Ask A Solid Foundation

[Mako Krim]

Mako listened to T'vani speak her observations, nodding approvingly as she finished. Kane voiced his own thoughts so he didn't see the need to echo the man.

"Thank you Kane." Mako said as he returned his fellow knights bow and watched him go for a moment before returning his attention to his student.

"Knight Seros is correct. These are dangerous times we live in, and the harder you train, the more prepared you will be for whatever you might face in your future." He said seriously. The young initiate may not have much violence in her near future, but the future was volatile and unpredictable. Ever changing.

"As for what you observed, you are correct. The flow of battle is never certain. There are many factors that decide a fight, decisive victory can be changed into defeat with a single misstep." He said grimly. He didn't want to scare the young one, though perhaps she would be wise to be wary. He glanced over at the wall where a variety of training sabers hung and gestured to it.

"I see you do not have a training saber of your own yet. Take one." He would let her choose. It might take some time to sort out what type of weapon best suited her. Mako of course was a fan of the single saber.

@Remileah

 

[T'vani]

T'vani rose to her feet, setting the disabled remote to the side as Kane addressed her.

"Thank you," she said as he imparted his wisdom as he left. It was curt advice, blunt in its delivery and authentic in its meaning. Pain was a natural part of the cycle of developing and growing as a person, and as a Jedi, it was all the more critical. If she wanted to become the best Jedi she could be, it would require enduring more pain than if she had picked any other path to walk. It was the price, but she was prepared to pay all the same.

T'vani stood straight as Kane departed, casting a sidelong glance as he disappeared behind the door. Her attention switched to Mako as he began speaking, affirming the advice that she had been given before offering his own. The girl nodded again to show she understood everything she was being told. Their spar was already enough to prove Mako's point, but his words further drove it home. Duels could change in a single breath, and if T'vani wanted to succeed and keep herself alive, she would need to learn to adapt in the moment.

"No, I don't," T'vani confirmed Mako's assessment. She had yet to receive a sabre that was uniquely hers, relying entirely on the ones provided by the temples for her training. As he bade her take one from the wall, the small Fiani approached and glanced over them. T'vani had read of the different blade styles available, but learning which one suited her best would take time. Her hand lifted, hesitating between two distinct choices: the single-blade and the double-blade.

"It feels like such a difficult choice," T'vani commented, her hand floating between them. After contemplating, the girl eventually removed the single-bladed sabre from the wall. "I'll try this one first," she said, looking it over in her hands as she turned from the wall to walk towards Mako.

 

[Mako Krim]

Mako prepared himself for the arduous task of teaching the youth as he watched T'vani waver between the different selections on the wall. He put aside the duel that he had just fought, absentmindedly rubbing his still stinging wrist as he thought about where to start with the young one.

The Pyke had never actively engaged in training someone before, much preferring being out in the field, relying on his own wits, instinct, and connection to the force. There was little space for that here and it was a new experience.

"An excellent choice. My preference." He said as she brought forth a single training saber. "Best to learn on too, so many want to start with a saber staff or swinging around dual blades, but it is a solid foundation that is best to build ones skills upon." He said with a nod as he gestured towards the training floor.

"Now you said that you have had a few mentors." Mako said as he took a casual stand near the center of the training ring. "How much have they covered in your training so far? Specifically in the basic stances, strikes, and target zones of Shii-cho?" He asked. It was the best place for a beginner to start, the first form of lightsaber combat developed in ancient times. It was also the one he was most versed in.

@Remileah

 

[T'vani]

Although Mako complimented her choice, T'vani didn't know what type of sabre she had picked up. It was entirely coincidental and potentially minorly influenced by the Force attempting to guide her. Despite her ignorance, the man seemed pleased with her decision, affirming it was good to learn with.

"I'll do my best to learn that way, Master Krim," T'vani said. "We didn't cover much. Master R'ashtaro showed me a bit of the Niman stance because that was the one I liked the most when I read about it. He also showed me some of the basics," she elaborated, recalling her training excursion with her Fiani mentor in the ruins of Takodana. "My training with Master Galenus was physical, not combat training."

It was T'vani's first time receiving formal training in lightsaber styles and combat. Until now, she had done physical exercise and training to deepen her connection and control over the Force, but that was it. Mako was going to be the first person to begin teaching her about the Force and the fundamentals of lightsaber combat. T'vani adjusted her posture to mimic the Shii-cho stance, and while she adopted a reasonable posture, it was far from perfect.

"You stand like this, right?" she asked, glancing down at her feet and the positioning of her body.

