Alderaan Forest

[Jerex Talan]

This is the large forest that is situated between the Castle Mounds and the Capital City of Aldera.


Image © Star Wars: The Old Republic "Hope" trailer

[Jerex Talan]

*They had arrived after flying over the treetops of the forest for quite a while. Jerex had been surveying the landscape as they traversed it. Suddenly, he spotted a ravine that he liked. It was one of many, but it gave excellent cover, overlooked the easiest ground route through the forest, and could conceal an entire encampment. It was the home base that he'd need to fall back to as a command center should the worst happen. It also had a clearing large enough for a landing site for deployment or pickup from dropships. An excellent way in and out for his troops and a great defensive funnel for enemy troops. Yes. This was his high ground. It would all start here. Now, to get his camp into order*

"Land over there. Let everyone know that the top of that ravine is the site for our camp. The quicker we get dug in, the quicker they can relax for the evening and get some rest."

*This was going to be some journey for him. Jerex had never really commanded others in a certifiable war. This would be his first, but he had learned many tactics and strategies to destroy larger and stronger opponents. He'd use them all against the sith, but the first one was to get inside information from the enemy itself. As soon as he'd gotten the camp laid out, he'd have to develop his hierarchy and set off to find the city's other refugees. He'd have to get in contact with the remnants of the Alderaan Military, and find out what formal tactics they would use. He'd augment their strategies to get better results on his missions. But first things first. He begins delegating his camp layout the men. Two of which empress Jerex by their eagerness to organize their fellow fighters. One was a few years older than Jerex with a less defined physical build than himself. The other was a kid probably just out of his education looking for trouble, but he had the physique to deal with whatever he found. Jerex tried to decide which he believed would make a better lieutenant between them. He'd figure it out before he left. Right now, he had to deal with that idiot volunteer was putting up his bunk in the open where he'd get spotted by any half decent scout*

[Jerex Talan]

*After knocking some sense into some of his men, Jerex decides to give the older, less fit recruit the benefit of the doubt, and put him in charge while he's gone. Jerex however, gets the other candidate to accompany him to the Castle Lands. He wanted to get to know the man better*

"You, yes you. Is your bunk prepared?"
"Yes"
"Then go grab three meal rations and your pack and meet me at the speeder. We're going on a trip."

*Jerex grabs his own gear and hops into the speeder's driver seat waiting for his new bodyguard. When he arrives and gets in, Jerex lifts off and heads for the Castle Lands*

[Jerex Talan]

*Jerex and Bravin return to the camp on the second day of being away. He is greeted by his lieutenant who gives him the wonderful news*

"Sir, the Sithies are planning a grand demonstration tomorrow. They plan to have a public pyre of all the Republic dead. I don't know what the point is, but I think we need a response."

"This isn't good. They're fighting dirty. Our people won't like this one bit. I'm hereby placing Bravin as my executive officer. First thing this evening, I want anyone with demolitions expertise to fashion a couple of grenade launchers. I then want a sniper rifle found and someone to shoot it. I'll be accompanying them. Here's my strategy."

*Jerex goes on to plan the attack through the evening with Bravin and his lieutenant*

[Deanna Domino]

Deanna and Risineth head to the outskirts of the city, into a meadow hidden within the forest.

"Wow, this place is really nice. I guess there's a reason Alderaanians are so big on their poetry."

She does a few stretches and gives a big yawn. "All right. Begin by closing your eyes, clearing your mind and focusing on the present moment. The ever-elusive now."

[Risanith Fenn]

Risanith closes his eyes and starts to focus. Or....at least attempts to focus. Which fails miserably.

After a few seconds, he yawns, and starts to slightly nod off.

Suddenly jolting up his eyes open and he looks around, and realizes its only been a few seconds, and that he hadn't actually fallen asleep.

Smiling sheepishly at Deanna, he says "okay, this one will try better this time"

Closing his eyes he attempts to focus, trying to stare past where Deanna's right arm is, even though his eyes were closed.

As a shiver passes through he realizes something, a rather powerful truth about Alderaan, that he should of taken account of when he got here originally.

It is cold here.

He hadn't brought any form of warm clothing, but instead had brought the very basic clothing that one wears in a temperature controlled environment.

It brought him to the thought of his time on his homeworld, during the year he spent out in the woods, and how much the warmth of fires meant to him there.

Mmm....Fires.

The next thing he knew, he heard, or at least he thought he heard the sound of the crackling of fire, and as he opened his eyes, Deanna's right arm was on fire.

