Author's Notes: Hi! Well...I'm going to DIE this school year. I'm currently taking Geometry, Chemistry, Systematic Theology, Greek II, Advanced Literature, Economics, America Government, College Prep English, and College Prep writing. I know it seems a little late to be speaking like this...but I didn't have to go to school until last week. Yeah! Now...it's raining boring school books. ERRGG! This makes me all the more ready for Christmas break. Surprisingly...I haven't gotten totally sick all year. Unfortunately, my sister recently got a bad version of the flu, my mom's catching something from somebody else (11 people were out sick today), if I get sick...well...that's bad, and if my Dad gets sick...we're dead. Hopefully, we won't catch anything...for a while. Well, here goes a bit of Star Wars for you.

BTW: Kavar will have to get off of this spice COLD TURKEY soon because...well it's destroying him and Palpatine soon learns of its amazing fire power. You'll see what I mean.


Chapter 49

Vertigo


Keira quickly ran towards the Training Rooms. She was late; she knew it. Terribly late. A full 15 minutes late.

She quickly entered the room only to have Obi-Wan and Anakin standing in the middle, waiting for her.

"You're late," Obi-Wan said sighing.

"I'm sorry," Keira moaned. "Master Zarr kept me late again."

Obi-Wan's brow furrowed. "Why?" he asked.

"Just wanted to work on some of my algorithms. I'm horrible at them," Keira sighed, rubbing the back of her neck, only to find that she was incredibly stiff.

"Well, we'll make sure to work on them later. For now, we climb the spiral tower. This will get you used to higher altitudes and we will also be able to tell if you suffer from vertigo...like I do," Obi-Wan said as he jumped to the first step, which was about 2 feet off the ground.

Keira sighed and jumped up onto the start of the tinted unbreakable glass that lined the sides of the upward spiral tower.

They had never done this exercise before. They had only been working on the ground up until this point. Now they were starting to learn how to fight from higher altitudes...and how not to suffer from vertigo.

Keira made her way up moderately, but she soon found herself looking up when she heard a wild, "Ha ha!"

"Anakin?" she asked, gazing up at him. "How'd you get up there so fast?"

"I don't know. I always seem to get up here before most people. I love it," Anakin said, a wide grin on his face as he sat down at the top looking down at both of them.

Keira suddenly found herself looking to the side for her father, but when she didn't find him, she looked up abruptly only to find him almost to the top.

"This is Anakin's favorite exercise," Obi-Wan said.

"Ah," Keira said, trying to catch up with him. Which she did, but not without difficulty.

When she got quite close to the top she started to feel dizzy. It wasn't that bad. She could stand it at the very least.

But it wasn't until she looked down did the effects get worse. So much worse it brought her to her knees.

After the room began spinning, her knees hit the unbreakable glass and she found herself breathing heavily, making the tinted glass fog.

Obi-Wan had noticed this early on, how slow she was going. He understood that she was probably ignoring it until she looked down.

He began running towards her,jumping from glass piece to glass piece, not minding his own vertigo, which he had seemed to conquer long ago.

He helped her up and told her not to look down. Keira did just that, managed to squeeze her eyes shut, and know where she was walking with the Force.

Once she got to the top, she sat down shakily and put her head in her hands. "Well, now I know why I had to look straight whenever I was at the large ampitheatre close to my home. I would get dizzy."

"Yes," Obi-Wan said. "And the higher it gets, the worse it gets. I'm sorry I passed my traits onto you."

Keira laughed. "It's not your fault! It's not like you can help but pass those traits onto me."

Obi-Wan chuckled lightly, looked down, and then said, "Let's spend a few minutes looking down at the ground and then looking up at the ceiling. After that, I want you two to get up and do a light spar up here. And please Anakin, let's not go rough? Not with vertigo. Brock, my old rival, once challenged me to a duel up here. I nearly got myself killed. I fell down and landed at the bottom unconcious. I had a broken leg which needed mending and a very bad concussion that could've easily put me in a coma. Qui-Gon was quite furious. But he forgave me, as all Masters do."

Keira smiled and continued looking down. For a while, the dizziness remained, but it slowly dissapated after the few minutes was up. Now, surprisingly...looking at the ceiling was incredibly hard.

It took more than 5 minutes for Keira's head to stop feeling like cotton wool and for it to actually start feeling normal.

Finally she was able to get up and spar.

Obi-Wan just stood back and watched and occasionally gave instructions.

"Ok," Obi-Wan said. "Anakin's going to be on the aggressive, Keira...on the defensive. I want you to start out with a couple of swings, Anakin, and then I want you, Keira, to block them. Then you can start out on your parries."

