Bonk On The Head

[Aela Talith]

[member="Maleah Talith"]

The dunes down the beach were located towards the very tip of the island, away from the cliifs and the house. It was generally where the kids had gone as children in order to go swimming. There was the beach in front of the house of course, but it wasn't as special as "traveling" to a location in order to actually go swimming. Of course, the dunes weren't all that different. The sand was softer, the sun wasn't as harsh, and the water seemed to lap against the shore more softly.

Other than that, it was pretty much exactly the same.

"Okay!" Aela lingered back for half a second more, letting the force build within her. Maleah was quick, agile, she could move through the trees like a money, but Aela was fast. The Eldest Talith had always been gifted with force speed, moving and covering ground as fast as was humanly possible.

Her calves flexed, her legs stretched, and then suddenly she shot off like a rocket.

"Eat my dust!" Aela yelled out as she stomped into the sands. "You always do!"

The Eldest Talith let out a loud laugh, rushing past her sister.

 

[Louise]

It wasn't the smartest thing, to challenge Aela Talith to a race. Force imbued speed was something of a speciality to the eldest sister of the Talith brood, so much so that when she fought she was more akin to a blur rather rather than anything else.

So she had to have a secret tactic up her sleeve, not the most honourable way to do things but hey, if needs must.

Turning her head to look behind her, Maleah saw her sister suddenly shoot off after her. She would have about a split second to try and execute her plan and if she failed, well, she would likely end up with a mouthful of sand and a smelly nexu to bathe.

Trying to find the exact moment that Aela went past her the Talith twin leapt at the woman with her bucket in tow, attempting to jump onto her sister's back. It wasn't like she hadn't done this before, acrobatics were in her nature whether it was jumping onto Toofless from a tree, or latching onto a moving drexl.

The only difference was that her sister was much much swifter.

“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” Maleah roared, making some kind of peculiar battle cry as she executed her manoeuvre.

---

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Maleah Talith"]

Aela hadn't quite expected her sister to spider monkey her way onto her back, in fact she hadn't expected anything of the sort.

It took her half a heartbeat to register what Maleah was doing, the other half to try and get out of her way. Unfortunately sandy beaches did not make for the best traction, and even with the way that Aela moved it was rather difficult to step out of the way of anything, especially Maleah who was nearly her size. She tried to shift and jump away, bound towards the left and roll through the sands, but it was already too late. Her sister had time the action perfectly, catching her unawares.

The two girls clashed together, and then came crashing down.

"Gah!" Aela let out, a form of an expletive that she could muster at that given moment. "Maleah wh-"

Aela came crashing into the sand face first, mouth open enough to eat a pile of it.

 

[Louise]

Well, it kinda worked.

Maleah had been hoping to simply cling onto her sister's back and ride her until the finish line, which, well, probably wouldn't have worked because Aela wasn't a moron and she probably would have just dumped her in the sand and then took off again.

Instead of what she had hoped however, the cheekiest Talith instead clattered into her sister in more of a tackle, knocking the woman face first into the sand, and by the sounds of it, she went open-mouthed too. Talk about your sandwiches.

She herself awkwardly fell, tumbling forward in a motion that would only prove to get sand in every single nook and cranny of her being (and quite possibly her soul).

Improvisation kicked in, and Maleah could only scramble back onto her feet and take off running once more. It would only be a matter of moments before Aela would be back and likely in front of her again and well, the same trick definitely wouldn't work twice.

“What's that about eating dust?!” Maleah taunted while dashing away again, her bucket flailing wildly besides her.

---

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Maleah Talith"]

Aela spit out a mouthful of sand before slowly pushing herself up and off the floor. She couldn't even really be mad about what had happened, after all she had been the one that taunted her sister, still, she did deserve some vengeance in this. Of course, Aela would do exactly what Maleah had done, play to her strengths.

For half a second, the elder Talith focused.

The force was a powerful thing.

It could be used to save lives, to level mountains, lift x-wings out of swamps, even destroy entire worlds. The Force was a power not to be underestimated, a power that one could not even fully comprehend. Aela knew this, Maleah knew this, all of the Talith's knew this. The force flowed through all of them at an almost overwhelming rate. Each of them had strength enough to make three Jedi Knights, each of them were capable of great things.

Like creating a force barrier for their sibling to run into.

Aela grinned, raising her palm and scrunching her fingers. A barrier formed directly in front of where Maleah was running, a thin invisible line of space folded in upon itself, a solid wall for her sister to strike and directly run into.

 

[Louise]

Maleah ran, she ran as if her life were in danger, as if there was a dragon slug at her back, bearing down upon her breathing fire and all.

Initially she thought she was winning, as if somehow she'd manage to forgo all of Aela's years of studious training and become the fastest Talith going. That was a very foolish and egotistical notion for her to hold, and it only lasted for but a moment. For when she actually turned her head to look behind her the twin noted that Aela was in fact, not running.

