The cockpit seats in the average spaceship were not suitable for over-the-knee spankings, as Eeth well knew, but that was not an issue. Nor was the fact that Jas was clearly unwilling to cooperate. He stood, took Jas' ear in a vice-like grip and pulled upwards.
Jas prided herself on being strong; well, at least she was stronger than her creche mates who, in her opinion, were weak, whiny babies. This, however, hurt and she had no choice but to scramble to her knees in order to lessen the burn in her ear. Both hands came up in an effort at prying Eeth loose but it didn't work. In fact, any amount of fighting just made it worse, or so it seemed to Jas.
Eeth used his hold on Jas' ear to fling her across the backrest of her seat, with her bottom pointing conveniently upwards.
He pulled down Jas' pants, and this time, her underpants went down, too. The traces of her earlier paddling had all but faded. Zabrak were very resilient, they did not easily bruise, and their skin recovered fast. However, Jas' bottom was undoubtedly still a little tender.
By this point, Jas had to concede that the stubborn, outright refusal approach did not work with Eeth. Thus, when she found herself upended, she lay limp, scowling into the seat behind. Jas had never fought punishment before, whether she believed it deserved or not; she was not that weak. Eeth, however, had managed to make an impression on her the last time, which gave her just a little anxiety about taking this stoically.
The last time, eighteen swats had been enough to leave said impression. But since that had been before Eeth had given Jas an explicit warning, he decided to deal out two dozen now. He pulled the paddle out of his belt, raised it high and brought it down onto Jas' bottom at full force. In the narrow cockpit, the swat rang out even more loudly than it had in the crèche corridor. And this was only the start of it.
Raven turned back to the controls, the painful 'thwack!' of each swat making her squint.
Thankfully for Jas, this punishment, although harsh by human standards, was not more than she could safely tolerate. That wasn't to say that she liked it. She absolutely did not, and despite her considerable mental discipline, the kid was protesting. By the sixth she was yelping, and by the twelfth she was crying softly. Nobody had ever smacked her so hard before. This actually hurt, a lot.
In Eeth's opinion, this might be one of the problems with Jas. If people had only known to punish her properly, she might have tried harder to avoid the kind of disrespect that got her into trouble time and again, instead of going by her own judgement and ignoring her teachers.
Entirely unperturbed by her tears, he dealt out twenty-four impressive swats. When that was finished, he stowed the paddle back into his belt without hurry and helped Jas up. He might have offered a hug or some other form of consolation, but he doubted that Jas would want it and did not want to force it upon her. Force knew he had not wanted hugs at that age, and he had not been half as antagonistic! Therefore, he merely handed Jas a handkerchief, rested a hand on her shoulder and waited until she had cleaned herself up.
The handkerchief was swatted away, as was the hand on her shoulder. Jas was not accustomed to being reduced to tears; it felt pathetic to her. She tried to stand tall, but her head was down, her nostrils flared, bottom lip clamped between her teeth and eyes brimming with tears. Unfortunately, the overall effect was not nearly as brave as she would have hoped for.
Raven felt for them both. Firstly for Eeth, because his offer of comfort had been rejected, and secondly, because Jas was hell-bent on toughing this out. Not to mention the fact that, well, this would have really hurt. The padawan made a whistling sound and shook her head. If Jas didn't get with the programme soon, she was quite sure the girl would not enjoy sitting for quite some time.
Eeth had not really expected Jas to accept his offer. To say that Jas was a prickly personality would be an understatement. Besides, she did not know him all that well yet, and in what little time she had spent with him, he had spanked her twice. Some degree of antagonism was probably warranted. Therefore, he merely said calmly, "Suit yourself" and stuffed the handkerchief back in the pocket of his robe. Then he took out a datapad and a stylus and held them out to Jas, who accepted them stiffly.
"Write down why your statement was disrespectful," he ordered, ignoring her scowl. "Not by your standards, but by the Jedi Order's. I take you to be intelligent enough to understand that much, even if you undoubtedly feel that you know better. You will sit while you do so and you will only get up when I am satisfied with the result."
