Every turn is a new beginning

[Arturious Engel]

Arturious knelt sitting on his heels with his eyes closed doing as he had always done in that small room the same room he always used. His fortress of solitude, his haven. Arturious waited for her to arrive the young girl content to sit among the rock instead of seizing her destiny. She reminded him or himself all those years ago. A wealth of potential squandered in self doubt.

Arturious sat their letting the force flow through him and settled his nerves. She would be his first student, the first he had ever brought out of the darkness of doubt into light of confidence and fearlessness. He would give her the tools. What she did with them was her choice to make.


[member="Hidia"]

 

[Hidia]

Hidia woke up the next morning, and quickly prepared herself for the day's training. The other people in the academy seemed content to leave her alone for the time being, and she was content to ignore them. She went to the cafeteria, where they were serving some strange looking food that she could not identify. She noticed more then one person look like they were going to be sick after eating it. It didn't bother her. She had eaten much worse.

Finished with her food, she got up and started walking. She had gotten a message that said to meet her new master in the same room they had been at before. She liked the room. Quiet, out of the way, and easy to secure with plenty of weapons in the event of an attack. Not that an attack here was likely to happen, but she never stopped thinking like that. She entered the room and knelt down.

"Master, I am ready to begin."
[member="Arturious Engel"]

 

[Arturious Engel]

Arturious did not open his eyes knowing his young apprentice was on her way long before she arrived. Her presence in the force was much like his was when he first arrived chaotic.

"You are right on time Hidia." "And please call me Arturious I am not your Master I am your teacher, your mentor."

Opening his eyes Arturious looked at her critiquing her choice in attire for the days lessons.

"Now the most important part to being effective through the force is to temper the connection to it." "To learn to control it instead of you controlling it." "To kill is easy, to kill with purpose is something else entirely." "Today we start with the most basic of abilities."

Arturious smiles softly.

"The easiest way is through meditation." "Each person is different but the end result is always the same." "A muscle that is not used begins to loose it's effectiveness over time." "To maintain the connection to the force you must always use it." "For me I find a memory that drives my desire, my need." "In this case that memory is of my first kill." "The man who first owned the sword that I have carried every day since that day."

"Now before we begin do you have any questions."

[member="Hidia"]

 

[Hidia]

Hidia's gut reaction to hearing the first thing they would be learning is meditation was annoyance. The last thing she wanted to do in a combat situation was sit around and do nothing. But, then she stopped and thought about it for a second. Considering she usually tried to observe the area and identify any threats first anyway, meditating might help her do that quicker, and she would be less likely to miss things that she might not see otherwise. So she set aside her annoyance and nodded.

"I have no questions."

[member="Arturious Engel"]

 

[Arturious Engel]

Arturious smiled slightly.

"First find a position that is most comfortable for you but can still be gotten out of quickly should you need to." "Most often this will be done before any threat arrives or you get to it." "I do this alot headed to other worlds as we do not travel independantly but as assault groups."

"Focus on your goal and let the force slip into your mind." "Let it speak to you just has much as you speak to it." "It is always the same not matter what path you take the light or the dark." "It is the focus of the images that play through your mind that give it purpose." "Shut out everything around you." "Sight, sound, smell." "Focus only on the force."


[member="Hidia"]

 

[Hidia]

Hidia took a few minutes to find a position that worked for her. Once she had gotten settled, she closed her eyes and begin doing as instructed. At first, nothing happened. She couldn't quite focus only on the force like he had told her to. it was not something she was yet used to. As she tried, however, she begin to sense the things around her in a manner she could not quite describe. She assumed this must have been what he was talking about, and she reached out to see what she could sense. One thing, however, dominated her senses.

"I can feel it...so much darkness. Everywhere I look, I can sense it."

 

[Arturious Engel]

Arturious listened to Hidia to what she said the tone of her voice.

"Focus on the Darkness for now." "It is the beginning stage." "It is the force speaking to you but you do not quite have the focus to hear it." "To talk back to it." "Breath slowly settle your nerves." "Breathe in counting to three and then breathe out counting to three."

Hidia would hear Arturious do the same thing he was telling her to do.

"In.........1.....................2.................3...and out..............1...............2.................3."

[member="Hidia"]

 

[Hidia]

Hidia didn't honestly thing deep breathing was going to help her much, but to her surprise, it did help. After a few moments of breathing, she could fell herself calming down. Once she heard him stop, she would stop as well, and wait for his next instructions. She did not want to have a repeat of yesterdays mistake of assuming what the next instruction would be.

[member="Arturious Engel"]

 

[Arturious Engel]

Arturious smiled as he felt her presence in the force calm down. She learned quickly and that was always very good. It was a start and a start was all they really needed. Opening his eyes Arturious spoke to her.

