Back to Basics [blue]

[Mara]

(((Sorry for the wait.
Also, I hope it’s okay that I’m sort of starting this ‘in medias res’…)))



[…from Sage Advice]

The two Jedi were well into a training session; master and student sitting quietly on the jungle floor, eyes closed, meditating and focusing on the living Force around them. Or at least, that was the plan. The Falleen knight was wide open into the Force and could feel the presence of many organics around them, mostly flora of the Caamasi jungle where they were but also some small animals sprinkled around. The subtle touch of all the creatures’ presence in the Force around them was almost second nature to her. It was both soothing and energizing at the same time for her, an all-around enjoyable experience whenever she had the time to be still and just feel.

However, she couldn’t say for certain how well the exercise was going for her padawan and if he was feeling the same way. Larkin was not used to the sensation of so much raw Force and tended to shy away from it. But the human seemed to be at peace for the time being. Though, that was hardly a marker for his emotions; the boy was slow to show any true feeling, whether good or bad. Xierra just had to hope that, although they were surrounded by living things, being free from the claustrophobic of Coruscant and the Temple was helping him adjust and attune himself better to the Force and wasn’t overwhelming him.

Though tempted, she buried the desire to tap into his mind. As much as she wanted to know how things were going with Larkin, she dared not interrupt anything he might have started. What he did not need now was a distraction. He had enough things to think about. She had told him to meditate and focus on the Force around them before joining him in the same. It was similar to something that she had showed him back on Taris with a flowering tree, but this time she was asking him to go at it more deeply. To feel the innate Force within the plant and animal life and not just see them for what they could provide to a being.

Instead, she stretched out her senses, looking for any signs of the behemoths nearby. Xierra had purposely chosen an area of the jungle that wasn’t known as territory for the large predators, hoping to train with her padawan undisturbed. But there was always the possibility that one would wander off, especially a male in rut blinded by lust. She felt nothing in the close vicinity, though, that concerned her and turned her awareness elsewhere.

Their camp was a few hundred meters to the east where they had left most of their things, only carrying in their packs what was necessary for today’s session. Docked at the nearest large town, their transport was about a couple thousand klicks to their south and held the rest of their supplies. For the time being, they had just hauled enough for about a week with them. Xierra wasn’t certain how long they would be staying on Caamas, but it was best to keep things simple. Plus, she had no problem walking the distance back to the town to gather more things as they needed them. Besides the exercise, it was a good time to bond with Larkin along the way and point out different things.

Her mind turned back to her current location. Though she still kept her senses alert for any trouble in the distance, she focused on the immediate vicinity. Her padawan was still sitting quietly, unmoving. She couldn’t feel him struggling with the task, but then again, she didn’t want to pry too closely in case she would break his concentration. In her mind’s eye, she found her pack laying at her side. Inside lay some food rations, a few materials and devices for other lessons and exercises, and a training saber. At the thought of sustenance, she could feel her stomach pinch and twist.

Xierra turned her head upwards; even with her eyes closed, she could tell that the sunlight had moved a fair distance above the dense jungle canopy. Perhaps after a few more minutes, it would be time to break for a meal, and then to change training tactics. No matter how well he actually did with this particular lesson, the Falleen knight wanted to keep some variety in her padawan’s training. It wouldn’t do to have him burn out, especially when she was having to re-introduce him, for the most part, to the Force itself and techniques within it.

[Blue]

Larkin was sat cross-legged on the ground of the jungles of Caamas, the planet his Falleen master had taken him to so that they could begin his training under her. The trip here had been mostly uneventful. He had spent most of it listening to his master, who kept encouraging to talk by keeping up a gentle flow of conversation. His replies had been, for the most part, rather monosyllabic, as he had been thinking about the possible avenues of training that she would use when they arrived at their destination.

After landing in the port town, she had lead them on a trek with about a week's worth of supplies on their backs. This was not so bad. It even reminded him of things back in the Sandbox before the Jedi had found him, where they had to up and move their entire camp every day to avoid Raider attacks. Even the very young had to do their part, although the nomadic group had never forced them to carry more than they could manage. An exhausted child was just another burden for someone else to carry.

