Back in his quarters, Eeth went over his list again and decided to contact Jin-Dai Long, a human master who was widely acknowledged as a very skilled fighter. Jin-Dai had just finished training her second padawan, Baelen.

"Well," Jin-Dai said after Eeth had finished his request, then paused for a moment. "To be honest," she finally continued, "Baelen has just been knighted and I was looking forward to having some time to myself. I am not the most social person, and yet I find myself training padawan after padawan."

The edges of her mouth quirked upwards in a slight smile.

"Nonetheless, of course I will look at the initiate in question," she told Eeth. "I trust you know what you're doing, and if you say he or she needs a master, well, then that's the way it is. Ultimately, it will only work out if there's some connection in the Force between us, of course."

Thus, it was not Mal Shekkaf, but Master Jin-Dai Long who accompanied Eeth to Friday's class - a class which was one person short because Lily had been taken as a padawan by Mal Shekkaf yesterday.

"So, did anyone hear about Lily?" Drebin asked as the seven initiates arrived early and began going through stretches; by now it was clear to them all that they were one student down.

Rezek smiled, having unintentionally picked up on their connection during the end of last class, but the others all shrugged.

"Well, apparently Knight Shekkaf offered her an apprenticeship," Drebin announced, earning himself smiles from each initiate.

"That's great, I'm happy for her," Kade stated, doing his best to trample the jealousy he felt; Lily was only eleven! It just wasn't fair!

Rezek met the boy with a mixture of worry and sympathy, Kade was doing an admirable job of hiding it, but still planned to keep his distance today as he knew it would not take much to set him off.

Eeth started with a warm-up as usual, then recapped what they had done last week. All the initiates had practiced the move and he was satisfied with their performance. After that, he and Jin-Dai taught them how to use variations of that same move against single opponents and how to defend oneself against those. Finally, Eeth set them up in pairs to practice what they had learned. This time, he paired up Kaden with Jin-Dai right away. The boy was simply too good for his peers and had difficulties holding back. Eeth appreciated the effort he had made last time, but having him work with a Jedi master instead of another, possibly intimidated initiate would make things easier on everyone involved.

Kade had, so far, been on his best behaviour. He had received praise and coaching from his crèche master after the last class, and earning Eeth's approval had gone a long way towards helping maintain the effort next class.

From the first minute of the match, Jin-Dai suspected that this was the initiate Eeth had talked about. He was good, almost impossibly good. Her own apprentices had been more than decent fighters, but none of them had possessed the natural skill that Kaden had; she recognised herself in him. Sparring with him was fun. He did not seem to be the least bit afraid. On the contrary; he plunged into the fight with almost reckless abandon. That suited her just fine. She had to make a real effort not to forget herself and to focus on what she was trying to teach him, so much fun did she have. Of course, she also had the discipline and experience of a Jedi master, and she fully realised the dangers inherent in the kind of connection she felt with the boy; a connection that lay first and foremost in their enthusiasm for fighting.

Eeth recognised it, too. Oh, they would work well together, for a while; but it would be a dangerous relationship, at least for Kade.

After ten minutes, Eeth broke off the fight and chose different pairings; this time, Kade came up against Drebin.

"Easy, initiate," he told Kade quietly while he pointed him to a spot in the training room that he was to start from. Jin-Dai was now teamed up with Rezek.

Kade had to focus hard on what Eeth and Jin-Dai were demonstrating. Usually, learning a new move required little effort on his part, but today, his mind was consumed with his pending birthday; it felt like each day another peer was chosen from around him while he remained behind.

Thankfully for him, he had picked up enough during the demonstrations to pull off the variation so when he was paired with the unknown Jedi master, he was ready. Sparring against Jin-Dai was quite possibly the most fun Kade could remember having during a match; she was unbelievably good, her style was precise and powerful, and she did not seem to mind as Kade continued to up the ante in order to impress her, in fact she almost seemed to encourage him.

Kade was not ready to stop when Eeth called the exercise to an end. However, he remembered what had happened last time he had insisted a fight continue in Eeth's class, and consequently disengaged with only a minor pout. He bowed respectfully to the woman who had given him such a run for his money, praying to the Force that he would get another chance to spar with her.

The boy almost groaned at being paired with Drebin. However, at Eeth's encouragement, he took a few deep breaths. He had done his best to calm down but was still running on adrenaline from his fight with Jin-Dai and lit into the clawdite with similar ferocity, forcing the boy backwards at a rate that all but knocked him flat.

