Wanderlust

[Jairdain]

Jairdain had spent time recovering with the Dominion and then returned to the Silver Jedi after that. Something she had when she was younger came back. A sense of wanderlust. At home, her parents rarely indulged her since she was physically blind, even though she used the Force to see. While being a Knight now gave her a little more freedom than she had before, she was still pretty well tied to one location. Even without an official student, there were still classes to take and give. Learning was lifelong and Jairdain accepted that, realizing early on she would never know everything, she still wanted to learn as much as she could.

The wanderlust hit her and she finished off her week of classes, cleared the ones for the next week off her schedule and prepared for a trip. She didn't know where it would lead her, but instead of taking her own ship, she wanted to try something risky. Her and taking risks was something almost heard of...at least since she had joined the Jedi.

Growing had been a little different. While she wasn't able to get out and wander around, she got into her own form of trouble. Nothing major or even really dangerous, but her parents had acted like it was a huge deal when she was caught.

Allowing her memories to bring her happiness and only a touch of sorrow, Jairdain packed a bag for a journey and stole aboard one of the ships in the hanger. She found a place to hide behind what she hoped were some boxes in a cargo area. Feeling the ship prepare for flight, Jairdain leaned back against the wall and wondered just how long it was going to be before she was discovered.

[member="Karl J. Winters"]

 

[Darth Arkanus]

​

Flipping the switches and slowly feeling the ship rise he would take it out of the hanger and make towards the atmosphere, he put on a little music and sighed as he leaned back and relaxed until he had to make his preparations for hyperspace. He sipped on some ale he had gotten from a station he had recently visited, he usually didn't drink but he had been working a lot and needed something to ease his mind a little more then usual.

As they broke atmosphere he began making preparations for his jump, hitting and flipping switches and making sure everything was set before slowly pulling the lever forward and watch them go from a few hundred km/hr to millions in a blink of an eye. To most people this was nothing special, but to people who had never traveled this way it was a spectacle. He remembered his first hyperspace jump with his parents, he shook away the thought, not wanting to think about it.

He got up when they got out of hyperspace before taking a few more mini-jumps to get to his location. He went towards the back and began to play his droid in a few rounds of a game he had on the holo-table, he always forgot what it was called, the noise echoed throughout the ship of the screaming of the various wild beasts.

[member="Jairdain"]

 

[Jairdain]

Jairdain listened to the music coming from the ship's speakers. Whoever this was had good taste and she started tapping her foot against the bottom part of whatever she was sitting behind in hiding. After a while, she heard a game going on nearby and stopped tapping her foot. They weren't far enough away from Voss that whoever the pilot was couldn't turn around and drop her off again. However, the vibration of her tapping foot had caused something to rattle loose and fall to the deck of the ship. Whatever it was though, luckily wasn't breakable as there was not the sound of anything crunching when it fell.

Letting out a small sigh, she knew she was going to be found soon anyway. Now should she just stand up and reveal herself and stay hidden until she was found? That was the dilemma she faced and decided to just stand up.

For once, she wasn't wearing traditional Jedi robes having left the robes in her room. However, she still wore her boots and pants. A light green peasant top was covered by her green cloak. She did her lightsaber though and the hilt could be seen sticking to her hip.

[member="Karl J. Winters"]

 

[Darth Arkanus]

He heard a loud bang as something hit against the metal as if something had come lose. He stood up and put a hand on his lightsaber as he made his way towards the sound, he felt out with the force and felt something, someone, there he walked towards where she was and with a swift action lifted her up into the air with the force.

"Who are you and why are you on my ship?"

He asked sternly frowning at the girl, he didn't particular like stowaways, they caused to much trouble, and he felt like this one would be as well. He looked at her, he noticed her clothes and he dangling lightsaber, but this didn't make her a friend, but it did not make her a foe either, he just hoped for both their sake's she had a good answer to the question.

[member="Jairdain"]

 

[Jairdain]

A small yelp of surprise would be heard when Jairdain was picked up by the Force. Not that she overly shocked, the ship had been at the Jedi temple.

"My name is Jairdain and well, wanderlust got me and my ship isn't the best to travel in."

It was a one person, itty, bitty ship not built for combat, so he would sense no lies in her. She let out a sigh and hung her head slightly at being found so early in the trip. If it had been only a little while longer, then the chance of him turning around would be far smaller.

