A/N: Hi to all who have followed us and to any new faces! We're glad you found us and hope that you enjoy this as much as we have loved creating it.

Our stories originated as online role-playing and are situated in our alternative Star Wars universe – well, mainly the universe of Episode One, pretending that the tragedy of the Great Jedi Purge never happened. Ahem. There are approximately twenty-five stories pre-written in this series, which focuses on Master Eeth Koth and his padawan learner Raven Trebeck. Although each story can stand alone, it might be a better reading experience to start from the beginning with "Of Padawans Fake and True".

"Elemental", the sequel to "Out in the Wild", is set a short while after Eeth and Raven returned from their mission to Arkuna. It heavily features Knight Lakhri Tumuel, Eeth's first padawan, who will take on a padawan of his own.

As everyone who has read and followed our stories ought to know by now, authority and discipline, including corporal punishment, are central themes. To any newcomers, see the aforementioned statement and take it as your only warning. We don't post content warnings at the beginning of each chapter for this. Also, we realise that our master characters, especially Eeth, will at times come across as harsh. However, please keep in mind that this is a fictional universe in which teenagers with extraordinary, potentially lethal abilities are raised to do an incredibly hard, dangerous and responsible job. Their masters feel an obligation to keep them in line in order to protect them and others by various types of discipline, including corporal punishment, i.e., spanking with the hand and different implements. And sometimes, they will need to dispense with the cuddling and tell their charges to do their duty. These are teenagers, after all, not small children. There will always be times to offer comfort and moments of closeness between master and padawan, but they might sometimes have to wait. Plus, masters might have their own issues … which is certainly true for Eeth. His journey with Raven is a learning experience for him as much as for his padawan. And Lakhri finds occasion to revisit his memories of his own padawanhood as he starts teaching Flynt.

Fortunately for our padawans, our master characters have near-magical healing abilities at their disposal, allowing us to indulge our preference for strict discipline. All of our stories are well-thought-out and contain in-depth character development and progression of the storyline.

If you like our stories (or if you don't like them for reasons other than those of which you have been warned), let us know in a review; we love to hear what you guys think. Okay, let's get this show on the road. Enjoy.

Lakhri was just a tad late, as always. Oh, he was going to make it to class on time; Eeth had had absolutely no patience with tardiness, and Lakhri had learned to do whatever it took to avoid being late. If it involved running, he had also learned not to be caught, although the punishment for that tended to be slightly milder than the one for being late, for whatever reason. In any case, these days it was him who was the teacher, and nobody was going to report him to anyone, but being late would not exactly leave a good impression with his students. Thus, he was hurrying through the corridors, combing his hair with one hand while stuffing a sandwich into his mouth with the other. He had slept late and there had been no time for breakfast.

It was the beginning of a new teaching cycle at the Temple. He had spent the last cycle on several short missions with hardly a break in between. During the last one, he had been bitten on the back of his hand by a poisonous spider. There had been an antidote, fortunately, but his hand was still sore and he had a hard time wielding a weapon. Therefore, he got to stay at the Temple and teach. In this particular case, he was going to teach a small group of senior initiates who showed particular promise in various techniques of Force control that involved fire, water or air; elements that were not tangible and that many Jedi found hard to handle. Some youngsters, however, grew up with a special gift for dealing with one of these elements. Lakhri was not among them, but he was good at Force control; at handling the Force in precisely the way he meant to, without overdoing it or achieving too little. This involved a lot of discipline, and children who were naturally prone to setting things on fire or raising strong air gusts needed discipline above all else. Therefore, Lakhri had been asked to teach them the basics of Force control.

Flynt had had a similar start to his day. However, unlike Lakhri he was not fortunate enough to have nobody around to answer to, not to mention the fact that this lesson was going to take place right opposite his creche wing! Consequently, he arrived in the small garden early enough to meet his fellow students. He knew RoHaxnyi and Peryl, the other humans in their group, as they both belonged to a creche not far from his. The Kel Dor boy and the Zabrak girl, he had spoken to during mixed group lessons, yet Flynt couldn't say either of them were friends of his. It was because of this slight unfamiliarity that he felt uncharacteristically conscious of his deformed arm. He pulled the sleeve down as Ruby, the Zabrak girl, started paying more attention to it than he liked, yet before she could ask questions, they all turned to face the small – yes, he was very small, they all thought – Jedi knight approaching them.

