Hard Lessons (Darth Ferus)

[Kitty]

Kitty would jump to the side and continuing running while also trying to move slightly away from Ferus. If at any time the flames got too close she would use a force push to try and push them out of the way.

Sure her running away looked like cowardice but she refused to fight her master. If in the end she couldn't avoid getting burned without fighting then get burned she would. She certainly didn't want and heard the awful stories of people being burned alive and Kitty's fur was more likely to catch fire than skin was. Even with the pain to come in mind she still could not raise a paw against him. Hopefully she wouldn't be pushed into a corner where the only choices were fight him or burn.
[member="Darth Ferus"]

 

[Darth Ferus]

As she evaded Ferus slowly began to slow down. [member="Kitty"] had proven enough to him, but she was still in her feral form. He needed her back in her original for what was to come next. Black skin once more turned red, and gold eyes turned blue. The Zabrak watched her for another moment or two before finally speaking.

"Change back. Once you do, we're moving forward with your training. No more about this changing form. We shall start your true Sith training."

 

[Kitty]

Kitty sighed in relief as her master dropped his scary look and the flames. Now that the danger was passed Kitty's adrenaline began to die out and the fatigue of all that physical and mental drain would take its place. "I don't know how and I don't know if I can do any more. I'm really tired after all that." Kitty replied to her masters order. She was very excited to begin true sith training but didn't have any energy to show it.
[member="Darth Ferus"]

 

[Darth Ferus]

A smirk formed on the Zabraks face before he waved [member="Kitty"] off. She had done more than enough this day. "Go rest yourself child. Return to me when you change back to normal." And with that the Zabrak would turn his back on the child. What he had hoped for was confirmed, and for now he himself needed to figure out a plan to teach her now.

 

[Kitty]

Kitty thanked her master before going to the temple to grab a change of clothes. As soon as she found some she ended up involuntarily shifting back into her normal form as she called it.

Kitty took a cat nap and woke up a few hours later. She could have very easily had slept 8 after how drained she was, but she was to excited to get started on her true sith training as [member="Darth Ferus"] put it. That and she didn't want to disappoint him and take too long to recover. The nap gave her enough energy to continue.

Kitty clothed herself and returned back to her master. "Alright I'm ready." She said hopping she hadn't taken too long.

 

[Darth Ferus]

Ferus stood with both hands behind his back. While [member="Kitty"] had taken the chance to rest, he had chosen not to. All around the red man pockets of fire burned on the sand, their purple color staining the otherwise white on blue world. The fires themselves seemed similar throughout each, but with Kitty herself there they began to shift. At first, random shapes, then focused and refined into animal shapes. A tiger, a dragon, a turtle, and a phoenix. A grin forms on the red mans face as he looked to each.

"This is not an easy task to complete you know. It's one thing to manipulate one flame, but two, let alone four, is difficult as it gets. But there is a reason for this. These four animals represent a different side on what I myself can do. The tiger represents my skill with a sword, my overpowering strength. The dragon represents my ingenuity. Manipulating the world around me and my own body to what I want and need to be. Art of the Small lets me change the atoms I can see to what I want. The turtle represents my resolve, my defense. Barriers to protect and elongate how long I can fight. And finally, the phoenix. It, as you probably guessed by now, represents my fire. The purple flame that I can use to fight, heal, or defend."

With a large wave of his hand, his grin would widen more and more. "Pick your path Kitty, but pick it wisely. This will be the only thing you learn until I say otherwise."

 

[Kitty]

Kitty came back to a difficult decision. Her master had created animals of fire and used them to represent the things he knew and he was giving her the choice of choosing one. Fire was not something Kitty was very interested in. Besides with all the hair she had she'd probably catch herself on fire trying to learn it. She found it interesting he said he could heal with his fire. "What do you mean you can heal with it?" Kitty had to ask.

Then there was the turtle. It seemed like a good one to chose, however a strong defense with no offence means against a determined opponent she would be constantly under attack making till it finally breaks or she screws up making it a bad defense. Though there was the issue of in her larger cat form since she couldn't hold a lightsaber she was very vulnerable.

The dragon Kitty was also not concerned with. Besides strength her natural physical abilities were better then most everyone.

Lastly there was the tiger. It seemed the most appealing. Kitty did not like using the dark side of the force often. Not because she was scared of it but because she believed due to its stronger nature than the light side it had to be used in moderation. So it only made sense Kitty would learn sword stuffs as her main form of offence. There was one last issue though. Kitty didn't feel bad for killing her previous master but anyone she didn't hate she did not know if she could kill especially a stranger. Her master being an assassin would definitely have her kill eventually. Kitty didn't want to though. Turtle would give her an excuse not till kill anyone since she wouldn't have the skill, at the same time though she didn't want to disappoint her master. Then again she had to remember this wasn't like she can never learn the other things, though she wouldn't be able to learn those other things if she dies.

"I think I'll go with the turtle." Kitty finally said.
[member="Darth Ferus"]

 

[Darth Ferus]

"And so the turtle it shall be." With a nod to [member="Kitty"] , the Sith Lord would wave a hand across the beach. All of the flames would suddenly dissipate, but the turtle would remain. Not as fire however, and instead what looked to be glimmering purple light made up the body of this tortuous.

"This ability is known as Force Barrier. Essentially, you freeze the flowing force around you to such a point that nothing can pass through it anymore. There are more than one uses for this, but for now we're going to work on you making such a shield effectively. You must reach out to the force infront of your body and make it still. Bend it to your will, and make it solid."

There was another nod before the Zabrak would sit. This was a rather simple task to some, but the concept behind it was a difficult one to understand. He had high hopes for the ex-slave, but even a Knight of her own species had difficulties mastering this skill.

