Eeth had agreed with Thoar that they should get up and leave early, for which reason he shook Indigo and Raven awake when it was still totally dark outside, although not so dark that it was possible to overlook the heavy snowfall outside.
"Morning," Indigo said, his chipper mood far too light for this time of day according to Raven. She forced a smile, crawled from her bunk and immediately her teeth started chattering. It was still too cold for her, despite the heating, and so she dressed quickly.
"I'm hoping the Junayds are able to go the distance. I don't relish the idea of having to camp out in that," Raven said quietly so that only Eeth heard, gesturing towards the window. "I will go and make sure they're up and organise some breakfast for everyone."
"Padawan," Eeth said, a hint of sternness underlying his tone, "you are being judgmental. These people are used to the snow, in contrast to you. I am sure they are up already, but feel free to check on them. We will all need some breakfast in any case."
"Judgmental?" Raven pursed her lips but decided not to argue this and instead went to find Thoar and Rulla. They were both up and dressed when Raven found them, and so she passed on that they would have breakfast and then they would leave for Calinia.
After a quick breakfast of hot stew, the Jedi, Thoar and Rulla took their packs downstairs where five electric sleds had been prepared for them. They were little more than scooters: two skids, a handlebar, a small platform to stand on and behind it a basket to hold a limited amount of luggage. Boskor had told Eeth that these were normally used for quick fishing trips to the coast or the like, but the power cells they were equipped with were sufficient to take them all the way to Calinia.
They said goodbye to Boskor and Mirko and several other miners who had shown up to thank Eeth, – a situation he tried to get over with as quickly as possible because it made him acutely uncomfortable – and then they took off.
"I will take the lead," Eeth said. "Visibility is low. I can use the Force to navigate." Since their course, for the first half of the day at least, was simply due north, finding his way would pose no problems.
Thoar nodded. "Then I'll take the rear," he said. "Let's go."
"No, you won't," said Raven to Thoar's comment, taking the man's place and beckoning him in front of her. "The Jedi are in charge of our safety and getting us home for this journey. Please cooperate, we have a long way ahead."
Thoar raised his eyebrows. "And who, exactly, put you in charge of my safety?" he asked coolly.
"And who put you in charge of mine?" Raven argued back. "We are Jedi. It goes without saying."
"Enough," snapped Eeth, hitting her with a scathing wave of disapproval through their bond. "Padawan, I don't want to hear another word out of you. Thoar Junayd is the consul of this colony, he knows the terrain inside out, and he is a fully grown man who knows how to handle a sled. He doesn't need the Jedi to order him around. Especially not you. Because the last time I checked, it was me who was the leader of this mission team. You will go in the middle and check for predators. Indigo can go behind me, and Rulla in front of Thoar. Ready?"
There was a lot that Raven wanted to say to that, not least of which was that Thoar wasn't in charge anymore than she was! She bit her tongue, though, because to speak after such an order from Eeth was to ensure a horrifyingly embarrassing outcome. Thus, Raven simply pursed her lips and went to do as instructed.
As expected, this was a long, difficult trek, something that became obvious to Raven after the first few hours. Despite her thick clothing, she was shivering and her teeth were chattering; she simply couldn't help it. Still, Raven kept her discomfort to herself and drew on the Force in an effort to supplement her body heat. It was a technique Eeth had taught her many years ago when they had explored the frozen regions of Arkuna.
Indigo was finding this part of their trip exciting. The electric skids were kinda fun to drive despite the weather. However, he was still a very young padawan and, although not exactly undisciplined, he did become bored after a couple of hours. He started messing with the controls, speeding up to level with Eeth, then dropping back. At one point, he started trying to pop the front of his sled, not that he was likely to have much success as it was far too front heavy, but heck, it was more entertaining than staring at snow.
At this point, Rulla called out to Eeth, asking him to stop. While she had no trouble keeping up, a stone had jammed her gears and she needed them to take a quick break. Just as Eeth was slowing down, Indigo was shooting past him.
"Stop!" barked Eeth. Luckily, the snowfall was by far not as heavy any more as it had been further to the south and it was also marginally warmer.
