Rite of Passage (Jared)

[Gav Mortis]

Breaking the undending canopy of jungle green, Gav straddled the back of one of the winged beasts with relative ease having learned to tame the wild beasts of Onderon back in Iziz City. The huge body jerked about to knock him off but to no avail. Up ahead, he could see clearly the entrance to the tomb and he smiled. Kicking the creature with his heels, he steered it back into the jungle where he had a better view of Jared down below.

"Look ahead, apprentice!" He called, pointing to the clearing in the thick jungle where the ancient tomb stood. Specks of gold light shimmered in the intense daylight, guiding the way. Gav took down one of the beasts on Jared's tail, now only one remained. It was taller than Jared and very muscular, unlike the other creatures, this one didn't have claws or sharp teeth and in fact resembled a giant gorilla more than anything else. Gav would leave this one for the time being.

"Meet me at the tomb and don't harm another beast!"

With that, Gav took to the skies once more and glided effortlessly forwards until he landed his winged ride in the clearing where the soil was replaced with sand. Relieved to no longer bear any extra weight, the creature took flight and escaped. "Apprentice, make haste!"

[Jared Mriad]

"Don't hurt this furball, are you frelling screwing with me?!"


Jared replied, breeching the clearing with a bounding leap-like motion. The tomb stood roughly twenty-four/six meters away, the beast was less-than two meters behind and closing. He had less than ten seconds to think.

There, he had something.

His hand swept back to the Warbrand's handle, as he slid into a crouch. Enpowering the force into his legs, Jared lept vertically and backflipped unto the beast's back, with only a second-or-two to act, Jared crashed the wide-blunt edge of the weapon to the side of the beast's neck. Force empowered and fury fueled, it was a HARD, HEAVY, blow. Judo-chop, if you will.

[Gav Mortis]

No sooner had the beast fallen lifeless into the sand beneath it than Jared was suddenly pulled up into the air by an invisible hand and a strong one at that. The invisible, iron fist wrapped itself around the adept's throat and squeezed, holding him some six feet from the ground. Gav stood at a distance with a look of irritation about him, for a moment he remained silent while choking the breath out of his apprentice and when he eventually did speak, his voice was quiet and controlled with undertones of anger occassionally shimmering through.

"My instructions were perfectly clear - do not harm the beast." He spoke slow so as to prolong his pupil's torture. His eyes narrowed as his grip tightened on Jared's neck. "And what did you do? Tell me, apprentice. Speak!"

[Jared Mriad]

Now this was the way to go: being hung.

Any normal, unknowing individual would try to resist, but when you knew what was there: there was no way. Jared could feel each breath leaving, nothing coming back in but a trickle.


"As... <smallfont color={hovercolor}>-Censored-</smallfont>er... surviva... of... fittest..." Jared choked, forcing in another breath - damn did his chest burn. "I... killed... it... wa... was weak. "

[Gav Mortis]

"It was weak, was it?" Gav repeated in the same calm, reflective and most importantly, slow voice. The grip tightened ever so slightly, pushing harder against trachea, shutting off the air almost completely now. He lifted Jared higher and a malicious smile crept across his face.

"But you're weak to me. By that reckoning, why shouldn't I kill you, apprentice?"

[Jared Mriad]

Now the starbursts came, painful ones.

"Be... because you would've," Jared gagged, "killed me... earlier... on the... duel... I... proven some worth!"

His ace card was the next draw, and Jared hoped he didn't have to use it. Probally seal his fate, it would, or not. Whichever the case, he had to get out... it... was... hard.... to ... breathe.

[Gav Mortis]

"So sure of yourself? At the first opportunity, you disobeyed your master, Jared." Gav said with dissappointment, he shook his head. "I don't like having my time wasted. As your master, I can show you things that you've never seen before and teach you things that few others can. But first, for this, what do you promise me in return?"

