CORUSCANT: early morning.

Next day Mathorn awoke feeling well rested despite the criticized bed, apparently it was something you had to get used to before it felt natural.

After sitting on the bed for a short while, he opened the door and wandered outside.

Stepping into the corridor he met the overly polite human named Jonathan Baliss, who too had just left his chamber. In contrast to Mathorn though, he was clean and groomed. He smiled and greeted Mathorn politely. "Good morning fellow initiate Xastra. I hope you had a good night's sleep."

"Do all of you speak so retarded? Or is it just you?!" Mathorn insulted him openly.

"Have I offended you in any way?" Jonathan asked, uncertain of how dire the situation had become.

"Come on! Why do you speak like that!? It's weird. YOU ARE WEIRD!" Mathorn shouted, sounding way angrier, than he actually was, to the now frightened human.

"Is there something wrong, younglings?" An elderly human female jedi master asked.

"Master Odoum, I only asked if initiate Xastra had slept well," Jonathan explained in a sad and confused voice.

"Well, I came here to learn how to fight with a lightsaber and this thing seems only to talk gibberish. I want a rival, not a protocol droid," Mathorn commented harshly.

Ginnati Odoum looked at them both with a firm expression, "Now now children, this is no place for a fight. Both of you can join me, my lesson is just about to start."

"Yes master Odoum," Jonathan said, obeying at once and followed the master dutifully.

Mathorn, who had never liked authorities much, just asked, "And what are you supposed to teach us?" doubting this old lady would be of much use in a battle.

"I'm your history teacher," Ginnati replied as matter of fact.

"What a waste of time," Mathorn complained in a mocking tone.

That last statement sounded so rude, that Jonathan couldn't help but eye him in disbelief.

"Now now young one, history is very important. You will soon learn why this is so, or be doomed to repeat centuries of mistakes," Ginnati stated in a soft voice laced with just a hint of dire warning.

Mathorn didn't reply, he just wondered how long he had to wait before getting a lightsaber in his hands.

As all the initiates were walking past, one youngling in particular stood out, walking slower than the rest. "Morning, you all look alive today... That's good," Urr'Tar mumbled as a greeting, seeming strangely drowsy, "Hi Mathorn."

Ginnati gave Urr'Tar a look of wonder, "I sense great potential in you young one."

Mathorn raised an eyebrow, "Who! Urr'Tar?! Him who has trouble mentally staying in this world?"

"That is exactly the point! He views the world differently from most beings," Ginnati said, trying to explain a higher plane of existence.

Mathorn started to laugh uncontrollably.

Ginnati gave him a hard look of disapproval, "You have much to learn, child," whereafter she strolled to the front of the group to guide the gathered initiates to the lesson.

"Sure thing granny... you make him the hero, if you want to," Mathorn chuckled as a reply, going unheard by most.

"Were you talking about... me?" Urr'Tar asked in a dragged out manner.

"Sure thing friend, you are the talk of the town," Mathorn replied jokingly.

"That sounds good..." Urr'Tar said in a trance-like state.

"You can't call Coruscant a town," Jonathan pointed out, as the sentence just didn't seem right to him.

Mathorn ignored him altogether. The large group of younglings made their way into the lesson chamber.

The day's topic was the history of the Jedi temple here on Coruscant.

Mathorn felt tortured, not that he hadn't been subjected to boring storytelling before, but everything the jedi master said, felt like vibroblades to his ears. He was pretty surprised not tofeel blood running from his ears.

Jonathan sat straight backed and attentive, but as the lesson progressed the posture gradually slipped in favor of a creeping restlessness.

Urr'Tar just looked more or less spaced out the entire lesson.

Mathorn would have given his left arm on the spot to be able to just ignore everything around him, just like the mirialan was doing to perfection.

After what felt like an eternity the impossible happened, the lesson ended! It was finally time for something more exciting, it was time to learn... how all this force stuff actually works. Still not saber training though...