Sitting was going to be quite an ordeal for Jas, but if Eeth's experiences with himself and other Zabrak were anything to go by, she would manage. It had taken a lot more than a small paddle for him to be unable to sit.
Jas wanted to feign ignorance, to ask Eeth what statement he meant but she didn't dare risk additional smacks if he saw through her. Unusually cowed, Jas yanked up her trousers and sat carefully into her seat to write. How he had managed to make that hurt so much remained a mystery to Jas. What the fuck did he have embedded in his hand? She looked at it, then back to Eeth, and then back again. His hand looked normal, yet the spanking had hurt, it really had! Still scowling, she punched at the datapad to power it up and got to work.
Raven watched the little Zabrak doing her best not to squirm about in her seat and shot a semi-pleading look at Eeth; yes, Jas had deserved what she got, but he had been hard on her, she thought.
Eeth raised his eyebrows and shook his head at Raven. "She is a Zabrak, padawan," he told her through their bond. "If I went easier on her, it would be no efficient deterrent."
Raven nodded, saying nothing more.
Eeth went to fetch a datapad from his bag and handed it to Raven. It contained a map of the part of Borleias they were going to stay at and some information on the surroundings, such as where to shop for food or look for a healer in case they needed one.
"It is not far from the main spaceport," he said. "We had best take a cab. I do not think we will need to have a speeder permanently at our disposal."
"Yes, or a public shuttle is also an option. It runs near our cabin," said Raven, skimming the file. She pointed out a few other things on the map that might be of interest. In the end they decided on a cab for the sake of ease.
Jas listened to them talk as she wrote. Her attention was half on the job at hand and half on their conversations. She did not need to put much thought into this. She knew what Eeth wanted her to say, even if she didn't agree with it. So far all humans she had met had been inferior to her! They were weaker both mentally and physically, and also weaker in the Force. Jas huffed as she knew that this mindset was not going to produce what Eeth wanted. Scribbling out the last paragraph which had started to state her thoughts, Jas again began stating why what she had said was considered disrespectful. When she was finished, she thumped her pad into her legs and waited, arms crossed. She had been sitting for almost an hour now and it hurt, but she was not willing to beg to be let up. No way.
Ordinarily, Eeth would have expected an initiate sitting on a sore bottom to jump at the chance to get off it and volunteer her writing as soon as it was finished. But he was not entirely surprised that Jas did no such thing. He had no intention of rewarding her obstinacy, though, and therefore he let her stew for several more minutes before he turned to her and asked, "Are you finished?" At her curt affirmative answer, he picked up the datapad and read through it. Jas knew what people wanted to hear from her, that much was obvious to him.
"This is satisfactory," Eeth said, pocketing the datapad.
The moment he said it, Jas got to her feet, trying not to make the act look as urgent as it actually was. She also tried to disguise rubbing her ass by straightening out her tunic. Embarrassing though it was, even she couldn't resist the urge.
"Do you even believe a word of what you wrote?" Eeth asked drily.
Jas wanted to say that it didn't matter if she did or not, but she didn't want to piss him off any more and so she held her tongue. "Mostly," she answered, doing her best to keep her hands still. "It might have hurt her feelings to hear what I think," was added on for good measure.
"It might, yes," replied Eeth. "Well, that is a start."
They were approaching Borleias now and needed to focus on the last part of the journey.
"Raven, take us out of hyperspace," he instructed. "I will get us clearance to land."
A quarter of an hour later, they left the ship, each carrying a bag, and headed for the exit of the spaceport. It was probably the busiest place on Borleias, and since the planet was a favourite tourist destination, it was quite crowded. They made their way through throngs of beings and had to stand in line for a cab.
Jas had never seen anything like this before. She took in every detail, all the while trying not to look like she was actually enjoying this. Eeth and Raven had brought her here against her will, after all, and Jas felt she needed to maintain her annoyance about this.
