"You're it!"
"No, you're still it. You missed me!"
"NO, I tagged your shirt. YOU. ARE. IT!"
"You did not. I didn't feel it, so it doesn't count!"
"That's cheating! I grabbed your shirt!"
"DID NOT!"
"DID TOOO!"
"DID NOTTTTTT!"
Jas watched this interaction with a mixture of curiosity and increasing incredulity. At the Temple, if a disagreement like this ever broke out, it would have been jumped on and stopped quickly, but given they were hidden by a replica of a sea ship, and none of the other children's parents were Force-sensitive, there were no adults running to stop it.
"Say you were tagged and play by the rules, or I'm gonna sock you one!"
"I wanna see you try."
Jas saw the girl lunge, and she acted without thought, springing forward and grabbing her wrist. "Wait! Someone will come, and you'll get in trouble for fighting," she said as if this were the obvious outcome. After all, this was what happened in the Temple, and it wasn't just the instigators who were punished. It was those who stood around and didn't go for help or try to stop it themselves, too. Jas was not about to incur Eeth's wrath over some stupid fight.
The rivals seemed to calm down and take her words to heart.
"You're right," said the boy.
"Yeah, I just lost my temper," said the girl.
Satisfied, Jas let go. One second later, the girl jumped on the boy and started pounding him.
Jas was usually a lot faster, but she had been sick, and the exertion was starting to tax her. She jumped forward to intervene but was left fighting her way free from what had fast become a fray of kids. She caught a cuff to her chin and several to her shins before she started to get annoyed. She threw the first kid off, her knee in his stomach, then rolled to sweep and took two more down, but they got right back up again and were into it! Jas was getting angry. Her eyes blackened, and she closed them briefly before yelling with all her might. "Enough!"
Every child fell silent, and Jas looked surprised. That was until she looked behind her to discover that it wasn't her words that had stopped them, but Eeth's.
"Whatever this disagreement was about," Eeth said firmly, glowering down on the group of kids, "I am sure it is not worth fighting over with your fists and feet."
He briefly rested a hand on Jas' head, sensing that she was getting tired.
"Come, Jas," he said. "We are going to have lunch now."
Primarily, he wanted to make sure that Jas was well and that she had a drink, but the other children did not need to know that.
"I didn't start that. I tried to stop it, and I would have come and got you," Jas told him as they approached Raven, who had moved to an outdoor dining table and was just taking three lunches from a droid, setting Jas' meal beside her drink.
Eeth's gaze scrutinised her for a moment. Then he nodded.
"I believe you," he said. "These children are not Temple-raised. Depending on their culture of origin, fighting might not be as strongly discouraged as it is among the Jedi. In some cultures, it is even actively encouraged. Are you alright? You seem a little tired to me."
Jas relaxed when he said he believed her. Then she turned her focus inwards. Was she alright? Well, yes, mostly. "It's nothing some food won't fix," she replied.
"Speaking of food, I ordered you both the same drink and meal," Raven informed Eeth and Jas, gesturing that Jas take the seat next to her and pushing the pitcher of water in front of her plate. Eeth had given her his preference before leaving to fetch Jas and Raven had guessed that whatever Eeth ate would suit Jas too.
They talked about previous missions during lunch and for a while after that, since Eeth insisted that Jas get some rest. The other children seemed to have returned to their hotels, possibly for their own lunch break. The beach was rather quiet now. Eeth assumed that it would become busier later in the afternoon. For now, he said, "I would like to go for a swim. Jas, you are not up to swimming yet, but you might enjoy the waterfront. In contrast to the beach at our place, this one is covered in seashells."
"Finally an advantage to the Azura virus: free pass out of swimming!" Jas said through a slight smile.
"Well, I don't know if it was worth it, but yes, you could look at it like that," Raven replied, pulling off her shirt and shorts and rolling them into a ball. Theft was not a problem in the more prestigious areas of Delta Beach, but given that both Eeth and Raven were carrying their weapons, they found a locker and piled their belongings inside.
