Things a Jedi Shouldn't Crave

[Yufi Hercula]

When Yufi had first been told that she was Force Sensitive, her mind had lit up at the possibilities. Being a Jedi! A real, actual, proper, Jedi! Flying around the galaxy with a lightsaber in hand, saving the day, and being a real hero, it sounded SO TOTALLY AWESOME! She couldn't wait. Not that she wasn't awesome already, of course. She was basically famous on Ryloth, she was a total badass (in her head, anyway), super cute AND she got to party all the time, what more could anybody want? Well, being a Jedi was more. She wanted to be a Jedi! And it turned out, she actually could! Which is why she had LEAPT at the chance, and jetted off to Ossus as soon as her Force sensitivity had been confirmed.

The problem was that nobody had told her training to be a Jedi would be so BORING. Especially when you were just an initiate. It was all study this, read that, think about whatever. How dull was that? Where was the adventure? Where was the excitement? Okay, she had got to build a lightsaber, and it was pretty cool. One of the coolest things she'd ever owned. Rated just below that perfume she'd got on vacation to Spira that even she saved for special occasions and her favourite stiletto boots with the rhinestones, but certainly above any of the weapons she'd seen before. But she never got to USE it. Which was extra boring.

The weather was particularly nice today, and it had been suggested that the padawans and initiates study outside on the steps of the temple, rather than in its stuffy halls. Yufi had taken this to mean 'day off', and was outside in the sun, laying on a towel, large sunglasses propped up over her head. The sunlight sparkled off her shiny silver bikini top and miniskirt. Hardly padawan attire, but it would take more than some stuffy teachers to tell Yufi to dress in boring beiges and browns. Besides, she was a twi'lek. She just pulled the 'it's my culture' card whenever anybody told her to cover up.

Unfortunately, sunbathing, while Yufi knew it SEEMED on brand for a spoiled princess such as herself (and she had no illusions that she didn't deserve such a label), was also something she wasn't very good at. It involved relaxing. It involved doing NOTHING. Yufi was never any good at doing 'nothing'. And within a few minutes, her energy was burning away again, and she sat up, removing her clip on sunglasses (no ears meant that traditional ones wouldn't work). She needed to find something to do. Something EXCITING.

This required an adventure! A quest! And some leadership! Luckily, Yufi was the perfect person for the job! Or, well, her Dad had been a great leader, so obviously she was too! There was a distant cave at the base of the mountain too. This place had been a Jedi Temple centuries before it was now, right? She remembered hearing THAT in one of the boring holovids at least. She wondered what secrets were out there, still to be discovered.

If she found one of them, they'd be SURE to fasttrack her to padawan status. They'd probably find her a Master TODAY. She smiled to herself, a plan forming.

Getting to her feet with an audible click from equally silver stiletto heeled boots, she stood up and pointed dramatically at the thick trees off in the distance, away from the temple.
"Padawans! Initiates! Hear me!" she announced, with as much drama and authority as she could, calling out to the others studying on the steps of the temple. "We have... a quest! Somewhere out there, there are undiscovered secrets of the Jedi Order! If we find them, we can prove to the Masters we're worth so much more than just.... studying! C'mon! Who's with me!? Let's go out there and find some secrets!" she beamed, smiling broadly at the others as if she expected them to leap to her side immediately. Because why wouldn't they? Adventuring out into the woods was WAY more fun than sitting here READING, right?

[Jamis Kerr]

He'd been so engrossed in his reading, sitting cross-legged and hunched over his datapad, that the call took him very literally by surprise. A few moments of furious blinking to get his bearings after pulling out of his history lesson, and Jamis made sure to make a mental note of the page number before looking up at the owner of the voice that was calling for action.

And for once, it hadn't been him to finally decide that his studies were boring and needed to be interrupted. In fact, as of late, the boy had found a bizarre need to be as good of a student as possible. Was it his master who'd finally gotten through to him? Or maybe just some sudden switch that'd been flipped in his brain? Who knew.

"Yufi," the boy looked perplexed, though there was a spark that was beginning deep down in his gut. A spark that brought to mind all of the adventures that he'd used to embark on. Some panned out, others were spectacular failures. BUT. They were all still adventures, and that was the notion that gently began to tug at him now.

