The day turned out to be as exhausting as the last one. Lakhri was genuinely thankful to Eeth for having spared him another day in the swamps. He and Flynt barely had time to talk as they rushed after goyts and tried to get them into the cargo bay without any of the other ones escaping. Around noon, he offered to swap one shift with Drex because the man seemed quite exhausted. Besides, Lakhri had some business to attend to that required him to go outside. "When I'm back, you take over the next shift in the swamps, instead of Drex," he told Flynt in a low voice as he left him with Drex. "I think Drex is reaching the limits of his endurance, even if he doesn't show it."

"You got it," Flynt replied.

It turned out that three persons were needed to look after the goyts on the ship, however, since there were not many left in the swamp; after a very quick lunch, Eeth declared that he, Raven and Flynt would try to round up the rest while Lakhri, Kaden and Drex handled the goyts on the ship. "Your job will be to fly the shuttle back and forth," Eeth told Flynt. "At this point, you had better make a trip every time Raven declares a section of the swamp to be empty, whether you have three or ten goyts in the back."

It was almost dusk when they came across the final section of swamp, and Raven was truly feeling the strain. "Three more and this area is clear," Raven told Eeth, leading him in the direction she sensed the goyts' presence only to come to a dead stop. She looked around then closed her eyes, a groan escaping on her exhale. "Well, shit and balls," she muttered, tilting her head back and squinting up, because low and behold, there, high up in the branches of a tall took tree, were three goyts huddled together.

Understandably, the more of their numbers vanished from the swamps, the more nervous the remaining animals became, and consequently the harder they proved to catch. "Two are a mated pair, the other one is just along for the ride. Safety in numbers and all," she explained. Goyts mated for life; thus, the team had come across many pairs and discovered their bonds to be comparable to those of sentient humanoids. Capturing one of a mated pair reliably resulted in one of two outcomes from the uncaptured mate; aggression, or fear and submission. The latter was easiest to deal with, but what worked best was trying to capture them at the same time. Raven raised her palm to shield her eyes from falling particles of bark as the unmated third wheel in this party took off into a branch slightly lower on an adjacent tree. "The female is dominant, so I'll take the pair. You go after the bachelor. Flynt should be back by the time we've got them, and if he's not, I can control them until he arrives." She reached out with the Force as she had done countless times this afternoon and focused on luring the female down. If that didn't work they had two options: knock them out and levitate them to the ground, or go up after them.

The teen swiped a hand across her brow. She was a hot mess after having had to crawl into a burrow after a clutch of babies and their mother. Calming the male and preventing him from taking chunks out of their legs had been problematic and the babies themselves were too small to walk more than a few steps without toppling over. Thankfully for all involved, once the mother was under her influence, the family became much easier to handle. Raven, however, came out of that encounter second best. She had mud and goyt shit from head to toe and smelt worse than their quarry…

While Eeth and Raven were busy chasing goyts, Flynt had shuttled a load of twelve goyts to their ship and just finished getting the last of them inside with Lakhri and Kaden's help. Drex was inside, trying to maintain some semblance of calm with mixed success; the goyts were curious critters once they no longer feared for their lives, and as such, were currently 'taste testing' anything and everything! "Raven doesn't think there are many more left. However, she suggests staying on another night and leaving tomorrow morning after a final sweep of the area," Flynt told Lakhri when Kaden had disappeared inside to help his master with "crèche duty" as he'd phrased it earlier. Flynt had been ultra-diligent to his duties all day and done his job with renewed vigour in the hopes that Lakhri would notice and perhaps reconsider punishing him for yesterday. Broaching that topic, however, had been difficult. He had spent the last few trips trying to find the perfect opportunity to bring that to the man's attention but had not found the right words. Deciding that he probably wasn't going to get another chance at privacy this day, Flynt coughed to clear his throat and hedged: "I'm tired. I've really had to push it today. Do you think you could, you know, consider my slate clean for yesterday?"

Lakhri, knowing Flynt as well as he did, had expected something like this, but that did not mean he had to like it. He treated Flynt to a glare that was remarkably like Eeth's. "You've got some nerve," he snapped. "Padawan, you royally messed up yesterday, and if you really think I should forego punishing you for this, that only shows you still don't get how serious it was. Which means I'll just have to work harder to convince you. I'm fine with that, but I doubt your bottom will be. Now take the speeder back to Eeth, he needs you."