"Have fun!" Jas quipped, still on a high at not having to swim, and turned to make her way to the shoreline, only to be pulled up short and given instructions. She wasn't to go further than a kilometre in either direction and was to stay on the beach or sit at their table if she got tired. The girl agreed. Shortly afterwards, she was crawling around in the sand, looking at the different shells and creatures that had washed up. The jellyfish were amusing. They looked like giant loogies with hangers! But Jas had had enough of phlegm to last a lifetime. Thus, she moved on to the next object that caught her attention.
Eeth and Raven decided not to swim out far since they needed to be able to make their way back fast in case Jas needed them. They thus kept to the shoreline, cut across the bay and came back along the other half of the shoreline. Since Eeth was a better swimmer than Raven, simply because he was taller and stronger, he frequently put in bursts of speed, then returned to her side. They had got used to this over the years. Of course, they could simply have split up, but Eeth knew by now that Raven liked him to do things with her, and he had come to realise that he liked it as well.
After ninety minutes or so, they returned to the beach, not having sensed anything unusual from Jas.
"I could have taken you," said Raven, "but I didn't want to put you to shame; you have your masterly pride and all." Raven was trying to get a rise out of Eeth, which never worked, but having Eeth literally swim circles around her warranted some jibe. She, too, enjoyed doing these things with him, so there was no venom in that comment. It was pure smartassery on her part.
"Of course," Eeth said mildly, and Raven just snorted at his lack of reaction.
Meanwhile, Jas was a kilometre up the beach, busy exploring the many critters, shells, rocks, fungi, globs of unidentified goop and whatnot. Her pockets were full, and even though she knew it was illegal to remove things from the beach, she wanted to show Eeth and Raven the sorts of things she'd found. Of course, she planned to put them back afterwards. So it was that, when she sensed Eeth's and Raven's Force presences' nearing, she turned and started running for the main beach. Yeah, that wasn't a good idea, as it turned out. Five hundred metres and barely four minutes later, Jas was forced to stop. Her head had begun throbbing, and she grabbed it with both hands as if doing so would keep her brain from pounding out her ears. Walk, walk, the initiate silently coached herself as her head continued to pound. This was ridiculous! she thought.
Thankfully, once Jas had stopped running, her head stopped hurting, and she just about avoided throwing up. However, her breathlessness and sickly white pallor would have been evident upon her arrival. "Look at this stuff that I found," she told the two Jedi, emptying her pockets onto the bench for them to see. There were many colourful shells, some still living with legs moving around and some long since abandoned. A jellyfish, its tentacles having been curled around its gelatinous body, and a number of bean-like pods that, as she pointed out by demonstration, popped and splattered seawater everywhere if you squished them hard enough.
"Yes, the wildlife in the sea is very interesting here," Eeth said, glancing at Jas' finds. But seashells and jellyfish were not his main concern here. "Raven, you might see to it that those that are still alive remain so," he advised. "More importantly: Jas, what is wrong with you?"
He rested a hand on her head and scanned her condition through the Force.
"You are exhausted," he said, taken aback. Her energy reserves had not been this low in several days.
"What did you do?" he asked.
Jas looked from her proffered bounty to Eeth and then to Raven as the padawan quickly scooped what was living, or crawling from the benchtop, into her hands.
"You shouldn't take living creatures from their habitat unless absolutely necessary," Raven scolded mildly. Most of the animals were far from suffering at this point; some of them lived in both water and air, after all. But did they enjoy being carted along the beach in a sweaty pocket? No! Raven left Eeth and Jas to it, her hands full, and took off for the shoreline without further comment.
"Hey! I was going to take them back!" Jas shouted at Raven's retreating back. Then she frowned at Eeth. What had she done? It was then that the adrenaline and excitement of her finds started to wear off. She sat, her head pounding a bit. "I tried to run back. I wanted to show you both what I found. My head started exploding, so I stopped and walked," she said.
"That was sensible," Eeth said. Jas looked miserable, and so he decided to dispense with scolding her. Instead, he beckoned the droid for a glass of water and made Jas take an analgesic both of which were taken without protest.
