Precipice by shadowsong26


Part 5: Lessons

Lessons: Chapter 1

It was a lot harder, Leia had learned, to stop something in motion than it was to get it started.

Which was probably part of the point of this lesson, actually. Other than just the specific skill involved, which was important by itself, anyway. What Uncle Obi-Wan liked to call the "broader application." And if she'd been getting this lesson from him, she'd've guessed it was the main point. But she was working with Daddy, which meant that took second place.

(She hadn't exactly figured out where Aunt 'Soka would put it. Somewhere in the middle, she was pretty sure, but she hadn't been getting lessons from Aunt 'Soka for anywhere near as long.)

For her newest lesson today, Daddy had brought her out to the canyon, where they usually practiced-far enough out that no one could sneak up on them, but not so far out that if something went wrong, they couldn't get help. And after they'd finished the usual basic warm-up lessons, he'd brought out a little round table, about the same size as a dejarik board only not as thick, 'cause it didn't have any of the projectors or anything in it. That was balanced on a skinny pole about half a meter tall and only a couple centimeters wide, so it would wobble back and forth, tilting in all different directions whenever Daddy pushed it. Then he'd set a bright-red ball on top-the goal of the exercise was the keep the ball as close to the grey circle on the center of the table as possible, while everything was moving.

It was not as easy as she'd thought it would be, when he'd first explained it. After all, she'd been moving things around with the Force, playing games like this one-well, simpler games, but still with the same goal of teaching her some new skill-with Daddy and Uncle Obi-Wan for as long as she could remember. And with Aunt 'Soka, too, of course, since she'd found them. And sometimes they had her do things blindfolded, or through mazes, or in a whole other room. Keeping a small ball in a specific place, while she was looking right at it and only half a meter away, should not have been so hard.

But it turned out there were a lot of little details to keep track of when something was moving around. Maybe it would be easier if it was moving in one direction, or even in patterns that made sense, but Daddy kept the table moving fast, shifting angles and directions all over the place, faster than she could track without concentrating really, really hard.

And then, just when she'd finally gotten the hang of it, scowling at the ball which had been actually in the grey center target for almost a whole ten seconds-

Plink.

It was such a tiny little noise, for something so full of doom.

Without any warning, or any drop in the table's speed, Daddy dropped a second ball, this one green, onto the table; smaller than the first but made out of something heavier, and throwing everything off.

She shifted her attention, scrambling to catch it before it fell all the way off-and lost her grip on the first ball in the process.

Come on, come on…

She tried to compensate, and missed -the first ball rolled off the edge of the table. But she was only a split second behind it; it stopped in midair a few centimeters above Daddy's left knee. Which was at least better than letting it hit the sand-that would have meant she'd really messed up. And the second, heavier ball, was still on the table.

Barely.

"Good job, princess," he said, steadying the table and collecting the balls with a wave of his hand.

She sighed, and slumped forward a little bit. "I still dropped it," she said.

"Yeah, but then you caught it," he said. "Before it hit the ground, even. Besides, you lasted a lot longer than I did, the first time I tried this."

"Really?"

"Really really," he said, and reached over to ruffle her hair. "Relax, all right? This was only your first try. You'll get better with practice."

That was true. It had been with every other game they'd played, too. Even all the new ones-there had been a lot of new ones, getting more and more complicated, over the past few months.

They'd started picking up the pace in her lessons after Daddy got hurt last year. He'd had time to start showing her how to do things in a lot more detail, while he was out of the field and healing. And he'd let her watch him practice with his Sabẻr, after his new leg got attached, while he was figuring out how to balance and everything again. He'd even, after a couple days of that, put together a pair of dragon bone practice blades and walked her through some basic forms.

"We don't have a real training Sabẻr for you," he'd said, when he took her out to the canyon and pressed the smaller one into her hands. "But these'll work at least to get you started. We can figure something else out later."

And Sabẻr work, even just running forms, had quickly become one of her favorite things in the world to do. That first practice had turned into one of the best days ever.

Not that-of course she was upset that Daddy had been hurt so bad that he couldn't do his job and help people, and she knew that was the main reason her lessons had gotten so much more right when they did; earlier than Daddy and Uncle Obi-Wan had wanted, she was pretty sure. But, at the same time…

She almost never got to spend that much time with Daddy all at once. It was usually only a week, sometimes just a couple of days, before he was off on his next mission. And even if he usually wasn't gone much longer than that, either, that many weeks all in a row had been-

It was amazing. Plus, she'd learned a lot, and could keep practicing with her bone practice sword, which got her that much closer to actually going with him to help fight.

She just wished it could've happened without him getting hurt.

Swords were not today's lesson, sadly. They hadn't done swords at all this visit. Not yet, anyway. Just little stuff, like the new table game. Which she would get perfect eventually, but right now it was hard.

"All right, princess," he said. "Let's take a break, and try some targeting for a while, okay?"

"Okay," she said, standing up and grabbing the bag of smooth rocks they usually used for this off of the eopie's saddle, patting her neck a couple times before coming back. "What am I throwing at?"