Okay, so that was not the response Flynt had been hoping for, not in the least, and it took all his self-control not to start hurling arguments for his case at the man. He didn't, though. Instead, he inclined his head and uttered a quiet: "Yes, master."

"Back it up, we've got three more and then we are done for the day," Raven called to Flynt over her commlink. She and Eeth had been 'babysitting' their trio of goyts for the last ten minutes now, and Raven, for one, was keen to relax her Force hold over them.

Once inside the shuttle, Raven took the back seat, Eeth was riding shotgun and Flynt piloting. She noticed her Jedi nephew seemed a little dispirited but decided to hold her tongue until they had a moment of privacy.

That moment came shortly after they had offloaded the last few goyts. "What's wrong with you?" she whispered as they made their way to the outside hose pipe to wash some of the mud off; Raven needed it more than the others.

Flynt shrugged, the despondent response out of character for him. "Lakhri's gonna tear up my ass again."

"What, twice? For the same thing? That's unlike him."

"Maybe not for the same thing. I might have thought less of what happened than I should have, or at least that's what Lakhri thinks."

Raven remained silent, her expression conveying that she suspected there was more to this.

"And... I might have tried to talk my way out of it." He threw his hands up in the air. "I did a great job today, don't you think that should count for something?"

"You did," Raven agreed, groping for a towel which Flynt readily offered. She scrubbed the clean, fluffy cloth over her face and neck, Force, did it feel good to do that. "You forgot about rule number one: 'Don't let your mouth write a check your butt can't cash.' Trying to talk masters out of punishment is never a good strategy, at least in my experience. It usually ends badly."

Flynt scuffed at the dirt with the toe of his boot, splattering mud up his pant leg. "I had to try," he admitted, crouching so that he wasn't towering over her.

"Try what?" Kaden asked, rounding the side of their ship to rinse himself off. He wasn't nearly as bad off as Raven, but he was still covered.

"Try kicking your butt at Sim Swords, of course," Flynt shot back jovially. For some reason, he didn't want to go into this with Kaden right now.

"Right," Kade answered, unconvinced. Not that the boy cared. He just wanted to hose himself off and eat!

In the meanwhile, Lakhri, Drex and Eeth took turns taking a shower and looking after the goyts. When they had done so, and their padawans were taking over the refreshers, Lakhri helped Eeth prepare dinner while Drex was refilling the water troughs.

"You go out tonight," Lakhri told Eeth firmly. "You're the only one who hasn't been. And besides, you're exhausted."

"Nonsense," said Eeth brusquely. "Do you really consider me so old that I would be affected by a day's work?"

"I consider the work you put in today sufficient to exhaust you, regardless of your age," Lakhri said, raising his eyebrows. "Stop lying to yourself and to me. You're exhausted and you will go out. Take Raven if you like, the girl needs a break. Drex has already offered that he and Kaden will look after things while I – well, deal with Flynt."

"Alright," said Eeth, relenting. Thus, when they were seated around the table twenty minutes later, he said to Raven: "I will be going into town after dinner. Do you want to come?"

"Yes, Master, I do, but… I can't." she looked up at him with a pitiful expression. "My head is pounding from all the Force work. Would you help me sleep before you leave?" That, coming from Raven was new. The teen had always been up for anything and everything. However, it would appear that this mission had truly challenged her endurance.

Eeth had, of course, known that his padawan was tired, but that she wanted to go to bed this early was a first. He was also pleased with how responsible she was being over this. "Of course, padawan," he said gently. "I will not be long anyway."

Raven said goodnight to the others and left; she really was feeling the strain.

Kaden looked from Raven's retreating form to Eeth. He had enjoyed his time in Tuppset and would like to go out again. The problem with that was that he wasn't sure if Eeth or Drex would consent to it given the trouble he'd gotten into last night. "Can I go with you?" he asked Eeth.

Eeth raised his eyebrows. "Do you think you deserve that, after last night's behaviour?" he inquired. "Particularly if it means leaving your master to do all the work, since Lakhri and Flynt will be busy with other things?"

Did he think he deserved it? Well, maybe… Did he want to leave Drex with all the work? No… He hadn't thought of it like that. After all, the others had gone out and left Eeth to it the previous night and it hadn't seemed to be a problem. Kaden sighed but said nothing more. He was probably pushing his luck here anyway.