At this point, Raven returned and Eeth asked her to organise them a speeder ride home. "I'll follow with Jas," he said, nodding towards the building where their gear was stowed in a locker. Without further ado, he put on his backpack and lifted Jas up from the bench, cradling her in his arms.
"Yes, master," Raven replied. She gathered all their things from the locker and quickly made her way to the front of the hotel where she secured a speeder with some credits Eeth had stashed in his tunic pocket.
"That will buy you five minutes, sweetie," said the driver. "Any longer and I might need encouragement to hang about."
Raven frowned, looking towards the entrance where she saw Eeth and Jas approaching. She yanked her shirt and shorts from the bag, pulling both on over her bikini.
"I may very well wave that fare entirely if…" the pilot said, but his words were cut off as Eeth flung open the door, set Jas on the back seat and got in beside her.
Raven wasted no time. She gave their pilot the address and they were on their way.
Once they had arrived, Eeth gave Raven his wallet to handle payment while he lifted Jas out of the cab and carried her towards the hut.
"I assume this was simply too much too early," he said gently. "That, and the sun. Even us Zabrak are not entirely immune to that. You will need to drink a lot. What would you like? Water? Juice?"
"Water, please" Jas replied, still horrified at being carried from their speeder by Eeth for the second time this week! She couldn't argue the treatment, though; her body was hot again, and she felt nauseous.
It took Jas many hours of feeling like absolute crap before she finally surfaced from her bunk. "It's dark," she stated unnecessarily, padding into their common room area and sitting beside Eeth. The initiate badly needed his comfort but didn't want to say as much. Still not quite right, Jas lay back on the couch but pretended that she had accidently slumped a little too far to the right, leaning against Eeth. When he put his arm around her, she curled into his side.
A few minutes passed, during which Jas struggled with her pride versus what she now knew to be the truth. It was hard for her to say this, very hard, but after days of thinking as much and being too afraid (and sick) to admit it, she felt that she had to. "I need a master," she said in a voice barely louder than a whisper, keeping her gaze locked on the couch. It was the first time Jas had said it aloud to anyone else. Eeth's attention had helped her in ways she had never imagined she craved. She needed this sort of attention, this diligence. Without it, Jas would fail.
"I know," Eeth said softly, his hand affectionately brushing over her hairless forehead. "But the fact that you know it, too, and were able to say so is much more important. Being able to voice your needs and admit when you need help is an indispensable skill. It took me a long time to acquire it, and I found it hard even when I was much older than you are now. I used to act as if I was perfect at everything and did not have the slightest bit of insecurity. At the same time, I was entirely aware that I was bad at dealing with people, especially people my age and rank. I was seriously afraid of not being chosen as a padawan because of that shortcoming. The Jedi who became my master was the first person who got me to admit that I needed help with this; and then, she offered to give me that help. Without her, I would have failed. But the Force led me to her, and I am sure it will lead you, too, towards someone who will give you the support that you need."
Although he had told her similar things before, Eeth's words were just what Jas needed to hear at precisely this time. She looked up at him, her eyes wide and slightly glassy. "Me too," she replied to both his admissions, his words mirroring her feelings. "I'm trying," she added. Her attempts were half-hearted, though, as Jas now knew. She more than knew, she felt that she would not succeed without a master. Still, being the sort of personality she was, she forbore to state the obvious. Jas might not yet have a master as Eeth had had. But she vowed to herself that she would not be looking the other way thanks to her pride when that opportunity came, if it came.
"Soup?" Raven said, placing three bowls onto their table and leaving to fetch the pot. She didn't want to interrupt their conversation.
"Yes, thank you, padawan," Eeth said with a brief smile, but his gaze was on Jas and he continued to stroke her forehead.
"How do you feel about going back to the Temple?" he asked her quietly.
