What!?

[Jarik Taran]

Jarik stretched and cracked his back. He looked around at everything and shook his head this place had started off rather annoying but it had given him tons of time to hone his abilities in fighting dark sided entities, one by one they fell by his sword which boosted his confidence into the upper stratosphere. Out of the corner of hiseye he spotted Nomi Jonan. His posture straightened the almost permanent scowl on his face softened a bit and he casually, yet confidently made his way over to her. He was a couple of years older than her but now that they were both more or less adults with him at twenty and she was about eighteen right? Anyway, it mattered less than it did when they were kids and in truth he hadn't noticed her as much when they were both younger because he was more focused on his training and his development. He did not have time for anything else and that was just the way of it.

"Hey Nomi, nice day and all. Do you have a minute?"

The young Jedi Knight carried himself arrogantly most of the time, there was a certain unjustified swagger in his step and overall he often times came across as overly blunt and occasionally rude, but in this moment his entire demeanor was softened a bit and borderline polite, which wasn't strictly foreign to him, but wasn't exactly his norm either.

"I mean Guardian to Guardian...."

[Nomi Jonan]

She cocked her head at the older student. Unless he wasn’t one anymore; his hair was cut. As for Nomi, her glossy dark hair was twisted into a thick braid down her back except for the lengthy Padawan braid in its place of pride behind her ear. The adolescent was 5’10” — close enough to full height, though Jarik had a couple inches on her; maybe a couple dozen pounds. He'd invested a little more in muscle than she had. Nomi was trim, healthy, and especially tanned from three months in the South prairies that had clearly suited her. She wore her lightsabers one on each hip as always. Resting the spear she'd just picked up back against the shelf of rock, she looked at Jarik and shrugged.

“What’s up?”

[Jarik Taran]

She had a spear, that was cool. He was willing to bet that she was probably pretty good with it too, maybe that....no. He offered her a bit of a smile, Jedi just weren't always great at this part, it just wasn't something that came naturally to them and moreover it surely wasn't something that was taught in the temple. Kids in the outside galaxy had school dances and everything, they were practically led into the mating game with their parents and other adult mentors pulling them along and guiding them every step of the way until they were old enough. Jedi weren't like that, they were focused on training and everything else in the galaxy, sure he'd noticed girls before, he'd noticed them a lot but as a Padawan Arty kept him on a tight leash stating that he needed to focus on fixing himself before he could ever think about anything like that. Fixing himself? As if there was anything wrong with him in the first place. What was so bad about being good and knowing it? What was so bad about him in the first place. Nothing, he was good. He was a Jedi Knight and he was going to do what he wanted to do.

His green eyes met Nomi's and brightened a bit, but he tried to remain cool and keep his confidence, letting it creep into the tone of his voice, without sounding overly sure of himself.

"Cool spear, maybe you could teach me a thing or two with it?"

Was that good enough? Maybe, but that obviously was not what he had stopper her for. He took his left hand and gently brushed his hair away from his forehead.

"Spear not withstanding, I was thinking Nomi. Jachai and Julian were the two guys you used to hang around with quite a bit back at the temple. I never really had any real friends like that, I mean...I don't know what I mean. I just always expected that you liked one of them and...I hope Julian is okay and stuff and well Jachai...I mean I thought you guys would be together by now....so I was sort of wondering if you'd like to consider going out on a date? Not that there is a lot here for us to do, but I mean back on Coruscant I'd take you somewhere, but maybe a walk?"

Was that smooth? He doubted it, but the confidence never fully faced from his smile, but maybe he really shouldn't have brought up the other two Jedi, he wasn't sure. The Jedi really did need a class in this sort of stuff.

[Nomi Jonan]

Nomi’s right eyebrow arched in a perplexed expression. That was weird. Jarik had been the one suggesting they practice together exactly… never? Her eyes flicked over him while he quit talking about the spear and fixed his hair. Nomi crossed her arms, quickly scanned down her mental scoresheet. Yeah. Never. He was smiling now?