"Hello there," Lakhri said pleasantly, no sign of his haste or the breakfast he'd scoffed on the run evident. "I'm Knight Lakhri Tumuel, and I'm going to be your teacher for this cycle. Why don't we all sit down and you tell me who you are and what you hope to learn from me in this class?"

Other than the man's small stature, the first thing Flynt noticed was that his right hand was bandaged tightly all the way up to his elbow, if the bunching of the man's tunic were anything to go by. Of course, Flynt felt like the last person in the universe with the right to ask questions about such things, yet he felt compelled to ask.

"What'd you do to your arm?"

"Yeah, your fingers are purple, does it hurt?" added Zym.

"Really? That's the most important thing you hope to learn from me in this class?" asked Lakhri, grinning when he received a series of curious expressions in response. "Spider bite. I'll be fine. Now settle down, everyone. Sit down and tell me what you can do and what you still need help with."

He sat down on one of the logs that had been placed on the lawn for exactly this purpose and motioned for the initiates to do the same.

Flynt thought that Lakhri, unlike most of his teachers, was pretty cool. There was something about him that felt special, yet he wasn't sure what that was. Thus, he tugged his sleeve down a bit more and stood from the log. "My name is Flynt," he introduced himself. "And I want to learn better control so that I don't fry my other arm because that would really suck," he added, earning giggles from the others.

"Me too. All except for the arm part. I'm Ruby, and I want to make ribbons with water like I've seen some Nautolan masters do before," the Zabrak girl said, not waiting for Flynt to sit back down. She was excited about this class and, like Flynt, she liked this teacher. He seemed younger and more laid back than most of her instructors were.

"That'll work, " said Flynt jokingly. "Who needs a fire extinguisher when we have Ruby to put me out. And to think my crèche master says my abilities are 'inherently dangerous'." He rolled his eyes for effect.

Lakhri smiled at the exuberant initiates. He liked working with children, and he liked it even more when they had a sense of humor.

"I can't see why your creche master would think that," he replied mock-seriously. "After all, you need only have Ruby with you at all times. On the other hand, this will only work when she has mastered her ability reliably, so you might as well make use of the time and master yours. Speaking of which: this is probably not news to you, but just to be on the safe side, I'll point out that none of you are to do any of the things we study here outside this class room without the explicit permission of an adult Jedi, or you will have me AND your creche masters after you. Understood?"

Lakhri received a chorus of compliance from his students, and even after the obligatory teacher-type warning, Flynt still found himself smiling. "But how are we supposed to get any better if we don't get to practice?" he asked.

"He's got a point there," added Zym, and Ruby nodded.

The others were kinda thinking the same, despite the fact that they all knew the answer. They might be testing out their new teacher, well, just a little bit.

Lakhri rolled his eyes.

"You're supposed to get better by practicing here with me, of course," he replied. "Or with an adult Jedi to supervise. That is all the practice you are going to be allowed for quite a while, so let's make use of our time. Why don't you show me what you can do?"

There was a little stream ending in a pond in this garden, providing all the water they needed. There was also a safe firepit that he had already stacked with twigs and wood the previous night. "Who wants to light this?" he asked, suspecting that Flynt would be the one. The other four were more into working with air and water, it seemed.

"I can," said Flynt predictably and closed his eyes. He wanted to impress Lakhri with his skills and so when his eyes opened a split-second later, he made it spectacular.

Various phrases of collective awe came from their small group as the stack lit up like a seven pile speeder crash. It was mostly blue fire, though, not particularly hot, although it looked impressive all the same.

Lakhri quickly reached out with the Force to smother the fire. Blue fire it might be, but it had also caused a mighty gush of air and he did not want to risk sparks igniting anything else in this garden.

