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".
'Learning Self-Restraint', the sequel to 'Boring Diplomacy', is set three weeks after Eeth and Raven's return from the Hyperspace Communications Frequencies Conference on Borleias where both Eeth and Raven were deliberately infected with a virus. Eeth was hit with a severe, life-threatening mutant variant of the virus and was fighting for his life. He has since made sufficient progress to be allowed to return home, provided he takes it easy. Eeth is not very good at taking it easy, but he'll try to cope with the healers' demands – and Raven will try to make sure he does!
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.
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.
"Alright, you're good to go," said Master Healer Sopan after having checked her diagnostic scanner carefully one last time. "Report to us tomorrow morning and every second day after that. No workouts and no Force work for at least two weeks, until we give you permission. In fact, no work of any kind for the next two weeks! You will feel tired frequently at first. Take a nap whenever you do. Don't try to ignore your fatigue."
Eeth scowled. He had not taken naps since creche… well, no. As a matter of fact, he had not even taken naps in the junior creche since he had already been four when he had been brought to the Temple and had considered himself far too old for them. However, despite his displeasure with his instructions, he nodded.
"I will not," he said curtly. "Thank you, Healer Sopan. May I leave, then?"
"You may," said Healer Sopan. "Knight Lakhri, Raven, you look after him and see to it that he takes things easy."
Raven nodded her silent agreement and Lakhri grinned. "Taking things easy is one of the few things Eeth is not at all good at," he commented, winking at his former master. "Don't worry. We will take good care of him."
"That will not be necessary," said Eeth with dignity, rising from his bed a lot more slowly than he would have liked. But he had had to learn that rising fast was simply not a good idea in his current condition. "I will obey the healers' orders, of course."
He smiled at Raven who had been standing next to his bed and put a hand onto her shoulder. "Let us go home, then," he said.
"Slowly," Raven tacked on the end of Eeth's comment. She knew it wasn't going to be easy for Eeth to accept their help despite what the healers had ordered, so she simply planned to do her best.
The walk back to their quarters was indeed slow. In fact, it was as slow as she had ever recalled Eeth moving, but it gave her time to reflect on the past few weeks. Eeth's stint in the healers had been lengthy, during which time Raven had been goaded into a fight with Rayan. Yeah, to say that the consequences for that had been dire was a gross understatement. Thankfully, and due to stellar behaviour on her part, Eeth had relented and returned her lightsaber after one week, something for which she was truly grateful since enduring the sea of disapproval each time she left their quarters had been trying.
When they reached their quarters, Raven raced ahead and palmed open the door. "Home!" she announced, hopping her way into their common room. She truly was pleased to have Eeth back, and it showed in the way she danced into his bathroom to make sure he had a clean towel and that his bed was pulled up. It was not that she doubted Lakhri would fail to do so, but still, Raven wanted to be useful.
Eeth found himself unable to share her exhilaration for the simple fact that, even after having done no more than walk from the healers' wing to his quarters, he felt exhausted. Trying to appear as unfazed as he possibly could, he hung up his robe, pulled out a chair and sat down.
"Want some tea?" asked Lakhri, moving towards the kitchen.
"I will make us some," replied Eeth. "If you could let me pull off my boots first?"
Lakhri snorted. "Yes, you pull off your boots, and I make us some tea," he said. "You had better get used to us doing the work because we're not going to let you relapse. Your sickness was more than horrifying enough for our liking."
He shot Eeth a look that was as stern as any he had ever dared to point at his former master and marched into the kitchen. Eeth glared at his back, but made no move to get up. He would never have admitted it, but sitting felt good right now.
Raven squatted down and started unbuckling Eeth's boot for him, as Lakhri had done for her. She had appreciated it at the time. In fact, it had been a relief not to have to move again.
"I can do this myself, thank you," said Eeth and bent forward to reach down. It made his head spin and he could not quite prevent a small groan from escaping.
"Maybe, but you're gonna let me do it, right?" replied Raven. It hadn't really been a question; she continued messing with the buckles and started pulling off his boot all the same.
Eeth did not reply to that because the truth was that he was quite happy about not having to do this himself but was certainly not going to admit that pulling off his boots was exhausting to him. He hated being waited on! Exhaustion won over, though; he leaned back, closed his eyes briefly and let Raven do her job.
