A/N: Happy holidays! Merry christmas! Happy Hanukkah! Whatever it is that you're all celebrating this year, we hope that it is truly wonderful. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, IMed and enjoyed reading so far. Eeth and Raven are building up to mission clearance which will, much to Raven's great relief, see them leaving Temple life behind for a while and embarking on new and exciting missions. We hope you all enjoy the story so far. If you have any comments, please review. We love to hear from you all.
Best for the holidays and new year.
-Livia&Raven
As anticipated, it took Raven a bit of time to locate Granzien's quarters. The Temple was a huge, multi-story complex that was hard enough to negotiate with a map, let alone working off verbal directions. Still, Raven knew enough of this part of the Temple now to make the task possible. She stood outside his door for several minutes, thinking about the mess she had caused by setting those chickens loose, and really, really not wanting to be dragged over the coals again by Granzien for it. It wasn't that she felt Granzien undeserving of an apology, but more the fact that she did not feel like being scolded or further punished over her decisions. Eeth had more than covered that, in her opinion. Well, it wasn't like Eeth had given her a choice, and so she took a deep breath and hit the door panel to announce her presence. There was no point standing at his door all night. That said, it was preferable to sitting in her quarters writing apologies and essays, which was what she would be doing for the two weeks of her grounding.
Granzien opened the door, unsurprised to find Raven standing there. "Padawan Raven," he said. "Come in."
After his padawan had been knighted two years ago, he had opted for moving into single-bedroom quarters that had their own small garden. His common room was cluttered with gardening utensils and potted plants. He motioned for Raven to sit at the small dining table which was littered with data pads, a couple of energy bar wrappers and two empty teapots.
"Sorry, I didn't have time to tidy up," he said. "My afternoon was spent making comm calls in an attempt to gloss this whole incident over. I wasn't quite successful, I'm afraid. The farm owner was fairly upset. I think he'll approach the Council for a refund – well, unless he's the type to calm down overnight. I guess we'll know tomorrow."
The contrast between the orderly way in which Eeth kept their quarters, and the mess Granzien was in stuck out like bantha balls to Raven. Well, apparently, this mess was her fault, too. She eyed the offered chair dubiously, opting to remain standing; unless he specifically ordered her to sit, she would not. "Umm." Ugh. That was a horrible way to start an apology! Raven had given enough of them in her time to know how this ought to go, but she was struggling. "Master Granzien. I'm sorry that I caused problems for you, for the Temple." She stopped short of saying that she didn't mean it because she had really wanted to free those chickens! What Raven regretted now was the way in which she had gone about it. "I'm sorry I disobeyed you." The apology was sincere, and she had managed to hold his gaze despite wanting to look away.
"Apology accepted," said Granzien, gazing down on her. Her red-rimmed, puffy eyes had not escaped him. No doubt Eeth had done his reputation justice. Granzien felt tempted, very tempted, to take pity on Raven and just send her home. But he knew that more was needed in order to make sure she learned from this; and it was imperative that she did.
"Listen," he said. "I can relate to why you did what you did. It was an understandable impulse. A commendable one, even. You have a special bond with animals and that is a precious thing. But you need to learn to control it, else it will control you. And you see what problems that can create. Acting on your emotions without thinking is what got you in trouble on Mount Akemi, and it got you in trouble again on the chicken farm. It caused you to disobey your superiors and to dismiss their instructions. I have no doubt that your master… dealt with all this accordingly. But I still feel responsible for making sure it doesn't again while I'm in charge. Therefore, you will not take part in the final field trip next weekend. I will send you an assignment that you can work on instead, while the class visits the Akahiret cliffs. Understood?"
He said it quite gently. Pronouncing this punishment really tore at his heart. He liked Raven and he did not want to cause her distress. He never liked doing such things. Some masters – including Eeth, he supposed – considered him way too soft. But that was not quite fair because when it was really necessary, he could be relied on to put his foot down despite his misgivings, as he was doing now.