"We're supposed to be studying," his datapad was hefted up, "... the bits about Freedon Nadd are going to be asked about in class tomorrow, and we have to know it all."

Do you really have to know it all, though? a tiny voice belonging to his subconscious piped up in the back of his mind. Surely a little bit of distraction wouldn't be too bad...

[Yufi Hercula]

Jamis had been slow to respond, but he had responded, and Yufi knew that meant she had a willing volunteer. With a grin creeping over her hot pink, glossy lips, she approaching him. Almost invisible to human perception, there was a very slight twitch in her lekku; a twitch of glee at having found a victim. Uh, volunteer. She meant, volunteer. Look, it was a v-word. She approached him with a lazy, confident stride, smirking the entire time.
"Oh, Jamis, Jamis, Jamis..." she smiled, stopping by him, and drooping an arm around his shoulder, her free hand reaching out to paint an imaginary picture before them. This close, Yufi's perfume could be a little overwhelming. She wore too much for a twi'lek party girl, really, let alone a padawan, but it was expensive, and nice, and nothing about Yufi said subtly. As her current actions were showing. "Imagine.... they ask us about it and we don't know? D'yknow what'll happen?" she asked. And then, with her free hand, on manicured, hot pink fingernails, she painted the answer in the sky before them. "Nothing! Nothing will happen. We might get a disappointed frown, and then he'll tell us all about it anyway, and that's it!" she answered chirpily.

"Buuuuuuuut," and she shot him a smirk, walking him towards the woods line as she took steps forward herself, her arm drooped over his shoulder guiding him. "Imagine if we come back with some newly discovered treasure! We might find an ancient holocron, or a long lost lightsaber! All off our own initiative! They'd be so impressed! They'd make me a proper padawan for sure! They might even decide you're ready for your trials!" Yeah, in about seventy years, Yufi thought, but didn't add out loud.

She released him, and hopped in front of him, with another audible click-clack of heels, and grinned at him, hands on her knees as she leaned forwards.
"C'moooon! What've you got to lose? One dull telling off during a dull lecture? Pfft, I get told off all the time. Don't even worry about it! But out there, that's REAL adventure! Exploring ruins! Finding artifacts! REAL Jedi stuff! What we came here to do! C'mon, whaddya say?" she smiled eagerly, waiting for him to give in and start walking towards the woods line with her.

[Jamis Kerr]

The thought of a possible treasure was enticing, but he still clung to his datapad out of an abundance of caution. Even as she pulled him toward the line of sparse trees that marked the beginning of a wooded thicket. A thicket that broadened into the woods proper. He would be lying if he'd said that he wasn't interested.

"Yeah but... " he trailed off as the conflict pulled at him, and looking over his shoulder, Jamis bit his lip as he tried to weigh the consequences. It'd been so long since he'd gone out and just explored...

"What do you think is out there... ?"

He asked the question somewhat gingerly, still giving her a bit of a cautious glance.

"Did you find something in the old writings? Like, a treasure that might be out there?"

[Yufi Hercula]

C'mon, he'd nearly given in! Yufi just had to keep nudging, and she was sure that Jamis would join her. She was certain. But before she could get him to follow her, he stopped and asked if she had any reason for her assumptions. Ugh, there he went. With logic and questions and expectations about her plan like he was expecting her to have a REASON for wanting to bunk off studying. She sighed.
"No I-" she began, and then she paused. "I mean, yes, of course. Uh, I found a.... holocron from... an old Jedi Master called.... um.... Master.... Tot'all Ee'Reel, who, uh, said, that he had buried a... holocron... with.... forgotten Jedi training techniques... in a cave, at the base of, uh, that mountain!" She pointed to the nearby mountain as her completely made-up story began to take shape as she said it.

"But the cave is protected by some ancient gizmo that only allows you to access it one day a year. This day!" she said quickly, her lie picking up speed now. "So we don't have time to get the other masters or convince them it's a good idea. We have to go now!" she finished, beaming a smile, proud of herself, hands on her hips as she struck a pose. She was clearly pleased with herself.