Jas had thought of nothing else since hearing she was being taken away from her home. However, now that Eeth had finally said the words, she wasn't sure how she felt about it. It was nice to have his attention; it was something the initiate needed, and she knew that now. For a moment, her fears resurfaced. What if she wasn't chosen? What if this was as close as she'd ever come to having a master? Jas looked up at Eeth, her typically stoic expression giving way to one of conflict.
Thankfully, Raven chose that moment to appear with the pot, setting it on the table. It smelled good and gave Jas an extra few moments to think as she served herself. Eventually, she had to concede and answer honestly, "I don't know."
"Let us give it a couple more days, then, until you have recovered a little more," Eeth suggested. "There will certainly be a few changes to your schedule after your return. For one thing, you will be assigned a Zabrak tutor for your language and cultural lessons. You will also be placed in a set of more demanding classes."
Furthermore, Eeth was going to tell Jas' creche master a thing or two about the girl's disciplinary needs, but he did not think it necessary to mention that just now. He merely pointed at the soup and asked Jas to start eating. It would do her good.
"I don't mind," said Jas. "I want a Zabrak tutor. There is lots of stuff I still want to know." Jas tried to eat her soup. It was nice, but she'd pushed herself hard today and had little appetite. She paddled in it with her spoon while thinking of how her life might change when she returned. It was then that a thought occurred to her. "You're not gonna tell my creche master about … how you punished me, are you?" Jas asked, blunt as usual. The idea of her creche master acquiring a rod or paddle made the kid cringe.
Eeth had really not intended to bring this up, but since Jas had just done so, he saw no point in being dishonest.
"Obviously, his way of dealing with you has done you no good," he said matter-of-factly. "If I want for you to do better, I would hardly be doing you a favour if I left your creche master in the mistaken belief that his current methods of disciplining you will have the desired effect."
"Maybe…" Jas said unenthusiastically. She could see his point, of course, but that didn't mean that at ten years old, she could claim to be thrilled over it. "It does hurt, you know," she pointed out. "It's not like I don't feel anything at all. Besides, don't you think I've learned from being here? You don't need to do that, really."
Eeth gave her a pointed look. "I very much need to do it," he said. "My method of disciplining you is effective precisely because it hurts. And it is easier to fall back into bad habits than you might believe. I do not want that, and I believe that neither do you. Besides, this is not up for a vote. Now eat your soup."
Jas frowned, pointing her spoon at him, a glob of soup sliding off onto the table. "I won't 'fall back into old habits.' I'm not stupid, you know. I get what I have to do now," she claimed, not realising the irony in that statement.
"Do you?" Eeth asked, raising his eyebrows. "Then stop arguing and eat your soup. I am not going to tell you again."
Jas shovelled a spoonful of soup into her mouth, brooding. "I'm not arguing, I'm telling you how I feel. I'm allowed to have an opinion. Last time I checked, that wasn't against the rules," she said, again completely missing the irony in that statement.
Eeth rose wordlessly, took the pot of soup and set it onto the kitchen counter to get it out of the way.
Raven recognised the signs, and even had she not, she'd seen this coming a mile off. She dropped her forehead into her hand, focusing on her bowl of soup as the shit proceeded to hit the fan.
Jas, on the other hand, had not seen this coming, although she probably ought to have after having spent several weeks under Eeth's care. "No!" she protested when Eeth pulled her from her chair, then let out a grunt of displeasure as her stomach made contact with his lap.
Ignoring her protests, Eeth pulled down her pants. "Wait, wait!" Jas tried, but it was too late. Eeth was already swatting her bottom, hard. Given the fact that she was not feeling well, he only used his hand. But he was entirely willing to consider an upgrade if her attitude did not improve fast.
"When I tell you to stop arguing," he snapped, giving her a second swat, "you do not talk back." A third swat followed, and this one was so spectacular, it practically rang off the walls.
"And lose the attitude," Eeth ordered, giving Jas a fourth ringing swat. "I mean it." And with this, he started spanking in earnest.
"I WILL! Stop!" Jas gasped, her legs kicking for real now. Eeth had given her a lot worse, but she had not been feeling well to begin with, and therefore this was enough to bring her unstuck far faster than was typical.
