Chapter 8

Zack and Dyna were walking to the outskirts of the town of Jovin 3. The change in scenery became more obvious the further away they got from the town's centre. The grey and brown of the hard town surfaces were gradually replaced by the green grass of rolling hills.

"I don't see why we have to go this far for you to teach me Jedi stuff." Dyna grumbled.

"Because if anyone knew I was teaching you 'Jedi stuff', or if anyone even figured out that I know 'Jedi stuff' then we'd be putting a big target on ourselves." Zack answered. "And anyways, it's best to start your lessons in a quiet place with few distractions."

They were forced to stop when they heard a feint voice in the breeze calling to them. They looked back to see an old Toydarian flapping his wings towards them. "Beware..." The old Toydarian said. He had on rags and was dirty with a few small holes in his poor looking wings. It was obvious that this being was one of the town's poorest inhabitants.

"Beware what?" Zack asked.

"The Rogue Ramlon," the old man said in a rusty voice. "The Rogue Ramlon went so insane that its own herd abandoned it. Now, it lives alone on the outskirts of town, madly attacking anything that moves."

"If you ask me, the Ramlon isn't the crazy one." Zack said before turning around and walking on. Dyna looked at the man floating above her. She felt sorry for him as she knew the sting of poverty all too well. "Come on, Dyna!" Zack said having placed some distance between them,

Dyna tore her eyes from the old man as she ran to catch up with Zack. "Don't you think we should be careful of the Rogue Ramlon?" Dyna asked when she caught up and began walking beside him.

Zack snorted at her comment. "The old Toydarian is obviously mad. Pay him no attention." He said waving the notion of the man away.

Dyna sighed before looking back at the old male one last time and saw his steady gaze trained on them as they got further and further away from town.

/

Dyna was standing blindfolded while Zack slowly circled her. In her left hand was Zack's ignted lightaber. The blade looked thinner in the daylight and as usual it had a green halo near the base. The constant hum of the lightsaber seemed to play in tune with Zack's voice as he lectured her in ways of the Force and lightsaber combat.

"...the lightsaber should become an extension of you. It is your life and will help you if used properly. You see anyone can use a lightsaber but one who is sensitive to the Force can truly master it." Zack said while picking up stones.

"The Force?" Dyna said listening intently to Zack's movements.

"Yes the Force. It's all around us; it permeates us; it binds us..." Zack continued talking while picking stones. He stopped picking stones when he had a handful of them. "You need to use it to defend yourself now. Feel it and let it guide you to my actions."

Dyan raised the lightsaber in a guarded position while holding it with both hands. Zack threw a stone which connected with the side of her head. "Owe!" She exclaimed before swinging at the air, way too late. Zack changed positions and threw another stone. This one connected with her shoulder, which made her swing uselessly again.

Zack noted the shift in her stance and head movements in response to his moving around her. "Well, at least you're using your senses. It's a good habit of a fighter but a Jedi uses The Force when his senses become inadequate" He said before throwing another stone that connected with her hand.

He began circling her faster and threw stones at a higher frequency. She swung the lightsaber but the stones seemed to get through her defences. She grunted in pain as more and more of the stones pelted her. Zack eventually ran out of projectiles.

Dyna removed the blindfold and deactivated the lightsaber. "A bit rough for a first lesson, don't you think?" She said rubbing the spots the stones had connected with.

"It could be worse." Zack said as he picked up more stones. "Well? Put the blindfold back on."

Dyna sighed before she pulled the blindfold back over her eyes and activating the lightsaber.

/

The training had ended with limited success. The sun had already begun to sink below the horizon, colouring the sky in a magnificent orange and purple light. They walked through the grassy fields on their way back into the town and back into their ship.

"...so Jedi were not allowed to have attachments?" Dyna said reflecting on some of today's lessons.

"Well, I wouldn't say not allowed but more of... strongly discouraged.

Dyna was quiet for a while before she asked her next question. "So what's Lona to you?"

"What? Uhm..." Zack uncomfortably thought of an answer. He looked at Dyna who just stared at him while waiting for an answer. If he was honest with himself, he was not exactly sure what his relationship with Lona exactly was but he knew that it was definitely an attachment. "Lona and I... are complicated."

To his relief, Dyna asked no more questions on his relationship with Lona. Zack continued to explain or more accurately, repeat some of the concepts he had learned about being a Jedi while they once again entered the town. Dyna's stomach began to grumble and she held it in her hands.