When Master Xierra had finally chosen a suitable place to begin, she had instructed him to sit and meditate on their surroundings, to try and feel the life that was so abundant on this planet, not unlike what she had asked him to do back on Taris when they had first met. This had disappointed him a little, but not much. He had expected something along these lines to be the first thing his master would touch upon, given his obvious lack a talent in this particular area.

So he had said nothing, simply nodding and removing his pack before sitting on the hard ground and there they had stayed for some time, master and student meditating in silence together. Larkin tried his best to open his mind to the life that was so obviously all around him, to sense it. He even closed his eyes under his protective goggles, something that he never usually did while meditating. But nothing had come to him, no matter how hard he tried to force it through.

In the end he had given up, but since his master was still meditating and he did not want to disturb or disappoint her, he remained seated. The heat of the jungle was intense enough for him to feel comfortable for once, a thing that had not happened since he had left his homeworld, and he was able to discard his heavy jacket, although he kept the scarf tied loosely around his face.

Deep in his meditation, Larkin's head began to bow and his breathing became deeper and slower. He could feel the sun on his body even under the canopy of foliage, the patterns of shadow dancing across his face. He could feel the wind gently brushing against him, not strong enough to dispel the heat, which was fine by him. He could hear various insects buzzing by and numerous winged things flapping by above the trees. He began feeling light, as if there was something inside opening up, cracks appearing in his mental walls and allowing a dull illumination to slowly seep in. The sensation started to speed up until he felt as if he was falling, enfolded, drowning...

With a small, sharp gasp, Larkin gave a start and jerked out of his meditative state, eyes snapping open. The trees still surrounded him, and a glance revealed his master was still sitting beside him. With an inaudible sigh, he noticed a deep rumbling emanating from somewhere. A moment later he deduced that the noise was coming from his stomach, and that the day was moving speedily onward.

Perhaps Master Xierra would call an end to this session for a while so that they could eat soon. With this heat, it was unwise to go too long without taking in liquid.

[Mara]

While she allowed her padawan a bit more time to meditate on the Force and focus on all its energies around him, Xierra put her hunger out of her mind. Ever since she had remembered the food in her pack, it had begun dominating her thoughts, making it still harder to keep her insides from interrupting Larkin’s concentration with its noises. She tried different tactics, turning to focus to other things, shutting out anything immediate. Again, she felt the life around them in the jungle, various creatures moving about their business. The warmth of Caamas’s sun warming her, even through the thick canopy. But always her mind would return to the more pressing matter of eating, her body telling her to stop delaying.

And at first, she thought it was this deeply rooted instinct that had sucked her out of her meditation this last time until she noticed a change in her padawan. There was an alertness around him and perhaps a small tang of fear. A quick look with her black eyes showed her that he was unharmed. Quickly, though, she spread her awareness, all thoughts of food having disappeared in the possibility of danger around them. But everything was as it had been for the past hours they had been sitting there in their own private patch of jungle. Xierra forced the concern away; perhaps she could discuss the matter with him over their lunch, as well as how his meditation had gone.

Opening her eyes permanently this time, she smiled at Larkin and nodded, not alluding at all to what had disturbed his quiet focus on the Force. Instead, she just gave him a slight nudge of encouragement with the Force. “Now… it seems our bodies are telling us it’s time to stop and get some nourishment. And I don’t think it’s very wise to argue with such logic. My master always told me to make time to eat whenever possible, because one never knows when the next opportunity to do so will come.” Even in such a mundane thing as stopping for lunch, Xierra had turned it into a mini lesson. Something that she felt someone with Larkin’s background would understand.

Following her own advice, the Falleen unfolded her long legs and knelt by her pack, digging through it. In the middle of getting out the packets of dehydrated food, though, she had to peel off her outer robe. Though the jungle was quite warm, it hadn’t bothered her all that much while they had been sitting under the protection of the large trees. But now with the midday sun beating down and her attention no longer turned inward in meditation, she needed to take action to cool down her blood. With a brief sigh of relief, she spread her robe on the jungle floor between the two of them to use as an improvised picnic blanket.

