Private The Pillars Of Wisdom

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie didn't hold back the smirk or the momentary laugh, air blown through the nose in a stuttered fashion. "That, my dear Juniper, is the sound of your past being left in the wake of our ion trails. Nothing for a Jedi to be afraid of." She offered a helping hand out to the girl to get her off the floor, patting her on the back with her free hand. "You'll get used to all the sounds and vibrations of the ship as time goes on. R5 is a very reliable little droid. He won't let anything happen to us out here."

She gestured for the girl to follow as she made her way toward the galley. "There's plenty of food here, but don't mistake that for anything your folks at home might have made for you. There's nothing here that's overly tempting or enjoyable. It's meant to last, rather than to indulge. It does however make stops where those types of indulgences are available all the more special, mind you."

Again she motioned for Juniper to follow as she headed for the cockpit, whereupon reaching she would place her hands on the girl's shoulders to brace her, as for the first time, she would watch as R5 entered the coordinates for Vrogas Vas into the navicomputer. The whirring of the hyperdrive grew louder and louder for several seconds before then launching them into the vast expanse of hyperspace.

Juniper

 

[Juniper]

Juniper was not reassured, a wary glance giving at the metal walls containing them as they walked forward. Still, the hand on her shoulder left kept her moving forward, Jamie's words reverberating through her.

Nothing for a jedi to be afraid of. Nothing for a jedi to be afraid of.

And yet make no mistake, the newly minted padawan moved with less confidence than before. It was only Jamie's coaxing that got her through the galley, the woman's words unheard as Juniper dealt with the rising trepidation of her impending DEATH. Therefor the approach to the cockpit took some unspoken cajoling, the whirling and the lit up panels creating another burst of trepidation.

She leaned back into the woman's frame, eyes going wide as hyperspace jumped to life and blurred across the windows encircling them.

"Holy feck!" The young girl exclaimed. Holy feck indeed. Her stomach flopped in an instant. Before she could understand, a fevered sweat broken across her skin. She fell to the side, vomiting up her mother's last meal.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie cackled uncontrollably as she looked on at poor Juniper before finally patting the girl on the back and kneeling beside her.

"I don't quite think you're ready to take on the Hutts yet, either. Being a Jedi isn't a holoflick. Consider that lesson number one."

She turned to R5 and eyed the mess, the droid beeping in protest at having to clean up organic hazard material from the flight deck. The blonde simply glared at the droid in silence until it relented. "Come on, lets get you to the med bay. I'm sure we have something to calm your stomach, and nerves." Jamie would help Juniper to her feet and slowly walk her through the corridors until they reached the med bay.

Within, a single bed with a panel and display sat off to the side, rotated against the wall. The remainder of the space contained various cabinetry and countertop space with drawers containing vials, tools, and other pharmaceuticals. The blonde offered a seat atop the bed to the girl before turning back and rummaging through a few of the cabinets until she found a small bottle that rattled as she popped it open.

"Here." She said, handing two small circular tabs to Juniper. "Your stomach will feel a little better in a few minutes."

Juniper

 

[Juniper]

EMBARESSMENT.

There was NOTHING jedilike in puking your guts all over the ship, but no amount of will power could stomach the waves of lunch from evacing her body. The disorientation could not be shoved back. Her body's reaction could bot be contained. It was with great exhaustion and embarrassment that Juniper was led to medbay, a lack of of color to her skin as she slowly pulled herself onto the bed.

She flopped over with a groan, her dignity left on the cockpit floor as she let Jamie tend to her with a pill.

"That doesn't count," she protested, gripping at a glass of water and chugging it all down. A bit of life already was kissing her features, the tug of gravity on the ship settling as they stayed their path without any adjustments.

"How was I suppose to know that'd make me sick, screens don't wrap around your head like that." Lesson not learned. She was totally ready for hutts. She tried to sit up, only to have the world swirl and send her right back down.

"On second thought maybe we just take a day or two..." She let her eyes slip closed, breath escaping her lips. The echo of Jamie's laugher reached her. Heat hit her cheeks, her eyes peeling back open. "That doesn't count." She grumped again.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

The woman placed a hand on the girl's knee and took the glass, setting it onto the counter and eying Juniper closely.

"You don't get do-overs when you're in a fight for your life. Everything counts, from the moment you stepped on board. I warned you this was not a vacation."

