Republic Knights

Ch 1

Tharen  (22BBY)

The hall was silent as I approached the arena. Several other Jedi were taking places at the edge of the sparring hall, another dozen or so filed in behind me to observe the younglings. The children filed in on the other side of the room followed closely by Master Yoda, who was personally overseeing the event.      

He instructed each of them to pair up and take positions at the center of the room. I caught the glance of a young, white haired girl and gave her a respectful nod for good luck as she readied herself against her sparring partner. A twi'lek boy about the same age as her activated his sparring blade. 

With a nod from the short, green skinned master they followed in, the younglings began to spar. The sound of the energy fueled blades colliding rhythmically filled the room.  This was supposed to be a display of each students strengths and weaknesses to help them be chosen by a teacher that they would learn best from.  

“Well Tharen, what do you think?” Whispered a voice at my side. Saras's corellian accent registered quickly. She was wearing her blackish cloak with its hood down so her short cut, brown hair was showing. “You think we're ready to start teaching?”

 “Sar, we've been running ops for two years now. We know enough and it's our duty to pass on what we know.”  

“Yeah, because you are such a grand swordmaster” she snorted sarcastically.

“Being a Jedi isn’t all fancy blade work and heroics” I responded while continuing to watch the white haired girl spar with the more agile and offensive twi'lek. “Patience and subtlety are also important.”

“Which is why you are paired with me and not off commanding some starship.” Snark aside, I respected Saras as a Jedi, we had grown up together in the temple and after we had both become knights, we had started to run infiltration ops for the temple. Something better known Jedi couldn't accomplish as easily. 

I let the conversation drop as the sparring got more intense. The twi'lek had backed the girl up further and further from where they had began with rapid strikes that were wearing down her defences. She seemed strained as she bit her lip and tried to counter an attack but misjudged his speed, causing her to take a solid hit to the arm and be stunned by the blades non-lethal current. For a moment, I thought she had surrendered but after a second, she jerked her un-paralyzed arm up to block a second strike and twisted the blade so it interlocked with her opponents. Unfortunately, the boy still had the upper hand and gripped her wrist tightly and twisted so the two blades both collided into her left thigh and she collapsed into a pile on the polished stone floor. 

After a few seconds of recovery, she pulled herself out of the arena and leaned herself against the wall.  After another Twenty minutes or so, Yoda called the event to an end and congratulated each padawan on their skill to different degrees. 

Several of the Masters stepped forward to talk to a few of the younglings. One of the first to pair off was a Duros master and the twi’lek boy.  After a couple of minutes most of the attending younglings had been paired up with a master. While they weren't all guaranteed to become master and apprentice, it was a common first step. The four remaining younglings began to follow Master Yoda out the door.

“Didn't see anyone that you could teach?” Saras asked. 

“I don’t know yet” I answered honestly. “I told you, lightsaber combat isn’t the only thing to consider.”

“You spend too much time with Master Kanra.”

“Well she has a point. If we went headfirst into the kinda situations we do, we’d be dead within a week.” The hall was empty except for us at this point. “Last week, when we were on that freighter, if we had just busted out our blades and stormed the ship, we’d have been spaced before-”