Private The Pillars Of Wisdom

[Jamie Pyne]

"If we slow down-" She said, turning to look at Juniper's pitiful state of movement. "Then we will not only dehydrate, but-" She pointed upwards at a slight angle towards the sun. "We will get a remarkable sunburn the likes of which you could never imagine. But suffice to say, consider how painful it might be if you put your hand on a hot stove and left it there for the skin to bubble."

Jamie continued to march forward at the same pace as before.

"If you had thought to conserve your water you wouldn't be where you are now. You were not prepared. A Jedi doesn't die of thirst walking from their ship to a temple."

The blonde unclipped her canteen and handed it to Juniper with a finger held up. "One. Small. Sip." She eyed her closely before releasing it.

"There will be no breaks. No stopping. Mind you that water is all we have until we return to the ship. You will learn to drink what you need, and not what you want. You will relearn everything you've ever thought you've known with me."

Juniper

 

[Juniper]

It was all very sobering, those words as Juniper grew red and thirsty under the blistering sun. She half expected Jamie to taunt her with her mistake. Yes yes, she was told to prepare and she drank it all too fast! A misstep, clearly! She was so uncomfortable she could whine, and she felt coiled enough to do so.

But it was the woman’s surprising kindness that had her sobering up, the girl leaving the ground and accepting the water with desperation that Jamie might consider dramatic.

She had never been so uncomfortable in her life. That single, elongated sip was appreciated with more vigor than any drink had been before.

Bits of it cling to her lips as she unwilling handed it back, a seed of good will Forming between them. Ok fine, point made!

She looked down, flush of red hitting her cheeks as she dragged her feet on past Jamie without prompting.

No need to learn TWO lessons the hard way. She was already a brilliant pink, her exposed skin enjoying the occasional breeze ... and the kiss of the unforgiving sun.

ok, make that three lessons.

“Gee,” she grumbled, dragging her feet through the sludge. “Being a a Jedi sure is hard.”

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"You have a point there." She agreed with a simple nod. "Being a Jedi is hard. And it will never be easier than this very trek."

It wasn't meant to be intimidating, or cruel, but it was reality. Anyone Juniper met that was not a Jedi would never have an understanding of the true reality, the true sacrifice, the true nature of being what she was. It would be similar to explaining vision to a person who had never seen. A fanciful concept, but impossible to really perceive. Taking a sip of water for herself before clipping it back to her side she once again cast her sights ahead and continued onward, hoisting her pack more comfortably onto her shoulders.

Almost an hour later...

Jamie stopped shortly after cresting the peak of a rather large dune. A small valley below was their destination. The slightest hint of a raised structure at the base could just barely be made out with the naked eye. Jamie was sure this was the spot, and waived for Juniper to follow along. "We're here." She said, beginning the descent towards the mostly buried temple.

Juniper

 

[Juniper]

“Yes,” the mess of a girl breathed, stumbled and tumbling into Jamie’s side. She had surely never worked her body so hard before, every muscle in her body screaming for a break. They did not get one, Jamie’s words echoing through her head like a chant as she forced herself onwards:

This is what Jedi do. This is what Jedi do.

She let herself fall to her knees at the base of the valley, a dumb look being leveled at the pile of sand before her. “...wait, are you sure about that?” She countered, the sand Pilling as she groped pointlessly at the ground.

“Aren’t we suppose to be looking for a temple?” Juniper didn’t quiet grasp what happens to left behind things in a pile of sand.

She lifted a hand up, the sand slipping through her finger tips like an hour glass.

“It’s just dirt.”

 

[Jamie Pyne]

The blonde smiled, as if unphased by the whole... lack of temple there seemed to be. "I'm sure." She said simply. The elder girl passed the canteen to Juniper to take a drink. "I'll handle this part." Without another word she simply raised her left hand closed her eyes. For an entire, long minute nothing seemed to happen, yet she remained completely still.

Then...As if the planet itself had heard her beckoning silently through the afternoon breeze, the ground began to tremble. The sand shifted and slid away faster and faster. As it did, stone began to emerge from the sunken depths that had covered the secrets beneath. More and more the sand slipped away, revealing the ancient ruins until finally, an entryway was visible.