"Good," Eeth said grimly, not letting up for a moment. "Now let us just make sure the lesson sticks for a while."
He did not intend to let Jas up before having given her at least two dozen solid swats, maybe more. He wanted her to take this seriously, and he knew from experience that lenience was not the way to go with Jas.
Jas thrashed around, trying to free herself from Eeth's lap, which was both futile and entirely too cowardly behaviour for her, but this hurt. She stopped counting at fifteen and instead put her effort into crying. It was very unlike the typically stoic Zabrak to cry over a spanking, but she had been so sick, and then she'd gone and exhausted herself. Eeth was going to send her back to the Temple and … and…
"Awwwwah! I'm sorryyyyyyy! I'M SORRY!" The dam broke, and Jas started sobbing in earnest, her head dropping and legs falling limp.
Eeth finally ended the spanking with a flurry of hard swats to Jas' sitspot. Jas continued to bawl, kick and struggle even after he had stopped. Eeth gave her a few moments to settle down. Then he pulled her up from his lap and used a napkin from the table to clean up her face as had become his habit.
"That will be enough of that," he said firmly. "I will talk to your creche master as I see fit. Now, I think you would be best off going to bed and getting some rest. It is late."
Without waiting to hear Jas' opinion, he picked her up, cradled her in his arms and carried her over to her bed.
"Oww!" Jas whined, wrapping her arms around Eeth's neck as he lowered her into bed and not wanting him to go despite the fact that he'd just spanked her. Eeth had given her a whole lot worse before, but this was somehow different, and Jas wasn't sure why. Thus, she turned to face the wall, rolled herself into a ball and pulled the covers up around herself. For now, Jas was content to sniffle and wallow in pity, her face buried in the pillow.
Eeth rested a hand on Jas' shoulder lightly.
"Sleep," he said softly. "You will feel better afterwards". He helped his suggestion along with a trickle of soothing energy through the Force. From what he could sense, Jas was exhausted.
It didn't take much. Firstly, Jas wanted Eeth's help and secondly, her backside hurt! Hopefully, when she woke up, it wouldn't feel so bad.
Raven still had her forehead in her hand when Eeth returned to the table. Hearing a kid cry at her master's hand was hardly unfamiliar to the padawan, and she agreed that Jas had more than deserved what she'd gotten. Still, she felt for the kid. It was hard not to. "You alright?" she asked across their bond as he sat and continued eating his soup. Of course, she knew he was, but Raven wanted to offer him her comfort and support; Eeth had a hard job here.
Eeth gave her a brief smile and nodded.
"She will be fine," he assured Raven. "It was only to be expected that she would not be pleased with my decision to talk to her creche master. I would rather not have addressed it, but she was the one who brought it up. She will get over it."
"I'm sure she will, but I wasn't asking about Jas, I was asking about you. Jas is not exactly an easy child to deal with," said Raven.
"No more than I can manage, I hope," Eeth said, raising his eyebrows at Raven. "I have acquired ample experience by now, after all."
The following morning, Raven and Eeth sat down for breakfast while Jas was still sleeping. "What are your plans?" Raven asked Eeth. If they were to stay here longer, Raven would check in on the imooda population and perhaps also the burtles.
Eeth thought for a moment. The shuttle they had arrived in had been taken back to Coruscant by a team of Jedi who had just concluded a conference here. Since Borleias was close to Coruscant and a popular destination, that had been the most practical course of action. Eeth knew he could ask the Temple for a ship to pick them up, but he did not think that would be necessary. Jas was much more in control of herself now than she had been when they had come here. He wanted them to have some time to arrange their things, clean up and enjoy Borleias for a while longer, though.
"Let us stay here for two more days," he suggested. "I think we can return by a public flight. Can you book us tickets after breakfast? Today is Thursday, so we would need them for Sunday. We will also need to notify the cabin's owners and the Jedi High Council of our plans."