Jamie hadn't even considered the idea that Juniper had never traveled outside Vlemoth Port before. This was an added, unexpected gift. An opportunity to teach her student. "You must always be prepared. Even when there is no time to prepare." Confusing? Probably. But it was more said for the sake of opening her eyes to the realization that this was the first of many unpleasant experiences to come her way.

"Now then; Vrogas Vas is a desolate, inhospitable desert world. It's going to be hotter on the surface than anything you have ever felt. Within minutes you'll be sweating from head to toe and wanting to return to the ship." She removed her hand and placed the bottle back into the cabinet. "I suggest you prepare yourself for that. It's going to be a long walk to the temple."

Hyperspace travel would be a distant memory by the time they were finished on that planet.

Juniper

 

[Juniper]

Was that suppose to be a pep talk? That was not a pep talk.

Juniper watched the woman move with a sense of shocked disconnect, the moment CLEARLY not lining up with her holoflicks. Understanding came in the unspoken widening of her eyes, the woman heard for the first time as her serious tone broke through Juniper's distractible reality.

Oh that was frighting.

Her vivd imagination had no trouble picturing the struggle Jamie warned her of, her body stiffing in mental preparation for, what? More pain? If she expected Juniper to crack or cry in that moment, she would pleasantly surprise to earn a single nod of understanding instead. Juniper slowly lifted herself back up, eyes flicking to the water for a few times before she regained the courage to take it.

A hot summer, eh? She chugged it all down, preparing!

"...If it's so inhospital," she echoed the word incorrectly, her curiosity daring its return. "Why is there a temple there?"

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"A multitude of reasons." She said, lifting herself up onto the counter and crossing her arms beneath her chest. "If you want to keep something hidden, best not build it on a populated planet with plenty of amenities for just anyone to stumble onto and find." Jamie watched as Juniper gulped the water down, as if they would be landing any second and she would be thrown down the loading ramp without so much as a sip of water for the next week.

"Additionally, some of these temples are meant more to be a personal trial of sorts, than a center of gathering. This particular temple was razed to the ground, like many others over the millennia. It is however, safe to visit by comparison."

Unless it wasn't. But there was little reason to speculate otherwise.

"When we're closer to the core we'll visit a temple proper. This will suffice for what is necessary in the meantime."

Juniper

 

[Juniper]

Juniper smacked her lips, the taste of her embarrassment washed away as she pulled her legs up to the table. "So you're gonna start teaching me there?" She concluded, perking as she cradled the cup in her lap. Good! Cause she was so ready. Like so so ready. Really, there was no time to delay. "I mean there's no reason you can't start now too?"

As if Jamie's words of wisdom had never existed.

"I heard once that jedi can like. Grow gills or scales or fur to help them cope in inhospital places. Is that what we're gonna do? Cause like if I grow the scales noooooow then I wouldn't haven't to wash this shirt for the third time this week, it really takes forever to dry in the air."

Jamie's plans brought more life to her cheeks, the embarrassing moment seeming to not hinder her progress in the slightest. Juniper perked and cheered in the presence of Jamie's undaunted approach with her, the girl already wondering if maybe she should try that cockpit again.

Defeated by windows! Bah!

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"I think somebody may have told you a story about Jedi that they heard from someone, who heard it from someone else." Jamie had neither the ability to perform such feats, nor had she ever personally witnessed any Jedi do such a thing. If it were possible, the ability eluded her. "Perhaps whatever you heard was misconstrued information, I am hardly the keeper of all knowledge in this galaxy, but what I do know is that while there are ways to make yourself more comfortable in harsh environments, we will not be using them." She had no plans to make this a simple walk in the park for Juniper. There was nothing to be learned if everything was simply handed to her, already done. Not to mention, her abilities with the Force thus far amounted to a bit of telekinetic levitation.

"We're going to walk from the ship and endure the heat because we are Jedi. We will find the temple and we will explore the interior as much as we can. Once I'm satisfied that you have learned both the lesson and the reason for going there we will leave, and not a moment before. No scales, no gills, no fur. Just two feet each, walking through the sand dunes together."

Just like the holoflicks.

Juniper

 

[Juniper]

'Oh,' her posture seemed to say, her shoulders slumping at Jamie's very clear and firm expectations that they do this the hard way. What for, Juniper couldn't tell. But even she was not one to push issues too far when getting her feet wet with strangers. "Ok, if you insist." It was so simple and plain she failed to see the adventure, but perhaps that was part of the lesson she had to learn.