Raven was glad to be able to help him for a change. She removed both his boots and, despite wanting to, resisted the urge to toss them as Lakhri did; Eeth liked things to be tidy, after all. Thus, she placed them by the door, pulled off her own and put them alongside. She tossed a load of laundry, most of which was hers and Lakhri's, in to wash and then she made her way back into the common room where Eeth still sat motionless, looking even more tired than before if such a thing were possible. Raven sat on the floor and rolled onto her tummy, her palms supporting her chin just as Lakhri entered carrying a pot of tea and some cups.
Raven knew that Eeth would want her to stick to her normal routine, that he'd want no special treatment or coddling from anyone. Still, she would much prefer running after him to doing homework or chores.
Lakhri, however, would have none of it. "Raven, grab a cup of tea and get your maths homework," he said. "Do it lying on the floor if you like, but do it. We both know how long this stuff takes you. Eeth, you look as if you'd be better off on the couch."
He helped Eeth out of his cloak and hung it on the hook by their door. He couldn't have cared less himself, but knew how particular Eeth was about such things! When he returned, Raven was gone and Eeth was still sitting on his chair. Lakhri pointed his finger at the couch.
"Couch or bed," he said. "These are your choices."
Eeth raised his eyebrows. "Oh?" he said. "Do I get any say in this?"
"Not when you look as white as you do right now," said Lakhri. "Be reasonable. That's what you always aspire to, isn't it?"
Eeth had to smile at that. "Alright," he conceded and moved over to the couch with some effort. He had to admit that lying down felt even better than sitting.
When Raven re-entered their common room, she found Eeth lying on their couch, sleeping, his cup of tea sat untouched on the coffee table, and Lakhri was seated in one of the two chairs, sipping from his cup. She lay on the floor, threw one leg up the wall and powered on her datapad; this was going to suck, but then, it had to be done.
An hour later, Raven still lay on the floor scratching away on her datapad with a stylus. She hated maths, really, really hated it. However, her personal opinion had never gotten her out of doing the work before and she doubted it was about to start now. She was on the final page of geometry revision, a particularly boring section on the Pythabian theorem to be precise, when their washing machine stopped. "I'll get it," she announced quietly because Eeth was still sleeping. "You want a refill while I'm up?" she asked Lakhri, gesturing towards the empty teacup at Lakhri's side.
"No, thanks," Lakhri said with a smile, rising from his chair. "And I'll do the laundry. You finish your maths. When you're done, we can go to the gym. If Eeth is awake by then, he could come and join us. I'm sure he'd love to give instructions."
Deflated, the padawan flopped back down and huffed. Still, she didn't complain and got back to work because another cycle of remedial maths was not going to happen. Firstly, Eeth might just disown her, and secondly, well, how embarrassing. No thank you; once had been more than enough.
Eeth woke up after half an hour, feeling a little stronger, and he readily agreed to accompany the two to the gym. He asked Lakhri to fill him in on what they had been doing in the past weeks. It had not been much since Raven herself had been recovering from her illness; that and the fact that Eeth had taken her saber away for a week. However, during the past few days, Lakhri had started to revise the last kata Raven had worked on with Eeth before their mission, and that was what he took up again now.
Eeth sat on a bench and observed them. Raven was a natural with a saber but she was still learning and some of her moves lacked precision. He had to fight the urge to stand up and correct Raven's grip on her saber.
"You need to grip your saber lower," he called, but his voice was not very strong yet and it went unheard as Lakhri had just started instructing Raven on precisely what Eeth had been meaning to tell her.
Eeth closed his eyes and leaned back, suppressing a sigh. He hated feeling useless. But it seemed as if he had no choice.
Lakhri glanced at Eeth and understood the problem immediately. This was not working out as he had thought it would. Deciding to change tactics, he said: "Let's do some freestyle sparring. Eeth can give you advice. If you manage to score three hits, I'll order some Careenian food for us tonight."
Eeth raised his eyebrows. "You mean, if she manages to score three hits, you will reward yourself with your favourite food? Very well. Raven, if you manage to score five, you get to choose the type of food and the order will be on me."
