although hard work was its own reward, sometimes it didn't hurt to be acknowledged for it.

"You fought well."

[Draiya Naaianeya]

She could not guard against the smile that blossomed on her face at such rare praise. Compliments from Abarai Loki were rarer than Adegan crystals, and there wasn't a Jedi in the Order she sought praise from more than the stern swordsman. Her face relaxed in a drowsy satisfaction, her broad smile a contented grin as nothing at all hurt anymore.

"Thank you, Masterr."