The Old and the Young - [Mooney]

[Harukei]

The air was riddled by ash. Fire broke the darkness among the scents of searing flesh and burning scrap. Blaster bolts red and blue boiled the very air as he stood, shinning emerald blade meeting his foe head one. There was on exchange of frenzied and blood thirsty parries and blows until he saw his opening and stabbed, burning through armor, flesh and bone with the same ease as it had been before. He ran and ducked as a buzzing swarm of blaster bolts met him and he felt pain that brought him to his knees as a executioner that was not more than shade and smoke, plunged his own sanguine blade unto his flesh. 

It had ended like that before. The dream had being the same  and while it had not visited him every night, the frequency on it was becoming more and more evident to him. Fal opened his eyes to meet the spartan and sparsely decorated quarters that had belonged to him ever since he had been a young Padawan. There was nothing new, the bed unto which he now sat, the desk, a closet with the same variations of his robes and a small refresher unit for his personal use. 

Feeling a cold child traverse his body, he rose from his bed and felt the now familiar aches that had begun to sprang after his fiftieth standard year. He sighed in discomfort as he began to rotate the shoulder until a soft pop was heard. He was getting old, there was simply no other around it and while at first he had been annoyed by it, he had simply accepted it. Feeling the cold splash of water across his lupine face he prepared himself for his daily routine, the very same one he had repeated during his stay on the temple. 

Now in his regular Jedi garb, he made for one of the meditation rooms, finding it still empty in the early hours of the morning. Sitting in one of the benches, he held his lightsaber between his hands and sighed once more as his features reflecting his pondering. He wondered what that dream truly meant, if it was his future to die in such a manner. Fal had assumed for a long time that his demise would come far from the temple but the idea of dying had begun to bother him, the bond he had with the Force told him that there still a war yet for him to fight. Any thought of that was interrupted, he heard a sound, a crashing of sorts and stone broke against the marbled floor. 

"Great..." 

He muttered to himself. 

[Moonfire]

There was peace in routine. A predictable pattern of behaviour to setting the rhythm of a well rounded life was the key to lasting contentment. At least, she was fairly sure some Jedi Master or another said that at one point. Waking up in the wee hours of the morning, a little bit of a ration bar to settle her stomach first thing and a fresh set of robes later, and Moonfire Shae was set up to start her day. A packed day of-- Well, something. Anxious, problematic thoughts tumbled end over end this time of day, lacking the distractions of others to keep her whirring mind busy.

It’d been a year since her apprenticeship under Master Balkk had ended and the Trandoshan turned back to his missions across the stars, Shorza at his heels and leaving Moonfire mostly to her own devices. This wasn’t to say the young woman wasn’t devoted to the Order, of course she was. Being a full fledged Jedi had been her sole focus for well over a decade and she was anything but idle… But to be mostly autonomous? To spend her mornings and afternoons no longer in classes or locked in study but instead completely at her own judgement? It was a terrifying, anxiety inducing freedom.

One spent mostly attending more classes and studying other, hopefully useful, subjects. It was hard to tell with Coruscant Security Forces, every mission and case was so wildly different. For years Moonfire was sure she’d become an archivist, perhaps a youngling instructor later on. Sometimes she’d wonder what Kyo would make of her new life as an investigator. She’d have to visit him again soon.

Pushing away the twinge of something less than pleasant the young woman made her way down the echoing halls, a familiar path plod more out of habit than any conscious decision making. One marble hallway led to another from the Jedi Library, freshly ransacked, to the meditation chambers. She’d try and calm the tumble of her thoughts, if only for a little bit, and by the time she’d achieved some measure of inner peace no doubt the rest of the temple would be abuzz.

In a swish of cool-toned robes the young woman moved to enter the room, finding it quite surprisingly, already taken. The fuzzy silhouette of someone sitting at a bench, lost in the Force. Freezing in place the young woman blinked, feeling out the presence of the experienced Jedi with the lightest of brushes before turning, sharply, back to the hallway.

And all at once the motion, a touch too awkward and lacking any sort of grace in it’s nervous pitch, knocked over a rather hefty pedastel, right to the marble floor.

Moonfire tried, quiet valiantly I might add, to catch the abstract piece of carve stone she assumed was once an idol and now something above decoration but below coveted artifact, but her flailing fingers found only air. The crash was more than simply dramatic, one might have described it as catastrophic in it’s thundering noise and the large chip that burst from the marble floor in a puff of scattered dust.