Raven smirked; she did like Lakhri's style. "Okay, but –" She paused, twirling her saber a few times and turning to face Eeth. "How am I supposed to score five? He's impossible to catch," she told him. Eeth had always set the bar high when it came to her training, so this wasn't exactly unexpected. Still, catching Lakhri five times at all, let alone having to win a point to boot, was a feat in and of itself.
Eeth raised his eyebrows. "You are supposed to heed my advice, of course," he said. "Be mindful of the Force, and of our bond. I will guide you. If you follow that guidance and put in a real effort, you will stand a fair chance."
"A fair chance? But–" She looked from Eeth's steadfast expression to Lakhri, who in her opinion was uncatchable, then back again. Her shoulders slumped. She was defeated; this wasn't an argument she was going to win. Huffing, the padawan closed her eyes. Eeth's presence stood out like a beacon and she followed the well-worn path that connected them through the Force, to the place where their connection merged.
The first five minutes they accomplished little. Raven was exceptional with her lightsaber; she had been in Eeth's advanced lightsaber class, after all. The thing was that she wasn't used to relying on him to this degree. Well, if she was going to have any chance at catching Lakhri and winning her choice of dinner, she was going to have to concentrate and make a real effort, something she was certain her master knew. It was another few minutes before the first point was scored, and then five more before the second. By the time Raven had scored three, she was beginning to tire. Still, she was anything if not tenacious when it came to her physical training, and she continued after pausing just long enough to swipe at her forehead with a sleeve.
Eeth was proud of his padawan. He was also starting to tire, again!, which was immensely annoying. Staying focussed on the fight, connecting with his padawan through their bond and calling out the occasional bit of verbal advice should not have required an effort, but it did. Nevertheless, he could not very well deny his padawan the chance to try scoring five hits now, so he decided to keep going for as long as she would.
Lakhri, however, was keeping an eye on Eeth and noticed that he looked exhausted. When Raven had managed to score her fourth hit (which Lakhri had not made a maximum effort to prevent, if he was being honest with himself), he called the fight to a stop.
"You sure you will make it home if we continue this?" he asked Eeth. "I don't particularly want to have to bring you home on a stretcher, and I assume neither do you."
Eeth clenched his jaw. Lakhri was right and Eeth hated to admit it but what was the point of refusing to do so? "You are right," he conceded. "I will need to go home if I want to make it on my own feet. Raven, do you want to continue without my help?"
Raven treated him to an accusatory frown. "No, I want to make sure you make it back to our quarters without collapsing," the padawan replied, her tone conveying that she wasn't altogether pleased that he had pushed himself so hard.
"Alright, then," said Eeth wearily, rising from the bench with considerable effort. "You two, take a shower. I will start heading home. At my current pace, you will probably catch up with me before I reach my quarters."
Lakhri's frown was now matching Raven's. "No, we're coming with you," he said. "We can take a shower later. Come on, let's go." He was definitely not going to leave Eeth to his own devices. Among other things, he did not feel like explaining to Healer Sopan why Eeth had collapsed in the corridor and nobody had been there to help!
Raven tended to agree with Lakhri, and after gathering her things, she followed them from the training room. Of course, she had not forgotten about making that final point, it was now just a matter of timing. So it was that as the turbolift opened, and Eeth had stepped well out of the way, Raven launched herself at Lakhri, intending to wrap herself around him and, well, sit on him or something. Nevertheless, he was going down. Why? Um, well, because it was the only way she'd get that point, not that it would count and not that she particularly cared. Not really; she just wanted to try catching him out and was feeling playful. Besides, it was a totally random attack, in a totally random place. That had to count for something, right?
Unfortunately for Raven, taking Lakhri off guard was not that easy. It ended up with her sprawled on the floor and Lakhri grinning down at her.
"C'mon," he said, reaching out a hand to help her up. "You really did well. I'll let you pick anyway. I can have Careenian food any old day, after all. What would you like?"
Raven stared up at him, a mock indignant expression on her face. Where had she gone wrong? It had been the perfect place, perfect timing, perfect execution! Then she was on the floor. She huffed and blew a strand of fringe from her face. "One day I'll get you," she told him, accepting his hand up. Raven wasn't at all annoyed, not even a little, so the expression did not last longer than it took for her to announce her choice in dinner. "Alderaanian. It's not too smelly and still has a lot of taste." Raven was mostly thinking of Eeth here.