‘—Spear not withstanding, I was thinking Nomi. Jachai and Julian were the two guys you used to hang around with quite a bit back at the temple…’

Ack, Julian. She obviously hoped that he was alright. The Force must have not called him here. There were the students and even knights that died in the first days before there was ever a headcount, but that wouldn’t have been Julian. The Ashla had gotten desperate and jerked them all into the darkness RIGHT after their last spar in the training hall. She’d still been sweaty and she hadn’t even taken her boots off yet. Jachai said he and Julian hadn’t even gotten back to the student dorms. They were both armed. Julian would’ve been ready, alert, and fine. No head injuries that day. She’d gone over it with Jachai a hundred times. They’d both made it. Julian would’ve been ready, and he would’ve been fine. What was Jarik still talking about? That he’d figured she wanted to partner off with one of those two? Ha. Like… Not in a spar? Nomi’s nostrils flared in a laugh.

‘...so I was sort of wondering if you'd like to consider going out on a date?’

What?

She blinked. “What? Oh.”

Her jaw ticked a bit while she grasped for whatever the response to that kind of thing was. Also there was plenty to do, yeah? Spear hunting for example. Not that she was quiet enough for the efficient way to do that, but practice makes progress. Nomi dropped her hands to her sides.

“No I don't want to. Um. But thanks. We started the spears last year? Jachai's still always better with the knives, but this is whole different thing even if you throw it.”

[Jarik Taran]

He was watching her for several seconds and saw her eyebrow shoot up at his suggestion of her working with him on the spear. Was it that out of the ordinary? He was a Guardian and so was she, Guardians trained together quite a bit and...he guessed he really hadn't ever trained with her as he thought back on it. Then she spoke....

"Oh...."

His heart sank a bit as she continued talking about the spear which felt as if it had been shoved into his chest. She wasn't with Jachai and Julian was out of the picture and then she just rejected him? How could she reject him? He was good looking, he was strong and could do more than hold his own in a fight and he had just been Knighted not long ago. What could it possibly be? Maybe she liked girls? He contemplated this for a moment, that must be the case otherwise there was no reason he would have been shot down so quickly. it all made plenty of sense, she hung around with guys sparred with them and had done so her life. He nodded, the spear wound to his heart slowly healing as he could at least understand that.

"I mean..okay. What's the balance like? Oh and does she have a name?"

[Nomi Jonan]

Nomi glanced down the ridge at the landscape, rolling an imaginary kink from her neck and shoulder muscles before it set in. She felt mildly surprised, but not very, that Jarik was turning out to be one of those sentimental fighters who gave all his weapons girl names, and then it didn't even occur to him that hers might be different if she bothered with that. That figured. Whatever; at least they were back to normal conversation topics.

“Great. Um, I mean the balance point is 65 percent up the shaft. Top heavy obviously. Don’t underestimate them… Don't do it. That'd go poorly. But this was more for dinner than sparring; not a saber substitute. I don’t really name weapons much; even the lightsabers. I could, but… Never really worried about it.”

She shrugged and looked him over again. They didn't seem to be done talking yet.

“Do you?”

[Jarik Taran]

He nodded, his green eyes scanned the weapon as he listened to her speak, sixty five percent up the shaft and it was top heavy? That seemed a bit odd, until he thought about it for a moment. He supposed that it being slightly top heavy would mean that it would always land point down and into it's prey versus tumbling. He didn't know much about spears as they were not traditional Jedi weapons but had thought that spears were supposed to be balance at the center.

"So it's not balanced in the middle? Nah, I'd not try to use it for a real fight unless I had exactly zero options left."

