Eeth followed Jas to the cabin at a slower pace. He did not believe for a second that his inability to take her to the jungle was the real case of the girl's meltdown.
Pulling up a chair, he sat at the side of the bed and brushed a hand across her hair.
"You have a lot to deal with," he said quietly. "And believe it or not, I am here to help. Not to make life hard for you. But unfortunately, that is what life is sometimes like. It is not always easy. Nor fair."
Jas cried into her pillow in big heaving sobs. She didn't think she had ever cried like this before, not ever! As Eeth had correctly surmised, though, this was about more than being denied their jungle trip. Sure, that was a part of it, but mostly it was sheer frustration over her situation, fear of failure, the fact that the Order had sent her away to improve herself, and the realisation that her fears of rejection, of not being chosen as a padawan were quite close to becoming a reality.
When Jas had finally cried herself out, she felt embarrassed. She didn't know what to say to Eeth's statements, nor did she know how to move past this, how to act like nothing had happened. Jas badly wanted to go into the jungle, and badly wanted a break from classwork. Unfortunately, she could see no way of making that happen today short of sneaking off herself, and that would no doubt earn her more trouble.
Eeth rubbed Jas' back in a small gesture of comfort.
"You and me," he said softly, "and my padawan, too, we are not very good at surrendering control and at simply accepting things as they are, even when we do not like them. But sometimes, refusing to do so is not only pointless; it might damage you. Try to come to terms with your situation. And try to face your fears. It might not be pleasant, but it is necessary if you want to overcome them. I have tried escaping from facing my fears for half my life. It was not doing me good at all."
Hearing that Eeth and to a lesser extent, Raven, had struggled with similar problems and still they were both allowed to continue with the Order was both comforting and scary at the same time. Scary because Jas wasn't sure if she could face the truth about herself, and comforting because, well, if Eeth and Raven could do it, so could she. None of this, however, guaranteed her a place with the Order, Jas knew that. Swiping her nose into the pillow, she curled into a ball on her side, silently appreciative of the comfort being given to her. "I'll try, I promise," she said quietly, already knowing what Master Yoda's infamous mantra would have to say about that statement.
Eeth continued to stroke Jas' back, giving her time to think. After a while, he said gently, "I know it seems hard now. But you will make it. Trust the Force. I know that trust can be hard to find, but find it. It will make things much easier for you."
Jas rolled onto her back and sat up. She was no longer sniffling, and her face was mostly clear of snot and tears thanks to her pillow case, which had come out of that encounter second best. "I do trust the Force," she said, looking up at him. "I'm…. Maybe I worry that I won't be chosen as a padawan, and… it's not like I relish the fact that others don't like me." Jas looked as if it was actually causing her both physical and mental pain to admit this. It was the first time she had ever said it aloud, let alone to another person, yet oddly, she felt relief at being able to unburden some of the pain she carried around inside.
Eeth was not always good at understanding emotions, but this was something he could relate to. He had harboured similar fears and had reacted to them by developing a supremely detached persona. This had usually enabled him to fulfil the order's expectations, and more than that, but it had also prevented him from having friends. Learning social skills, to him, had been like learning a foreign language: a slow, painstaking process.
"You are afraid of being rejected," he said to Jas. "And I suspect it is what causes you to display an attitude. That way, it will be your choice to reject the others, not the other way round. Am I right?"
That assessment took Jas off guard and she was temporarily stuck for words. "At least that choice is mine," she decided on saying, folding her arms defensively.
"Yes," Eeth said quietly. "Unfortunately, you harm yourself, not the others, by making that choice. For fear of being rejected by the Order, you reject the future that the Order has to offer you. Is that really what you want? Honestly?"
"What future? It's not like any master will ever choose me as a padawan," she said, raising a brow in challenge. "Would you take me on?" Jas felt her comment was a case in point. Sure, she could appreciate that the Order had sent her here with Eeth and Raven, and she was even beginning to see what a privilege that was, but right now, Jas felt like her world was coming unstuck. Eeth was tugging at the walls she had so carefully constructed, and they too were coming unstuck.
