'Run... Escape... STAY BACK!'

It was to these glorious words that Ana woke up to, jumping up in her bed, frantically looking around the room. She stood there for a minute, before sighing, shaking her head. 'Another dream... I wonder what they mean?'

Regardless, she got ready for her day upon shaking off her exhaustion. Today was a big day after all! It was her first day as a Padawan! The Council assigned her to Master Verond Geer, a rather relaxed Master according to the grapevine, and one of the most experienced and talented duelists in recent history! She was extremely excited to learn from him, and she felt like a lot was going to happen today!

If only she was wrong.

- TJO -

As Ana walked through the halls of Coruscant, she was practically bouncing with excitement. She tried to keep it contained, but it was exposed by the ruffling of her Jedi tunic. As she walked, she saw two TG detaining a Jedi who looked very... defeated. Broken even. But Ans couldn't waste time pondering the man, she had somewhere to be. She would have continued running along, if she hadn't heard a shout from behind her.

"Oi, Sundina!" The voice called out, to which Ana smiled a little, turning to face one of her many friends within the Order.

"Hey, Balt!" She called out to her Nautolan friend, who waved at her once she turned to see him. "What's up?"

"Nothing much," the green pre-teen responded, smirking a little. "I'm just off to go meet my new Master, Master Nezzarine!"

Ana smiled at that, having been long used to the attempts of boasting that her tentacle-headed friend often threw at her. "Heh, well I'm going to meet my new Master, Master Geer!"

At this, Balt gaped. "You were assigned to Master Geer? Why? How, more importantly? You're a terrible duelist, you'd think he'd focus on more talented fighters, like me..." the Nautolan grumbled.

Ana chuckled at his indignant tone, and nudged him a bit. "I dunno, maybe the Council sees great potential in me."

"Or maybe it's a punishment for Master Geer. Ah, regardless, I'll see you later, I gotta get going!" The Nautolan ran the other way, hurrying off to where he was meeting his Master.

"Oh son of a Hutt, I'm going to be late!" Ana ran at top speed down the hallway, bumping into several Padawans and Knights, before finally reaching the place she was told to meet her new Master.

"Phew, I made it..." She opened the door, only to find the classroom inside... empty. She walked into the room to investigate, and quickly found that her Master was nowhere in sight. She confusedly decided to sit down at the nearest desk, kicking her feet a little, when she heard a groan. She looked down, and saw something she hadn't expected... underneath the desk was a short, green creature. This creature had long pointed ears, long brown hair, and was wearing what looked like a large, tattered blanket. The creature glared up at her for a second, grumbling.

"It appears that my nap has been interrupted... and by the kicking of a child, no less." The little green man said, grumbling, getting out from under the desk.

"Uhm, excuse me, but who are you?" Ana was confused, where was her Master, and what did this thing have to do with him?

"Me? I'm Master Verond Geer, but you can call me Master Geer." The man huffed for a moment, before studying her closely. "Ah, and you must be my new Padawan, Anastasia Sundina."

"W-wait," Ana stuttered, "You're Master Geer?" The young girl was surprised, she expected someone much... larger...

"Yes, do not act so surprised! Now, if you do not mind a longer walk, let us head up to the roof. I have much to test you on, my new Padawan!" He chuckled for a moment, jumping off the desk, waddling off, motioning for Ana to follow.

'Well, I guess it could be worse...'

- TJO -

On the roof, Master Geer stood in an old dueling circle which was much larger than a normal one, being about twenty meters in diameter. This circle was riddled with large stones and trees, and was known to be a perfect testing spot for young Padawans. Ana stood opposite of Master Geer, fiddling with her rather simple lightsaber, focusing on him.

"Here, we shall be testing your ability to duel! Not just duel, and more importantly, how much I will have to teach you in general." Master Geer ignited his saber then, a cool orange blade coming from the wooden hilt. "Come now, draw your blade."

Ana looked up, activating her saber, a pale cyan blade springing from the end of the blade. "Master, I do not know if you've heard of this, but I'm rather terrible at dueling!"