She thought he was talking about the name of the spear? That was absurd, what a total waste of time it is to name something that has a practical purpose, some guys did that and probably girls too, but he never for a moment claimed he understood it. What was even weirder is regardless of gender they all gave the damn things pretty names of the opposite gender. What exactly were they doing with those things was the real question to be answered. Sure he liked girls fine, but naming a lightsaber after one even if his was a thing of beauty just felt weird and so much like a non-force sensitive thing to do. He quirked an eyebrow and raised his eyes from the spear to meet hers again, she must be embarrassed so he lowered his voice to a whisper.

"Oh no, I don't name things, that's kind of dumb I think. I meant your girlfriend or like crush. I mean it's okay, you don't have to be embarrassed I did not mean to assume that you were into guys and sorry for that. There are actually a couple Jedi guys I know like that, doesn't bother me, it takes all kinds to make the universe I always say."

[Nomi Jonan]

“No. It depends if you weight it for throwing or stabbing. Either way it’s usually top heavy with the balance point toward the first third. I wouldn’t want it in much of a fight either, but for throwing or hunting it’s fun. Try it if you take a turn fishing sometime.”

The tanned eighteen year old shifted her hand palm up and had been thinking about demonstrating the balance point she’d mentioned. Then her mind abruptly clicked from semi-conversational weapon chat back to whatever Jarik was whispering about. What?? Nomi’s eyebrow ticked upwards. She left the spear shaft alone against the rocks, dropped her arms to her sides, and eyed the new knight.

“Jarik, you never talked to me and never wanted to train. That's fine. I don’t care about dating and I don’t like you.”

[Jarik Taran]

She was talking about the weapon and agreeing with him and something about hunting but then she wasn't and she switched gears just as quickly as he did...and he was actually being nice. He just assumed that if she....she wasn't into dating? Whatever....and she didn't like him at all as a person or?! Of course not, still the same Nomi, the pretentious little girl from class using her Mom's position within the Jedi to get ahead......

His lip curled and his brow narrowed.

"Oh so that's it. Did you ever ask yourself why? It's because you were a showoff and tried to be better than everyone else. Skipping a year in your saber training?! My Dad is a councilor too and I never once thought of using that to skip a year Nomi. It's cool if you don't like dating, whatever that's fine. It's even cool if you don't like me, but your reasoning is just dumb Nomi."

[Nomi Jonan]

Oi! Nomi channeled most of her irritation into a small twitch of her left wrist and a rapid exhale through her nose.

“If someone else’s training bothered you so much why wouldn’t you ask, I don’t know — Ever? I didn’t skip anything. I barely even saw my mom; she kind of lived in the infirmary. I worked a dozen plus extra hours a week from before I was five. I passed all the youngling coursework. Then I lived in the dueling hall every free day watching my master—both my masters, and Julian’s dad, and his master, and Valor, and Dephric, and Master Tosh, and—not that it matters. I memorized what they did and bothered them all the time until they let me try it. Master Sirra paired us into groups for velocities, me with your class. I worked very hard building up skills with the best of us. It seemed like you just wanted to be older. Jachai didn’t care, so we worked all the time. Then Julian and Qareth.”

She shrugged. “You’ve probably got me with the showing off. That’s hard to resist especially when we were kids. I don’t hate you or anything, but I don’t like you being smug and then invalidating all the work.”

[Jarik Taran]

He rolled his eyes at literally everything she said, she was a Guardian complaining about HIM being smug?!

"You were unapproachable, you were a total teacher's pet who spent the entire time you were not training sucking up to ALL of the best duelists in the order. Don't you think I trained too? Don't you think I worked my butt to the bone day in and day out and I never got to be placed in a higher level class. So to see you groveling at all the Master's feet, including Julian's dad who would be my master eventually was kriffing annoying Nomi. Then you had the nerve to steal all of my friends like Jachai for example, at that age I felt completely wronged by you even being there. We're adults now and it's in the past but you...you're the one bringing up ancient history here and holding a grudge against me because I didn't bow down and train with you."

He shrugged and rolled his shoulders back, cracking his neck.