Eeth did not think there was a point in asking any of the others to keep him company. As he had said, Flynt and Lakhri were going to be busy. If he took Drex, Kaden would be left alone looking after the goyts, and he might just be a bit too young to handle that responsibility, especially since there were now nearly twice as many goyts as there had been last night! So he helped ease Raven's headache and provided her with a light sleep compulsion that had her asleep within minutes. Then he left on his own, intending to get an impression of the local lifestyle; that never went amiss, in his experience.

Meanwhile, Drex and Kaden went to look after the goyts and their excretions. It wasn't that Kaden wanted to get out of work, but he was fifteen years old and the idea of going into the city held more appeal than cleaning up goyt shit. He said none of this, though, and simply followed Drex into the cargo hold.

Lakhri asked Flynt to help him clear the table. When they had finished, he said: "Alright, padawan. Let's go to our cabin. Where I want to hear you tell me, once again, what exactly was wrong with your choices last night."

Flynt didn't want to have this conversation and it showed on his face as he closed the door to their cabin behind them. "Master, c'mon… Please," he whined, dragging a hand down his face.

"Please what?" asked Lakhri sternly. "Please let me get away with intolerable behaviour during a mission so I can think it's no big deal and do it again? No way. Forget it. As I've already told you, I want to hear what was wrong with your choices last night, not why you're unhappy with being punished."

"But I really won't do it again," the boy pleaded and dropped to his knees so he was eye level with the man, not that he met his gaze as he worked up the courage to restate his crimes. "I took Kaden into a club when underage to do so and consumed alcohol. Then I was showing off and lit fires and that was dangerous. When you called me on it, I didn't…" He blew out a sigh, his chest deflating. "I didn't take it as seriously as I should have." At this point, he looked at his master with a piteous expression.

"Exactly," Lakhri said grimly. He went to their refresher and brought a bucket in which he had stored three switches that he had cut in the swamps today. All of them were impressive, but they clearly differed in their level of severity.

"When I picked these," he told Flynt, "I thought I'd see what degree of insight you're displaying and then decide which one I'll use. Now, your inadvisable attempt at asking me to consider the slate clean means I definitely won't pick the lightest one. Since you finally managed to actually state what you did wrong without making excuses, though, I won't use the most severe one either."

He took the medium-sized switch out of the bucket and nodded towards the chair. "Bare your bottom and bend over," he said.

Lakhri's declaration had the teen horrified, and the look on Flynt's face said it all: fuck! At first, he thought Lakhri was planning to use all three at once. His relief at seeing that there was only to be one was short-lived, however, when he got a closer look at his choice. It was about the same length as Eeth's cane, although slightly less sturdy. Yep, on a bare ass that was going to hurt like an absolute bastard. He got to his feet, swiped sweating palms down his trouser legs and tried to hide the fact that he was shaking. He was a man now, men did not tremble over such things, they just didn't! However, the sight of his master holding that switch and the instructions that followed were making that edict difficult to follow through. Swallowing, he pulled the chair away from the desk and started to unbutton his pants. He wanted to plead, really he did! But the risk that Lakhri might just pick up that other switch was too high, so the teen lowered his trousers – he wasn't wearing undershorts given his ass had hurt when he woke up – and leant forward over the chair without comment. He trusted his expression to do the pleading on his behalf.

Unfortunately for Flynt, Lakhri had been raised by Eeth who was possibly the strictest master the Temple had to offer, and he had absolutely no qualms about doling out punishment when he felt it was warranted. Flynt was not meant to enjoy this, and Lakhri was going to make sure that he didn't. "When you're on missions," he said, stepping up beside Flynt, "you're supposed to behave responsibly. And that's even more the case when you're in charge of a younger padawan. You aren't a teenager wanting to have some fun, you're a Jedi who has a job to do. And your behaviour should reflect that. Last night it didn't, and that caused considerable danger. That's why you're being punished." He raised the switch and brought it down across Flynt's bottom with a snap. It left a vivid red welt in its wake. Lakhri nearly flinched in sympathy; he had always hated switches with a passion, which was exactly why he had chosen this implement: he really wanted to leave an impression. With that in mind, he dealt out a second stroke.

"Ow! OWWAH!" the teen bellowed. This hurt, it really fucking hurt! He took the chair legs in a death grip, twisted his ass away in an effort at avoiding the next stripe and started to deep breathe. He could get through this; he deserved it, after all, or so he told himself...