"Thank you for the demonstration, Initiate," he said. "I'm sure it was very useful in showing all of us how important it will be to learn discipline and control. When I ask for a volunteer, I expect you to put up your hand and wait until you are asked to perform the task I set you. I might want to give instructions before you get started, such as 'make it a small fire'. You are quite literally playing with fire, and fire can be dangerous. So can water, and wind. So, all of you, pay close attention to what you are doing. And to what I am telling you, or might want to tell you if you give me a chance." Flynt had the good grace to give a slight, yet sheepish smile at that.

Lakhri rose and examined the firepit. Some of the bigger logs were still intact but the twigs and smaller branches were all but gone.

"Go and collect new firewood," he told Flynt. "I will start with the others in the meanwhile."

"Alright," Flynt agreed. After all, he had kinda destroyed anything that might work as kindling. As he picked up twigs and smaller branches, he got to wondering why he had been so impulsive. That wasn't usually his style at all. In fact, Flynt had often been criticised by his superiors for being entirely too cavalier about things that ought to be taken more seriously. He was also a very hard personality to antagonise and rarely, if ever, was he pushed to the point of anger or aggression; that was a trait which had earned him praise.

Flynt took his time with the chore. He wanted the pile to be just as Lakhri had made, and sure enough, when he was done and joined the others, the pile was as it had been before - save for the slightly charred logs, that was.

Lakhri, in the meanwhile, had had all the other initiates demonstrate their abilities. Just as Flynt rejoined the group, Lakhri was knocked off his feet by a gust of wind that RoHaxnyi had created.

"Yep. We definitely need to work on your control," he said wryly, picking himself up from the ground. Noticing RoHaxnyi's shamefaced look, he gave her a friendly smile. "No harm done," he assured her. "That's what I'm teaching this class for, after all. Now back to you, Flynt. Try lighting the stack again, but not all at once. Light it as you would if you were using a match, starting with one twig. Can you do that?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I can," came Flynt's confident reply. Again, he closed his eyes, but this time, he extended a finger because for some reason, he found that some physical movement or action helped him focus, not that it was always successful. The twig slowly caught fire and then it flashed bright only to be strangled back under control. It was hard, and Flynt was almost sweating when he opened his eyes again. He had managed to keep his flame from erupting!

"Much better," said Lakhri with a smile. "It's a good start. We'll work on improving it."

The stupid grin on Flynt's face at Lakhri's encouragement was not at all humble. But before he could say anything, Peryl butted in.

"Hey, do you think you could show us how you put it out, you know, like before?"

"Yes," said Lakhri. "In fact, that's one of our goals here. Lighting a fire is easier than extinguishing it. Rousing a whirlwind is easier than making it die down. And so forth. You need to learn how to reverse what you're doing before you can be trusted to do it on your own."

RoHxnyi put up a hand. "I can extinguish a fire," she said shyly. "By withdrawing the air around it."

Lakhri nodded approvingly. "That's good," he said. "And that's essentially how it works. Unfortunately, in this case, size does matter. You have to push the air somewhere, after all, you cannot make it disappear. And if the fire is too large, the air won't go anywhere unless you are very good at controlling large masses of air. A few Jedi can, and some of you might eventually learn to do so, like, several decades from now. But certainly not in this class. The elements are much harder to control than solid objects, I'm afraid. RoHxnyi, can you show us what you can do?"

He went through the exercise with all of them several times, having Flynt light a fire and letting each initiate have a go at putting it out. It came more easily to some than to others, naturally; most easily to those who had a gift for working with air. But no Jedi was entirely unable to work the elements.

Lakhri's explanation made logical sense to Flynt. Over and over he created fires and then took turns with the others trying to put them out. Sure, the small fires he could extinguish with some concentrated effort, but the massive blasts he preferred were going to require a whole new level of focus. He stared at the pile while RoHxnyi had her turn and his mind drifted to thoughts of how good he would feel to impress Lakhri with his skills. To show the man that he had learned what he'd taught about putting out fires so well that he could do more than a single twig.