Indigo pulled on the breaks and skidded sideways, sending a satisfying spay of snow up as he did so. He was really getting the hang of this thing.
While Rulla fixed her motor, Eeth beckoned Indigo over.
"I told you to stay behind me, did I not?" he asked sternly.
"Yes. It wasn't intentional,"replied Indigo, looking up at the man with a neutral expression. "I skidded, is all," was tacked on at the end.
Eeth was not impressed with this answer. "If it was not intentional," he said brusquely, "does that mean you have no control over your sled? Or do you have excess energy that you need to get rid of?"
"No, I can control it," Indigo defended. "I was testing it out to see what it could do, I was kinda bored is all,." Although it would be clear to Eeth that he was starting to become nervous despite his lack of facial expression.
"Being a Jedi padawan, you should be able to control your boredom," said Eeth. "If you need to get rid of your excess energy so badly, I will oblige you."
He pointed towards an outcrop of rocks, quite some distance away. "Run there and back while Rulla fixes her sled," he said. "That should alleviate your boredom somewhat."
"But, I do have it under control," Indigo countered, squinting at the outcrop. It was going to be hard work, considering he was wearing normal boots and the depth of the snow. "This won't alleviate my boredom, it's just replacing it with a bothersome task," he added. "Do I really have to do this?" He stopped short of adding 'ridiculous task' to the end of that sentence, but only just.
"Yes, you have to," Eeth said quellingly, directing a glare at him. "Any further objections, and you will make the run with a sore bottom. That will be seriously inconvenient to achieve with all the snow gear you are wearing, so I would appreciate it if you just started running. Now."
The mental picture of being divested of his snow gear before all and sundry, not to mention the freezing conditions, were enough to have Indigo comply without further comment.
Rulla had just about fixed her motor at this point, but she thought it wise not to interfere with Eeth's instructions. Instead, she opted for making the most of the break, eating an energy bar and drinking some tea from her thermos flask. Her father followed suit.
Raven watched Indigo sympathetically. "Meany," she told Eeth in a mock-serious tone.
Eeth gave her an impassive look. "If this motivates him to stop his antics, it will have been worth it and save all of us time in the long run," he said, and Raven just rolled her eyes and ripped open an energy bar.
It took Indigo ten minutes to make the run. When he returned, he was puffing and his legs burned; he wasn't used to running in snow. He bent over, his hands on his knees, trying to both catch his breath and rub his muscles at the same time.
"Eat and drink something," Eeth told Indigo. "Then we will be on our way again."
Finally, an order Indigo wanted to comply with!
Rulla and Thoar were keeping up well as the morning progressed; better than Raven, in fact, although to her credit, she did not complain. Eeth and Thoar decided to continue without further pause to the first settlement along the way, which took them another two hours to reach. The village was too small to possess a proper inn, but it had a store that served hot drinks and fish stew. And nothing but fish stew. The village was situated at the edge of a bay and fish was their prime source of nutrients.
"It's either this or energy bars for you, I'm afraid," Eeth told Raven.
"I've lived on less," Raven replied quietly.
As the others ate, Raven chewed slowly, not wanting to stand out by being the only one not eating local food. It was a trick she'd learned long ago; the less attention was drawn to her dietary choice, the better. Besides, it wasn't like this was going to be her last opportunity to eat today, nor were they facing days of this sort of travel.
The rest of the trip home was uneventful. Indigo didn't dare push Eeth's buttons again for fear of horrendous repercussions, and Raven, although fucking freezing her ass off, did not complain because she wasn't about to let on that she was suffering.
When they finally arrived at the Junayd home, it was late afternoon and the light was almost gone.
Rulla noticed Raven's discomfort and it gave her a certain sense of satisfaction.
"Glad you didn't need our help after all," she said a tad maliciously as she carried her pack towards the street entrance of the house.
"Short of a stone jamming your gears that would have been prevented had you been a Jedi, likewise," said Raven with all the aplomb of a stuffed shirt before leaving for her room. She didn't want a confrontation; Eeth would kill her.
