Form VI - Or how to not hit yourself with your secondary blade.

[Taruna]

>> Planet: Indupar
>> Location: Jedi Training Camp
>> Training area 5 - Lightsaber Practice
>> Reserved for: Taruna Eskarian, Dedacted
>> 19:55 Local time

"Here I am!" the blue Chiss announced as she walked into the training area, clad in her standard training dress, thus sporting a black armorweave Sarashi, some very flexible black transpariflex trousers and nothing else beside her utility belt and the two lightsabers.

As usual, Taruna arrived a little sooner then expected to make sure she would have some time to warm up and take the atmosphere of the training room. She did not know what to expect, but the new Grand Master actually took on her open request for some training in sword form VI. And if she only would believe half the whispers, this would mean she would learn a lot in a very short time. So she prepared with hours of meditation to prepare and now felt ready.

Looking up to the almost not at all clouded sky while standing with her bare feet in the stomped down and parched earth of the training ring, surrounded by a thick wood this was the prime example for secluded training. She liked it, felt the warm wind on her skin and actually looked forward to the training.

 

[Ben]

"Taruna."

Orlaan called from the opening in the pitted wood of the training ring, standing bare-chested and barefoot in the dimming evening. It was warm, and the soft breeze suited him well - a good night for some one on one learning.

"This is not the place we will train. You will not need what you have with you, I have everything you will need."

He patted a duffel slung over his shoulder. All he wore were his training wraps and a pair of cargo's: overdoing the whole physical combat scenario cluttered things unnecessarily - he had taught much of what he knew to himself, and he found the simplest of pathways to be the most effective. Orlaan threw the young Jedi Knight a parcel out of his duffel, just a simple linen tunic and pants, with wrist and shin wraps to match his own.

"You should change, and then get ready for a run. The place we're headed is a good ten or so kilometers from here."

The Jedi Warrior tightened the strap of the duffel around his huge torso and turned away to give her some privacy - something she would not have been afforded if this was Dra III, if she were to become a true warrior, but alas, there was a time and place for everything. Orlaan sat down on the other side of the wooden picket, his head stood above the seven and a half foot beams otherwise, and he didn't want to make the Knight uncomfortable on their first personal interaction. He was hear to teach her how to be a warrior, and specifically, how to dual-wield a lightsaber.

 

[Taruna]

"Taruna."

The Knight perked up when she heard her name and was already turning into the direction of the source before she thought about doing so. catching the package she opened it while listening and was already about to take off her pants when he was still about to turn around. This was training and not some kind of peep show. Also, there was no Force power known to manhood that could help take away any body parts by merely looking at them. And there was an entirely different set of social rules during training too. Since the clothes did not offer any underwear, she decided to keep her own, and quickly wrapped her wrists and shins. The clothes were then quickly folded and put near a tree. There was only one question left.

"I suppose my Lightsabers too? They are in training mode." her voice made it clear that she got the general tone of this training. Discipline was asked for, not idle conversation. So she tried her best to adapt to that training style and just clarified this to make sure she would not do a mistake by blind obedience. Thinking was something you could not switch of all out of the sudden.

 

[Ben]

"Yes. Leave your weapons here also - I will provide all you need."

Orlaan eyed the blue-skinned Knight up and down. She looked physically fit, clearly someone who did not slack off in training her forms, the art of movement, and the like. She also looked... no, that would not do.

"You look soft. Untempered."

The Jedi shook his head slightly, turning on one heel and bursting into a sprint, his long legs carrying him fast and far in no time. The brittle needles and cones that had falling from the trees and the gnarled roots and harsh deadwood felt soft beneath his calloused feet, but he doubted the young Knight would come away from this run without a few deep cuts and a score of shallower lacerations to accompany them.

Even out on Indupar, the training ground was all well and good, but the loamy forest floor did not suit his needs, and besides, he always did like a warm up. Ten clicks or so shouldn't have been too much trouble for Taruna, if it were on a treadmill or around the middle deck of the Evolution, but up hill across the carcasses of old trees and through the tangling vines of new growth, across sharp rocks and stone-ridden brooks, he doubted it would be so easy.