"Flynt?" said Lakhri when it was the boy's turn again. He had a faraway look on his face and did not seem to hear him. "Flynt? Flynt? Anything the matter?"

"No! I mean, no," Flynt replied, suddenly blushing as the others giggled at him. He gave them all a charming smile that seemed to unarm most and looked back at his teacher. "My turn, I got this," he said and once again went through the exercise. Finally, Lakhri announced that they were moving on to water, which Flynt found less interesting. Still, he gave it his best effort as he did with most things, and when the lesson was over, the five initiates had all improved their skills.

"Well done, everyone," said Lakhri cheerfully. "I'll see you in this place next week. Remember my instructions. If I hear of any tornadoes, tsunamis or firestorms in this Temple before we next meet, I'll hold you personally responsible."

He smiled at them and rose. "May the Force be with you," he said.

"And with you," the group replied, bowing to their teacher. Flynt kept his gaze on the small man for a moment longer out of curiosity. There was something about this teacher that felt different to him, but he was not the sort of kid to talk about his feelings, not really. Thus, he said nothing to Master Nim.

The next day, he requested supervision to practice the techniques he'd learned in Lakhri's class. His creche master was surprised but pleased. "You enjoyed your class, then?" the Quermian master wanted to know, because he sensed there was more to this.

Flynt looked up from the smouldering stack of pyrofoam at his creche master's tone of voice; it had that all-knowing lilt to it that he'd come to recognise as preceding some piece of information he didn't know about but probably should! "It's good to have an excuse to practice this, and I'm not allowed to do it on my own. Knight Lakhri said so," he said, a touch warily.

"Mmm," was all the reply that comment got, and Flynt found himself focusing even harder.

Lakhri quite liked the lively initiates and he found himself thinking about the upcoming class frequently during the next week. He fleetingly wondered why that was; after all, this was not his only class by a long shot. Well, the kids were worth the effort, he thought as he spent much of his Friday afternoon fashioning paper gliders for Flynt to ignite and for Zym and RoHaxnyi to practice controlling air currents on. For Ruby and Peryl, he was going to make boats.

It was with these gliders and boats, stacked into a basket, that he entered the garden the following morning to find the initiates already waiting.

"Hello," he said, setting the basket down. "How are you doing? Ready to get started?"

Lakhri received smiles and bows from all his students, and then they crowded around the basket.

"Those look like fun," said Ruby exuberantly.

"Did you make them yourself?" Flynt asked, pretty impressed. He liked the idea of trying to make some himself.

"Yep," said Lakhri. He picked up one of the gliders and held it out. "Zym, will you make it fly?" he asked.

Promptly, a current of air whooshed up and tore the glider to bits.

"Okay, that was not quite what I meant," said Lakhri wryly. He picked up a second glider. "RoHaxnyi, do you want to try?"

RoHaxnyi screwed up her face in concentration. Lakhri let go of the glider and it shakily and jerkily made its way up into the air.

"Great," said Lakhri. "Now, Flynt–"

Flynt had been waiting for his moment to show Lakhri what he could do. So it was that before the man had even finished his sentence, RoHaxnyi's glider burst into a blue ball of flames. "I've been practising," he told Lakhri proudly as ashes began falling over their group like rain.

Lakhri folded his arms across his chest. "Maybe you should start practising listening to instructions," he snapped. "We've been through this. I told you last lesson that you need to wait until I've finished talking before you do anything, but obviously, you weren't interested."

He pointed towards a secluded spot among the bushes, about ten metres away from the group. "Meditate on your attitude," he said. "Twenty minutes. I'll tell you when your time is up. We will talk more after class."

That was not what Flynt expected to hear in response to a week's worth of practising! His face fell, and he made to ask for another chance only to hesitate; Flynt knew better than to argue with an order like that. Besides, Lakhri was right, he should have waited for instructions, yet he'd allowed himself to get carried away. Resigned, he gave a pained kind of half-smile and left with a little less swagger in his step than was typical. At least he had waited for those orders.