That Granzien seemed to think her actions were understandable gave Raven a little hope that maybe things weren't as bad as they seemed. However, the feeling didn't last long. The news that she was not allowed on their field trip, although not entirely unexpected (Eeth had grounded her, after all), was not easy to hear. She really loved this class, loved the excursions they went on, and the final excursion to the Akahiret cliffs was something that she had looked forward to since Granzien had announced it. Her face fell, tears welled in her eyes, but despite this, she didn't cry. It was, however, evident on her face just how crushed she was over his pronouncement. After a long pause the padawan managed to utter a strangled: "Understood," and swiped a hand across her face. Today had not been easy on her, and this was just the icing on the cake.
It was hard on Granzien to see her disappointment. He reached out and squeezed her shoulder. "Learn from this," he said softly. "Your heart is in the right place. It is your methods that need work. Until you have seen and understood more about the world, you need to follow your master's and your teachers' lead. I know it's not an easy lesson to learn. Force knows I was struggling with it for many years. It's probably hard for you to see right now, but I'm trying to help you. And so is your master, I'm sure."
Raven understood this, just as she had when Eeth explained to her what she had done wrong. That didn't mean that she liked it, and Raven decidedly did not like this punishment. She looked up at Granzien, her eyes over-bright. "I wish you would both find other ways to help me, then. I already have punishment coming out my ears from what I did. I'm grounded until I'm twenty, I have to write a novel length essay, letters to the farm…" Raven paused there, a hand reaching back to rub her backside. She was reluctant to tell Granzien, whom she kinda had a crush on, that Eeth had caned her although in hindsight she rather thought that her reluctance to sit was all-telling. Instead, she settled on: "Eeth walloped the bejesus outta me, and it's not ending there. Please, can't you reconsider? I've been looking forward to this one for weeks. Pleeeease."
Granzien was soft-hearted but he was no fool. To go back on a punishment he had pronounced, not because his knowledge of the facts had changed but simply because the child was pleading, was out of the question. Besides, the thought of Eeth's scathing look, should he ever find out, fleetingly crossed his mind. While Granzien was not normally intimidated by Eeth, in this case, he rather thought the scathing look would be entirely justified.
"No, I cannot reconsider," he said gently. "It sounds as if you're receiving quite some punishment. But then, you made the same mistake a second time, and masters rarely take kindly to that. And it wasn't such a small mistake." He gave her a minuscule smile.
"You know," he said, "when I chained myself to a tree as a youth, I disrupted an entire mission and my master threw me to the Council for it. It felt as if it was the end of the world at the time and as if my punishment would never end. Of course that wasn't true. And it really taught me to think before blindly acting on my emotions. I know you hate missing out on the field trip but if this teaches you to pull yourself together the next time a teacher takes you out of the Temple, then a lot will be gained."
He gave her another small smile and said: "Now you had better go home. I assume your master is waiting for you."
Raven sighed, but did not continue to protest; she knew when she was beat, and this was one of those times. Feeling like Granzien had hit the nail on the head, and this really was never going to end, the padawan offered a slight bow and did as told.
There was nothing to rush home for, so she dawdled down the corridors and took the long way through the Temple's central atrium. Raven also used that time to think about what Eeth and Granzien had said. They were right, but admitting that you had gotten things so wrong was never easy. Her morals and heart had been right, understandable even, but how she chose to act on them had turned out to be wrong. Raven had to wonder: If she had her time over, would she do the same thing again? Had it been worth it to give the chickens that moment of freedom? Probably not as it did nothing at all for the cause; it just caused trouble. These were the questions that were mulling around in her mind when she palmed the door to their quarters that evening.
Eeth looked up from where he was scanning a report for mistakes. Raven's unexpectedly early return from the field trip had somewhat disrupted his work and he had used her trip to Master Granzien to catch up. Now that she had entered, though, his attention was on her. He had spent some time thinking on how to proceed from here.
"Padawan," he said, rising from his seat. "Time for evening meditation. The motto for tonight's meditation will be 'There is no passion, there is serenity.' I am sure you have heard it a million times, but have you reflected upon its meaning?"
"It's part of the Jedi Code. I've thought of it, but never to the point of having revelations," she replied honestly, kneeling on her mat. "I guess I'm about to, though, right?"