Mathorn had been considered strong in the force, but when he was tasked with lifting a few small white cubes, he found it troublesome lifting even one. After half an hour of continuous practice, he finally succeeded... sort of, in fact he just slammed them up against the roof. The master told him several times to calm himself, but listening and concentrating at the same time seemed to be more of a challenge than his multitasking abilities were capable of handling. When the lesson ended later that day, no one was the least bit in doubt of this not being one of his strong suits from the relentless stream of complaints flowing from his mouth.

Jonathan, who had trained for more than a half a year already, had no trouble lifting several cubes at once and was more than ready to continue to more challenging tasks.

Urr'Tar had, at first, no more luck than Mathorn, but suddenly all his cubes had flown onto his face, as if it was some kind magnet.

At last, the lesson the eager zabrak had been waiting for all day: The fencing lesson!

When Reniuz, the jedi knight he had met the previous day, had handed Mathorn an orange training blade, he just stood there feeling the handle before finally turning it on. Everything that had felt boring and meaningless the entire day, was erased and replaced with a feeling of wonder and excitement.

He took a quick series of swings to test the weight and general feel of the blade. It was not like a real lightsaber, the blade was of a glass like substance formed in a cylinder shape with a simple hilt in one end. When turned on, the cylinder became orange which gave it a more lightsaber-like feel to it.

Reniuz decided to give him and Urr'Tar a little beginners lesson in the first saber form; Shii-cho.

Both were given a training dummy for practice. Reniuz initiated by showing them, step by step, how to strike at the different body zones.

This was the most fun Mathorn had ever had! He was happier now than he had ever been, as far back as he could remember.

At first Urr'Tar had trouble turning on his yellow blade. Then when he finally did so, he had trouble sensing distance, which meant for the most part that he didn't even hit the doll. And to make it even worse, he also had trouble following the instruction set, since the explanation he got was way too fast for him to follow.

The time went by as Reniuz showed off the basic parry- and guard-positions.

After practicing basic Shii-Cho style fencing on the practice dolls, Mathorn suddenly exclaimed, "Let's have a dual!" challenging his trainer in a moment of pure eagerness.

Reniuz just smiled softly in return and suggested, "Ask one of your fellow initiates, whether they would like to spar with you."

"Sure... now where did my rival go?" Mathorn wondered, as he looked around for a human aristocrat.

Jonathan was in the middle of training his disarming skills, when he noticed an orange glow shining over his shoulder, simultaneously hearing a voice declaring, "I challenge you to a duel, human!" He turned around and uttered with a smile, "I accept." With a small bow of respect, he positioned his blade in a high guard and waited for the opponent to make his move.

Mathorn attacked, lunging left, then right, followed by slashes up and down. The adrenalin was pumping through him as it felt like the blade became an extension of his arm.

Whilst Mathorn did well against the training doll, it was entirely a different matter against a live opponent, on top of that an opponent with far more experience than him. This meant that he, without noticing it, all of a sudden was parring instead of attacking, getting hit multiple times on his arms and legs. It culminated with Jonathan landing a swift, yet hard hit to the left side of Mathorn's head, which sent him crashing to the floor where he lay sprawling on the ground winded and completely baffled.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean for you to get hurt!" Jonathan looked frightened by what his violence, from just a moment before, had resulted in... but to his surprise, Mathorn began to laugh, laying flat on the floor as he was.

"You are good at something. You are good at being a rival," Mathorn told him being a good sport, as he quickly got up and attacked with an overhead slash.

Jonathan quickly parried it and retaliated, he was also starting to enjoy this.

Reniuz used the remainder of the lesson on instructing Urr'Tar in simple steps of strike and parry, but she did occasionally glance over at the two sparring initiate's getting along in the heat of battle.

After the training session ended, the jedi initiates headed back to their individual rooms or the library for study.

Jonathan and Mathorn was on their way back to the living quarters, when Jonathan broke the silence with an observation, "I must say Mathorn, you really are a fast learner. If you can keep that up, you should be able to catch up before you know it."