"Well I'm glad you don't hate me, I clearly don't hate you coming over here to ask you out, but that's off the table now. But invalidating your work? What do you think your presence in my class did to ALL of my work Nomi? You're no better of a duelist than me, the difference was I didn't suck up to anyone."

[Nomi Jonan]

“Unapproachable? So just approach us while we’re practicing! It’s not like we didn’t talk to you. Hells, it’s not like I didn’t actively ask you for the time of day plenty of times — Especially when you still knew more than I did! Did you notice there was an entire seating and standing space next to every training floor, specifically designed for both students and grown Jedi to watch and learn things. Nobody was stopping you. Or stopping you from asking the masters a million questions, or from talking a classmate into dissecting that tricky sequence with you and running through it over and over an extra few hundred times after dinner until you were both bruised and aching but you both had it right for the next day.” Not that it ever took much convincing when she or Jachai or Julian always stayed after.

The senior padawan reached up, deftly twisting her braids into a glossy black bun low on her neck.

“It was our class. Students test in and out of levels all the time. That’s the same as how Jachai got set in that class even before me. He was just closer to your age than I am. And look - you're still knighted before me just the same. Happy?”

Not that Nomi had much desire to be knighted yet, or that she thought it would change much in her life if she was. She and Aero weren't finished. A small muscle at the side of her jaw ticked. Her dark eyes stared calmly at Jarik. “Go ahead and feel that way, but using it like Dun Möch is poor form. I'll give you a training match anytime you want. Now's fine, but I don't do angry training.”

[Jarik Taran]

"Don Moch? Go ahead and feel that way? Force you're delusional. I came over here to Ask. You. Out. If I still felt that way do you think I'd waste my time?! You are the one who brought us up as kids and I explained to you why I avoided you. You were unapproachable because if I criticized you, which is what I wanted to do, I assumed at the time... to be clear...that you'd just run and tell on me and get me in trouble. I felt I had more to lose dealing with you than not dealing with you."

He crossed his arms in front of him and shook his head.

"I spent just as much time practicing as you, don't you think I know what the room was for and what the stands were for? I preferred to train mostly alone or with one other person and that's what your problem is isn't it? You were upset and apparently still are that my approach was different and that my world did not revolve around making you better. There is nothing wrong with my way of training, I just focused on doing my thing to make myself better and as you pointed out I am Knight, so there is clearly nothing wrong with that. No, I'm not so proud, smug, or arrogant that I'd hold my Knighting over you, I wouldn't damn well be a Knight if I would, I'm older and have trained longer with a Master so it makes sense."

Jarik looked up and away and brushed his hair from his brow with his right hand.

"So you want to duel me? I mean honestly I think you're the one with the crush here, you're just mad that I didn't reciprocate anything then. I'll duel you though, I've got no problem with that..."

[Nomi Jonan]

Nomi snorted. It was possible, she guessed, but she wasn’t convinced they’d spent the same amount of training and study hours. She didn’t even think he’d spent more years training under a master; if they were going to start counting! But as much as she’d enjoy snapping back a correction, she wasn’t so dense that she thought comparing training years or reminding him about that would help Jarik’s mood. Maybe he had a point; she'd made connections younger than he did. That was allowed, she definitely wasn't the only one, and she wasn't going to feel bad or apologize about it. Students from outside the temple used to come into the order at all different times anyway, and nobody worried about counting their class years when they got accelerated and then dropped into the right practice groups. She'd even gotten paired up with some of those! That was always fun. And what was the point of training alone? ‘Focusing on doing your own thing to make yourself better.’ That sounded Jedi alright. But he’d trained with Master Orspach, and Arty had always looked pretty strict and hands-on with him come to think of it. They were Jedi, let alone Guardians. Obviously they’d worked hard. Whatever. She’d seen Jarik often enough to know he was decent anyway.

The lithe teen rolled her shoulders and moved away from the rock ledge, giving them both roughly equal ground. Her whole bearing was poised and neatly disciplined. She assured herself the power adjustments on both of her lightsabers were set appropriately, but beyond that she didn't touch either of her weapons.