"There is no reason why no master should choose you as his or her padawan," Eeth replied firmly. "That is what you are telling yourself and others in order to avoid disappointment. Unfortunately, such things have a tendency to become self-fulfilling prophecies. And I hardly believe that is really what you want."
The notion that her attitude had reached the point where it might turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy had never occurred to Jas before, and it was enough to keep her quiet.
"Moreover," said Eeth, "whether I would choose you as my padawan is beside the point. I am currently not free to choose anyone. If I were, there is nothing about the prospect of taking you as a padawan that would deter me if the Force led me your way. Why should there be? Do you really consider yourself that much of a burden?"
She was about to open her mouth to retort, to say she didn't think herself a burden, when what Eeth said registered. She hid it well. "You, would, and… there isn't?" The girl couldn't help but question this; the notion of having a master at all had, up until now, just been a fantasy. That Eeth thought there was nothing that would deter the right master gave Jas cause to smile, just a little.
"No," said Eeth. "You are strong in the Force. You also have an attitude, but you would not be the first child with an attitude to make it to padawanhood. I have seen quite a few initiates with serious authority issues who found masters and eventually made it to knighthood. Maybe the road was a bit harder for them than for others. But that is not what is important. What is important is that they found it within themselves to trust the Order in general and their master in particular to guide them on their path. You need to deal with your fears in order to gain that level of trust. If you find yourself able to do so, I am quite sure you will have a future within the Order."
Jas remained silent, the only indication that she had heard him being the contemplative expression she now wore. After an unusually long pause, the kid looked up at him and swiped at her eyes with her tunic sleeve, for once not caring that he knew she had been crying. Force, everyone within a five-mile radius would have heard that tantrum.
"I feel I'm meant to be a Jedi," she said. "It's…" She tried to find the words to explain but failed. "I just know. I don't know how, but I do. Why can't I just be normal like all the others who sail through the Order?" Jas gestured to Raven's bed dismissively. "People like her don't know how easy they have it. She probably never worried about being chosen as a padawan, there was probably a line-up waiting to take her on." Jas was having a bit of a "why me?" moment, but at least she was talking about how she felt, which was not something she often did.
Eeth raised his eyebrows.
"It does not work like that," he said. "Jedi masters do not pick their padawans. The Force leads master and padawan together, no matter who the master might have wanted to 'line up' for. Besides, how would you know? What makes you think Raven sailed through her padawanhood?"
Jas snorted. "You haven't told her off once in the entire time we've been here, and I'm getting spanked all the time. Obviously, she's doing a lot better than me at this whole Jedi thing." She shrugged. "It's easy for some people," she said, "but it's not easy for me."
"Yes, she is doing better at this whole Jedi thing at age twenty-one than you are doing at age ten," Eeth replied patiently. "I should hope that you, too, will not require daily spankings when you have reached her age. My padawan has had her fair share of problems in earlier years, though; more so than many others, which might be why the Force led me to her. You are not the only one who has ever had issues with authority or respect. Force knows I was a handful when I was fifteen or sixteen years old; I felt more capable than anyone else and repeatedly disobeyed my master during missions because I thought I knew better. Eventually, I learned otherwise. And so will you."
"You? Pff. How can you ever understand such a thing'? You're too…" Jas struggled for a polite way to paraphrase her thoughts and settled on "rigid," which summed up the way she saw him. She ignored the comments about Raven for now.
"Probably so," said Eeth, unperturbed, "but that does not mean I am perfect and have never had problems meeting the Order's expectations. Now, I need to set up my meeting with the Council soon. While I talk to them, you will work on your lessons. You had best take them outside so you will not be distracted by our discussions. You may take ten minutes' break between each set, but no longer than that, please."