When she wasn't certain this was going to work, she leaned forwards again.
"C'mooooooooon! Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease? What have you got to lose?" she asked hopefully, in her whiniest, 'give me what I want' voice. It always worked on her Daddy, so it should totally work here, right? Yufi still wasn't really used to people saying 'no' to her. Well, not in this context. She was very used to people sighing heavily 'Yufi, no' when she went to do a thing. But that was different. And the reply was always 'Yufi, yes' obviously. Anyway, that was beside the point. The point was she really wanted to bunk off studying and she didn't want to do it alone, so she hoped that Jamis would come along. Especially now that she had made up such a convincing story!

[Kazahan]

"What shall this one learn today, Master Solomon? Mind tricks? How to put together a lightsaber? Kazahan promises that this time it will not fall apart mid-duel!"

The human man just sighed and grimaced as he stood in front of his padawan, Kazahan the Trianii. Kazahan knew his expression was one of tiredness, and perhaps even a small amount of frustration, but he could not quite understand where those emotions were coming from. As malleable and expressive as human faces were, it was a plain fact that Kazahan had zero experience interacting with humans before leaving the Colonies and the Trianii sector, and thus had zero experience deciphering their many facial expressions and emotional tells.

Honestly. If only humans had tails, and could control their ear movements. It'd be so much easier to tell how they were feeling and what sort of emotion it was if that were the case! Poor humans, getting the short end of the evolutionary stick. But then, humans had other strengths, proven by just how prolific and numerous they were throughout the galaxy.

"You seem very... energetic today, Padawan," Solomon said. Kazahan nodded.

"Trianii has a good feeling about today!" he said, his voice growling in happiness and excitement. He hopped from foot to foot lightly. "This one also slept well! There was a very cozy sunbeam that made Kazahan nice and warm in the roots of a tree!"

Solomon nodded, his face pulling another expression that Kazahan couldn't really decipher. But he was getting better!

"You know how difficult it is for you to concentrate when you're like this, Kazahan," the Master said. Kazahan didn't think he was being reprimanded, but it didn't feel like he was being lauded either. "So I want you to do three laps of Sanctuary."

"The entire settlement?"

Solomon nodded. Kazahan stood straight and saluted.

"It is some distance! Kazahan might even need to rest for a few minutes after!" he said brightly. Solomon smiled and laughed.

"That's what I'm hoping for. Now, hop to it, we don't have all day."

"Oh? Is there some function this one was unaware of today? Or are you going on a romantic outing with Master Laran—"

"It's a saying, an axiom, Kazahan. Now, get to running."


Needless to say, Kazahan got bored after the first lap.

So, he gave himself challenges to keep his mind from drifting: from the port area to the administration building, he'd walk on his hands. From the administration building to the lightsaber training salles, he'd do cartwheels. From there to the dorms and barracks, he'd do front flips, and from the dorms to the library, he would do back flips.

It made him feel satisfied and pleased, knowing that he was combining multiple sorts of training into the one exercise. Did Solomon mean for him to do this? Probably. The man was very wise.

As he closed in on the Library and Training Temple, he saw a number of students sitting around and studying and reading in the sunlight. What a great idea! Today was not a day to be stuck inside at all. The sun was shining, there was a cool breeze blowing, and the very planet seemed to ooze liveliness and energy.

"Come on, come ooooooooooooooooon!" a young twi'lek girl was saying while she was speaking with a younger boy. Had he met them before? He couldn't recall.

Well, if he couldn't recall, then he would have to introduce himself again!

He backflipped, and jumped, gaining a considerable amount of height.

"Hello!" he said as he landed directly behind them, his arms outstretched and his form completely stiff and straight. A perfect landing! He would have to try and incorporate more flips into the next jump. "This one is Kazahan! Are you studying outside? How can you concentrate? Kazahan would forget he was reading anything at all if he were doing such a thing!"

His tail lashed behind him in languid, slow, amusement, and he rested his hands on his hips. He leaned forward and looked down at the initiates with curiosity. They were really very short. How old were they? Did they have masters? Were they padawans?

'Remember, Padawan,' Solomon's voice echoed in his head, 'not everyone appreciates raw fish and mice the way you do.'

No, wait. While very good advice, and something he needed to remember, that was not the advice he was trying to remember right now.

'Remember Padawan,' Solomon's voice echoed in his head, 'humans do not emit scents the same way Trianii or other species do. Sniffing their bodies is seen as somewhat invasive and off-putting.'

Very good advice as well. Still not what he was looking for.