“Sure, we may as well. Say when.”

[Jarik Taran]

Say when? What a joke that’s not how fights worked. Thats just like her, all the classroom knowledge none of the experience. He was going to show her what real experience looked like and how a Jedi Knight actually fought.

A flick of his wrist and a powerful telekinetic pull and in less than a second both of his hands gripped the spear, he brought it down and swung it with all of his might at the side of her head. Quick and efficient. That was always the best way to take down an over confident opponent.

“When!”

[Nomi Jonan]

Jarik’s pre-shadow flicked his wrist. Nomi would have rolled her eyes at the attitude if she'd been a spectator, but in the active moment her senses and energy flared to life and she didn’t care. In less than a second the spear had shot into the man’s hands and he launched forwards to throw his upper body into a hard staff sweep towards her head.

‘When!’

Fine! He was fast anyway. And now he was moving first. Annoying. With Jachai, she would have planted her feet, spun her torso toward his, grabbed the spear shaft just below the tip and between his hands, and either slung off of it into him (which would be awesome!) or ended up in another wrestle for it. But she didn’t feel confident that she'd execute either consistently.

With Jarik, Nomi ducked away from the swing path and dropped to the ground on the fingertips of both hands and the ball of her left foot. She spun on her left hip, rolling her weight and momentum into sweeping her right leg in a solid calf-to-calf strike at the tendon three inches up from Jarik's nearer ankle — almost instantly followed by his other leg if the motion worked out.

[Jarik Taran]

He saw her move, he saw it before it happened but he had already committed to this attack. She ducked down and he let go of the spear sending it flying as there was no way it was going to be an effective weapon anyway. This was a power attack, he didn't have a back up plan, his lightsaber flew into his hand, his thumb messed with the power setting because this was going to be up close and personal and he didn't want to outright kill her, but just as he was about to get the blade activated, he felt the contact at the back of his legs near his ankles, first one then the other kriff...he fell down on his back. She was so much quicker than he thought, his hand hit the ground hard as did the back of his head dazing him for a quarter second, but enough that his lightsaber fell out of his hand and rolled away.

Kriff kriff kriff! He thought to himself as he quickly reached out the with the force and tried to call his weapon towards him, he quickly lifted his leg up to try to kick her in the stomach if she tried to come down on him, he felt the lightsaber moving towards his hand but he didn't really think he had enough time, he felt the metal hilt touch his finger tips........

[Nomi Jonan]

Pebbles and gritty dirt sprayed up in a low arc. She finished her spin and sprang back up from her hands almost simultaneously with Jarik falling backward. He’d gotten his hilt in hand — she’d been acutely conscious of that, not for the least because she was decently sure the thing was still set to full-power. Jarik had fumbled a second ago for some reason she hadn't had time to entirely process, but then his skull and hand slammed onto the ground; the lightsaber rolled out of reach for a second.

Nomi used the second and dropped down onto him. She flexed her abdomen tighter and reflexively twisted some to the side when his kick impacted, catching some of the force more on her obliques than straight at her core. The edge of his boot caught against the bottom of her ribcage—OW. Of course he had to be one of the quarter of Jedi who still had the old boots—she exhaled through her nose in a low snort. One of his legs had been up from the kick anyway when she landed on him. Nomi jammed her knee onto the inside of his thigh to keep him from scissoring or flipping her, and braced her other knee against the same spot on his other leg. Her torso went down on top of his with her weight on the long bones of her left forearm positioned to land across his neck and her hand on the shoulder joint of his outstretched arm. Jarik's lightsaber shot into motion toward his fingers. Nomi's sped the shorter distance from her hip to her right hand. She brought her unlit emitter toward his wrist with her thumb against the trigger plate.

“On.”