"I did learn how to kickass in my hometown. I'll be a jedi knight in no time," Mathorn smirked, satisfied.

"Of course you will. You are related to padawan Tikala Xastra after all," Jonathan added as a matter of fact.

Mathorn shrugged, "I do have a similar last name, should that make any difference," he muttered indifferently, not expecting an answer.

"Wait... you don't know!?" Jonathan replied a bit puzzled.

Mathorn gave him an odd look, "Know what? I know she is my cute little sister and if anyone dares to harm her, I will beat them senseless."

Jonathan wondered why the jedi masters hadn't told him. When he couldn't find an answer to his self imposed question, he simply decided to relay what information he possessed on the matter. "You see, your sister is one of a kind and is said to be extremely strong in the force. She mastered the Ataru far faster than most other students could dream of. She even learned how to perform several forms of Tutaminis, years ahead of what's considered normal for a padawan."

Mathorn stood trying to process what the human was telling him and decided to go to the source, "I'm going to go ask her myself... Where is my little sister by the way?" Mathorn asked Jonathan, thinking the human knew where they had hidden his sister.

Jonathan thought for a moment, trying to remember where he had seen the little prodigy last. "I saw her in the garden the other day, at about this hour."

"What are you waiting for! Lead on," Mathorn commanded with impatience audible in his voice.

Jonathan did as he was told and led the way, with Urr'Tar trailing Mathorn, as if someone had programmed him to do so.


Later that day, the trio found Tikala together with a purple twi'lek girl, who looked to be about the same age. They were meditating on the soft grass near one of the many statues of masters from ancient times.

"Hey sis," Mathorn bursted out, as he and his fellow initiates entered the garden.

"Hello Mathorn. This is my friend, Mile'giko," Tikala politely replied and introduced him to a friend of hers.

"It's an honor to meet you Mathorn," Mile'giko said respectfully while bowed deeply.

To say Mathorn didn't know how to behave… was an understatement, "...Ahh... sure thing little twin tails... hi you..."

"Can you fly with those?" Urr'Tar asked, adding a random question as usual, but this time looking strangely hopeful.

Now it was Mile'giko who didn't know what to do or say, "No... I can't fly. None of my kind can."

"...That's a shame," Urr'Tar mumbled, the sadness visible on his face.

Mathorn turned his attention back to Tikala, "I heard from.. that guy, that my little sis is really awesome!?" meanwhile pointing a finger at Jonathan.

Tikala had heard the term 'awesome' before, it was used to describe something good? Coming back to her senses, she had a feeling she knew what he meant, so she told him what she had been told… again and again, thus uttering, "Everyone keeps saying I'm going to be a great jedi, if I continue my training."

"Your sister can lift a starship, and she is always so good at fighting. I feel safe when I'm near her," Mile'giko told the trio, as if her friend was some sort of celebrity.

Tikala kinda liked the attention, but it also made her feel uneasy.

"Show me sis! I want to see how cool you are," Mathorn exclaimed in excitement.

Tikala felt conflicted. She had been warned by her masters never to display it openly, because of the danger it could entail. "Sorry Mathorn, but I have been warned against showing off my abilities to anyone."

"Come on sis, I won't tell anyone," Mathorn promised, missing her point completely. To further underline his words, he turned toward the others gathered and spoke in a clearly threatening tone, "If anyone talks! It's bashing time."

"There is no need for threats here," a kel'dorian jedi master interrupted calmly in a deep slightly modulated voice, as he approached the group of younglings.

"Master Buz!" Mile'giko said with joy in her voice, as she recognized the jedi master.

Buz laid a hand on Tikala's shoulder, "It's alright, you can show your brother."

"Thank you master," Tikala smiled as she looked up at the towering figure. She chose a target for the demonstration, closed her eyes and stretched out her fingers. Reaching out mentally, she started lifting one of the stone statues, five times larger and thirty times heavier than her. It hovered slowly but surely up in the air after which it slowly rotated about its own axis, as if it was on display.