@Arcangel

 

[Mako Krim]

Mako frowned as T'vani explained her previous experiences in learning from some of the other Jedi. Nothing she had done was wrong, but he clicked his tongue in disapproval at what she told him.

"Niman before Shii-cho?" He said, shaking his head. "One cannot be expected to run before they can walk." He muttered to himself before giving T'vani a reassuring smile. "You have done nothing wrong, but Niman requires at least a basic understanding of the previous forms to use it with skill."

He watched her take the opening stance of Shii-cho, legs shoulder length apart, left foot forward. Saber held at waist height with a slight forward tilt. He expanded her form, corrected her positioning a bit before settling in front of her in a mirrored form and activating his own blade.

"I want you to strike at me, don't worry about hurting me, it's a training blade." He said as he prepared himself to defend.

@Remileah

 

[T'vani]

"I'm sorry, Master," T'vani replied. "I was just looking through the archives. I didn't know there was a... order to learn them," she murmured, disappointed by her overeagerness in learning. The girl understood that Mako wasn't upset with her, nor was he even disappointed, and he was only correcting the order in which she was doing things. "I'll focus on Shii-cho from now on, Master, until someone believes it's time for me to move on."

As the man corrected her posture, T'vani adjusted accordingly. Her legs needed to be further apart, and her back required straightening. Once settled into the stance, she maintained it to the best of her abilities as Mako circled before her. She activated her training sabre as her mentor did, taking a deep breath when he instructed her to strike.

The problem with lightsabers always was, and forever would be, compensating for the gyroscopic pull of the blade's magnetic fields. The heft of a lightsaber was isolated entirely in the handle, and the blade's momentum itself was altogether artificial. The girl pulled her arms back to commit to an overhead strike, the pull of the magnetic containment she failed to compensate for causing the edge of the blade to tap her shoulder as she swung. She yelped as the training blade buzzed and stung her shoulder, though the pain didn't stop her from committing to her attack. T'vani committed a successful, albeit bungled, overhead strike.

"Ow," she whimpered, wincing. As Kane had told her, the pain was not as severe as she anticipated, although it was still unpleasant to experience.

@Arcangel

 

[Mako Krim]

Mako mentally chided himself for what he had said. He didn't want to discourage the girl from exploring other options in her training. At the same time, he did feel it was important to have a strong grasp of the basics before moving on to more advanced material.

He set those thoughts aside for the moment as he prepared himself to defend against the young ones strike. He winced as she seemingly struck her own shoulder first before bringing his blade up horizontally so that her own blade struck his and stuck for a magnetic moment with a sizzle of sparks.

"Are you alright?" Mako asked in concern as their blades separated. There would be plenty of time for the hard faced instructor later, after T'vani got through the initial growing pains of getting used to swinging a saber around. Even the time she had spent with the wooden practice swords would have ill prepared her for the realities of a lightsaber, the strange massless movement that still bore the weight and momentum of a sword.

"It takes some getting used to, swinging a real saber. You will get it with time and practice." He said as he considered what they might do to correct for this. "Remember that even though it might not feel like there is mass behind the blade, it will act and move similarly to the wooden training swords that you have worked with so far. You must learn to anticipate the resistance and work with the blade, the lightsaber must be as much a part of you as your arm or the force within you." He said with a nod, he let her take a moment to think about that and to recover from her pain before setting himself in stance. "Again."

@Remileah

 

[T'vani]

As T'vani's sabre broke contact with Mako's, she nodded to answer his question.

"I'm okay," she reassured the man. "It hurts, but I can keep going," T'vani said confidently, nodding at Mako again with her best smile. As instructed, the girl adopted the Shii-cho stance, inhaling deeply to steady her breath and body for another attempt. T'vani adjusted her grip on the hilt, considering everything Mako told her. This weapon, although different, was fundamentally identical.

She opted for an overhead strike again. T'vani lifted the weapon aloft, succeeding at not tagging herself with it. The girl brought the blade to bear again, swinging at Mako a second time...

...only for the sound of a deactivating blade to fill the room. At the apex of her downward swing, T'vani's thumb slipped, hitting the switch on her training sabre to deactivate mid-swing before it clashed with Mako's. The Fiani girl stood motionless, staring at the space her blade had been in only moments ago. Crippling reality set in. A dark blush filled T'vani's cheeks, her ears slowly fanning back against her head as her tail coiled tightly against her body.

