Umbrous - Empire's Shadow
Part 1 - Awakening of Shadow
For any who are wondering, I did change the name of the fanfiction, because I realised this was a better name, especially given the direction I want to take Kaan.
Chapter 13
The training droid was as big as a Wookie and typically wielded a training saberstaff suited to its size. The only reason Kaan felt comfortable enough to even try and face it was that he had activated it on the second setting of ten.
The difficulty increased exponentially with each setting, but at level two it simply made slow attacks with the stun pike Kaan had given it, though each blow was, as Kaan had found out the hard way, strong enough to send him flying across the training hall. Already his back ached from having let his guard down and subsequently slammed into the wall by a metal kick to the chest.
Still, that he was able to dodge and parry most of the droid's blows was a major improvement from his first attempt, two weeks before, during which the droid had, at its first and easiest setting, managed to lift him up in its hands and hold him there until he deactivated his training lightsaber, signalling surrender.
Now Kaan could spar for about an hour at a time, calling on the Force to give him energy, predict where the next blow would come, and how to best position his body to defend the blow.
He found himself most comfortable in Form IV of lightsaber combat, requiring as it did agility and swiftness in dodging the droid's blows as well as acrobatics to both avoid strikes and deal them.
Reading through the manual at the end of a training session, he read that most Jedi Padawans ought to be comfortable with the droid at the sixth setting, and able to cope with the seventh.
Masters tended to specialize in various parts of the Jedi Arts, meaning a Jedi Master who was a librarian might be no more proficient in lightsaber fighting than a Padawan, whereas one who had trained in lightsaber combat would find the highest level to be a pushover.
Kaan had determined to train himself in lightsaber use and acrobatics, given that abilities like telekinesis and mind-tricks required, according to all sources, a Master which he did not have. He had tried endlessly to make things move, and certainly he could feel objects in the Force, but he when he tried to move them, even the lightest of objects felt like boulders, except for holocrons, which were naturally imbued with the Force, and thus more malleable to his will.
The most he could do with regular objects was make them rattle and shake, an ability he had used to knock the training droid off balance when it was attacking, in order to decrease its accuracy when striking. It had proven to be futile, however, given it required him to concentrate each time, letting his guard down, and over time the droid began to anticipate this and ground its feet more firmly in the ground when he shut his eyes.
With a week left until the exam week began, Savarii had been meeting with Bongo regularly in hidden parts of the campus, with Kaan discreetly keeping watch.
He had a humorous mental image of Bongo explaining galactic history while Savarii stared dreamily at him. The few times he had spied on them, however, he had found her to be quite diligent in her studies with him, only stopping to cast furtive glances at his face.
She had also begun to speak a little bit in Ukian, making Bongo's cheeks flare red. She had been led to believe it was because he was flattered that she had spoken in his language, though in private Bongo confessed that it was because of her abysmal accent.
Kaan wasn't sure exactly what Bongo thought of Savarii, given that when he was with Bongo alone, he would curse her and deride her, before going to teach her and talk to her softly, once even caressing her hand. Whether he was really beginning to develop feelings for her while trying to hide it, or it was all a show, Kaan didn't care.
In fact, it would be easier if Bongo didn't like her, given that as a patrician, his future first mate would soon be chosen.
Unlike some humans and other species, Ukians did not marry, since giving birth to such large babies was almost always lethal to Ukian females, which would have led to short marriages indeed. And while the Empire had legalised homosexual unions as a rejection of outdated and backwards Republic morality, such reform was slow to reach the Outer Rim.
Typically, an Ukian male and female would copulate, and then the female would die giving birth to a litter of giant Ukian babies. The only known instances of Ukian females surviving childbirth had been in the presence of highly specialised medical equipment, and even in those cases they had not lived long and had been in no condition to carry another litter.
Ukian girls were therefore kept at home or on the farm, rarely living beyond the age of twenty-five. An Ukian male's first mate was considered special, and their union sacred; her children would be first in the line of inheritance, though it was rare for any Ukian male, especially poorer ones, to have more than two mates, and many only had one.
Bongo's father Tra had not taken a second mate after Bongo had been born an only child, making him sole inheritor of the Palto spaceport's main leadership. His uncles and cousins would inherit and manage other branches, but Bongo would have absolute control.
When the time came soon for Bongo to have children, a female from another patrician family would be chosen, and he would impregnate her, then after two years of gestation, she would die giving birth to their children.
"Fancy seeing you here, Kaan! Wanna come join us?"
A voice called out behind Kaan, a split second after he had sensed the movement, and he turned around to see Savarii beckoning him to join her and Bongo.
Kaan could only see his childhood friend's massive, uniformed arm, but could sense his heart rate increasing, and saw small droplets of sweat emerging from his hand and decided against it.
"No thanks, I was just about to leave. You two getting somewhere together?" Kaan deliberately phrased this question vaguely, in order to judge both their responses. Bongo tensed his huge shoulders, and the drops of sweat on the hand Kaan could see began to grow larger and drip off.
Savarii reddened slightly as well, before realising Kaan's probable meaning.
"Oh yes, we are, aren't we, Bongo?" she turned to him, and he grunted in assent, relaxing, and appearing absorbed by whatever was in front of him. She turned back to look at Kaan briefly, but he gestured at Bongo, and she spun around to study once more in the trees.
Silently, Kaan looked up at the tree he'd been leaning on; at the lowest branch which was well over a meter above his head. Looking around to make sure no one was looking, he took a deep breath and jumped on top of it.
Silent as a tooka, he navigated from branch to branch and tree to tree, until he had reached the top of a canopy which overlooked the university.
Looking down, he saw Bongo and Savarii intently studying. He then moved to a secret spot in the trees, a small alcove he had only told Bongo about.
To anyone observing from the floor of the forest it would seem like a few trees had grown intermingled branches, and so they had. Kaan had taken advantage of this to bend nearby tree branches, still young enough to be pliable, into a small little treehouse.
The pulling had been strenuous, requiring Kaan to call on the Force to augment his unimpressive muscular strength, but now it was filled with food, water and studying material.
Kaan would climb up here and spend his free time during university hours studying, meditating, or watching the city of Ukon below.
Today, he was revising the events of the Battle of Coruscant, from the Jedi's purposeful weakening of planetary defences to the perplexing assassination of Count Dooku.
Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted by the screeching of TIE fighters, and he leaped to his feet. They were heading towards the outskirts of the city, but from up here he could see nothing.
Below him, he heard a distant scrabble as Bongo and Savarii packed up their things to inspect the source of the noise. Kaan leaped higher into the trees and began to follow.
Apologies for the late upload, I'll be on time next week.