"Yes, you are about to," Eeth replied, kneeling down opposite her. "At least I hope so. It is part of what being a Jedi is about. No passion – serenity. It is an ability that can be hard to acquire."
"I know." Raven sighed for what felt like the hundredth time today. After a moment or so, she closed her eyes and began to concentrate on the words. No passion – serenity. Any dingbat could understand the words, but putting it into practice was decidedly harder.
Eeth knew that it was. Even for him, it had been hard – possibly even harder because he had not wanted to acknowledge that he was capable of any such thing as "passion". Fortunately for him, he had had a master who was both shrewd and determined. She had seen right through him!
After a meditation that was rather longer than usual, he roused Raven from her trance and asked: "Any new insights into what the Jedi Code asks from you?"
Raven opened her eyes and yawned; that had been hard on her. "I shouldn't be affected by things I don't agree with, and remain calm regardless of how strongly I feel about something. Passion is a powerful emotion, like hate and anger, both of which are a path to the Dark Side, and none of which are acceptable emotions for a Jedi." Raven was exhausted. Her mind was ragged and she hoped Eeth would accept her answer and just let her go to bed.
Eeth nodded. "Thank you, padawan. This will do for now. You will spend more time reflecting on it in the upcoming weeks. I know this is a hard lesson to learn, and I do not expect you to be perfect at it all of a sudden. But it is the ideal you should strive after and that you will be measured by."
Giving her shoulder an affectionate squeeze, he said: "Off to bed with you before you fall asleep on your meditation mat."
"Yes, master." Raven stood, yawned, stretched and went to her bedroom to change into some sleep clothes. She was halfway through doing this when she spotted the small step that Eeth had provided so that she could reach everything in their quarters. Apparently, he did not like it when she climbed up on the benchtops in order to reach the higher cupboard spaces and the like around their quarters. She was curious about the state of her ass. Yes, yes, it had been several hours now, but the pain at the time had been such that the padawan was confident there would be gashes to the bone at the very least! Carefully, she stood on the thing and tried twisting her bum around while craning her neck to get a good look in the mirror. So absolute was her concentration that when her uneven weight caused the step to slide out from under her, she did not have time to save herself from falling, and only just managed to cushion her fall using the Force. Yep, it was a very undignified crash. There was nothing at all graceful about it. Not only did she wind up in a pile on the floor, but she had taken out her hair dryer on the way down, which in turn wrapped its cord around her toothbrush holder and brought the lot down on top of her.
Eeth was in Raven's refresher in what seemed like less than a second.
"Are you hurt?" he asked quickly, trying to untangle the mess that covered his padawan and wondering why her bare bottom was sticking up.
Raven would like to have replied with: 'only my pride', but the truth was, her wrist hurt, and she told him as much. "I just landed on it," she said. It wasn't excruciating like when she had broken her arm, not even close. But then there was the hope that if she played this up a bit, it might get her out of spending hours writing letters and doing essays! It was worth a try.
Eeth scanned her wrist quickly through the Force and nodded. "Nothing too serious," he said. "Most likely a sprain. I will bandage it and perform some healing on it. It should be fine by tomorrow morning. If it is not, we will let a healer have a look at it. They should be able to fix it in no time."
Ten minutes later, Raven was in bed with a bandage around her wrist, and Eeth asked: "Just out of curiosity – how in the Force's name did you manage to fall in such a spectacular way?"
"Trying to look at my ass," Raven replied as if that were the only logical answer and Eeth was silly for having to ask. The thought prompted a question. "Are you seriously going to spank me every night for a week?"
"Yes," said Eeth.
"Isn't there some sort of regulation about how much corporal punishment a master can dish out to his padawan?"
"No," said Eeth.
"Well, there ought to be."
This, Eeth did not dignify with a reply.
Raven huffed at his lack of comment, so she added: "I might start a petition." She rolled onto her side and closed her eyes. Eeth tucked the blanket around her and left, switching off the light.