The cab driver, a Wookiee, agreeably threw their bags into his trunk and beckoned them inside
During the last few years Eeth had gradually left more and more of their mission responsibilities to Raven. Ergo, she took the front seat without being told, communicated the address of their cabin to their driver and buckled herself in. Having only taken a couple of cycles on Wookiee comprehension at the Temple, Raven was thankful that he, although an obviously jovial and likeable guy, kept the communications simple. She obviously managed to bring her point across because a moment later, they were off into the air, heading towards the beach from where the cab followed the coastline.
"Should take about an hour," Raven told the pair, twisting to face the two others briefly before returning her attention to the pad and their surroundings.
Finally, they reached a stretch of beach that was more rocky than sandy and therefore quite deserted. From the shore, a steep slope led up to the edge of the jungle. Their cabin was nestled among the trees, overlooking the sea.
"Here we are," Eeth said, climbing out of the cab. He left it to Raven to pay the driver and got out their bags and supplies. Jas opened her side of the speeder, jumped out and followed. A minute later, the cab was off and Eeth was unlocking the door with a code he had been given.
As Eeth input the code, Jas made sure to memorise it. If she was going to be stuck here – and it looked like there weren't many options to escape – she didn't want to be asking stupid questions. Jas didn't want to ask where she was to sleep, so she just stood there waiting.
The cabin essentially consisted of one large room. At the front, where large windows offered a beach view, there was a kitchenette with an eating area. At the back, there were four bunks with curtains that could be drawn and a wardrobe each. There were also two desks, facing the right-hand wall. A door at the back led out to a small yard where there was a toilet and a shower stall.
"Nice," Raven commented, entering shortly after Jas. Their cabin was actually quite comfortable, comparatively speaking. It was clean, open plan, had everything they needed and offered a prestigious view of the ocean. They had definitely stayed in worse places over the years, thought Raven. She drew back the curtain on the left top bunk which, thankfully, had a set of clean sheets and optional insect netting.
Jas followed their lead and threw her bag onto the closest bunk. She didn't care where it was but was pleased to see that each bed could be given a minimum of privacy. She planned on hiding out here as much as possible but Eeth shattered that notion quickly.
"You may have fifteen minutes to unpack," he told Raven and Jas. "After that, we should prepare dinner. If you are willing to make it a picnic, we could take it to the beach and eat there."
The climate was tropical here. While the sun set relatively early, it remained warm throughout the night, and some of Borleias' moons always gave off a soft light. Eeth thought that eating at the beach might be quite pleasant for all of them. They could have a swim later. All three of them would benefit from some exercise.
Despite her vow of silence and shattered hopes of becoming a recluse in her bed, Jas couldn't help but perk up at Eeth's suggestion. Who amongst her initiate peers had ever gotten to experience a meal they prepared themselves eaten on the beach? And, incidentally, who of them had ever been taken off-planet at all? None! Jas was tempted to feel superior because of it, although deep down she knew the real reason she was here was because of her difficulties. Well, so be it, maybe it was worth it! she thought, and sat on her bed, only to wince at the burn; the sting in her backside reminded her of the undesirable terms of this excursion…
Being well-accustomed to such things, it didn't take Raven long to unpack. "Nice place," she commented, stepping up behind Eeth who was looking over their tiny, albeit functionally practical kitchenette. She opened the supply bag and started stacking basic ingredients on the small bench.
While they did that, Jas pretended she was still unpacking. It wasn't that she didn't want to join them. She was actually kind of curious to see what they were doing, but her pride was forcing her to remain. This was all against her will, after all, so admitting that it might be something she found interesting was out of the question.
Eeth, however, was not fooled for long. "Jas?" he said. "Please help us prepare dinner."
He had found a broad, flat pan and decided to make fried Corellian bread loaves. These could be topped with any type of meat, cheese or vegetables and rolled up. Raven was already starting to cut up fruit into cubes that were going to be threaded onto skewers for dessert.
