Haaron grasped the longaxe firmly. Very firmly. Too firmly. He was afraid. But so were all his enemies. His former friends. He knew every single one. Boys and girls from his village on Rattatak. Some of them human,some of them native .He had some close friends inbetween them,but all that was gone now. There was just Sith doctrine. The word of lady Talon. She took him as her apprentice. That was an honor. After all she was Sith. She had once been the third most powerful person in the Galaxy. She had told him that earlier and he did believe it. She had the aura of a powerful person. And he could be one too,Darth Talon told him. He just had to win the Proving. He was at the Proving now. And he was not winning. Haaron barely dodged a violent sword swing from a boy he played with just two days earlier. The child was two years his minor,yet now it seemed the other way around to him. He could not bring himself to kill him. Not that he could easily attack anyone. He wasn`t born a warrior. He never played with sticks with the others when someone picked that idea up. He did not see the fun in swinging a sharp piece of metal around and trying to kill others with it. War was the main export and import of Rattatak,and Haaron was not fond of it. He did not want to die for some warlord. But now he was dying for a beautiful outlander. A really beautiful outlander. She didn`t have the quintessential "dancer twi'lek''`s features,but she was still very attractive,both on an emotional and sexual level. Her eyes sold it for Haaron. The yellow. He had not seen eyes with a light color for all the eleven years of his life and the Sith Lady`s eyes enthralled him. He had to fight for her. And he had to win. He was not a warrior,but she told him of sagely Sith. She told Haaron of many things. Some he had a vague recollection of,from the time a Jedi Knight tried to establish a learning facility in his village. He attended eagerly,until a few months ago the young,energetic Jedi was found with four limbs missing(five if Haaron counted the boneless one),nailed to the wall of the village temple. No one really knew who had done it,but there were suggestions. No one asked questions. This being Rattatak it was very unwise to do so. He parried a violent blow,coming from the young boy,who had engaged him. And then another. After that a slight retreat and a thrust. His opponent dismayed for just long enough for Haaron to slash his face open with the longaxe. He hoped the boy died. He really hoped. He dared not look closely or attempt to finish him off. He wandered away meekly and fearfully. This was not a thing for him. Talon was worth it. She was. She would train him,so his imperfections would melt away. He would become powerful. Most importantly of all she would give him a good education. A very good one. Better than what the Younglings received. Better than the one of the children of Serreno nobles. The best there could be. That would be if he could look away from her for long enough. She was beautiful. Very beautiful. She instilled fear,adoration and desire in him. A desire Haaron didn`t even realize existed. He wandered deeper into the battle hall. He didn`t have to kill anyone who didn`t attack him,even Master told him that. He was too small and too unseemly to draw much attention. Haaron was a boy of mixed descent,with the white skin of rattataki and the black hair of humans. His eyes were a bright blue,his body thin,slender and frail. Haaron was under a meter and fifty centimeters tall. And not very good with swinging a weapon around skillfully. That was why he had chosen the longaxe as a personal weapon. It was easy to use and he could easily reach his equally unskilled opponents before they reached him. As he had done with the nine year old boy. He shuddered in fear from the sound his friend made when the piece of cortosium struck into his skull. It sounded like the yelp a baby animal made before somebody did something very bad to it. Loud,shrill and short. There were many more to kill before Haaron could actually deserve Talon`s warm embrace. It would be all the warmer,with him actually having killed many to receive it. He had been told by many an elder,that the unwilling,compassionate ones made the best warriors. Haaron could only hope it was indeed it was he`d be the greatest warrior to crawl out of his homeworld since Assajj Ventress. And all knew how fearsome she was. A scream,made him turn around. A greatsword made Haaron duck. He tried to skewer his enemy in the belly. And he did. The longaxe got stuck as the older boy screamed curses and cried for mercy. Haaron was on the verge of crying too,but he would not. He unjammed the longaxe from the fifteen year old`s stomach. Then he kicked his opponent over. The older boy had bullied him before. He called Haaron weak,stole his food and beat him. All Haaron did was just avoid him,or stick close to his friends. Now he saw an opportunity. He was not a vengeful or cruel person,but he needed to steel himself for what was to come. Haaron looked upon his opponent with reluctance. The sight of intestines made him gag. He regurgitated his meager breakfast into the open wound. His opponent screamed bloody murder. The eleven year old boy started to cry. But he had to kill his enemies if he wanted to be Sith. And so he did with this one. He lifted his longaxe up,in order to strike his opponent in the throat with the spike on the end of the handle,opposite of the blade. The weapon weighed and Haaron struggled to align it. He finally managed a rough aim. Then he struck. And he heard a violent scream instead of gurgling. Then more pleading,through tears. He looked down on his handiwork. He had struck his target`s left eye out. All Haaron did to fix this was to make a crying wail and push down very hard. He heard a crack. The sight his actions wove made him retch again. This time he only managed a bit of stomach acid. .He had tears in his eyes and all over his cheeks. All of this hurt. Even revenge felt wrong. The sight of sundered bodies made him sick. All of this made him sick. All but the knowledge and gentle warmth his Master provided. And he would fight for that. That was the way of the rattataki people. Fight. Each one in his own way. And he would kill as much as he had,in order to get the comfortable home and knowledge he so desired. Haaron continued wandering. He did so for very long,people killing eachother for many things around him. No one even saw him. He was crying through all of this. He wanted for it to end. He knew no gods,but if he did he`d pray to one of them to send a skilled warrior to end him. The god answered. A girl from his village descended upon Haaron. She was full human and she was wielding a light curved blade. All knew her to be a fierce warrior. One with existent training. Haaron was outpaced almost momentarily,but he still had range on her. He kept the girl away with thrusts and wretched screaming. One thrust missed her head and left him open. He screamed again. That did not stop her from managing multiple shallow(by Sith standards) slashes across Haaron`s emasciated frame. She did not realize she left herself open too. He caught her across the head with the longaxe`s handle. She stumbled. Haaron followed up with a screaming kick. She fell back. Then the boy struck with the blade of his longaxe. As a secondary effect of that the longaxe`s blade broke didn`t puke that was just because he had nothing left in him to barf out. The blow tore his opponent`s lithe,muscled frame in half,from the breastbone to outside the skull. The sight before him was incredibly grisly. His wounds were getting the better of him,he now realized. He propped himself up on the longaxe`s handle,but he was trembling from weakness and pain. As he tried to take a step forward and try to figure out how to use his broken weapon again,he fell. He struggled to get up,but he couldn`t. He struggled more. All he managed to do was exhaust himself. He closed his eyes,wishing for a quick death.
Haaron opened his eyes albeit slowly. He felt a soft,smooth,warm surface beneath his head. He gazed upward. What he saw made him pull out a slight smile.
,,Master. Am I yours now?,,-he asked full of hopes,happy to be laying in lady Talon`s lap
,,No. ,,-was the startling answer
Haaron tried to object,but Talon draped her hand over his face,placing a finger on his lips gingerly.
,,No one is apprenticed,Haaron. We looked in the wrong place at the wrongest of times. It is not your fault. ,,-she said in her calm,deep enchanting voice
,,Where will I go now? ,,-Haaron was almost in tears
,,To be one with The Force,my child. ,,-Talon gently cooed
Haaron started to weep silently.
,,Let The Force be with you,young one. ,,-Talon kissed him on the forehead,ever so gently,as she removed her hand from Haaron`s face and reached to the side. Haaron kept weeping as the Sith Lady plunged the beautiful knife into his throat and pulled apart his windpipe.