Lakhri dealt out a third stroke and said: "If you need help staying in position, say so. This is not over by a long shot." With this, he meted out the fourth stroke, which hit the undercurve of Flynt's bottom.

Flynt didn't respond, he was too wrapped up in the agony of each stroke to construct any sort of meaningful reply, at least for the first few. He did, however, manage a gasp at that fourth whack, and he rose up on his toes, his back arching in pain at the fifth. "OwwwwWWWWWaH!" he bellowed. His back arched and his hand reflexively reached back for a moment to rub out the sting. "No, wait!" he pleaded. Christ, he really didn't take punishment well, and as much as he tried to tough it out, it showed.

Lakhri swatted Flynt's hand away, but mildly; he knew that Flynt was not good at coping with pain, at least when he was not allowed to use the Force in order to deal with it, and he had never expected him to be able to take his punishment stoically. That said, Flynt was going to take his punishment nonetheless, stoically or not, and therefore Lakhri made good on his offer and used the Force to restrain the boy. He could still move, but it would require a strong effort to break his position, which Lakhri knew Flynt would not do. When this was accomplished, he continued to bring the switch down, covering Flynt's bottom with parallel lines, and he did not stop when he had reached a full dozen either.

The sounds coming from Flynt at each lick were truly impressive. It was half roar, half wail, and entirely deafening. When that twelfth smack landed, he allowed himself to relax a bit; swats with such implements usually came in sets of six or so said the unwritten law. Unfortunately for him, Lakhri wasn't done. He went wide-eyed at feeling another tap, then yowled as it landed with no less alacrity. Unable to stop himself, the teen started to sniffle. "Please, no. more," he managed to get out sans blubbering. "It hurts! I can't take anymore, pleeeease. I'm sorry. I'll never do anything like this ever again. I really mean it!"

"Good," Lakhri said grimly, and dealt out two more strokes in quick succession, reaching the count of fifteen. He waited for a moment until Flynt's answering shout had died down, then said much more gently: "Two more, padawan." The switch was rather worn down by this point, but he doubted that Flynt would notice, especially given the fact that these last two crossed all the other welts. Lakhri meted them out quickly, then released the restraint on Flynt and dropped the switch.

Flynt hoped fervently that the man wasn't going to give him his age in licks, but as the fifteenth smack landed, animating him in a way that would have amused him had he not been in such blinding pain, he realised that this hope was not to be. Two more! His ass couldn't take two more of these, but as he attempted to shift, he realised Lakhri was restraining him. Flynt knew he could break that hold if he tried hard enough. The thing was, despite wanting badly to jump up and hop around the room clutching his scorched ass, he wouldn't. It would achieve nothing more than prolonging his agony and possibly earning disapproval for his lack of self-discipline. Flynt tried to brace himself, but Lakhri did not disappoint, and by the time he was done with him, Flynt was openly sobbing. That had been among the more memorable of punishments, and he certainly would not be forgetting the lesson any time soon.

Lakhri had meant for the punishment to be memorable. This was partly due to Flynt's age. He was seventeen now and thus at a point where he was supposed to take responsibility not only for his actions, but also for the missions he was part of, and that was even more the case when he had to look after a younger padawan.

Lakhri helped Flynt up and handed him a handkerchief, which was a habit he had adopted from Eeth.

"Clean yourself up a little," he said gently. "Then let's talk." Had he been taller, he would have pulled Flynt into a hug, but as it was, this would have been awkward unless the boy knelt down; thus, Lakhri merely patted his back, letting him know that he was willing to provide a hug if Flynt wanted to.

When Flynt stood, he stumbled on his trousers but was quickly steadied by the smaller man. He couldn't talk yet, at least not without blubbering which was something he did not wish to do. Not only was it 'unmanly', but it was also embarrassing. So, he nodded once, accepted the handkerchief and walked stiff-legged into their private refresher. "Ow, fuck," he hissed to himself upon appraising the state of his backside; Lakhri had done a number on him. His ass sported seventeen welts, fifteen that tramlined down, and two that hashed them all. Each was raised and stung. Groaning, he left the inspection of his ass to concentrate on the other end, splashing his face with cool water and wiping it clean of snot and tears. Only when he had composed himself did he slide open the door and step back into their sleeping area. Flynt didn't say anything yet. He just moved silently to where Lakhri had just gotten up from his chair and knelt so they could be at eye level. "Sorry I was so irresponsible." He didn't need to ask to be forgiven as he knew he already was, so, he opened his arms and hugged his master, showing that he held no ill will and… wanting the comfort.