 

[Kitty]

Kitty looked at her master, then to the turtle, and then back to her master. "I'm suppose to what?" Kitty asked as if she hadn't been listening. Kitty had been listening rather intently but didn't understand much of what he said. How does one make the force still and make it solid at the same time. It sounded awfully complicated and Kitty didn't even know where to be begin. About the only force knowledge she had was knowing it was there, using it to lift, push, and pull things, and some very limited experience or at least the general idea in using it to enhance her body's natural abilities. "I don't even.....how?"
[member="Darth Ferus"]

 

[Darth Ferus]

There was a light blink from the red man before he burst out into laughter. And so [member="Kitty"] didn't know what he meant? It could only make him giggle. The laugh was to himself, mostly due to his arrogance about how much he expected the girl to do. This was their first training day together, well second, and he was treating her like a knight.

"My apologies. Right, well. You know how to use a push yes? Think of it like that, but instead of making the Force move, you make it go still. Focus. We'll start with making the Force still before anything else, alright?"

 

[Kitty]

Kitty glared at her red skinned master as he laughed at her or at least she thought he was laughing at her. After his fit he proceeded to explain how to start out. "Oh,ok." Kitty reached out a hand and focused on an area of the force and made sure it didn't go anywhere. Whenever Kitty used the force in the past or even learned to use it, it had always been about making it do something. The idea of doing something to make the force do nothing was weird. "Alright now what?" Kitty asked.
[member="Darth Ferus"]

 

[Darth Ferus]

"Condence it. Make it so not even air can pass through the area you froze. Solid, strong. Those are the thoughts you should focus on." Ferus began to pace back and forth around [member="Kitty"] , both hands behind his back. This point was the tutelage part, and it was his duty to make sure she could do what was asked. Time would tell, but he still had high hopes for the girl. Never once would his blue eyes waver from her form, constantly being aware of any sign of frustration on her part, just in case things went feral.

 

[Kitty]

"You mean like squeeze it? Kitty asked. That actually seemed pretty simple. Did this kind of stuff really take people years to learn? Kitty concentrated with everything she had or at least she tried to. Her master pacing in circles staring at her was very distracting.

After finally blocking him out of her mind she managed to make a very solid sphere. "Well that didn't take me long." Then Kitty realized how small it was and how much brain power she had to put into just making that. "Oh, I guess making stuff bigger that could actually be of some use would be a lot harder." Kitty looked at her master. "I'm guessing that isn't enough to satisfy?"
[member="Darth Ferus"]

 

[Darth Ferus]

Ferus blinked slowly at [member="Kitty"] as she made the sphere. It seemed she herself didn't even know, but she had done something many couldn't do. He himself couldn't do it. She made a sphere, out of a barrier. He had expected perhaps a shield to defend one side of her, but this offered so much more for her. More than she knew, and he could only grin.

"You do realize you've done something I can't even do, yes? It seems the turtle is certainly your style. It'll be harder to make larger, but you can do it to begin with. Practice, and you'll be able to achieve things even I couldn't." Save for the compliment and the grin, Ferus was sure not to give too much praise. He was worried he may make the girl weak with too much, and he did not want her to suffer an ill fate. Not with this potential.

 

[Kitty]

"Wait what?" Kitty asked losing her concentration and the small barrier dissipating. Her master proceeded to compliment her and say she had done something he couldn't. "What did I do?" Kitty was utterly baffled. "This force stuff is confusing. I don't see how anyone could specialize in it over lightsaber skills." Kitty wouldn't say it but she would much rather be learning stuff with a lightsaber than this. At least lightsabers made sense to her.
[member="Darth Ferus"]

 

[Darth Ferus]

Ferus opened his mouth to respond to [member="Kitty"] , but he quickly closed it with a smile. "Very well, get out your saber. We shall be switching to Shien, the form of the Tortuous." With that, Ferus would pull out his own blade, lighting the flat blue saber with a simple flick of a button. If she wanted to switch to saber practice, he would happily oblige.

It was his favorite thing to do.

 

[Kitty]

"Yay!' Kitty shouted excited to hear her master agree and even more so to learn he was going to be teaching her Shien. Kitty had actually already been able to learn a little bit of the combat style already. She pulled out her lightsaber and held it in a reverse grip. Igniting it she eagerly awaited [member="Darth Ferus"] instruction.

 

[Darth Ferus]

A slight brow raise would be what [member="Kitty"] earned as she lit up the saber in a reverse grip. He was familiar with the variant, but he hadn't expected the girl to know it. Nodding once, he would flick his saber up in a neutral stance, feet spread evenly apart. "Seems you know a bit. Show me." There would be an encouraging smile as Ferus gripped his saber a little tighter, his whole body ready to begin.

 

[Kitty]

Kitty suddenly got very nervous. The prospect of fighting her master with actually lightsaber was not a good one. On top of that Shien was the weakest against a single opponent and she didn't even know it that well. Kitty tried to run at her master and give a horizontal slice originating from her right side. The power of it was pathetic. Now only was Kitty's strength very weak but the reverse grip didn't allow the saber to be swung with its maximum potential momentum. On top of all this she only put half effort into everything she did. Striking at her master just didn't seem right. Shien wasn't meant for one on one saber dueling. Why was he having her go at him?
[member="Darth Ferus"]

 

[Darth Ferus]

The smile from before slowly faded at [member="Kitty"] 's hesitation. What was she doing? Going easy? Slow? Half the power? With an almost growl emanating from his throat he would smack her saber away, then go with his free hand to punch her cheek in a cross punch. His voice came out angry and disgusted.

"Do not hold back! The art of sword play is a dance with death itself, you cannot afford to go easy. I am your master, but also your enemy in this situation. Fight me like your life depended on it, or it truly will!"