[Jarik Taran]

He felt his kick make contact, maybe that was a bit too hard for a duel? Whatever, there were healers and they'd both been hurt worse. He felt his fingers close around the hilt of his lightsaber and then strong pressure on both of his inner thighs, that hurt but not enough that he could lose focus, he brought his arm up and his thumb brushed the ignition and then...

“On.”

He glanced at the position of her lightsaber and removed his thumb from the ignition, close quarters like this would burn the hell out of her and him, which is why she gave him the courtesy of saying on versus bringing the blade down on his wrist. Somehow that was more frustrating, she had the time to kriffing say it and she wouldn't have had the time had he not had to kriff with the damn power setting and been prepared for the duel like he should have been. He scrunched his brow and let his lightsaber drop indicating the surrender and conceding the duel. She was a lot quicker than he gave her credit for, he was quick too, but he was screwing with the power setting instead of dodging her counter attack. He looked at her face, he had a fleeting thought about how attractive she was and how that was amplified by her being a good duelist, but that thought left instantly when he shook his head in a bit of a laugh and he felt the back of his head throbbing....and the reality of how stupid she had just made him look set in. He blinked rapidly and her face blurred, he could feel a warm sticky sensation on the back of his head and neck. Kriff...

"Yeah yeah....you won, but I had....oww.....to adjust my power setting so I didn't cut you in half...."

He lost. To. A. Padawan. That thought was now just starting to sink even deeper and that was jabbing at his ego just like the rocks did to the back of his head....he was frustrated but a mild concern over his physical state pegged at his conscious mind."

"So that's like the only reason....good job I guess.....am I bleeding?"

[Nomi Jonan]

She moved off of him and stood up, replacing her lightsaber hilt. The padawan ran a hand down the left side of her ribs while she eyed the slowly widening pool of red behind Jarik. He looked okay to her. Nomi concluded that her side and lowest two ribs were mostly bruised. She breathed deeply enough to involve her diaphragm and amended that with a tensed jaw. Okay, cracked, but nothing she felt embarrassed going home about.

Her nostrils flared when he grumbled. “No you absolutely did not have to adjust your settings. You should have done that before!”

Besides that, she saw perfectly well in hindsight that he would not have cut her—let alone in half! But that wasn't very satisfying at the moment. Stupid Jedi making stupid mistakes that he never should've. She replayed the blur of motions in her mind's eye and glanced at her own reactions. They were executed fine, but his blade was live and she'd thought so even before he fumbled resetting it. Even if he still wouldn’t have touched her with it. She felt decent about that, but she'd look at it later.

Nomi breathed an annoyed but stubbornly ‘Jedi’ sigh that seemed to give up on some of her heatedness. She looked at his eyes, then crouched down to inspect the back of his head. She was definitely not the doctor in this family, but she knew plenty about head wounds. She poked the back of his skull and sensed him a little, then swiped her hand off on her shirt.

“Yeah. It'll be a decent concussion, but your skull's not fractured open or anything. Go ahead and sit up. Nauseous?”

[Jarik Taran]

He winced as she flared her nostrils and it appeared that at least one of the Nomis standing there had some thoughts on why he had not fiddled with his lightsaber beforehand, but she wasn't supposed to block the spear! She was supposed to get hit by it and fall down then he would have drawn his weapon and he would've been the one saying "on" or....held the tip of the spear at her throat, that would have been quite the statement, the inferior weapon taking down the inferior Padawan. Instead she was whining because the only reason she won was a technicality and...he tried to sit up, as he did the world seemed to follow behind slowly. He blinked and the two Nomis became one for a second and nauseating feeling filled his head and stomach.

"No Nomi...I absolutey did have to adjust it because you were....ugggh...supposed to get hit by the spear and fall down...and I would have accidentally killed you had I not messed with it."

He blinked again and there was now a fog around Nomi radiating out from her face and pulsating at the same time.

"Yeah I'm....a bit nauseous and sometimes there are two of you."