Thoar, who had just finished a phone call to his secretary in order to arrange for the sleds to be picked up, overheard this exchange and frowned at his daughter. Rulla blushed.
"Sorry," she said sheepishly. "It just slipped out."
"Don't let it slip out again," said Thoar. "They are our guests."
"Yes, and I will see to it that your guests will display an appropriate level of politeness towards their hosts," said Eeth evenly. He followed Raven upstairs and closed the door to their room behind himself. Indigo had fortunately headed for the kitchen to find a snack.
"Padawan, how many times do I have to remind you that being a Jedi does not make you superior to everyone else?" Eeth asked grimly.
"You don't," said Raven. "If you are referring to Rulla, her comment was entirely antagonistic. So, I reciprocated. If Rulla had been experiencing my exact situation, lack of experience and body fat, I dare say she might not have fared as well. I also wouldn't have allowed a stone to jam my gears." Upon saying that, Raven realised that her reaction probably hadn't been the wisest course of action. She should have just bit her tongue and let the girl feel superior, yet that would have grated. Raven didn't say any of this, though. She just sat on her bed and started pulling off her snow gear.
Eeth calmly and decisively bolted the door shut; he did not want Indigo to barge into what might be quite an embarrassing scene – for Raven. Raven turned to face him at hearing the door bolt slide across. Both eyebrows rose in a silent question but it was short lived because before she knew what had hit her, Eeth had grabbed her by the ear, and, well, it burned! "Ah," the girl gasped, managing no more than some sort of ungainly crab walk as Eeth led her towards the small desk and bent her over until her chest touched the surface. Conveniently, she had already pulled off her snow pants. He pushed up her tunic, pulled down her pants and brought his hand down onto her bottom hard.
He gave her half a dozen rather spectacular swats, each drawing a grunt from Raven, and then, still holding her down with his left hand, asked sternly, "Any idea what that was for, padawan?" His tone of voice suggested that she might be doing herself a big favour if she came up with a satisfactory answer.
Truth be told, and despite her show of surprise, Raven did know why. "Because it was an arrogant remark, and I shouldn't have let Rulla's comment get under my skin. I shouldn't have had an attitude," she told him quickly. After many years under Eeth's tutelage, Raven had learned a thing or two about his methods; Raven did absolutely not want another smack for being a smartass or arguing, as much as she felt like doing both.
"No, you should not," Eeth snapped, "nor should you have tried to patronise the consul of this colony simply because you think yourself superior to any civilian. You are not."
He administered another couple of swats, right on the undercurve of her bottom. Each was rewarded with a grunt or hiss from Raven. Eeth continued grimly, "You are thinking yourself better than others, on account of being a Jedi, and you are constantly showing it. That is entirely unacceptable."
Two more swats to the tops of her thighs underlined that message. "Lose that attitude," he said, "or there will be more serious consequences, and I assure you that you will not like them."
He completed the dozen with the two hardest swats yet but continued to hold her down.
By this stage, Raven's eyes were squinted shut tightly, her toes had curled up and her knees were buckling under the desk. It really hurt, but not enough to have the eighteen-year-old unstuck as it might have when she were younger. "I will lose the attitude. I don't mean to be arrogant," she brought out quickly and a little breathlessly. It had not escaped her attention that Eeth was still holding her down and that worried Raven. "I'm sorry, master, it won't happen again," she therefore added. "Please, I've learned this lesson."
"You needed entirely too many warnings," said Eeth, causing Raven to turn and look at him. Continuing to hold her down with his left hand, Eeth started unbuckling his belt with his right. "Master, wait! This isn't necessary, really." Raven was trying to keep her composure but a belting from Eeth was surely going to bring her unstuck and the newly-minted adult did not want that to happen!
"I told you during our last mission that you are getting too full of yourself, and this assessment has not changed," said Eeth sternly. "The condescension towards the people we are working with ends here." He pulled the belt from the loops of the thick pants he was still wearing, letting the utilities glide onto the floor, doubled it over and brought it down onto her bottom smartly.
Raven grunted her way through the first few until the pain reached unbearable and she started to writhe and vocalise. "Ahh!" Because this fucking hurt!
