Ten or so minutes after her class with Master She'am had ended, a very excited padawan came rushing through the door. She grabbed a handful of dried fruit from their kitchen and wandered into the common room where Eeth was sitting quietly, his eyes closed and deep in meditation. Not wanting to disturb him, she sat herself down on the floor in front of him and waited.

After a few seconds, Eeth resurfaced from his meditative trance, opened his eyes and looked at his padawan. "Hello, padawan," he said calmly. "I take it from the look on your face that you had an interesting lesson?"

"You could say that," she replied, barely concealing her exuberance. "We got to pretend that our shuttle was being hijacked, and then we had to try capturing the other team. Kyle is amazing with robotics, and you should see Leyasu with his lightsaber, he's awesome." After giving a blow-for-blow description of She'am's class, Raven offered the last piece of her dried fruit to Eeth and regarded him with a semi-desperate look. "I have to ask you something, and, well, it's really important to me that you say yes, because I really, really want to go."

Eeth looked at her with raised eyebrows.

"Go where, go when and go with whom?" he asked pointedly.

"Eldora's night markets," Raven answered, raising her hands in placation. "And before you get prickly, my entire class is going, so I won't be unsupervised. We will be back by ten o'clock tonight, but I can leave early. Pleeeeease?" Raven gave him a pleading, desperate look. It was important that she go in order to prove to the others that she wasn't a baby; at least this was what was going through the twelve-year-old's mind right now.

Eeth frowned. "No, padawan," he said. "I will not let you go there without an adult yet, and even less so at that time of the day. Besides, tomorrow is a school day, which means that I will expect you to be home by eight. As for letting you return on your own, that is completely out of the question. I am sorry, but you will have to let your class go without you. The other students are, after all, considerably older than you, I presume."

"Wait, they're not considerably older," she argued, frowning. "There is also going to be eight of us. Eight! Surely that has to add up to better than one adult? You have to let me go or I'll never live it down. Please, I'm begging you." Raven was pulling out all the stops now, not that resorting to begging was new for her. It just seldom ever worked on Eeth.

"I know perfectly well how old you are," Eeth said coolly, "although you are not exactly acting your age at the moment. When you are in a class with people who are two to four years older than you, you can expect them to be allowed things that you are not. The fact that I registered you for Master She'ams class does not imply that I am going to treat you like a sixteen-year-old from now on. And no, seven teen-aged padawans do not add up to one adult in terms of maturity. It does not work that way."

"You can't do this to me, you have to let me go. Everyone will laugh if they find out I wasn't allowed to go because you think I'm not old enough to be without adult supervision. Where's the trust here anyway!" she shouted, her voice thick with hurt at what she perceived as a terrible injustice.

"Padawan, if you are unable to have a mature conversation with me, you had better stop right here," Eeth said, a hint of warning in his otherwise calm tone. "I do not care for your attitude. My decision has nothing to do with trust, it has to do with your safety, with the amount of sleep you need and with the fact that your studies deserve priority over your personal amusement. If you cannot accept the fact that there is a difference between the things a twelve-year-old and a fourteen- or sixteen-year-old are allowed, you will have some difficult years ahead of you. If your classmates are as grown-up as you make out they are, they will not judge you by your curfew, but by your performance in class. Now I do not want to hear any more about it."

Incensed, Raven stood, her arms still folded tightly about her chest. "I am having a mature conversation with you," she shouted, totally ignoring his conversation ending statement. "I can defend myself almost as good as they can! What do you think could possibly happen while I'm with seven Jedi anyway? And not just any Jedi, they're all from She'am's class. You just don't trust me. I take care of myself here often enough when it suits you, what's the difference!?"

Eeth stood as well, quite abruptly, glaring at Raven in a way that clearly said she had better back down fast or her bottom would suffer the consequences. "The difference," he snapped, "between taking care of yourself in the Temple and taking care of yourself in the city is enormous. Eldora's night markets are huge and there is a real risk of getting separated from your company. There are a lot of dangers out in the city at night and many of them cannot be fought with a saber. Even if all this was of no concern to me, there would still be the matter of your curfew which happens to be eight o'clock on evenings before schooldays."

