WriteHaven

"Here ye here ye! In the tournament of...what are we calling this? Whatever. Jachai takes a disappointing loss to Nomi and has been eliminated in the first round. Now Julian...that's me!"

The half Zeltron eleven year old smiled proudly and feigned puffing out his chest a bit.

"Is set to take on Qareth, the stakes have never been higher for these two Padawans. The winner takes on Nomi and the loser fights a consolation match with Jachai prior to the championship fight with Nomi."

The half Zeltron youth smiled and discarded his cloak on the floor. They were at one of their favorite training areas deep within the recesses of the temple, not quite feline territory where they would be interrupted once more as they were when they were just mere children. They had their masters now and weren't younglings anymore and their time together was getting less and less as they ventured off world on actual missions and their classroom learning had been converted mostly into field training. However even when not in the same place the four of them always stayed in contact with one another and this tournament had been months in the making, the dynamic schedules of each of them actually intersected so that they all at least in theory had a week in the same place at the same time barring any last minute changes. Which was why it was crucial that this tournament took place today, it had been carefully planned to be on the second day of the week in case any one of them was late in returning from wherever they were. Julian for example had been in the deep outer rim worlds with his master and had learned a thing or two from the Sentinel about diplomacy, but he scarcely got to turn his new lightsaber on which was both a good and a bad thing. In fact the only time it had really left his belt was on the ride there and the ride back as he diligently trained and sparred with his master.

"Ready?"

Julian said with a smile to the Zabrak girl standing a few feet from him. Her blue lightsaber igniting in her hand, followed quickly by his. Julian glanced at Nomi briefly who was talking with Jachai, he wasn't exactly sure why but he felt a small tinge of jealously deep in his stomach as he watched his two friends talk. He had noticed her more and more in the past several months when they'd been together and he was quite sure that it was different than before. He looked back at Qareth and put those thoughts out of his mind as he needed to focus. He raised his lightsaber and took an Ataru stance.

"To beat your butt? Always Julie always."

The young Padawan merely smirked and they both nodded to one another, Purple eyes narrowed to slits as the duel commenced. There was a flurry of blue blades swinging precisely through the air whooshing and clashing together in violently in an almost poetic dance that had been done countless times through the ages. Julian attacked low with a slash at Qareth's side, but she parried it away, and countered with a force push. Julian was knocked back a few inches but stood his ground and the two wound up trying to out muscle each other with their blades locked together, he looked at the Zabrak girl, her eyes just as narrow was his were. Skill wise, Julian was always better, she knew that, he knew that and everyone knew that, but a young Zabrak male or female was a powerful force of nature and the fact that he was physically developing more muscle as his hormones had shifted gears in recent months was made irrelevant by the fact that her species was naturally a bit more muscular than others."

As a result Julian knew he couldn't out muscle her nor could she out muscle him, as they were at this particularly odd point in their growth where from a muscle standpoint they were somewhat evenly matched. Without a thought Julian relinquished his footing and kneed Qareth hard in the gut which sent her off balance, he then immediately struck wish his blade and slashed her hand, her lightsaber extinguished and she fell, the safety settings were on but it still hurt.

Now the rules of this tournament were a bit different, only a killshot spelled victory Qareth had another hand and was still in the fight, she just wasn't allowed to use the severed one anymore. Julian on the other hand called Qareth's fallen lightsaber to his hand. Qareth's eyes widened as she saw her hilt fly towards Julian, no she wasn't going to lose this way to HIM again, she had to beat him. Without thinking and perhaps with adrenaline controlling a bit too much, she leaned forward and head butted the half Zeltron in the abdomen just below his rib cage.

She grinned for a half second and then realized....

Julian's purple eyes widened as he felt the sharp and intense pain in his abdomen, he brought his blade down extinguishing it quickly and then pressed it against her neck.

"On."

He then felt the warmth around his stomach and pushed her head away, the small horns dripping with blood. He dropped her weapon and looked down at the seven or eight jagged holes in his cream tunic quickly turning red.

"Qareth...what the hell?!"

"Osik! I'm sorry Julian, I wasn't thinking. Oh no. I'm so sorry, Nomi! Where is Zhi?!"

