Eeth brewed himself a pot of tea and set out a plate of cookies, thinking all the while. The two padawans had clearly been convinced that their outing had been harmless, which worried him more, in a way, than it would have if they had been aware how big a transgression this was and simply hoped not to get caught. He would need to convince them by more than a spectacular punishment. He was not sure he could. Sometimes he envied people like Lakhri or – he shuddered to think of it – Granzien. When Raven had snuck the scorcher out of the nature reserve, Granzien's way of talking to her had made her see sense immediately whereas all Eeth had done was threaten her with punishment. And now, he needed to talk sense into no less than two padawans! In situations like these, he felt like a fairly inadequate master although he would, of course, not dream of ever letting this on.
With an internal sigh, he went to see Flynt first.
"You may stop meditating now," he told Flynt as he took a jar of bacta out of his medical cabinet. "I am going to offer you some healing."
Flynt opened his eyes, pushed himself up onto his elbows and craned his neck to watch Eeth as he spoke. He caught a glimpse of the twelve neat welts tramlining his ass and thought, ever the optimist, that they were rather expertly placed considering all the squirming and jumping around he'd done before Eeth had restrained him. The surface sting and burning had died down during the half hour of meditation, only to be replaced with a deep muscular ache that pounded in time with his heartbeat. When Eeth exited his bathroom carrying bacta, Flynt could have kissed him. He didn't, though, if only because he thought that might be too much for his dignified grandmaster. Flynt thought he sensed a feeling of weariness about Eeth that had not been there earlier, and he did not like that he was probably the leading cause.
"I'm sorry about giving you grief. I'll pull my head in, no more bullshit, I promise," he said, despite knowing that such a promise, although made with the best intentions, was one he could not sensibly guarantee. Flynt would do his best. He never set out to find trouble, trouble just happened to find him!
"This is not about me, it is about you," said Eeth, sitting on the edge of the bed and opening the jar. "I want you to avoid doing something like this again, of course, but more importantly, I want you to understand why it was wrong. Do you?"
Flynt let his head rest on his good arm as Eeth's weight depressed the mattress beside him. He remained silent for a moment. He didn't want to talk about this, but what else could he do? He had just vowed to be better. "Raven took her time telling you that we went. You also said you need to know where we are, so you're probably pissed about that too." It was all Flynt could come up with at the moment.
"Precisely," said Eeth as he started to spread bacta across the welts. "You seem to be under the impression that it was alright for you to go because it was nearby, it was not a dangerous location at that time of the day, and a lot of other padawans went, some of them without their masters. All of this is true but it is also beside the point. This kind of reasoning implies that such judgments are yours to make, which they are not. I know that some padawans your age are allowed to go to places in the vicinity of the Temple by themselves. That is because their masters have given them express permission. They have discussed the conditions with them, and I am sure they have asked to be notified of such excursions before they take place, not several hours later. If we cannot rely on you to ask us before deciding that you are allowed to do something, how can we trust you not to take a shuttle and go to a diner the next time, or leave after dinner, or do whatever else you feel is warranted?"
"I get that you're pissed over not knowing where we were; fair call. It was literally next door, though, which is why we thought it wasn't a big deal. You could have easily sensed Raven's presence through your bond and shouted from the front doors if need be. It's not like any of us would have considered going far enough away to warrant a shuttle," Flynt replied.
"I grant you that the fairground is close by but it is definitely not close enough for me to shout from the front doors," said Eeth, letting healing energy flow into the skin of Flynt's bottom. "But even if it was, that is beside the point, as I have told you before. Whether you were allowed to go, on this particular occasion or as a general rule, was simply not your decision to make. And if I had let this slide, how would I know what you next decide to do that you think is no big deal?"
Flynt let his head flop into his arm; he was feeling rather sore and sorry for himself, even if he didn't have a right to feel the latter. "I dunno, man. I just didn't think it was a big deal at the time. I guess it was." Flynt lifted his head and craned to look at Eeth once again. "I'm sorry, grandmaster. It won't happen again," was tacked on the end because it never hurt to show Eeth respect. Besides, Flynt was feeling bad over causing trouble. He had grown rather fond of the man, and it hurt to think he was probably not being viewed in the same light lately.
"Alright," said Eeth gently. "I accept your apology." He wiped his hand on a tissue and screwed the jar of bacta shut. "I will look after Raven now," he said. "Please come out into the common room in ten minutes. The matter is not quite closed yet."