Jamie then lowered her hand, took in a deep breath, and turned to Juniper.

"Told you it was here. Nothing to worry about."

Clearly though, that was no trivial task, as the Jedi seemed rather expended, the sweat pouring off her face indicative of her exhaustion.

Juniper

 

[Juniper]

Juniper gaped at Jamie, struck silent as the last of the sand slid off the newly erected temple.

“...Whoa,” she finally breathed, Jamie’s heavy breath filling the air between them.

“I wanna learn that next.” Reserves of energy sprung out of the depths of her body, elation lighting up her features. She scrambled up, chugging back a wave of water before haphazardly shoving it over and breaking straight for the entrance.

“Imagine doing that with pimples.”
Being a Jedi was so cool. Jamie was so cool. She glanced once back at the woman, making sure she was ok.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"In due time." She said, taking a few sips from the water before starting their way inside.

The air was still suffocating, but now it was also dark. Carefully she set down her bag and rummaged through it for a moment before pulling free a small electric torch. She cracked it against her leg and it sprung to life in a warm green glow. Jamie then passed it over to Juniper to carry, as she had little need for one herself.

Instead, her eyes shifted once more, as they had earlier, to a vibrant, unnatural and glowing blue as she ventured forward.

"Come along." she beckoned, ducking beneath some of the rubble within the mostly collapsed corridor.

Juniper

 

[Juniper]

The hours of pain slipped from her memory, the horrid walk to the temple suddenly inconsequential as Juniper slipped inside after Jamie. Her awe was matched by silence, the torch jumping along the hallways as she took in the crumbling structure. "Whoa." Now this was like the holoflicks. She pinched herself as they slid deeper in, the suffocating air the furthest thing from her mind.

"Who would have lived here? Other jedi? LIke us? Where'd they go? Are we gonna find bodies?" She lingered several steps behind Jamie, unafraid of the dark as she peered curiously at every nook and cranny the entry hall had to display.

She left an inscription on the wall and scrambled to Jamie's side, squeezing to walk besides her and on top of the pile of sand threatening to fill up the space.

She turned her torch light to Jamie's glowing eyes, continuing to scramble at her side. "What's that?" What was personal space?

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"Many Jedi would have walked these halls long ago, I suspect. As to where they went it's hard to tell. This temple was ravaged by war at some point, razed to the ground and left for nature to reclaim. It does still hold value though, for the purposes we need it for, anyway." Ahead, a bit of rubble blocked the passageway further into the temple. Jamie took the opportunity to pause a moment, have a drink of water, and answer a question or two more during the momentary pause.

"Hundreds of years have passed at least, there will be no bodies to find." -- And if there were, they were in danger.

Turning her head, a hand pushed away the bright light that threatened to blind her as Juniper raised it closer. "These help me see in the dark, and further away than a normal person could otherwise. But they're very sensitive so please, don't point the light directly at me." Carefully Jamie began to lift away the stone that blocked their way until finally the passageway was clear, allowing them to venture further inside.

Juniper

 

[Juniper]

"Sooooorry!" Juniper snapped the light away, turning it off in a dramatic overcorrection. Jamie was left to silence for a spell, her words running circles through Juniper's mind. In the utter darkness, her eyes darted to and fro, trying to see like Jamie did. She caved and flicked the light back on, startling slightly at the rubble Jamie lifted.

"Can I get some?"

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"Can you get some? Wha--Oh, optics?"

She squeezed herself through the opening she'd made and offered a hand to Juniper to climb through after. "Yes. But no." Well that's confusing... "What I mean is, yes, you could get them. The trouble is they are very time consuming to make, they aren't just for sale anywhere, and they're not exactly easy to remove." Carefully she rounded a corner and looked for any danger before pressing on.

"They also take quite a bit of getting used to. It's like learning to see all over again."

She smiled through the darkness.

"In a few years, once you've got this whole Padawan business down we can revisit it, and whether or not you still actually want them."

Juniper

 

[Juniper]

Juniper clamored after her, her small form sliding through the hole with ease. She didn't take her hand, unconsciously making it a point to show how agile she was!

