Post by Ani-Chay Pinn on Oct 1, 2005 13:38:00 GMT -5
VISIONS
by Anne Davenport
“Begin,” Yoda commanded.
Qui-Gon Jinn swung his lightsaber up before him and ignited it in a salute, his lightsaber a vertical line of green fire. Ayzhur Ahmus did the same, its bright green light reflecting on his pale face and brown tunic.
The Jedi master facing Ayzhur looked far too fit and skilled for his taste. And too tall, nearly a head taller than Ayzhur. He was only the padawan to Master Li Hafkay. True, he had many years of experience, nearly ready to take the trials according to Master Li, but still just a learner. ‘There is something to be learned from every defeat,’ Ayzhur reminded himself. But he still would rather have been fighting Master Jinn’s apprentice instead.
Ayzhur kept both hands on his lightsaber salute, closed his eyes and trusted the Force.
Qui-Gon paused for a moment. He’d never seen that as on opening move for a sparring match before. Master Yoda impatiently tapped his gimer stick.
“Begin.”
Qui-Gon twirled his lightsaber in wide circles at his side and attacked.
Ayzhur hardly moved, but his green blade met Qui-Gon’s, deflecting it away from him. Qui-Gon swiftly reversed, stabbing upward, going for Ayzhur’s throat, but surprisingly his opponent went sideways and bodily moved into Qui-Gon, catching his arm in an elbow lock and falling. Though a head shorter that Qui-Gon and slightly built, he was still heavy enough to bring them both down. Qui-Gon tried to roll with it, but Ayzhur got his ankles between his knees and they collapsed together in an undignified heap. Just as they hit the floor Ayzhur’s thumbnail dug into the nerve between Qui-Gon’s fourth and fifth fingers. Qui-Gon felt the Force press down hard from Ayzhur’s hand into his. His lightsaber fell, deactivated. Ayzhur’s own lightsaber went out immediately afterward.
After a pause, they untangled themselves and got up separately. Exhilarated, Ayzhur knew that even if he were crushed now, it wouldn’t be a total defeat. Qui-Gon rose carefully. Ayzhur had mostly landed on top of him, but nothing was seriously bruised. He’d been concentrating on anticipating his opponent’s fighting style; it hadn’t occurred to him that Ayzhur wouldn’t use any style at all.
Master Yoda did not look happy, but he said nothing and signed for them to continue.
On a bench at the side of the arena Master Li raised his eyebrows and smiled a little. Human, he was older than Qui-Gon. His midnight blue-tinged hair, faded and going white in places, was tied in a frizzy topknot. Only a little bit of blue remained in his rough beard that was nearly white. His dark brown, blue-tinged skin was paling and wrinkling a bit with age. He sat with his arms folded, his hands tucked into the sleeves of his light brown tunic. Ayzhur relied too much on surprising his opponents and opportunities for such physical contact with an opponent were rare. But considering how overmatched he was, this was an exceptional start.
Next to him sat Qui-Gon’s padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi. He was a few years younger than Ayzhur, with a shorter padawan’s braid behind his ear, similar in look to Ayzhur but with shorter, lighter brown hair. His master looked contemplative and more displeased with himself than with Ayzhur. Obi-Wan would have expected that he would be sparring with Ayzhur and Qui-Gon with Master Li when they’d first entered the training rooms and looked for partners among the Jedi there. There had been quite a lot of Jedi masters for Qui-Gon to pick from but nobody near Obi-Wan’s skill level until they’d come across Li and Ayzhur.
But Master Yoda had suggested the match between Qui-Gon and Ayzhur. And a suggestion about lightsaber training from the diminutive master was not one to be ignored.
Qui-Gon and Ayzhur faced each other in the small training arena in the Jedi Temple. They were both human males; Ayzhur, dark-haired, bare-faced, younger, but very quick; Qui-Gon, tall, long-haired and bearded with years of experience, strong with the Living Force, and just as quick.