"Alright," said Lakhri, stepping into the turbolift where Eeth was leaning against the back wall, watching the two with a half-indulgent, half-impatient impression on his pale, drawn face.
"You did well, padawan," Eeth said quietly when Raven had entered and the lift took off.
"Thanks," Raven said, managing to hide the grin on her face by pretending to redo her hair. Eeth wasn't the sort of master to shower her each and every achievement in praise, so when it was received it was appreciated all the more.
"Admit it, you enjoy bullying me," said Eeth to Lakhri as they made their way to their quarters at the fastest pace that Eeth was capable of right now, which he found annoyingly slow.
"What?" Lakhri asked in surprise. "I'm not bullying you, I'm taking care of your health."
"And yet, you enjoy ordering me around," Eeth stated.
Lakhri grinned. "Yes, I do," he said cheerfully. "Consider it payback for the umpteen gazillion times that you've ordered me around. Besides, I only give orders that would get the full support of all the healers in the Temple if things were put to a vote."
"I know," Eeth said begrudgingly. "That is the only reason I am following them. If you want to order people around, get yourself a padawan."
Lakhri's grin broadened. "If the Force leads the right person to me, I daresay I will," he replied.
"I hope it does, because I'd love it if you got a padawan. Imagine the fun we could have ganging up on you," quipped Raven as she palmed open their door and waited for them to catch up.
"You'll have to get a lot faster if you want to catch me," said Lakhri wryly, letting Eeth enter first and following him inside. "I'll order food, you look after Eeth. He looks as if he's about ready to collapse."
"I am not," said Eeth with dignity, yet he leaned against the wall to catch his breath.
"You are," said Raven, helping him over to the chair and out of his cloak. As before, the padawan pulled off his boots and put them by the door, and then sat to pull off her own. "You thirsty?" she asked Eeth, hopping up and sitting on the coffee table opposite him. He looked kinda pale, which wasn't really a good sign.
"Yes," said Eeth, "and I will need to take some medication before dinner, I think. Could you get me the bag the healers have given me?"
Nodding, Raven went to find the bag he was talking about. On the way back out, she stopped by their kitchen and filled a glass of water. Unsure what he had to take, but curious to know, Raven sat the glass of water where Eeth could easily reach it, and then she sat on their coffee table cross-legged and emptied the pills out to examine them.
"I am perfectly capable of managing my own medication without you spreading it all over the table," said Eeth severely. "Please put it all back into the bag and give it to me."
While he was waiting for Raven to comply, he closed his eyes and sagged back into his chair. He would never have admitted it, but he was looking forward to tomorrow morning when Raven was going to be in school and Lakhri teaching his own classes. That way, he might be able to just sleep without feeling embarrassed about it!
Raven looked up from the pill package she had been reading and frowned. "I'm only looking," she defended herself, yet given the state of him, she decided it probably wasn't a good idea to add to his woes right now. Eeth was positively ashen.
"No need," murmured Eeth but it had no bite to it. He simply wasn't up to it right now.
Dinner was not as lively as it usually was. Still, the silences were comfortable and the food good. "That was worth those four and a half points," said Raven. "Yes, I'm granting myself half a point for that final effort because, despite the fact that id didn't work, it was well thought out and executed."
"Bollocks," said Lakhri, grinning at her. "If you really want to surprise me, you need to stop projecting through the Force. And that one's going to take a while for you to master."
Raven huffed at hearing that. Why was it that everything worth doing took so freakin' long? She didn't get a chance to voice that, though, as Eeth spoke up, drawing her attention.
"And even then, it might not work on Lakhri," said Eeth who was struggling with his soup and was thankful to get a moment's reprieve. "His Force awareness is excellent."
"Ah, now you've made me blush," said Lakhri who was, indeed, blushing. "Eeth, you look like you're going to fall off your chair any moment now. Eat another bite of bread, another spoonful of soup, and then we'll help you go to bed."
"I do not need help with that," said Eeth automatically. "And it is still way too early."