Letting this sink in for a moment, he continued in a sharp tone of voice: "Now, you may call one of your classmates and tell him you will not come, and then you will meditate for one hour on why it is a good idea to stop arguing when I ask you to."

"You're ruining my life!" Raven exploded, stomping her foot, and stormed off to her bedroom. There was just no way she could make the call right now; she was too frustrated and just wanted to cry.

Before she'd so much as reached the door, Eeth had snatched her by the scruff of her neck and delivered a very solid smack to her bottom. This drew a yowl of protest from Raven, but Eeth ignored it.

"Watch your attitude, padawan," he said sternly. "Any more foot-stomping or shouting, and you will find yourself over my knee. Now go and make your call. I gave you an order. It is not up to you to decide whether you want to obey me."

Raven shook, not enough to shake herself from his grasp entirely, but enough to show that she was seriously displeased. The problem with that small act of defiance was that it tended to lose the intended venom when one hand was rubbing at her backside. Having to make that call would solidify her status as a baby amongst her classmates, but what options was Eeth giving her here? And then, something happened that Raven didn't expect. Instead of continuing to fight him, she started sniffling. Horrified, the padawan ran into her bedroom and threw herself on to her bed.

Eeth sighed. After a moment's pause, he followed her, sat at the edge of her bed and rested a hand on her head lightly, sending a wave of calm through their bond, helping to soothe her growing agitation.

He did not speak; he silently waited for her to regain her composure.

The tears were uncharacteristic; the frustration, however, was not. Being given the time to calm down was a reprieve in and of itself, Raven knew that. Still, it was hard for her to pull herself out of this right now as it felt like the biggest, worst thing in the entire universe, and it was all Eeth's fault. Raven lay there for several minutes, both indulging in self-pity and soaking up Eeth's comfort. Eventually, though, she sat up as there was only so long one could throw a fit. Raven didn't say anything. She just sat there looking miserable and hoped he would reconsider. That was too much to hope for, of course.

"Go and make your call," Eeth said, the tone of his voice brooking no objection.

Seeing no other option, Raven stood and stormed from her bedroom to do as told. It was, as expected, an awkward conversation in which the padawan swore she heard Leyasu snicker as he ended the transmission. Of course, her puffy eyes and disheveled appearance did nothing for her plight, but Raven didn't care; this was all Eeth's fault and the expression on her face when he exited her bedroom said exactly how she felt about his decisions.

Eeth gave her a look that clearly said she was walking on thin ice and said matter-of-factly: "Do your meditation now."

Raven returned that look with one of her own. She was equally unhappy with Eeth thanks to his decisions and seriously displeased at having to do meditation as a consequence of wanting to be treated like her classmates. Wordlessly, she jutted out her chin, turned on her heel and went back to her bedroom to attempt doing as he said. It would be no easy feat considering how pissed off she was at not getting her way over this.

Eeth went to the kitchen and started preparing dinner. He kept some of his attention on his padawan through their bond, though. She had better start meditating properly soon. He knew that she was angry, sad and disappointed but he also thought that all of those emotions were quite unreasonable. Hopefully, meditation would help her get over them.

Fortunately for Raven, she knew from experience that continuing to fight orders did not end well. Thus, the padawan began making a serious effort at calming her emotions and meditating; an entire hour was quite harsh a punishment if you asked her. Eeth did not intend to ask her, however. He knew that an hour was the minimum time she would need to get over at least some of her indignation, and that was the whole purpose of this meditation. Only when the hour was over did he tell Raven: "You may stop now."

Had Raven not spent an eternity meditating, her reaction would have been decidedly less tolerant. As it was, however, the meditation had gone a ways to curbing her temper. She rose from her kneeling position, turned a slightly sheepish expression on Eeth, but said nothing. Raven was still not happy about missing out on the markets, but now she could at least concede that Eeth might have had a point, and maybe she had been asking a bit much of him.