Xierra indicated to Larkin that he should bring out the canteens of water that he had carried in his own pack while she continued setting out the food portions of the meal. Not wanting to start a fire in the jungle for various reasons, the dehydrated packets would satisfy their hunger well enough without having to cook anything. They were designed to contain as much nutrition as possible, though personal experience told her that sometimes this process decreased flavor and taste. It would be yet another lesson on the simple trappings of the Jedi, blocking out all excess and leaving the barest essentials to better focus on the Force with.

She set two pairs of meals on their makeshift blanket and seated herself in front of one of them, again crossing her legs. Xierra waited for Larkin to join her and pass out the water before nodding at him and peeling open her packet of food. A clawed green finger reached for what she hoped had been a form of meat originally and slipped it into her mouth. With only slight difficulty, she swallowed the morsel. A sip from her case of water had much better results, quenching a thirst she hadn’t realized she had, a thirst probably shadowed by her hunger. Gradually adjusting to the food, she ate more easily, putting the taste out of mind and only focusing on its purpose.

After letting her padawan eat in peace for a few minutes, she finally broke the silence, setting down her canteen. She still had a bit of food left and would finish as she spoke to Larkin. With a slight arch of her brow ridges, she glanced at the adolescent boy’s goggles. “How did your meditation fare? What did you feel around you?” Her voice was light, almost curious, but the questions also had a serious purpose for her. The Falleen knight needed to know whether her padawan was making progress, whether the tactic had helped him grow at all.

[Blue]

Larkin did not have to wait too long before his master opened her eyes and smiled at him, suggesting that they yield to their bodies signals and get something to eat. He nodded silently at her words, knowing them to be very true, pushing himself to his feet and following the Falleen's example, heading towards his own pack.

Xierra went to get some of the dehydrated food they had brought, but stopped momentarily to remove her outer robe ad letting out a small sigh. This caught Larkin's eye and for a moment he watched his master from behind his goggles as she dug through her gear to find some food. She started to turn and the young man busied himself looking for the canteens as she spread her robe on the ground, chiding himself for his lapse of concentration.

After finally finding what he was looking for, Larkin headed over to the Falleen and handed over one of the canteens, looking down at the makeshift picnic blanket bemusedly before realising that she wanted him to sit on it with her to eat. Plonking himself down, Larkin crossed his legs like when he had been meditating and opened his food packet.

Fishing out some of its contents, the padawan pulled down his scarf and popped the food into his mouth, revealing his young, gaunt, weather-beaten face. It was not exactly flavourful but it tasted much better than sand-wolf flesh and Larkin ate it contently, washing it down with small sips of water. In this heat, it would be stupid to gulp it down like his body was telling him to. He would more than likely throw up and waste more fluids in the process. One had to mediate oneself if you wanted to survive.

They stayed together like this for a few minutes as they ate in silence and Larkin listened to the sounds of the jungle around them; the creak of the trees, the chirping of the various avian creatures or the snuffling of some foraging animal. It was almost eerie how similar this place was to his homeworld, yet was so different at the same time. Here, the heat was almost friendly, the world filled with the sounds of life.

There was no sounds of life on his homeworld. Just the wind, the sand and death. Nothing more.

His master started speaking once more, jerking him out of his thoughts. She asked him how his meditations went and his jaw tensed a little. He wished that he could tell Xierra that he had felt what she wanted him to, but he just had not. He was still limited by his own mind. The trees were still just trees.

But it was worse than that, and he felt the need to confess. He turned his goggled face to look at her, making sure that he kept his eyes on her eyes. After his... lapse earlier, he was being extra cautious about where he let he vision wander.

"I... I made little to no progress, master", Larkin revealed. He scratched at his perspiring brow in embarrassment before going on. "I tried to do as you asked and feel the life around us. But it has been so long since I have been in such a warm climate and in the effort of meditation I fear I may have... dozed off", he trailed off bashfully.

He considered telling her about the sensation he had felt right before he had suddenly snapped back into consciousness, but he dismissed it. It was most likely just a dream. Besides, what was there to say? That he felt as if he was falling and drowning at the same time? It sounded ridiculous simply thinking it to himself.