'Remember, Padawan,' Solomon's voice echoed in his head, 'while you may be introducing yourself to indulge your curiosity, the ones you are speaking to may not be able to read your thoughts and understand your context. Allow the conversation to develop from both sides, and you may find your questions answering themselves.'

That was it! Now, what did it mean?

Mental Solomon sighed audibly. 'Give them a chance to speak, Padawan.'

Oh. Okay!

So he smiled as well as his muzzle permitted and waited for them to respond.

[Jamis Kerr]

"Kazahan!"

Jamis blurted it out in mild surprise at the hulking giant felinoid.

The last time he'd had any interaction with him had been during the nuna egg hunt, when both Trianii and Tak had gone off to make flower crowns and smell the grass instead of actively looking for eggs. Truth be told, he wasn't so sure that they hadn't been actually eating the weeds, either. He'd once heard Master Vymes talk about some sort of edible weed - pokey salata? Who knew.

Either way, Kaz was here now, and Jamis felt the rest of his resolve at staying to study simply melt away. He at least tried to put on a still-concerned face, though.

"Yufie says that there's treasure out there," he finally intoned, casting a look to the woodline.

"... and that there's a cave with a holocron in it that no one has found yet."

Tucking his now-shut-off datapad into the leather shoulder pouch he had slung across his back, Jamis snapped the hole thing shut.

"But if we find it, I bet they'd knight us on the spot!"

[Yufi Hercula]

Yufi was eagerly waiting to see if her completely-true-story would work and win Jamis over, when suddenly they were interrupted by another. She turned to face him, only to be confronted by a hulk of fur. She craned her neck up a little, only to see more fur. Finally, she took a step back, craning her neck all the way up, so far that her lekku were nearly touching the small of her back, and she finally saw the face of the giant before her. Wow. Okay, he was tall. She had to give him that. She had seen him around, but not talked to him before, and that meant not worked her particular brand of Yufi-charm on him yet. Which was great! It meant he was bound to vulnerable to her plan.

"Kazahan! Hi!" she beamed. "I'm Yufi, and this is Jamis. Or, as we're about to be known, Treasure Hunter Extraordinaires Yufi and Jamis!" she introduced, with a flourishing curtsey as if she was some kind of royalty. Which Yufi sometimes thought that she was. She was the daughter of a famous Resistance fighter and totally famous on Ryloth. She was basically a princess, right? "And we're not STUDYING outdoors. That'd be boring. We're ADVENTURING! We're gonna go into the woods hunting for treasure!" She paused, and remembered her made-up story. "Uhhh, a lost holocron, to be exact! The masters are gonna love us when we find that!" she beamed.

She paused, and looked up at Kazahan, tapping her teeth curiously with one of her long, fake pink fingernails.
"You knooooooow," she said thoughtfully, a wry grin crossing across her lips. "Teeeechnically, we're not recruiting any more members for our little band," another lie, of course, "Buuuuuuuut I could be persuaded to make an exception for you. We might be able to squeeze you into our little adventuring party. After all, we have the bookworm," she stuck a manicured thumb at Jamis. "And the smoking hot leader," she pointed at herself. "We need a big strong guy! Everybody knows that's the perfect trio. Okay, fine, you're in!" she said, as if he had begged her to let him join and not like she had just roped him into it.

"C'mon, gang! Let's go!" she said enthusiastically, springing ahead towards the woods again, apparently oblivious to how inappropriately she was dressed for trying to pass through thick trees and rough terrain...

[Kazahan]

Kazahan cocked his head to the side and maintained eye contact throughout the entire speech the twilek girl made. His tail swayed lightly back and forth.

"Let's go!" she cheered, and his ears twitched slightly. He remained silent for a moment as she started to march off, and glanced over at Jamis, and shrugged, before starting to follow the bubbly young girl.

He truthfully hadn't understood much of that, only hearing 'adventures' 'treasures' and 'woods'. And while he knew he should be finishing his run for Master Solomon, there was a feeling that he should probably follow the girl. It wasn't something he was used to, this sort of discernible instinct when he usually acted on impulse, but he followed it anyway, and heard Jamis behind him.

He took a deep breath and yawned, his mouth stretching widely and his tongue lolling out, and stretched as he walked.

"How far away is this treasure?" he asked. "It is fortuitous that you know, an Initiate, know where to find it. Are we not going to find a Knight or a Master to help us?"