His meditation was filled with all sorts of feelings, not least of which were disappointment and a sense of failure. He had been told off for impulsiveness a lot in the past, and now Lakhri was going to know about this flaw of his too. Maybe the man wouldn't like him anymore? thought Flynt, but the thought was dismissed as stupid the moment he had it; no teachers disliked you because you messed something up. Even if it was a repeat. He thought about this for a bit longer before starting to focus on his attitude. Flynt didn't think he had a bad one. Sure, he could be a bit of a smart-ass, but he didn't think that was too bad a thing.

When the twenty minutes were up, Lakhri asked Flynt to rejoin the class. He had worked with Zym and RoHaxnyi on air currents first and then with Ruby and Peryl on boats. While he worked with one pair, the other one had been set a drill they could practice between the two of them. Flynt was the only student in the class who could work with fire; thus, it was his turn to work with Lakhri individually now.

"We'll get started on gliders again," Lakhri said quite kindly. "But this time, try to ignite them slowly, starting from the tip. You have no trouble creating bursts of blue fire but controlling its location, speed and direction of spread is much harder."

He tossed the paper plane into the air and used the Force to slow it down. This way, Flynt would have time to find his focus – but no more than twenty seconds or so until the plane would land or get caught in the trees.

Flynt obliged good-naturedly; he wasn't a particularly sulky sort of kid and nothing much got him down. Not for long, in any case. Thus, he closed his eyes, reached out a finger and focused. He was aiming for the nose of his plane, hoping to show off how much he had improved in controlling the size of his fires before it burned up. The problem with this was that the week of practice had been centered around controlling the size of his fires and putting them out, not placing them with any precision. When the wing caught instead of the nose he frowned and pulled it back but the damage was done, and the plane spiraled to the ground. Flynt would have set it on fire just for a more dramatic show and realistic crash scene, although he doubted his teacher would approve, so he settled on making the sound effects instead.

Lakhri grinned. He liked the kid's sense of humour. "Well, that was something," he said. "Let's try again." He had Flynt practice for ten more minutes, wherein the boy managed to light the nose of his plane twice more before they ran out of time and the class joined together again. For most of the rest of the lesson, they worked on a meditation technique that would increase their awareness of the elements. Lakhri knew that this was not everyone's favorite activity, though. Therefore, he allowed the initiates to have some fun during the last ten minutes of the lesson. He distributed the remaining paper planes and boats among them and let them show him what they could do – "within safe limits, of course," he said.

"Let's have a war!" said Zym excitedly.

"Yeah. We can have ships first, and then the planes," added Peryl, immediately starting to set some rules of engagement for this game.

"Now this is how ALL classes should be," said Ruby, and Flynt agreed.

After ten minutes of midair crashes, complete with realistic fiery descents and ship sinking, none of the initiates wanted to give up their game.

Lakhri, however, was adamant. "I said stop!" he called. One wave of his hand, and the remaining fires went out and the winds died down. All five initiates looked at him in awe because that was a pretty cool move! "Sorry, time's up," Lakhri said firmly. "If you enjoyed this, make a good effort next class and we might do it again. Have a good afternoon. Flynt, you're staying with me."

That had been fun and it showed on all of their faces, even Flynt's, despite having to stay behind. He watched as everyone left the garden talking animatedly about what they might do with the free time next class, and he then looked down at his teacher. At eleven years of age, Flynt already stood a respectable 170cm tall, and it did not seem to be stopping any time soon. It was precisely for that fact that his deformed arm remained intact and had not yet been replaced by cybernetics. Those were certainly in his future, but if he were honest with himself, the idea of having his arm amputated and replaced by robotics creeped him out. Still, it would be a lot more useful than it was now. Suddenly, he became self-conscious of this and pulled his tunic sleeve down; it was just a bit too short as he'd recently outgrown it.