"Dinner is on the table," said Eeth. As far as he was concerned, the matter was closed.

Unfortunately, Raven could not yet let go of things as quickly as Eeth did. Her personality was one that tended to cling to things, both negative and positive, and she found it difficult to move on without something that passed as closure for her. She sat at the table without comment and started to eat, again, without comment.

This silence stretched on for about ten minutes before Raven broke the self-imposed tension between them. "I didn't mean it when I said that you're ruining my life." At the time she had meant it, but in hindsight, it was, perhaps, a bit unfair to blame Eeth for caring about her safety, regardless of how misplaced said protectiveness was in Raven's opinion! She looked over at him and winced slightly. "I'm sorry."

"Apology accepted," said Eeth, sprinkling some more hot spice onto his stew. "And I assumed you did not really mean it. Because if I wanted to ruin anyone's life, which has never happened so far, I would take more drastic measures than insisting on a curfew and a few safety rules."

This had the padawan intrigued, her lost evening out with her classmates momentarily forgotten as her imagination went off on a tangent. "Oh? What would you do?" Because Raven just had to know that!

Eeth raised his eyebrows. "Since, as I said, I have never set out to ruin anybody's life, I have never thought about it," he pointed out. "What I was really trying to say is that you were being overly dramatic. Even if I inadvertently ruined your evening, your life will be unlikely to be destroyed by that experience."

Raven was silent for long time, but the cogs were turning. "I guess what you'd do would depend on whose life you were trying to ruin," she stated matter-of-factly, giving this ridiculous scenario further contemplation. She pointed her spoon at him. "For instance, if you really wanted to ruin my life, you could send me to the AgriCorps." Raven was joking, but deep down there was a part of her that still carried insecurities over not being good enough for Eeth. Still, she didn't let on and continued. "Or worse, the Temple turns me into a maths tutor. You're easy: I'd just set you up with some sort of royalty, all that luxury and all…"

"It would not be up to me to send you to the AgriCorps," Eeth said in a tone of voice that suggested he would rather not continue this line of conversation. "Pass me the salt, please." Privately, he could think of a number of things that would ruin his life more effectively than any kind of obnoxious, royal lifestyle. But these belonged to a past he had left behind, and he had no inclination to discuss them with Raven. Nor did it even occur to him that Raven might have insecurities that needed to be addressed. The notion of her being sent to the AgriCorps seemed so absurd to him that he took it for nothing but a joke, and certainly not something that required reassurance.

Although Raven would never admit this, she was a little wounded at his detached response to her mention of sending her to the AgriCorps. Did he mean that if he had the option to send her there, he would!? The padawan stared at him for a moment, but was fast to cover it. "I'd make Granzien your new roommate," she proposed, but when Eeth failed to give anything but a stony look in response, the padawan decided to finish eating and dropped the topic … for now.

The week passed uneventfully. Raven kept from further arguments about being denied privileges she was not yet old enough to have, hence Eeth did not find it necessary to impose any sort of consequences. Friday afternoon saw the padawan meeting up with Cheeto in the padawans' lounge. This was good for a couple of reasons. Firstly, she found out that he too had not been allowed to go to Eldora's last Sunday, and secondly, they spent a solid hour griping about how unfair it was and how unreasonable their masters were for not allowing it. It was cathartic. Of course, their griping was not going to change a thing about their masters' policy in this regard. Eeth was not going to put the restrictions he imposed on his padawan, for her own safety, to a vote just because she did not like them!


On Sunday, Eeth woke Raven at seven – one hour later than on weekdays, but early enough to have time for her morning meditation and breakfast before Master She'am's second class.

"Time to get up, padawan," he said firmly, switching on the light and bracing himself for the inevitable and pointless argument.

Raven did not disappoint. "Argh! Go away with the light," she responded groggily, her hands swatting fruitlessly at the glare. "Master, I don't feel well today. I need the day off," she told him, disappearing under the covers.

Eeth frowned. One quick probe through their bond told him that nothing was wrong with Raven, other than an intense desire for some more sleep. He had suspected as much; it was not the first time she had tried this.