[Nomi Jonan]

Nomi snorted in protest, hard enough that the still semi-shocked pain in her side spiked up several notches. Her laugh deteriorated into an annoyed chuckle with a series of aftershocks. Oi. She didn’t mind about the ribs, but this was a stupid argument. When she had the breathing issue sorted, she looked at him reproachfully.

“Settings. First. And in the second place! I do not get ‘hit in the head’ by spea… Oh, come on. Let’s go fix your head.”

She’d watched Jarik through the slow process of trying to sit up, not particularly worried about him, but concussions were the worst. The copper-tanned eighteen year old rolled her wrist and tugged her pack the few yards from where she’d left it against the base of the ledge. After producing a useful strip of cloth from its contents, she told Jarik and then pushed the back of his shoulders until he’d actually sat up this time. She shifted half a foot closer so that he could balance against her, then held the cloth against the back of his skull until the rush of bleeding started to settle. Once it had slowed about as much as she figured it would, she wrung the excess out and bandaged Jarik’s head before they got through the motions of standing up without anyone needing to vomit.

Nomi had moved around to Jarik’s left side so that she was supporting him with her right. He had a couple inches on her, but they were close enough to the same height that it was hard to support his balance without slouching her torso. That felt unpleasant. Also his shirt was soaked red, and she’d gotten plenty of it on her. They looked a little more memorable than usual, but whatever. The only alternative to walking back was getting an extra person to help, which was just unnecessary. They were fine.

She left the pack and spear tucked against the rocks. They were fine; she’d come back for them later. It was less than a mile back to the shelter anyway.

[Jarik Taran]

Her words bounced around his inner ear and made their way to his brain as if they were somehow said out of order. Arriving in his conscious mind in some sort of disassembled mess. It was something about the settings on his lightsaber or something and she was right, or at least she thought she was. Stubborn. His mind conjured up the word stubborn? It was...a. Weird word. It sounded weird it was even spelled weird like to words put together. Stub-born. Were you born a stub? or was the stub born?

As she helped him sit up, he blinked a few times and felt the pressure of her leg against his back keeping him from falling back again. He placed both hands behind him palm down on the ground in a brace position to take some of his weight of of her leg. He felt her compress the bandage against the back of his head, it stung, but a stinging is nothing to a Jedi, it wasn't pleasant, it just wasn't his idea of fun. Soon the sting dulled, in fact....everything dulled. The noise of the wind blowing through her clothes and his hair was augmented, yet muffled...like he was sitting a box detached from everything else. It sounded like it was otherwordly, somewhere far from here, yet at the same time it was close and happening right now. He scrunched his eyes closed, seeing stars and feeling the dizziness attack his senses. He felt like he was moving down, so he quickly opened his eyes. The world around him took several moments to come back into focus, a fog around everything his eyes were telling his brain that they saw. As she helped him up, the ground beneath him moved away slowly and he tried to focus his eyes on a stationary object, but nothing was stationary because he was moving.

She propped up his weight under her shoulder, that was good, but it felt a bit less....there was a word. What was the word? What was he feeling? He was not quite so sure he even knew what he was thinking about anymore. He could walk on his own but he wasn't exactly going to try it, he'd probably stumble and that would really not make him feel any less like vomiting...he really did feel like he was going to, but he kept pushing it down mentally which made the vein in the side of his head throb, it was almost as if he could feel every ounce of blood circulating through his brain and each little molecule of blood pressed against the wall of the vein and he was pretty sure he could feel that too and it was making him feel sicker and sicker.

He focused on taking one step after another and glanced towards Nomi, slightly tripping as he did, but still possessing enough will power and force assistance to catch himself.

"You know, we should do this.....ummmm........."

KRIFFING HELL! What was the damn word?! This was frustrating! Everything was still bouncing around his head.

"Again. Sorry I didddn't duel you when we were kids. You used to inti...intiamaada....intimi.....scare me, but you're... Really good."

[Nomi Jonan]

Nomi sighed and replayed the kick and fall in her mind. Either way, they were here now.

