So, uh, two months huh…?
Sorry…
Time gets away so easily. And honestly, I had no motivation to work on this until tonight. I've been working on other stories, which I might as well start posting, since some of them are about half way done anyways.
But you're not here for those, so let's get on with the chapter, shall we? This is a bit of a shorter one, but there's also not much happening in Jondu's life at the moment. I'm hoping to find a way to tie in a scene I have for his near future. It's almost fully written, but I'm not sure exactly when to fit it in.
There's going to be a time skip between this chapter and the next, just so we're not stagnant. I do wish to add in a bit of theory/lore of my own making, which will be explored a little next chapter. So keep an eye out for it!
Enjoy!
~Silverleone
Our conversation lasted long into the night. Arabin had brought us drinks, which I calmly, but eagerly took. I hadn't had much to eat or drink over the past week, and my body was beginning to scream at me to get something in my system.
Late into our conversation, my father brought up the overhanging topic.
"Speaking of the Jedi, how was your training?" I took a breath through my nose. My hands cupped my glass. I swirled the liquid a little.
"I was almost Knighted, meaning I would have been experienced enough to take on a Padawan of my own." They both had looks of pride. "Truthfully, I could have passed the trails two years ago. But, I held myself back."
"Whatever for?" My mother asked. I rolled the glass in my hands a little more. A few moments passed.
"I mentioned before that I had a friend. Well, she was a few years younger than me. Two years, in fact."
"You held yourself back for her," Orthun concluded. Mother cooed at that, making me flush red.
"We were good friends…" I watched the ripples of liquid. "We were going to teach our Padawans together. But…" My parents were silent as I quietly mourned my friend. My father's voice drifted across the room after a while.
"It is never easy to lose a friend. Much less one as close as yours." I sniffed and straightened up.
"It's not," I agreed.
"On a hopefully lighter note, would you mind showing us what your training has given you?" I felt like turtling into myself.
"I don't, really like showing off…"
"It is a talent that was gifted to you, and that you have earned. It is not showing off, as you claim it, to express your talents." I mumbled a half agreement. "There it is then. Come, the banquet hall is more than enough room." The three of us stepped out of the room we had been sitting in. I stepped some distance away from them and closed my eyes.
'They are my parents. Not my enemies.' I drew my lightsaber from the holster under my arm. Holding it in front of me, I thumbed the ignition button. My green blade blazed to life.
My mother tilted her head in curiosity, a tic I had apparently inherited from her. My father folded his arms behind his back, only to then offer the floor to me with a hand. I nodded and began going through the standard katas of Form 3.
"A very defensive stance with a middle guard," My father noted after a dozen motions. I stopped mid swing and lowered my saber.
"You know sword fighting." He nodded.
"Indeed I do." He stepped over to a single door off in the corner. Opening it, he grabbed two slender objects and walked over. I extinguished my saber before replacing it in its holster. He handed me a sheathed sword. I looked it over, pulling it out an inch or two from the sheath. Single edged, straight blade. The edge had been visibly dulled.
"Come, show me what you can do." He strapped the sheath to his side. I mirrored him by setting the sword on my right hip. "Left handed, then?" I nodded. We drew our swords. He clearly knew these weapons, given how silently his slid from the sheath. Used to the gyroscopic effect of a lightsaber, the true weight of a metal blade was odd to me. He saluted me.
"Your move." I breathed through my nose.
*Swish-clash*
I blinked, surprised when his blade knocked mine to the side. Given he had no intent to strike back, the Force hadn't warned me of the move. I recentered myself and focused, digging a little deeper into the Force. My blade was raised before I even formed a thought, blocking a strike. A riposte had my father take a step back.
"Good, you know the basics." I smirked at that.
"I've only been training my entire life."
"Then you have much to learn." We parried and thrust back and forth, neither one gaining an edge. The blade in my hand became more and more familiar, allowing me to finesse it more.
I caught the edge of his blade with the tip of mine, knocking it up from its path towards my body. It swished where my head had been when I leaned back. My left foot came up, the toe of my boot catching his wrist. In his moment of surprise, I dropped into a left roll. I threw myself forward even as I got to my feet. Our blades clashed at the same time our shoulders.
"You've been holding out on me," He said with a smile.
"Not used to these blades yet. I'm getting the hang of it." I pushed off of him, spinning away with my blade held over my shoulder to protect my back. I had made the right move as his blade pinged off of it.
I brought it over my head while finishing the turn, the blade tip pointing at him the whole time. I planted my footing, my blade out in front of me, suddenly in my right hand. Orthun raised an eyebrow, but settled into his own stance, standing tall with his free hand behind his back.
"You can use both?"
"Normally I don't give my opponent time to think about it. Figured I'd grant you the curtesy, considering this is our first spar."
"Hmm, that it is." We continued trading blows, with me switching hands whenever I felt it was needed.
I thrust over his right shoulder with my right hand. A vertical blade blocked it. I let go of the hilt. In the moment before gravity took effect, I swung my left hand down, catching the blade in a reverse grip and pulling the blade in the opposite direction of the thrust. Sparks flew as the blades scraped against each other. The surprise nearly made my father stumble, but he managed to catch my blade on the return strike.
"You'll have to show me that one." A flourish put my blade into its normal forward grip.
"Took me five months to get it down." We both rested our swords at our sides. "I can show you, but that's the only opening you gave me this time. It's rare that I get to use it."
"I see. Still, it was effective. Had I moved my blade, you would have won."
"I trusted that you knew what you were doing." We sheathed our blades. I planted my fist in my palm before bowing. "Thank you." He blinked before smiling.
"And thank you, son. For coming home to us." I couldn't help it, I closed the distance and wrapped my arms around him. He returned the hug.
"Alright boys, I believe you are both in need of a good wash. Jondu, Arabin has set up your room for you." I nodded with a smile. I went to undo the sheath at my side, only for my father's hand to rest on it.
"There will be a place in your room to hang it. Keep it, as a gift from me to you," He said. The warmth in my chest was almost overwhelming. Afraid of my voice failing me, I nodded with a smile. My mother waved him off to their room before she led me herself down the hall we had gone down to head outside.
She stopped at the fourth door on the left. Opening it revealed a four poster bed with red covers and gold trim. A dresser made of the same dark wood as the house sat adjacent to the foot of the bed. Another door was set in the left corner of the room.
"…I can't accept this," I said after a moment. She turned to look at me with a curious expression.
"Why not?"
"It's…" I didn't know how to say it. She stepped close, her hands folding together in front of her.
"Jondu, whatever you are feeling, it's okay. This is a gift to the child we have only just gotten back."
"It's too much," I said, shaking my head.
"Too much?"
"Back at the Temple we, had the bare minimum. Since I was never Knighted, I only had a small room. A bed. A dresser. The necessities."
"How small is small?" There was no judgment in her eyes. At least, none towards me.
"Probably about from there, to there." I pointed out a rather tiny portion of the room we were standing in. Her eyes widened.
"They, they kept you in a closet?!"
"No, but this is far more than anything I need." She lifted her head a little.
"Well," She adjusted the coat I was wearing, "You might not need it, but it is yours." She held out a hand, gesturing to the sword at my side. I undid it, handing it to her. Stepping over to the left wall, she set it on two hooks I hadn't noticed.
"There. Now the room is yours." I huffed in light exasperation.
"Okay. I guess I'll try it out." She matched my smile, only making both expressions grow.
"Alright. The wash is through that door. Let us know if you need anything?"
"I'll, do my best."