"But," Flynt started to protest, and then he caught himself. "Ten minutes," he agreed, suddenly feeling as if he were going to hear yet more bad news.
Meanwhile, Raven was kneeling on her bed, her forehead pressed against the wall. Meditation had never come easy to her. She was such a flighty, fidgety personality; always in motion, mind always racing. Meditating after punishment was even more difficult. The first few times Eeth had made her do this, Raven had fallen asleep. That had not gone over well. After a bit of trial and error, the padawan had come up with a strategy that worked to keep her focussed and not further torment her ass by sitting or lying on it. This worked for the most part.
When Eeth entered, Raven remained kneeling, her eyes flickering as his presence registered.
"You may stop meditating now," Eeth said, feeling somewhat like a robot at the repetitiveness of this. "I will provide some healing. While I do, tell me whether you have understood why what you did was wrong."
The rest of their talk was barely less repetitive from Eeth's point of view although it was new to Raven, of course. It went more or less the same way as it had with Flynt, with a few additional words about not succumbing to peer pressure thrown in. Eeth was just about ready to drop the issue by the time he and Raven emerged into the common room but he felt that if he did that, he would be remiss of his duty. And that was out of the question.
"Alright," said Eeth brusquely when the two padawans were standing in front of him; despite the healing he had offered, he suspected that they would not particularly want to sit. "Your impression to the contrary notwithstanding, this was a serious transgression. I want to make sure the lesson I taught you today sinks in. Therefore, I have decided to register each of you for twenty-five hours of community service. You will start working tomorrow. And when I say work, I mean work. I will not register you for entertaining creche children or arranging flower bouquets, that you may be sure of."
"Harsh much!?" Flynt scoffed. He wasn't happy about this, not at all.
Raven, on the other hand, was just glad Eeth had not mentioned anything about spanking them every night for a week. That was what Raven had been expecting when he'd mentioned making the lesson sink in. She wasn't happy about this but nor did she complain.
"I can assure you that it is much less harsh than the alternative would have been," said Eeth coolly. "An alternative I have been seriously pondering. Unless you want me to reconsider, I recommend you desist from complaining any further."
Flynt remained silent for a long moment.
"Oof!" He barely refrained from wincing as Raven discretely jabbed her elbow into his side. "No need to reconsider, grandmaster," he said, frowning. He wasn't happy about receiving additional punishment and planned to tell Lakhri about it as soon as the man was able to hear him out.
"I hope so," said Eeth pointing a glare at him. "I can assure you it could always be worse."
Raven knew that Eeth wasn't throwing out empty threats there; it really could be worse and she didn't want any part in it. She looked up at Eeth, her expression hopeful that there was nothing else he was going to stack on top of that.
"Alright," said Eeth. "Apart from that, I consider the matter closed. Since you forfeited our trip to the speeder course, we may as well start preparing dinner. Raven, how are you feeling? Has the cool shower helped?"
Without a word, Flynt made for their kitchen; he was glad to be out of that conversation and to put this behind him. What better way to start than with food? he thought.
Raven glanced at Flynt's retreating back and then up at Eeth. "A bit. I'm still tired," she said, rubbing her arms. She had a pink line that settled just beneath her eyes now, too, but she didn't want to be sent off while everyone else did all the work.
"Then go and lie down until dinner," said Eeth firmly. "And the next time you forget to apply sunblock when going outside in such weather, I will be seriously displeased. Your health is too important to be so negligent."
Unimpressed at being sent away, but equally unwilling to complain about it, Raven did as she was told and went to her bedroom without protest.
The following day, both padawans woke feeling less than thrilled over having to spend what was typically a freeish day doing whatever it was that Eeth had cooked up for them. While Raven's sunburn had mostly faded thanks to some healing Eeth had given her the previous night, she still moped over breakfast. Flynt, however, seemed to be his usual cheerful self. That changed when Eeth handed them their assignments for the day.
"For real?" Flynt asked in disbelief. "You're sending us to opposite sides of the Temple? Why?"
Raven just groaned; misery loves company and they were even being denied that!
"Because this is punishment, not an opportunity to socialise," said Eeth, unmoved.