The minuscule Master chuckled at that, shouting back "that is fine, Anastasia, you have your whole life to get better! Let's just hope that's a long time," he muttered to himself, after seeing Ana nearly cut her own leg off. Luckily, their sabers were in training mode, so the chance of her being hurt was nearly abysmal.

"Now, charge at me whenever you are ready! It's not like you'll be able to land a single hit, I'd bet my left ear on it!" The little alien chuckled at that, after seeing Ana get a little upset at that comment. 'Time to see if she really has what it takes...' "Oh, and if you can't land a single hit on me, I'll be forced to ask the High Council to assign me a new Padawan!"

At this, Ana was shocked. She, one of the worst duelists to ever come out of the Youngling ranks, had to land a blow on one of the greatest duelists the Order has ever seen... it was impossible! But, still, she had to try...

"Well then, take this!" She charged him as fast as her legs could carry her, swinging her saber with a mighty downward slash, to which he promptly jumped up and whacked the blade aside, before spinning mid air and forcing her to stumble back in shock.

Regaining her calm, she ran to his left, attempting to slash at him from the side, to which he ducked under the already high-aimed blade, and force pushed a rock under her foot, causing her to trip. Upon falling, the diminutive Master then promptly force pushed her into a larger rock.

Groaning in pain, she stood up, using the rock for support. 'Okay, so conventional attacks won't work...' Looking at the rock, she formulated an idea. 'Let's try something more unconventional...'

Master Geer stood there as Ana started hacking and slashing at the large rock, seemingly in anger. He sighed slightly, thinking that she succumbed to anger. 'Perhaps I went a bit far with my taunting, I should reel it in...' Just as he finished that thought, however, a small rock almost nailed him, with only his Force senses allowing him to block it in time. He then noticed that Ana was standing there surrounded by... 'is that hundreds of skipping stones?'

He then was brought into overdrive as Ana used the Force to shoot dozens of them in rapid succession, Master Geer being forced to dodge and deflect them, shifting into a Soresu stance to protect himself. He would use the Force, but he wasn't about to let a Padawan bring that much out of him.

While in this deadlock, Ana began to tire. This was taking a lot out of her, and Master Geer hadn't even broken a sweat! She had to come up with something else, or else she would lose this battle of attrition. Then, another thought occurred. She stopped the stones midair, and then dropped them, falling to her knees.

"Tired are you?" Master Geer walked up slowly, sighing. "That was clever, but-" suddenly, he felt his danger senses going off, and he jumped to the right, avoiding dozens of stones suddenly shooting up. 'Clever girl, but she didn't perform it fast enough...' suddenly, he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned, and saw a rock in his face, which then proceeded to nail him in the nose.

Or at least, it would have, if he hadn't stopped it when it was a mere inch away, using the Force to hold it in place. "Trying the old tap on the shoulder trick, clever. If only I was a decade younger, and you were a decade older. That may have hit me!"

Of course, as with all underestimation, the problem is that you're looking down on your opponent. While Master Geer wasn't literally looking down, he most certainly wasn't looking up, or even at Ana. So when he turned, and saw her focusing with both hands up, he immediately felt a rock sink in his stomach. Looking up, his concerns were proven true, dozens of rocks were being held above him threateningly. Of course, as above him wasn't a very high height, it couldn't be considered too impressive. But Master Geer wasn't thinking about that when they fell in him, several nailing him directly, others falling around him or just barely scraping him.

"Ugh, very clever... I suppose you'll want praise for that one? Very well, good job in striking me, Padawan. It is not everyday that a Master of dueling is pelted with rocks, but I suppose there is a day for everything. You pass my test Padawan Anastasia, your learning begins tomorrow!

Ana felt overflowed with excitement at this moment, her mind rushing with ideas about what she would learn. One thing for certain, these following months were going to be some of the best times of her life!

If she knew what was going to occur in the following days, she might not have been so optimistic.