"Next time we should bring some rations. I've been hungry for a while now."

"Agreed!" Zack concurred as he could not bare to ignore his hunger any more.

/

They headed out for the same place where they trained the day before. This time they had a bag that had food for when they grew hungry. Dyna carried the bag on her back while Zack strolled freely, enjoying the leisurely walk. As they crossed from concrete to grass and earth they saw the same old Toydarian sitting on a rock. When he saw the two, he began to hover in the air. "Beware..." He began.

"Yeah, old man. We heard your story yesterday." Zack said passing the man while raising his hand to the Toydorians long snouted face.

Dyna looked sadly at the man as she followed her master. She stopped and placed the bag that was around her shoulders on the ground. She produced a portion of the food and placed it on a napkin which she placed on the green ground for the Toydorian. She smiled at the old man before she ran after Zack. The old man happily flew to the food that was left for him.

When she caught up, Zack kept walking, acting like he had not noticed her short absence or the kindess she had shown the old Toydorian. He did not speak until they reached their secret training spot.

/

Dyna was being pelted by stones from seemingly all directions. She swung the lightsaber wildly in an attempt to defend herself.

"You can't just swing the lightsaber in hopes of hitting something!" Zack scolded as he ran around her. "Someone will get hurt if you do that and that someone will most likely be YOU!" He said increasing the frequency of the stones he threw.

Dyna stood stationery as stones were thrown from different directions. It was like she was in the middle of a stone throwing vortex. "Maybe... ow ...I should take... ow.. take off the blindfold for a while." Dyna said while trying to defend herself from the furious stones hurled at her. "You know... owe... crawl before I walk."

"We live in a dangerous galaxy, especially if you're a Rebel even more so when you're a Jedi. For us, there is no crawling, there is no walking! You hit the ground running or you DIE!" He said throwing three stones simultaneously.

Zack's words affected her. They forced her to concentrate and in a split second, she knew that three stones were heading for her. She knew where, they were, the angle they were thrown and how fast they were moving. She deployed the lightsaber stances that Zack had taught her to parry the two stones, which sizzled in half as soon as they touched the green laser blade, and finally slashed at the last stone.

Zack stopped and smiled. He had run out of stones but was happy that his pupil had defended his last attack. "That was... better."

Dyna lifted her blindfold to look at her master. "Did I do good?"

"Yeah. In a decade or so you should be average." Zack said.

"Pfft! Can we have a lunch break, Master?"

Zack beamed at being called Master. They had been training for hours. "Wouldn't you prefer if we ate a little later?"

"I'm hungry now." Dyna said in a whiney voice.

Zack rolled his eyes and nodded. He suggested that they eat at the top of a raised plain with a tree for shade as the spot they were training at was a rocky patch of earth with no grass or shelter from the sun. They began setting up their rations on a powder blue blanket under the shady spot of the tree at the top of a grassy hill.

"What happened to the Jedi?" Dyana asked as she withdrew a container with food from their ration bag.

"The Jedi were betrayed by the very Republic they served." Zack said as he sat down on the blanket crosslegged. "They were destroyed during what we call the Jedi Purge and with the Jedi gone there was one less thing stopping the Republic from becoming what we now know as the Empire."

"How did you survive the Jedi Purge?" She continued to ask as she took out two small metal cups.

"It probably has something to do with the fact that I'm not a Jedi." He said. He noticed the curious look on her face and waited a little to let the tension build before continuing. "When I was admitted into the Jedi Temple, I was older than the other younglings, this made the masters reluctant to teach me. As I attended they found me too... aggressive, so they expelled me... honourably." He added the last part after he saw the worried look on Dyna's face.

"So although you're my Master, you're really not a master." Dyna giggled. "A master who's not really a master."

"A master who's not a master is better than no master." Zack said pouring a purple drink they had brought with them in a metal cup. "And anyways, I'm a master at other things too. "After my time with the Jedi, I became a cab driver on Coruscant. I eventually moved to the outer rim planets where I could get more credits for doing more than just driving taxis. By that time I had forgotten all about the Jedi and The Force. That is until the Purge happened and a Padawan, who I was friends with back when we both were younglings dropped Sauvin's holocron and lightsaber on my lap before he died of injuries sustained while running away from Clonetroopers. And just like that I was launched into the life of a Rebel and became a Jedi in training."