"You could knead the dough and form loaves," he told Jas. "I will show you how."
"I'd rather stay here," Jas replied in as polite a tone as she could muster. That she had replied at all was a vast improvement, though.
"I do not recall having given you a choice," Eeth said. "Neither of us will act as your personal servants. You will take over your fair share of the cooking and household chores, and you are starting now. Come."
The very thought of anyone acting as her personal servant mortified Jas, and she got to her feet, swiped the curtain aside and stepped into the kitchenette. Sure, contrary to what Eeth had claimed, she had choices, but they weren't what she wanted. "I can take care of myself. I don't need servants any more than you do," she stated, arms folded across her chest, because acting annoyed made this easier to accept.
"Lose the attitude," Eeth said sternly. "When I ask you to help, you come and help. There is no need for you to start a discussion about it, and sulking will not buy you any favours either. Now be kind enough to put your hands to some use. Take the bowl over there, use the scales and weigh out the flour."
Jas actually liked cooking, but she didn't want to let this on as it might seem like she was doing as Eeth said and, worse, liking it as much as she was! Wordlessly, Jas weighted out the measurement of flour and followed Eeth's and Raven's directions. She kneaded the dough, formed loaves, chopped vegetables, sliced meat and tofu, then added sauce when it was handed to her. By the time they had finished, she was happy with the result.
Eeth packed the food into containers and shared them between three baskets. He added a bottle of water to Raven's and two to his and handed Jas the lightest basket. Then they set off. It had become dark outside, but the sea was still visible in the soft moonlight. Further along the beach, the shore curved out towards a headland, and they could see the lights of a hamlet on it in the distance. It was very quiet; the only sound to be heard was that of the waves. The contrast to Coruscant could not be bigger.
The air was still very warm and none of them needed to wear a cloak. Nevertheless Eeth had taken his. He spread it onto a sandy stretch of ground that was slightly raised so they could use it as a blanket. The sand was warm and dry; it would be easy to shake off.
"Are you a good swimmer?" he asked Jas. Not all Zabrak were; some instinctively loathed the water, being from a desert species. Eeth was not one of them, though.
"I'm good at everything," Jas reminded Eeth, accepting a dish and ladling some food onto her plate. This really was something new. She had never eaten on a beach like this before and was trying not to show how much she was enjoying the experience.
"Nobody is good at everything," Eeth said mildly.
Jas made to argue but before she could, Raven cut in. "Keep your food in your lap or it will end up full of sand," she advised.
Jas frowned at Raven, but lifted her plate into her lap all the same. "Why, are you good at swimming?" she asked Eeth. Jas wasn't. She hated the water but she certainly would not let that on.
Eeth served himself some bread and vegetables and said, "I can swim quite well, yes. And we will go swimming later. Raven and I do our best to exercise at least once a day. Since I would rather start to work on your lightsaber skills when it is light outside, swimming is a good option for tonight."
Physical training had never been a problem for Jas. She was strong and did not give up easily. She did, however, have a tendency to become bored rather quickly with mundane exercises. Swimming was most definitely up there with her most hated of activities. It didn't come naturally to her and it tired her out rather quickly. Jas tried to put this aside and picked at the meat, leaving everything else.
Eeth was quick to notice this and it made him wonder why that was. Of course, Iridonian Zabrak were traditionally strict carnivores. However, they could digest most everything humans could and could easily adapt to an omnivorous diet. During his early childhood, Eeth had learned to eat everything he could get his hands on lest he starve, and the Temple had offered such a broad array of wholesome food that it had never occurred to him to be selective about what he ate. Most Temple-raised Zabrak he knew were omnivorous, too.
"Are you carnivorous?" he asked. "Have you been raised on Iridonia before you came to the Temple, by any chance?"