Two weeks ago, had Eeth given this answer, Flynt might have squared off and stood tall, unwilling to let this go without at least a couple of smart-alec remarks. Today, his shoulders slumped, and that was the extent of his protestations.
Raven was grateful; she didn't want Flynt starting off his morning on Eeth's shit list as this often ended painfully and made for an unpleasant day.
"Can we go?" Raven asked, keen to get Flynt out of here before he got any ideas about mouthing off.
"You may," said Eeth, having given them a scrutinizing look to make sure they looked presentable. Looking presentable did not exactly matter when one was supposed to scrub dirt off a shuttle that had recently returned from a botanical expedition or scrape leftovers from plates in the Temple kitchen; but for Eeth, this was about the principle of the thing.
Flynt sauntered his way out the door behind Raven. He looked down at his Jedi aunt as they paused at the turbolift, the corner of his lip twitching into a crooked smile. "How bad can it be?" he said encouragingly, hoping to cheer her up upon noticing that she still wore the same expression of distaste that she'd carried all morning.
As it turned out, by the time the padawans returned from their allotted tasks, he had no such optimism left. It had been mundane, laborious work. They were filthy dirty, sore and vowing that they would never, ever leave the Temple again without permission. This sucked!
It was a sentiment that Endal shared because, unbeknownst to Eeth, Raven and Flynt, his punishment matched theirs; well, almost. Drkai wasn't up to Eeth's standards where corporal punishment was concerned, which didn't mean that she had gone easy on him. Much worse was the fact that, rather than lazing away his Sunday engrossed in the books he had bought at the fair, he spent it pruning bushes in the arboretum with a no-nonsense gardener who did not grant him a minute's rest. His only consolation was that there wasn't much time for community service during the week, what with lessons, training and homework. It would be a couple of hours on one or two evenings at most, he assumed.
There was no time for community service on Monday or Tuesday for Raven and Flynt due to an enormous amount of homework given to them by their unreasonable teachers, or so Raven complained when they were working through it. On Wednesday, their load was far less, and both padawans were relieved to finish quickly. Their joy was short-lived, however. They made a dash for the holo, only to be called to the dining table where Eeth assigned them two hours of community service.
"I wonder what horrors he's come up with this time?" Flynt thought aloud.
Raven waved her hand, and the turbo lift slid open. "He's full of surprises," she stated. "You're on one of the garden levels. I guess Eeth thought you got it too easy last time."
"How so?" Flynt wanted to know.
Raven shrugged. "You like working in kitchens."
"I replaced a sterilising unit for three hours solid," Flynt reminded her, but he smiled at the memory. He'd got talking to one of the supervisors about different ways to prepare tubers. It had been interesting to hear her ideas, that was until she had him replace their peeling machine…
Raven chuckled at Flynt's expression but before she could say more, the lift stopped. She took a deep breath and blew it out. "Good luck," she told Flynt and stalked down the hall that would lead her to the hangar bay. Whatever was waiting for her down here couldn't be good.
Flynt's instructions were simple so far; all he had to do was report to Master Fenir, level three, main garden pavilion. It was a nice enough place, Flynt thought upon entering the garden. He looked up to an impossibly high ceiling surrounded with giant trees and vines, and then he entered an area that was open to the elements.
It didn't take him long to locate Master Fenir. The young Jedi master was busy instructing… Wait. Was that Endal Kanyan? Flynt's eyebrows rose. Neither padawan had been allowed to visit the lounge, and as a result, they had no idea how Endal had come out of the whole mess. Flynt approached quietly, catching Endal's eye briefly as the older boy left to do whatever it was set out for him.
"You must be Flynt," said Fenir when the tall boy approached.
"That would make you Master Fenir," replied Flynt, cool and confident as ever despite the work
he just noticed going on around him. Was Endal carting rocks? Flynt didn't think he was going to enjoy this.
Again, this was a feeling that Endal whole-heartedly shared as he took a dejected look at the huge pile of rocks he was supposed to haul over to where Master Fenir was building a stone wall that he was intending to plant with specimens from the Gathachan system. Of course, there was no reason whatsoever why this job could not be done by droids, other than the fact that a certain amount of menial work was always reserved for padawans whose masters were looking for creatively evil ways of punishing them. That, and Drkai apparently thought this would help him build muscle power.