Opening her hands to show she meant no harm, Jairdain hoped to have her feet back on the durasteel plating soon.

[member="Karl J. Winters"]

 

[Darth Arkanus]

He would drop her abruptly and sigh and clear his board and left the room, going out of sight.

He had gone to the guest room and picked it up and cleared some things off, this was not going to be a short trip, and he was not turning back, he didn't need or want any detours so she was going to have to go with him, whether she liked it or not, he had things to do, and now they had things to do.

Coming back he looked at her and sighed, "Get comfortable, there's a guest room, down the hall second left, make yourself at home, this trip is going to take us a while and your gonna want to get used to this place before we're done. It won't be months or anything, but I'd rather you know your way around sooner then later."

He didn't appear mad or angry he just accepted the fact and made sure she was a asset, not a hindrance and would give her any and every bit of experience she would need to help him during their trip. He sat back at the table and set up a new game and sat some ale as he waited.

[member="Jairdain"]

 

[Jairdain]

Her departure from the Force lift was just as abrupt as it had been when he picked her up. Not quite falling to the floor, it took her a couple of seconds to regain her stability. Whoever this Jedi was had already left the room and she could hear him moving things around in another room. He came back a few minutes later and she was standing in almost the same location she had been before when in hiding.

Instead of him turning around, he may not have been exactly welcoming of her presence, he at least didn't throw her out of the air lock or escape pod. He told her where the guest room was and to make herself comfortable. That alone was quite a surprise and her face likely showed that was what she felt. Inside a giant sigh of relief came out and Jairdain gave him a large smile.

Grabbing her pack, the young knight dashed to the room offered and put her items away returning to the commons area of the ship within minutes.

"Finding my way around, won't be an issues, sir."

He had given a name and ​Jairdain was unsure of what to call him. He wasn't just a captain, so to call him that would be wrong, in her opinion and without knowing if he was Master, she didn't want to call him that either.

[member="Karl J. Winters"]

 

[Darth Arkanus]

He would sigh as he watched her scramble through to the room and he began a new game with his pilot droid, getting beaten once again, he really wasn't good at this game, to be fair he really didn't know the rules to it either. He just moved the big guys to attack his big guys and hope they'd win... but they never did.

"Don't call me sir! Just call me Karl or Winters, either works!"

He would yell back to the girl marking the win loss ratio after another loss. (0-500 to be exact) he would just keep playing and would fix all the things that got toppled over by their little, predicament with the force simply concentrating on them and the game at the same time as he sat there and sipped on his ale some more.

He would glance out of the corner of his eye waiting for the girl to come back as he was playing the game, he just didn't want her breaking anything, or touching anything to be honest. He knew in his mind that this was going to be one interesting trip.

[member="Jairdain"]

 

[Jairdain]

She returned to the room and sat down at the game table near him.

"Yes, si...Karl. I'm sorry, I was raised to show respect to people. Calling them without an honorific was wrong, I'll do what I can."

The look on Jairdain's face was almost innocent as she looked in his direction. She was still young and maybe a little too trusting, but felt comfortable with Karl. Feeling she was going to be safe with him. Whatever plans he had for this voyage, she would do her best to assist him.

"Whatever that fell, I hope it didn't break. I like your music though. What game are you playing?"

Hearing the sounds of the different animals had her curious and she turned her attention to the table trying to make heads and tails of the game.

[member="Karl J. Winters"]

 

[Darth Arkanus]

He continued to play with his droid, he moved a rancor and watched it eat another beast and laughed as the droid just simply said something about it being all part of the plan. Someday he really wanted to reprogram that droid to be terrible at this game, but he knew he never would, what's the fun in that. He continued to play until he added another tally mark to the droid side and sighed.

As he looked over at the girl He would raise a brow slightly at her question, she really didn't seem to see what he was playing, her eyes seemed to go through the board and into another universe, as if she was... oh. Could she be blind? He didn't want to sound rude but it seemed obvious by the look on her face and what she asked that it could be a possibility, he would attempt to, awkwardly ask her, "Please don't take this the wrong way, but, are you... blind?" He tried to be as sincere as possible while asking her not wanting to offend her or hurt her feelings, or it would be a REALLY long trip.