The reality of life -the boring bits, the gritty struggle- was rarely ever portrayed in an action film.

She frowned, looking at Jamie with nothing sort of a skepticism.

"Why do I get the feeling you're gonna have a lot of fun with this" she asked, a pout pulling at her lips as she eyed the woman's stubborn features.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie slid herself off the countertop and back onto her feet. She offered a hand to Juniper to help her down before answering.

"No less than my master had with me in a similar exercise. But you said you wanted the life of a Jedi. If you wanted to be a holoflick actor pretending to be a Jedi, you should have told me that. Surely I wasn't mistaken?" The goading was intended to make Juniper consider the reality that Jedi weren't made in a week, given a lightsaber and told to go save the galaxy, as well as to remind her that Jamie had gone through this too. She wasn't just born a Jedi.

"I'm no more eager to sweat through my clothes beneath an arid sun than you, however I am prepared to, because it's what is necessary."

She began to make her way out of the med bay and back towards the common area, intent on taking up a comfortable position on the couch while R5 maintained course towards their destination.

Juniper

 

[Juniper]

Juniper's back slowly straightened, Jamie's words sinking in in increments as she wobbled off the table.

"Surely I wasn't mistaken?"

"No, no no!" Came the quick response, the girl's quips and whines silenced as Jamie's point hit home. "I'll do it. No scales. Like a real jedi, you'll see. It'll be fun," she forced, her raw voice squeaking as she tried to build back up her confidence. "Like-" the films? Eep, no! "Like the vent shafts!" She corrected quickly, resisting the urge to swoon and moan as her dizzy feet kicked off to keep up with Jamie.

"Good ole days. You and I-- dangerous places being jedi." She glanced up at Jamie, a weak smile to her lips as she tried to convince the woman she wasn't gonna back down. She was gonna go out there and do it.

Cause she was a jedi.

She planted face first into the spare couch, the cold tingles of disorientation clinging to her finger tips. She wasn't gonna be space-sick again, she wasn't gonna do it. She smushed her face into the pillows and mumbled around it. "Is there time for a nap?"

Jedi nap, right?

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Several days later...

The journey through hyperspace itself had been uneventful. No catastrophes, no gravity wells pulling them out of hyperspace into an ongoing war between multiple military powers, no ship malfunctions. It was as if for once, luck was on her side. Aside from Juniper's relentless questioning, there was little to do but wait for R5 to give them the signal that they'd arrived at their destination.

Jamie had just stepped out of the refresher and pulled some clean clothes on when the ship sent an alert through the intercom and suddenly dipped out of the void of hyperspace. The sudden rocking motion was enough for her to know they had arrived. Quickly she made her way from the washroom to the main deck, stopping by Juniper's room on the way before heading to the cockpit. "We're here."

From the flight deck, Vrogas Vas could be seen. In orbit the planet looked red, indicative of the relatively lifeless surface below, covered in endless sands and scorched by the sun. Somewhere down there was the ruins of the Jedi temple. Within, Juniper's first test. "Take us down R5." The droid beeped and the ship began to descend through the planet's thin atmosphere.

Juniper

 

[Juniper]

Juniper had settled in quickly-- her degree of comfort matched by her talking speed. Poor Jamie's brain had been picked apart, the girl's curiosity knowing no bounds. She was bright, but she was fanciful. There was no jump too large for her colorful mind to make.

The sudden deceleration hit her stomach, the girl poking pale faced out of the room. Oh no not the rocking motion. Jamie got a sharp nod as Juniper ducked back in, fussing for a bag she had packed on her own for supplies. Water? Check. Food? Check. Torch? Check. Hologame pad? Check.

She scrambled out of the room, bag clanking on her back, a burst of excitement propelling her to the flight deck room. "Whoa," came her voice at the doorway. She ventured into the room for the first time she the incident, all previous discomforts forgotten as she gaped at the red expanse before them. "It's so big!" She breathed, stepping in closer.

"...And not as hot as I thought it would be." Cause they weren't out of the ship. She glanced up at Jamie, awe in her eyes. "You sure its really down there?" Looked like a load of sand to her!