Qareth shouted as she immediately stood up and put her arm on Julian's back and helped him to the floor. As she set him down, she quickly pulled a knife from her belt and cut off his tunic to revel the small puncture wounds just below his rib cage. This was bad. Quickly the young Zabrak remembered her basic first aid training and retrieved a compress from her belt and applied pressure to the wounds. The compress slowly saturated and she could feel the warm sticky blood as she sat there. The other two Padawans now by their side.

"I just forgot about my horns they're longer now I guess...you okay??"

"No kidding you forgot about your horns. Does it look like I'm okay?! Uggh. It's not your fault I guess, but next time try not to actually....you know stab me with your head."

He looked at his four friends, Jachai retrieving medical tape and a larger from the medkit that they brought along. It didn't hurt, it just felt weird, he looked down and saw the red blood on his pink flesh and shook his head. Quickly Qareth removed the compress and he saw the wounds, those didn't look great as Jachai placed the larger compress tight over the wounds as Nomi taped it down.

"So maybe lets just go to the infirmary and not look for Zhi? I can walk, it doesn't hurt but the longer....yeah lets go now...."

Julian struggled to his feet feeling a bit light headed Jachai on one side lifted him up and Qareth quickly went to his other side so he didn't have to exert much energy.

"So maybe wash the blood from your head..."

“Zhi’s back next week,” Nomi reminded them all again for what felt to her like the sixth or seventh time in the last two days. Why did she always have to be in charge of keeping track of her brothers’ schedules? “Here, I got it, Jachai.”

The copper-tanned twelve year old slid efficiently into the place between the Echani thirteen-next-month year old, and the Zabrak-punctured half Zeltron so that she could take over taping down the compression bandage. Nomi was really good at compression bandages.

Julian got up between Qareth and Jachai without looking like he was going to pass out or anything, so overall Nomi felt relieved that they weren’t doing too badly. She poured some of her water bottle on her hands and swiped off the worst of the bloodstain on her pants, then shrugged into Qareth’s place supporting Julian so that Qareth could take a turn making herself look a little less alarming. It wasn’t that any of them were very bothered about it, but they’d found that if there was the option of minimizing visual damages before anyone had a chance to freak out about them…. well, it was usually better. Unfortunately the horn stab wounds needed some attention though. (And they’d even been careful and responsible!!) Oh well. The Guardian team of four made their way back to the main Temple hallways at a calm and reasonably comfortable, reasonably presentable, limping pace.

“Alright. So Jachai went down in first round. Then ’Reth and Julian just double eliminated themselves, but winning goes to Julian for the neck strike and actual technique intention. He’s still pretty much dead now. That’s disappointing and we should do a rematch. But we all know it’s not gonna be today or tomorrow now… So… As last one standing, I win. Cool.”

The tannest of the Padawan quartet shook her head as a matter-of-fact defender of her trophy.

“‘Course you can get wounded and continue, but if it was real then Reth’s horns will be an inch and a half longer by the time she’s even done with this growth spurt—Zhi said he gives it like two months, Qareth—not to mention she wouldn’t have pulled the punch, so then your abdomen is all gore— Oh, kriff.”

“Great job noticing, Nomi.” Jachai threw an unimpressed salute at her after the Echani youth had successfully kept his half of Julian from collapsing. “Though she’s right. Qareth got me fair… great job again. Then Jules, you got Qar through the neck so she’s dead. If that’s it you can be tough enough to deal with the internal hemorrhage, but if the battle’s ongoing against fresher fighters you’re out dude. Nomi wins… Gee how surprising. Infirmary time.”

“No worries! It’s minor. Nobody’s passing out,” The Zabrak girl quickly told the first two troopers they passed in a voice full of chirping reassurance while Nomi brushed a few smudges of red off her hands. They all grinned agreement and quickly turned down a side hallway and into the first turbolift.

“Is it your mom today?” Nomi asked Jachai with a frown while she studied Julian’s paleness and dizziness some more. Not that it mattered. They needed infirmary for this one, so it was going to be whatever it was going to be.

The silver-eyed boy shook his head. “No she’s doing that plague thing with your brother. I thought it was yours?”

“No. She and Tess went to Naboo.”

Qareth cocked her head while the infirmary doors swished open. “Huh. Wonder who… ah.”

Nomi skinned abruptly around from where she’d been facing the other three. “Oh. Hi, Master Luka. We had tournament issues. Sorry.”

