A warrior's meditation

[Alkin Stunmurk]

​

"36. . . 37. . . 38. . ."

Alkin swung his vibro-axe in a repeated, practised motion, a heavy over the head strike much like chopping wood. He had done it enough that he could perhaps slice a man in two if he got the chance but combat rarely gave the chance to strike a large over-telegraphed blow, but the mussels needed to be worked and work them he would.

"39. . . 40. . . 41. . ."

A bead of sweat dripped into Alkin's eye, it stung but he ignored it, as a warrior he would need to deal with pain far greater than that.

"42. . . 43. . . 44. . ."

Alkin's mind wandered, back to his father, travelling planet to planet, system to system, then learning to how fight.

"45 . . 46 . . . 47 . . ."

Thinking back on learning how to fight brought even more memories forward, the song of steel on steel, seeing his father fight a real battle.

"48. . . 49. . . 50!"

And seeing him cut down, Alkin slammed the heavy axe head into the ground, pulverising the rock at his feet, his anger flaring. No, a warrior shouldn't fight with his emotions heightened, it messes with one's focus and that was all it took to snuff out the fire of life.

 

[Saran Drast]

Little more than four meters away, a woman sat, watching the figure swing the vibro ax. In her head, Saran was taking notes, noticing how he swung. While she was by no means skilled at polearms, she had been in more than one fight in her life, and the way half those swings telegraphed couldn't be good. Maybe she'd point that out to him. Or maybe she'd demonstrate why it was something he needed to fix.

She kinda liked that idea.

Shaking her head, she turned her attention to the task in front of her. The silvery handle sat on the dirt, a cylinder that had rarely left her side for most of her life. It was a thing of comfort, something she wasn't sure she could go without. The man who had given it to her was gone, but still she clung to it like a small child to their security blanket. Maybe she hadn't moved on as much as she had thought.

Her hands moved in front of her, and slowly, the shoto's hilt lifted off the ground. When it was hovering in front of her, she began to rotate her hands, moving them to twist the casing away from the crystal, exposing the soul of the blade to the elements. She let it hang in the air for a moment, before she reversed every motion and let the blade slowly rest on the ground. As it touched, she heard the head of the polearm slam into the ground. Pain radiated off of [member="Alkin Stunmurk"], and not anything physical. She stood, dusting off her legs, and began to walk towards him.

"That last swing didn't seem like regular training."

 

[Alkin Stunmurk]

"Just letting out a bit of built up stress."

It was a half truth, but it was better than a full lie, his training was always an outlet for any of his built up emotions.

It was time to move onto something much more practical and far less showy, Alkin could see in [member="Saran Drast"] 's face, well, the part that wasn't covered anyway, he could see that she was disappointed. He took the same stance as before, right foot forward, vibro-axe held far behind his head. He looked over to see if his teacher, whom had yet not taught him anything, was paying attention.

He then shifted his grip with a quick flick of his wrists and slammed the small metal spike embedded on the haft into the air where the eyes of another fighting man would have been, continuing in a fluid motion he slid his hands close to the axe head and spun the weapon around dealing a quick chop to the imaginary man's neck. The haft kept moving to sweep at the feet to trip the imaginary figure, unstopping the head spun around towards the ground and Alkin drove the nine inch spike into where the heart would be.

"Did you want something?"

 

[Saran Drast]

"It looked like more than built up stress." The comment came with an undertone of disapproval. Even if he didn't see her as a mentor and teacher, she'd hoped he would see her as an equal. She was new to teaching, espically with teaching someone who wasn't used to their own abilities in the Force, and even she could tell something had come to his head. She sighed, watching his strike with some interest. She'd never fought against a vibro ax, and the simplistic, brutal style was interesting. The array of options it presented would make the user a force to be reckoned with. The spike at the end made her wonder if it had a Force pike built in. That could be, although you may get more dirt and grime than one would like in the pike's blade than anyone would prefer.

Her response to his question was calm, almost flat. "I want you to answer something for me." Careful steps carried her in front of him, just outside the area he's normally hit with a strike. Sure, he could still lunge, but he'd have to commit to the blow, and she should have enough time to dodge if such a thing came.

"What memory just came to your mind while you trained?"

[member="Alkin Stunmurk"]

 

[Alkin Stunmurk]

Well then, he thought to himself, It looks like this isn't a conversation I'm going to get out of.