Not bothering to hide her annoyance, Jas took her pad and went outside to do as told. It wasn't great doing work on her own; she was used to the class in crèche and peers or teachers around her. Still, she did the lessons and took the breaks that Eeth had set her, which took her two and a half hours.
Finally! Jas deactivated her datapad and entered their cabin, looking proud. She was more than ready for Eeth to tell her they would do something fun now, as he typically did after she had finished her work.
But not this time. Eeth's meeting had ended barely five minutes ago and he was busy typing away on his datapad.
"Are you finished?" he asked without looking up or ceasing to type.
"Yes, " Jas replied, not liking how distracted he sounded.
"Good. I need to write down a summary of my recommendations and send them to the Council. This is going to take me another half hour. Do a maths lesson in the meanwhile."
Jas pursed her lips. Apparently she was going to be working by herself up until lunchtime and heck, maybe longer! "FINE," she said, turned on her heel and slammed the door behind her, knowing that Eeth was too busy to come after her.
When Raven returned from the sanctuary she was on foot and had an animal swaddled up in her pack. All the other things she had in there were now slung on every loop and hook her clothing had to offer.
Jas jumped from her bench and spun to face Raven.
"What the heck is that?" she asked, eyeing the scarily crazy-looking critter Raven had restrained in her backpack and stuffed under her arm.
"It's a loth cat," Raven replied. "This one is only a baby, don't worry."
"I'm not worried, it doesn't scare me," Jas stated, her chin jutting out as she left the bench and followed Raven inside.
Raven ignored that claim and gave Eeth a polite nod as they passed him. He was busy and gave no more than a cursory glance back for the moment .
She went directly to their bathroom where she swiped on the tap with the back of her hand and started cleaning up his fur.
"Is there something wrong with it, or do they all look like that?" Jas asked, referring to the utterly manic expression on the cat's face.
"No, there is nothing wrong with it. This is just how they look," Raven replied.
Jas showed curiosity and so Raven elaborated. "Loth cats are members of the tooka family, and native to Lothal. They have long since migrated and spread out thanks to the invention of space travel. They mostly live in hot, grassy areas. They can be temperamental, but if you are Force-sensitive, you can soothe them quite easily, even if you do not possess a talent for that sort of thing."
Okay, so now Jas was more than a little more than just curious. She approached the cat and tentatively reached out a hand, trying to connect to it through the Force, only to pull it back faster than lightning when the cat's fur prickled into a ridge. It made some sort of guttural noise that sounded far too deep to come from such a tiny body.
Immediately, Raven put a hand to the creature's head, sending it to sleep. "Don't do that," she admonished. "You never reach out to an animal when you don't know what it will do." At the look on Jas' face, Raven softened her tone. "They are small, but they are temperamental creatures at the best of times. This one is injured which exacerbates that."
Sure enough Jas could see blood mingling with the warm tap water as it drained down the bathroom drain. "You said Force-sensitive people can soothe them!"
"Controlled Force-sensitives can soothe them, yes," replied Raven drily.
Jas frowned and changed the subject. "How did that happen?" she asked, noting that the cat's toenail was almost hanging off. It was fucking gross and she wrinkled her nose.
Raven shrugged. "They are hunters with sharp teeth and claws. Could be anything from a territorial fight to a run-in with something a little out of his league. I will do some Force-aided healing and treat it with bacta. He will be as good as new."
"Wait, you're keeping that thing in here with us?"
Raven was reminded of the time she had smuggled a scorcher into their quarters, and it made her smile. She had come a long way since then. "Until dark, yes. He will need a nest, though."
"Can I help?" asked Jas because anything was better than what she was currently doing.
Raven didn't know what Eeth had set for Jas to do, so she sent him an inquiry through their bond.
Eeth frowned a little at the request. Jas was meant to be working on her maths. On the other hand, any chance for her to open up a little, build a connection to Raven and maybe even realise that the human was not inferior to her would be welcome.
"Go ahead," he called. "Any work you cannot complete this morning will be completed in your spare time this afternoon, however."