Ayzhur tried to move in close again, but Qui-Gon didn’t let him, using his longer reach to best advantage. Attack, evade, attack, evade. Every time Qui-Gon advanced Ayzhur managed to slip away. He offered only a token offense, all his other moves were defensive. What surprised Qui-Gon was that he couldn’t seem to anticipate what his opponent was going to do. The younger man’s moves were random to him, undecipherable, even through the Force.
Qui-Gon circled, clearing his mind. His next attack was loose, not aimed at a focused target, but advancing with total awareness of his opponent and where he could trap him. He kept his own saber moving in its own random motions, constantly challenging Ayzhur with it even if he wasn’t attacking.
Ayzhur evaded more forcefully this time. Or frantically. After just one match, Qui-Gon Jinn had pretty much proven who the master was. Ayzhur dodged a downward swing, deflecting Qui-Gon’s saber from his back and pushing off of it to roll away. Immediately, Qui-Gon was upon him, his light saber arcing over to pin him. Ayzhur twisted away around to block, his free hand going up for balance, his fingers brushing Qui-Gon’s saber arm.
Qui-Gon felt a simultaneous push at his elbow and pull on his forearm through the Force. He pulled away, but Ayzhur’s whole body rose with the Force and he brought his lightsaber pommel down toward his wrist. This time Qui-Gon evaded, twisting his wrist out of way at the last minute. Ayzhur’s blow missed, but the rest of his body came down on Qui-Gon’s forearm and they went down again, Qui-Gon’s lightsaber deactivating just before Ayzhur’s.
They slowly got up and separated again. Disappointed with his mistake, Qui-Gon shook his arm. He had adopted some of Ayzhur’s style (or lack of it) and had unfortunately fallen into one of its weaknesses. It was never a good idea to focus on any single detail of a fight because the details you weren’t watching would defeat you.
Then he looked at Master Yoda.
Yoda shook his head, no sympathy in his large, expressive eyes. “Against all forms of attack,” he told Qui-Gon, “you should prepare for.” he finished to Ayzhur, his long, pointed ears perking up a bit and his eyes narrowing.
Ayzhur suppressed his smile. Overconfidence would be his undoing, he knew. But he felt great; the Force was working for him today. True, he hadn’t won conventionally, not the way a saber master like Yoda liked to see. He’d been pretty sloppy by Yoda’s standards, but a desperate defense had its uses.
On the bench, Master Li did smile, Obi-Wan noticed. He saw Qui-Gon sigh and give Ayzhur a serious look, like someone who, having tied of puzzling out a knot, now just wanted to get the job done.
A motion caught Obi-Wan’s eye. He saw another person in a pale Jedi tunic come behind them, holding out a data link for Master Li.
“Bant!” He mouthed the name without speaking aloud. The Calamari girl bobbed her head and grinned. They’d been students together at the Temple when they were younglings and hadn’t seen each other in literally years. She bowed her salmon colored head to Master Li and handed him a data link. He quietly thanked her and glanced at the tiny screen. Bant moved toward Obi-Wan but then stopped, her large amphibian eyes suddenly alert.
Master Yoda had noticed the activity by the bench and looked quite unhappy. Ayzhur and Qui-Gon were facing each other again, waiting for the diminutive master’s signal. Li leaned over to Obi-Wan.
“You two should go to another arena and train,” he told them encouragingly. “I don’t know what Master Yoda is looking for, but it might take a little time.” Obi-Wan looked back at his own master, who returned a little smile and raised his eyebrows in assent. They hurried out of the room together.
“Hmph.” Yoda looked a little put out by the interruption. Li Hafkay put the data link aside on the bench beside him. Both Ayzhur and Qui-Gon closed their eyes and breathed, preparing for the next match. Behind Ayzhur’s back, the door to the other training rooms slid shut.
“Begin.”
Ayzhur opened his eyes and started to raise his saber. His finger froze on the activation switch. Qui-Gon’s eyes were different. Ayzhur felt a warning in the Force.
The larger man thrust his arm out. A colossal push lifted Ayzhur up and threw him across the room to slam between two pillars on a far wall. Stunned, Ayzhur crashed to the floor. He rolled automatically and immediately pushed himself away from Qui-Gon’s downswing. The green saber slashed into the wall and gouged the floor where he’d been.