She did make them stop after about a quarter mile until Jarik confirmed that he still felt decent about walking. But what else were they going to do? He wasn’t critical or anything, and they’d be fine. Nomi definitely wasn’t envious of the mental fog Jarik was in, but she also appreciated how easy it was to get irritable in those conditions... He'd been practical and resilient while they dealt with it, even with the uncomfortable first aid. That redeemed him enough that she was starting to find him likable; even before he started saying friendly things that she wouldn't necessarily hold him to when he was feeling better.

"Thanks. We can next week if you still want to. Um... You're pretty sturdy. You're doing a good job."

She stretched her mental senses until she found her younger brother’s sensible presence, but Zhi had gone East to the valley camp this morning and amusedly informed her that she was on her own. Her mouth quirked in a crooked smile. Of course he had.

The questionably bloodstained, somewhat limping, and unusually companionable pair of made their way toward the yard of the shelter. Nomi turned her path toward a wooden bench someone had built under the tree last year. She figured that it would be a good place for Jarik to sit, and she'd go from there if needed....

[Erril Winterhold]

”…so as you can see here it only receives blood from one side. It’s one of only a few bones in the whole body that enjoy that distinction, and of course being one of the larger bones in the wrist it’s very important that it gets attention quickly when…”

Erril paused with his finger still pressed to his drawing, and stared off into space for a moment while two young Jedi watched him. Eyla, a human girl, and a young vurk boy named Muric were Erril’s regular students when he took a turn covering the healer’s tent in the camp at the base of the west mountain. Since arriving on the nexus world, the councilor had focused his artistic energy on anatomical drawings to serve as teaching aids, which he had since put to good use on days like today, but nothing beat hands-on experience. And so he listened with non-too-subtle amusement as Zhi – who had become an impressive healer in his own right – briefed the elder healer about an unfolding situation just beyond the western edge of the valley.

”Muric,” Erril said suddenly. ”What’s a concussion and how is it caused?”
The young Vurk’s eyes glazed over for a heartbeat as his brain shifted gears from bones of the wrist to head injuries. “Uhm… A concussion is a head injury caused by mild or medium trauma, like getting punched really hard or… falling over – Oh! Or running into a tree like Master Orspach did last month.”

The two younglings giggled, and Erril couldn’t help but join.

”Very good Muric. Eyla, what are the main concerns to keep in mind when dealing with a concussion?”

“Don’t let your patient fall asleep if they aren’t already, and… uhm… pupils! Sluggish pupils? Yeah make sure their eyes aren’t working slowly cuz they may have brain damage.”

”Very good, both of you! Now let’s go check out a possible concussion shall we? Eyla grab a couple of water skins. Muric, empty a third and fill it with gravel if you please.”

The student younglings busied themselves for a few moments doing as their master instructed, then they were ready to go. Erril collected his slightly more archaic medical kit. Normally for the injuries he expected to find, he would have only needed his hands. Today, however, seemed to be full of learning opportunities. A needle and thread would be more memorable.

On the way out of the tent, Erril reached up and yanked the handle of his sword out of the ground. The weapon was a katana styled after those of the ancient Jedi and was the height of his body; he could only wield it properly with an application of his telekinetic abilities, but it served as quite an effective weapon against the dangerous creatures that lurked in the darker ranges of the mountains, and when stamped into the ground outside the healer’s tents it was also a novel way of announcing that he was the physician in attendance. With the medical pack over one shoulder and the immense sword over the other, Erril led his two students on a little trek to the far edge of the Mountain camp where one of the common shelters had been erected, and still further to a bench that had been carved several years ago by some other Jedi being industrious in their free time. There he found a rather motley looking pair splayed on the bench, clearly out of sorts to some degree.

The elder Jedi chuckled aloud and inverted his sword, stamping it into the dirt as if to say “Healer Winterhold is in the house”. He then rested his hands on his hips and favored the two young Jedi with a rare, wide smile.

”I hope the story is as memorable as the aftermath.”