"But! I hardly have any spare time," complained Jas, who had come out of the bathroom to talk to Eeth directly. "There is too much work."
"Then do your maths now," Eeth said firmly. "Your choice. And I would be much obliged if you could let me finish writing these recommendations."
"By all means finish your writing," said Jas, storming out of the cabin and waiting for Raven to join her. Raven just shrugged at Eeth and followed Jas outside.
"What did you get your knickers in a twist over?" she asked Jas casually, already knowing the answer but wanting to hear her take on it.
"There is too much work!"
"Yes, I remember feeling that way myself. Not much you can do about that, and I can tell you now that complaining about it doesn't help, especially so with Eeth. If anything, it will just further annoy him. You really want to avoid doing that too often."
Jas kicked at the ground, stirring up a cloud of dust and leaves. "I don't care," she huffed. "I'm not doing it."
"The only choice you have is whether or not you do the work while being able to sit."
"So that's it?" asked Jas. "If I refuse to do it he'll spank me until I do? That's unfair."
"Call it what you want," said Raven. "Eeth is very big on duty. He is doing his by providing you with structure, guidance and boundaries that will keep you on track to obtaining your goals. You need to do yours by obeying him. He won't accept anything less. Surely you have worked that much out?"
"I hate it. He's not nearly as hard on you as he is on me, and I'm not even his apprentice!" Jas complained
Raven actually laughed out loud at that. "Believe me, he was just as hard on me when I was in your position, and he still is."
"He is not. He doesn't even scold you. I get spanked for everything!"
"Nonsense. He is strict, yes, but never unjust. Do you honestly believe you did not deserve it? Really?"
Jas frowned in annoyance at that question.
Raven nodded knowingly. "I don't get into as much trouble now because I am older and I have learned to behave in a way that he deems acceptable," she said. "You know, my master and I did not always see eye to eye. The first few months of my apprenticeship, I felt unworthy of his status. I felt like I was constantly messing up."
Jas raised a hairless brow at hearing that, but again remained silent.
"Thankfully, he realised what was happening and worked to improve that part of our relationship," Raven continued. "Now stop complaining and help me collect some grass. We'll make a bed for the loth cat by the cabin."
Jas was still in a bad mood when they returned to the cabin twenty minutes later. She helped Raven make a nest and then sat back on the bench. The last thing Jas wanted to do was school work, and that they were supposed to have been exploring the jungle now was just making that worse.
"Go grab your datapad, I'll help you with it." Raven offered when she saw the kid was lining herself up for another ass kicking.
"I don't n…" Jas started, but was cut off.
"I know. You don't need my help, but maybe you want it? Working with someone often helps."
Jas sighed and wordlessly went to retrieve her datapad. There was not actually much work left to do and she was soon finished. By this point, Eeth had finished writing his presentation, too, and they made lunch together.
"How was your visit to the sanctuary?" Eeth asked Raven as they sat at the table in the yard eating steamed dumplings.
"Interesting," Raven replied. "I believe that the imooda population are suffering from a species-specific disease. However, there was more to it than that. They were also stressed by the increasing number of curious, unskilled tourists who venture off into the forest on nature rambles and naively or simply unsympathetically unsettle their homes in the process. This stress could be causing the disease."
Eeth nodded. "Is there anything you can do to help?" he asked.
"I'm not sure," Raven replied honestly. "I should spend some more time there in any case. I might be able to speak with the local government, or write a report and get the Jedi Council involved."
"Go ahead and do that," said Eeth. "There is no reason why you should not make yourself useful while we are here." Besides, he reasoned, it might be an opportunity for her to manage a task on her own, without his supervision, which was the most mission experience he was able to give her for now.
After lunch, he set Jas to work on levitation once again. This time, he was using cuargo fruits. These were soft, inedible to humans and Zabrak, and the yard was full of them. Jas was to levitate them into his outstretched hand. The trick was to do so very gently, otherwise the fruit would split open. Eeth already had splashes of cuargo juice all over his pant legs and right arm and a small heap of semi-exploded fruit was lying next to him, but he did not particularly mind.