"Alright, listen," said Lakhri. "Being impulsive might not seem like such a big deal to you right now, but it is. You are working with fire here. Unless you are careful, that can be extremely destructive. And the same is true when you handle dangerous weapons, which is, I'm afraid, part of the career you're pursuing. Is it really too much to ask that you let me finish my instructions before you do anything?"

Flynt had expected to be chewed out, yet despite this expectation, he felt no annoyance. Instead, he gave a thoughtful nod. "Not too much to ask," he agreed. "The truth is that I've been practising all week and I wanted to show you so badly how much I've improved that I didn't think. I'm sorry about that." It was a genuine apology, too. Not that it made Flynt feel much better because not only had he failed to impress Lakhri, he'd managed to piss him off.

Lakhri regarded him thoughtfully. Something had been tugging at his Force awareness throughout his sessions with this class, and it was becoming stronger now that he was alone with Flynt. And then there was the boy's strong desire to show off his skills, which didn't seem like Flynt at all, somehow.

"Are you always this eager to impress your teachers?" Lakhri asked bluntly, interested to see how Flynt would react.

"No," Flynt answered too quickly to have been a lie. He was typically the kid who sat at the back of a class and daydreamed of piloting pod racers and gliders. Sure, he did well enough to pass his classes, he was currently acing chemistry, and his creche master didn't give him too much of a hard time over his lacklustre performance in Basic just as long as he passed. Did he want to impress his teachers, though? Hardly! Yet he did want to impress Lakhri. He gave the man a thoughtful look. "It's different with you," he finally settled on.

"Interesting," said Lakhri, equally thoughtfully. Flynt might actually feel drawn to him through the Force, he mused; and that might also explain his own instincts which told him quite clearly that there was something about the boy he should not ignore.

"Well, first things first," he eventually declared, pulling himself out of his thoughts. "I do not like having to give instructions more than once, especially when they pertain to everyone's safety. Bend over and put your hands on your knees."

He honestly did not feel that Flynt deserved one hell of a punishment over this but nor did he want to let him off scot-free. He had too much experience with being considered a push-over by his students to think that this was a good idea.

"I know," Flynt agreed with Lakhri. Resigned, he turned side on and bent over, his hands on his knees as instructed. Being a Temple-raised child, he was accustomed to superiors providing this brand of discipline. He didn't like it, but it would only hurt for a while and then it was over. Thus, the boy looked at his hands, his shaggy fringe falling away from his eyes for the first time today, and tried to relax. Yeah, that was always the plan.

Lakhri rarely used his hands when meting out punishment. His arms were short, and as a result, his swats tended to be less than impressive, despite his strength. But nor had he ever felt like emulating Eeth and carrying a paddle around. Therefore, he pulled off his belt and doubled it over. He applied it to Flynt's bottom three times over the seat of the boy's pants, slowly and at a force that would be felt. This was going to sting, but not excruciatingly so. He simply wanted to make a point; and the implied lesson was that this could always get worse.

"Consider this a warning," he said calmly when he was done. "You may get up."

Flynt grunted, stood and swiped a sleeve across his forehead. "Warning heeded. I'm sorry, Sir," he replied, meeting Lakhri with a contrite expression and giving his ass a good rub. That had hurt more than he'd expected. Then, Flynt wasn't very good at dealing with the pain despite his optimistic outlook on punishment.

"Apology accepted," said Lakhri gently. He gave Flynt another thoughtful look, wondering how to proceed from here. Admittedly, the signs were fairly clear. Lakhri had been on the lookout for a padawan for quite a while but now that it seemed to be happening, he felt overwhelmed and had no idea what to do. Finally, he decided on the one course of action that nearly always helped him sort things out.

"I would like you to meditate with me, Flynt," he said. The kid would probably consider him a madman, but so be it.

"I'd like that, too," replied Flynt. The words were out before he'd given them much thought, and he was surprised to realise that he wasn't acting on logic, but instinct. He wanted to meditate with Lakhri, it felt right to be near the man, and so he knelt, ignoring the burn across his ass, and waited for Lakhri to join him. "What would you like to meditate on?" he asked.