Jonathan and Urr'Tar were both overly impressed, but Mathorn could barely believe his own eyes! His little sister was moving around statues, while he couldn't even lift a little cube without something going wrong, "that's... definitely awesome!"

"Add two more next to it," Buz ordered in a monotone voice, making a quick flick of his hand. As ordered, two other statues joined the first, hovering about a meter over the ground, while it continued to rotate as before. Normally he would have denied students to practice on their old jedi status, but he knew this little zabrak could do it without any need of worry.

"Okay... that's just insane! Sis... the force is with you," Mathorn exclaimed loudly, in sheer admiration.

The sudden outburst made Tikala lose focus for a fraction of a second, but she kept her calm and thereby remained in control. But enough was enough, she returned the statues to their original positions and opened her eyes to see everyone staring at her, all the while smiling, she couldn't help but to smile herself.

Mathorn was so gripped with emotion that he couldn't contain it, he ran over and gave his sister the biggest hug he had ever given anyone, even bigger than the one he gave his mother before he left for Coruscant.

Overwhelmed by the physical way her brother expressed his emotions, Tikala nearly blanked out as she was lifted up in the air, all his emotions were too much for her tuned senses.

Jonathan and Mile'giko, both wondered if they should intervene and stop Mathorn, but the keldorain master did nothing, so nor did they.

"They are cute together," Urr'Tar uttered with a smile, as he joyfully watched Mathorn dance around with Tikala.

"The boy has much passion. I wonder if he will ever be able to control it completely," Buz wondered for himself. "Did we make the right decision to let him train among us? Only time will tell."

Mathorn finally sat his, now dizzy, little sister down.

"Are you alright Tikala?" Mile'giko asked, worried about her friends wellbeing. Actually she was starting to be a bit afraid of this so-called brother, he seemed wild and out of control. He was nothing like what she had expected him to be, nothing like her sweet and calm friend.

Tikala took a moment to reply, and when she did, it was in a dizzy manner, "I... think so."

Mathorn just padded his sister on her spiky head while uttering, "Of course you are, you are my AWESOME! Little Sister! You can take much more than just a few statues, right sis?"

Buz decided that this was the time to intervene. "That's enough initiates, you all should go to your rooms and meditate on what you have experienced today," Buz commanded in a deep and friendly, yet firm voice.

"Yes master Buz," Tikala, Mile'giko and Jonathan said in unisons. Tikala was glad for the little relief, Mile'giko was glad to have an excuse to get away from Mathorn, Jonathan who had taken a backseat, just accepted the order as it was.

That left the two newcomers, "Seriously! But it was just getting fun?!" Mathorn complained loudly, staring angrily at the jedi master.

The rest of the group just looked in disbelief, that Mathorn disobeyed a direct order from a master.

"Go to your room," Buz enforced, with a hint of irritation in his deep synthetic voice.

"You are not telling me what to do OLD SPIES!" Mathorn spat back, now he was getting really angry.

Buz waved his hand in front of the upstart zabrak, while uttering the following words, "You want to go to your room and think about your behavior."

"I want to go to my room and think about my behavior," he replied in a distant, entranced voice. He turned around and wandered off like a droid.

"Why is Mathorn walking so weird? Is he drunk?" Urr'Tar muttered. To Urr'Tar, this had been a fun show, with a bit peculiar ending.

"Come on Urr'Tar, we should have been back by now," Jonathan called, urging him to follow.

"Okay," Urr'Tar replied in a low voice, where after he turned to the jedi master and said good bye in his own special way, "have a nice day scary man, don't murder people."

Buz chuckled a little, and replied in a friendly, but sarcastic tone, "Farewell initiates. I promise no one will be murdered."

Urr'Tar gave him an extremely wide and delighted smile, turned around and followed after Jonathan.