His light saber was on and Ayzhur scrambled to his feet just in time to block Qui-Gon’s saber. The warning came through the Force at him from all sides; peril, death, fear. He deflected Qui-Gon’s attacks without thinking, letting it all flow through him, his concentration going beyond thought or emotion. But the attack still pushed him back. Even wielding his saber two-handed Ayzhur felt the impacts through his elbows up to his shoulders. These were killing blows.
The rules had changed.
The room seemed subtly darker, the patterned, stone floor colder. Ayzhur frantically dodged and parried the other light saber. But the rapidly spinning blade continued to force him back. He finally met it head on, crossing his own fiery green blade against it. It slowly pressed toward him, the Force pressing on him with it, the air becoming dry and electric as it kept getting closer. Ayzhur twisted, suddenly letting it forward while simultaneously ducking underneath and kicking. His foot connected to a body, but it wasn’t a solid blow.
Ayzhur gathered the Force in him and leapt up, somersaulting over his opponent, hoping to attack from behind. But he nearly got his legs cut off as the green light swept under him and he only barely deflected it with the tip of his own weapon as he crashed to the ground. The pain washed through him and he pushed it away as he rolled and when the other saber came at him again he attacked, aiming for the arm. But it swung out of reach and he missed. He kept spinning and his saber connected, locking again with the other.
Face to face with Qui-Gon Jinn, their green sabers crossed between them, he saw only deadly purpose. He was being studied, examined, possibly dissected. Death, peril, fear. Ayzhur exhaled, forming his own purpose. Survive. Disarm the other. Question later. The walls of the room around them had gone completely dark.
The Force pressed down on him, an increasing pressure in his head, obeying only the merciless will of the other Jedi, flowing from him, slowly pushing Ayzhur down. He felt the skin of his neck grow warm as the other saber closed. It was hard to breathe.
Suddenly, Qui-Gon vanished from above. Released, Ayzhur fell back on the hard floor as Qui-Gon swung up and back, his long, green saber meeting a blue lightsaber. His own master engaged the larger man. Li Hafkay’s robe swirled around him as their lightsabers clashed together, their energies crackling.
by Anne Davenport
“Begin,” Yoda commanded.
Qui-Gon Jinn swung his lightsaber up before him and ignited it in a salute, his lightsaber a vertical line of green fire. Ayzhur Ahmus did the same, its bright green light reflecting on his pale face and brown tunic.
The Jedi master facing Ayzhur looked far too fit and skilled for his taste. And too tall, nearly a head taller than Ayzhur. He was only the padawan to Master Li Hafkay. True, he had many years of experience, nearly ready to take the trials according to Master Li, but still just a learner. ‘There is something to be learned from every defeat,’ Ayzhur reminded himself. But he still would rather have been fighting Master Jinn’s apprentice instead.
Ayzhur kept both hands on his lightsaber salute, closed his eyes and trusted the Force.
Qui-Gon paused for a moment. He’d never seen that as on opening move for a sparring match before. Master Yoda impatiently tapped his gimer stick.
“Begin.”
Qui-Gon twirled his lightsaber in wide circles at his side and attacked.
Ayzhur hardly moved, but his green blade met Qui-Gon’s, deflecting it away from him. Qui-Gon swiftly reversed, stabbing upward, going for Ayzhur’s throat, but surprisingly his opponent went sideways and bodily moved into Qui-Gon, catching his arm in an elbow lock and falling. Though a head shorter that Qui-Gon and slightly built, he was still heavy enough to bring them both down. Qui-Gon tried to roll with it, but Ayzhur got his ankles between his knees and they collapsed together in an undignified heap. Just as they hit the floor Ayzhur’s thumbnail dug into the nerve between Qui-Gon’s fourth and fifth fingers. Qui-Gon felt the Force press down hard from Ayzhur’s hand into his. His lightsaber fell, deactivated. Ayzhur’s own lightsaber went out immediately afterward.
After a pause, they untangled themselves and got up separately. Exhilarated, Ayzhur knew that even if he were crushed now, it wouldn’t be a total defeat. Qui-Gon rose carefully. Ayzhur had mostly landed on top of him, but nothing was seriously bruised. He’d been concentrating on anticipating his opponent’s fighting style; it hadn’t occurred to him that Ayzhur wouldn’t use any style at all.
