Public First Returns

[Kirieth]

Kirieth nodded at the set of rules put forth by Miriam, they were all good to her. At least she won’t have to worry about being forced pushed around too much, it would’ve been a bit embarrassing if she came at her and she just kept putting her on the floor. Okay, now she just had t ogo with a form. Shii-Cho wasn’t any good against lightsabers. She couldn’t use Soresu or Shien due to their mostly defensive nature, so Makashi it was.

She ignited her ligthsaber, which bathed Kirieth with blue that made her smile. Today it seemed it wouldn’t be embarrassing her today. Then it flickered, and turned a bright pink. She let out a sigh, it faked her out. Shaking her head, she pressed her right foot forward and took the blade with both hands, bringing it up to her chest with the blade pointing toward the ceiling, she performed the Makashi salute.

She brought the blade down and faced it toward her side as she walked toward Miriam, aiming to study her stance as he eyes slowly dulled a bit. Entering combat, the activity of her brain ebbed, and her hands thought for her. She wasn’t sure as to the stance Miriam used, so she pressed forth carefully.

When she came in range, she shouldered her robes, sending her leftsaber to the other hand as she revealed her far more combat-ready tunic and trousers. While the lightsaber was in motion, she freed her arms of the sleeves, and took the blade with her left hand, aiming to strike toward Miriam’s side, albeit in a more cautious, slow strike to test Miriam’s defences against sudden and probably unforeseen movements. Should she block the strike, she’d hold it against the blade for a few moments before moving back, kicking away the robe and taking the lightsaber with both fists.

 

[Miriam Tachi]

The salute, the giveaway of a Makashi practitioner. Undoubtedly a good choice and something that worked well when it was just the two of them. Behind the clear blue shine of her blade, Miriam could not help but look at her opponent’s blade as it flickered from one moment blue to the other pink.

“Broken crystal?” She asked and began to observe the younger student. While not a form that Miriam could claim to be her preferred, she had studied enough about Makashi to get a better understanding for how its wielder tried to get the upper hand. It relied on sudden movements as a form of deception on the field to trick your opponent into the wrong parry and leave themselves open.

The kid — which Kirieth really wasn’t, but the word stuck — began her attack. She threw her robe off and attacked with her left hand. Slow and cautious as the attack was there was also a weight applied behind it. Kirieth pressed against Miriam’s saber and Miriam would press back until Kirieth backed off again and Miriam could assume the defensive stance of the third form.

“Nicely done.” She said and nodded her head to show her approval. “Do it again.”

 

[Kirieth]

“Uh… Something like that.” Kirieth replied with rosy cheeks.

She smiled when her attack was done, and Miriam complimented her. Since it seemed the Knight wasn’t fighting back, she could do some more experimental attacks. She moved cautiously toward the Knight again, slowly, before springing once again.

She made for a quaint slash from her right side but with a slight twist. Using both hands and having a long lightsaber hilt, she could control it much better than with others, she pushed onto the bottom with her other hand, thus pulling back the blade from Miriam’s block, attempting to throw her blade work off-balance.

Rotating the blade, she tried to raise her hands and blade hilt up, so her blade struck against Miriam’s more toward the beginning of the saber, giving more control over the block.

She’d then barge forward unless Miriam did something about an overexposed lightsaber block (if she made it at all, that is), she’d find herself getting hit by a light-hearted jab of the elbow before Kirieth retreated again.

 

[Miriam Tachi]

Miriam’s master had once referred to Soresu as a meditative form. When the focus was on blasters and lightsabers, and even more so how to get them away from yourself, your mind was open to expand and enhance. Your reflexes, your strength, your ability to keep all of it in balance as you focused on holding off danger imposed upon you. In the Republic they had always been encouraged to take on Faalo’s cadences when possible, and to a greater extent the practice had stuck with her.

The knight kept herself mobile, her blade raised one moment to block her opponent’s and then in the next moving to catch the surprise maneuver. They met in the middle, blade to blade as Miriam pushed herself against the blade for a moment before she stepped back with a twirl for flair and re-positioned herself for another round.

“You said you were a Padawan, right?” She spoke with a playful grin, most likely the first one Kirieth would have seen from Miriam. There was admiration in there, a compliment hidden in a joke. “You’ve learned your way around that blade, it shows.”

Leaving some room for Kirieth to prepare Miriam would lower her blade. In what seemed at first to be a wide sweeping motion, Miriam would bring her saber up in an attempt to strike from below. Yet by the time that their blades would have connected Miriam would promptly turn the saber off again and then reignite it, should she make it past the padawan’s blade, to hold the blade perfectly still before Kirieth’s chest.

 

[Kirieth]

Miriam was able to see through her manoeuvre, they met in the middle of Kirieth’s strike, and was able to keep her back, twirling and repositioning. It seemed as though it wasn’t going to be fighting a training dummy. She’d have to work a bit harder to get a strike in.