[Jamis Kerr]

Kaz made a bit of sense, questioning the fact of whether they would possibly need a Knight or a Master to join them, but the thought was quickly banished as Jamis quickened his pace to keep up with the long-legged Trianii.

"That's probably up to Yufi," he mumbled out, "... this is her idea, so I guess it's her rules."

With a gait that he wasn't used to, the boy made sure that he wasn't left behind in their merry little party.

"I'm not sure how far away it is, though. She said something about a cave out in the woods, but that could mean anywhere. This whole area is just full of caves in woods."

But, Yufi had said she knew where to go, and so Jamis placed his trust in her. The closer to the treeline they came, the more his excitement seemed to grow.

[Yufi Hercula]

Yufi bit back a sigh, but rolled her eyes as Kazahan asked about getting a knight or master involved. Fortunately, her back was to him and Jamis, so it wasn't too obvious. A twi'lek might have been able to read slight irritation rippling down her lekku, but it was subtle and hard to detect; especially for other humanoids. She put on a smile, and turned around to face the other two.
"I haven't told the masters because," she said, with a slightly forced smile. "If I told them, they'd go out and find the treasure. And we'd have to go back to studying. So either, we can sit around on a day like this reading boring datapads, or we can go out and have an adventure. Get it?" she asked, her voice resuming it's usual chirpiness. Did she have to draw them a diagram of how to bunk off your lessons?

"Anyway, it's at the bottom of that mountain," she said, pointing to the nearest mountain off in the woods. That'd do. There'd bound to be at least one cave, and once they found it, she'd just claim, oh, the treasure must have gone by now. Either way, they still got to have fun and get away from lessons for a bit. So it was still a win.

Confidently, she entered the woods.

And immediately fell flat on her face.

There was no trail in the woods, just thick trees, a floor strewn with sticks, and mud. And it turned out that Yufi's stiletto heels were probably not the right choice of footwear for that terrain. One heel sank immediately and the other tractionless sole slid uselessly on some wet leaves and the combination resulted in Yufi practically doing the splits, losing her balance, and then falling flat on her face in the dirt with a shriek.

After a moment, she picked herself back up, flicking her lekku back, and quickly brushing herself down with a wrinkled nose and look at disgust where dirt clung to her glittery silver top. Yufi was so focused with glamour even her body was lightly dusted with body glitter, and she spotted a leaf had now stuck to it, causing her to peel it off and make another face.
"Ewwww," she couldn't hold it in. Before she remembered she was the leader of the expedition, and turning quickly. "Uh, I mean, uh, I was just, y'know, checking, that uh, the floor was.... stable... and...." Even Yufi realised this lie wasn't going to hold. "Shut up! I'm wearing heels!" she protested as an excuse.

"New plan! Kazahan, you lead the way, and break down any twigs that are in my - uh, I mean, our - way. Jamis, you walk with me and let me grip your arm," she insisted, reaching out and grasping his arm with one of her manicured hands. She was going to need all the help she could get, after all, to successfully navigate the woods. Natural environments were NOT Yufi's strong suite, after all. She was only an outdoors kind of girl if by outdoors you meant 'the queue to get into an exclusive club'.

[Kazahan]

Kazahan's muzzled face revealed nothing of his emotional state, though his head cocked to the side even more than it had before.

"Why not go without them?" Kazahan wondered aloud. "You seem to dislike stuffy clothing as much as Trianii does. Why not lose those? What good do those do? Why do you not wear boots? Do your feet sweat?"

Kazahan rumbled these questions to himself, before looking at Jamis and then back at Yufi.

"Perhaps this would be easier," he rumbled, and picked the boy up and placed him so he sat on his shoulder, which was just barely wide enough to accommodate the position. He then crouched down, and offered the other shoulder to Yufi. "This way you do not fall, and you do not slow this one down. And as this one was training to burn off energy, this will be a good alternative, yes?"

He stretched out his arm and offered the girl his other shoulder with a quick shrug.

[Jamis Kerr]

Kaz's easy effort to pluck him up and deposit him upon a waiting shoulder was met with a slightly startled gasp, and Jamis couldn't help but reach down with one hand to firmly grasp at the back of the Trianii's broad neck. His hand seemed so small in comparison to his adhoc 'handhold'.