His legs carried him swiftly and effortlessly ahead, years of brutal training, and no doubt freak-genetics, conditioned one for far worse than a sprint through a cushy forest. Ghess supposed she was lucky there were no big predatory life forms for Taruna to worry about. That would have added an exciting twist to be sure. Orlaan knew that they were nearing his intended destination when the incline smoothed from forested foothills to a mountainside slope. The pair would not be summiting the mountain, but there was a waterfall surrounded by slippery moss atop hard rock a little less than halfway up, surrounded by trees older than the city they watched over.

When the Grandmaster arrived, he once again span on his heel and waiting against the back wall of the clearing, where the waterfall ran down from, and waited for his charge to emerge. Some idle part of his mind wondered how bruised and bedraggled she would come out of the underbrush looking; his legs provided him ground clearance, as well as a long stride.

 

[Taruna]

Looking at the Grand Master as he started to run she placed her lightsabers under the bundle, well knowing that her attunement to them would help her find them and decided to hide the bundle in a small lush bush. Then she wrinkled her nose, looking down at her well toned body. "Untempered?" she asked in slight disbelief. The last few years she spent most of her waking time training body and mind, and the training under Master Desu was not exactly a cakewalk.

Well, if the Grand Master did see her as temper-worthy, she would do her best not to disappoint and thus followed the wild run through the woods. And of course her feet were not as trained as his, and Taruna actually had to run quite more seeing that the giant leading the way simply had longer legs. But there's a trick in running. If you keep it at the same speed, you will sooner or later get into an automatism, where the muscles do the job without being asked to. But to keep on his speed, she had to allow herself to be infused by the Force a little, supporting her muscles to keep up.

When the knight reached the clearing, she slowed down gradually, not abruptly and take a good look at her surroundings. The Grand Master would clearly notice that she was not as much out of breath as he was probably expecting, since if Taruna did one thing the most of her time since she became Padawan.. it was running. Towards the scene of trouble, away from angry rancors and other wild beasts, through a hail of blaster bolts.. you name it, she probably did it.
What was not as apparent and would need quite a keen observation was the fact she was not putting her full weight onto her right foot anymore and left clearly visible wet and shiny red footprints in her wake. It was the result of a sharp stone and a broken root cutting her deep somewhere around the three click mark or so.

Still trying to adapt, she came to an halt in the middle of the clearing and remained still, taking in the fresh and clean air while looking at the Grand master. Her whole body language expressed that she expected the training to start immediately. It was what she expected since she somehow felt like the early days of training with the Echani Master.

 

[Ben]

"Good form, Taruna."

Orlaan congratulated her performance as she emerged from the tree line, a pink flush in her cheeks mingling oddly with the blue-hue of her skin. His eyes, so used to picking out such things, couldn't help notice the slight preference she showed her left foot; nor did he miss the slick crimson sheen spattered about her right. She was only a little thing, and he couldn't help but feel a little sorry for putting her through that. Then again - it was war time.

"Now, we're going to spar, Taruna. Tell me, have you had many sparring partners before?"

Orlaan set down the duffel on one of the waist - or shoulder, if you were the young Knight standing near the clearings edge - height boulders surrounded the cliff-side edge of the pool. He began stretching, the muscles across his bare torso bunching and banding with his motions, odds and ends floating out of the bag with the touch of the Force. Ghess set the items down in between the two: training sabers with thick handles, his own from when he was younger; an odd looking helmet, with an adjustable collar; and a thick length of rope about a meter or so across.

The Grandmaster indicated to Taruna that she should also be stretching off, whilst he pulled the plait out of his hair and the braid from his beard, running both under the icy spray of the waterfall. The chill and shock felt good, revitalising.

"Look around you Taruna, and think about what you are seeing. You don't need to tell me, just think about everything around you. What each object is, how it all connects together, the shapes, the angles, the toughness, and the texture. I want you to remember that quickly, I want you to learn how to do that kind of in-depth assessment on the fly at all times, in moments. It is a priceless skill, do you understand?"

The Jedi warrior was motionless, the only movement around them being the water dripping from his hair and the objects on the floor settling and straightening.