Kirieth nodded at her. “I’ve been a padawan for eight years.” Kirieth said with a smile. “Thank you.” She said simply, before raising her blade again. Miriam knew how to use her blade too, of course she did, she was a Knight. “Well, I guess I should pick up the pace, right?” she said. “It’d be an insult to your skills not to.”

She raised her blade again, moving forward once again. It seemed as though Miriam waws going to do a strike from below, and Kirieth moved to meet it. She blinked as the blade suddenly turned off. Trakata? The blade hovered before her chest, having re-ignited between her and her blade. She looked at Miriam in surprise for a moment, before moving back. “I’d… Forgotten about that technique, that’s one for you, then!” she said, grinning.

And then she launched into a cascade of strikes toward Miriam. She began with one from above her right shoulder toward Miriams’ left, then twisted it toward her side when blocked. She twirled and aimed at her right shoulder with her back turned, making the full three-sixty degree turn with a jab toward the Knight’s stomach.

 

[Miriam Tachi]

It wasn’t too much of a serious spar and assessment of what Kirieth could do, the pace was set for sake of convenience and ease of getting back into the flow but if the kid wanted to go faster then by all means Miriam would abide by her wishes. And sure enough trakata had been something that had been used as a cruel trick on Miriam when she was far younger and still in learning when her ego got a little too big for her britches. It garnered the same result in Kirieth as it always had in Miriam: surprise. It was perhaps why the technique worked to such an extent. Not ideal when facing several opponents though.

Miriam was about to open her mouth and accept the compliment but was instead thrown off her guard by the attack that came her way. She raised her saber to the side, tried to scramble and block that with a moderate success. Yet as that jab came for her stomach she could do little more than stand on her tippy-toes and watch as the blade intruded upon the space that would have been her stomach should she not have arched to avoid it.

Miriam stumbled backwards and refocused as she got her balance back.

“I’d say that counts as one for you as well.” She said and got a new hold of her hilt. “Goes to show that even Knights can be caught unawares.”

Also went with saying that mistakes were the better teacher. Miriam approached Kirieth with her blade held before her. It rose above her head, and yet as it was about to come crashing down she lept above and over the Padawans head with a strike for her shoulder. Upon landing she took a knee. Accompanied by a twist she then swept the blue blade for the padawan’s leg.

 

[Kirieth]

Of course, Kirieth wasn’t about to disembowel her training partner. She only moved it forward, closer to Miriam’s stomach as a teasing gesture for when she moved back to avoid the jab. She felt a little bad for her, she seemed a bit surprised at the attack. They were both trying tricksy moves it appeared, she’d have to be careful. She nodded toward Miriam as she stumbled and spoke. She smiled a bit at her comment about Knights being caught unawares.

“Sorry! Sometimes I get a bit carried away.” she says. “I feel like it’d be safer using training sabers, sometimes…” she sighs.

She rose her saber again as Miriam approached her. More than likely she’d have to be careful. Miriam rose her lightsaber, and Kirieth responded by placing her blade in one hand for better movement. Indeed, she’d rather dance around the blade than block it, but it’d most likely end in a mishap. True enough, Miriam used a feint, rather than simply striking for her head, she jumped up. Kirieth rolled forward, just narrowly avoiding a singed shoulder and blocked the second attack from underneath her legs.

Rolling to her feet, she moved toward Miriam, this time with her right foot forward, using cautionary strikes with one hand, sending a strike toward Miriam’s right, then flicking the blade, downward, trying to make Miriam flinch for her hands (albeit without actually trying to strike them), before rolling the blade underneath in an attempt to push the blade aside and leave her open.

 

[Miriam Tachi]

Miriam offered a smile. It was maybe not preferable to have learners get carried away, but this also wasn’t anything close to an official training session either. More two people trying to get to know each other without speaking all that much. At least that's how Miriam preferred to look at it. Words had to be chosen carefully, a spar didn’t allow words to get in the way. The fact that Kirieth was sorry for almost hitting Miriam spoke more than any words could.

“You are not wrong.” She said nonetheless in response to Kirieth’s observation. Training sabers were a good idea, but both participants were no stranger to their own blades. As long as neither of them got carried away again they were fine.

Kirieth blocked Miriam’s attacks just fine and as the kid began her own attack on Miriam, the Knight held her ground. She extended her saber’s blade to meet with Kirieth’s. As Miriam’s opponents blade swung for her right she held it up to seize it. Though it was a feint and Miriam would pull back from her opponent at the revelation.

A string of beeps began to call out from the Knight’s pocket with a slow chain of increasingly louder beeps. Miriam would excuse herself, hold the spar off as she reached into her pocket to grab it. A reminder for her to find one of the Masters in one of the gardens for a personal matter. Right. She looked over at Kirieth and then the device before she pocketed it.