"And yet, you look exhausted," said Lakhri. "Try without help if you must. But call us if you need to. Please."
Eeth sighed. "Alright," he said and finally braved his spoonful of soup.
Raven felt for Eeth, really she did! Still, he seemed to bear it with dignity despite his current condition. When he left the table and was out of earshot, she looked to Lakhri. "I can clean up out here if you want. If he needs help, it's probably going to be easier on him if you go as I don't think I can lift him if he falls." Well, technically Raven could use the Force, but levitating the poor man across the room was not going to help him retain the contents of his stomach.
"We can clean up together," said Lakhri. "I suppose he'll take quite some time to get changed into his pyjamas on his own. But he won't ask for assistance if he can help it and I can kind of see why he wouldn't."
When Eeth was finally in bed, half an hour later, Lakhri checked Raven's homework and granted her some time on the holo. Then he sent her off to bed, too, and left for his own quarters. Eeth had assured him that he and Raven would manage without Lakhri's help in the morning. Lakhri just hoped that was true. Just to make sure, he had asked Raven to call him if they needed him.
The following morning Raven woke to a familiar silhouette in her doorway. She smiled. Eeth's tall frame and horned head stood out clearly with the light behind him; she had missed him, and sent him as much across their bond. "I'm up, I'm up!" the girl groaned, if only to keep with tradition, and poured herself out of bed to get ready for classes.
Eeth had taken a shower and got dressed before he had woken Raven, as usual, although much to his discontent, that had made him feel about ready to go back to bed. He did not let this on, however. While Raven got ready for the day, he prepared some porridge and tea. Not the most sophisticated breakfast, but the most he could handle right now, and something he would be able to stomach, too.
Fifteen minutes later, a freshly-showered and cleanly dressed apprentice entered their common room, still doing her braid as she moved. "Master," she greeted him with a bow. "I'll make us some breakfast. What do you think you can stomach?" She looked around but did not see or sense Lakhri, so she assumed he must have gone home after she'd gone to bed.
"I have already prepared breakfast," replied Eeth. "I have not set the table yet, though. Unfortunately, I am not as fast as I would like to be."
Noticing her searching look, he added: "Lakhri moved back to his own quarters last night. He has his own duties to perform, after all. He will help out whenever we need him to, especially with your training; but we will need to adapt that to his schedule."
Ignoring his comment about Lakhri, Raven stuck her head around the corner to find a pot covered with a lid sitting on their cooker. Well, that explained why she hadn't smelt it. "Hey, you're supposed to be taking it easy, you could have at least allowed me to make breakfast for us," she told him in a tone that sounded rather reproving for her.
"I am already taking it a lot easier than I would like," Eeth replied severely. "That does not mean I cannot make tea or prepare porridge. Besides, you were still asleep. And I will be able to rest during the whole morning while you are at school. Now, might we perform our morning meditation or do you have any objections to that as well?"
Raven's frown deepened. "Getting up at the ass-crack of dawn to make breakfast isn't exactly taking it easy, and no, I don't think we should do our morning meditation. I think you should eat some breakfast and go back to sleep. I can take care of myself and clean up here," she told him. Raven knew she was pushing it, but well, she was concerned, and perhaps enjoying the opportunity to boss Eeth around just a little bit.
Eeth, however, was not prepared to let his padawan boss him around. He wanted to return to his usual routine as fast as possible, and he felt that Raven needed him to as well. What was more, he knew himself to be perfectly capable of heeding the healers' advice without her intervention. These thoughts showed in the glare he was now levelling at her.
"Padawan, you are not going to tell me what to do and what not to do," he said in a dangerously low tone of voice. "If you seriously think my illness is an excuse for you to get out of your morning meditation, think again. I am definitely not too weak to meditate, and even if I were, I would be able to find that out for myself. There is no need for you to organise my schedule."
He pointed at their meditation mats, the look on his face clearly telling her that if there was one more attempt at backtalk, his paddle was coming out. A paddle that he had resumed wearing in his belt as per this morning.