 

[Taruna]

"Thank you, Master" the Chiss lady responded with a small, soft smile. Appraisal is something that no matter how handed out something you should cherish.

While answering his immediate next question, the one if she sparred before she only could answer "I sparred a lot with my former Master Desu," she started, remembering that when she was so awfully young it did less feel like spar but more like being a living training puppet to her until she improved over the years "Then I sparred with other padawans, but mostly teached them the basics." she also wondered if the long and exhausting pillow fights with Aeryun would count as sparring.. but probably not. "So.. I think the answer would be a yes. Albeit the levels were vastly different"

Still not sitting down, she watched the Grand master stretching and did the same. She began with bowing forward to grab her ankles and as she was down there heal the deeper cuts on her soles. There was enduring pain and there was waiting for a blood poisoning to happen, and the Chiss preferred using her own feed a while longer. Then, she watched the Master putting the training items on the floor between them and raised an eyebrow at the helm and collar. She certainly had some naughty ideas on what to do with them but quickly banned them. Doing them with the bear in humanoid disguise would be difficult anyways.

So she proceeded the stretching, albeit the run through the woods already did the most of the work for her. And when he spoke about taking in the environment, her eyes did not twitch to any direction. They remained calmly at the master.

Of course she already took a look around. She knew of the waterfall, the clearing, the boulders, the trees, the mating chipmunks, the upcoming rain and the different trees with different strength. The Knight knew whom of them would sustain being used as a stepping stone for her, and what ones would not be suitable for him. "I do understand, Master" was her answer, spoken in a humble, but firm tone."

 

[Ben]

Orlaan straightened to his full height just shy of eight feet, slicking the ball of his left foot over the slippery moss in a wide arc, sliding effortlessly and leaving a trail of even slippier mud.

"I've come here for this. Flat, wet ground with no purchase and a lot of slip. If you're going to stand one blow from me, then you're going to need to stand as strong and steady as you can. If you're going to be quick enough to move about me however, then you can't stand like a brick either. That is your dilemma."

Ghess picked up the meter length of rope, walking over to her and taking her own hands in one of his own giant fists, using the other calloused digits to tie the rope around both of her wrists.

"As Jedi, we are taught from an early age that we are to be connected to our blade in more than a physical sense. We are taught that it is a part of us, an extension of our bodies and minds, and that we are connected to it through the Force. It's a valuable lesson to be learnt when it comes to sword form, but as I have told so many green Padawan's time and time again, that is not all there is to combat. To truly be a master of any fighting situation, you must first be a quicker thinker than your opponent. Second, you must be better connected - not just to your lightsaber, but to the ground beneath your feet, the air around you, to your adversary, and to your gut. Of course, to the Force. This is a spiritual connection to be sure, but think of it as maths for now, a hard science translated through our perception of the Force into a subtle series of impulses and reactions. If you can connect yourself to the earth beneath your feet, and plant yourself there, then you will not need to assume a wide stance or seize up, you can remain fluid, quick, steady, and of course, immovable."

He felt her eyes locked on his face as he carefully fastened the ropes around her wrists, and stepped back before looking to her. She would struggle keeping balanced at the best of times on this surface, but the challenge here was to maintain balance, speed and agility, as well as sturdiness and strength all at the same time. If she grasped that, she would be a much more formidable combatant straight away. Footwork was so underrated.

"Now, the bonds around your wrists are to stop you from showing your sword arm preference or letting your weak arm slack off, it will keep you in a position so you cannot rely on your old forms and tricks to defend yourself, instead you will be stuck with learning how to move both arms in unison. Only when you have figured that out will you be ready to learn to move both arms independently of one another. Remember how our blade is an extension of ourselves, how we are all one connected form, so too will your other arm now become a part of this circuit."

Orlaan hooked two twenty pound weights to each of her wrists at the bindings, grinning as she pouted in dismay. He then handed her one saber for each hand. They were bigger than she would used to, extended to suit his size, but not so big as his current saber hilt, which would be about the same size and thickness as her upper arm. The uncomfortable grip was part of the training - he was breaking down all that she was used to so she couldn't rely on any old or bad habits, and learnt this new form of combat anew.