"I can do all of that. If you like?" Raven offered. The first two tasks were standard. Informing the High Council of their plans was normally Eeth's job as their mission leader, but Raven was curious to see how much he was willing to let her take on.
Eeth hesitated for a moment. But the reasoned that Raven did need to acquire more leadership experience.
"Alright," he said. "While you are doing that, I might have a workout. Would that be alright with you?"
"No, you're grounded," Raven said in a flat tone, her face deadpan … for about five seconds, and then she burst out laughing at the bemused expression on Eeth's face who needed a moment to realise that she had made a joke. He could not quite see the humour in it, but apparently, his padawan could. He chose not to comment. Raising his eyebrows at her, he went to find a towel and his swim trunks and left.
Still chuckling, Raven checked once more that Jas was still fast asleep. Then she left their cabin to make her calls. Firstly, she contacted the cabin owners, informing them of their departure and asking what was expected of them. Next, she booked their departure on a spaceship that would leave from the main spaceport. Then she contacted the Council's secretary and left a brief update on Jas' progress. Eeth had been liaising with the Temple on the topic since they had arrived, and this was the first time that Raven was assuming this responsibility. Raven's report would be passed on when the Council was free to discuss it. Right now, they were not, and Raven did not ask why. Finally, she contacted Jas' creche master. He was busy, but he took the call anyway. He cared about his kids and was eager to hear about how Jas was getting on.
"Sounds like you've both had an impact. I'm pleased to hear it," the man said in response to Raven's report. "May the Force be with you all."
"And with you," Raven replied and shoved her comlink into a pocket. When she re-entered their cabin, Jas was sitting up on her bed, arms folded and a scowl on her face.
"Have you both been reporting back on me the whole time?" she demanded to know. "Am I a science experiment or something?!"
"Hardly," Raven replied, thinking a science experiment would be far more exciting but saying nothing of her thoughts.
"Then how come you're talking about me? I heard my creche master. I'm not deaf, you know."
Raven put down the pot she had just taken from their cupboard and turned to face the girl. "Both the Council and your creche master are informed of your progress regularly. They want to know how you are doing. Is that really so hard for you to believe?"
Jas wasn't sure what to say to such a blunt response. She hadn't been mad about them wanting to know. She'd been mad about being talked about and not told! "I don't care," she said sullenly. "Talk about me all you want, it's not like I have any say in it."
"No, you don't. Now, as my master is so fond of saying, lose the attitude. I'd have thought the spanking you were given yesterday was enough to quash that." Raven raised a brow but went back to her cooking when Jas failed to answer. The kid was acting strange, and Raven had a feeling she knew why.
An hour later, breakfast was prepared. Jas had showered, dressed in clean clothes and was sitting on her bed and reading through a maths assignment. "Stay there, I will be back in a moment," Raven ordered her, and after receiving a nod, she left to meet Eeth, who she sensed was approaching their cabin.
"Master," she said, inclining her head in greeting. "I need to talk to you about Jas."
Meanwhile, Jas had tossed her datapad aside and moved to the door to eavesdrop. She was tired of being talked about behind her back!
"What is it, padawan?" Eeth asked, dragging a towel across his face to wipe off a thin sheen of sweat. He had been running and was feeling the exertion, in a way that was very satisfying to him.
Raven frowned at the door when she sensed Jas' Force presence move closer, and she led Eeth from earshot.
Eeth glanced at the door as well, sensing that Jas was trying to eavesdrop. He was not very tolerant of this and was going to tell Jas as much. For the moment, though, he listened to what Raven was telling him.
"It's about her behaviour," she said quietly. "I feel that she might deliberately act out to stay longer. Perhaps it's out of fear of not being chosen or she's thinking that this is her last chance, I'm not sure. It's just a feeling, but I thought I had better tell you."
"Thank you for letting me know," Eeth said. "Needless to say, if that is her strategy, she will not get away with it. But it is good to have an idea what might be behind her behaviour. I will make sure to be mindful of it."