To make matters worse, the stones had to be scraped clean before being carted over to where Master Fenir was building the wall. Apparently, they had been used in some other structure before and they needed to make sure no roots or seeds were left clinging to them. Since Flynt only had one functioning arm, this was his job while Endal did the heavy lifting.
This went on for an hour or so until the pile of clean rocks that Endal had carted over to the wall got too high for Master Fenir to handle. This was when he told Endal, to the boy's immense relief, to help Flynt.
"Phew," Endal said as he plopped down beside Flynt, exhaling and wiping sweat from his forehead. "I think my arms will be sore for the next week at least. So Eeth was none too happy with you either, was he?"
Flynt passed Endal a tool. It was true, this was mundane, but for once, Flynt wasn't going to complain about being treated differently because of his deformed arm; Endal really had got the short end of the stick on this job. "None too happy," Flynt agreed with Endal, pausing for a moment to pull a chunk of stubborn clay from his scraper. "Eeth unleashed the wrath of a dozen Sith lords on our asses. How did you fare?"
Endal winced. "My master took a switch to me," he said tersely. "And that was a first. Obviously, this outing wasn't as harmless as I had thought it was. Or, more like, hoped it was. Convinced myself it was. Whatever."
Flynt's eyes crinkled a little at Endal's recount. Eeth had once taken a switch to him for lying and, although it was not as bad as the caning he'd received for this latest debacle, it had fucking hurt, and he could sympathise with Endal. "Far from harmless," Flynt agreed. "We didn't want to turn you in, but if I had lied to spare you, Eeth would have taken a switch to me for that and then waited until I'd recovered to administer a caning courtesy of our trip out." Flynt looked up from his scraping and gave his friend a guilty look. "I dropped you in the shit there, man, and I'm sorry. I couldn't take that level of displeasure from Eeth." Flynt looked back at his work, hiding the shame he felt over his inability to handle pain.
"Don't sweat it," said Endal. "As you said, you couldn't lie. We both know Eeth would have gotten the truth out of you anyway, and then the shit would really have hit the fan. Knowing Eeth, I can totally understand how you wouldn't have wanted that. Did he seriously cane you over this?"
"He sure did," Flynt confirmed, unable to hide the slight wince as he recalled the pain Eeth had put him through. He tossed his rock onto a new pile and picked up another, wedging it between his boots once again. "How bad was yours?" Flynt asked, curious to know what sort of a master Drkai was. From what Endal and Raven had told him, he suspected that she was easy-going but had gotten tougher on Endal.
Endal unconsciously imitated Flynt's wince as he heard the question. "Probably not as bad as a caning from Eeth," he said, "but bad enough. My master was seriously pissed and it showed. That switching was about as harsh as anything I'd ever gotten from her, and then she said she'd give me a pile of extra meditations, and then she reconsidered and said she just knew the thing that would get me to think twice before I ever did something like this again. Well. And here I am."
"What's your sentence?" Flynt asked and added, "Raven and I have twenty-five hours of this shit to look forward to."
Endal grimaced. "I got thirty," he said. "And she's made sure to assign me the most physically demanding tasks she could find because she thinks I need to 'build up muscle power'." As if on cue, Master Fenir appeared next to them, took a look at the stack of rocks they had cleaned and ordered Endal to carry them over to the wall. Endal groaned and rose stiffly. "You'd think they didn't invent droids," he grumbled.
"Oh, they did," said Master Fenir, suppressing a grin. "But if we let droids do all the work, how would you learn the lessons you apparently need to learn? Get going."
All Flynt could do here was offer a sympathetic look to Endal and leave him to his fate. Thirty hours, though. Flynt thought that was harsh! Endal wasn't going to have free time any time soon. Flynt felt for him and briefly wondered how Raven was getting on.
Raven, for her part, was not thinking of anyone or anything right now. She was wedged in the main air conditioning shaft that supplied climate control to the hangar bay, scrubbing brush and bucket skidding along beside her. This sucked!
Which was, of course, entirely the point, at least if you asked Eeth.
"Go and take a shower," he merely said as Raven returned home, covered in muck. "And you too," he added as Flynt slunk into their common room a few seconds later, covered in soil. "Use my refresher so Raven can use hers."
Raven barely broke stride as she turned and made for her refresher; she was covered in black stuff and not at all happy.
"Slave driver," Flynt muttered quietly, balling his cloak and going to do as Eeth said. He wasn't exactly happy with his grandmaster for choosing such terrible jobs for them.