Ghess bent down, picking up the helmet from the ground.

"This is a sensory depravation helmet. You will not have the benefit of sight, sound, smell, or anything from the neck up really. You're going to rely on the Force, your memory, so I trust you looked well, and your sense of touch. Tactile connection with the air and your surroundings and invaluable in a fight. This is one of the reasons you're barefoot. As soon as this mask goes on, we begin sparring. I will not go easy on you, be warned."

Orlaan waited for her to acknowledge this before he fastened the helmet over her head, tucking her hair out of the way and securing the collar's size setting so it would not come loose. With that, he ignited his own saber, and waited.

 

[Taruna]

Taruna did not complain as her hands were bound, albeit this would nullify most of her upper body balance opportunities. Words were neither neccessary, as she asked or this training and would not shy back one inch from her decision. The Knight was just happy not to fall on her back as she looked at Orlaams face while she stretched back her neck. Honestly, was he still human or was there part Rancor in his genes? A strange experiment mabe? The weights on the other hand would make this training way harder, and in her opinion more suitable for later training. The Grand Master seemed to go all out here, but she decided she simply had to trust in his ability to teach. When the helmet came into play, she looked at the Master with a unveiled look of uncertainty.

The master would know what he did. He better, since the Chiss could imagine better things then 'broke her neck during training' Then the lightsabers came into play. They would probably fit nicely into Orlaans hand, but for her it would look like a toddler would grab them. It was for her painfully obvious that the defense she could muster would no doubt look similar to the toddler-example.

As she grabbed the oversized Lightsabers, she also took a deep breath and closed her eyes, attuning herself to the force and calling up the mental map of the clearings again. When she was sure she had everything, she nodded and waited for the helmet to be put on, then waited or any of her senses, her physical ones and her Force senses as well, to guide her through this.

 

[Ben]

Orlaan smirked as he watched Taruna's creased brow disappear beneath the visor; he didn't disagree that his methods were unconventional. His own experience of Jedi tutelage in the art of combat had been rather more straightforward, but then again, he had taught himself a lot of what he had. Ghess took a step back and took out his saber, thumbing the activation switch and giving life to the spitting jade blade - Taruna followed suit, two blue blades jumping to the ready and looking altogether too long for her. All the weapons had of course been set to the training setting.

Ghess reached out to Taruna telepathically.

"Now, I want you to feel through the Force, of course. Allow it to guide your actions and lend to your strengths, but do not let it be a crutch. Use your instincts, your gut, you wits, your own physical prowess. Your greatest ally is the Force, but your greatest asset is your mind."

The Jedi Master tested her sturdiness by lightly swatting her at her raised blades.

"Now I am going to attack you, you are going to counter. Your job is to stay standing and untouched. Mine is to make that as difficult as possible without hospitalising you... for an extended period of time at least."

With that Orlaan stepped forward lightning fast before he'd finished his last word, his left foot landing right in front of her, well within her guard, at the last minute he pivoted and swung around to the right, moving out of the way of her swipe at him and flicking his saber up along her spine, dashing away with another quick step before she could whirl back around and tag him.

"Never assume anything about your opponent, I may not look fast, but that doesn't mean it is the case."

Ghess wouldn't tell her, but he was impressed that she hadn't slipped in the moss or during her attempt to counter.

 

[Taruna]

This training was not much different than her Soresu training, she realized. She was also blindfolded and just had to deflect the lasers by letting the Force guide her.

Although, the other senses missing was a difference, one she had to compensate too. Not to mention the slippery floor she stood on, and not in a way she felt really comfortable with or at the least safe. His swat was a surprise and she was just glad her reaction prevented her from losing the grip and sending the sabers down to the muddy ground. But the attack that followed while he was still speaking was surprising. She was not yet fully attuned to the force and more reacted based on muscle memory then Force guidance, a mistake that was immediately bringing her the feeling of being hit along her spine. Would this have been a real lightsaber, this already would have been the end of her life.