The final curtain was being drawn and the invisible hand closed around Jared's throat, cutting off his oxygen supply entirely. Gav had lost an apprentice like this before but he wasn't prepared to take any chances in and trust was a luxury he couldn't afford.

"Answer me."

[Jared Mriad]

"l.... l.... loyalty. O... obedience...."

[Gav Mortis]

"That's the idea." Gav said light-heartedly, Jared was released and was left to fall to the ground. Gav approached him and knealt down to speak to him while he was recovering, this time when he spoke it was quietly and fatherly. "It is important that you listen to me, Jared. For the relationship between master and apprentice to work there has to be trust, complete trust. Many of the other clowns out there who claim to be Sith are nothing more than angst-ridden Force users and I will be damned befor I see that fate befall someone like you. Yes, you have potential and yes, I can see you going far in the future. But you have to trust me and understand that everything that I say and do to you is with your best interests in mind."

Gav stood and headed off towards the temple, calling back to his apprentice as he did so, satisfied that he had given Jared his first important lesson. "Come on, let's go inside." He booted the carcas of the beast as he walked by and stopped to look at it. He laughed.

"You know, I have a confession to make. The only reason I wanted you to keep this beast alive is because I wanted to see you fight it weaponless when you arrived here. So you can feel releaved now."

[Jared Mriad]

Jared coughed, "Weaponless, yeah... would'er donnit if you told me first. Damn thing wasn't going to wait for you to call out attacks like some bastard of a slave."

He followed then, sheathing the warbrand back into it's scabbard. A quick massage/rub of his neck, and he was ready. Following Mortis, his hands falling down to the sabers clipped upon his belt quickly.

He didn't like temples, didn't like them at all.

[Gav Mortis]

"This place is an old buriel ground for the Onderon nobility. I don't think it's been used for over a hundred years; city folk got sick of having their funeral processions mauled by wild beasts. Damn fools to come out here in the first place if you ask me." He said with a hint of facetiousness to his words, there had to be considering both he and Jared were in the exact same place after having been attacked by half a dozen creatures no less. Perhaps he was a fool and would that make his apprentice a fool for following him here?

"It's not a temple per se but it does have features reminiscent of such a place, nevertheless it's purpose was solely for buriel and cremation. I quite like it down here, always thought it had good training potential away from the lifeless metropolis." He continued talking as they entered, the entrance hall was a odd hybrid of modern technology and archaic design. Duracrete was layered over large, cemented stone on the outside and the interior was mainly intricate brickwork with durasteel supports and doors. At least once inside, they would both be safe from the beasts.

"So what skill do you have in telekinesis?" He asked the suddenly stopped and turned, bringing Jared to a stop. They stood in the entrance to the first opening, the durasteel door slided away and in the centre of the room where three stones slabs. Each of different sizes. Gav smiled. "Now this is convenient, in fact you can show me what skill you have. See those three flat stones on the floor? They seal the graves of a small family; the mother died along with her eighteen year old son and her seven year old daughter in a battle which took place some hundred and twenty odd years ago. Staring with the daughters grave and working up to the sons large grave, can you lift any of the stones and if so can you lift more than one?"

[Jared Mriad]

Jared scanned the stones from where he stood, tilting his head this and that way before his reply came.

"I can lift one without a focus point, the one being the lesser childs. The Mother and son may need a focus point, moreso than the lesser child. As for lifting both the mothers and sons, I cannot do."

[Gav Mortis]

"Show me what you can do, apprentice." Came Gav's reply. "And I'll show you what you can't do."

[Jared Mriad]

"Fine."

Jared concentrated upon the first stone. He forced his mind to do things it was not accustomed to: two invisible hands reached our from where Jared's arms would be, wrapping about the first stone and lifting it up into the air. It lofted easily, and little strain could be seen on the Warriors face.

He lofted one arm and pointed it to the girl's lifted stone, his focus point, and lofted another to the mother's stone. It, too, lifted into the air slowy and less stable than the little girl's. Mental wear was shown upon his features now.

