Tied Together With A Smile

[Jamie Pyne]

"I knew it all along! The bracelet told me it was true!" Her voice carried along the walls of the crater as she cried out. "I will stop you!"

The blonde leaned forward again, clamping her hands on the girl's wrists in mock handcuffs. "You're under arrest Darth Talith!"

She was too lazy to give her some obscure Darth name, so Darth Talith was it. Though during the process the granola bar fell from her teeth, a sizeable portion falling into the dirt on the ground, making Jamie pause in her assault of the Talith girl to look down with a small frown and a scrunch of her nose.

"Oh. Oops."

One hand pulled free of Aela and scooped up the granola, observing it. There was no salvaging it. It was a good thing she wasn't starving or she would have been much more upset.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"Way to go clutzy." Aela said with a roll of her eyes.

She wasn't actually that disappointed in Jamie of course.

"This is why I can't take you anywhere." The Jedi Marshall shook her head. "Always dropping and spilling things."

The Jedi Master chuckled to herself quietly. Jamie was actually a bit of a clutz, always falling over or tripping on something. It was actually how they had met, with Jamie running into her on the Temple on Sullust. She often wondered how her Padawan had ever actually survived the reaches of High Society. She shook her head.

"Looks like no dinner for you tonight." She stuck out her tongue at Jamie.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Psssssssssssssh!

"It wasn't my fault! It broke!" She held out her tongue towards Aela in spite of all of her upbringing demanding she never do something so disgusting. "See!?" The girl reeled back in her tongue and swallowed the granola. "Not my fault you chose to reveal your Sith-ly-lness now! You had to be stopped." The girl set the food back onto the ground, surely some bird or animal would find it and enjoy it. It certainly wouldn't go to waste.

"Besides" She said with a grin, "You still have yours!"

Throwing herself onto Aela, she grabbed the other girl's hands to restrain her and chomped into the bar she was eating.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Aela smacked Jamie in the face as she threw up her hands in order to fend off the girl.

"HEY!" She swatted at the padawan.

"Stop that!' More swatting. "This is mine! There are more in the crate!"

They had more than enough food to last them a week or so, and if they really needed it they could probably go fishing or something, so there was absolutely no call for Jamie to eat her food. She frowned slightly as she kept swatting at her padawan, pushing the younger girl off and using her other hand to keep her food away from her.

One more swat at the girls face. "Keep your mouth away from my food!"

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie laughed, not backing down. "Didn't your mother teach you to share!? I'll have to have words with this woman!"

Hands waived, trying to catch onto Aela's, the sound of teeth clicking together as she made attempts to scare the other girl by biting at her food.

"Share with me! I'm not diseased!"

Well, not unless Kurt was...But she would have hoped he would tell her something like that if that were the case.

"Come on!"

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"My mother taught me to share with people that deserve it!" She swatted at her padawan again. "You most certainly do not!"

She told her padawan.

It didn't matter whether or not she was diseased, she had dropped her own food, and that automatically disqualified her from getting more of it. That was how the world worked! Maybe if it was ice cream Aela would share, but otherwise? No way.

"Stop being greedy!" She nearly slipped off her behind as Jamie lunged again.

Another swat. "You'll make me drop my own food!"

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"I am your friend and student!" She exclaimed, hands still grabby. "I do so deserve it!"

Throwing her body weight onto Aela she made one final attempt to force the girl to share simply by pinning her. "Our fates are entwined!"

Jamie growled, "You dare accuse me of greed?!"

She shifted her tactic to one of tickling instead, since she was being so uncooperative.

"Hand it over, Sith girl!"

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Aela let out a loud 'PSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSH'

Then suddenly her palm twisted.

Before Jamie even had a chance to tickle her she would suddenly feel the force wrap around her. Invisible chains lapsed around her padawan, the force cutting her off from any further attempts to even get close to Aela. The Jedi Master stood, and pushed her padawan gently back, tugging her into the air with telekinesis.

"Don't you mess with me young lady!" She told Jamie, holding her in place. "Let me remind you who the Master is here!"

Sometimes, the force had it's hidden benefits.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"Hey!" She shouted, arms flailing about as Aela lifted her up. "That's not fair!" Her voice echoed for what sounded like miles while she shouted. "Put me down right now Aela!" Embarrassing. Her face turned red as harsh blue eyes glared towards the Jedi, entirely un-amused by this affront.

"This is an abuse of your power!"

Even as she held her, the wheels in her head were plotting revenge.

Jamie decided this would not go unpunished.

She would have her revenge. Soon. And the Force would not help Aela then.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"Uh huh." She said with a shrug of her shoulders.

There wasn't much that Jamie could do at this point, though Aela couldn't really keep this up forever either. There was a limit to her power, and unfortunately telekinesis had never really been her strong point. She was only lucky that the same could be said of Jamie.

"I don't think so." She said as she quickly scarfed down the rest of her food. "Pretty sure this is fine."

Aela continued on with a mouthful of food.

"I do what I had to in order to keep my food safe." She slowly leaned down and took a swig of her canteen, swallowing the dry granola like bar and letting out a deep breath. Only when she was done did she finally release Jamie.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Burning eyes watched, crystalline blue orbs glaring as a thousand fires burned indignantly in her chest.

"You." She called. "Will pay."

When Aela finally released her the blonde crossed her arms, collecting her things and hefting her backpack over her shoulders.

"Mark my words Aela Talith. You will pay for that."

With another hmph the girl began her path towards the mouth of the cave on the far side of the crater.

There would be time for payback inside. She was sure of it.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Aela let out a 'hmph' and then quickly packed up the rest of her things.