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie smirked, “Perhaps it’s winter down there after all.” A rather blatant lie. There were no seasons. The planet hardly saw rainfall. Snow was an impossibility. Even when night fell the air was still dry, suffocating, and unpleasant. The only benefit was the lack of humidity to go along with the intense temperature.

“It’s there. Most of it will be buried beneath the sands. But it’s there alright.” She could sense the faint traces of the Force still lingering as they touched down on a hilly mound. The loading ramp creaked open and as if all at once a gust of smothering air filled the ship.

Jamie lifted her small backpack over one shoulder and looked to Juniper. “Let’s get going. R5 keep an eye on the ship.” The droid would have a difficult, if not impossible time in the sand. No reason to bring it along.

Juniper

 

[Juniper]

"Wait are we gonna need shovels?" Juniper called out, chasing at Jamie's heel. The acrid air washed over her, earning a flinch and a faltering step. "Whoa." She dropped her bag and pulled off her cloak, shoving it ontop of the pile and securing it with quick jerks. Her small form went barreling down the ramp, her feet hitting the sand with an unexpected 'lurch'. She stumbled straight down, the unfamiliar texture eating her steps where she stood.

"Youch!" She jerked back, an overreaction to the heated ground. "It's hot!"

 

[Jamie Pyne]

“Hopefully not. I imagine it would be rather difficult to find a trade post here.” Her voice suggested jest, and she continued making her way out into the sand. It was as unpleasant as one could imagine, perhaps even more so than the imagination could conjure. And sure enough, within minutes Jamie could feel the slick moisture running down the back of her neck.

Arguably Jamie could have landed closer to the temple proper, however the reasoning was twofold. The first, to give Juniper a small sample of the unpleasantries she would soon be experiencing on a regular basis as a set of expectations, and logistically because she didn’t want to risk landing atop a portion of the collapsed temple and risk a cave in, thereby damaging both the ruins and her ship.

The thought of being stranded didn’t appeal to her very much.

Juniper

 

[Juniper]

Juniper scrambled after her, reeling wildly as the sand ate at every step. Fascinating. She hoped and skipped and jumped along Jamie, the unique nature of the ground overriding the hostile weather as she played. But sure enough her steps began to slow, the sound of panting breath occurring over Jamie's shoulder as Juniper predictably began to lag.

Oh the jedi hadn't been joking.

Juniper yanked at her clothing, resisting the urge to complain. Be prepared for anything! Well she was prepared for this. She fanned at herself with her own damp shirt, pulling out her water bottle and chugging eagerly. The sand seemed to swallow each step whole, the heat determined to suck away her very strength and make joke out of her.

She did not complain, not even when she struggled to crest the dune, her small legs peeling wildly against the backwards slide of sand down its peak. She fell onto her hands and knees and crawled up instead, collapsing there and gasping for breath.

She turned to back and reached for her water, only to find it already empty. She tossed Jamie a distraught look.

"It's gone," she finally complained, breaking to her thirst.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Sweat ran off the sides of her cheeks, over the bridge of her nose, and down both front and back of her neck. The line around her collar was deeply saturated, while the underarms of her shirt and small of her back were no less damp. She puffed a small bit of air to clear the hair that clung to her face away from her vision, looking back at the small girl as she struggled to continue.

"It's gone?" She asked quizzically. "Already?"

She blinked several times over.

"Well then." Jamie turned her head, looking out over the vast expanse of endless sand. Suddenly there was a shift in her eyes, one Juniper certainly hadn't seen in her before. For several moments she looked out, seemingly at nothing, before simply beckoning for Juniper to get up and continue.

"We've got another forty minutes or so if we don't slow down."

Juniper

 

[Juniper]

Juniper groaned, shoving her bag back on and half crawling after Jamie. This was so much harder than she expected, the heat and sand sucking out every ounce of strength she had to spare.

Hands down the hardest. Day. Ever!

“And if we slow down?” Came the following complaint, the cork of best behavior seemingly unplugged.

She didn’t expect a response though, she was use to selective hearing being used against her. She continued to crawl forward, wondering if she could do it the whole way. It certainly felt easier than walking in that moment. Through the exertion and exhaustion came a burst of frustration.

“How does this even make me a Jedi? If I wanted to walk I could of done it back home. Now I just have sand up my butt.” She stopped, spatting some out of her mouth as the wind kicked up.

“Can’t we just take a break?”