(ASK) The 4rth

[Sirocco]

Today was an interesting and joyful day for Raleigh as good news had finally come to him thanks to the force. His former Padawan Minion Holphee had suddenly appeared out of nowhere to join the jedi order once again after having vanished outright once the core fell. Although Raleigh was held back as well by circumstances at the time, he wandered what Holphee had been doing all this time but his arrival was not a lone one. Minion had appeared with a pair of twins who seemed to be the biggest members of their race Raleigh had ever seen and just as tough. Eager to meet his former padawan again and rekindle their fellowship, Raleigh had been tasked in taking a second padawan who would join Khelsea in the path to guardianship. Not knowing his name yet but eager to meet him, Raleigh waited in one of the jedi safe house's rooms for his new padawan as instructed to him. Interestingly, Raleigh found out his former padawan was taking the brother of Raleigh's new padawan as a learner making things rather dynamic and with a future of group teachings ahead.

Raleigh thought by the information given to him that he would be a great practitioner of Djem-So but his age seemed to make things interesting as he was quite old. The padawan was perhaps not old in comparison to his race's standards but with age came several difficulties in learning and acceptance of new and different mentalities adding to the fraze "cant teach an old dog new tricks". Still, it was the force's decisions in the end and the force only knew the outcome of the future with crystal clearness so Raleigh opted to keep an open mind.

 

[Simon]

Tarn tramped down the halls, offering quiet greetings to the few Jedi he had passed. He was growing accustomed to the ways of the Jedi; though inside he still felt clumsy and awkward compared to most. The building had an stillness about it, as if it simply ignored the rest of the galaxy. The Feeorin was not one to be still for long periods. He desired to be out, taking the fight to the enemy. He knew the road ahead was a long and arduous one, and should not be taken lightly. He knew he would have to work exceptionally hard to be allowed out in the world.

He did notice, however, a trend among most Padawans of the Order. They were young; most not even full adults. Compared to them, actually most Jedi in general, he was significantly older. Increased age came with many difficulties. Inside he felt he was ready; no, he knew he was ready. All he needed was the training. He had heard good things about his Master, Raleigh, and was interested in what he could learn.

A few more minutes of walking would put Tarn at the entrance to the room he was requested to meet his master at. He peered inside, observing an older human man waiting. Remembering what he was told about courtesy, the Feeorin placed his fist over his heart and bowed stiffly. "I am Padawan Tarn." the Feeorin said tersely. "I seek Master Raleigh." He looked at the man curiously, awaiting his response.

 

[Sirocco]

Raleigh sometimes wished he was back in the jedi temple or any temple when it came to training his padawans because of the rich history and tools offered to him in temples like Tython. The days of the jedi roaming the beautiful gardens of Empress Teta's Sage halls or Tython's beautiful ruins were now gone for now. Padawans now were forced to live and train in makeshift jedi safe houses and life in the houses of the families that were kind enough to a roof over their heads. As Raleigh contemplated how lucky the younger padawans were in their situation with their ability to adapt, Raleigh knew that the force would lead the jedi to reclaim their temples and their status as guardians of the light.

Young was not even close how one would describe his new padawan as the Feeorin was multiples of times older then his younger contemporaries. Tarn was even older then Raleigh and likely had so much knowledge of the world and other abilities then the jedi did due to his plus one hundred years of advantage the padawan had. Having read his file, Raleigh saw that age was a factor that helped or hurt the potential of a padawan in their learning which was something that made Tarn's learning a wild card. As one grew and aged in the years, one was prone to pick a few skills and mentalities here and there but people of his age were also prone to stubbornness. Only the force and time would prove to Raleigh if Tarn was ready and willing to unlearn what he knew and embrace the mysteries of the force despite his advanced age. It was age that had Tarn at a disadvantage as well.....because padawans were traditionally children because a child's mind was in a superior state of learning and openness adults only hoped to gain. How ever, every one had their method of learning and despite his age disadvantage, Raleigh knew that Tarn could be thought if done so correctly.