Her body gave soft cries of protest-- a hint at the aches and burns to come. She ignored it all, keeping her light pointed downwards as she grinned in response. It was nice to hear Jamie speak about her in the long term. "Oh, I will. You'll see. I'll want my belly button pierced too. I have to be sixteen for that."

She crept around the corner with Jamie, mimicking the woman's movements. This was so cool.

"Do you have yours pierced?" She chirped, reaching a hand out and moving a tiny stone to the side.

Monkey see, monkey do.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie simply couldn't help it, despite her best effort to keep the dialog serious she laughed at Juniper's proclamation for wanting a piercing. "I never did, no. My family would never have allowed it. And I suppose after I left home, I never really thought about it again." One more corridor and they were greeted to a vast, open chamber, likely the main hall at some point in time. The interior was in shambles, the support pillars for the structure cracked or broken entirely, their angular position holding up the bits of ceiling that remained intact. Jamie coughed as a bit of dust from their disturbance of the sand kicking up into her lungs.

A moment of wheezing passed, and she gave the room another look around. "This would have been the busiest area of the temple. Those coming and going, masters meeting their students for the first time, younglings arriving, ambassadors for other systems seeking Jedi guidance. It would have all started here, in this room."

Juniper

 

[Juniper]

Goose bumps prickled over Juniper's skin, the girl looking around the broken space. Visions of what might have passed danced vibrantly under her eyelids, her colorful imagination painting a scene that finally pulled her back to the lesson at hand.

"What that musta been like, to be part of it all..." She left Jamie's side, torchlight sliding up and down the chamber's walls. A look of longing crossed her expression, her throat pinching tight as she realized she never would have a chance to be part of what had been here. They were just visitors-- outsiders looking in at a piece of history that had long passed.

It was a reality that left her biting her lip, silence befalling her as she shuffled along and skimmed the walls. Her foot struck something hard under the soft sand. She startled, squeaking as she stepped back and shone her light on the unassuming pile. Without alerting Jamie any further, she bent down and dug out the charred remains of something cylindrical. She tilted it to the side, squinting as sand poured out of the holes of the destroyed saber hilt.

"Hey what are we looking for anyway?" she called out, letting it clunk back into the sand as she stood up.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

As Juniper stood and looked over towards Jamie she would see the woman kneeling, eyes closed. Her bag she had been carrying was set down a few feet away. "You are looking to connect to the Force. I am here to be your guide." She gestured towards her to come alongside. "Sit." Juniper had thus far been able to float simple, small objects around, but that was something just about any Force sensitive being was capable of.

"If you want to become a Jedi you must become familiar with all of the building blocks for which that symbol means."

Meditation was the first step to calming the turbulence in the mind, Jamie hoped that with the natural ambience of the temple, its meaning, and its innate energy it would aide Juniper in her first foray into her training. Perhaps if she were lucky, the Force would envelope her completely and treat her to a vision of herself she could not yet fathom.

"Meditation."

Juniper

 

[Juniper]

Oh.

Juniper turned slowly, a mix of excitement and disappointment churning through her as she found her first exercise to be... less than ideal. Meditation, yuck. Still, after days of travel with Jamie this was the first time the woman seemed ready to teach her. She scrambled forward without a complaint, not willing to lose the chance.

"What does that mean, 'connect to the force'. Don't I already have it?" She settled across Jamie, mirroring her as she placed her bag to the side and kneeled. She double checked the woman's position, trying to match it perfectly as if the building blocks were found in how she sat.

She quickly wiped the desert sand off her damp palms and looked back up at the woman, her face shadowed by the torch that laid shining at the wall.

"Aren't I already a jedi?" It was a tender question, her voice pinching oddly at the the words.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Remaining still, eyes fixed closed, she answered her student.

"You can use the Force, in a crude manner, yes. But if you want to achieve the potential you truly possess you must find the means to unlock that potential. Meditation is the first step in that process. Through it, by calming your mind of all distraction, and focusing solely on your connection with the Force, you will gradually become enriched by it. You will feel it as surely as you feel the adrenaline in your veins when you face danger or excitement. And with it you will be able to further propel your abilities beyond simple tricks."

