Little Girls are Dangerous

[Qhorin Solas]

--Lujo; The Mountains...

Cronos peered over the edge of the cliff to the valley below. The drop was sheer, the mountainside almost completely vertical, broken here and there by jagged out croppings. They could serve as steps, if one had cause to hazard a trip down or up the cliff side.

Behind him, the cliff face was a vast, flat stretch of rock that sloped gently down to another such cliff, though one far less sheer. It was an easy, if long climb, and infinitely less dangerous than chancing a trip down the far steeper side. A few shrubs dotted the expanse of rocks, and there was a single tree reaching up out of the ground, old and leafless, with thin, reaching boughs like a dozen knobbly arms.

He'd heard, from several sources, of the Talith children. Some things had been good, others questionable, but he didn't much care. He just wanted to know what had happened to Anwen. And to impart some measure of his talents with lightsaber combat.

One of those children would be here soon...

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Cronos Aegir"]

Aela walked confidently upon the mountain path.

She was sixteen now. Old enough to have her own ship and old enough to travel on her own. Father had said that at this age he had spent several years traveling with Oma, getting into mischief and seeing where the trouble would take him. Mother had said she had been part of the Jedi at this point. Aela? She had simply sought out remnants of remnants.

Her family was large, but it had once been larger.

She had had two more aunts besides Amorella, sisters to her father. One had been kind, the other, cruel. It was the former that she sough a connection of, however brief that connection might have been. There was tutelage to be taken, and Aela intended on taking it. There were many Jedi, many force users in the galaxy that she had yet to meet.

Within her travels she had come to see many worlds, this was another.

Cresting a small hill Aela came upon the man, smiling as she did. The path had not been so bad.

 

[Qhorin Solas]

The wind picked up. The old tree creaked, and his hair fluttered in his eyes. He parted his bangs --

And there Aela was, with a soft smile and a graceful gait, coming up the gentle slope of the mountainside. She was young, and slight, and her eyes were a sort of orangish gold that reminded him of the glow of his lightsaber.

He smiled back, dipping his head in greeting. "Aela? Aela Talith?" He stepped away from the sheer drop to meet her in the middle of their makeshift arena. "I am Cronos Aegir." He studied her face. There was a hint of Anwen there, he thought -- or perhaps he was simply imagining it.

He'd only met Anwen the once, but their meeting had been burned into his mind -- he could still recall the feel of her in the Force, as pure as the hottest fire. As he had told Master Korr, it was the memory of her, as much as anything else, that had led to him joining the Jedi.

"Before we begin," he started, "I have a question to ask you, if you don't mind.

"What happened to Anwen Talith?" He'd seen no mention of her in the databases he'd searched, and he'd been unable to find her in the Force, for all his searching.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Cronos Aegir"]

“She died.” It was a cruel thing to say perhaps, but it was the truth.

“Aunt Anwen was ill.” For a few moments she recalled what father had said to her. The hurt, the pain in his voice, the tears in his eyes. Aela had asked about her, had asked about her entire family. Father had only talked about it once, though after meeting Uncle Sven she had learned a bit more about what had happened. “An affliction caused by an artifact, a remnant left by my grandfather. There was no curing it. No making it better.”

Her voice was steady, calm.

She would have liked to have met her aunt, but that was out of the question now. When father had told her she had been sad, but now, now it was a distant painful agony that she tried to forget. The messenger bag slung around her shoulder dropped onto the floor, and from it Aela pulled her lightsaber.

An immediate sense of peace floated over her, her concentration heightening and her connection to the lightside of the force becoming stronger. She looked up at the Jedi, her foot slowly sliding back into a defensive stance.

 

[Qhorin Solas]

He unclipped his saber. "Hm. I see." Something like sorrow welled up in his gut. He gave it to the Force, and the sudden tension in his stomach eased. Anwen was one with the Force now. He would see her again.

Aela settled into a defensive stance. Cronos', in turn, was far more aggressive, blade held overhead in a two hand grip, angled down and away. The beam flared to life, and a steady hum filled his ears. He sensed that Aela was ready, and so --

He attacked.

Tight, measured steps carried him forward. The Force thrummed through him, rich and heady. Momentum gathered, he struck, arms snapping down in a rightward falling slash. He drew back for a quarter step and attacked again, coming in from the left with a sweeping blow. Testing, probing. Her stance was sure, and she seemed confident -- he meant to see if her confidence was deserved, one cut at a time.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Cronos Aegir"]

Aela reacted naturally.

She seemed to move with a fluid grace and confidence born only of one that had had intense training with a lightsaber. Her wrist flicked upward, the bright pink blade of her lightsaber flowing up and striking into the mans own in a light handed block.

Her body seemed to shift, feet seemed to slide. The ligthsaber blades clashed and Aela shifted slightly, her hand twitching and the force pushing on the Jedi's leg. He would feel a sudden pull on his back calf, a powerful wrenching force as Aela's lightsaber slide down his and pushed him back, hopefully throwing him onto the ground in one swift and graceful move.

 

[Qhorin Solas]

Light handed blocks weren't quite up to snuff against the "Falling Avalanche" attack. Physics were against her; batting his blade aside with perpendicular force was par the course, as such attacks were suspect to redirection, but trying to match him with equal and opposite Force would take considerable strength. If he'd had the opportunity, Cronos would've suggested a different defense.

He felt a push against his leg, a sort of wrenching tug to pull/push him off balance. He might've been upended if he hadn't another leg to stand on, or the Force to balance him. He pushed back, with his blade and in the Force, disengaging briefly to re-center himself before attacking anew. The girl had talent.

He came in with a sweeping cut across her chest, still employing, for the moment, Djem So techniques.

[member="Aela Talith"]