"In contrast to real slaves," said Eeth, "you only have twenty-five hours of this to do. Seventeen of which are left. Oh, and by the way: Your master called while you were away. He is going to arrive the day after tomorrow, probably around mid-day."
Flynt's head whipped around at Eeth's words. Firstly, he hadn't expected Eeth to hear his grumbling; that man had supersonic hearing! Secondly, because he'd mentioned Lakhri's return. "Seriously, that's great." Flynt's smile was genuine; he had truly missed his master and was looking forward to seeing him again.
"Can we have him over for Careenian food? He might like that?" Raven asked, having stopped upon hearing Eeth's news.
"I can cook it. I can do my best dishes," Flynt said with a touch of pride in his tone. At the same time, Flynt wasn't sure he wanted to share his master so soon after his return, and more to the point, whether or not Lakhri would feel up to visiting. He might just want to stay at home and recover.
"You will spend your morning in school, though," Eeth pointed out. "And I will be on Council duty. I think it will be best if we go to the dining hall and leave the Careenian food for another occasion. Flynt, if you like, you may order food for your quarters from the terminal and cook dinner for your master on Friday. Now, both of you, go and take a shower before you get dirt all over our quarters."
The idea of having classes to attend the day Lakhri returned home seemed abhorrent to Flynt. It was with that thought in mind that he wondered about the community service Eeth had assigned him. Would Lakhri make him finish the seventeen hours? Maybe he wouldn't? The thought made him smile. Then again, would it be fair if both Raven and Endal were forced to endure when he wasn't? There were quite a lot of questions tumbling around in Flynt's thoughts as he went to take a shower.
Two days later, an impatient Jedi master was standing at the ramp of his ship, waiting for it to open so he could finally get out and rejoin his padawan. He had notified Eeth of the exact time of his arrival, and the man had promised to pick up Raven and Flynt from school and to come and meet him. If he was honest with himself, Lakhri could not have cared less about seeing Eeth and Raven right now, much as he liked the two; he was far too eager to see Flynt. He had felt extremely bad about leaving the boy behind. He just hoped the boy was not holding a grudge and that he had managed to behave himself for Eeth. Lakhri was aware of the glider incident, but since then, his communications with Eeth had been very short, which was why he had not heard about the padawans' fight or their illicit excursion and its consequences yet.
Flynt had imagined and rehearsed how he would greet his master upon his return many times over the last month. He would calmly kneel or lean down and hug him, no theatrics! Yes, that was how he had planned it. However, the moment Lakhri came into view, all of that flew out the waste hatch. "Master!" Flynt shouted and ran towards the man, his delight taking over as he almost lifted him clean off the ground when he hugged him. "I missed you," he said. His genuine delight was evident both in his actions and across their bond, which he was unwittingly flooding with emotions.
Lakhri returned the favour by lifting Flynt off the ground and swinging him around. He might be small, but he was strong. "I missed you, too, padawan," he said, grinning broadly. "Force, am I glad to see you." He did not want to embarrass Flynt, though, so he put him back onto his feet and smiled at Eeth and Raven.
"Hello, you two," he said. "Thanks for coming to meet me. Have you had lunch already? I'm hungry."
Raven snorted, and Eeth raised his eyebrows. "Why am I not surprised?" he asked. "No, we have not had lunch. These two just finished school for today. Shall we go to the dining hall before you die of starvation?"
"Sounds great," said Lakhri cheerfully.
Twenty minutes later, the four entered the dining hall. Both Flynt and Lakhri piled their plates high while Raven simply rolled her eyes. "How can you possibly eat all that mashed kagga," she teased them jovially while carrying her own plate of fried bean curd in clear soup to their table.
"And what do you think powers this fine machine of excellence?" Flynt replied, puffing out his chest.
"I suppose. You are growing at a ridiculous rate. It's so unfair," Raven complained good-naturedly.
Flynt recognised that although she was kidding around, there was a modicum of truth to her comment.
"Don't sweat it, you'll grow soon enough," he said, clapping her shoulder in a comradely gesture.
The truth was that Raven had barely grown at all over the last two years. A lot of her friends had already developed into young women whilst Raven, being from the planet of Chine, could not hope to start for quite some time. Unfortunately, Raven was not yet at the age where being continually mistaken as younger was considered flattering.