Jamie drew in a slow, deep breath and spoke quietly this time.

"I want you to try and perform only three things when I finish speaking. First, listen to the sound of your own breathing. Steady it to the point where each breath is as predictable in length from inhale to exhale as the next. Once you've accomplished this, drown out all sounds of this place. My movements, voice, the echo of shifting sand, bits of falling debris, everything. Then, I want you to focus on the Force. Similar to the manner in which you are able to draw from it when using telekinesis, but instead of using it, I want you to try and collect it, as you would rain water with a bucket. Feel it well within you, and continue to hold onto it as long as you can."

Juniper

 

[Juniper]

Juniper's brows furrowed, her lower lips catching in an unexpressed pout.

And here she thought she had left home to do cool stuff. Like fight with glowing swords and lift houses off the ground. This was just anticlimactic. She gave a heavy sigh and adjusted her butt, resigning herself to humoring Jamie. Maybe after this came the funner stuff. She really was committed to trying, and she wasn't below a few boring starter tasks to see her dream through.

She closed her eyes, giving a forlorn hug as she tried to follow the first step.

Focus on her breath.

Alright, easy enough. In. Out. In. Out. In- she peaked through an eye lash at Jamie, her part of her wondering how long she had to do this until she could say she was done and they moved on.

A minute?

Two?

She squirmed in place, letting out another shaky breath.

In. Out. In- peek ... long out. She was almost a convincing actress, except for the unsteady breath... the squirming... and the fact the force never reacted to her at all.

"Ok done!" She exclaimed, three minutes having passed. "Whew. Hard stuff. That was good. What's next?" She reached for Jamie's bag, fishing for her water. So hooooooooooooooooot.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

The bag suddenly ripped from her hands and soared through the air, landing atop one of the pillars, hanging by one of the shoulder straps.

"No." Jamie said sternly.

"You've done nothing at all." Her words were sharp and accusatory, yet it was clear the woman knew Juniper hadn't even made an effort to accomplish what was asked. "This isn't a game, or a holoflick, Juniper. Nor am I fool. If you try to cheat it will only be yourself that loses. There are children whose age have not yet surpassed single digits with more control over the force than you currently possess. Everyone starts here."

The woman continued, her eyes still shut. "Now actually try this time. We will not move from this spot until you've done what I've asked."

Juniper

 

[Juniper]

Juniper paled, her body ridged as she was thoroughly chastised for her-- well-... It was harder than it looked, alright? She made a noise of indignation, hiding her embarrassment behind a wash noises that amounted to nothing more than huffs.

"I was actually trying," she grumbled under her breath, glancing up at the bag that was tucked on top of a pillar well out of reach. She swallowed against her thirst and tried to close her eyes, wondering for the first time just how the woman had known. The sense of uncertainty earned better behavior than before, Juniper not even daring to peek as she struggled to move past the stress of being caught out. It was a painfully long time before the girl was able to regulate her own emotions and calm her breath, but after enough squirms and huffs and self-conscious rationalizing, she fell still.

And then what? She opened her eyes to ask, only to remember Jamie would know that she was doing it! She squeezed her eyes back closed and ate her own question, reminding herself of the instructions. Breath. Then sounds. Then force.

This was so hard. The ground was so uncomfortable. How did the heros do it? Her thoughts cut to the jumps scenes-- the time skips showing the passage of time as the person trained and trained and trained. It always seemed so cool when played next to upbeat music.

This isn't the holoflicks.

Then she didn't understand. What was she suppose to do? Try again? The minutes bled by, and if it wasn't for her new found fear of being caught out, she would have thrown in the towel.

The longer you fuss around the longer it will take to get there.

It was Jamie's stern words and her growing discomfort that put the determination in her spine. Step one, check. Step two, done. Step three, focus on the force.

As it turned out, that was the easiest part of it all. At long last the energy surged around the still girl, rushing through her veins like a burst of energy. Elation caught in her chest-- a tight ball of strength she tried to hold tight to her. Oh, she understood now. With this kinda power she could lift whole houses for sure.

All around the room, granules of sand began to raise, the girl jumping ahead and seeing just how far her 'party trick' could go.