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Chapter Seven: Master Winsten's Test |
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Our next meeting with the council wasn't for another four days. During that time, my master told me he was going to condition me. At the time I didn't know what that meant, so as any new initiate, I had to learn it the hard way.
The first day I was awoken at five am. Still groggy, I barely understood what my master was talking about. We were at the garden at this time, and the sun had not come up yet. "Manta, are you getting any of this?" He asked me looking concerned. "No, I do not. It still too early." I said back. "You will need to learn how to be lively at any hour, young one, especially if there is a sneak attack." I on the other hand just looked at him with no emotion.
My first task that day was to levitate a rock in the garden with the Force. He made me stand a good fifty feet away from it. I concentrated real hard and tried to make the brown, obscure shaped, rock float as high as I could. My master chuckled to this fact. He said at my age, I should have already been able to throw it up in the air and catch it before it made contact with the ground. I on the other hand, rebutted that I wasn't trained in the Force since I was a baby.
The next thing I had to do was to guess what was behind boxes my master set up with items inside. I was to concentrate again and try to make out the image within my mind. A sort of mind reading I thought that time. Most of the boxes I got right except for the one with the perfume inside it. The gas was hard to follow since the trail it made was really thin.
We did this and more before the next meeting. On the third day, my master told me that he was going to test me on all the things I had learned in the other two days. He had set up the arena the night before and when morning broke (he let me sleep in for a few more hours than usual), I was woken up by Master Artemis. That day, actually, was like the days I had the week before, where she and I had breakfast in the morning and then went out to the city afterwards. It wasn't until noon that she had a call from my master.
His test would be over to where he lived. That apartment complex was three blocks away from where Master Artemis lived and so forth. I was dropped over to his apartment. I asked Master Artemis if she was going to watch. She said no and left me in front.
I had a situation in hand. One, I did not know what or where my master lived in this complex, and two, how exactly to get up there, if he were to live on the upper floors. I took a deep breath and entered through the front door. Inside was very dark. It looked as if no one had been living in there. There were no people at the front desk, nor were there other people in that matter. I called out for my master, but there was no answer.
I walked up to the directory and tried to find my master's name on it. Luckily it said it. He was on the 209th level, number 22290. Of course I thought taking the elevator would be the best way, but unfortunately it did not work. Instead, I went to the stair case. I walked up a good 180 stairs before I was stopped by a road block. Many boulders were in the way. Calm, I used my training to move them, er, more acurately, try to move them. The rocks I was used to did not weigh as much as these things. I tried for over a good hour, but nontheless, I failed. I tried concentrating harder, but that only made my brain hurt. Stuck at that level, I couldn't do anything except try to remember my masters words. Letting the force flow into you, letting it do all the heavy movements, taking it by control instead of yourself, that was what I remembered.
I stood up and faced the passage. I breathed in deeply to try and focus myself on what I was about to do. At that moment I felt like time slowed down. I was feeling a surge in the force, more than I ever felt before. I extended my hand and lifted the first boulder. I did not feel the weight of it anymore. Instead, I felt it's life presence. Slowly I placed it behind me and soon, I did the same to all the boulders. At once, my passage was free.
I walked up to the 200th level with no other blocks. Once I reached the 209th, I found myself in another little surprise. There was no door. It was a dead end. Feeling really stupid, I sat down trying to think back once again. The other training besides the rock throwing, was the one where I had to guess what was behind the boxes. Though there wasn't a box here, I felt like something was behind the wall. Slowly I let my hand feel where the knob was. I raised it high up and moved it slowly down to where my feet were. Nothing. There was nothing behind the wall. I was trapped afterall.
Just then, I felt something behind the wall. I thought "finally" and tried to get a better feel of it. There, I found something at the ver most left side of the wall. My hand suddenly went through it. Amazed, I figured out what this was. It was a mind trick. My master had taught me about those, so I remembered that lesson and concentrated hard to making the wall disappear. At the moment I figured it out, it was gone. The door had been there all this time.
I opened through it and there he was. My master had been facing the window, looking at the outside. "Your late." He said without turning to me.
I was confused. He said that I was late, yet he never said anything about a time limit. "What do you mean?" I asked politely. "I mean you are late." He said turning around. "We've trained well over three days, Manta. I've only gone through three lessons with you, and you couldn't come up here in less than an hour?" Now I was really more conufused. Had I really spent well over an hour in that place?
My Master sighed and breathed in deeply. "I'm am glad though, you were able to make it through." That sort of have made me feel a little bit better, however, I still could not come over the fact he actually got mad at me, be it the first of many. "What now?" I asked. He turned back around and faced the window. He was staring out to the Jedi Temple, accurately to where the Council Chambers were. "One more test. Though that excercise should make it easier for you to pass." He walked over to his arm chair. "Sit in front of me," he said. I did so and waited patiently. My Master closed his eyes and said to me, "Just relax, I'm am going to try and feel what you are feeling right now." He said.
I did as he said, but a part of me wanted to rebel. That part did not like me being here, trying to be a Jedi, instead, she wanted me to come back home and return being a farmer girl. Of course I didn't listen to that side one bit. "Alright," my Master said abruptly, you can control your emotions just fine and you don't seem to be clouded. I saw your future, though." I was a kinda anxious to know what he knew, but I didn't ask.
That whole night we went through a series of more "conditioning" for me to pass the Council's test. I slept quite early, however. The next morning he was already up and had made breakfast. Master Artemis came by a little later and ate with us. I could not but feel anxious and even more, excited to go back to the Council Chambers. As the morning rolled on, my Master and I left his apartment with Master Artemis. She accompanied us to the Temple, but once inside said goodbye and went to do her duties.
Up in the Chamber lobby, the sensation of fear and excitement danced around my head as we waited to be called in. So many things worried me that time. However, my Master patted my head and calmed me down. "You'll do fine," he said with his warmly. That made me really glad to have him sitting next to me at that time.
The secretary got the call and told us to come in. However, as we both stood up, only I entered through. "You must do this on your own, Manta. Prove them that you can be a Jedi." I wanted to say something to him, but before I could, the doors closed and Master Skywalker was waiting, along with the other Council members. "Please step forward to the middle," he said with a smile. I did so and my test commenced. I have to say it was the hardest thing I ever did, even to this day.
Grim_Hashi88 · Mon Oct 09, 2006 @ 09:34pm · 0 Comments |
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