Sensing and then hearing the Feeorin speak, Raleigh turned around and gave Tarn a smile before bowing down in return "You have arrived at the right place as I am Raleigh, welcome Tarn" Raleigh spoke as his second late bloomer stood before him, his first having been Khelsea who was taking her free day off at the moment. Looking Tarn over, Raleigh smiled as he was surely prime and ready to fight as a warrior.....but not as a jedi or at least not yet "I feel a great fire in you, a will to fight and win against your foes.....good, good but we must refine this and it is I who will teach you how. Today I shall evaluate you in your lightsaber and force abilities to see were you stand in the force types and in Shii Cho but first I must ask you: what do you think is a jedi, our role in the galaxy and as guardians of the galaxy?" Raleigh asked, wanting to know why some one so old and so experienced wanted to be a jedi.

Once he finished with the evaluation, he planned on teaming him with Khelsea in their training and because Khelsea had been craving a friend and fellow jedi to train and compete with. Compete in this situation, how ever was used loosely as they would be allies and not rivals becouse they would be there to help and aid each other in their training.

 

[Simon]

Tarn stood awkwardly as his new Master stared at him. He could feel the man's eyes pierce him, evaluating more than his physical attributes. Moments of silence went by as the two watched each other silently before the Master spoke. The man's words were soft, yet conveyed a sense of great knowledge in the Force. Tarn wasn't sure why, but the man radiated an aura of tranquility. Are all Jedi so calm the Feeorin thought to himself, eying the man. On Odryn, the calm were either too elderly to argue or too naïve to understand the world.

The question the Jedi Master asked had thrown Tarn off-balance. He wasn't expecting it; he had hardly given any thought about what he believed the Jedi were or why he had come. The Feeorin stood with his mouth firmly closed, staring intensely at his Master. A few seconds of silence passed, and he slowly opened his mouth.

"The Jedi are peacekeepers."

His tone was brusque, the sentence having been formed with only a moment of thought. Tarn didn't know what else to tell the man. It was all he had known of the ancient Order from the stories told about Feln; once a great Master Jedi and Exalted of his people.

"I know only what we are told of the ancient Jedi Master Feln, a member of the Order thousands of years ago."

He paused, recalling the legends told of Feln. The Feeorin had violated the Rime Feeorin - the ancient code of Feln's people - and destroyed the Sanctum of the Exalted. To his people, Feln was a traitor; corrupted by the outside influence of other races. Tarn kept this to himself, however. He figured it would hardly do him any good to tell his new Master that the only Jedi of his race had betrayed his own people.

Tarn looked around the room. The challenge of combat was enticing, but the Padawan's vibro sword would hardly hold its own against a lightsaber. He looked to his Master, silently questioning the Master for the Feeorin's lack of a weapon.

 

[Sirocco]

Raleigh had heard of master Feln and knew he was a traitor to his people and the jedi order but had not gone into further details then simple skims of knowledge out of curiosity. Tarn boundlessly more then Raleigh about the nature of the fallen sage master But such a topic was potentially a topic of sore nature, something he did not wish to address unless Tarn wished so. It was true Feeorins were rare among the jedi and Raleigh could not recall another jedi of the same race in the order. Knowing enough that it might stand as a lesson to Tarn, Raleigh hoped his new padawan would aim to surpass the failures the master had succumbed to thousands of years before. A topic he had to research now that he had a the second/third Feeorin jedi the order has ever known.

His answer was but a fraction of what the jedi were....what they had been forced to be so many times and it was the narrow minded individual that labeled the jedi as aggressors for the things they had been forced to do. True, the Jedi were peace keepers but they were also fighters of justice and protectors of the light as they keep the balance of peace keepers and liberators. The jedi were many things: scientist, artists, poets, philosophers, political advisers, inspectors, hunters, guardians and in regrettable circumstances....warriors. It was conflict that defined the jedi in a galaxy filled with suffering but it was wisdom and the power of will that protected them from the all to real reality of the darkside. The Jedi had been forced to fight a war the had lost and as the sith spread their numbers thin, the Jedi would be called to war once again some day. War was a cruel thing and no one should suffer through it....but it was a needed evil that would never exist if people loved and cared for others.