Enough of the thinking... Taruna took a deep breath and tried to attune to the Force a little more. She had to scoff at the assumption she would fall for the old cliché of 'big equals slow' but he did not know her that well yet. So she ignored the nagging voice in the back of her head, demanding her to take more direct actions and calmed herself. She was now standing at a stance that was clearly defensive, her feet in positions that would allow her to move as fast as the ground would allow in any direction and the arms held as loose as she could muster with the weights. She did no longer listen to anything else then the Force.

At this point, her Force senses kicked in and she was able to see. Not with her usual senses, but with those the Force lent her. So the Knight suddenly turned around, made a small jump and used the momentum of the weights on her arm to swing in a broad horizontal arc into the Grand master's direction. The landing would not be perfect, but the target here was a hit rather than a perfect landing, and for now not slipping was good enough until she knew her way around this area better.

 

[Ben]

Orlaan nodded, glad to see Taruna being resourceful and using the weights to her advantage. The rest however, would need much improvement.

The Jedi Master stepped around the wild swing in the direction that it came from, kicking out at Taruna's feet as the slow attack pirouetted her roughly to the ground. She landed heavily, and his leg would send her clattering to the ground. Ghess swatted the back of her neck with his saber blade while she was heaped on the floor, likely sending a sharp jolt of pain along her spine, already aching from the previous attack. He spoke into her mind once more.

"Not an altogether bad attack in general, but you aren't listening, you aren't thinking. Now isn't the time to be committing to heavy hits using the weights, now is the time to balance the weights and be quick, light on your feet. You compromised your footing for a very unsure attack. Think of combat action economically - only sacrifice something like your balance if you know you can gain more than you can lose, and only if it's necessary. Quick movements, sure footing, stability. Act and react, this is the lesson here. Only when you can make your mind move as quickly as your arm will you have a hope of mastering two blades."

The giant pulled her up with the Force and planted her back on her feet.

"Now, listen to the lesson - you should not rely on the Force, you are more than just a conduit of the Force. You are a person, a warrior capable of being great without it. I've deprived your senses so that you can learn to feel in other ways. Look for the shift of the air around you, the vibrations my footsteps send into the ground - you need to capture the detail almost too small to notice rather than just listening to the Force. For example, I could do this..."

Orlaan could never hide his presence the same way as other Jedi Master's could, it was too unruly and stubborn, like a particularly grizzled old Wookie. He had learned early on to develop his own method of hiding his signature. He let his aura seep out in all directions, become sparse and hazy like an indiscernible fog rather than the usual pinprick a Jedi would hide as. His presence became so disembodied, that it would be hard to recognise as even a Force aura belonging to a sentient, rather seeming like a part of the natural web and flow of the Force around them. In short, if Taruna chose to again rely only on the Force to see him, she would see nothing more than a dim fog indistinguishable form the world around them.

"Now, try again."

In the sake of fairness, he slammed his foot on the ground in a motion that would send plenty of air currents and vibrations her way before dragging a lazy diagonal slash towards her torso.

 

[Taruna]

It needed some degree of willpower to not sulk upon this situation. The Chiss was handicapped quite a lot and somehow felt to be in a situation where she would not be able to live up to the expectations that were set to her. The growing frustration of not being able to adapt to the situation as quickly as she was used to was now the reason why she was even less capable of adapting in her usual speed.

But while the Grand Master spoke, there was the sudden realization of exactly that frustration. And the only good way to fight frustration was to realize it was there. And with the realization came understanding. Of course. He did not want to test her attunement to the force, he wanted to test her own abilities.

Which of course made perfectly sense. Padawans were trained from the beginning to trust in the Force, attuning to it and letting it help reinforce and enhance their senses and reflexes. So with raising attunement, the reinforcement was getting better, but this did not do anything to improve your normal senses and reflexes. If you would neglect this little fact, you would end up with good Force attunement but still the same level of senses and reflexes you started of with.

The sudden realization of the wisdom behind this made her whisper a little "whoa.." and she then nodded. The knowledge of the lesson made her change her whole stance immediately, from the biggest to the smallest muscle and easy to spot for the Grand Master. She was now actually thinking of what to do.