Eeth, however, was determined to bring his displeasure across. He continued meting out stroke after stroke. They were not the hardest he could deliver but they were plenty hard enough and he was not going to stop before Raven had received one for every year of her age either.
By the time Eeth had reached fifteen Raven was crying. She might be an adult but there was only so much even a Jedi could take without being allowed to access the Force. Thus, she had no choice but to submit. And it really really did hurt. "Masterrrr!" she wailed as the sixteenth landed. "Stop, p-please!"
In response, Eeth's hand only pressed down on her back a little more firmly. Then he dealt out the last two in quick succession and finally released his hold on Raven. "You may get up now, padawan," he said.
Raven stood shakily and turned to face Eeth. She was sniffling, her ass blazed and she was feeling pretty sad and sorry for herself. "I'm sorry," she said, because Raven did feel bad that Eeth thought her behaviour had made such a punishment necessary; it meant that she was doing something really wrong and needed to give it some more thought.
"Apology accepted," Eeth replied quietly, cupping her cheek briefly in his hand in a small gesture of comfort. "You need to learn to control yourself. And that goes for both your tongue and your mind. We will meditate on this tonight. For now, I will see whether I can help with dinner. You may have half an hour to clean yourself up and possibly take a hot shower."
He knew that his padawan tended to suffer even more from the cold than he did. He also suspected that, given the state of her bottom, a hot shower might be a mixed blessing. But then, it was up to her.
Raven gave a curt bow, grabbed her gear and went for the shower. Unfortunately, and as Eeth had thought, one of the many downsides to being spanked was that getting into a hot shower afterwards tended to exacerbate the situation; in other words, it stung! Raven edged in first one foot, then the other, followed by her knees. After that, she stuck her head under, all the while doing her utmost to keep her ass out of the hot stream. Inevitably, the water found its way down her back and she let out a hiss as it reached her ass. Why on Hoth she had thought making such a comment to Rulla was a good idea she did not know!
Exactly half an hour later, a much warmer, cleaner and refreshed Raven entered the kitchen. "Can I help with anything?" she asked, looking from Thoar to Eeth.
Indigo was peeling something, but looked up when she came in. He wanted a shower, too, but thought he would wait until he was told it was okay since there were others in the home who would no doubt want one, too.
Eeth sent Indigo to take the desired shower and took over the peeling.
"There's not much else to do right now, to be honest," Thoar told Raven. "We didn't have much fresh food so I'm just throwing things from our stores together. Rulla might want help, though. She's just putting all the coal-black clothes into the laundry. I think they might need to be washed several times."
As he talked, his comlink beeped. He accepted the call, listened for a moment and sighed. "Yes," he said. "Immediately?" He took a deep breath. "I'm not available tonight," he said firmly. "I was stuck in a cave-in for two days, took a motorsled to Calinia today, and I'm only just reunited with my daughter. I'm taking the evening off. This can wait until tomorrow morning. Yes, I know it's urgent. It will still have to wait until tomorrow morning. Ask Pasca to call a meeting at nine. – Yes, I'm certain. See you tomorrow. Bye."
He turned and saw Rulla standing in the doorway, a look of surprise on her face. "You didn't just tell Jenno no, did you?" she asked, completely flabbergasted.
"As a matter of fact, I did," he said, smiling at her. "After all we've been through, I think I'm entitled to a few hours at home."
Rulla had to grin at that. She went and hugged her father, and he returned the hug.
Releasing him, Rulla turned and asked: "Anyone got any more laundry that needs to be washed?"
"I'll get our clothes," Raven said and disappeared into their bedroom to collect whatever was dirty. A few minutes later she was in their laundry room with Rulla and loaded the small pile of Indigo's and Eeth's coal blackened clothing into the machine. Raven, who had been fortunate enough to avoid the mines, had remained relatively clean, and she only had a pair of thermal undergarments to wash.