"Practice this often Hidia." "We could spend the next week doing this to help you perfect it." "Unfortunately we do not have that kind of time." "Since I have been here I have not known more than two weeks peace." "The life of a Sith is one of constant strife and this is no different." "I need you ready to defend yourself if the alarm went off tomorrow."

Arturious stood and walked over to one of the weapon's racks.

"So now we need to find out what fits your fighting style." "So come over here and let's have a look at options."

[member="Hidia"]

 

[Hidia]

Hidia got up and walked over to the weapon rack. She had figured combat training would begin sooner rather then later. She hadn't been free long, but she had heard that the Sith were involved in multiple wars with people who's names she had forgotten. No doubt she would find out who they were in time. But that was irreverent at the moment. She started looking at the weapons as she spoke.

"Agility has always been my strength in combat. Evading or blocking attacks, letting the enemy tire themselves out, waiting for the best chance to take them down."

[member="Arturious Engel"]

 

[Arturious Engel]

Arturious chuckled.

"Strength, agility, speed." "These have nothing to do with weapon choice but the form you chose to focus on most." "Dexterity is the only thing that matters as the Saber staff or wielding two sabers at once require a fair amount of dexterity to be proficient in."

Arturious pulled a standard single training saber from the rack walking towards the center of the room.

"For now just grab a single saber for training purposes." "Later on once you have a good foundation you can decide if you want to pick up a second saber or wield a saber staff."


[member="Hidia"]

 

[Hidia]

Hidia nodded at this, and took her time picking out a single blade saber that had the right feel to it. Once she was satisfied with one, she walked to the center of the room opposite from Arturious, looking over his stance and deciding how best to attack him once the duel that looked to be about to happen took place.

[member=Arturious Engel]

 

[Arturious Engel]

Arturious nodded waiting for her to return to the center of the room.

"There are seven forms the first a base in which the others stem from." "It is a good all around form with no real strength of weakness." "It is simply the basics."

Arturious smiled some [member="Hidia"] a few basic stances and some of the minor strikes and blocks.

"My personal favorite is the second form." "Created for the sole purpose of dueling another force user."

Arturious smiled showing her nothing more than a saber salute.

"The last form I can show you is the fourth one." "An aggressive form focusing on speed and agility."

Arturious circled around standing beside Hidia looking at her.

"I will show you the first one on basic need alone." "I will let you chose with one of the other two you would like to also learn while you are my student." "First I will teach you and then once you have a fundamental grasp on them I will test you to see how well you have learned."

 

[Hidia]

Hidia nodded. "Basics first, of course, that makes sense." She said as she turned her head to keep Arturious in sight.

"Question, however. These forms, they are standardized? As in, all force users use them? Wouldn't that make you predictable in combat? Anyone would be able to guess how you are going to attack and how to counter them just based on whatever form you are using, wouldn't they?"

 

[Arturious Engel]

Arturious smiled like a proud father at [member="Hidia"] when she asked her questions.

"Very good Hidia." "Yes they are very standardized, in some cases painfully standardized." "I will teach you the basics." "It is up to you to find a way to manipulate them to keep your opponent guessing."

Arturious turned facing Hidia.

"What you need to understand is that most fall into the same train of thought that each stance, each strike, each parry absolutely has to be exact to the standard." "A standard created thousands of years ago by the first of our kind."

"That leaves you with two options really."

Arturious started of a sequence of strikes and parries that flowed from one form to other and back.

"You can either learn them to the point you can flow from one form to the next seamlessly."

Arturious switches completely to Makashi but his stance and strikes seem oddly out of place as if almost awkward.

"Or you can make slight adjustments so that your movements are off set from the standard of the form." "Just because it looks sloppy and ineffective does not mean it is so."

 

[Hidia]

Hidia nodded as she traded blows with him, seeing firsthand as he switched up his attack form the effectiveness of what he said. "Makes sense. Rely on the element of surprise. Do what they don't expect. Play off of their complacency, and then strike how they least expect you to."

 

[Arturious Engel]

Without warning Arturious kicked out with his right leg in an attempt to plant his foot in her sternum knocking her down as her focus was on his hands and saber.

[member="Hidia"]

 

[Hidia]

Hidia went down to the floor, then moved to attempt to sweep his legs out from under him with one of her legs.

[member="Arturious Engel"]

 

[Arturious Engel]

Arturious chuckled as [member="Hidia"] attempted to sweep his feet leaping back putting a bit of distance between the two of them.

"Always remember there is more to a fight than just your saber." "You also have your legs, your feet, even your whole body if needed." "An opponent off balance even for a moment is an opponent with an exploitable weakness."

Arturious walked over to the rack putting the training saber away.

"Never let a potential weapon go to waste." "Use everything around you to your advantage."

 

[Hidia]

"Yes, a lesson I learned well in the past." She pulled herself off of the floor and put her own blade back on the wall. "Not that it helped me a few seconds ago. Guess it will take me some time to get used to direct fighting. "