"You are nearly there," he said, "and we are not stopping until you have managed."
Jas was concentrating hard, really hard. Two reasons: Firstly, she really did want to get this right, and secondly, they had been doing this for ages! She persisted, though, and levitated yet another of the squishy fruits to her eye level. Slowly it limped and skipped towards Eeth's outstretched hand. It was almost there, too, when Raven's loth cat made some sort of keening sound and her focus was lost. The fruit actually exploded, sending juice all over Eeth.
Jas laughed.
Raven had gone back inside to finish off her report and had just saved the final draft when the girl's laughter drew her attention to the window. She had no idea what they were doing, but it was the first time since meeting the stoic young Zabrak that she'd heard her laugh like that; it was hard enough getting a smile out of her. Raven had to concede that seeing her usually dignified master slathered in cuargo juice would have made her laugh, too. It would seem that, unintentional or not, Eeth had managed to make the Force work they were doing fun for Jas.
The loth cat was awake and was probably trying to call its family, and so Raven went out to soothe him, taking the little guy in her arms and focusing yet more healing onto the injured foot.
Eeth had to smile a little, more at Jas' laughter than at his own predicament. He tended to be fussy about his clothing, but not in situations like this.
"As I said, you are nearly there, but not quite," he said drily, retrieving a handkerchief from his pocket and wiping it across his juice-splattered face. Fortunately, the stuff was easy to wash off and did not leave stains. He had tested this before using the cuargo fruit for this exercise.
"Next attempt," he said, plucking another fruit from the tree behind him that was so loaded with them that its branches were creaking.
Jas did as she was told, and after half an hour the kid was starting to show a marked improvement. The fruit was floating a lot more now instead of the short, jerky movements she had managed before, and fortunately for Eeth, there were far fewer explosions. When Eeth finally let her stop, she was well and truly over Force work!
"Maybe you should just throw yourself in the ocean? I suspect it would be easier," Raven said upon seeing the state of him. She had the loth cat tucked into her chest and it seemed to be docile for now.
"I think I might do just that," Eeth replied. "It would be good if the two of you could take care of the laundry in the meanwhile. We need a fresh supply of clean clothes."
Fortunately, their cabin was equipped with a washing machine. Eeth had washed his share of laundry by hand, but he preferred not to if it could be helped.
"We can do that, right Jas?" Raven replied, putting a hand on the girl's shoulder and smiling.
Jas just shrugged and moved towards their laundry as an excuse to get the padawan's hand off her shoulder without seeming rude. That she was even thinking about that now was quite an improvement in her attitude.
Eeth nodded, went to exchange his splattered clothes against a pair of swim trunks and made his way towards the beach. Soon, he was ploughing through the water, heading in a straight line for the open sea. He had always liked physically exerting himself; it gave him a pleasant feeling of accomplishment.
"You might try verbal answers once in a while," Raven said casually. "People tend to respond better when they don't have to guess at what you're thinking or feeling all the time. It's also polite and shows respect. Try it, you'll be surprised at the difference it makes."
"Unlike you, I'm not a suck-up," Jas replied without looking up from the pile of laundry she had started to sort.
Raven raised a brow at that. "Is that so, and what, pray tell, makes you think I'm a suck-up?"
"All the' yes, master' and no, master,' it makes me want to gag."
Raven couldn't help it, she chuckled. "Jas, have you ever considered the possibility that I am polite to my master because I respect him? That is not the only reason I am polite, however. I am polite because it is what is expected of me. Again, people respond better if you are polite to them." Raven smiled as she recalled Lakhri's words. "You know, Lakhri once told me that any 'yes, master, no, master' responses can virtually be life-saving. Again, you might want to try that out and see for yourself."
Jas thought about that. There had been several instances in which she had been polite and gotten a positive response from Eeth. At ten, she was still quite egocentric, though, and only considered the notion of being polite out of curiosity over what it could gain her.