After a long silence that Raven sensed was becoming uncomfortable for Rulla, she turned to face the girl. "Hey, don't take me the wrong way. I don't mean to be arrogant towards you or your father. I'm sorry that you got that impression." Raven met Rulla's dark eyes, with her own, green and earnest. She was taking Eeth's lesson seriously and trying to make things right.
Rulla raised her eyebrows. "Well, you were patronising us," she said.
"Well, you were patronising also," Raven replied, referring to the remark Rulla had made upon returning.
"Yes, because I was kind of fed up," said Rulla. "I shouldn't have been, maybe. But if you don't mean to be arrogant, then stop suggesting that we need your help with things we've been doing all our lives, especially when we haven't asked for it. I get that the Jedi can do things we can't but that doesn't mean we're useless."
"I don't think you're useless, Rulla," replied Raven, and sighed, unsure of how to explain herself. "I'm being trained to take charge, to save lives, to help people, maintain peace and alleviate suffering. This is what we do as Jedi. I guess my abilities have become quite formidable and I've been focusing on that so much that I've stopped thinking about others. For that, I apologise, Rulla. I'll try to watch myself and stop assisting where I'm not needed. I did not mean to offend you or your father." Raven meant that, too. She had not intended to offend anyone; she even kinda liked Rulla. The girl was a master on skates and seemed quite capable.
Rulla nodded. "Thanks," she said. She had nothing against Raven but the Jedi padawan's attempt to order her father around had really gotten her back up. Rulla's faith in her father's capabilities was high and her loyalty to him knew no limits.
They set the washing machine going with an extra amount of detergent and went back upstairs.
Indigo emerged from his shower starving. As always he was growing and hungry. Raven, too, was hungry. She'd had nothing substantial since breakfast and was grateful for the seaweed noodle dish topped with some sort of rehydrated mushroom. It was delicious despite the fact that she was shifting uncomfortably in her seat.
Indigo noticed this and shot her a brief, questioning look. What could she have possibly done to earn Eeth's displeasure in such a short time? he wondered. He had the wherewithal not to say anything, though. He didn't want to embarrass her.
That evening, they all pitched in to help clean up after dinner and finish off the laundry. Everyone was tired and therefore Eeth sent both Raven and Indigo to bed early.
Meanwhile, Rulla hugged her father goodnight and whispered in his ear, hoping she would not be overheard, "Could you tuck me in?"
Thoar looked at her in surprise. He had done that in earlier years; ever since Rulla had stopped sleeping in his bed, in fact. But after he had been elected consul, he had often not been home at night, and even when he was, he tended to have a lot of work to do. Rulla had told him not to worry, she was not a child any more anyway. It occurred to Thoar that this might have been more selfless than truthful, and it made him feel a little ashamed of himself. It had just been so convenient for him that he had made no effort to think about his daughter's needs.
"Of course," he said gently. He accompanied Rulla upstairs and sat on the edge of her bed, inviting her to rest her head on his lap. She snuggled up against him, and he stroked her hair gently.
"I'm sorry for not having done this more often lately," he said softly. "I'm sorry for a lot of things. I should not have left like I did."
"I know you couldn't delay your departure, just like I know Panthea really needs to be with her family," said Rulla quietly. "But at the same time, I was angry with you for leaving me like that, and leaving everything to me. And when I realised that something had happened to you, I felt awful about that."
"I can't even begin to tell you how awful I felt about so many things," Thoar replied. "And I can't promise you they will all change. But I will make more of an effort to look after your needs, and mine."
"Thank you," said Rulla contentedly.
There was a moment's pause. Then she said, "You know... when you were down there, and I thought you might, you know… I was afraid for you, and I was also thinking, what should I do when you're gone? I haven't learned anything much. Indigo is being trained to become a Jedi. He knows what to do with his life, even if it seems to involve a lot of work. I'd rather have a lot of work and learn something, to be honest, than hanging around like I'm currently doing."
Once again, Thoar was surprised. On the other hand, he had to admit that Rulla had a point. "I see what you mean," he said. "And once again, this is something I should not have neglected thinking about for so long. I won't be able to come up with a solution on the spot, but we'll find something for you to learn and to do. Alright?"