Raven woke up a few times through the night. Her wrist had begun aching, and it did not seem to matter where she put it, it just wouldn't quit. She knew it wasn't a severe injury; it was more one of those annoying injuries that caused irritating spats of throbbing pain often enough to become bothersome. Eventually, the padawan got sick of it and went into Eeth's bedroom. It was totally dark in here, and given that Eeth wasn't much lighter himself, he blended in well. She used the Force to find his bed and sat down. "Masssterr, are you awake?" she whispered through cupped hands. It had occurred to her to just go to his bathroom, start rooting around for his medical kit and serve herself to painkillers, but she doubted that would go over well.
"I am now, padawan," Eeth said quietly, righting himself up in his bed and shaking back his hair. For as long as he could remember, he had had the ability to wake up from sleep at the slightest disturbance and be fully functional in a fraction of a second. Maybe it was a survival skill he had needed to acquire as a toddler, in an episode of his life that he did not care to think about. In any case, it came in useful.
"What is it?" he asked in concern. "Are you ill?"
"No. My wrist hurts. I was going to get something from your medical kit and fix it myself, but I thought you might want me to tell you about it before I did that." Raven was pretty autonomous, and she knew a bit about medicine thanks to her interest in anatomy. Still, she had woken Eeth. Maybe because (without being conscious of it) she secretly wanted some of his attention; he had been hard on her the day before, after all.
Eeth was very protective of those he was in charge of and Raven was no exception. On the contrary – his protectiveness, or maybe just his willingness to display it, had increased significantly over the years and Raven got to experience much more of it than Lakhri had, at that stage of his padawanhood.
"My medical kit is off-limits to you," he said, sitting up fully and taking Raven's hand gently into his own to examine it. "If there is any medication you should take, I will be the one to hand it out."
Raven's wrist was swollen and hot to the touch. Obviously, Eeth's attempt at healing had been insufficient.
"Pull on your boots," he told Raven. "I'm taking you to the healers."
"Can't you just try some Force-aided healing again?" said the healer-allergic apprentice, a touch of desperation to her tone. This was nothing a hypo wouldn't fix and she was sure Eeth would have one of those lying around in his medical kit. Surely!
"Well, obviously I didn't do a very good job at healing it yesterday," Eeth said drily. "The healers will probably be able to fix this in less than two minutes, and that is what we will ask them to do. It will take us a quarter of an hour at most and we might even get some more sleep when we are done. Now stop arguing and pull on your boots."
Raven let out a put-upon sigh but got to her feet and went to find her boots regardless. She found the healing arts absolutely fascinating, as long as she wasn't on the receiving end! Then it became a whole other ball game. Still muttering about overreacting masters, the padawan sat on the floor by their door and pulled on her boots. Her sleep shirt was long enough to provide modesty and so when Eeth met her at the door, she stood, ready to go.
Eeth rested a protective hand on his padawan's shoulder, which drew a smile from the girl, and guided her to the turbolifts. Much as he was prone to telling her to pull herself together where studying, unpleasant chores or boring tasks were concerned, he took her health seriously and would never ignore her when she was in pain – well, unless that pain was the result of a well-deserved punishment, maybe.
"There is always at least one healer on duty," he said. "I assume it is a strain, possibly alongside some damage to the ligament. The healers are much better at treating such things than I am. It will be alright by morning. – Well," he corrected himself, glancing out of the window. "Technically, it is already morning. Later this morning, then."
"Technically," Raven repeated, refraining, if only just, from rolling her eyes at the semantics. Despite being brave, and Raven would tell you that she was, she was glad to have Eeth by her side for this. He was right, though, it had just gone four in the morning but there was a healer on duty when they arrived. "I hate that sterile smell, it always gives me the creeps," Raven complained to Eeth, quietly enough so that the approaching healer wouldn't hear.
"It also prevents you from getting an infection," remarked Eeth. "Now let the healer check you out and you will be out of here in no time." Sure enough, the healer examined the wrist briefly, pressed a hypospray analgesic into the base of Raven's hand, wrapped the wrist in a flexible bandage and applied some healing energy to it. Less than ten minutes later, they were on their way back home with instructions to come back if the pain was not completely gone by that evening – "which is very unlikely," the young healer had said.