By the time Eeth returned, the girls were hanging up the laundry to dry in the yard.
"How was your swim?" Raven asked, inclining her head in way of greeting.
"Good," said Eeth, giving her a smile. He was pleasantly exhausted. Having showered off, dried his hair and dressed in a tunic and loose pants, he joined the two a few minutes later.
"We can have a sparring session now," he told Jas. "I am planning on teaching you an Ataru attack sequence that will work well for you, I think."
"I think I'd like that," Jas replied.
The new ataru sequence was a welcome reprieve from the class and Force work she had been doing so far, and thus she gave Eeth her best effort. That effort was acknowledged and even praised by Eeth, which had the kid feeling pretty good about herself come dinner time.
"We will take our jungle trip tomorrow," Eeth told Jas as they were seated at the table in the yard. "Padawan, will you come as well?"
Jas could barely contain her excitement at this, but she did it and did it well.
Raven glanced up. "Sure, if you have no other work for me."
"I do not, and I assume the imoodas can wait a day or two," said Eeth.
After breakfast the next morning, Eeth gave Jas a list of things to pack, such as an insect repellant, a compass, energy bars, and a knife. Once they were done preparing lunch boxes and packing their backpacks, they set off. Eeth showed Jas how to track their route both using a compass. This only worked on planets with magnetic poles, of course, but there, it was quite useful.
Once they had ventured beyond the fringes of the jungle, the undergrowth became impenetrable. There were tracks used by animals, though, mostly alongside small creeks. Whenever the going became too difficult, Eeth or Raven used their sabers to hack free their way.
Unfortunately, and much to Jas' annoyance, her practice saber was not powerful enough to cut through most obstacles. Even using the techniques Eeth had taught her on their last bush walk did not help. Jas was not the sort of kid who liked to sit back and let others do the work. It frustrated her. That aside, she was also curious about using a real saber because … who wouldn't be?
"I want…" she eventually started saying. Then she paused to rephrase her order as a request. "Can I have a go at that with your saber, please?" she asked politely, gesturing to a thick branch that Eeth had just lopped off and Raven was cutting again so that it fell well out of harm's way.
"With one of our sabers?" Eeth asked, eyebrows raised. "Certainly not. We do not give our sabers away lightly. And you are not disciplined enough to handle a real lightsaber by a long shot."
"Not disciplined enough my ass. I could do it," grumbled Jas, folding her arms as she followed along behind them. What they were doing didn't look hard at all.
Real lightsabers were simply off-limit to initiates, and Eeth was quite certain that Jas knew it.
"People have been hurt by junior padawans secretly trying out their masters' sabers," he told Jas severely. "Including the junior padawans themselves. A real lightsaber is a powerful weapon, and controlling it requires discipline. Something that you will still need to acquire. So, do not even think about it."
Jas snorted but knew enough about Eeth by now to keep her mouth shut. She kept watching them, though; it was hard not to as it looked pretty impressive.
Having cut through a jumble of lianas, they emerged into a small clearing where rocks encircled a pool of water that was created by a waterfall emerging five metres above them. It was quite beautiful. They had been hiking for three hours now and were all sweaty and a little dirty.
"Shall we take our lunch break here?" Eeth asked.
Raven stared appreciatively at the beauty of their location. The waterfall looked a lot like those on her birth planet, Chine, and it made her smile to think of her family. Her twin brother, Bram and his partner, Narvid had left Coruscant in the middle of last year and returned to Chine where Bram had introduced Narvid to the family. It had been hard for the twins to say goodbye to each other. Raven missed Bram. They had a strong bond, and she felt an emptiness there. But they were on different paths; Bram and Narvid were happily living on Chine and engaged last she heard, while Raven was pursuing knighthood. She turned her smile towards Eeth. He could have forbidden contact with her family if he had wanted to, but he hadn't. On the contrary: he had worked with both their schedules so the twins had time to see each other whenever their duties permitted.