Pulling the covers away, he said sternly: "Up with you. And no more lies. You know how I feel about dishonesty."

She did, and the mention of lying to him had Raven out of bed quickly; she had only been half serious, after all. She stood there while Eeth left, uttering his usual reprimand: "A little more self-discipline, please, padawan." When her door closed Raven got herself ready, as tired as she felt.

Twenty minutes later a fully awake padawan entered their kitchen, dressed and ready for She'am's class. "What are you cooking?" she asked. It was not like anything Raven had seen him prepare before.

"An Iridonian dish," Eeth replied, slowly stirring the mixture of dried fruit and grains from Iridonia's hot and humid wood regions. "Very popular on Nar Shaddaa. I have found that it has an invigorating effect. Of course, this might merely be due to the amount of sugar it contains, but considering that you will need all your energy for Master She'am's class, I do not think that we need to worry about this. Will you set the table, please?"

It looked like a lot of spit in a pot, but Raven didn't say that. "Lots of sugar, I like the sound of that," she said instead and went to do as he said.

When they were seated and having their breakfast, Eeth informed Raven: "Last night I received a message from my former padawan, Lakhri. He is on his way back to Coruscant from his mission on the Outer Rim and will arrive here very soon. So far, there was no occasion that made it necessary for me to contact him. Thus, he is probably not even aware that I have taken on another padawan. But I am sure that he will be pleased to meet you." As a matter of fact, Eeth was simply not the type to send private messages informing his former padawan of important changes in his life. Such news, in his opinion, was not urgent and could wait until they met in person.

Raven was excited about this news! "Lakhri is coming to the Temple? That's awesome! Tell me more about him," she said, breakfast forgotten.

"Padawan, eat your food before it gets cold," Eeth said mildly. "I do not know what to tell you. You already know that he has been working in the Hevelan system for about two years now, as part of a team of peace keepers. I assume that after his return, he will stay at the Temple for some time. Since he has been a Jedi for eight years now, he might take on a padawan learner at some point. He is certainly skilled and experienced enough to do so."

"That's a long time to be on a mission. I bet he's happy to be coming home," Raven reflected. She had a million questions, but settled on: "How old is he? And ..." The padawan hesitated, spoon poised. "What things does he like doing?" A few drops of breakfast ended up on her pant leg, but Raven smooshed them off with her sleeve.

"He is thirty years old," said Eeth. "And he likes eating, as I am sure I have told you already. He also reads a lot and spends time with friends. You will have to change your pants before you leave. Pay more attention to what you are doing, please."

"Aw, master, don't be like that. It's just a few splotches, nobody will notice. Watch." She stood and brushed it off again, but this only made the sticky splotch spread further down her leg. Yes, Eeth had told her that Lakhri had an appetite, and at one point had even shown her a holocube with some pictures. Thus, Raven knew that the man also had a genetic growth disorder; his torso and head were both normal size, but his arms and legs were disproportionately short. Learning that he liked to read, however, was new, and she filed that info away for later.

Eeth frowned. "Find a new pair of pants and get going," he said. "You do not want to be late for Master She'am's class."

She did not, nor did she want to risk pissing Eeth off this early on in the day. Thus, Raven shoveled the last few mouthfuls of her breakfast while pulling off one of her boots at the same time. This class was going to be fun, and the padawan was really looking forward to it.

Master She'am was already waiting with five other students when Raven came hurrying up. Leyasu appeared on the scene right behind her, which left Arranxal missing. Master She'am was looking more and more displeased with every minute that ticked by. When the padawan in question finally came skidding around a corner, panting and slightly red-faced, Master She'am said sternly: "That's twelve minutes you have kept us waiting, padawan. Do you have a valid excuse?"

"Not really," Arranxal admitted. "I lost track of time over breakfast, and…"

He was cut off by Master She'am who said in a rather uncompromising tone of voice: "Thank you, padawan. You are excused from today's lesson. I will notify your master of this. Come along, class. We have lost enough time already. Today, we are going to work with some assistants who are waiting for us in front of the senior creche's dining hall."