"Yes," Jas answered, and then paused. If she told him that she was strictly carnivorous, would that get her out of eating stuff she didn't like? Jas hated vegetables. Then again, that would limit her to just meat and she might miss out on good things like sweets. Realising that she had paused for a bit too long to pull that lie off anyway, Jas told the truth. "I can eat anything, I just don't like to. Mostly I just want meat and sweets," she admitted, although the push for sweet things was diminishing as she grew older. Jas pushed at a piece of cubed carrot with her fork. "Where are you from?" she asked Eeth.
He served himself to another bread loaf and lay back, propping his head up on his elbow. There had been times when he had felt acutely uncomfortable talking about his childhood. In the past years, however, he had come to terms with it and was now quite at ease with the topic.
"I was born and raised on Nar Shaddaa," he said. "In the slums."
This had Jas sitting up on her heels. Nar Shaddaa was notoriously hardcore; she and every other being in the universe knew that.
"Nar Shaddaa. and… you lived, obviously." Jas raised her chin so as not to look like she was impressed by this.
"Obviously," said Eeth drily. "I lived because I ate pretty much everything I could get my hands on. I spent part of my early childhood living on the streets because I was orphaned. I could hardly afford to be picky about food. And nor will you. I expect you to eat some fruit and vegetables. If there is a choice, you may pick one of them, and I will not ask you to eat huge amounts either. But some vitamins will not go amiss."
Jas reluctantly picked up a fruit skewer; this was nothing more than her creche master asked of her, so the request was acceptable enough. Still, Jas was just a bit intrigued by Eeth's past. "Have you ever been back?" she asked.
"Yes," said Eeth. "On a mission, with my padawan, eight or nine years ago. It was a misguided attempt on my part to get rid of my fears by returning to the place I grew up in, rather than dealing with my actual emotions. It did not work. But it did allow me to confirm that the place is still as steeped in poverty and crime as I remember it from my early childhood."
"Oh." Jas wasn't sure how to respond to Eeth's openness and so she stayed quiet for a moment. "How come you were old enough to remember your childhood? I thought they didn't take children over two," she said next.
"I was nearly four," replied Eeth quietly, "and I have always remembered rather more than I would have liked. My memories go back to when my mother was murdered, which must have happened before I turned three. And, yes, I was originally considered too old to be accepted to the Temple. However, the Jedi who found me and who, incidentally, later became my master put up a fight for me. They tested me and reconsidered. I had learned to draw on the Force very early in order to heal myself, conceal myself, run at Force-enhanced speed and a number of other things that Temple-raised children could not do at my age. I had also got into the habit of meditating although I did not know to call it meditation at the time, of course. And I had never used the Force to commit acts of violence, which suggested that I had not given in to my anger and fears. Thus, in the end, the Council decided that my level of mental discipline and self-control was high enough to warrant keeping me at the Temple."
"I don't know anything about my family," Jas said, a hint of irritation to her tone. "They won't tell me anything and when I tried to sneak a look at my file, the librarian busted my ass."
"Yes," said Eeth. "We do not usually allow that until children have become padawans and have gained some security in their role and their relationship to their master."
Raven smiled imperceptibly at the ease in which Eeth answered Jas' questions. She remembered a time where getting conversation out of him was like pulling teeth, let alone anything of a personal nature. He really had improved, and she sent as much across their bond in a wave of affection. "What about you, what do you know of your home world?" Raven enquired.
"Not much. I remember nothing personally," said Jas. "Then, there is a lot of information about Iridonia around. I don't care about the planet. I do want to know why my birth parents gave me to the Jedi and how I was found, though. Most everyone in the crèche is curious about that stuff."
"Yes, I remember feeling that way myself," Raven said, "although I never did attempt taking on the librarian. Jocasta can be prickly. That was a rather daring move."
"Yeah, well, she caught me, the cranky old…" Jas stopped before finishing that statement and shoved a fork full of food into her mouth before anything incriminating escaped.
"She is not cranky," Eeth said, a hint of a warning in his voice, "and she has good reason to act as she does, even if you cannot see it right now. Knowing your families of origin can create serious conflicts of loyalty and commitment. Whoever your parents were, you may be sure that the Jedi have not taken you from them against their will. They would have known it was the right choice to make."