Of course, his surprise was swiftly replaced with a sense of relief at not having to walk. Any chance to be carted about was always appreciated, no matter what.

"Not too shabby," he got out, trying his best to resituate himself a little bit more comfortably. With a sideways look to Yufi, the boy gestured for her to take Kaz up on his offer.

"It's not the smoothest, but the view is great."

[Yufi Hercula]

Luckily, neither of the two laughed at Yufi's mishap, even as she smoothed herself down and tried to remove any offended dirt without ruining her body glitter, make-up, or sparkly outfit. Kazahan asked her some questions, however, and she turned back to face him, her confident smile returning, as he questioned the practicality of her shoes and why she wore them. She paused, striking a pose, cocking her hips to the side with her hands on them. Which nearly went wrong as one of her heels sank again and she nearly lost her balance, but she managed to recover at the last moment.

"Okay, first of all, I don't like stuffy clothes, I like CUTE clothes. And this outfit is SUPER cute," she remarked, waving a hand over herself as if to demonstrate. "And secondly, high heels are the BEST! They're super cute and sexy, and I'M super cute and sexy, so when you put them together, you get me being ultra mega super cute and sexy." She explained this patiently, as if it was an undeniable mathematical equation. "Also, they are the BEST excuse. I mean, d'yknow how many times I hear, 'oh, Yufi, if you're the daughter of a super skilled Ryloth Resistance fighter and trained since birth why do you suck at fighting? How come you can't throw a punch? Why'd you struggle with the kid's obstacle course?' And instead of being like, 'uh, duh, 'cause I always skipped out of training', you're just like, 'sorry, I'm wearing heels!'. And then nobody argues! Best. Excuse. Ever!" she beamed. Even if it rarely actually worked when she tried. It did SOMETIMES and that was good enough in theory.

She looked over at Kazahan as he offered to carry her, and she grinned at the pair.
"See? No heels, and I'd have to WALK all that way. But now, I get a ride!" she said, pleased with herself, before she (with rather more difficulty than a self professed 'badass' should,) managed to climb onto his shoulder. "This is why I refuse to own any footwear with a heel less than four inches high!" she remarked proudly as she positioned herself on Kazahan's shoulder.

Poor Kazahan would probably have his fur stinking of Yufi's perfume for a week; like everything else the girl did, 'subtly' was not on her radar when it came to scent, and she wore FAR too much expensive perfume every day, which was currently probably filling Kazahan's sensitive nostrils. Not that she cared. She thought it was great, of course.

"Okay, team! Onwards to the mountain!" she announced, pointing her manicured finger off into the distance dramatically and letting out a laugh, while gripping Kazahan's fur as tightly as she could with the other. Yufi was, she knew in her heart of hearts, extremely clumsy naturally, and she was going to be extra careful not to get distracted and fall off.

"See? Isn't this WAY better than studying?" she chirped.

[Kazahan]

"Isn't this much better than studying?" the twi'lek girl said brightly. Kazahan hummed thoughtfully to himself, likening the girl to a bird in his mind. She was flighty, in more than one sense of the word. She flitted from one word to the next and the sounds almost couldn't spill out fast enough before she was onto another topic, and her feelings, what he could sense that is, were just as precocious. She felt light, not necessarily in the 'light/dark' sense, which didn't make much sense to Kazahan anyway the more he thought about it; one could feel light, the sun on one's face, or the warmth of a fire... but one could not necessarily feel darkness. Darkness was, after all, just the absence of light, and in that case perhaps could be felt, if only the feeling of something missing.

Kazahan brought himself back to the present with a mental firming. The girl felt light in the sense of an immaterial 'weight', if he had to try and clarify. He did not know the word for it in Basic, however. There were light feelings, and heavy feelings, and neither one was necessarily bad in a moral sense. It was more like how both Yufi and Jamis (what delightful names! They sounded almost Trianii, but were different enough to be obviously not) barely strained him as they sat on his shoulders. Other feelings were heavy, like the heavy weight of Solomon's regard for Master Laran, or Abarai Loki's intense sense of responsibility for everything.