"hmm... sounds tough." She said as she opened the container with her food. "Could you pass the juice please?"

"Take it." Zack with a sly smile.

Dyna sighed as she knew, from his look, how Zack wanted her to take it. She held her hand out as she focused on the bottle with the purple juice. The bottle began to tremble under her power. The trembling of the bottle soon increased and became more noticeable as it jostled the liquid in it about. It leaned towards Dyna and slid for a few centimetres before fall over. Dyna sighed again and reached forward to take the bottle in her hands before pouring the liquid into her cup.

Zack simply smiled at her effort before eating. Dyna soon finished her portion of the food and gladly ate all of Zack's when he offered her what he did not eat. With lunch concluded they began their training again. As with the previous day, they trained until the sun began setting and went back to their ship after.

/

They woke up the same time the next day and began their journey to their training spot.

"Master, do you have enough time to train... you know, for yourself?" Dyna asked while walking with Zack.

"I've been training during the past two days." Zack said.

"What? I haven't seen you!" Dyna said, sceptically.

"What do you think I do when Buck forces you to go to bed?"

Dyna narrowed her eyes at him as he looked past his long neck-length hair at his eyes and noticed the little bags under his eyes. "You train all night?"

"Almost," he says. "To be honest, I'm a little anxious to get off this rock and do what we set out to do."

"Buck told me that the Engineer working on the ship may finish today." Dyna said trying to get his hopes up.

"Let's hope so." Zack said before they arrive at the usual spot where they saw the old Toydorian.

Zack did not even bother talking to the man as he warned them about the Rogue Ramlon. Dyna unpacked some food for the man as he spoke and as Zack walked away, not missing a step. She had made sure to pack away extra food for the poor old Toydorian.

They reach the spot where they trained and began. Dyna went through the stances that she was taught and that she could remember.

"This is an energetic style. It's called Form IV, Ateru." Zack said as he analysed her movements to make sure they were executed correctly. To say the least, he was not impressed. "I learned the style during my time at the Jedi Temple and from Sauvin's holocron."

"Yeah?" Dyna said feeling breathless, while continuing to fight an invisible opponent. "It's a fun!"

"Fun?" Zack said raising an eyebrow. "It's not supposed to be fun. There should be little to no emotion during combat." He said feeling a little guilty because he enjoyed the style too.

Dyna jumped in the air and spun before bringing the lightsaber down onto the ground. "Why is that?" She asked, already short of breath.

Zack was quiet for a moment before gesturing for her to sit down. Dyna deactivated the lightsaber and placed it on her lap as she sat down, crossed legged on the grass. "I haven't taught you about this because it is one of the reasons why I was expelled. Emotions, especially for people like us, may lead us to the Dark Side."

"The Dark Side?" Dyna said. "Is that why you were expelled for being aggressive? Because they did not want you to go to the Dark Side?"

"I guess so. The Jedi's job is not only to keep the peace but also to bring balance to The Force. It would not help if they were the ones bringing imbalance to it." Zack smiled after he answered the question as he realised something. "You seem to know a lot about me but I know nearly nothing about you, Dyna."

"What do you want to know?" She said while catching her breath and deactivating the lightsaber.

"How did you end up alone on Tanik?"

"My... my mother died giving birth to me and my father was an irresponsible jerk who abandoned me as soon as I could beg for alms." She said bitterly while sitting down.

"Hmm... I'm sorry."

"It's okay. I've quickly learned that everyone in our crew has had a tough life, You me, Lona and Buck. I don't know why but knowing that makes me feel better."

Zack nodded, totally understanding. It was therapeutic to be amongst people who knew and understood your pain. However, he had never thought of Buck and he as part of a crew, but with them working together, it did make sense that they could be labelled a crew.

They were both startled by the sound of something exhaling loudly. Dyna got to her feet when she saw the source of the breathing. Before them stood a creature on four hooves, it was almost as tall as Zack and wider. It's brown and shaggy fur covered it's muscular body and became lighter the further down it went on its body until it was white at the beast's stomach and black hooves. It had two thick brown horns coming from its head, which curved down the side of its head before curving upwards with both horns' points meeting just above its red, bloodshot eyes.

"Oh no, its the Rogue Ramlon." Dyna said quietly.

"Nonsense, It's probably a normal hungry Ramlon looking for food." Zack said as he backstepped to where they had left their food supplies. He picked up the bag before walking forward and offering the bag with the rations to the beast.