Although it might be rather un-Jedi-like of her, Raven was a little relieved to see Arranxal sent away. He had been the one to scoff most at her chances of getting permission last week, and as it turned out, he had happened to be right. Raven expected some sort of 'I told you so' at the very least. Well, now that wasn't going to happen, at least not from Arranxal.

True to She'am's word, when the group arrived in the antechamber of the dining hall, a team of three young knights of different species were waiting. They were giving the approaching group of padawans an expectant grin.

"This dining hall," Master She'am explained, pointing out the closed double doors in front of them, "is full of senior initiates who are having a second breakfast. Your goal, as a team, is to pursue and apprehend the three knights here, who will be running from you and trying to seek cover in the dining hall or the kitchens beyond that. None of them, and none of you, may use the kitchens' back entrance, air vents, service exits or similar escape routes. Naturally, your objective, besides apprehending the knights, will be to protect the initiates from harm and, if possible, to prevent your opponents from taking any hostages. You may have fifteen minutes to discuss your strategy; then, the exercise will begin."

Much to Raven's delight, she was no longer feeling tired. In fact, she was practically bursting out of her skin. Whatever Eeth had put in that concoction, it had done the trick. It was hard not to fidget and bounce, so much energy did she have.

"Alright, ideas?" asked Leyasu, ignoring Raven's bouncing although it was grating on him.

"Well, we've lost the element of surprise in this case, as I'm pretty sure they know we're coming," Raven commented, having noticed the three knights watching them earlier. Given that the twelve-year-old had little or no real experience with protect or capture procedures, Raven was going to have to learn on the fly here.

"True, but there are seven of us and three of them," said Lin.

"Correct," agreed Javhei, "Besides, Master She'am did not prohibit us from using the Force."

"Or from using a room full of senior initiates," Kyle added.

"Are you suggesting we run in screaming instructions to 'seize them' and capture the knights with sheer force of numbers?" Raven summarised. However, she had to admit that short of using Force holds that were probably beyond their ability to wield with any success, she could not come up with anything better.


Master She'am watched the discussion with an impassive expression on his face. The padawans had any number of options, of course, and he was interested to see which one they would pick. Most groups, when confronted with this task, tended to neglect the protection of the initiates, knowing that the 'attackers' would not really harm them. He was interested to see whether this group would do better. They might choose to encircle the knights and drive them into the kitchens, or they might split up, a part of them shepherding the initiates to safety. Or they might end up causing chaos and mayhem, which was what often happened during the first attempt unless the majority of the group had a lot of mission experience. Which was fine, because that way the students would learn how to prevent chaos and mayhem from happening in real-life situations.


"Okay, so Javhei's plan it is," Kyle announced after everyone had signalled their vote, and gestured his peer over to take the floor.

"Alright then, we all know what needs to be done." Javhei asserted, stepping up to take Kyle's place. "We have about two minutes left so if anyone is unclear about their roles or has strategy questions, now is the time to ask," she added, shooting a pointed look at their youngest who was once again fidgeting energetically and drawing frowns from the two boys standing closest. The group was silent for a good thirty seconds, before an ear-piercing whistle announced that the class had begun.

The knights were off in a flash, racing towards the doors of the dining hall. One of them flung them open and followed the other two through it, pulling a blaster while he did so and firing behind himself at the approaching padawan with paint bullets that left red patches on any surface they hit.

Seven sabers sprang to life mere nanoseconds before the hail of red pellets could find purchase. The group split off to their respective targets. Leyasu, Lin and Kyle were the best fighters and were each assigned a knight to capture, while Cheeto and Toman used their superior speed and dexterity to deflect and protect where needed.

"We could really use Arranxal right now!" Javhei griped towards an uncharacteristically focused Raven. Javhei had the most experience with escort type missions, therefore she was to head up their protection detail. Raven nodded in agreement as she herded the last excited initiate into their tightly bunched group and took up a guarding stance on the blind side of the circle.