The stone, thankfully, was perfectly fine as the young woman stood hands shaking over the disaster. Her first instinct screaming for her to run, to hide while reason begged for her to take a deep breath and reassess where one might find a dustpan. “Oh, gosh…”

[Harukei]

Fal would rise from his seat with a creaking sound from the aging joints as his meditation was interrupted. The lupine Jedi master growled for a brief instance and then ignored whatever discomfort had come. In the low glow of the almost empty meditation room, his shadow would be cast, large and fearsome by his morphology and relative size compared to other humanoids. His amber eyes would glow as they adapted to the low visibility that had reigned in this particular chamber as he had set in to meditate and ponder on his dreams. 

The Shitaveen Jedi Master advanced slowly over the unpolluted and mirror-like marbled floor, each step lacking the urgency and weight that would be familiar with his stride. He reached through the Force and sensed nothing that would merit a state of alertness or a beckoning warning that there was something amiss. And he honestly doubted that a Darksider would be bold enough to come to Coruscant and target someone as himself. 

He finally stopped before the shape of young human, a woman. And through what little light there was, he could see her facial features in a mixture of nervousness and dread that stroke him to be rather misplaced, as well something told him that he knew who she was, although the name and what was her standing in the Order escaped his mind even as he tried to find it. Close to her was a sculpture or a bust, he couldn't really tell what it was, but he could tell that it had miraculously broken less than the sound of the impact had suggested. 

Fal knelt and picked the remains of the the artifact with his clawed hands and appraised it for a brief instance, remembering that it had to do with something from the far past of the Jedi Order. In every sense the sculpture was irreplaceable, but he didn't think that anyone would make much fuzz about it. 

"Pity." He said hoarsely and turned his sights to the girl, nothing that despite her youth, she no longer bore the braid common to Padawans during their apprenticeship. "It is unsightly to tremble for something like this, rise and tell me your name, child."

[Moonfire]

“Ohno, ohno, ohno.” Moonfire’s trembling wasn’t an unusual thing by any stretch. Her youngling years had been spent eagerly learning, studying and sparring punctuated by bouts of inexplicable, inescapable dread. Gross overreactions to minor disasters, small chest heaving as the galaxy seemed to crash around her. Blood thundered in her ears as she stared at the ruin floor, the chips missing from the priceless artifact she’d so foolishly knocked off breaking the silence of the temple. Someone must have heard that, any moment now the Master in the meditation chamber would come out and discover her gravest of errors.

This is it. This is when they kick you out. Idiot. Stupid. Clumsy. Shorza was right. You’re a garbage Jedi. All you ever do is--” The litany of self-abuse was quickly stopped by a hard, racking breath in time to the slide of the door, revealing the wolfish Jedi Master. Frightened eyes met his before shutting tightly. Nope. No. That’s enough of that, Mooney. Pull yourself together girl.

And then, slowly, carefully she found her composure once more. It’s just a thing. You didn’t blow up a spaceport, you just tripped. Be more mindful. Don’t dwell. Learn. Be better. Truths to combat the lies of her tattered self-worth. Brushing it off the young woman, feeling embarrassingly childish, tucked a lock of her dark hair behind her ear before looking up at the imposing figure of the elder Shistavanen.

“I’m sorry, Master Tolvus. The crash startled me.” She said sheepishly before straightening with a more proper bow. “Moonfire Shae, sir.”

[Harukei]

Fal would have rolled his eyes at the fright that had overcame the girl. He would rolled his eyes if he had not gotten used to the fear his own presence caused, specially when he was coming from the shadows. The lupine Jedi Master simply stood there as the girl blurted through quick words of forgiveness. Still holding the abstract sculpture, the Shistavanen simply sighed after recognizing the name of the girl and making the instant connection of her master. 

"You're Master Balkk's former's apprentice are you not?"

He said in a low growl of a tone. Newly anointed too, for the looks of things. Reaching through the Force, he could feel the unease and uncertainty that had taken a root on her. A sense of nostalgia slowly invaded unto him as he remembered his own time as a newly minted Jedi Knight, valorous as he had been, the nervousness of leading a mission of his own without any supervision had seeming daunting. Placing the cracked and ruined relic where it belonged, he would look upon the girl once more.