He could see that his teacher was hesitant to ask about that, he must have been much more angry than he though. Oh well, time to spill his guts, it looked like he wasn't going to get much further hiding it, well trying and failing to hide it anyway.

"If you really want to know I was thinking about other training I've had. Mostly with my father, well before he died anyway."

Alkin had the same twinge of anger, but without his blood running hot it was much less sharp. He never really got over his father's death, without his mother present it made things just that much more difficult.

"I was a bit of a queen to get over, I'm not quite over it yet though, it's been kinda hard out here on my own."

It felt good, like a weight was lifted off his shoulders to share that, the relief continued to wash over him like a wave.

[member="Saran Drast"]

 

[Saran Drast]

A small nod followed his explanation, the Miraluka thinking. He was still struggling with it, if simple exercises like this brought the memory back. Something to remember for the future. Loosing control of one's emotions was never a good thing, doubly so when the Force was involved. "Such wounds take a long time to heal." Her voice was calm, trying her best to let her compassion flow into the words. "I'm sorry for your loss." There was a short pause, followed with; "Although I'm sure you've heard your fill of that."

She turned, looking out to the expansive hills. There was something majestic even to someone without eyes to them. The Force flowing through the plants on the knolls was something to behold. "The reason I ask is because of how the Force interacts with your emotions." She raised her hand, and shards of the smashed rock began to float up from the ground. "A calm mind can focus on what they want to do. Emotionless thoughts inspire focus. However," She paused, letting the rocks hang in the air for a few moments before continuing, "Anger, fear, and pain are different. They encourage the use of the Force in a way that is dangerous. Most call it the Dark Side."

Here she turned, and swiftly pushed her hand down. In response, rock shards shot themselves into the ground at their feet. "It offers an easy route to power, but the price is your humanity. It eats at your soul, destroys your body, and claims you for it." A small sigh escaped her lips. "It is a rare thing when one can turn their back on the Dark Side."

[member="Alkin Stunmurk"]

 

[Alkin Stunmurk]

"Aye, emotions can destroy your focus in a proper battle, all my other teachers told me that, but that is why I let it out during training. You say anger can lead to the darkside and the way you take about it it's pretty bad, but bottling it all up can't be much better."

This was one of the things Alkin hated, it was looking like he was about to start into some sort of philosophical debate without knowing anything about the other side. He nervously leaned on his polearm, not entirely sure where this was going to go.

"I mean, some people talk about meditation, but that was never my thing, I'm the kind of person who always needs to be doing something."

He took a breath in an realised his chlorine canister was empty.

"One sec."

Alkin reached down to his belt and pulled a pair of small canisters off of his belt, unscrewed the ones attached to his rebreather, and started screwing the new ones in.

[member="Saran Drast"]

 

[Saran Drast]

"There is a difference between allowing yourself to feel, and letting that feeling control you." The words were simple, and almost sounded rehearsed. "And if I'm any indication, something much easier said than done." Saran's cold, empty gaze followed him. "I will never say to not have emotions. Thay make us more than beasts, after all. They can be powerful, but power has a cost."

"I can understand that. Idle hands are Bogan's workshop, and all that." Something like a grin crossed her face. "I won't ask you to sit and clear your mind, or what most people think of for meditation." Her old master had made similar comments. A restless Saran had done anything to burn the energy back then. "Close your eyes."

Slowly, she produced a small blindfold, one she had been assured would block out all incoming light. The idea was to leave him blind. Make him rely on other sources to act. If he complied with her admittedly odd request, she would secure it in place. Otherwise, she would wait. If he wished to learn, he would have to trust her.

[member="Alkin Stunmurk"]

 

[Alkin Stunmurk]

"I know what you mean, I've lost my head a couple of times in combat, it throws me completely off, I can't focus and it's actually gotten me hurt more than a couple times." Alkin's mind wandered back do all of those times, the all ended poorly, a dagger the the stomach, a blaster to the gut, more punches than he could count, and more then a few bites from animals and less than civilised opponents. "It's why I get that built up emotion out in training, it's best way I know how."

"So what's your plan with that cloth? You finally going to teach me something? That's a new one, what's it going to be?" Alkin was mostly joking when said so, although the lack of any lessons was annoying him, he hoped to learn far more far more far quicker from Saran. He sucked up his frustrations and closed his eyes, leaning his head down so that Saran had an easier time wrapping it around his face, assuming that she was going to do some sort of blinded test, it made sense, after all she was was blind, well at least her eyes were.

[member="Saran Drast"]