Of course, there were also those families who were more than glad to get rid of their "strange children." This was often difficult for Jedi padawans to deal with when they tried to reach out to their birth families as teenagers and found themselves rejected. Which was another reason to deny crèche children the chance to contact their parents.
Jas didn't know it yet, and would not find out for quite some time, but she was indeed one of the latter cases. Her past was dark and almost tragic. Her birth parents and family belonged to a traditional Zabrak tribe. When Jas was born, strange things began to happen, things that both distressed and aggravated the tribe members. By the time she was almost two, the child was unmanageable; a simple tantrum could be devastating. And so it was that after she had unwittingly almost killed one of her cousins over a wooden toy, Jas' parents were given an ultimatum: get rid of the child or they would be forced to kill her before she killed them. Given their limited options, they did the best thing they could think of, namely, they waited for the next shuttle to come close enough to their village, drugged her and hid her aboard before it took off. That was the last time Jas would ever see her parents. She did not know that at the time, and thankfully, she retained no memories of the trauma she had caused or the events that followed. Luckily for Jas, the shuttle occupants were Alderaanian miners scouting the planet for mineral and spice deposits. They were educated in the ways of the world and immediately realised that their unwanted baggage was Force-sensitive. Two days later, she was dropped at the Jedi Temple by a rather frazzled-looking family eager to offload their surprise cargo. But she would only find out about all this many years later.
"I need to pee," Jas announced, having finished her meal, and got to her feet. Their cabin wasn't far away and she remembered the code. Besides, some time-out from Eeth's constant supervision would be welcome.
"You may," said Eeth. "But come straight back here and do not dawdle."
Jas frowned; she had not been asking for his permission and her expression said as much. Still, she said nothing as she slinked off toward their cabin.
Raven waited until Jas had disappeared into the cabin and shot an amused look at Eeth. "You're going to really earn your grey hairs with this one," she commented.
Eeth merely raised his eyebrows at her and helped himself to a skewer with fruit cubes. He did have some grey hairs lately. It came with age and did not bother him at all.
"Make the most of this, padawan," he said. "I plan to completely focus on preparing you for your knighting once this assignment is over, and that means we will not be likely to have much peace and quiet for quite a while."
Raven smiled. "Good. I know how much you hate for us to be idle," she said.
Meanwhile, Jas had taken care of business and was rooting through her bag for her datapad. The sun had gone down and it was barely light out now. Her eyes flicked towards the closed door and the open window by her bed. If she were to escape, now was the time. Jas knew that this was a point of no return. There would be no going back to the Temple if she left now. She wavered for a moment; and then she stuffed her pack full and jumped out the open window, any and all hopes that she might become a Jedi dissipating with this one decision.
It was a good two hundred kilometres to the space station, and Jas knew that. But the chance of catching a ride on a freighter or local transport was high – or so she assumed, having no idea of this planet's transportation systems. Jas thought this was worth the risk. Besides, she was a Zabrak and strong in the Force, and she was well able to make her own way in any world against any adversary. Thus, she took off running down the coast road as fast as she could.
Unfortunately for Jas, Eeth was not naive. He kept his attention on Jas both with his eyes and through the Force. He saw that the girl closed the front door behind herself and it remained closed. But Eeth's sense of the Force clearly told him that she had left the cabin. Setting his plate onto his cloak and rising to his feet in one fluid motion, he told Raven, "Excuse me for a moment, padawan. It seems as if Jas is keen to escape from our company."
Raven dragged a hand down her face as Eeth left. Heck, Jas was starting to give her grey hairs!
Eeth made his way up the slope and after Jas at Force-enhanced speed. Even without it, Jas would have been no match for him. As it was, it took him less than thirty seconds to bring her up short by grabbing the back of her tunic. Without releasing his hold on her, he turned her around and Jas froze.