Now, that was a loaded question! Lakhri felt that it would sound rather stupid to answer, "On me." Instead, he smiled and said, "Just focus on the Force and what it tells you. If it doesn't tell you anything, simply focus on the Force."

For him, the will of the Force in this matter was pretty clear. Maybe it would become equally clear to Flynt. If not, well, then Lakhri would have to consider whether he had misjudged the situation.

Flynt nodded, grateful not to be meditating on obedience or self-discipline. He closed his eyes and allowed himself to drift into the Force and, although the man had not requested it of him, he began concentrating on Lakhri. What he felt when he found his focus took him by surprise, and he almost opened his eyes. Just being around the man, he had sensed something, but Lakhri's Force presence close up felt downright companionable. Typically, he would shield parts of his psyche when meditating, every Jedi did to some extent, but this? No, this was a presence he did not want to shield himself from. Without thought, he dropped his shields, all of them, curious to know what Lakhri would do with the sudden onslaught of thoughts and feelings. To Flynt, this was like nothing he had ever felt before, and he wanted to discover more.

By this point, Lakhri was certain of the will of the Force. He could have formed the beginnings of a training bond with ease; the mental place at which his Force presence had been joined to Eeth's years ago was itching like a spot that was screaming to be scratched. That would not be fair towards the boy, though. Flynt probably had no clear idea what was going on, never having been part of a master-padawan team before, and he ought to have a say in the matter. Yet, Lakhri readily responded to Flynt's openness by helping him channel his emotions. Only after this did he drop his own shields.

At this point, Flynt opened his eyes. "You feel it also," he stated, still surprised and a bit taken aback by all of this. "You know, I think I want you to be my master," he said honestly. Unlike many other kids in his creche group, Flynt had never particularly cared if he found a master or not. He did want to be a Jedi Knight one day, but if not, then there were plenty of other jobs he could do around the Temple, jobs that he would be good at.

Lakhri had to laugh at that. "Alright, that's straightforward," he said. "Yes, the Force is certainly drawing us towards each other. And I'm fine with that."

He grinned at Flynt, still quite overwhelmed. "Are you alright with becoming my padawan, like, more or less now, or do you need time to process this?" he asked. "You can say so if you do. I won't mind."

Flynt had to think about that. Did he need time to process it? No, not really. He was more relieved that Lakhri hadn't thought him arrogant for speaking his mind. After all, it wasn't every day that he told an adult that he wanted them to spend a sizable portion of their life training him to become a Jedi. Flynt looked over at Lakhri and gave him a disarming smile that his teachers always said would not work to get him out of trouble. "I guess I'm okay with that, yeah. Are you okay with it, too?" Flynt wasn't sure, maybe Lakhri didn't know what to do. Force, he didn't know what to do now! What would happen?

"I am," said Lakhri, his grin broadening. "Totally. So I guess we should go and tell your creche master. And then we need to contact the Council. And I'll have to get us bigger quarters. I also have to warn you that when you become my padawan, you'll inherit the strictest grandmaster the Temple has to offer. I somehow doubt that Eeth Koth will turn into a doting old grandfather type, but fortunately for you, he's got his hands full with his own padawan."

"Eeth Koth? As in, that guy on the High Council? He was your master?" Flynt questioned, unable to keep the surprise (and perhaps just a tiny shred of terror) from his tone. Because if it was the same man, and from Lakhri's definition he suspected it was, he had heard the rumours.

"Yep, he was my master," Lakhri replied, chuckling at Flynt's horrified look. "And as you can see, I survived, so relax. Yes, he's uber strict, but I'm quite fond of him nonetheless. And besides, you can rely on him to leave matters of discipline to me. He won't meddle. He never does."

He fleetingly remembered the start of his padawanhood with Eeth as he said this. That had been quite a horrible period in his life. Eeth had not only been outrageously strict but also terribly distant. It had taken Eeth's former master to step in before he had started to improve. Lakhri just hoped that he wouldn't need for Eeth to step in where Flynt was concerned. If that ever happened, it would mean he had truly messed up, he thought, a brief smile of amusement crossing his features.