"Did you ever try it?" Jas asked Raven out of the blue.
"Try what?" the padawan asked, pulled from her thoughts of Bram.
Jas pointed to Eeth's lightsaber. "Eeth's lightsaber."
Raven laughed and started spreading out a blanket that she had pulled from her pack. "Fortunately for me, no. That was one of the few things I spared him the stress of enduring. Have I told you about Kaden Lightbane yet? If you want lightsaber offences, he would be your go-to man." And with that, Raven launched into a story about the time Kaden had snuck into a diplomat's private room to practise with his lightsaber during a conference.
"Who cares about some stupid show dog's remains. Some people are just weird," Jas commented after hearing how Kaden had accidently smashed the urn and the old couple's reaction upon discovering it.
"Unfortunately, it is our duty, as Jedi, to deal with these people, weird though they may be," Eeth said. "With a little bit of bad luck, Kaden could have created a major diplomatic incident there. Not to speak of the fact that he was supposed to take part in a Senate reception at the time."
He smiled a little at the memory. "Kaden Lightbane was quite similar to you in some way," he told Jas. "Strong in the Force and desperately in need of guidance. Some considered him close to unmanageable. And yet, he found a master who could manage him and who did. Kaden is a senior padawan now and there is no doubt that he will become a formidable Jedi knight."
"Indeed," Raven agreed. "Kaden was one of the most volatile Jedi in the Temple. He is also one of the strongest in the Force we have. Now, if a personality like Kaden's can endure and overcome, then so can you."
Jas shrugged, trying to seem nonplussed. Secretly, though, she was pleased for the reassurance both Eeth and Raven offered. She sat and pulled a container filled with raw meat from the cool section in her small pack. Most of the ice had melted inside, giving it the most delicious look and smell.
The strips of raw animal flesh floating around in blood-stained water looked horribly gruesome to Raven, and the smell! She forbore to wrinkle her nose but shifted from her spot downwind and sat by Eeth instead.
"Want some?" Jas offered, knowing full well that Raven didn't like meat and why.
"No, thank you."
"It's not polite to refuse food when it's offered to you," Jas pressed, enjoying antagonising the senior padawan.
"Is that so?" Raven turned to face her, resting an elbow on her knee as she popped the lid on her fruit salad. "I tell you what, I'll eat a piece of your meat if you eat something of my choosing. Do we have a deal?" Raven asked her expression deadpan. There were benefits to having Flynt as her Jedi nephew. He was the king of all things distasteful and his creativity never ceased to amaze her.
Jas thought about that. It was risky. For all she knew, Raven could pick up clods of dirt, or worse, shit. The initiate shrugged, blowing it off so as not to lose face over having been outmatched there. "Suit yourself, you're missing out," she said.
"You," Eeth told her firmly, "will stop antagonising my padawan for no good reason. Show her some respect, as you should show any fellow being. The Temple hosts a wide variety of species and the Jedi Order would not function if we did not learn to tolerate our differences. Raven has not once reprimanded you or made fun of you for eating meat. Pay her the same courtesy."
"Relax, I was just kidding around," Jas replied coolly, trying to defuse the situation, although there was a slight snigger to her expression.
Raven had fully expected that reaction from Eeth. At twenty-one years of age, the senior apprentice no longer needed Eeth's guidance here; she knew when her personal choices needed to take a backseat to her duty. Now was not such a time. Jas, on the other hand, still had a thing or two to learn. Well, she was only ten and so Raven changed the subject before the kid could get herself into any more trouble.
Raven told Jas about an actual mission experience where she had been forced to eat meat in order to fulfil her duty. "It was the very first time this happened," she said. "We had been sent to the planet of Sindal to locate a political extremist, Ragan Greyhym. We were stuck holed up in an oasis while a sand storm blew through. Afterwards, the locals invited us to dinner." Raven went on to describe how, after some threats on Eeth's part, she had eaten what was given to her as it was their custom, and to do otherwise would have badly affected their mandate.