Lakhri returned the hug readily, stroking Flynt's back. Unlike Eeth, he did not find anything about this embarrassing. "I trust you not to do it again," he said softly. "I know I was harsh. And I'm not quite sure you understand why, so I'm going to try and explain. You are a senior padawan now, and stunts like the one you pulled yesterday aren't considered child's play any longer. More and more, you will be expected to contribute to missions on the same level as a full Jedi knight would. That means you can't content yourself with obeying orders; you need to feel responsible for the entire mission's success. You have seen how much responsibility Eeth entrusts Raven with. Well, the same will be expected from you very soon. And therefore, you will need to take this as seriously as you possibly can. Besides, younger padawans will be looking to you as a role model. You did a poor job with that where Kaden was concerned. See what I mean?"

Flynt appreciated the gesture. However when he started to talk the teen rested back on his heels. "Ahh," he hissed quietly, immediately rising into a kneeling position and regretting the move. He was miserable. His heart fell at hearing all that, but worse still was knowing that it was true. A hand reached back to cup at a throbbing ass cheek, and he tried to settle his backside between his calves in a more comfortable position. It wasn't going to happen fast, but he tried to cover that. "I know. I understand. I don't have any excuse for what I did, it was irresponsible, and..." He looked over at the man as he attempted to settle his ass into something that felt remotely comfortable, his expression uncharacteristically sombre. "Deceitful. I had hoped you wouldn't catch me out. We both had, actually," Flynt scratched at the back of his head at having ratted out Kaden, but figured the kid had already been dragged over the coals for his part in this cluster fuck.

"I'm glad you see that," Lakhri said kindly. "I knew you would." He smiled at Flynt and gave his back one last pat. "I want you to meditate for half an hour now," he said. "After that, I'll consider the matter closed. I will give you some bacta so you'll be able to sleep, alright?"

"Alright," Flynt quietly agreed. He didn't want to meditate, he really didn't! Regardless, the boy rose (his attempt at sitting was not going so well anyway) and lay on his bed. This approach worked for Flynt as he wasn't an overly fidgety personality. Still, he was in significant pain and it took a bit of concentration on his part to ignore.

As it was prone to do, the bacta stung like an absolute fucker initially. Thankfully, by the time the tube had been scraped clean, squeezed within an inch of its life and spread over the area in question, the teen was beginning to feel some relief. Finally! Discarding the empty tube over the side of his top bunk for now – he'd collect it in the morning – Flynt flicked his watch to light up the time. It wasn't late, but their lighting had been dimmed for sleeping shortly after he'd been given the tube of bacta, thus he couldn't see much past his hand. "You awake?' he asked Lakhri, probing their bond for an answer a bit too late. He hadn't been awake, but the man was now.

"Who's first up for goyt daycare tomorrow?" Flynt's question lodged in his throat as he hadn't actually meant to wake his master. It wasn't really important, not at all, he had simply wanted to talk for a while.

Despite having worked on the ship, as opposed to the swamp, for most of the day, Lakhri had been really tired and thus dozed off almost at once. However, he was awake instantly at Flynt's question. Recognising the emotional need behind the rather trivial inquiry, he slid down the ladder and sat on the edge of Flynt's bunk.

"No idea, but I'm sure Eeth will organise it most efficiently," he said wryly. "We're going to be off soon, in any case. Things are going to be a little quieter then, I hope. As long as we can keep the goyts from escaping the cargo bay."

Flynt heard the man moving and given that he didn't immediately speak there was a moment of trepidation there, but only a moment. When Lakhri sat at his side the teen relaxed. His feet had been stuck through the end rungs of the bed and it wasn't altogether comfortable on his stomach. Then again, he'd survived a hell of a lot worse than a short ass bed and a healing backside.

They talked for a little while, not about anything overly important and not for very long since Flynt was as tired as his master. Nevertheless, the consideration Lakhri had shown him had worked to quash the last of his restlessness. He reached out and put a hand on the man's forearm. "Thanks." He smiled, his bright white teeth standing out in the glow of his watch that had just lit up to display the passing of a full hour. The next few days were going to mean a lot of effort to keep the goyts in check, and everyone knew it.