"I'm always relaxed," Flynt tried to brush it off. The truth was, it wasn't just the idea of having Eeth Koth as his grandmaster that drew that look from him, it was also the thought of what Lakhri was going to be like having been trained by Eeth. His new master didn't seem like he was super strict, though. Sure, he was an absolute demon with his belt: the three licks Lakhri had given him hadn't been blisteringly hard, but they had been meted out slowly enough so that, just as the pain from the last lick peaked, the next one landed and amplified the effect tenfold. That sort of thing had to come from experience, Flynt was pretty sure of that. He said nothing of his thoughts, at least not now. This was a turning point in his life, he could feel it, and he didn't want to waste the moment. His creche master had told him that he should focus on the nows, not the what-ifs, and so Flynt did. He smiled, stood and brushed himself off. "I'll introduce you to Master Nim. He's pretty cool, well, most of the time," he added, thinking of the telling-off he'd get for having been punished in Lakhri's class.

Lakhri rose as well. "Alright, so let's go and talk to him," he said. "If you like, you can move in with me tonight, but I won't be able to offer you much space before we have been moved into new quarters. We would have to squeeze together a bit. Or I could come and pick you up tomorrow after breakfast, which would give you more time to say goodbye to everyone. What do you think?"

The garden doors swooshed open and released them to the corridor that led up to the creche wing.

Although Flynt really wanted to spend more time getting to know the knight who would now become his master, he understood that he would have a very long time to do this. Thus, he decided there was no need to put the man out. Besides, he would use the opportunity to tell everyone the story and say goodbye to his friends. "I think that I will be packed and ready tomorrow after breakfast," Flynt assured Lakhri as they entered the doors that lead to his crèche building.

Creche master Nim was supervising a free period before lunch. His long neck turned as Flynt approached, but if he was surprised at his ward's company, he did not show it. "Hello there, Flynt," he said kindly and then inclined his head in greeting to the Jedi Knight by his side.

"Good morning, Master Nim," said Lakhri. "I'm Knight Lakhri Tumuel, Flynt's teacher in his Force control classes. It seems as if the Force is drawing us towards each other. He, well… Pending the Council's approval, he might move in with me tomorrow." Force, this was awkward!

The Quermian master glanced from Flynt to Lakhri and then back again. He had a knack for sensing Force signatures that complimented each other and what he sensed here pleased him. "You are strong in the Force, Lakhri, very strong indeed. The Council will be pleased. Fire and fire, how intriguing," he spoke, the latter more to himself than the two Jedi standing before him.

Flynt was accustomed to the whimsical musings of his crèche master, and he gave them both a disarming smile. "Lakhri is pretty good at putting out fires," he said, misunderstanding the deeper meaning behind Nim's words.

"Yes, that will be convenient," said Lakhri with a grin. "I like to think I'm even better at teaching control so you eventually won't need anyone to put them out for you."

He briefly rested a hand on Flynt's shoulder. "Alright," he said "I'll leave you for now. I need to talk to the Council and arrange to have my things moved to bigger quarters. This will take a while, so I'd better get started. Flynt, please tell your creche master about the other stuff that happened in today's lesson. I think he needs to know."

Nim turned his head towards Flynt, tilting it ever so slightly in a way that the boy knew meant that he expected an explanation at some point. "I will," Flynt replied.

"Then I'll leave you to your packing, your goodbyes and, before all that, your lunch," said Lakhri cheerfully. He felt instantly hungry as he mentioned lunch. He nearly always was! He'd grab a sandwich on his way home, he decided. That had to be better than calling the Council on an empty stomach. He bowed to Master Nim and said to Flynt, "I'll pick you up tomorrow at nine, alright?"

"Tomorrow at nine," reiterated Flynt, smiling as the man left their creche. "He's pretty cool, you know," he said to his creche master, only to receive a skeptical expression; he'd have to confess, and there would be no charming his way out of it….