"Me," he said. "And you're gonna be blindfolded, all right?"

She'd pretty much expected that-otherwise, it wouldn't be a challenge at all. "Okay," she said.

"I want you to pay attention to what I do when I stop the rocks, all right?" he said, tying a scarf around her head and making sure it was tight enough. "It'll help with the table game."

She nodded, then frowned, waiting for her senses to adjust to the blindfold while Daddy moved a meter or so away and turned over into a handstand.

Not that she knew why he wanted to do this upside down. Maybe he wanted to practice something, too.

"Whenever you're ready, princess."

"Okay," she said, and picked up the first rock to start throwing.

The first one went wide, but the next few were a lot closer. After four or five, Leia was able to do the other part of what Daddy had asked, and try to keep track of what he was doing to stop them. Aunt 'Soka had shown her a couple of focus-splitting tricks last time she'd visited that helped a lot.

Okay. Okay, I think I get it. I'll have to try on the table later, but I can probably do that, too.

"You know, this is actually easier than the table game, at least for me," Daddy said, as another rock stopped in midair right in front of his face. She thought. Maybe it was closer to his shoulder? Definitely in range of where she was supposed to aim, at least.

"Yeah?" she asked, tilting her head towards his voice and picking up the next rock.

"Yep," he said. "Because they're coming at me, instead of just rolling around at random. Makes 'em a threat, easier to track."

Leia stopped, the rock heavy in her hand, and frowned dubiously. "They're just little rocks." They weren't sharp or anything, and even with the Force to help her aim and stuff, even if he missed one, they wouldn't hit him nearly hard enough to actually hurt.

Right?

"I dunno, princess," he said, trying to sound serious, but she could hear him smiling. "You throw 'em pretty hard."

Which either meant she wasn't actually throwing them hard enough, or he was just being silly. She rolled her eyes behind her blindfold and, to prove him wrong, threw the next one as hard as she could.

It went wide. She could tell it was going to go wide as soon as it left her hand, and she wasn't fast enough to get it back on track.

"Hmm," he said, catching it easily even almost half a meter to his left. "Your aim could use a little work, though. Stay focused, princess."

Right. She shouldn't let him do that. She wasn't supposed to let him do that. Uncle Obi-Wan played this game, too (better than Daddy did); teasing gently to mess with her concentration.

She took a breath, let it out slow, and flung the last rock with a little more care.

"Good!" Daddy said. "Right between the eyes."

She grinned, and lifted up her blindfold. "Most of 'em got pretty close, right?"

"After the first three, yes," he said, dropping back onto his feet. "So, next time I'm here, I think we'll work on switching focus a little faster."

She nodded. But that meant he was probably heading back out soon, otherwise he'd take a day or so and come up with a new game for this trip. He hadn't said yet, which probably meant that Uncle Obi-Wan had just found something and called him right before they'd come out here, and he hadn't wanted her to be distracted by all that during the lesson.

"When are you leaving?" she asked.

"Tomorrow," he said. "Not til after noon, though, so we can practice some more in the morning, if you want."

"Okay," she said. "Can I come with you?"

"Nope," Daddy said, right away. "Not this time, princess."

Well, she'd known what the answer was gonna be, but she still asked every time. After all, eventually the answer would change. She just had to keep asking, 'cause if she stopped, how would she know when it did? "Okay," she said, trying not to sound too disappointed. "Can we do swords for a while now?"

He considered for a minute. "One more time with the table game," he said, sitting down next to it and setting both balls back in place. "With two from the start this time. Then we can do swords."

She sighed, and sat back down herself. Well, it would be better for her to try copying what Daddy had just showed her real quick. Easier for her to remember that way. And balancing two balls probably wouldn't be as hard if she had both from the beginning, like him dropping the second on her halfway through had been. That was something.

It still didn't sound like much fun.

"Or, if you don't want to do two," he said, "you could put the blindfold back on and try it that way with only one."

She made a face. "Two's good," she said quickly. It always went better when she could see what she was doing. Which was why Daddy (and Aunt 'Soka, and especially Uncle Obi-Wan) made her do stuff blindfolded all the time, 'cause she needed to get better at that. And she knew that, and most of the time she didn't mind. Sometimes, it even went pretty well-like today, throwing rocks at Daddy.

But she wanted to end the lesson getting it right, and it was hard enough when she could see.

"All right," Daddy said. "Next time, though."

"Next time," she agreed, and settled in to concentrate.


Original Author's Notes: Soooo, I have been posting this story for almost a whole entire year now! I started as of October 12, 2016. It has been quite a ride, and thank you all so much for sticking with me through it! 3

I'll probably put up a bonus fic on my writing tumblr, because I feel like that seems appropriate. Feel free to shoot me an ask over there if there's anything in particular you'd like to see from such a thing. I'll probably post about it there sometime in the next couple days, too, as a reminder.

Because I'm having a lot of fun with this, and the fact that you guys are, too, almost a year later, means a lot. 333 Sooo yeah. :D Bonus content of some kind forthcoming, hurray!

~shadowsong