"This one supposes the answer depends on the subject of study," Kazahan said, revealing none of his thoughts. Master Solomon, after some trial and error, had been focusing on teaching him to differentiate himself from others in the Force, and most importantly, to differentiate himself from the life that surrounded him. It had been a breakthrough of sorts in learning how to control the Force outside of himself, and to communicate with it in various ways. "Kazahan still has trouble reading Basic, but history is very interesting. Sometimes, Trianii will try to pretend he is one of the actors in a history story, and think about what made them act the way they did. Kazahan also likes to study the combat forms. Master Solomon has been punishing Kazahan when this one loses focus in his studies; perhaps hoping that a system of reward and punishment will have Kazahan thinking more about what he does rather than acting on impulse."

He gave Yufi a placid, if slightly leading, look. He was beginning to feel like he was meant to come along on this journey in part to protect and shield her and Jamis from something along the way, as they did not seem to be aware of the dangers that could be present.

He hoped it wasn't too dangerous, and he let the feeling slide away as he smelled the air and felt the soil beneath his footpaws.

[Jamis Kerr]

With a long breath, Jamis let himself be taken along - both in the conversation and quite literally as he balanced on the Trianii's broad shoulder.

"I figure Master Solomon knows what he's doing better than most. He's been around the galaxy for long enough. Least, that's what it seems like."

Fishing his datapad back out, the boy thumbed it on once more. He scrolled through some of his previous reading.

"Nomi Sunrider is fun to learn about; like, did you know that she was strong enough to cut off Ulic Qel-Droma from the Force? Like, forever. She completely cut him off from it."

[Yufi Hercula]

Yufi settled into the improvised seat that was Kazahan's shoulder as they walked, slightly disappointed that nobody had commented on her wonderful high heel philosophy. It wasn't that she wanted to spend the walk talking about shoes. Okay, so she was a bit of a party girl, and maybe a little spoiled. Perhaps, some might even call her a little ditzy. And maybe, when you combined all of that, they'd add 'stereotypical'. But it wasn't like she wanted to talk about shoes all the time! She wasn't some kind of anti-feminist stereotype! It was just, well, she DID have really cute shoes and talking about them a TINY bit couldn't hurt, could it?

Unfortunately, the conversation topic had moved on.

It seemed Kazahan took her question too literally, and she sighed.
"I was being rhetorical," Yufi sighed, which was a thing she didn't entirely understand but she said whenever anybody answered one of her questions with an answer she didn't like. "Anyway, studying history? Phhhhbt!" she blew a playful raspberry. "Who wants to do THAT? When there's REAL adventure out there!" She waved a hand in the direction of the trees they were currently trekking through. Well, Kazahan was trekking through and Yufi was quite happily riding through. "You guys can study history! I wanna MAKE history!" she beamed. "But, y'know, in a cool way. Not in a 'shot in Order 66' way. SEE, I know some history!" she added quickly, proud that she at least knew of the existence of probably the largest galactic event in history.

She looked over at Jamis, with a grin that suggested she was just going to goof around and cause more trouble as he told his story about history. Nomi Sunrider and some other guy she'd never heard of? She just shrugged.
"Are you sure the Force didn't cut him off all on its own for the shame of having a really stupid name?" she asked mockingly. "Ulic Qel-Whosit? What kinda name is THAT?" She paused to consider. "Nomi is a cute name though," she added after a moment, as if that somehow gave this story her seal of approval. Like that was something that it had to have.

And then she spotted something, and excitedly tapped on top of Kazahan's head from where she rode, pointing off into the trees.
"Look! Look! A cave! We gotta check it out! I bet something AWESOME is in there!" she beamed, pointing in its direction. "C'mon, gang!" she cheered, jumping from Kazahan's shoulder to land on the uneven ground and 'lead' the way.

This time she managed three steps before she fell flat on her face, and got back up with an annoyed sigh.
"Um, yeah, you... you lead the way, still, Kaz..." she decided.

[Kazahan]

"This one would offer for you to get on his shoulder again, but if the Gossam worked this cave system, then it will be cramped for Trianii. Perhaps you should go barefoot. Like Kazahan."

As he spoke, he crouched down to allow Jamis to dismount, and then stood again, stretching until his claws almost touched the branches of the trees; his arms up-stretched like that had more height than Yufi sitting on his shoulder.

"Follow close, yes? It would not be good to get lost from this one in the dark," he said, his voice almost light and cheery itself. He took several slow steps into the cave. "Who knows if you would ever be found?"