Squared stance and rigid posture? Check. Withering glare? Check. Deceptively calm and low tone of voice? Check! Yep, all the signs were there, right down to the furrowed brow. She opened her mouth to argue this; after all, she was meant to be looking after him, not the other way around! But then Raven thought better of it. Firstly, fighting him was only going to work against his recovery, and secondly… Well, she didn't want to find out if he was capable of busting her ass or not! She held his gaze for a long moment and then acquiesced. "Alright, then. But if you relapse, I'm totally telling the healers on you." It was about as much cheek as she dared give.
Eeth nodded curtly and knelt, beckoning for Raven to assume her usual spot opposite him.
Meditation had come hard to the fidgety padawan. She had trouble keeping still, was flighty and generally an energetic personality. It hadn't been until the Jedi Council needed her to access their training bond to ascertain Eeth's life status during a mission that she had managed to make serious progress in her mental discipline. In fact, her hard-won success during that time of crisis had been the event that had prompted Eeth to allow her to build a real lightsaber.
Nowadays Raven enjoyed most meditation. She knelt opposite and closed her eyes. It was clear that Eeth was tired, yet he didn't appear to be pushing himself too far. Raven thought that it felt as if he were riding the line, yet it was hard to tell as he could be shielding parts from her. When Eeth called their meditation to an end, Raven was reluctant to stop, her reasoning being that she wanted to help him heal. Okay, so at twelve, she wasn't going to be able to offer much. Still. She opened her eyes and gave him a questioning look. "You sure you're not going to fall in a heap if I go to classes? I could stay and make you tea all morning instead."
"You," said Eeth, "are going to classes. I hardly need you to watch me rest." He was certainly not going to let Raven miss a morning's worth of classes just because he was ill!
Raven wasn't exactly pleased with that answer, yet she did not argue with him and went to do her morning chores.
Keeping up with their ordinary morning schedule was demanding, Eeth had to admit to himself; but since he knew that he would have ample opportunity to lie down once Raven had left for school, he was not overly concerned. Besides, meditating with Raven had been helpful. He had got used to drawing on the Force whenever he felt the need as a very small child, living on the streets of Nar Shaddaa, and the habit had never left him. Feeling considerably strengthened after their morning meditation, he was well able to make it through breakfast and even to clear the table.
The rest of the day passed uneventfully. Eeth went to see the healers as per instruction a little before lunch. His progress was declared satisfactory; in fact, he thought he already needed a little less sleep than he had yesterday. Still, he allowed Lakhri to send him off to take a nap while Raven and Lakhri went to the gym to work on Force-enhanced running; in return, he helped Raven with her homework after that. By the time she had gone to bed, he felt about ready to collapse himself; but he was glad to have survived a fairly normal day without significant problems.
The following day went much the same, the only difference being that Raven got up early in an effort to make Eeth breakfast in bed. This failed spectacularly, though, as the bleary-eyed, sleep bedraggled apprentice practically fell over him on her way to his room. He was already up and in a deep healing trance.
That evening Raven was sent packing after dinner to study maths: the bane of her existence. Thanks to Lakhri, Eeth had relented on his edict to fill her every waking second with maths, mostly because Lakhri had run out of exercises he could set Raven, yet she still had a lot of maths to do. Yeah, it was nice having Lakhri around. He was the easy-going petunia in what could at times be considered an onion patch of adults in her life.
Lakhri stuck around long enough to help her with some of her maths, then Eeth took over when the knight had to leave to prepare for his own class the following day. For the first time, Eeth managed to stay awake for a little while longer after he had sent Raven to bed, which definitely counted as progress.
"You're feeling better," Raven said the following morning over breakfast. Eeth had been home for three days now and although he was still far from recovered, his colour was beginning to return.
"I am," Eeth affirmed. "I might not actually have to go back to bed once you have left for school. I will make use of the time to catch up on galactic events. Oh, and I have booked us the obstacle course for this afternoon. Lakhri will not be around since he has to teach a full-day mission preparation class for senior padawans, so we need to do something that I will be able to coach you through without physically exerting myself. Please come home right after lunch so you can put in some homework before we leave."
If he was referring to the obstacle course Raven was thinking of, it was one of her favourite gym activities! It was fraught with challenges, everything from crawling through mud pits to scaling Force-sensitive trees to obtain specific markers needed to progress to the next level. The mention of study, however, wasn't as well received. Still, she nodded her compliance. After being sent back to redo her braid, she left for the day's classes.