"Heads up!" Raven said as Kyle's knight began leading him towards the hostage circle.

Cheeto was flanking them in seconds, doing his utmost to be where he was needed most, but damn, these knights could move. They were impossibly fast, and everywhere all at once!

"Come on, guys, you got two breakfasts! You should be able to move faster than this." Raven told the kids, risking a glance at the grinning initiates. A split-second later a sharp sting exploded into her chest, quickly followed by two more, and Raven let out a yelp.

What followed was so fast that it seemed almost a blur. Javhei reached out with the Force attempting to use her talent to dislodge the blaster from the firing knight's hand, while Toman seemed to have materialised from nowhere to supplement her defence as she fought to maintain focus.

"Less chatter, more concentration!" Toman coached while deflecting a cluster of red pellets, and moving to guard the unprotected section of their circle.

"I don't suppose any of you are carrying your sabers?" Javhei asked the group, not taking her eyes off the room.

"Force, yeah, we've got our practice sabers!" one of the senior initiates exclaimed, grinning. It was not that she had been oblivious to this fact; but the group of initiates had been specifically instructed only to use their sabers if the padawans actually told them to. Upon a brief instruction from Javhei, those initiates that were actually able to, given that they pressed into a tight bunch of children right now, pulled their sabers and tried to help their protectors deflect the blaster bolts. They did not have much space to do so, however, and one of the initiates accidentally grazed Javhei's shoulder with his saber.

The slight graze was noted, but not enough to distract Javhei who had remained stoic and quickly singled out the four most experienced-looking initiates. "Flank Raven, do not move past her, do not leave the protection of our circle. The rest of you," she said, gesturing to the others with sabers, "split up, turn out and remain behind our guard. Do not under any circumstances step beyond the protection of our circle. Our objective is to reach safety with everyone present, limbs intact! So, be mindful of your space and concentrate on what you are doing. Got it?" she finished, not actually expecting an answer, but hoping the instructions would result in less damage and more deflecting as they pushed the pack towards safety.

Meanwhile, the knights had changed their strategy. Two of them were back to back trying to fight their way to the exit while one of them flipped across a table, neatly circumventing Cheeto, and landed right in front of Raven. He immediately lunged towards her, obviously meaning to break through her defences and take one of the initiates hostage.

No one was particularly surprised when the knight targeted Raven. After all, attempting to breach the circle at its weakest point was the most logical move. What did surprise them was her tight defence and ability to ignore the hits and refocus. For what seemed like the tenth time in so many minutes, Raven silently thanked her relentless master for the many hours he had spent 'picking' on her defensive skills and, for once, was not miffed at the million times he had put her on her ass in the process. Admirable defending or not, Raven was still no match for a fully trained knight and let out a sigh of relief as their inner circle turned defenders and Cheeto began attacking the knight from behind, forcing his attention to divide.

Pleased to note their hostages had reached a safe area and appeared to be holding their own, Lin, Kyle and Leyasu focused on apprehending the two knights. Three padawan against two knights was still not a fight they could win without seizing every opportunity and working together. As it was Javhei's mission, the other two worked off her lead, surrounding the knights and ever so carefully driving them towards a corner. Javhei feigned a blow to one knight's head, Kyle was quick to follow up, and Leyasu darted in to deliver a finishing blow.

The second knight immediately seized the opportunity, and took off towards the exit, and the padawans let her go; they needed to focus on protecting the initiates and couldn't spare anyone at this point without risking that. The third knight, caught between Raven and Cheeto, saw that the padawans were not going to be distracted into taking chase and realised that the fight was lost. He overturned a table on Cheeto, using the moment of confusion to make his escape.


Two minutes later, Master She'am was busy taking inventory of the results of the exercise.

"That was not half bad," he commented, taking note of the fact that none of the initiates had been hit by a single "blaster bolt" and that most of his class seemed to be "unharmed" as well. "Especially as you were one person short. I am pleased to see that you set your priorities right and focused on protecting the civilians, even if it meant letting two of your attackers escape."