"I can't say I'm an expert on growing," Lakhri remarked, sitting down next to Flynt with a plate that was possibly piled even higher than the boy's, "but how anyone can survive on what little you eat, Raven, is a mystery to me. Well, each to their own, I guess. So, how did things go, Flynt?"
"Eeth taught me how to make a few Careenian meals," said Flynt. "I'm pretty good at the whole cooking thing, if I don't say so myself."
Eeth frowned at the informal address that Flynt had used. True, Lakhri called him by his first name, but he had only started doing so quite some time after his knighting. Catching up on the look, Lakhri told Flynt with a grin, "Better make that 'Master Eeth'. My dear old master doesn't know how to deal with that much informality."
Eeth just gave him a half-stern look but did not comment.
"Don't forget about the swimming," Raven chimed in.
Flynt just shrugged. "And we did some swimming," he added. He wasn't exactly thrilled over the latter but had to admit that he'd improved.
"That sounds good, if slightly less enjoyable," said Lakhri peacefully, shovelling a huge spoonful of kagga into his mouth which caused Eeth to frown at his lack of manners.
"S'ry," said Lakhri with his mouth full. "They were starving me on this mission."
"The horror," said Eeth drily.
"So, apart from starving you," Raven cut in while Flynt was busy chewing. "How did it go? Did anyone try shooting you?"
Lakhri swallowed the last of his food and grinned. "No, nobody tried to shoot me," he replied. "However, I had my work cut out preventing them from shooting each other. I was fairly successful, I guess. I got everyone to talk to me first, then to the Jedi negotiators who arrived after me, and by the time I left, some of them were actually talking to each other."
"You will be required to brief the Council right after lunch," Eeth remarked. "I have scheduled Flynt and Raven for community service during that time. They … have earned some."
"Oh?" asked Lakhri, raising his eyebrows and giving Flynt an inquisitive look.
"Did you have to say that? Lakhri just got back!" Raven scolded Eeth across their bond. She only received a stony look in return.
Flynt paused shovelling his food, which was really saying something. The truth was, he had a lot to tell his master but had just hoped it could wait until later, much later. "Slave labour…" he offered, trying to make light of it.
Eeth glowered at Flynt and started to answer but Lakhri beat him to it. "Desist," he told Flynt. "Eeth is touchy where smart remarks about slavery are concerned. He doesn't think it's a laughing matter. Well, it really isn't. I guess he has a point. Anyway, you can tell me later. After you have finished your alleged slave labour."
He took another bite of food and said cheerfully, "I vividly remember that one time my master left on a mission without me because I had important exams to take. He came home half a day early and crashed a party. Our quarters looked like a bomb had hit them. I spent a lot of time cleaning rocks, fountains and other things in the Temple as a consequence… and that was AFTER I had to clean our quarters until we could eat from the floor. Believe me, I know all about forced labour."
"And look what an excellent Jedi knight it made out of you," Eeth commented with dignity.
Flynt took the rebuke in stride. He was simply grateful that they were no longer talking about his exploits! "You had a party? Neat," he said. Raven kicked him under the table and he coughed to hide his flinch. "I mean… yeah." The boy kept eating, entirely unwilling to drop himself in further shit.
"Guess what!?" Raven chimed in, taking the spotlight from her Jedi nephew with practised ease. "Master cleared me for Force-enhanced running!" she told Lakhri, looking very pleased with herself.
Lakhri beamed at her. "That's great," he said. "You worked hard for this and made a lot of progress. You really deserve it. Did he give you a test or something?"
"I did," said Eeth calmly, "and she performed adequately." This made Lakhri snort into his dessert.
Raven rolled her eyes at Eeth's deadpan appraisal of her efforts. "Adequate. Piffle," she snorted, grinning at Lakhri who she knew would know her pain here.
"Adequate," affirmed Eeth. "Meaning that you demonstrated the necessary skill."
"Which is fantastic, you know," said Lakhri. "Especially given how hard it is for her to sense inanimate objects."
Eeth glanced at his chronometer. "I am afraid your appointment with the Council is in forty minutes," he said. "If you want to get dressed into formal attire before that, we should go soon. In the meanwhile, you" – he pointed at Flynt – "have an appointment in the Hall of a Thousand Fountains, and you, Raven, in the Temple kitchens."