[Mara]

(((Apologies for the delay… I sort of got a bit backlogged when I lost motivation to post for a few days, lol.)))


Finishing up her meal, she could see more than feel her padawan stiffen a bit, both physically and through the Force, at her question of his progress. She kept her own presence in the Force light and encouraging, hoping that he wouldn’t feel afraid to tell her, whether the news were positive or negative. Though she hoped he would present her with good news, that he had finally felt something deeper, Xierra knew it also would be too much to ask for this early on. Larkin’s training would be a bit more rudimentary than other padawans’, including her former one Zorn, almost like starting with a fresh youngling. But she also knew that he held potential within and wouldn’t give up on the boy. Whatever his answer, she would accept it, and they would continue on in whichever direction was best.

And so she successfully held her disappointment at bay when Larkin replied that he hadn’t felt anything new. Xierra nodded at him as he continued, feeding positive energy into her Force aura. A smile spread across her green face as he admitted to feeling sleepy in the sun, and then she didn’t feel quite so bad that he hadn’t made any progress. After all, he had gotten distracted during his meditation, just as she had with her hungry stomach. Perhaps if they had been in a different lush environment that was much cooler, he would have gotten past his conventions of what he knew about the flora and fauna around him, and a breakthrough was much closer than she had previously thought.

Still, though, she wondered if she needed to change tactics and methods; obviously this continued forced meditation wasn’t helping him as well as it should. Xierra had been asking it of him an awful lot since becoming her student, and it could possibly be starting to stunt him. Perhaps a change of scenery would be best, maybe a walking conversation through the jungle. Such simple movement could help the mind focus elsewhere, and he might unknowingly take a step forward. Plus, it would giver her a chance to ask him about what had startled him earlier. The idea settled in her mind; they would go to the Force, instead of asking it to come to them.

Xierra could feel some conflict in his Force presence. Unsure whether it was because of his failed meditation or something else, she decided to assure him anyway. “I completely understand. I probably kept us meditating in the sun much too long.” She glanced at her robe, which they were both sitting on, a reminder that she had gotten a bit warm herself. Even in the shadows of the jungle canopy, it could get stifling in areas. “Don’t worry. It happens to all of us, from time to time. Even to the more experienced Jedi.” she added, with another smile.

“Now, I think we should move on to a different lesson. I think our meditating is done for today. We can turn back to that another time.” She paused, giving Larkin time to absorb this, but trying not to pay attention to whether he would feel elated at this. That was a lesson she didn’t want to deal with yet. While training could feel like a chore at times, it should not be dreaded. One of her fingers moved down to her lap, tapping nervously on the shin of a boot before she spoke again, and her hand stilled. Time to broach her idea without making it sound like it would be another teaching moment; Xierra wanted to keep Larkin’s mind open and at ease. “What would you say to a bit of a walk to ease our stiff muscles?”

[Blue]

((Pffft, you normally have to wait much longer for my posts. No need to apologise. ^_^ ))


Larkin began to feel very uncomfortable as his master began making excuses for him. What he had done was inexcusable, falling asleep during a lesson! If he had done that while on sentry duty back where he had come from he would not be so easily forgiven. It was another example of how even those people that were supposed to be hard, like the Jedi, could become soft. In any case, he did not need his master making excuses for him.

It took a moment for him to realise the way he had thought of the Jedi. He was treating them as if he was not one of them. Of course, he was not a fully fledged Jedi at this point, but the moment they had made him a youngling of the Order he was supposed to have become one of them. Yet he had not. He had remained an outsider right up to the point that Master Zalq had taken him on as her padawan.

Struck by this minor revelation, Larkin almost missed what his master was saying to him. When he realised that she intended for them to leave behind meditation for today, he felt a small amount of relief sweep through him. He actually enjoyed meditation to a point. It reminded him of when he was chosen to keep watch the mountainous dunes on his homeworld for any incoming threats, when he had emptied his mind as he observed the wasteland through the blaster scope so that he could stay focused on his task. But trying to use meditation to enhance his mind? The concept had always been too foreign for him to wrap his head around.