Master She'am proceeded to check a scorch mark on Javhei's tunic, making sure that there was no burn that needed to be taken care of.

"I'm fine, Master She'am," Javhei reassured him, not at all happy with the attention, or her lack thereof for that matter …

She'am gave her a curt nod and then turned towards Raven.

"You were well able to hold your own when you were attacked in person," he said, "but you were not so alert in the beginning." He nodded at the red dots that adorned Raven's chest. "Had these been real blaster bolts, you would have been dead right at the outset," he growled. "How could you have prevented this from happening?"

Now that the fight was over and the critique well underway, Raven began to rub distractedly at her chest. The paint pellets were designed to be harmless. However, the girl would still have three bullet-sized bruises as a trophy, not to mention a paint-splattered uniform that would be almost impossible to scrub clean. A nudge from Kyle pulled her thoughts from scrubbing uniforms back to the conversation, and she glanced up to find a frowning Master She'am grumbling at her.

"Huh? Oh, umm." Having caught the last half of his statement, she trailed off for a moment before offering a suggestion. "I should have done a better job of dividing my attention. I needed to get the group moving, but at the same time protect them from blaster fire," she explained, and then met him with a sheepish expression. "I did kinda block the shots, though, just not with my saber." This comment garnered a few smirks from her teammates who could all sympathise. They also knew that being inattentive was not going to impress She'am.

"I think you are well aware that blocking the shots at the cost of your life is not a good option, padawan," Master She'am retorted, his growl considerably fiercer now. "As you seem unable to give a satisfactory answer when asked for it, maybe you need to spend more time thinking about it. I expect a three-page essay on what happened, why it happened, what might have been the outcome if those bullets had been for real, and what you could have done to prevent it. You will hand it in at the beginning of the next lesson if you want to continue with this class. And you might want to cut down on the cheek."

Raven groaned out a contrite: "Yes, Sir," and was grateful when he gave a curt nod of acknowledgement and turned his attention to the rest of the class. As if having to admit to Eeth that she had been nailed in the chest three times wasn't bad enough! The essay just compounded her problems.

"Very well," She'am said. "Let's revise your strategy."

This time, the whole scene had been filmed by holocams, and the class spent several hours discussing everything from their overall strategy up to individual moments of the fight and practicing a variety of moves with and without sabers. The initiates had been released into freedom, but the knights were still there and ready to help whenever specific moves needed to be demonstrated or rehearsed. It was a very intense and practical lesson, and even the most senior padawans in the group were quite exhausted when it was finally over.

Raven, for her part, got to spend a good hour with the knight who had attacked her, going over ways to improve her stance and tricks to maintain focus that the girl found very useful.

Not surprisingly, it was a rather worn-out, and quite disheveled padawan who entered their quarters that afternoon.

"Are you home, master?" she called, not bothered to use their bond and check for herself. Tossing her cloak onto the rack, Raven wandered into their kitchen where she proceeded to wrap a bag of frozen peas in a tea towel, pull up her tunic and pressed it to her chest. Thankfully, Raven had not developed breasts, or this would have been a good deal more painful. As it was, the peas were bliss, pure bliss.

"I am here, padawan," Eeth called from his room. Having come home from a workout half an hour ago, he had taken a shower and changed into fresh clothes. Shaking back his hair, he emerged into the common room and found his padawan in the kitchen. He raised his eyebrows as he saw Raven with a pack of peas pressed to her chest, her tunic splattered in red paint.

"Are you hurt?" he asked.

"No, not really. It's just a couple of paint pellets," Raven replied dismissively, hoping to stave off further questions. Raven knew she was lucky to be in She'ams class to begin with, and she certainly did not relish the idea of confessing to a lack of attention any more than she wanted to do the resulting essay.

Eeth's eyebrows rose even higher.

"You allowed yourself to get hit in the chest?" he asked. "No less than three times, at that. However did you manage to neglect your defences this spectacularly?"