“One more round before I have to go.” She said and slowly began to nod. Her saber rose once more into a defensive stance. “Give me your best, and I will see about countering it.”

 

[Kirieth]

It seemed her feint was less than successful again. Her Jedi training partners certainly weren’t jokes, even if they were holding back a bit. She drew back as she heard a beeping sound, allowing Miriam to move back and do whatever she needed to be done, turning off her saber while she waited. She looked around. She had barely broken a sweat, yet the other people before had made a puddle of it. What were they doing back then? Or was she simply not working hard enough?

She looked back to Miriam as she said she had one more round left in her. “Aw.” Kirieth sighed, looking visibly disappointed, but she reignited her lightsaber. “Okay, then! Master Pongle taught me this one, he said it’s called the Bantha Stomp.” she says, before gripping her lightsaber with both hands.

Taking a step forward, she moved into a hunching position. “I’m meant to do this during a combo, but we’re short on time.” she explains as she relaxes her shoulders, lowering her arms while moving the lightsaber close to the ground on her right. She then began moving in a rather strange way, hopping with her right foot while using the left to steady herself, moving not unlike a stomping beast. She ground her lightsaber against the hopefully lightsaber-proof floor, generating sparks toward Miriam as well as the generally unsettling sounds of a lightsaber trying to cut through something it can’t.

It was supposed to be used with destructible flooring, as to send more stuff their opponents’ way, but she didn’t want to actually try to hurt Miriam. When she got in range, she aimed at a rather powerful swipe from the right, swinging intentionally for her sparring opponent’s lightsaber, trying to weaken her grip. Then, she swung from the left back to the right, even harder than before, still only aiming for the lightsaber.

With her final strike, she moved the hilt to a reverse-grip, jumping up in the air and aiming to bring her saber down toward Miriam. If it looked like it’d actually hit her, or if her lightsaber wasn’t in position, she’d of course stop before striking her. If not, the mixture of her brutal strikes and body weight made for a particularly hand-numbing attack indeed. Kirieth even looked like she was having fun doing it, rather than channelling any sort of anger or emotions for this Juyo-like manoeuvre.

 

[Miriam Tachi]

A bantha stomp? Not a technique that Miriam was familiar with but she prepared herself nonetheless. It was a sweep from the bottom and Miriam moved to block it, the sparks of the ground reaching for her shoulder as she stepped back to regain her footing. One moment the grip on her saber was firm, the other it was loose. With a second hit Miriam found her saber get thrown out of her hand for a second before she pulled it back in again to raise against Kirieth’s final attack. Their sabers clashed and in that very moment Miriam felt herself fall back, her saber turned off as she was laid flat on the ground. Another second passed and she pushed herself back up on her elbows to give Kirieth another smile.

“Very impressive.” She said and pushed back to her feet and proceeded to clip her saber back on her belt. “A bit more aggressive than I am used to the other opponents being, but valuable insight still.”

Her breath had been knocked out of her just the slightest. Miriam let in a few inhales as she brushed herself off and looked around the room to see what they would leave behind. A few holes in one particular spot on a mattress but otherwise a pretty manageable mess. It was when things went full contact that things went a bit more crazy. People throwing everything they had at their friends to both teach and learn from one another, the previous sweat puddle a good example of that.

Luckily, Miriam herself had just about started to build one up. Something she could walk off on the way to her next appointment. She gave Kirieth another look.

“That was good.” She said and offered a handshake. “Welcome, again, to Kashyyyk. We’re lucky to have you.”

She had to go, but there was always a time for goodbyes.

 

[Kirieth]

Her Master’s technique seemed to have worked! When it was finished, Miriam was on the floor. Then again, maybe she was just playing nice? She did make sure not to actually hit her. On the floor, Miriam was quick to bring herself back up using the force. Kirieth lowered her saber and switched it off, putting it onto her belt. With the force and a little bit of effort, she dragged her robe back and put it on again. She smiled back to Miriam as she did so.

“Thank you! And I’m sorry, Master Pongle said I should use it as a surprise and during battle proper, to overpower enemies.” She explained. “And you told me to use my best one, so…” she shrugged. “You were a little tricky to fight too, I’m used to… Well, fighting against brute force.

She glanced back, it seemed she hadn’t managed to completely wreck the place, but there was a hole or two.

Turning back to Miriam, she smiled back and accepted her handshake. “Thank you! And thanks for taking the time to show me around!” she’d say, bowing her head a little. “If there’s ever a time you need help-or a padawan, don’t hesitate to ask!”

With a rueful smile, she’d let go of Miriam’s hand. “I think I’ll go to my room now, in the dormitories. Farewell!”