The prospect of having some physical exercise after all the time that the two of them had spent sitting still was one that Larkin would happily take. He had always found that physical exertion did more to clear his mind than even the most intense of meditative sessions.

Finishing off the water and food supplies that made up his and his master's little picnic and stood, brushing down his simple garments to get any remain crumbs off of them before replying to Xierra.

"That sounds like a good idea, master", Larkin said in his usual quiet, blank tone. Looking down at the Jedi Knight through his dark goggles, the teenager offered his hand down to the Falleen to assist her in standing up.

[Mara]

(((Well, I still feel bad for taking so long. ;p
And sorry for giant last paragraph; I just didn't know a good place to split it, lol.)))


She watched her padawan’s face to see how he would respond to her suggestion. Like Xierra had thought, she had felt a bit of relief from Larkin at her mention that their meditation was done for the day. Though she had been trying not to focus on him too deeply, it was hard not to miss. Even if it was relief at doing something else and moving around, not just relief at no longer having to meditate. They were the one and the same, from different points of view. And those feelings would just be yet another thing for them to talk about and work on later. For now, though, Xierra wanted to keep on the topic of the Force and what it could offer, just through different means.

Larkin came to his feet then and replied his agreement. Hearing his neutral voice once again, a small part of her was thinking that he had the ‘there is no emotion’ part of the Jedi code down pat, and for some reason, it amused her. On the outside, though, she smiled and nodded to him, after letting out a breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding, in anticipation of his answer. “Great.” She had mostly expected him to go along with the idea, knowing how much he struggled making any progress with his meditation, but she had been unsure whether he’d want to stay deep within the jungle and might just prefer to return to their camp. Perhaps he just couldn’t sense his master’s reasoning for wanting to immerse themselves in the flora and fauna more fully.

Untangling her legs from their cross-legged position and switching to a kneeling position, she prepared to start gathering up their things and packing up before they set out. But as she reached out a hand to pick up their empty food trays, she saw her padawan’s hand reaching down out of the corner of her eye. Xierra swallowed a smile of mirth at the thought of the boy helping her large frame to her feet. Instead, she looked up at him and put her green-clawed hand in his. It wouldn’t do to deny his help; plus, if she expected him to trust her, she had to trust him first. Unsure of how strong Larkin actually was and not wanting to embarrass him, she drew a bit on the Force to aid her as he pulled her to her feet. Inclining her head to him once she was standing, she added, “Thank you, Larkin.”

Xierra bent her knees then to finish setting their trash aside and lifting up and shaking out her robe. They both went inside her pack, the former to be taken back to camp and disposed of properly, the latter rolled up neatly and set just inside in case she needed the extra layer later on their walk. Her canteen, though, she kept outside and put over her shoulder, planning to refill it if they came across a stream before getting back to their base camp. Satisfied that they were leaving the clearing in the same way they had encountered it, she shrugged into her pack and nodded to Larkin. Once he was ready as well, they would start off.

A few minutes later, they were walking slowly through the jungle, following a small worn path left by one of the native herbivores of Caamas. It was so narrow that they had to walk single file, Xierra following her padawan. She had considered but dismissed the idea of a more conventional position with the boy coming up behind her, because she wanted to be able to keep a better eye on Larkin and their surroundings. Though she was trying to avoid it, they might accidentally walk into behemoth territory. Also, this allowed him to walk at his own pace, instead of having to keep up with the Falleen’s longer legs lest she forget to keep her pace slow enough. The less distractions, the better. Xierra wanted this exercise to be as stress-free as possible.

As they walked, she spoke, keeping her voice light but strong enough for her padawan to hear her from a few feet behind him. “Empty your mind. Push out all other thoughts. Open yourself to the Force. Be quiet and still, as much as you can. Don’t concentrate hard as you have been doing in meditation but let yourself relax. If you can continue to walk, close your eyes if it helps you. Don’t force yourself to feel anything. Just keep walking, keep an open mind, and see what comes to you.” She had said similar things to Larkin time and time again when they were meditating or just talking, but perhaps this time, while his brain was occupied in keeping his body moving, his mind would be free to wander and experience the Force, the life, around him.