Eeth was not always good at understanding emotions, but he was very perceptive and skilled at picking up cues when he knew what to look for. Moreover, he had improved tenfold since taking on Raven as an apprentice and possibly a hundredfold since training Lakhri. Raven, on the other hand, had a natural talent for understanding emotions; they were a good team.
They walked back towards the hut. Eeth opened the door, stepped inside and pointed a firm look at Jas, who started backing up into her bed at his expression. He said sternly, "Eavesdropping is unacceptable. Do not try it again. Understood?"
"Yes, but it can only be considered eavesdropping if it works, and it didn't, so you can't scold me for it," Jas said, the logic sound, at least in her mind.
Eeth raised his eyebrows. Raven was right, he thought; Jas was definitely pushing it. Well, this was not going to earn her any favours. He had not been about to do more about her attempt at eavesdropping than utter a reprimand, but if this was how she reacted to it, she needed to learn a thing or two.
Pulling out his paddle, he said, "I think I made it quite clear yesterday that I expect you to lose the attitude. I do not like to repeat myself. Pull down your pants, bend over and place your elbows on your bed. I will explain something to you and I want to make sure I have your full attention."
Jas' eyes widened, one hand going to her backside and the other held out to ward him off – like that had ever worked!
"Wait, no! You can't punish me for that. I was just saying. I was just saying!" she complained. "Please, explain without the paddle, please?" It was cowardly, and Jas hated it, but her pride be damned, she didn't want this. Not again!
"You," Eeth said sternly, "will leave it to me how to explain things to you. And if you want to make it worse on yourself, then by all means continue arguing. Either you do as you were told or I fetch the paddle with the holes. It is your choice and you have five seconds to make it."
He knew he was being harsh, but given their imminent return to the Temple, he wanted to be unambiguous here. An attitude was an attitude, backtalk was unacceptable, and when Jas was being punished, her cooperation was required, without attempts at stalling or evasion. Over the course of her illness, Jas seemed to have forgotten this, and thus Eeth assumed she needed a reminder of the fact that his expectations had not changed.
Frustrated, Jas let out a whine, and it was heartfelt! She didn't want to; it was going to sting. But the threat of the paddle with all the holes in it was enough to stave off further protesting. Very reluctantly, and still standing side-on to him, she awkwardly bunched her clothing at her knees with one hand and turned to towards the room. "Raven!" Jas called, louder than necessary given their small living area and more desperate than she would ever have acknowledged. "Make him be reasonable!" she begged. It was a last-ditch effort!
Eeth's mouth tightened into a firm line. Without a word, he went to his wardrobe and fetched the paddle with the holes.
Raven was watching this scene escalate like a multi-pile speeder wreck. "Master," she said, taking his arm gently and briefly as he made his way back to where Jas had now bent over. "She's been really sick and you know what we spoke about?" Raven felt compelled to at least try and spare the stupid child from this horrendous upgrade.
"I am very much aware of that, padawan," Eeth said coolly. If Jas was indeed trying to push him, she would learn that this would not induce him to let her stay longer, but it would make the remainder of her time on Borleias significantly more unpleasant than it would otherwise have been. Eeth also intended to talk to Jas about this, but not before he had brought his point across.
Eeth lost no time in bringing the paddle down onto Jas' bottom, and he made the swat count.
"When something is forbidden," he informed Jas, "then the attempt is forbidden as well." He gave her a second sound swat, right on the crease where her bottom met her thighs.
Jas gritted her teeth. This was every bit as horrific as she recalled; a mere two swats had her ass already on fire.
"And when you are told off for something," he continued, letting a third swat follow, "you accept the reprimand instead of talking back and making excuses." Another swat emphasised this statement.
"Nor will you try to talk me out of punishing you, or ask my apprentice to do so," he added grimly. "This will only ever make things worse."
Two extremely vigorous swats to the centre of Jas' bottom demonstrated just exactly how much worse Eeth could make things.
"And most importantly," he concluded, "Lose. The. Attitude."
Each of those words was underlined with a spectacular swat to the tops of Jas' thighs that had Jas yelling out in earnest. Despite her dark skin, the area visibly reddened under the assault.