Master Yoda did not look happy, but he said nothing and signed for them to continue.
On a bench at the side of the arena Master Li raised his eyebrows and smiled a little. Human, he was older than Qui-Gon. His midnight blue-tinged hair, faded and going white in places, was tied in a frizzy topknot. Only a little bit of blue remained in his rough beard that was nearly white. His dark brown, blue-tinged skin was paling and wrinkling a bit with age. He sat with his arms folded, his hands tucked into the sleeves of his light brown tunic. Ayzhur relied too much on surprising his opponents and opportunities for such physical contact with an opponent were rare. But considering how overmatched he was, this was an exceptional start.
Next to him sat Qui-Gon’s padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi. He was a few years younger than Ayzhur, with a shorter padawan’s braid behind his ear, similar in look to Ayzhur but with shorter, lighter brown hair. His master looked contemplative and more displeased with himself than with Ayzhur. Obi-Wan would have expected that he would be sparring with Ayzhur and Qui-Gon with Master Li when they’d first entered the training rooms and looked for partners among the Jedi there. There had been quite a lot of Jedi masters for Qui-Gon to pick from but nobody near Obi-Wan’s skill level until they’d come across Li and Ayzhur.
But Master Yoda had suggested the match between Qui-Gon and Ayzhur. And a suggestion about lightsaber training from the diminutive master was not one to be ignored.
Qui-Gon and Ayzhur faced each other in the small training arena in the Jedi Temple. They were both human males; Ayzhur, dark-haired, bare-faced, younger, but very quick; Qui-Gon, tall, long-haired and bearded with years of experience, strong with the Living Force, and just as quick.
Ayzhur tried to move in close again, but Qui-Gon didn’t let him, using his longer reach to best advantage. Attack, evade, attack, evade. Every time Qui-Gon advanced Ayzhur managed to slip away. He offered only a token offense, all his other moves were defensive. What surprised Qui-Gon was that he couldn’t seem to anticipate what his opponent was going to do. The younger man’s moves were random to him, undecipherable, even through the Force.
Qui-Gon circled, clearing his mind. His next attack was loose, not aimed at a focused target, but advancing with total awareness of his opponent and where he could trap him. He kept his own saber moving in its own random motions, constantly challenging Ayzhur with it even if he wasn’t attacking.
Ayzhur evaded more forcefully this time. Or frantically. After just one match, Qui-Gon Jinn had pretty much proven who the master was. Ayzhur dodged a downward swing, deflecting Qui-Gon’s saber from his back and pushing off of it to roll away. Immediately, Qui-Gon was upon him, his light saber arcing over to pin him. Ayzhur twisted away around to block, his free hand going up for balance, his fingers brushing Qui-Gon’s saber arm.
Qui-Gon felt a simultaneous push at his elbow and pull on his forearm through the Force. He pulled away, but Ayzhur’s whole body rose with the Force and he brought his lightsaber pommel down toward his wrist. This time Qui-Gon evaded, twisting his wrist out of way at the last minute. Ayzhur’s blow missed, but the rest of his body came down on Qui-Gon’s forearm and they went down again, Qui-Gon’s lightsaber deactivating just before Ayzhur’s.
They slowly got up and separated again. Disappointed with his mistake, Qui-Gon shook his arm. He had adopted some of Ayzhur’s style (or lack of it) and had unfortunately fallen into one of its weaknesses. It was never a good idea to focus on any single detail of a fight because the details you weren’t watching would defeat you.
Then he looked at Master Yoda.
Yoda shook his head, no sympathy in his large, expressive eyes. “Against all forms of attack,” he told Qui-Gon, “you should prepare for.” he finished to Ayzhur, his long, pointed ears perking up a bit and his eyes narrowing.
Ayzhur suppressed his smile. Overconfidence would be his undoing, he knew. But he felt great; the Force was working for him today. True, he hadn’t won conventionally, not the way a saber master like Yoda liked to see. He’d been pretty sloppy by Yoda’s standards, but a desperate defense had its uses.
