Of Love and War: Us Against the World

My Own Master

AN: A quick little drabble that gives a sneak peak into the kind of training Zelina was doing on her own in the 19 years she was on Tatooine. There's no particular time I have this set at, besides closer to the first few years she was on Tatooine.

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Far in the most isolated depths of the Tatooine desert, under the shelter of plummeting rock caverns that were devoid of any Tusken camps or paths for convoys, Zelina had found her shelter to practice her abilities. Out in the open space of the desert itself had been tempting, but Zelina hadn't wanted to risk any possible overhead ship flying by catching sight of what she would do out here. Though the canyon was narrow, and the caves not as spacious as she would have liked, they kept her isolated from any possible civilization, protected her from eyes above, and there was a minimal chance of anyone coming out here on purpose, or even by accident, given how well the location was hidden by the sand dunes above.

In her mind, she referred to this place as the Canyon of the Desolate.

The sun wasn't as scorching here, under the shade of the rocks, but the air was dry, and the sand hissed across the stone with every movement. While some time ago the hissing of the sand would have been an irritation to her, now it helped her in her focus and her goals.

Zelina's movements started slow and deliberate, the sand hissing beneath her feet with every well-paced movement, her lightsaber humming in the air around her as she moved seamlessly between each stance, each position, a continuous flow of form as she sank gradually into the eddies of the Force. She didn't have to practice lightsaber forms when she participated in her form of moving meditation, but she preferred it. She liked to include stimuli from multiple sources of the outside world to make it more challenging, to get it closer to real life and strengthen her ability to sink into the flow of the Force no matter what was happening around her, to practice establishing this kind of connection whether she was moving or still.

That, and it helped her when she entered this deeper state of thought and connection with the Force before working on her own training.

During this moving meditation, while she sank into the flow of the Force, she also had her lightsaber moving through the forms and making its hum of movement around her, the sound of the sand against the stone with her steps, and the sound of the holocrons playing a few paces out of the way of where she was doing her meditation. By now, she had heard them time and time again, and they were more of white noise or repetition than anything she was actively listening to. This was her time to connect with the Force and to attempt to further her own abilities, keep them sharp and strong so she would be prepared come the day she stepped back into the Galaxy.

For moving meditation, she usually listened to the histories of the Old Republic in connection to Satele Shan and the conflicts she had been involved in that Zelina had taken with her when she fled from the Jedi Temple.

"For centuries, Alderaan stood as a beacon of hope in the Republic. But the Empire came. And with one savage strike, brought Alderaan to her knees. Now, time is running out, as few are left to face the enemy. For those that remain, there is but one choice: We must fight, to victory, or death. While the sacrifices are heavy, we fight knowing that a single spark of courage can ignite the fires of hope, and restore peace across the galaxy."

The deeper Zelina fell into her meditation, the faster her movements became, the more weight there was behind her strikes, and the more complex the patterns, the world becoming a hum of activity around her.

There wasn't much to feel of the Living Force out here in the desert, but Zelina had always been more in touch with the Unifying Force, anyway.

"I fought with Commander Malcom during the Battle of Alderaan. The world was on the brink of destruction, but the brave few who fought to liberate it from the Sith even when it seemed to them that their actions did little to change things, allowed the planet to survive long enough for the Republic forces to arrive and drive the Empire off the planet. Never underestimate the strength of a single person, and the difference that they can make, Force Sensitive or not."