Raven gave Eeth a withering look but said nothing.
Flynt muttered something inaudible and got to his feet. All he wanted to do was spend time with his master. "Can I go with you instead. I could make up the time later?" he asked Lakhri, ignoring Eeth's instructions for the moment. He hoped that once Eeth was out of the picture and he had time to talk to Lakhri, the man might think this all a bit over the top and speak out on their behalf.
"No, sorry," said Lakhri quite kindly. "This is a meeting you have not been invited to. And besides, if Eeth has scheduled you for community service, he doubtless had his reasons. We'll talk more about those tonight. I'll come to pick you up when you're done."
That wasn't what Flynt had hoped to hear. Nevertheless, he left with Raven without argument. The last thing he wanted to do was stress out Lakhri when he'd quite literally returned to the Temple an hour ago.
As anticipated, the afternoon was laborious to the tenth degree! And by the time Lakhri arrived to collect him, Flynt was more than happy to leave the ridiculous job behind and flee with his rescuer. His tunic sleeves and trouser legs were all soaked, his hair was sticking up in all directions and his arm was sore from scrubbing. "How'd it go?" Flynt asked, refraining from complaining about his situation, at least for the time being.
Lakhri shrugged. "As well as could be expected," he said. "Come on, let's go home. Where you need to take a shower. I'll make some tea and order dinner while you do so, and then we'll talk. Oh, by the way, Eeth promised to have your things sent over."
"No need for a shower when I've already had a bath," Flynt pointed out, holding up two soggy sleeves and smiling.
"A rather dirty bath, though," said Lakhri, returning the grin. "Let's go."
Twenty minutes later, Lakhri had bundled his things into his wardrobe. Even though their quarters had been kept clean by droids, they felt a little strange and empty to him. At least Flynt had stocked up their cooler. He seemed to be serious about cooking, thought Lakhri as he took in the supply of vegetables, eggs, noodles and spices that made him think of Careenian dishes.
Just when he had finished brewing a pot of tea, Flynt emerged into the common room. "Sit down," Lakhri told him, "and give me all the horrible details. I found some cookies to go with them. Thanks for ordering food."
"How could I not after all the meals Eeth taught me how to cook? I specialise in Careenian," replied Flynt, boasting a little as he took a seat. He leant back, put his arms behind his head and stretched long legs out under the table. He had grown slightly in the month Lakhri had last seen him; he could tell because his pants would need lengthening again soon.
"I see that you need all the food you can get, at the rate you're growing," remarked Lakhri, checking him over. "We're going to make a rather amusing couple if you keep this up."
"True that," said Flynt, his lip pulling into a crooked grin. He remained silent, content simply to be in his Master's presence once again. He would have happily sat there all night in silence, had Lakhri not given him an expression that said he ought to be talking. "Alright, but you're not going to like it," the boy cautioned.
"If Eeth thinks it is worth scrubbing out fountains, then, no, I'm probably not going to like it," said Lakhri. "Nevertheless, I want to hear it."
Flynt wanted to preface this with the fact that he'd already paid in spades for his transgressions, but it sounded cowardly to him, and so he didn't.
He puffed air out through his cheeks and began from their first day at the pools where Eeth had dragged him out. "He walloped the bejesus out of me for that one," Flynt added, yet his tone held no trace of bitterness. "You already heard about the glider incident, but probably not about the fight Raven and I got into." Flynt was correct, although Lakhri looked more unimpressed with each detail that he added to this particular fiasco. The boy cleared his throat when it was clear that Lakhri was not going to stop him long enough to belt his ass, and continued with the recount of their illicit outing. "This is what earned us the community service. He also thought it warranted to start waving his cane around." The latter was said with slight indignation, even though Flynt no longer felt resentment towards his grandmaster. "I'm not going to try defending myself," he thought to add. "I know that I caused Eeth a lot of trouble, and I do feel bad for that." It was a genuine admission. Despite his guilt, Flynt had kept his chin up and tried to own his mistakes.
"Hmm," said Lakhri neutrally. "How many hours of community services has he assigned?" Since Eeth had not asked him to add to any of the punishments he had meted out, he supposed there was no need for him to pull off his belt or anything of the kind; but he should probably make sure that Flynt completed all the hours of community service he had coming to him.
"Twenty-five hours. It's over the top. I don't have any free time as it is, and at this rate, I won't for the foreseeable future," said Flynt.