Whatever payback Jamie would try to give her Aela wasn't all that concerned about. She was still far faster and more coordinated than her padawan, not to mention she wouldn't be getting drunk here so she would have all of her senses around her.

That was the important thing. "Suuuuuuuuure"

She taunted Jamie, perhaps not the wisest of decisions. Still, the small smile on the Jedi Masters face told that she wasn't particularly worried about the situation. Maybe she just didn't find Jamie all that threatening at the end of the day.

Quickly she rushed after Jamie, falling into step beside her just a moment later.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Mmmhm.

When payback came Aela wouldn't have anywhere to go. No way to avoid it. Jamie would ensure that she paid for embarrassing her in full. Vengeance would be hers. She just needed to wait for the right moment. Aela would drop her guard eventually, assuming Jamie had forgotten all about whatever it was she planned to do. But that wouldn't happen. She would continue to wait, and then, like a viper, strike.

The entrance to the cave stood about twelve feet high, and almost as wide. Plenty of space for the two to comfortably enter, though light quickly faded from within as the daylight was unable to penetrate through winding corners.

Standing at the entrance Jamie took a look inside. "Ready?"

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Aela fumbled for a moment in one of her sidepacks.

For a second she undid zipper after zipper, checking the small bags until she found what she was looking for. A moment later she pressed a button on the tiny cylinder, a bright light that was more than enough to illuminate their path popping into life. "My eyes might glow a bit."

She began.

"But I don't have the greatest night vision." With that, she was ready. Fumbling around in a dark cave without a source of true light seemed like a road to disaster to her. They could fall and easily hit their heads and die. Sure they were Jedi, but even they befell accidents every now and again. Especially when they had no idea what was ahead of them.

"Just remember." Aela gave Jamie a sideways glance. "I'm watching you."

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"Of course." She said with emphasis. Jamie offered a sly smile to Aela as they headed inside. Words spoken echoed seemingly endlessly throughout the system of tunnels that led to the depths below. Almost instantly they began to descend in a downward slope, leaving the sunlight behind just a few feet from the entrance. The drop in temperature was also notable, having no supply of heat from the rays of the sun. It wasn't cold, but it was definitely cooler than the outside had been.

The surface of the walls inside were relatively smooth, likely the result of flooding at some point having washed against the rock until it became softened, likely some hundreds of years worth of being undisturbed.

Some of the minerals gave off a slight reflection as Aela's light hit them.

"I wonder how many people have been down here since it was discovered."

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"Isn't that what I said earlier?" Aela brought the flashlight onto Jamie for a few seconds, smiling, and probably blinding her.

The place was interesting though, reminding her of the underwater caverns back on Borleias. She herself had never explored them, though Micah had once gone scuba diving through them. The thought of that terrified her to no end, mostly because she didn't like the thought of getting stuck and drowning.

"Get your own thoughts Jamie." She put emphasis on her padawans name. "Jeeze."

She rolled her eyes and swept the flashlight forward.

As the light of the electric torch slowly swept in front of them Aela thought she could see a slight sparkling up ahead, the light reflecting off of something. She frowned for a moment and then motioned to her padawan for a second. "Do you see that?"

 

[Jamie Pyne]

A hand raised to block the intense light from burning her eyes, turning her body away from the assault.

"No, AELA. You didn't say that earlier."

She growled towards the girl. "You said 'I wonder when the first time someone came down here.' That's not the same thing. So, jeez yourself."

Jamie turned her head, eyes still closed to prevent her eyes from being blinded by the intense light given off, and stuck her tongue out with a firm hmph.

"See what, now?" The blonde asked, having a bit of difficulty seeing that far ahead given the brief, partial blindness of moments prior.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"It's basically the same thing." Aela said with a roll of her eyes, wandering forward in the cavern and directing the beam of light.

"That." She brought the beam towards the sparkling. "There."

Jamie squinted, apparently having even worse night vision than Aela did. The Jedi marshall frowned slightly, and quickly began to wander towards whatever it was that was reflecting the lights. She felt an odd sort of reverberation within the force, not quite a source of light or dark...but something bouncing back. She frowned for a moment as they got closer, an odd crystaline structure coming into the view at the edge of the mouth of the small cave.

"Look." She told her padawan as they drew closer.

An echo pulled at her voice, signalling that they had entered a larger cavern.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"It's not basically the same thing. You asked when, I asked how many. Those are completely different things!"

The girl groaned, shaking her head as blonde locks of hair bounced from side to side in disarray. "Jedi Masters. They think they know everything."

Her eyes shifted as they got closer, the beam of light no longer on her, and no longer blinding. She caught the sparkle off the crystal formation, the mouth of the cave opening up further into a much wider expanse inside. "Woah." She said in reaction to the shimmer of the rocks. The Force slowly enveloped and caressed the two the closer they got.

For a moment she wondered if the entire cave was simply littered with these crystals, and that the others as been unaware of the type of cave this really was. Perhaps the glowing water that they believed was due to the minerals was in fact, Force imbued crystals. Jamie stepped closer, a hand gliding gently over some of them where Aela's light shined. Instantly she felt the connection between them.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"We do know everything." Aela said quietly, stepping closer to the crystal structure and looking at them. The colors seemed to be rather plain, just white and random variances of it, though there was a brilliant sheen to them that Aela had never seen before.

"For instance." The Jedi Master said as she touched one of the crystals. "I know these are lightsaber crystals."

She glanced at Jamie and smiled.

"Or capable of being used in that manner anyway." She reached out to one of the crystals with the force, her attention drawing to it and then suddenly...bouncing back. A frown pulled at her lips, it was as if the crystal...rejected her.

She gave Jamie and odd look.