Kel Dor and the Kaleesh

Bonds through Duels

The sun rose over the city's horizon and Emi Takori drove her speeder back to the Jedi temple. It was a short drive from the condo building containing her apartment to the temple. The temple loomed ahead with its five towers blackened as the sun's rays had not touched them yet. Emi liked the look of the temple in the morning, it always seemed so welcoming to each new day.

She landed her speeder in the lower levels of the temple where the hangars were located. Clone gunships were parked all around her. One of them had a wolf's face painted on it. Emi climbed out of her speeder to have a look and noticed that the wolf's colours were light peach and black. Is that Plo Koon's face or a wolf? She wondered, it was hard to tell if it was either one or both, and then she left the hangar.

The temple was starting to wake up to the morning, a few Jedi were seen in the area, Aayla Secura a Twi'lek was one of them. She waved to Emi as soon as she saw her. The day was still young and one of the ways Emi enjoyed waking up was practicing. She made her way down a few corridors until she came to a round room with a high ceiling. It was often where the younglings would train with Master Yoda or sometimes where Jedi would practice dueling or acrobatics. The place seemed empty until she saw a single youngling in the center of the room. He held his lightsaber in both hands, the blue blade was in front of his face as he tried to position himself and spread his legs out.

"Hey kid, you trying out a good stance?" Emi asked, walking into the room.

The little youngling was human and looked about five years old. Emi remembered that she was just as nervous as he was when she was his age. He didn't answer, so she spoke again.

"Ah, a very basic stance. You've got a good start kid, if that's the form of combat you're going to use, make sure that you learn at least two different forms. It could give you an advantage,"

"How do you know?" The youngling's soft and uncertain voice came,

"When you get a master when you're a little older they will teach you. How often do you get to practice?"

"Not very often because Master Yoda only gives us these lightsabers to train with when he's around or when he gives them to us to train when he is absent, I want my own lightsaber so badly,"

Emi put a hand on the child's shoulder, "Don't worry, soon you'll get to make your own. I went through it too, and here's mine."

Then at that very moment, Emi drew her own lightsaber in her left hand; the blade was an emerald green. Suddenly she remembered the day she found the crystal in the cave waiting for her, she built her lightsaber and learned how to use it.

"Yours looks better than mine," The youngling said,

"Oh you think so? I come practice here every morning. I'll show you what I can do, maybe you'll learn something."

Emi walked into the center of the room; it was not wide enough for her to practice her acrobatics, but it was large enough to practice dueling and other lightsaber techniques. She got in her preferred stance and then swung forward quickly as if parrying an attack, then she spun around as if deflecting another from behind.

"Remember kid, your lightsaber is for defense, never to attack." She reminded the youngling who kept watching her.

She then proceeded to practice a few other moves that she had learned.

***

Meanwhile down the corridors of the temple Plo Koon and Mace Windu were walking together.

"You seemed really distracted last night Plo. Is there something on your mind?" Mace asked,

Plo Koon kept silent at first, he had dreamt last night, and normally he never had any dreams in his sleep. But last night was different; he dreamt of Emi Takori, she was running through a meadow on the planet Naboo, her hair blowing and her smile wide, she was running towards something, or someone, and he could not tell. I want to tell him about my dream, but if I do then that will put everything at risk, including the trust the council has for me, he thought.