The dining hall was packed when Lolee sat down at a relatively empty table. The other occupants were Crawen, opposite him, his analytical eyes trained on nothing in particular, and a gaggle of girls that were chatting excitedly. There were older, already accepted as Padawans. Twelve year olds weren't the only ones that had to worry about the Tournament. Seeing that Crawen wasn't completely with it, Lolee looked around, identifying his prospective competitors.

It had only been a day since the news had been released, and already, the Initiates were buzzing around, training three times as hard to try and earn some notice. Lolee had been training for most of the day, when he wasn't scouting for Corrie's cause.

The rakata was good. He knew that. His superior speed and strength leant themselves to physical prowess, and fortunately for him, the light sabre slotted nicely into that description. It was most definitely his strong suit. He might have to look out for people such as Jonah Driad and Macu Rocktor, and Corrie, when he thought about it. Jonah and Macu were both very good. They weren't amazing, but they trained with each other very often. Both were quick learners, and where Macu was strong to the point of madness, he also followed the rules a little too closely, a bit of a rote learner, which made him unflexible, both mentally and physically. What Jonah lacked in strength, she made up for in her awkwardly awesome reflexes and dodging abilities. She had a pretty strong defence, but if you forced her into an attack, she wouldn't do too well. As for Corrie, well, he wasn't all that good with a sabre, really. His style was more suited to fighting multiple opponents, or fending off blaster shots than to one on one duels. Corrie couldn't remember katas, and as Lolee knew all too well, that helped just as much, if not more, than it hindered. He was an epic improviser, mixing up katas and making up moves to attack and defend, and most of his wins came from shocking his opponent with his unpredictable actions.

Of course, Lolee's only real opponent, was Arak Tel Arvos. She was an unhealthily shy twi'lek, looking scared of everyone that tried to talk to her. The one time Lolee had had a conversation with her, she had proved to be a lovely, insightful and intuitive person, under the many layers of nerves and shyness. She was very smart, everyone knew that, very good with technology, but her social skills were as of yet, unused and unmapped. She was frightened of people, very unnoticeable. She faded into the background, almost invisible…and then you gave her a light sabre.

Arak was immensely skilled. She had the best endurance Lolee had ever seen. Her attack was amazing, her defence even better, her speed and strength shocking in comparison to her usual demeanour. She surprised everyone with her ferocity. She just didn't stop! Add to that her natural ability for the thorough, technical learning of katas, and the way she could swap between them at a moment's notice. What really scared people when they fought her, however, was the way she didn't seem all…there. It was as though she was just practicing, not actually fighting. Every move you could make, she could meet it perfectly. The only detail of her fighting Lolee could edge towards weakness, was that she just responded. She wasn't one to initiate attacks. Lolee felt kind of sorry for Arak. She was really lovely, and a very dangerous opponent, but no-one saw anything but the nervous, silent girl with wide, scared eyes, no matter how many times her inner fire was revealed through her sabre.

No-one really thought about her at all.

Except for Crawen.

Grinning, Lolee looked over at Cra. As predicted, his gaze had shifted onto Arak as she squished into a spot a few tables over. His expression was distant, his eyes rather dreamy. Lolee sniggered, and beckoned Corrie over as the human entered the hall. He arrived pretty quickly, sliding into the spot beside Lolee. They shared a snigger at Crawen's complete obliviousness.

Corrie put a pea on his spoon and catapulted it at the Iktotchi's head. It hit the boy in the cheek and flinched massively, almost falling off of his seat. Corrie and Lolee cracked up.

Cra turned, glaring at them venomously. "Shut up. Corrie, what's the news?"

At that, Lolee's laughter was quickly quelled. Despite having greater things to worry about, there was a nagging pain at the back of everyone's head. If they got picked, who did they want to be picked by? Were their enough spots for everyone? Of course, Coronarcher had thought of that first, and while everyone else was doing emergency practice, he'd been flitting around the Temple all day finding out which of the Masters were taking apprentices.

Corrie shook his head. "Hang on, come with me, we need to find the others."

By the others, he meant Arak, Jonah, Rags and Reeka. Ollisp and Crake-the Correllian twins-and Macu could be told later, although someone else would probably have to tell Macu. Corrie sure wouldn't.

The trio got up and wove through the crowd, squeezing into the girls table. Lolee called Arak over, and she curiously moved closer. Corrie set himself up smack bang in the middle. "Alright, after a lot of searching, I believe I have found all of the Masters looking to take Padawans."

He said 'Padawan' with an air of reverence. Everyone held their breath. Corrie was a dramatist. He liked suspense.

"There are only five Masters looking out for us."

Corrie's words hit them hard. Five wasn't even enough for their little group, let alone for all of the prospective Padawans. Everyone had known it was coming, but no-one had expected it quite like that.

"Master Swan, Master Obi-Wan, Master Windu, Master Mundi and Master Trovin."

Five very good Masters, high ranking, wise and immensely force-strong masters.

The looks that were passed around the little group gathered at the table were dangerous, filled with suspicion, as they sized up their new opponents.