Keira was more than willing to oblige. The faster they could get this over with, the better. She could get down after they were down. Ahhh...firm and solid ground.

Anakin immediately went into swift strokes with his blue blade, and Keira easily blocked him with her green blade. She was much better at the whole "sparring" thing. In fact, she was getting so good, she was actually starting to catch up with the other students. This got some attention from all the Masters, Knights, and Padawans.

She was now starting to beat the little Padawans and began beating the slightly older...around the 11 and 12 age area. It wasn't much, but at least she was getting somewhere.

Suddenly Anakin parried and Keira was swift and followed his saber. She did this several times.

"Ok, now, circle each other," Obi-Wan said, and Keira suddenly found that a fresh batch of butterflies had burst out of their cocoons in her stomach.

Keira found that it was easier said than done. She found it was ridiculously hard to keep on the piece of glass. She continuously tried to remain close to the wall so she wouldn't fall backward about 20 feet onto the ground. She was terribly afraid she would misstep.

And she did.

In a moment, she stepped backwards and suddenly found herself on the farthest edge of the glass. Obi-Wan was about to use the Force to stop Keira from falling, but he needn't have worried.

Anakin grabbed her by the collar.

Keira let out a sharp gasp and suddenly found herself toppling

onto the floor with Anakin close beside her.

Keira waited a moment to catch her breath before whispering, "Woah."

Obi-Wan had a smirk on his face. "Yes, Anakin. Next time you want to save someone, why don't you just put a noose around their head?"

This made Keira burst into hysterical laughter. "No, Dad, it's alright," Keira said, trying unsuccessfully to stifle her laughter. "I'm just glad I didn't fall."

Obi-Wan smiled, but once again looked to Anakin. "Anakin, next time, use the Force. And, don't grab her throat. Grab from the waist if possible."

Anakin sighed and said a rueful, "Yes, Master."


Kavar sluggishly stepped out into his father's apartment. He had a rather rough night; the spice battling his already weakened mind.

I should stop this...it's killing me...Kavar thought, but the insatiability of it all was too much. He simply shoved it into the ignorable files in his brain.

He suddenly heard a knock on the door. He stumbled over the door to answer it, since his father wasn't around.

A pale face stepped into the light and Kavar finally soon who it was. Padme.

Padme let out a cry of relief when she saw his drawn face, and she hugged him tightly.

Kavar was a bit taken aback by this greeting.

"Kavar...oh I missed you," Padme said. "It's such a relief that you're back."

Almost instantaneously, Kavar's lightheadness was gone. Padme's pale face returned it's normal color.

Kavar soon learned what was going on. He had formed a bond with her. Not a normal Padawan bond, no, but a very strong relational bond. A bond that made it slightly difficult to travel without at least thinking about the other or feeling poorly without the other one.

It was rare for it to ever happen. And Kavar wasn't expecting to be with Padme now, of all times.

"Padme," Kavar said. "Listen...right now...isn't the best time for me. I know I haven't been to see you or talk to you, but...my visit really wore me out...hyperspace lag..."

Padme put a finger to his lips. "I'm sorry," she said. "I just had to see you. I-I haven't seen you or heard from you in a year. I'll...come back...when you ask me to."

She then gave him one last hug and said goodbye to Kavar.

Kavar weakly made his way over to the couch after she left.

A relational bond? He had feelings for her...yes...and a relational bond was just the thing for that...but he didn't want a relationship with Padme...not now. His feelings had seemingly changed ever since And if this relational bond kept it's course...maybe never! He would be sick of her before he would consider having a life with her.

He sighed.

What a twisted turn this turned out being, Kavar thought dryly. I nearly get caught on my first Sith mission, I crash on a strange planet with slimy Scaithers, I come back with ship fulls of spice and I end up killing myself because I can't stop. Then whenever I just start recovering from the spice...I have a new problem in my life who didn't used to be. Padme. I loved her, but now...my feelings aren't...as infatuational as before. I supposed I've conditioned myself towards these things, living with the Scaithers for a year.

Kavar got up shakily and headed back to his bedroom. He needed sleep. More of it.

He was exhausted and spent, but in his being, he was a living, breathing dead man. He, at the moment, had no real feelings or emotions. He almost felt...robotic.

He walked into his room and flopped onto his bed and succumbed to the darkness.


Author's Notes: I sincerely hoped you liked it. BTW: The book's going great. I have about 75 pgs. worth of notes about the world that I have my main characters in. Anyways...please READ AND REVIEW! You know how I crave them. :) Yummy! THANK YOU!

PS: YAY FOR THE RULER! I HAVE THE RULER AGAIN!