Jas listened attentively. And then she surprised Eeth and Raven by offering an experience of her own. At the age of five, the initiate had started an epic food fight in the creche dining hall. Some kid had told her she was gross for eating raw meat, so she had nailed that kid in the forehead with it. The result? All hell broke loose. "We had to clean it up and everyone got in trouble, I got in the most because everyone ratted me out as having started it," said Jas and huffed. "Snitches," she added and went back to her food.
"I doubt that your creche master would have left them much choice," Eeth said mildly, looking across the pool to the waterfall. "When I thought my padawan needed to give me information, I certainly saw to it that I got it, however she might have felt about not telling on others."
Changing the topic, he said, "I think I will test the water after lunch and see if we can swim in it."
He felt that an opportunity to wash the sweat off would be quite welcome.
"Me too," said Raven. A swim sounded like a great idea. They were all hot and sweaty from the trek, after all.
Jas wasn't so keen. She wasn't suffering from the heat despite being hot and sweaty.
Eeth retrieved a water testing kit from his backpack.
"Let me check the water," he said. "If it is safe, we can all take a swim."
He rose and made his way to the edge of the pool. The test kit showed the water to be muddy, but safe to swim in although drinking large quantities was not recommended. His sense of the Force told Eeth that the pool was quite deep, but only in the very middle.
Returning to the picnic site, he said, "We can swim, but we should not drink too much of the water. And no jumping. It would not be safe, at least not for those who are lacking the necessary precision."
Jas looked up at the ledge above, down at the pool Eeth was referring to. "I could do it," she said, nonchalant and not nearly convincing enough to fool Raven, let alone Eeth.
"Fantastic, I could use a wash-off, it's hot," Raven said quickly, which was completely uncharacteristic of her, and jumped in bomb style before Eeth could say anything to Jas' remark. Her head popped up at the end of the pool and she shook out her long hair, pulling herself up onto a rock to sit and wait for the others. "Coming?" she asked, but the question was mostly aimed at Jas.
"No," said Jas.
"Then stay here, within view," said Eeth. He shed his clothes and jumped in after Raven. The water was a little too warm to be refreshing, but at least it served to wash off the sweat and dirt.
Jas was just glad that Eeth wasn't making her swim! Thus, she said nothing, pleased for the reprieve.
Eeth discovered a strange kind of whitish-grey animal that seemed to be somewhere between a fish and a newt. He pointed it out to Raven, and soon they were engrossed in studying it.
Raven had never seen anything like this before. They searched for more and, much to Raven's delight, they found a colony of them swarming an indent in the creek side. She pointed up onto the bank where several were also walking on the land AND one was climbing the tree, albeit not very successfully. "Drkai would love to see this," said Raven. She swam back , fetched her datapad and took several shots.
Meanwhile, Jas was bored. She had gone to the creek once or twice and found nothing of interest. When she lay back on Raven's tunic, she felt a bump. Grabbing for the source of it, she found that it was the padawan's lightsaber. Her face lit up with curiosity but she realised that, given that both Eeth and Raven were not far, it would be stupid to try anything now. Thus, when the pair returned, Raven with some creepy critter in her hand, Jas said nothing.
By the time the three returned to the cabin that night, all of them, even Eeth, were tired.
"Nevertheless, we are going for a quick swim," decreed Eeth. "We need to wash off the sweat and cool down."
"Or maybe you two can swim and I'll have a shower like a normal person?" Jas said.
"And what," asked Eeth coolly, "are you insinuating here about my padawan and myself?"
Jas thought the answer to that question was obvious and so she just gave him a look. Eeth silently pointed her towards the beach in return.
After yet another uncomfortable foray into the ocean, Jas dried herself off and they all went back to the cabin to get the seawater and sand off them. All in all, it had been a pretty good day for the girl, and Jas was well worn out. She almost fell asleep in her dinner and thus she did not complain when Eeth told her to go to bed.