No, she was standing still, arm raised and with an unmistakable grin shining from her face like a danger beacon.

Still looking behind her and running full pelt Maleah smacked right into something solid and invisible. “BWEH?!” came the exclamation from the young woman's mouth as she bounced off of the barrier and straight onto her back, bucket flying out of her hand as she did so.

Half-dazed and laying in the sand, Maleah groaned, not because she was hurt but simply because her sister had got one back on her.

“….yeah...I deserved that...”

---

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Maleah Talith"]

Aela wandered past her sister slowly, practically glowing with the air of revenge and smug.

There was no stopping to see if Maleah was okay, mostly because Aela already knew that she was. The Barrier hadn't actually been strong enough to act as a wall, more like a very tough rubber layer. She shifted slightly, moving past her sister and simply glancing at her with a wide smirk on her face. The Eldest sibling had never really been one for payback, at least not when she had been a child. Instead of fighting her siblings she had simply yelled and screamed at them, ruining their fun and simply bringing everything to an end.

"Well." Aela said as she flounced forward.

The Dune was just up ahead, and with a flourishing jump Aela managed to hop atop it, flipping once in the air and landing in soft sand.

"Looks like I win." She took a bow. "Better try next time, Sis."

Aela grinned at Maleah.

 

[Louise]

Well then.

Maleah remained on her back for a little longer, staring up at the crystal clear night sky as Aela practically swanned past her, displaying quite possibly the most smug expression she had seen upon a person's face. It was almost as impressive.

Of course, leave it to Aela Talith to outdo herself. The twin finally sat up, just in time to watch her big sister perform some acrobatics before having a small gloat. Not that Maleah was mad about it, no, perhaps slightly dazed and with a small case of sore-loseritus.

Finally she got back to her feet and retrieved her bucket before joining her sister atop the dune that held the soft sand that they needed for her lightsaber.

“...well...Toofless makes less of a fuss when I wash him anyway,” finally came the twin's half-sulky retort, as Aela wore her winner's grin with pride. Then, a small sly smirk came to Maleah's face too, before she looked up at her big sister and gave a slight giggle.

“Shoulda seen your face when I jumped on you though!"

---

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Maleah Talith"]

"How could you have seen it, you were behind me!" Though she was sure that her sister was entirely correct about that. The event had been rather...surprising. Aela prided herself on her battle sense, not necessarily the use of the force to see an attack coming, but the preparation required to see someones next move. She simply hadn't expected her sister to jump on her, mostly because doing so was not only dangerous to Aela, but also her little sister.

She supposed that's why Maleah would be good at fighting.

She was unpredictable.

For a moment more Aela mused, then she turned to her sister. She lifted up the shovel and bucket that she had been carrying this entire time, small palythings that they had used as children in order to build sandcastles. A small smirk spread at the nostalgia, thinking back to the few times that her and her siblings had not fought when they were children. The beach had always been good for that, cooperation and buildings things. "Okay, we need sand."

Aela smiled, fully expecting Maleah to do all the work.

 

[Louise]

“Maybe so, but I got a good idea of what it looked like...”

Maleah then took this moment to exhibit one of her special abilities, namely a supremely flexible face. Suppose it made sense that if her body was like a rubber monkey then her face would be no exception to the rule, or maybe it was from all the silly faces she had pulled as a child…

...and also as an adult.

“Something like this!”

She turned to Aela, making quite possibly the most exaggerated expression of disgruntled surprise that she could muster, her eyes almost bulging out of her head as she did her impression.

Back to business however, and their business was sand. Still fuelled by excitement of the prospect of getting a lightsaber she didn't hesitate to get to work, her lack of shovel didn't deter her. Instead the young woman opted to actively scoop her bucket through the soft grains in one heaving go.

It worked quite well, given how fine the sand was up upon the dunes but to get it completely filled the twin opted to use her hands and try to shovel the sand in that way. Turning to her sister, she suddenly noted how Aela was just standing there, watching her do the work. Cheeky bint.

“What? You're not going to give me a hand? Or a shovel?”

---

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Maleah Talith"]

Aela offered her sister a flat stare.

Then a shovel.

"Here you go." Aela said simply. "Now go on."

The odd thing was that Aela wasn't doing this just to torture her sister, just the opposite in fact. A lightsaber was a precious thing, it was a personal thing, very personal. Normally one would quest for months for their lightsaber crystal. They would make the journey to Illum and hunt through the caves, search for their crystal and find exactly which one was right for them, which one called out through the force to them and them alone. Aela and Maleah didn't have that luxury.

So Aela would improvise.

She would make sure that Maleah was involved with every part of forging her crystal. She would gather the sand, the other ingredients, and of course the core. She would do all of the work, and she would reap all of the rewards.