Rulla nodded. "Thanks," she murmured, grateful that her father understood. And now that that was settled, she fell asleep.
Thanks to the early bedtime, the next morning even Raven was up early for once. She stretched out long, then curled up again, happy to lie around for now.
Indigo, however, was up at the crack of dawn. He went downstairs, made sure the fires were still lit and then started making some breakfast for everyone. Well, he tried. Unfortunately, the resulting porridge had the consistency of glue, not to mention the spoon was able to stand up in the middle without the Force helping it. He frowned, adding more water, more sugar …
"I am afraid once it is messed up, you will have a hard time making it any better," Eeth, who nearly always got up at the crack of dawn, told Indigo, coming up behind him. "Take it off the stove."
Eeth rummaged around in the supplies cupboard and produced something that looked like apple sauce. It was made from a different type of fruit, but it should serve the same purpose. "Try mixing this in with an egg whisk," he told Indigo. "I will make some tea in the meanwhile."
Indigo took his masterpiece off the stove and accepted the bottle of sauce. He did enjoy cooking but unfortunately for him and for everyone who had to eat his creations, it was not one of his talents.
"Argh! The bottom is all brown," he complained, showing it to Eeth.
"Is it burned?" asked Eeth, checking it over. "If it is not, it does not matter. It will not look appealing but it should be edible."
"I dunno, I don't think so. But, yeah, it's going to look pretty bad. Nobody will want to eat it." Indigo stirred in the apple sauce and added milk as Eeth suggested. It was as lumpy as badly mashed tubers and looked like vomit.
"Do you think anyone will actually eat this?" he asked and shot a hopeful look at his culinary supervisor.
"We are certainly not going to let it go to waste," decreed Eeth.
It was at that moment that Raven wandered in, scrubbing her eyes and yawning. "Master," she greeted him, bowing, then turned to smile at Indigo. "Morning." It was then that her attention fell on the mess that was Indigo's attempt at their breakfast. "What in the Force is that?" she asked, taking the pot and holding it to her nose. It smelled good but it looked like… Uh, she didn't want to say.
"Suffice it to say that it does not contain animals," Eeth said stoically. "Therefore, it should qualify as breakfast. Since Indigo went to the trouble of making this, we will eat it, rather than having food thrown away."
Eeth was very adamant about not throwing food away, ever since his childhood on the streets of Nar Shaddaa where he had gone hungry more often than not.
At this moment, Thoar entered the kitchen, fully dressed.
"Good morning," he said with a smile. He took a look at the saucepan and chuckled. "Fortunately, I was about to go to the office and have some breakfast there," he said with a wink.
More seriously, he added, "I'd rather stay home, really, but we will have to look into the whole business of Shawn Naguro trying to blow up the mine as well as me. I postponed it last night, but now I really need to go. Can you let Rulla sleep in? She's exhausted, I think. Tell her I promise to be home early today. That might also give me an opportunity to thank you properly."
That last bit was directed at Eeth.
"That is entirely unnecessary," Eeth said with dignity. "I only did my duty. We will pass your message on to Rulla."
"Thanks," said Thoar. "See you later.." He flashed them a grin and took off for the basement, presumably to get his skates.
"Well, since it is only the three of us for now, we might as well start having breakfast," said Eeth. "After that, I will want to talk to you, Indigo. And you, padawan."
Raven groaned, not just at hearing they'd have to eat Indigo's 'breakfast' but also at Eeth's mention of a 'talk'.
Unlike his Jedi peer, who was now looking a bit like she was on trial, Indigo was far more optimistic.
"What do you want to talk to us about?" Indigo asked, shoving a large spoon of lumpy porridge into his mouth.
"In your case," said Eeth a tad coolly, "we will talk about why tampering with your weapon and disobeying explicit instructions are not good ideas."
He gave Indigo a pointed look, then took a sip of his tea. He was not picky about food although he liked to cook and was much better at it than Indigo, but he did enjoy a good tea.
"We could just talk about it now," Indigo proposed hopefully. "It doesn't need to be a 'talk' talk. I feel really bad about endangering Rulla. I really didn't mean for that to happen. The last thing I expected was to need to use my lightsaber." Indigo knew Eeth had a reputation for being strict. That said, he was able to talk his way out of punishment with his own master on occasion. He was trying that on in any case.