Nocturne No.2 in E-Flat Minor

The Jedi Knight sat down after making his rounds, the infirmary was like a ghost ship today and that suited him just fine. He needed a bit of a rest, being a healer and a Jedi Knight with a Padawan required more energy expenditure than he may have initially anticipated, but it was all fine. There was nothing he disliked about any of it, but like all living beings he needed some time to rest and recharge his proverbial batteries. He heard his electric kettle beep alerting him that the water was at the proper temperature for his wonderfully delectable floral tea. He walked over to the kettle and slowly poured the water over the infuser with the steady hand of a surgeon. Then as he set the kettle back down as if to blend all the flavors perfectly he added a dash of honey as the wonders of the flowers were slowly creeping their way into the water. Soon this would be the most relaxing of beverages ready to consume, but for the time being it was still settling and far too hot. Luka carefully lifted his mug and made his way over to the work station in the corner of the infirmary. This station was often occupied by whomever was on duty and this week that was pretty much him. He let the aromas of the tea fill his nostrils as he set it down gingerly on the desk and pressed a button to lower the desk so that he could occupy this space in the infirmary in a seated and well relaxed position.

The desk lowered and he slid his perfectly ergonomic office chare up to the station and retrieved a book that had been placed loving there with bookmark neatly marking the page he had left on. He smiled satisfied and opened the book, he gently put his treasured bookmark down on the desk and began reading. It was a philosophical tale from a distant world in the galaxy about a young girl who changed her entire culture with a clever trick. He roughly halfway through it and in truth found it absolutely enthralling.

He retrieved his mug as he continued reading and set the infuser down on the saucer, he'd take it back and rinse it off later. He was relaxed and enjoying his book. He cautiously took the slightest sip, far too hot to truly enjoy but the flavors danced around on his tongue and his face filled with glee. He hadn't had this tea before and adding the honey had been instinct based on what he knew about the flavor profile and he had been correct. Perfectly satisfied with himself and how this lovely day was going he set his mug back down and leaned back in his chair crossing his legs in front of him and settled in for a nice slow day at work.

His Sephi ears twitched, he heard voices approaching. He could barely make out what they were saying until they got closer.

“Is it your mom today?”

“No she’s doing that plague thing with your brother. I thought it was yours?”

...the infirmary doors swished open. “Huh. Wonder who… ah.”

He closed his eyes for moment as he heard the doors swish open, that was Jachai....and Nomi....that meant.....Qareth and Julian were sure to be with them. What low level injury had these four inflicted on themselves now? He shook his head and leaned further back in his chair lifting his book further up in front of his face pretending not to be there.

“Oh. Hi, Master Luka. We had tournament issues. Sorry.”

He felt his heart sink and eyed the still cooling mug of tea on his desk. He wasn't going to get to enjoy it was he? He gently retrieved his bookmark and closed the book setting it down next to his mug. He waved his hand and the music sadly turned off.

"Nomi, I must say that isn't shocking."

He finally dared to glance at the scene and realized that they were actually carrying a shirtless Julian who had a compression bandage that was soaking through with blood covering his abdomen. The Zeltron Padawan looked pale and immediately Luka moved with more of a sense of urgency.

"Set him on the table here and back away."

The half-Sephi healer wasn't obscenely concerned, but he was concerned, that was indeed a lot of blood coming out of a not yet fully grown young man. He let the other Padawans place him on table and moved in quickly. He placed one hand on Julian's abdomen and worked quickly to slow the bleeding, then with the other hand he slowly pealed away the bandage. He eyed the several tiny holes and quirked an eyebrow.

"How did you..."

He then glanced to Qareth's horn clad head and then back to Julian's abdomen again. He gave Julian a judgmental stare.

"Why did you do this?"

He analyzed the wound and tried to figure out where most the blood was coming from, he closed his eyes and moved his hand ever so gently until he saw it.

"Good job everyone, you managed to almost kill him. Qareth your horns nicked his right lung right under the base of the ribcage. It somehow hasn't collapsed yet. Good job with the compression bandage, but lets save the headbutting for Sith next time Qareth..."

Luka went to work with art of the small. Was he going to bother with pain blocks? He glanced over at his desk and the cooling tea. No. No he wasn't this was a Guardian and he had fixed him plenty of times before, if he's tough enough to get headbutted by a Zabrak then he's tough enough to get healed without pain blocks. Was it really a matter of toughness though or was it matter of denseness? No sense no feeling? He pondered this thought as he continued his work on Julian's lung.