Nevertheless, the slash was a hit, although the Knight demonstrated that she understood AND was listening to her mundane senses and reflexes, but as it seemed, she did need a lot of training in it. She at least brought her Lightsabers to the correct position to block it, but was still the fraction of a second too slow.

 

[Ben]

Recognising the subtle twitching of Taruna's cheeks as a suppressed grin of some small, private victory, Orlaan's own mouth cracked into a beaming smile - one that would go unseen by his pupil, of course. It was a feeling he'd had many times, a sensation that took him back to days on Coruscant in his youth, days when war was a distant prospect, and not crashing down their front doors. Or even to his years on Kaal with Gracelyn. He put aside the sweet brush with nostalgia for later.

As a small reward for her personal success, Orlaan let his swipe fall short, lightly tapping her across the collar rather than leaving her with a nasty bruise. He backed off a little, returning to a neutral pose.

"Well done, you've made a little bit of a discovery, eh? Good. Now, this time, I want you to initiate the attack."

Boots sliding easily across the mossy ground, Orlaan settled into a Soresu stance, drifting his blade through the air in an effort to throw Taruna off some.

"Now remember, you're learning how to use these blades in unison. You can learn a two bladed technique from any text book or data file; letting instinct grow you a style all of your own is something far more valuable to cultivate. It makes you unexpected, unpredictable, and completely in tune with your senses. I maintain to this day that my gut is as valuable as any Force technique to me, if not more so. This is an extension of that school of though. Now, stop thinking, let your gut do your thinking. Let it take all that information you're receiving and do whatever it feels like. Hit me!"

 

[Taruna]

Getting the hit on the collar was giving her a nice understanding of were the Grand master was really located, and Taruna was slightly surprised upon the almost-accuracy. A reassuring feeling. And leaving the acting to her guts was exaxtly what she intended to do. This was after all one of the reasons for the training, and she understood that so far. The part with the dual wielding on the other hand eluded her, since right now she could only swing them both in one direction, having her hands bound. But complaining would only make the training more complicated, and she struggled with the boundarys as they were. The Master was not a beginner in teaching, so she would have to work on understanding the reason, as she knew there would be one.

Now, attuning to her natural senses was not that hard, it was simply a matter of concentration and listening to the subtle signals that were always there in the first place. Like when you knew someone is looking at you.. Speaking of.. That was apparently what the Grand Master was doing. Taruna felt it as a small poke in the back of her head and a tingling in her fingertips. There was no quesioning if he did it on purpose or not, if he did so from the beginning or not. Taruna simply let her body speak, with her nude feet surprisingly finding a spot that seemed to be less slippery then the rest and swing the Lightsabers on her bound hands there.

 

[Ben]

Orlaan turned his own blade down on top of Taruna's own two, twisting her strike down and away. She kept solid purchase, but over-swung slightly - he repaid her mistake with a slight tap to the knees with his saber blades training setting. He had seen the frustration in her body language like seeing a crease in her brow before she took the initiative and attacked, he didn't need the Force to riddle out that she was struggling with the second part of the lesson. She had grasped working off her gut, but not she needed to get down to the meat of the lesson: using two blades. He had intended to let her figure it out on her own, but the sun was already beginning to dip beyond the canopy line of the clearing, and it'd be dark in a few more hours. Ghess spoke into her mind.

"Taruna, what troubles you?"

He tapped her blades, indicating she should attack once more. She slashed at him again, clumsily fumbling with her oversized blades and the chains that held them together. This time, her footing was just as sound, and she managed to keep her balance and draw in her blades again after he knocked them aside. An improvement.

"You must first learn to use the blades in unison before you can hope to master them apart."

He repeated his lesson from the start of this exercise, drilling it home, and opening it as a premise for an expansion on the topic.

"What it means, Taruna," he knocked aside another swing, following up with a repost and jabbing at her chest "is that you must learn to use the blades together. You must understand and study how they are connected. If you know how they exist together, if you learn them and think of them as one tool, one entity, then you will be far more able to use them separately. Once you know how the connect together, how they move, how they attack and defend as one, then you will be more capable of letting them move individually, attacking whilst defending, operating at different angles."