Eeth levelled Indigo with a glare that would have had much older padawans squirming. It had Indigo swallow hard and shift around in his chair nervously. He managed to hold Eeth's gaze, but only for about five seconds.
After a long pause, Eeth said in a voice of deceptive calm, "Let me make a few things clear. First, you do not get to set the terms of this talk. I do. I will not put the way in which I deal with misbehaviour to a vote, nor will I entertain objections or arguments. Second, the only way we are going to talk about this here and now is if you absolutely want to have a witness to your punishment. I usually try to avoid that, but if you keep pushing me, I will stop being so considerate. Third, whether you feel bad about your behaviour in hindsight is utterly and entirely irrelevant, just as irrelevant as the excuse that 'you did not mean it.' If I hear that once again coming out of your mouth, I will discipline you right on the spot just so you learn that you are supposed to think about the potential consequences of your actions. Before you act. Not after. And that includes being prepared for the unexpected. That was not what you did, and as such, you will just have to live with the consequences."
Eeth's tone of voice indicated that further arguments were not encouraged. He gave Indigo one last, piercing look, then resumed eating.
Indigo didn't say a word because what could he reply to that?!
Raven felt for the kid, but she'd seen that coming. Eeth had been hard on Indigo. Still, the boy was a padawan now and he needed to accept the consequences of failing to meet the expectations of the Order's Jedi, and unfortunately for him, at the moment that happened to be Eeth. "Meany," she told her master for the second time in the last 24 hours, only this time it was a silent exchange across their bond.
Eeth frowned at her. If it had been Raven trying to talk her way out of punishment, she might just have found herself bent over the table and a cooking spoon applied to her backside. From that perspective, Indigo had gotten off lightly, owing to the fact that he did not know Eeth well and had no experience in dealing with him.
"Padawan, I could have done a lot worse," he sent her through their bond. "Stop interfering."
Yes, he could have done worse. Still, she had felt compelled to state her thoughts on it. Raven wasn't stupid, though, and and their exchange immediately fell silent. She wasn't sure how much trouble she was in, but nor was it wise to piss off Eeth.
Indigo finished his porridge. He had not said a single word since Eeth had scolded him, although he had done a lot of thinking. Eeth had been right on all counts, he knew, and he felt a little ashamed at having tried it on. "May I be excused?" he asked quietly. He wanted to escape for a little while, if only to get some air.
"You," said Eeth sternly, "may go to our room. I will follow in a moment. Padawan, can you clean up here and look after Rulla? Please pass on her father's message when she is awake. I will call you when it is your turn."
Wordlessly, Indigo stood, ran – yes, ran – to their room and closed the door behind himself smartly. He had no idea why; it wasn't like slamming the door shut was going to keep Eeth out! If anything, it would make things worse for taking this in bad grace.
Indigo sat on his bunk, pulled his knees into his chest, rested his forehead on them and stared at the door with trepidation. The punishment he had received for being lazy had been memorable enough to cause a major shift in his working he'd disobeyed, and tampered with his weapon, and then he'd tried to get out of the consequences; that would have earned him some punishment from Eden, let alone Eeth!
Despite knowing how bad Indigo felt, Raven still understood why Eeth was being hard on him. She gave him a brief nod and started carrying things to the sink and cleaning up as told. She wasn't going to interfere with this.
Eeth gave his padawan a brief smile of acknowledgment of her gesture and then slowly made his way to the room they shared with Indigo. He was not overly fond of having to punish padawans other than his own unless it was in a classroom situation, but since Indigo was currently in his charge, it was his duty and he would fulfil it to the best of his abilities. Unfortunately for Indigo, these abilities were quite formidable. He had not gained his reputation for nothing.
He gave a brief knock on the door and entered the room. Pulling out the desk chair, he sat down and said solemnly, "Look at me, Padawan Indigo. And then start by telling me what, exactly, you thought you were doing when you were tampering with your saber."