The poor thing froze with embarrassment, unable to bring herself to speak. The only thoughts going through T'vani's mind were about how silly she must look and how unbearable it would be if anyone else had witnessed what she had just done. Then, she hung her head as her arms lowered to her legs. She stood there, completely and utterly defeated, struggling to muster up the courage to look her Master in the eyes. How could she possibly apologise for this blunder?

@Arcangel

 

[Mako Krim]

Mako moved to block the incoming blade as T'vani swung again, raising his blade in a horizontal block of the ideal form. There was a quiet shutter instead of the expected clash as T'vani's blade deactivated from a slip of the finger at the final moment before the strike.

Mako froze. He watched the girl shrink in on herself as the embarrassment enveloped her. His mind scrambled as he sought some words, some action to draw her out of the low mood that had set upon her. His mind came up blank for a moment as she stared at the ground.

An impulse fell upon Mako, and he seized at it, deactivating his blade

Mako lowered himself to the floor, kneeling on his knees as he might in meditation. He set his lightsaber down in front of him.

"Sit. Let us take a break for a moment." He said, gesturing at the ground at T'vani's feet as he spoke in gentle tones. The girl was not of the right mindset to learn anything at the moment, proceeding without correcting that would hardly be productive. "Would you believe that I struggled with the blade when I was a young initiate?"

@Remileah

 

[T'vani]

___The girl's ears flicked as Mako deactivated his sabre. As he bade her sit, T'vani listened, slowly slinking down to the ground. Her head remained low as the man spoke to her, trying to assuage her inner turmoil over her catastrophic failure. Two swings in, and they were already taking a break from her ineptitude and downcast demeanour.

___"Were you?" T'vani finally spoke up, a subtle crack in her voice as her head lifted. When her face became visible, Mako would see a faint mist covering her eyes. She wasn't crying—not yet, at least—but the taste of failure was bitter, and the girl had just gotten more than a mouthful. T'vani cleared her throat and did her best impression of a smile, trying to suppress the hot tears beating at the backs of her eyes. The young Fiani did her utmost to maintain a brave face and confident façade.

___"I know I'm going to make mistakes," the girl huffed between her draws for breath to keep her emotions quelled. "I thought I was doing better than this. First I hit myself, then I do... that," T'vani pouted. She chortled and shook her head as it drooped again. "I'm trying not to let it get to me. It's just hard. I want to do better and make you proud. I want to make everyone proud, and I don't feel like I'm doing that."

___T'vani raised a hand to comb her fingers through her hair, sweeping it out of her face with a dejected sigh.

@Arcangel

 

[Mako Krim]

"I did." Mako nodded solemnly in response to the girls question. He could see the treats threatening to form in her eyes even as she tried to smile. He returned the smile, a small one. He did not interrupt her as she poured out words, her thoughts and feelings. Her fear of failure to make those she looked up to proud.

"We all make mistakes, especially as we learn. It is how we learn." He said with a nod. "What matter is that we learn from them, adapt to our own shortcomings, and overcome." He said seriously. There was a thin line between encouragement and discouragement that he rode. To instill knowledge while acknowledging failure.

"When I first came to the Jedi I dreamed of becoming a master swordsman. Then I took up a saber and could barely bring myself to swing it at another for fear of hurting them. My father always said I had weakness in me. My Master knew it for compassion and empathy." He said as he delved into the past, remembering his father's harsh words, and his master's kinder ones.

"Do you know the reason that Jedi first begin their journey of swordsmanship learning Shii-cho?" He asked her, pivoting the conversation away from the memories and towards the present. There was an important lesson here, and he wished to be present and mindful of it as he taught.

@Remileah

 

[T'vani]

___Mistakes were how you learned. T'vani knew that, but her blunders today were particularly atrocious. She glanced down at the training sabre as Mako told his story, turning it over in her palms. The girl listened as Mako explained his hesitance to hurt somebody, followed by his father saying that his softness was weakness.

___For T'vani, though, the problem appeared to be her complete ineptitude at controlling the sabre. Mako at least knew how to properly wield his, though she didn't stop to consider how much time it took to get to that point. When he asked if she knew why aspiring Jedi began with Shii-cho, T'vani shook her head. She had perused the various existing techniques but never delved deep into their origins or how they came to exist. The girl had only ever looked at what they were best at.

___"No," she answered quietly. "I admit I only ever looked at what each of the forms was good for, not at their origins," she confessed. Perhaps it was another fatal mistake, not getting into the rich history behind the individual lightsaber forms. Given her shortcomings, it was best to admit the gaps in her knowledge instead of faking it.

@Arcangel