"I still don't like the smell," Raven remarked, walking beside Eeth. She was grateful that he had forced her to go now, because the pain was all but gone. She flexed and rolled her hand a few times, testing out the bandage. She was also glad for the lack of questions on their healers part. For instance: 'How did you do this?' did not pop up!
It was four-thirty in the morning by the time they got home. Again, Raven sat by the door, pulled off her boots and yawned. "Can I go back to bed, please?"
"Padawan, you act as if staying up was even an option," Eeth said wryly. "Of course you will go back to bed. Right this instant."
"Well, I wouldn't put it past you," Raven said, shooting him a cheeky look. Here was a man who got up at the ass crack of dawn every day, after all!
"I want you well-rested for school," Eeth pointed out. "If you promise to get ready for the day quickly, I can wake you up for school at seven for once. Will you be able to go back to sleep or would you like me to help?"
"Can you help? Please!" Raven would never knock back an offer to help her sleep. She was the sort to lie awake for hours, unable to switch off her mind. It was this struggle that made meditation such an issue for her, but lately this had been less of a problem. Her days were so full now that by the time sleep came around, the padawan was honestly exhausted and happy for it. Also, with Eeth's help, she was learning to still her mind.
Thus, Eeth tucked Raven in and sent a light sleep compulsion her way. It would fade soon and would not impede her from waking up when he came to see her at seven… he hoped. Then he went back to bed himself to get one more hour of sleep or so.
Those two and a half hours sleep were utter bliss for Raven, and the seven a.m. wake-up was even better.
Classes that day were business as usual. Most of their time was spent revising the work they had covered that cycle in preparation for the end-of-term exams. On the plus side, there was no homework issued. Instead, each student was instructed to continue with their revision for this week's exams.
There were a group of students from her last class going to the dining hall for lunch, and then they were planning to meet in the lounge that evening to do some extra 'study'. "Come with?" a Nautolan girl asked Raven, eliciting a groan.
"I can't. I'm grounded," Raven replied, looking decidedly unhappy at missing out on the fun. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you looked at this, none of the kids from her zoology class had been in any of Raven's classes today. Thus, they were all none the wiser to what had happened yesterday.
"Oh. That sucks. For how long?"
"Two weeks."
"TWO WEEKS! What did you do to catch that? Assassinate the Chancellor?" Jedi padawans did not have a lot of free time as it was, so getting grounded was almost as bad as physical punishment. Almost!
Raven shot her Nautolan peer a pained expression. Why did everyone always want the gory details?! "No, he's still alive. I freed a bunch of chickens." Apparently, this was such an unexpected answer that a small group had formed, urging her to elaborate. By the time she was done, the room was silent. Nobody knew quite what to say to that.
Finally, a Kel Dor broke the silence. "I wonder if they managed to catch the chickens? Some might have gotten free."
"Yeah, some might have been lucky," added another.
Raven just sighed. "I hope so. It doesn't sound likely, though. They had the entire staff out looking for them." This conversation went on for another few minutes before Raven decided that she ought to go. Eeth had said zo come directly home and if she took too long, he might just get prickly. The irony of being held captive herself for freeing others had not escaped her, and it was what was on her mind when she palmed the door to their quarters that afternoon looking deflated. Another thirteen days of this to go and she was already bored of it.
"Padawan," said Eeth, inclining his head at Raven. He was just carrying a casserole made of tubers and a creamy sauce to the table. Having been free of Council duty today, he had made use of his time by preparing a proper meal.
"Wash your hands and come eat," he said. "You came later than I expected."
Raven bowed in greeting, but said nothing about his comment. Did he know? Surely he couldn't; it was only a few minutes. Well, if he didn't push for details, Raven sure as shit wasn't going to volunteer them. The padawan was quick to obey, darting into her bedroom and throwing her pack onto the desk that was built into the corner of her room. A moment later she emerged, hands washed and following her nose. Whatever it was smelled good.
"When you are grounded, I expect you to come home without dawdling," Eeth informed her as he sat down and started serving the casserole. "I will let it slide this time. But not if it happens again." There. She had received a fair warning. It was a lesson he had learned when forced to supervise creche children at age sixteen, and he still tried to mind it.