Eeth had kept a close eye on Kade; he had half expected some kind of trouble, and indeed, trouble did not take long to occur.

He quickly stepped in as Kade lunged another ferocious attack at Drebin and deflected the attack so powerfully that it knocked Kade clean on his ass.

"This is what you are doing, initiate," he informed Kade. "It does not meet my definition of 'easy', and you know it. This is your last warning."

Totally focused on the fight at hand, Kade did not sense Eeth's presence until he was on his ass. He was back on his feet in an instant, though, his saber at the ready and breathing hard. Eeth had put him on his ass so fast that the boy wasn't sure exactly what happened. The stern reprimand garnered an instant nod of compliance from the boy, and both hands came to rest at his sides, saber still ignited. He held Eeth's gaze until he could stand it no longer and dropped his eyes.

"C'mon, Kaden, get your shit together before you wind up standing for another four meals," Drebin said in an effort to make light of the situation, and raised his saber once again.

Eeth merely nodded at the two and disignited his saber. "Carry on," he said calmly and moved on towards Lyle and Thiska.

Drebin's comment garnered a smirk from the boy. He really had spent four meals standing after that first class with Eeth, and not solely from the paddling, as master K'Mi had taken after him to boot. It was a rule K'Mi had enforced specifically for Kaden and saber classes; if he was taken to task for being overly aggressive during any form of combat, she added to it the following evening, and add to it she had.

"In a minute," Kade replied while slowly opening his eyes, then assumed a ready stance.

As the pair battled, Kade managed to curb the urge to trample Drebin by replaying the previous fight in his mind; Jin-Dai was amazing, he thought and parried another blow from Drebin.

Eeth was pleased with Kaden; the boy really tried hard to pull himself together and it showed.

"Can I have one more go with Kaden?" Jin-Dai asked under her breath as he rearranged teams for the third time. "I don't think I'm a good match for him, to be honest; but we did have fun."

"Do you really think it would be fair towards him to raise his hopes?" Eeth replied, equally quietly.

Jin-Dai sighed. "No, it wouldn't," she admitted. "And I really can't take him on, much as I'd love to; it'd be outright dangerous. Well, I'll fight Drebin, then."

Kade was paired with Lyle in what was the last match of today's lesson.

Lyle knew Kade was having a hard time. He was the oldest student in K'Mi's crèche group and the prospects of him finding a master in six months didn't look good. With that in mind Lyle kept his comments to himself; as long as Kade was controlling himself, he would repay the favour.

Their battle, although still heavily one-sided in Kade's favour, concluded without incident, and as Eeth led them through a cool down routine Kade actually let out a breath of relief. He was hopeful, though, hopeful that Jin-Dai would approach him sometime soon and request a meeting. He liked the woman; she was an incredible fighter, although if he were honest with himself he did not feel a connection to her beyond sparring. Not wanting to address that feeling, he pushed it down into the pit of his stomach where his fear of remaining unchosen was carefully buried.

Jin-Dai threw the boy one last, regretful look as the children left the classroom.

"He's a remarkable child," she told Eeth quietly. "But he needs a master who will be better suited to curb his ambition. Having fun when sparring is not enough to sustain a master-padawan relationship."

"I have to say I agree," Eeth replied, equally quietly. "Sparring with you seemed to spur him on, instead of tone him down. Now, there is nothing wrong with giving him the opportunity to enjoy his skills like he did today every once in a while. Any child would be frustrated if they did not get that opportunity. But from a master, he needs more than that. Nevertheless, I thank you for having indulged me in this."

"You're welcome," Jin-Dai replied with a smile. "And I wish you good luck with your endeavour, for Kaden's sake. I've been thinking ... have you asked Drex Zaryth? I knew his third padawan, Taishin, and she started out as one of the most unruly children I've ever met. The man had a way with her... Someone like him might be good for Kade."

"I have asked him," Eeth said solemnly. "And I will again."

Meanwhile, Kaden made his way down the corridor with Drebin. He was the only initiate in Kade's crèche group, so the two boys headed for their next class together.

"Gundark got your tongue?" Drebin asked. It wasn't unusual for Kaden to be silent, but the slight smile on his face and lightness of step was rather out of character, especially so lately.

"Nah, just enjoyed the class, why, didn't you?" Kade shot back, happy to turn the questions back rather than answer then.

Drebin just rolled his eyes, and morphed his face into that of Kade's, only with a black puffy eye. "A self portrait of our next sparring match," he said playfully, earning himself a chuckle from his friend.

"Unlikely," said Kaden, grinning.