"What are you doing? That's our food." Dyna protested quietly.

"Well it's either our food or our lives and I, for one, prefer to live." He said in a whisper before throwing the bag at the beast.

The Ramlon sniffed the bag and unsatisfied kicked the bag away with its front hooves.

"You see what he did?" Dyna said disgusted. "You did not deserve a scrap you wasteful little..."

The beast began kicking its leg as if it understood the insult. It breathed out a light steam from its flaring nostrils as it lowered its head to make the horns stand at the fore front.

"I think we should run." Dyna said just before the Ramlon charged.

"I think you're right!" Zack said before they turned tail and ran for their lives. The beast roared in excitement as it gave chase.

Zack glanced back and his eyes went wide. "Dammit! It's catching up!"

"What do we do?" DYna asked desperately as she was struggling to stay ahead of the beast.

"We split up! Maybe that will confuse it!"

They both split up, with Dyna running left and Zack right. The Ramlon did not waste any time in going after Dyna.

"Of course it would go for the smaller of us!" Zack said as he changed directions to follow the Ramlon, which chased after Dyna.

Dyna looked back and saw that the Ramlon was quickly closing the space between them. In a matter of seconds she would be caught. She looked forward and ran harder, harder than she had before. She felt a power come over her, a power that made her legs stronger and her running faster. She began outrunning the Ramlon. She kicked up soil as the grass around her became a green blur. In front of her was a rock outcrop that she knew she could not waste time climbing. She leapt with all her strength, expecting to land as high on the rocky outcrop as possible, however to her shock, she surpassed her goal and sailed over the outcrop. She knew her jump was because of the force but the landing was from her inexperience. She landed for the great height she had jumped and fell and rolled on the ground

Dyna got up and was scared when she heard the Ramlon roar. She noticed the device she was holding in her left hand. She still had the lightsaber! She held it in both hands and activated it to defend herself. As soon as the green blade erupted from the hilt, the Ramlon rammed through the outcrop, smashing it to rubble. Dyna had planned to dodge while slashing at the beast but she had misjudged the bigger creature's speed and as a result it caught her at her side, sending her spinning through the air before landing down on the ground.

Zack came just in time to see her land. He ran forward but stopped when he saw the Ramlon turn around to face him. They both stared at each other from the distance, and in the middle was Dyna who was lying face down. Zack was unsure if Dyna was still alive. He was answered when he saw her begin to stir.

Dyna got up onto her hands and knees. Her vision was getting blurry and her hearing was gone. She looked at either side and saw the Ramlon on one side and Zack on the other. The Ramlon lowered its head while kicking the ground like a bull ready to charge while Zack looked like he was getting ready to act as he faced off against the Ramlon that had a diagonal gorge in its thich horns, where Dyna had caught it with he lightsaber . She did not know who reacted and who acted, for to her impaired perception both Zack and the Ramlon began running at her.

She could not hear the Ramlon's roar and hooves as they drummed into the ground in an effort to get to her. She could not hear what Zack was shouting at her as he ran for her too. All she could see was his mouth moving while he pointed at something. What? What was he pointing at? Dyna followed the line of his pointing finger to the ground in front of her. And there, in front of her, lay the lightsaber she had tried to use to defend herself. She understood what Zack wanted and using the last strength she had, she grabbed the lightsaber hilt and threw it at Zack.

Zack caught the lightsaber in the air and with a twist and pressing of a button a green laser blade came to life from the hilt. When Zack was close enough he jumped into the air and the Ramlon did the same, aiming its horns at him while he held his lightsaber in a way to strike the beast. That was the last thing Dyna saw before the blackness of unconsciousness took her sight.

/

Dyna woke up being carried in Zack's arms. He was looking forward with a determined look on his face. "M-Master." Dyna said in a weak voice.

Zack looked down at her and smiled. The smile was not his usual smile that was polluted with cockiness but this one seemed kinder and softer. "I'm glad you're awake, little one."

"The Ramlon!" Dyna exclaimed trying to move.

"Relax, I took care of it." He said as the cockiness returning to his smile.

Dyna began noticing his torn clothes and bruises on his shoulders and cuts on his face. "We should have listened to the old Toydorian.

"Tell me about it." He said.

Dyna realised that Zack was adamant about carrying her all the way back to the ship. She decided to allow herself to sink deeper into sleep in his arms, while hoping that they would eat something when they finally did reach the ship.