On the bench, Master Li did smile, Obi-Wan noticed. He saw Qui-Gon sigh and give Ayzhur a serious look, like someone who, having tied of puzzling out a knot, now just wanted to get the job done.
A motion caught Obi-Wan’s eye. He saw another person in a pale Jedi tunic come behind them, holding out a data link for Master Li.
“Bant!” He mouthed the name without speaking aloud. The Calamari girl bobbed her head and grinned. They’d been students together at the Temple when they were younglings and hadn’t seen each other in literally years. She bowed her salmon colored head to Master Li and handed him a data link. He quietly thanked her and glanced at the tiny screen. Bant moved toward Obi-Wan but then stopped, her large amphibian eyes suddenly alert.
Master Yoda had noticed the activity by the bench and looked quite unhappy. Ayzhur and Qui-Gon were facing each other again, waiting for the diminutive master’s signal. Li leaned over to Obi-Wan.
“You two should go to another arena and train,” he told them encouragingly. “I don’t know what Master Yoda is looking for, but it might take a little time.” Obi-Wan looked back at his own master, who returned a little smile and raised his eyebrows in assent. They hurried out of the room together.
“Hmph.” Yoda looked a little put out by the interruption. Li Hafkay put the data link aside on the bench beside him. Both Ayzhur and Qui-Gon closed their eyes and breathed, preparing for the next match. Behind Ayzhur’s back, the door to the other training rooms slid shut.
“Begin.”
Ayzhur opened his eyes and started to raise his saber. His finger froze on the activation switch. Qui-Gon’s eyes were different. Ayzhur felt a warning in the Force.
The larger man thrust his arm out. A colossal push lifted Ayzhur up and threw him across the room to slam between two pillars on a far wall. Stunned, Ayzhur crashed to the floor. He rolled automatically and immediately pushed himself away from Qui-Gon’s downswing. The green saber slashed into the wall and gouged the floor where he’d been.
His light saber was on and Ayzhur scrambled to his feet just in time to block Qui-Gon’s saber. The warning came through the Force at him from all sides; peril, death, fear. He deflected Qui-Gon’s attacks without thinking, letting it all flow through him, his concentration going beyond thought or emotion. But the attack still pushed him back. Even wielding his saber two-handed Ayzhur felt the impacts through his elbows up to his shoulders. These were killing blows.
The rules had changed.
The room seemed subtly darker, the patterned, stone floor colder. Ayzhur frantically dodged and parried the other light saber. But the rapidly spinning blade continued to force him back. He finally met it head on, crossing his own fiery green blade against it. It slowly pressed toward him, the Force pressing on him with it, the air becoming dry and electric as it kept getting closer. Ayzhur twisted, suddenly letting it forward while simultaneously ducking underneath and kicking. His foot connected to a body, but it wasn’t a solid blow.
Ayzhur gathered the Force in him and leapt up, somersaulting over his opponent, hoping to attack from behind. But he nearly got his legs cut off as the green light swept under him and he only barely deflected it with the tip of his own weapon as he crashed to the ground. The pain washed through him and he pushed it away as he rolled and when the other saber came at him again he attacked, aiming for the arm. But it swung out of reach and he missed. He kept spinning and his saber connected, locking again with the other.
Face to face with Qui-Gon Jinn, their green sabers crossed between them, he saw only deadly purpose. He was being studied, examined, possibly dissected. Death, peril, fear. Ayzhur exhaled, forming his own purpose. Survive. Disarm the other. Question later. The walls of the room around them had gone completely dark.
The Force pressed down on him, an increasing pressure in his head, obeying only the merciless will of the other Jedi, flowing from him, slowly pushing Ayzhur down. He felt the skin of his neck grow warm as the other saber closed. It was hard to breathe.
Suddenly, Qui-Gon vanished from above. Released, Ayzhur fell back on the hard floor as Qui-Gon swung up and back, his long, green saber meeting a blue lightsaber. His own master engaged the larger man. Li Hafkay’s robe swirled around him as their lightsabers clashed together, their energies crackling.