The Falleen herself could sense a great deal of living Force around them without needing to fully open herself to the Force. Most of what she felt was the abundance of plant life all around them, the trees, shrubs, ferns, grasses. Caamas was ripe with greenery. But if she spread out her awareness in a greater circle, there were stronger presences, various animals, herbivores and carnivores, on the ground, moving through the canopy, flying through the air. For her, the sensation was soothing and made her feel even more alive, strengthened her, relaxed her. For Larkin, if he ever made the breakthrough, it might be a bit overwhelming, similar to his experience with the population-heavy Coruscant, but hopefully in a much more positive way. She knew it was something she had to get used to when a youngling and later a padawan, but it eventually became a welcome feeling. Something that, when the Force was taken from her during an earlier mission on Metellos, she felt empty inside without it and almost sick. If that was anything vaguely resembling Larkin’s current state, it might explain a few things, and she made a note to ask him about it later, along with other things. For the moment, she just enjoyed the stroll.

[Blue]

((I decided to push the start of some action here, hope you don't mind! ^_^))

Helping his kneeling master to her feet, Larkin noticed that she was nowhere near as heavy as he expected her to be. He kept this thought to himself, however. The last time he had mentioned a person's weight to their faces, it has been a fellow youngling who had been a little on the chubby side. She had burst into tears and ran away to one of their teachers, who had proceeded to punish him on the grounds that he was bullying her. All he had done was advised her to lose some weight so that she would not find later life as a Jedi difficult. Surely it had been constructive?

With Xierra now on her feet, the two of them began to pack away their things. Larkin made sure that he had some water close on hand, clipping a water bottle to his belt. Slipping a little bit of food into his pocket in case he got hungry on the trek, the young padawan put everything else into his pack and slung it over his shoulder, joining his master who nodded at him to take the lead. He complied, walking out in front of her.

Making their way along a narrow, well travelled pathway, Larkin kept his eyes and ears and other senses open. He was fairly certain that these parts of the jungle where not frequently travelled by any fellow humanoids, which meant that it was a trail left by one of the many creatures that called this place home. He kept his pace slow, steady and cautious, making sure that he was aware of all of his surroundings at all times in case one of these creatures decided that the two of them looked tasty. He stopped only once to snap off a sturdy branch that hanging low from one of the numerous trees to use as a prop, sweeping it before him to make sure that there were no traps or hidden dips along the way. One could never be too careful.

When his master started to talk, he nearly turned around in surprise. They should not be talking, they did not know what might come out of the wilderness and attack! It took him a moment to realise that she was probably able to sense things around them both and therefore able to sense any incoming hostile creature if they drew it's attention. Listening to her words, Larkin decided that since her senses, with the aid of the Force, were far more likely to pick something up than his, to do as she asked.

The idea of letting his guard down for any reason was abhorrent to him, but he was starting to get tired of letting his master down, so he did exactly what she said. He allowed his mind to go blank, to think of nothing and to simply allow his feet to carry him down the path that had been cleared for them. He did not close his eyes though, and continued to sweep the branch back and forth in the search for any dangers on the ground.

He had started to go completely out of it, losing track of how long that they had been walking, when a familiar tingle tickled at the base of his neck. His body shuddered and he stopped dead in his tracks, his entire stance changing almost immediately. His grip on the branch switched too, becoming more ready to swing it.

Something was wrong, very wrong. He only ever got that sensation when something was about to happen that would put him in danger. His head swung back and forth, the blankness of mind he had been experiencing sluggishly draining away as he tried to return to a state of full awareness once more.

Where was it? What was it?

[Mara]

(((No worries, I had been thinking about doing something similar in my next post anyway.
There’s not much describing behemoths on Wookieepedia, so we’ll just have to wing it, and maybe be a bit vague about what it looks like…
Anyways, sorry to getting to this so late, but it’s here now!)))