[member="Jairdain"]

 

[Jairdain]

The game finished and the droid won, but then Jairdain got the feeling that was normally the case and didn't say anything. A few moments of silence followed the end of the game and she felt Karl's eyes on her. She felt he was making observations and filing them away for the future and nothing else. When he broke the silence between them to ask if she was blind, she turned her head to look in his direction giving a small nod.

"Since birth. No offense taken."

It was a part of who she was and she wasn't one to deny something. Especially something that obvious.

"I know there are cybernetics I could get."

She shook her head.

"Done well enough like this though."

Growing up on a small, lower tech planet had kept her from getting them when she was little and by the time she could have, she had adjusted fine and used the Force to see. Jairdain didn't feel the need to get the implants to help her see.

"It helped make me I am today, Karl."

Calling him just a first name felt odd, but she would do her best. Giving him a little smile, he would sense she's accepted her blindness and adapted, learning to use her other senses and Force instead.

[member="Karl J. Winters"]

 

[Darth Arkanus]

He would nod to her and sigh softly running a hand through his hair as he sat there. He got up and went over to his bag and started to unpack, he had forgotten to do it when he arrived, and it gave him something to focus on for the time being. He sighed as he took out some of his mothers things and put them back onto the shelf. He got up and went to the engine room and put a bobble head up like his dad used to.

He finally came back to her and looked at her, "Well it's obvious your a Jedi, but do you use a lightsaber, or your mind? There are different sides to one coin and for a Jedi I find those to be the preferred two sides of this particular coin." He would mention to her as he sat back down and looked at her, "Would you like to play a game, I have no doubt my friend here will teach you and you both can share the fun in kicking my butt in this game." He said to her chuckling to himself as he waited for her.

[member="Jairdain"]

 

[Jairdain]

Jairdain sat in relative silence while Karl unpacked his bag. She observed his movements and he focus on getting things put away. He returned to her in time and sat down nearby. His observation was accurate that she was a Jedi and then he asked if she used her lightsaber. Her hand moved to the hilt on her side for just a moment before returning to her lap.

Though she had it for a for only a few short months, she had yet to actually use it beyond doing some mundane things with it. Looking in his direction as she answered.

"I use my mind far more easier than my lightsaber. Never was a good fighter. What about you?" She tipped her head to show she was interested in his answer.

"As for this game, I've never heard it before."

[member="Karl J. Winters"]

 

[Darth Arkanus]

He would nod at that, he figured that, it made since, especially due to her blindness she most likely used the force to "see" in a way which made it easier to use her mind for the force then for attacking. He made a note of that and he perked his ears up as she finished her sentence. He slowly un-clipped his mother's lightsaber and held it on his lap, he clicked the button and heard the buzz of it open and hum as it was ignited, it gave a white and black hue. He just watched it for a while as he thought of a response for her.

"I use the force to aid me in combat, with my lightsaber, I... have learned to become fairly adapt in my form and abilities that I can use fluently in combat, if you wish I could train you in some... abilities that are of the mind, yet serve more purposes in battle and elsewhere."

He would ask her slightly raising a brow as he leaned forward in his chair and let his arms rest on his knee's as he looked at the girl, he looked her over thinking what ability she would possibly want to learn, or what she would possible be capable of learning, but he didn't doubt that she'd put her heart into any task he gave her.

[member="Jairdain"]

 

[Jairdain]

Karl moved almost slow enough Jairdain hardly saw him move. He ignited his saber and she smiled at the familiar hum as it filled the ship.

"Well, yes if I have to fight, I allow the Force to assist me as well. There has not been a need for that yet though. Growing up, my classmates were all stronger than me in fighting, so I spent my time on learning about the mind and its powers. My only battle was of the mind and learned even there one doesn't come out unscarred."

Raising a hand to her head, she placed fingers on the area where she got headaches from that fight. A wound within her psyche left there by a Lord of the Sith. If he asked, she would give him the details, but left that out for now.

She gave him half a smile when she finished speaking.

"I strive to use my knowledge to advance diplomacy and grow from there."

[member="Karl J. Winters"]

 

[Darth Arkanus]

As he hit the button and listened to the lightsaber retract he sighed and looked at her for a moment, with her words and her physique he would assume her to be a practitioner of the Sixth form of lightsaber combat, be he wasn't positive. He personally felt that you could learn a lot from a person by which form of lightsaber combat they used.