"My apologies Moonfire. I did not meant to startle you."

Another time he might have berated the Knight, in another time he might have even requested her to kneel to the floor and pick piece by piece with her hands, not out of harshness, but to show her to be careful. However this time he felt no need to enforce his particular sense of teaching or even delve on what had caused the accident, he had not found his answer through the Force for its whispers had being void of anything that was worthwhile. At the very least, he could attempt to put those thoughts aside.

"Off to a mission?" The Jedi Master said with a gruff tone. 

[Moonfire]

Moonfire watched with careful movements as she stuffed the last of anxiety back into his box. Her hands lost their tremble, the fear that tickled and painted the back of throat with it’s metallic edge settled complete as she followed the precise and fluid motions of furred paws. They reminded her, briefly, of her master. The Trandoshan had always taken such care with things. His size and strength transformed by the delicate grace he carried himself with.

Nodding the young woman dipped her head again, less a bow and more a sheepish acknowledgement of who she was. Master Balkk, the former Watchman of Trandosha and Kashyyyk before taking on her and a scrappy zabrak as his apprentices, wasn’t a unpopular Jedi. If anything he’d proven himself more than capable as both a guardian and a diplomat. She admired him intensely, even if her own path in the Force had differed from his and Shorza’s. “Yes, sir... I reached Knighthood about a year ago.”

A stern silence settled between them, the chip in the marble of the floor glaring even as she resisted the urge to set her boot atop of it, to hide it’s guilt-ridden gaze. Concentrating instead on the lupine master she watched his eyes, unsurprised by the continuing line of questioning.

“I--” She started, calming the waver of her voice to speak clearly and succinctly. “I’m between missions, actually. I tend to rise early for the library. I like to meditate before starting the day. It helps me absorb the information better.” The young woman waved a hand about her ear, as if the gesture would clearly communicate how the bothersome thoughts of the early hours could get in the way of studying. “I’m terribly sorry for interrupting your meditations, Master, please don’t let me intrude further.”

[Harukei]

Fal would release a low and hoarse groan, slightly exasperated by the nervousness that the girl displayed, in other times he would had scolded her but at this moment scolding her was not something he was willing to do. The unease in her still seemed apparent and as he turned to the young human, he wondered if there was something he should to to make her feel at ease. 

"Relax." 

He said in a gruff tone as he slowly walked to the seat he had taken for himself after deciding to meditate. Once he found the seat again he briefly meditated on whether continue to meditate, and the fumbled words from Moonfire about interrupting his meditation. He decided it was pointless, the meditation had done little else, but to sow a sense of frustration after little progress was achieved. The dream if it was a prophetic one, was elusive on its meaning to him beyond a simple premonition of his death. If anything the only thing the young Jedi Knight had interrupted was for that frustration to take hold. 

"You did not interrupt anything, child. My meditation bore no answers that I sought, it only offered more questions."

Other Jedi Masters perhaps would had simply shrugged it off and decide to keep such matters to themselves, but at the very least if it would keep his mind away from it, he could talk and impart any wisdom from his experience to the newly anointed Knight. It was that or take more lightsaber training, and for once, he would rather have the company of someone else. 

"I do not suppose you have more clarity of mind than your peers? Perhaps you could understand what my tired mind fails to see." 

[Moonfire]

”Relax.”

A command, not a suggestion. Master Fal’s gruffness did little to settle the young woman’s nerves, but a slight mastery of the Force and a few deep breaths to reset her nervous system seemed to do the trick. The blasted shaking had finally run it’s course and settled into something akin to competence and composure.

The lupine master moved with agitated purpose back to his seat, sitting there in a sort of frustrated silence. Briefly the jedi knight wondered if this was his way to dismissing her, amber eyes closing to resume the meditations before quietly assuring her otherwise. Child. That stung a little, though pride hardly mattered in a situation like this.

Gnawing at her lower lip the woman considering muttering her goodbyes before fleeing back into a more comfortable, less intense room. The archives, perhaps? Some reading before her own noxious attempts at peace of mind. That seemed more productive at the very least. Perhaps a bit cowardly.

"I do not suppose you have more clarity of mind than your peers? Perhaps you could understand what my tired mind fails to see."

“What troubles you, Master?” She asked, chewing still slightly on her lower lip, another nervous tick as she forced her hands still.