Star Wars: The Ancient Force

C H A P T E R . 1 3 -- Apricity

TWO FEET DART AROUND TWO OF STONE. Red dust swirls around these four feet, billowing towards the blue sky, curling around slices of green and yellow. One could almost hear a duel of instruments: the resonating glow from Terigo's swings plus her quick jabs both resemble quick plucks of resonating sitar strings, and her feet resemble a fierce patter of small drums. And Luke's movements resemble the solemn calm of a cello, and his feet resemble the measured beat of powerful drums.

And their music plays on as Luke holds his ground. He conserves his energy by stopping himself from blocking her fake jabs, and he takes calming breaths between her lunges. To her dismay, he was giving her a real challenge. He shows her the superior use of his own controlled style. He defends it. Defends it with all his years of ambition towards being something more than the simple useless boy he once was.

But showing the same ambition, Terigo takes a desperate risk to break his stance. She allows him the first hit—a slice of her arm—by lunging her whole body at him. She endures the pain to start relentlessly swinging while he recovers his footing. But she uses the momentum of his stumbling to force him onto unsteady rocks.

With Terigo still advancing, Luke takes control of his momentum to leap along the rocks to try to find sturdy footing. He blocks her swings from behind so he could stay still to prevent essence heat. Finally finding flat rock, he regains his firm stance and continues to defend her relentless whipping. But her whipping doesn't allow him to calm his built-up heat. And his heat causes mistakes, mistakes that causes more heat, until, he, gets, hit.

Luke tumbles to his knee in pain and rises to defend, but Terigo just holds herself up and puts her hand on her wound. As they both regain their breath, Terigo heals herself while Luke focuses on calming the Darkness of pain from heating him further. Luke's sense of surroundings and time are lost until he flinches when Terigo places her hand on his wound.

Soothing warmth floods him once more along with her feelings and thoughts. They feel distant until he focuses on them in her. He picks up a few words until she removes her hand, ignites her saber, and swings. With no time to calm himself, their music starts again.

Luke continues with his calming style, but with his unresolved Darkness, he falters too often and gets hit again. Terigo heals him once more, and once more he feels the warmth and words.

...out of her way... ...Father always loved... ...fills the room...

And once again, Terigo relentlessly prevents him from calming himself completely.

With no hope for a break, Luke begins pushing himself to be less stationary, in small bursts, so that he has time to control the spurts of heat. And they continue. Luke begins learning how to control himself and occasionally gets hit, all while he reads Terigo's mind for the secret to healing.

...smile fills the room... ...Mother is sweet to... ...Father always loved...

As the hits rack up, Luke begins to realize that the thoughts he hears are the same. They're repeated each time she heals. It must be how I repeat 'breath in breathe out' to myself. To focus. Like a long chant or religious passage.

After another hit, he realizes that her thoughts aren't just repeated, but the same emotions are too. Happy feelings. Memories. He realizes she has a nostalgic smile that she only has while healing. And when the healing stops, her thoughts change to the present, and her face returns to her usual contentment. She said love for someone can resurrect others. Must be the good memories, fueling the powers of Light.

Their music continues, and so does Luke's pain. But each hit was the chance to learn so many things. The chance to learn resistance to the Dark, the chance to learn healing, the chance to learn mind reading, the chance to see Terigo's secrets, and the chance to feel that blissful, soothing warmth... And so, with each hit, the pain diminishes little by little as Luke become resistant to the pain. The pain becomes rewritten—reassociated—with the feeling of triumph, with the feeling of growth...