"Which form do you use? I'd assume form six but it could be any of the forms available, just by your words and your physique it would make the most logical sense but I could be wrong."

He would ask her really pondering what her form may be, she could be just a normal form one practitioner or she could use any other of the forms, but he felt strongly about that one, he didn't know her at all besides the brief dialogue they've had so far so he could always be wrong and he'd be welcome to it, he enjoyed learning these things about other users, not to take advantage but to try and see into them by what they have chosen to focus on in their lives.

[member="Jairdain"]

 

[Jairdain]

When Karl asked his question, Jairdain blushed a little before speaking and while she couldn't make eye contact with him, her gaze fell off of him.

"I don't have a preferred form, si...Karl. My training with the Jedi was quite lacking in this area and I just move how it feels natural."

While she had asked her master what the different forms were, she had not done a good job of explaining what they were. When she was still a padawan, a mission had sent her away where she was captured and then rescued by the Dominion. There she spent her time recovering and then tested by a Master there to be Knight. So her own personal study was limited and Jairdain had not given much thought to a specific form to excel at.

[member="Karl J. Winters"]

 

[Darth Arkanus]

He nodded and rubbed his beard, he personally was a preferred user of Form one, he liked the simplicity and rawness of the form and it was fairly easy to learn, he knew it might not fit her the best but he felt it necessary for her to have some sort of structure to her attacks if they were to get into a fight. He would stand and walk over to a room and he called out to her.

"Come here and bring your lightsaber, I will be teaching you some Shii-Cho, also known as Form I, all young padawans learn this as their first form, they can learn to adapt it and fit it to their own, or use one of the other ones at their own digression. But all lightsaber forms come from the basic teachings of Shii-Cho. You will listen and we will practice, you have no choice, but you need to learn."

He said this as he stood in the center of the ring and looked at her and spoke as a teacher and a mentor not as a authority figure or anything else, his voice flowed with the compassion of him wanting her to learn these things, for her sake and his, and it was filled with the years of experience getting and honing his skills in the form to where it was now.

[member="Jairdain"]

 

[Jairdain]

Jairdain could tell Karl was thinking or considering something. It soon became obvious what it was when he stood up, voluntold her to join him and bring her saber with her. She knew her knowledge in saber fighting was dismally lacking and got up to follow him.

"I think I was taught the basics of this one, but please guide me and we will see."

She stood at the side of the ring and it would appear that Jairdain actually looked at him. Her full attention was focused on Karl and she understood every word.

"As Master Jessica puts it, I highly doubt I will ever be a lightsaber jockey."

There was a bit of dry humor in her voice and she took her lightsaber off her hip, just holding the hilt on her hand.

[member="Karl J. Winters"]

 

[Darth Arkanus]

"Form I, also known as Shii-Cho, The Way of the Sarlacc, or The Determination Form, is the first of the many forms of lightsaber combat. This combat form was developed during the transitional period within the Jedi Order from ancient metal swords to more contemporary lightsabers. Shii-Cho was intended to cater to these new weapons, establishing the basic motions and target zones utilized with a lightsaber. As Shii-Cho was effectively an experimental combat form, and was created prior to the emergence of Dark Jedi and Sith Lords, it did not address the issue of lightsaber-to-lightsaber combat, and was quickly replaced by Form II. Despite this, Shii-Cho continued to find a niche as a training form, with almost every Jedi duelist receiving some instruction in it, and including elements in their own combat styles. Shii-Cho was considered an effective fall-back option when no other form or combat style would do.

In combat, Form I lightsaber combat is wild and raw, relying on deliberate tactics and being primarily aimed towards disarming rather than injuring foes, in keeping with Jedi philosophy. Basic initiates in the style demonstrated rather clumsy performance, though in the hands of a master, Shii-Cho was fluid but highly randomized and unpredictable. One such famous user of this form is Kit Fisto of the Jedi Order from the Clone wars era, who died to the hands of Darth Sidious."

He would tell her as they stood there as if reciting this from memory, and truly it was, he always preferred this form over the many others out there, it was simple, yet the way he used it was efficient and deadly, he only hoped that she was ready to learn, even such a simple form.

[member="Jairdain"]