While he talked, he slowly moved his hand across Raven's chest, letting healing energy flow into the bruised area, which would do much to alleviate the soreness.

"I. Well you see, I," Raven paused, shooting him a beseeching expression. "I didn't allow it, master… You make it sound like I let him shoot me on purpose," she whined, but given the expression on his face, she decided to explain how she had gotten shot. Naturally, Raven was careful to omit She'am's response from the end. "I'm sorry, master, please don't withdraw me from the class. I know I can do it. I'll concentrate harder next time, I promise." Since Eeth had taken over, the peas were tossed onto the counter; he was doing a better job than they were anyway.

Unfortunately for Raven, Eeth was very adept at noticing when she was being evasive. Besides, he knew Master She'am quite well and was certain that the man would not accept any amount of carelessness from his students.

"I am not going to withdraw you from your class, as long as Master She'am continues to accept you as a student," he said brusquely. "However, I will not be pleased if you continue like this. I expect you to give the class your full attention and act as if the situations you are supposed to deal with were for real. I doubt that you would have let your attention slip if you had expected to be hit by a real blaster bolt any moment. What did Master She'am have to say about your performance?"

The relief Raven felt at hearing he was not planning to pull her from the class was short-lived. "What did he say?" she repeated his question aloud, more to herself than Eeth. Because, ugh, he just had to ask that! "Well, he asked me how I could have prevented it from happening. I told him that I should have done a better job of dividing my attention and all, but he didn't find my answer satisfactory, and," she wrinkled her nose, "I have to do a three page essay detailing the 'whats, whys, hows and reality,' by next week's class or I won't be allowed to continue. I know, right, harsh much?" but that closing statement was all the griping Raven was going to risk at this point.

"Hmm," Eeth said non-committally, not at all surprised. He knew that Raven had a flippant way of answering questions that did not sit well with most Jedi Masters. She would simply have to learn from experience.

Changing the topic, he told her: "Well, best take a shower and change into clean clothes. I will prepare a quick snack in the meanwhile. After that, you should get to work. You might have no time for the essay during the week."

Nodding in response, Raven tossed her peas back into their cooler. "Thanks." She pointed to her chest. "You know, for healing me and all." Raven had half expected him to leave the discomfort as an object lesson, so she was grateful that he seemed to be more understanding than she had anticipated.

"You are welcome," said Eeth and turned to pull a loaf of bread from a cupboard.

Twenty minutes later, a much cleaner, paint-free apprentice wandered back out into their common room, datapad tucked under an arm. For a long moment, Raven simply stared at the blank screen, trying to figure out how she was going to write three pages on the topic She'am had assigned. Groaning, the padawan looked over at Eeth who was getting their snack ready.

"Don't you think it's a bit harsh?" she broached, and then, realising the man had zero context here, stood from her spot on their common room floor to elaborate. "I mean, three pages is a lot of work, and I didn't really do anything that bad. Okay, okay, so I might have been a bit of a smart-ass, but three pages. Mean."

"Well, if this causes you to think before you talk to your teachers and other superiors, the punishment will have fulfilled its purpose," Eeth replied, unmoved. "You decided to take this class, you do not want to drop out of it, so I do not see that you have any options, other than finishing this essay. And whining is not going to help, so stop it."

"Hey, I thought Jedi were supposed to show compassion! Where is the compassion here? You need to work on that," Raven stated, the corner of her lip twitching ever so slightly.

Eeth shot her a stern look but did not dignify this with a reply. "Eat," he simply said. "Then get to work."

"Grumpy," Raven muttered, but just because she wasn't willing to risk voicing further complaints, didn't mean she wasn't whining on the inside.

The snack was taken back to the common room where Raven flopped onto the floor, one leg up the wall, and got to work. After almost three hours of wriggling, fidgeting, tossing and turning, Raven had completed the rough draft and was simply sick of looking at it. "Master, can I go to the lounge? It's not going to get any better without a break."

Eeth thought for a moment. He suspected that Raven had a point. He was, however, loath to allow her a break before her task had been finished. Before he could come to a decision, the door chime rang.