By now Jas was well past the stage where she tried to hide how much it hurt. She twisted slightly, dropped a hand to her foot, her opposite knee buckled and she grabbed her mattress in a death grip with her other hand. "Ah!" she yelped, but she forbore to beg as this had just gone down badly. And so she did the only thing that had ever bought her any leniency. "I'm SORRY!" she cried and dissolved into sobs. Sure, the pain was bad enough, but it was more than that, not that Jas was willing to admit this, not even to herself.
"Alright," Eeth said, still in a rather stern tone of voice. "You may get up."
He laid the paddle aside for now and waited until Jas had complied. Then he put a finger under her chin and tilted it upwards, forcing her to look at him.
"Stop it," he said much more kindly. "Whatever you are trying to accomplish by pushing me, it will not work. I will not tolerate your attitude, and we are still returning to the Temple three days from now. The trip has been arranged. The only thing you are achieving with your behaviour is to earn a sore bottom, and I presume you could do without that."
Jas continued to cry despite how humiliating it was to be doing so while Eeth had her chin. Unsure what to say in response to his comments, the girl wriggled her chin from his grasp and folded her arms about her chest, eyes locked on the floor, trying to get herself under control.
"Suit yourself," Eeth said calmly, withdrawing his finger. "How are you feeling after having had a full night's sleep? Is your headache gone?"
"Yes, but no thanks to you, it's moved to my ass," Jas complained, and if her bottom lip were to stick out any further, she'd surely fall over it. Then she lay face down on her bed to sulk.
Raven couldn't help the small chuckle that escaped at that comment. Sometimes the honesty of children could be downright disarming. She doubted Eeth would be thrilled over the sulking, though. He rarely indulged such behaviour for long.
"You have only yourself to blame," Eeth said unsympathetically. "Now come and eat something. I believe Raven has prepared breakfast."
"No, I have you to blame, you put it there," Jas grumbled, not at all ready to give up the sulking or forgive him just yet. But she did get up from her bunk.
"You," Eeth said firmly, "are looking for a fight. And that will only buy you more trouble which, again, you will only have yourself to blame for."
He pointed at the door. "Go and meditate," he ordered. "Release your negative emotions into the Force. Ask for help if you need to. I have not had much tolerance for your bad mood to start with, and you have used it up by now."
Jas opened her mouth to retort but closed it again smartly upon seeing the expression on his face. She was pretty sure that if she said anything that deviated from an apology or a show of compliance, she was going to cop it again. Jas didn't want another round, so she kept her comments to herself and made a dash for the door just in case he changed his mind and tried swatting her on the way past.
Raven watched this interaction with barely concealed amusement. The look on Eeth's face, however, had that mirth well contained. He was not happy with Jas' attitude and the padawan knew that. She picked up Jas' food and covered it, offering Eeth a sympathetic look. There was not much else she could do.
Fifteen minutes later, Jas slinked in the door, not meeting either Jedi's gaze. Her stomach rumbled and she looked at her bowl on the bench. "Can I eat now?" she asked.
"You may," Eeth said mildly. He was sitting at the table discussing arrangements with Raven. When Jas approached with her bowl of porridge, however, he rose and fetched her a few strips of raw meat to go with it. He knew she liked this and he also thought she still needed to regain her strength after her illness. Without being entirely aware of it, Eeth had become quite protective of Jas.
"Thanks," Jas replied gratefully, devouring the raw meat. She could tell that Eeth was no longer annoyed at her for sassing him earlier, although the kid still had difficulty knowing how to act after being disciplined. Raven fixed this awkwardness for her by starting a conversation about the burtles. If there was one thing the human excelled at, thought Jas, it was talking!
The rest of that day went by uneventfully, but Jas' heart sank a little more as each hour ticked on. She didn't want to go home! This was probably her last chance to know what it was like to have a master, and although she knew that Eeth could not take her as his apprentice, she went to bed that night praying to anything that would listen that some miracle happened that would allow her to stay with him.