"For a couple of weeks, I'd say" said Lakhri. "If that's what you mean by 'foreseeable future,' you don't have a lot of foresight. How many hours have you done already?"
"Too many," replied Flynt. He wasn't exactly thrilled that Lakhri wasn't on his side here.
"How many?" repeated Lakhri, raising his eyebrows at the evasive response.
Flynt noted the expression. "Ten, maybe eleven," he answered promptly.
Lakhri shrugged and said, "Alright then. That will be two more Sundays, and maybe one afternoon next week. I'm sorry to hear you feel that this is over the top but – C'mon. You left the Temple without permission. That is something you simply don't do, no matter if it's just around the corner and if others were allowed to go, too. Really, if I had done something like that, Eeth wouldn't just have caned me, he'd also have spanked me every day for a week. Of course, there was only one of me. With two of you, he might have felt community service was the easier option."
"Hmm, my presence spared Raven a week of spanking. I might have to bring that to her attention the next time she tries giving me grief," Flynt mused aloud, having already moved past the minor irritation he felt at Lakhri's lack of support.
"You might also want to refrain from provoking her into fighting you in the hallway, the next time you feel irritated with her," said Lakhri pointedly. "Just for the record, I'm going to be seriously unamused if something like that happens again. I know all about getting into fights without really meaning to, and that's why I also know it can nearly always be avoided. Consider yourself warned. I'm not going to do more than that now because I have no doubt that you earned sufficient punishment from Eeth."
Flynt felt a stab of guilt at Lakhri's reminder. He hadn't started the fight but he'd sure as hell provoked it. "I consider myself warned," he repeated solemnly. Flynt knew enough stories about the dangers of provocation from Lakhri's youth to have known better, yet he'd gone and done it anyway, to Raven of all people. "It won't happen again," was added on, although his lip curled into a very slight smile; he was using Raven's survival tactics here.
Lakhri grinned. "Yeah, that's always a safe response," he said. "I see that staying with Eeth has taught you a thing or two. I hope that not all of those things were awful."
"Not all of them. Eeth taught me how to cook like a boss, and," Flynt smiled now, "he took us to the speeder course whenever we asked as long as it wasn't in the way of anything else. Then, there were the games. You know, he's pretty fun sometimes. I didn't expect that."
"Games?" asked Lakhri incredulously. "What games?"
"Mostly, exploding battleships. It was the bomb, pun entirely intended. You know that version where the little bits fly off the ships when you sink them?" Flynt asked.
"I do," said Lakhri. "And I don't think he's ever played games with me until I was at least eighteen and persuaded him by pretending that it would make our undercover identities more plausible or something. He must have made a real effort with you. Of course, he has improved a lot since he took me on as a padawan. I remember the mission to Larivan where Raven somehow talked him into having a go with her at a hand-to-hand combat simulation game. He had no clue whatsoever, even though he was brilliant at it. It was very funny."
Flynt could imagine. The idea of his dignified grandmaster playing combat sims amused him greatly. He also felt sad for Lakhri. "You must have had a very boring apprenticeship for the first part," he noted.
"'Horrifying' would be a more suitable description," said Lakhri. "To be fair, after we had gotten over the rough initial period and his master had convinced him he needed to make more of an effort to connect with me, he actually organised fun activities for us fairly frequently. Only he would never call them 'fun' and would always disguise them as educational. We went swimming or visited the botanical garden, the zoo, the aquarium or museums; or we went on hikes during missions. I never really expected him to play games with me at that age. That was something I did with friends."
"I guess so," said Flynt. But despite Raven telling him similar stories of Lakhri's early apprenticeship, Flynt couldn't really relate; he'd never been in a position where the adults taking care of him didn't understand his needs. "He's improved, then. I don't think I would have done as well as you. Anyway, I won't stress you out; I'll finish the hours and not cause any trouble, I promise."
"I couldn't ask for more," Lakhri said fondly.
A/N: Thanks for sticking with us! We hope you enjoyed this story. If you did, look out for the next part of this saga, "Banthas, Sand and Scorching Sun," which takes Eeth and Raven to the desert world of Sindal where they hunt down a dangerous political extremist. Here, Raven faces her most deadly adversary to date as it brings her to question the values of not only the Jedi Order, but also the Republic to which she has pledged obedience.