Taking the initiative from her, he swing in lightly, low then high. She blocked the first one -- excellent progress -- but struggled to get her blades up due to the chains in time to stop the second, which clonked her softly around the helmet.

"It's also why I am making you observe and monitor more with your mundane senses. It sharpens your mind and cultivates its ability to multitask - effectively conditioning you in another sense to be able to once again better handle two blades."

Even though their exchange of blows, their two-and-fro's, their passes, had not ceased whilst he talked, he could tell she had been paying keen attention.

"Does that help you to understand?"

 

[Taruna]

Since the Knight did not yet learn to communicate telepathically, she simply tried to answer in her mind, hoping he would receive it.

"The Senses I think I have understood, Grandmaster. Another thing is the usage of two blades as one. That's where I struggle. Two blades are like wings in my understanding. They are meant to be used separately, spread and be used in a wider area as one single blade could, not fastened together as one."


She paused a second, but kept her pose as it was just in case the Master decided to proceed the training during the conversation "I am not trying to dispute or oppose your teachings here, I simply need more time to get behind the meaning."

 

[Ben]

Orlaan had given away all the 'free' answers he was willing to, time for Taruna to make the next leap.

"And what would happen if the wings of an aircraft were to become disjoined? If they were to cease to operate in unison and decide to throw about at random angles rather than remaining fixed and sturdy?"

It was a sad thing, drilling lessons home out of necessity rather than simply striving to improve, develop, and learn, but that was what was warranted in these days of war. The Grandmaster came in fast now, not quite leaving the training pace behind, and certainly by no means going all out, but he'd come in high and low, opposing angles, stuttered speeds and awkward arcs.

Strikes occasionally found their way to Taruna's raised blade, but most often them snapped sharply around her unprotected flesh, dark welts raising soon after. Sometimes when she did catch the strike her grip would prove to weak and she would give way, some times she managed to lash back out at her aggressor, sometimes she simply struggled to keep her footing under such a ceaseless onslaught, but the warrior showed no relent as he barked his next words into her mind.

"The aircraft would come crashing down! Unable to support it's own weight or carry itself over the air currents! Unable to find balance, to gain control! There are special aircraft capable of manipulating their wings to increase maneuverability, speed, adaptability. These craft are more effective at what they do, but they are piloted by equally specialised sentients."

A quick flashing out of his hand was all that was needed to grab the chain that bound her wrists together and yank forward sharply. Ghess stepped around her as he flung her toward the back wall of the opening, equally slicked with moss and lichenous growths.

"You are the aircraft, Jedi! Until you learn balance, until you learn control, until you have the strength, speed, and awareness to use the blades in unison, to learn how they connect, then you cannot hope to use them separately. You need to learn to fly before you become a specialist pilot. Do you understand?!"

She managed -- gracelessly, but effectively -- to remain standing as she clattered against the rear wall. He could sense her frustration was rife. Taruna was by no means a talentless Force user or fighter. In fact, as was his wont of keeping an eye on the Order, even before his new position, Orlaan had seen the keenness of her mind, the strength of her will, her talent, and her skill. She was matched on unfair terms, on the martial terms he had governed much of his life by. It was through no fault of her own that she was being driven to such haplessness - merely inexperience.

 

[Taruna]

Slowly but surely this training went from irritating to frustrating, as the Chiss felt that there was something in his teaching she was supposed to understand, but by some strange reason she simply did not get it.

The raising heat starting in her belly quickly raised into her head, making it even harder for her to create logical connections between the things he said and what he was trying to teach.

How was she supposed to use two Lightsaber as one as she was forced to do so anyways? She could feel the chaffing in her arms were the rope was and the beginning cramps in her shoulderbl... Oooh..

A sudden realization came to her.

All this time she instinctitried to use the blades seperately, having them going into different directions and thus ensuring that at least one of them would go astray, wouldn't her hands been bound together. The sense of it was to always know where both blades were. Unlike a dual bladed hilt, a two-Lightsaber combination required a more deeper control of both blades.

With that, her grip on both blades changed a little, and as she concentrated more on the blades, she less concentrated on all the rest, leaving this to her instinkts and coincidentally improved her standing and stance.