"I see, I will leave it to you to tell me the sore tale of Master Feln....a tale of precaution. For now I shall evaluate you just as I evaluate all of my padawans before you with a few questions, why don't we sit down and relax?" Raleigh offered as he did so, sitting down on the floor to relax as he let all his worries melt away. Seeing Tarn sit down if he did which mattered little which he had done, Raleigh took in fresh air as he thought on how to go about this "Let yourself and your thoughts calm and allow your mind to clear as my question is much harder then one would initially think. Take your time to meditate deeply on my question before answering: What do you think is the force? What is your deepest and most intimate belief of what the force truly is?" Raleigh knew that this question was going to be hard for him to answer beyond a textbook definition so he hoped Tarn gave this a real good thought on it. The Feeorin needed to understand the basic principles of the jedi before he had any chance in learning his way to knighthood, there was much that had happened sines the tragedy of master Feln.

 

[Simon]

Tarn nodded curtly. He'd probably forget to tell his new master about Feln, and didn't mind at all. It was a sore point in his peoples' history anyways. The Feeorin took the request to sit down as more of a command by his Master and promptly took a seat, cross-legged in front of the human. Though he was several heads taller than the man, even while seated, the young Feeorin stared attentively at Raleigh.

"What do you think is the force? What is your deepest and most intimate belief of what the force truly is?"

Tarn silently stared at his master, perplexed by the sudden question. Following the suggestion to clear his mind, Tarn closed his eyes and attempted to rid his thoughts. At first it began to work; his mind slowly emptied itself and he started to ponder the question. Then, as if the proverbial floodgates had been opened, his mind filled with all manner of irrelevant thoughts. He scowled, eyes still shut, and attempted to clear his mind once again. He snapped open his eyes, staring at his master.

"My thoughts cloud my ability to focus on your question, master." he said, practically spitting the words out in frustration.

The Feeorin closed his eyes again in an attempt to throw up mental barriers to stop his thoughts before he could contemplate the question. Several minutes would pass as the large feeorin sat silently, eyes clenched shut, thinking. Finally, he spoke.

"The Force..." he enunciated slowly, "I know very little about it. It flows through everything, this much I know."

Again he quieted, thinking of a way to truly explain what he thought. Once again he spoke, this time saying each word slowly, as if he were carefully thinking of how to pronounce them.

"The Force is like a heartbeat." he spoke, "It gives the universe life, it gives us life."

He looked at his master expectantly, as if he knew his answer was unsatisfactory. He gave his best attempt and silently prayed he would not be ridiculed for it.

 

[Sirocco]

(sorry for late post, had a lot on my plate the past few days)

Raleigh contemplated on his answer which was good but short likely due to his overactive mind that so easily broke his concentration seconds ago. It was a fact that Tarn needed to learn to meditate successfully before starting in the more advanced abilities in the force but his answer was satisfactory. If Raleigh wanted Tarn to not follow Feln down the dark path the dark side tempted him to, he needed to train the Feeorin with utmost care.

"good, your answer is....good. the force is the source of life that all living things depend on to live and what they become once their time in the mortal plain has passed. The force is a gift of life and abilities Jedi enjoy to wield and it is our responsibility to respect it and not misuse it. It flows all around us and it penetrates us as it holds the galaxy together and gives us our very existence. There are those that would dare use it for their own selfish needs how ever, the sith believe they can control the force as a tool and a slave which has been their undoing in many ways through out time. As a jedi protects and reverse the force as a friend and an ally, their nature in the force in advanced circumstances may actually gift the jedi with extended life and youth because the light side of the force sustains all and protects us. The darkside in the other hand is a terrible thing and it tempts those with ultimate power.....but with a terrible price. The darkside is like a poison that corrodes all life around it, you can see that all darksideers that have commune too deep with the darkside not only fail to obtained extended life, but their bodies begin to corrode and fall apart. If you fall to the darkside, your fate will be putrid and akin to decay" Raleigh explained with a bit of a warning about the natures of the force "meditate on this truths and take all the time you need"

The next thing in their training/review was the teachings of the jedi code and the eightfold path which were things all jedi needed to learn and understand well enough to express. Allowing Tarn time to meditate in the nature of the force, Raleigh set a datapad down with everything concerning the jedi code and the eightfold path which they would go over once he was finished.