"Yes, master," came the sheepish reply. It had literally been a few minutes and she had, in a way, been testing him. Raven was still figuring out how far the boundaries extended with Eeth in general; being grounded was an entirely new set of boundaries to explore.
After they had eaten and cleared the dishes away, Eeth said: "Get started on your letter now, please. After that, we can have a quick workout. And then you need to study for your exams."
The first of those were tomorrow and in Eeth's opinion, Raven's prowess at arithmetics could still be significantly improved.
Although Raven would not disagree with Eeth's assessment of her maths skill, she was unhappy about having to spend hours studying it. She was, however, decidedly unhappier about having to write an apology to the farm. In her opinion they didn't deserve an apology; it was her master and teacher who deserved it and she had given both. Huffing, the padawan went to her bedroom and collected her datapad, and then she fell onto their couch and started working. This was going to take some time.
One hour passed.
"Can I get some juice, pleeeease?" Raven whined.
"Are you done writing your letter?" Eeth asked, looking up from his work.
"No, master."
"Then stop trying to look for excuses to take a break," said Eeth.
Raven sighed and got back to work; she was still wary of pushing him.
Another twenty minutes passed.
"… Will you want to look at this before I send it?" she asked, finger poised on the send button. But before he could answer that, their door announced a visitor. It was Bindi. Raven shot to her feet in a flash. "I'll get it."
"No, I will," Eeth said firmly, rising from his seat. "And, yes, I will want to look at it, so you had better check it once again."
The look Raven gave him would have frozen over Mustafar. Scowling at his retreating back, she flopped back down onto the couch and folded her arms.
Bindi bowed in greeting. "Can I see Raven, please?"
"Raven is grounded," Eeth replied, his face impassive. "She is not allowed to socialise right now."
Bindi didn't look surprised. In fact, she looked resigned. "Oh. Can you tell her that I'll be out of the Temple doing research with my master from tomorrow afternoon and that I hope she's okay because she was upset yesterday?" She said loudly enough to be overheard by anyone who might be sitting in their common room. She wasn't worried about Raven; the girl had a master to take care of her, after all. She was concerned that she had been upset, however.
"I think she heard you," Eeth said politely. "I wish you success. May the Force be with you."
When Eeth palmed their door shut, he was met with a scowl. "You could have just let me talk to her for a few minutes."
"Not when you are grounded," Eeth said matter-of-factly. "Are you done with your letter?"
"No, master." If Eeth was planning to check her work then she had some corrections to make. Still scowling at him, she picked up her stylus and started rewriting.
Eventually, she finished the letter to Eeth's satisfaction and it was sent. By the time their workout came around that afternoon, Raven was more than ready for it; sitting around writing was not easy for the fidgety apprentice, and she needed that outlet to get rid of some pent-up energy.
Eeth made it a particularly demanding workout because he sensed that Raven needed him to. However, he did not make it a particularly long one because Raven needed to study for her exams. Today, he took the time to study with her, which he had rarely been able to do during the past weeks, and patiently explained the concepts she had not understood. Her maths exam was tomorrow and he wanted her to do as well as could be realistically expected.
Raven appreciated Eeth's help, as much as any who hated math could appreciate such a thing. It was long and boring, but at least it was better than doing it on her own. When he finally relented, the padawan flopped back into her chair, scrubbing at her eyes. "Can I watch some holo for a while, please." She needed a break and was too tired after their workout for anything physical.
"No, you can help me prepare dinner," Eeth said. "It is about time. After all, you will have an hour of meditation to perform afterwards."
That wasn't exactly a thrilling evening line-up. It wasn't that Raven didn't like cooking; she actually enjoyed it as Eeth often taught her how to make things. It was more the fact that watching holo was easier. The extra hour of meditation was also not something she looked forward to. In fact, it just reminded her that she was being punished and that it was far from over!
And indeed, when they had eaten dinner and cleared the table, Eeth pulled out a chair, sat down and said unceremoniously: "Bare your bottom and get over my lap." He did not think any kind of preamble was necessary. Raven knew why this was happening.