Unbeknownst to Raven, today was not going to be a typical day as classes went. Usually she met with her friends, they found a spot to sit and worked. Boring. Today, their maths and Basic teachers had decided to do things a little differently: their two classes were going to be combined. It wasn't a huge deal as there were only three kids in her remedial class, which Raven suspected played a part in why they'd decided to group them. Still, a double practical lesson where they would get to use the theories and skills they'd learned in real situations was music to her ears; anything that got her out of the classroom was cause for a mini celebration in her opinion.
"Wow, I never would have believed it if I didn't see it with my own eyes: a practical use for algebra outside of astrophysics," said Raven, garnering several nods from her small group as they made their way back to the classroom to write up their notes.
"Speaking of practical applications," Bindi, a pink Twi'lek who Raven had befriended thanks to Orion, said. "My master just got back from her mission and she bought me a new holo game. It's a learning game, of course, meant to help me with my Bothese. You're all welcome to come and play it with me if you like," she told the group.
"Count me in. I could use the help," said Fae'lin, a small changeling child who was also in Bindi's Bothese class.
Raven nodded; she was 'in' also. The only challenge now would be convincing Eeth to let her exchange their study session with this one. While everyone was making the relevant calls to gain permission, Raven punched in the code for Eeth's private comlink. She wasn't kept waiting long, and soon a small holographic image of a rather tired-looking Zabrak hovered above her palm.
"Master," she greeted him, inclining her head slightly. "Some friends are going to Bindi's to study. Can I go, too? I will be back in time for our gym session, promise."
Eeth considered this request. He tended to give Raven some leeway where her training and chores were concerned as these were rarely a problem, but the same could not be said for her academic classes, as was proven by the fact that she currently had to take remedial maths. He had his doubts as to the amount of studying Raven would get done when she met up with friends.
"Study what, and how?" he inquired.
"We're going to study language." Raven wasn't sure how to answer the 'how' so she didn't.
"What language?" asked Eeth, immediately catching on to the evasiveness.
He just had to ask that, thought Raven, and her face fell a little despite an effort to look unfazed. "Bothese. It's a new interactive holo game and it sounds like fun." Raven wasn't sure Eeth knew the meaning of the word, and the fact that Lakhri had made endless jokes to this effect reinforced her conviction.
"In that case," Eeth replied coolly, "you may have fun after having completed your duties. Studying Bothese is currently not among them. If you are interested, take the subject in the upcoming cycle. Right now, maths should be your prime concern. Please come home right after lunch just as I told you."
"Aw, c'mon, don't be like that. I've been doing nothing but maths for forever now. Can't you reconsider, just this once? Pleeease?"
"No," said Eeth stoically.
Raven huffed. That wasn't the answer she wanted to hear. Still, there wasn't exactly a lot she could say to counter such a deadpan, monosyllabic response. She glared holes in his hologram for a moment before nodding once, and ending the transmission. As far as Raven was concerned, she got far too little time to socialise and play as it was, and she spent the rest of their walk to the dining hall complaining about just that.
Lunch with her friends was just what Raven needed to blow off some steam. There was something cathartic about sitting with a bunch of your peers griping over what a slave driver each of their masters were. So it was that when Raven returned to their quarters after lunch, she was no longer annoyed at Eeth for not allowing her to go with the others. At least not totally.
"Good afternoon, padawan," said Eeth, emerging from his room and giving her a small smile. He had been waiting for her to come home because after a morning spent reading, mostly on the couch, and a lunch that he had ordered in from the dining hall, he was now, much to his disgust, in urgent need of a nap.
"Please start on your homework and your maths," he told Raven. "I need to rest for a while before we go to the obstacle course. I booked the room for half past four, so there is still plenty of time."
"Half past four," she repeated slowly, throwing a glance at her watch. That would give her two hours to study. Bleh! The truth was she'd rather eat bantha balls than spend the next two hours working on this. Well, perhaps not really but that was how she felt at the moment, especially when she knew most of her friends were at Bindi's having fun. Besides, it wasn't like she had much of a choice here. Or did she?