Xierra drew in a deep breath of fresh, humid jungle air and tried to take her own advice. She had told her padawan to clear his mind and not spend so much energy in looking for the Force. Instead, just wait for it to come to him. It was a sentiment more easily said than done, as she well knew, especially for young Larkin. The Knight could reach a state of meditation without much thought, and had been doing so while following her padawan along the trail. But still, at times throughout their walk, she had found her mind wandering, wondering how he was doing with the exercise. Whether or not the physical activity was distraction enough for him to notice the life around them.

When she had first made the suggestion, she had felt the change in Larkin’s emotions. It could only have had been described as flabbergasted, and again, Xierra had been reminded of the boy’s different upbringing. Of course, she should have remembered the situation they were in and how it would have affected him. She should have explained herself more when mentioning that he close off his thoughts and just let his mind float through the living Force around them. But she was still getting used to the whole idea that she even had a padawan now, let alone one who needed a bit more prompting and teaching than the average young Jedi.

Hoping that she hadn’t completely blown the boy’s mind and ruined him, the Falleen let his reaction go. Now was no time to comment on it; she would just save it for another time, like so many other things she needed to deal with but was waiting on the right moment. It was a bit overwhelming. Conversations with other Jedi, including Master Teer Ka had helped out a lot, but in the end, she was still on her own with her padawan. Xierra had to be the one to do the instructing, to grow Larkin into a proper Jedi. All the advice in the galaxy would only get her so far. She had to take the next steps, follow through with her own actions.

Realizing she had gotten sidetracked in her mind again and had lost outside awareness, she gave herself a mental head shake, jostling herself back to the present. Xierra gradually starting stretching out her senses once again into the jungle surrounding her and her padawan. She drew in a quiet sigh, relieved that nothing was out of the ordinary, just the usual living presences she had felt when they had first started out. It was just she and Larkin, walking along a makeshift trail in companionable silence, minds open to the Force. At least, she hoped her padawan was finally experiencing what she was or at least making progress.

But then something changed. Larkin’s demeanor turned drastically, his Force aura emitting uneasiness, and he stopped right in front of her. Glad that she was no longer lost in her thoughts and didn’t run into him, Xierra immediately paused her walking herself and expanded her senses farther out. She hadn’t heard anything, so it must have been something in the Force her padawan was reacting to. Trusting that he was right and pushing aside any elation she might have had that her padawan was making strides in the Force, she closed her eyes and searched for the source of what was putting the boy on edge.

At first, as her circle drew steadily outward, growing, she felt nothing out of place and started wondering if Larkin had really felt something in the Force that caused him to come fully awake and ready. Maybe he was just getting jumpy with all the quietness and meditation. However, then she felt it, behind them and slightly off to the right. Whatever it was, it was large and coming closer. She felt no direct malice in the Force, but the presence also didn’t exude the friendly innocence of most of the other life forms she had felt earlier. Xierra’s eyes opened and widened. A behemoth, it had to be. They must have somehow wandered onto a side trail and into the wrong territory and caught the attention of one of the large creatures.

Swallowing down her chiding thoughts at having let it happen—it could only have been her fault; though Larkin was in the lead, she was the elder Jedi and in charge of this little lesson and had let her mind get off course—she lightly laid a hand on her padawan’s shoulder. She pushed calmness in the Force around them, hoping to ease the boy and herself. But with her other hand, she slowly unclipped her lightsaber hilt from her belt and hefted it loosely at her side, keeping her thumb near the emitter switch. It was best to be prepared for anything, but she would do her best to avoid any sort of confrontation.

“Larkin, take a deep breath. Relax. I can’t be sure, having never encountered one before, but I think it’s a behemoth, out there behind us in the distance. I remembering reading that they don’t attack unless provoked, so if we just continue on, it shouldn’t bother us. It’ll be all right. Let’s keep walking.” Xierra worked hard to push out any of her worrying thoughts and be the image of confidence and serenity for her padawan. He would no doubt feed on her reactions and emotions and take his cues from her. She removed her hand and gestured for him to move on, with one last glance at the jungle before she followed after him.



((I know you said you could work with it, but if you want me to go on a bit more to help you out, let me know...)))