He lowered both stones, abit roughly, and caught his breath for a moment. After that moment, he extended his right arm torward the son's tomb.

Nothing moved.

He extended both arms out torward it.

It lifted, slowly, and unsteadily.

and dropped.

"Bloody hell..."

[Gav Mortis]

"That's not bad, apprentice. Not bad at all." Gav remarked with a nod, arms folded and standing somewhere behind Jared. He walked forward and lowered the stone gingerly onto it's grave after having caught it before it hit the ground. Gav head never been one to use hand gestures to aid his telekinetic feats. It didn't suit him.

"You have skill there and we'll build on that." Gav ventured further into the room and began pacing a circle around the three graves, scuffling his feet idly against the dusty floor. "The thing with telekinesis is this; size and weight don't matter. You have to take any conceptions of mass and throw them away because in your mind, mass isn't a factor. To the Force, size is irrelevent. If the Force is everywhere, spanning throughout the entire Universe, then of what significance are three little stones?"

He stopped in his tracks and looked at Jared with a slight grin. Then suddenly, the three stone slabs took flight and levitated above their heads. They began to move and circled above them in a graceful waltz. Gav approached his apprentice and standing before him, clasped his hands on his shoulders, looking him in the eye, He was still smiling.

"I said I would show you what you cannot do, well I lied because that is an impossibility. The truth is this, apprentice, you and the Force have a connection. Living things grants it power and it grants power to those who can wield it. It is an unbreakable relationship and as such, with the Force as our source of strength, there is nothing we cannot do."

The stones settled once again in their rightful places and Gav stepped to one side, gesturing rather casually at the graves.

"Again but this time remember what I told you, forget about size and mass; stretch out and sense the Force in this room, and in this temple, and in the jungle and it's beasts, in the oceans and the mountains. Feel the Force on this planet and in this system, feel the Force flowing through the galaxy and all it's living inhabitants. Feel the Force in you and me and in those stones there and lift them."

[Jared Mriad]

Jared scaned the tomb convers again, thinking and manipulating Mortis' words in his mind. He concentrated on those words, demolished what he knew of mass, law, and physics: He forgot.

He streached out his arms, palms fanned to the tombs. Everything cleared from his mind in an instant.. then filled with a brillant claustrophobia: he was swiming in it... swiming in the Force. It was everywhere, everything, and nothing at all: it was intoxicating, but soothing, wet but dry, loud... but soft.

Jared could feel himself falling, but he stood erect.

He tranced.

Outside his mind, his body seemed to sag and relax, his eyes rolled and his breathing calmed. With about half-an-hour into the trance, movement was visible from the tombs as Jared began to focus on them.. lift them.

[Gav Mortis]

Rather than interfere with words of encouragement or guidance, Gav simply stood aside and watched his apprentice go to work and in time found himself sitting down in a clammy stone niche in the wall. He wasn't an impatient man and instead relished in watching Jared perhaps for the first time, see things in a totally different light. The stones, all three of them, had been lifted and now floated above their graves in which rested three metal caskets. It was tempting to say something or throw a spanner into the works to suprise Jared to see how well he coped but instead he kept his distance and watched to see where his apprentice went with his new thinking.


OOC: Sorry this took so long. December has been a ridiculously busy month.

[Jared Mriad]

Heavy beads of sweat began to roll down Jared's forehead, even though the task was not physical; it was exhausting nevertheless. The heaviest of the trio dropped slightly about now, which with responce Jared flipped his right hand to palm-up and lifted it back even , with strain, with the other two.

Gawd damn, how long was he suppose to keep this up!?

[Gav Mortis]

Moving in close, Gav stood behind Jared and whispered.

"Now see if you can move them about the room, independent of each other."

[Jared Mriad]

Mortis would watch as the two larger of the three stones aligned one above another, with abeit of sluggy motion and dips. The smaller stone began to rotated clockwise around Jared and the two stacks took an obvious dip.