Eeth might not want preamble, but Raven was all for it. "Aww, master noooo!" She whined, jumping around a bit for emphasis. It was going to hurt and she didn't want it!
Eeth glared at her. "I am not going to go back on this," he said grimly. "The only thing you can hope to achieve by complaining is to be sent to cut a switch. If you do not want that, do as I told you. Now."
Raven looked at him, her theatrics momentarily ceasing. He was going to make her cut it herself? She had never done that before. Embarrassing scenarios of having to carry the thing back through the busy Temple corridors flashed through her mind and had her bared and across his knee in a heartbeat. This would be bad, but at least it was private.
Eeth lost no time in raising his hand and bringing it down on her bottom with quite a bit of force although nowhere near as hard as he could have. He was satisfied to see that there were no traces left of yesterday's punishment. This handspanking was by no means going to be the excruciating affair that yesterday's caning had been. It was going to hurt, though; Eeth did not deal out token spankings.
And it did hurt. Raven whined, wriggled, pleaded and sniffled her way through the first dozen or so, but she did not last much longer than that before her sniffling became unintelligible, and she gave up fighting him. As a creche youngling, spankings had just been part of life. Sure, they had hurt badly enough so that the perpetrator thought twice before earning them. Some kids even thought that certain things were worth the bit of pain, but those had been nothing like this. Each time Raven found herself in this position, she swore blind that she would never again earn physical punishment from Eeth. Yeah, the best-laid plans of mice and padawans…
Eeth spanked Raven until she was crying and would undoubtedly feel this when sitting down. It was not bad enough to prevent her from sitting, though, nor would there be any damage left by tomorrow morning. This was essentially a reminder. Like everything Eeth did, it was a thorough one.
Helping her up from his lap, he handed Raven a handkerchief, waiting for her to calm down.
Raven cried into the handkerchief, using it to hide her face and tears. It was futile, of course; Eeth would have to be deaf and blind not to notice. Still, it had hurt, and the padawan had never seen the point in trying to pretend it didn't. She just didn't like that it made her feel like a creche youngling to cry over getting spanked. Well, it was worse now, not that she took much solace from that.
It did not take long for her to pull herself together, though. It might have hurt, but it hadn't been nearly as bad as yesterday. Thus, when her sobs stopped catching in her chest and her eyes finally dried, she gave Eeth a piteous expression. Why? Firstly, because he'd just spanked her and it had really hurt. Secondly, because she knew what came next and she really didn't want to do it.
Completely ignoring the puppy-dog eyes pointed at him, Eeth said: "One hour's meditation on obedience now. I will tell you when your time is up."
Given that she had just been spanked for disobedience, Raven was reluctant to argue the order. So, still sulking, and despite wishing she could do just about anything else, the padawan pulled up her pants and dragged herself to her mat. She flopped face down, buried her face in her elbow and tried to block out the discomfort from her ass. It was a struggle to clear her mind, and even harder to stay focused! She shifted around several times, trying out any position that wasn't sitting until eventually, she gave up. "Master, will you meditate with me?" she asked because an hour was an eternity to Raven.
This time, Eeth thought before replying. This meditation was meant to be punishment, after all. But he also knew how difficult it was for Raven to remain focussed for such a long period of time. Therefore, he finally answered: "For the second half hour, if you do a good job in the first." This seemed to him to be a justifiable compromise.
Raven got to her knees and looked over to where Eeth sat at their dining room table. Half an hour of meditation was not too bad. It would still suck to do it by herself, but beggars could not be choosers, she knew. "I will," Raven promised. She reluctantly did as she had done the last time and knelt facing the opposite direction, her forehead thunking gently into the wall. This was not the most comfortable position, but it had the added advantages of sparing her backside further pain by not sitting on it, while preventing herself from becoming distracted, or worse, falling asleep!
After the hour of meditation was complete. Eeth allowed Raven half an hour of holo, knowing that she mostly watched nature channels and that this was at least remotely entertaining. The two weeks of grounding would be demanding enough as it was. On both of them!