[Deanna Domino]

Of all the things Deanna expected to come out of this lesson, being set on fire was not one of them.

"OW OW OW WHAT THE KARK OW OW OW"

She flails around and tries to remember some sort of fire safety that she may or may not have learned at one point. She throws her jacket off, and starts sending wind at it. This only seems to make it worse. She starts throwing snow on it, and that seems to do the trick, but she still feels like she was very close to setting the entire forest on fire. But it was too wet to start a fire, right? Right?

She touches her burnt arm and the burn begins to mend and fade away.

"Okay this is not what is supposed to happen this is not Force Speed what did you even do" she starts babbling.

[Risanith Fenn]

Risanith starts to feel utterly horrible at what has happened.

"This one is sorry!" he starts to babble as he rushes over to Deanna, "This one does not know what happened! This one does not know how the molecules of that space spontaneously started to speed up!"

As he gets to her he realizes that he doesn't know what to do with humans, and first aid "what can this one do to help?" he asked, trying to keep the hystericalness out of his voice.

[Deanna Domino]

She spends a few moments to completely heal up the burns on her arm.

"Well I know the Force can do anything, but I didn't know it could do that. Well, uhhh. You know, that actually is kind of neat, if you could get it to like, not burn me? Can you try doing that again? This time not on me?"

[Risanith Fenn]

After he stopped freaking out and realized that Deanna was no longer on the fire, Risanith thought for a moment.

"This one....could try....but....shouldn't these ones not be in an area filled with flammable objects?" asked Risanith, "This one means, this one could try, but this one doesn't wish to harm the Alderaanani woods."

As he says this, a few cute small birds flutter by, as if to accent his idea of a rather innocent nature.

Risanith thought for a few minutes and then said, "This one could try on the snow....."

Closing his eyes for a few minutes, Risanith attempts to concentrate on what he did last.

Minutes pass.

Nothing happens.

Literally nothing, well except for maybe Risanith becoming more then a little frustrated.

After a half dozen minutes, a rather cold gust of wind goes by, making him shiver, and oddly enough think the same thoughts he was thinking before, of a roaring fire in front of him, keeping him nice and warm in the midst of a frozen tundra.

A loud crackingly sound occurs and as Risanith opens his eyes, he noticed the rather large fire that was covering his body but not burning him or his clothing in the slightest!

[Deanna Domino]

Deanna panics even more when she sees that Ri is LITERALLY ON FIRE. This was a terrible idea! She knew this was a terrible idea! It wasn't like she suggested to him five seconds earlier to try this!

"OH SWEET STARS" she exclaims.

But on her second look, he doesn't seem to be exhibiting any of the symptoms of burning to death, like flesh peeling off or smelling like ashes or any of that.

"Okay man what. This is probably a bad idea."

[Risanith Fenn]

Risanith still couldn't believe it....he was on fire.

Sorta.

The Fire didn't really touch him, nor did it really have any heat, or at least not really any of it.

Which was odd given the amount of fire going on around him.

After examining it himself being on fire for a few minutes, he noticed that Deanna was babbling something at him. He probably looked like he was burning to death.

A few minutes later, a rather concerning thing came to mind.

"This one....doesn't know how to put out the fire........"

[Deanna Domino]

"We should do this when we have a fire extinguisher or something. But uhhhhh . . ."

She lifts up some snow with the Force and starts hurling it at Ri. This would be fun, if he wasn't on fire.

[Risanith Fenn]

As Deanna hurled chunks of frozen water at Risanith, it rapidly put out the fire.

Now Risanith was just really REALLY cold.

"Uh this one is no longer on fi-" being cut out mid sentence as a hunk of snow hit him in a rather hilarious manner.

[Deanna Domino]

Deanna laughs and throws more snowballs at his face, even though he's no longer on fire.

After satisfying her urge to throw snowballs at him, she gets down to business.

"Okay okay I think that's enough. Serious business time. Setting things on fire may come in handy later, but for now, Force Speed is what'll save your life. Let's try this a different way. Close your eyes and focus on the wind and how it moves."

Fortunately there was a brisk breeze, which would help give visuals to her demonstration.

"Now, you focus on the currents they leave in the Force and move yourself with them. It's more like floating down a stream than running."

She took in a deep breath and accelerated from standing to the other side of the meadow with an audible WHOOSH.

"Come on! Get over here!"

[Risanith Fenn]

Risanith stared at the spectacle that was occurring in front of him.

Well after he uncovered himself from the snow.

"Floating down a stream? This one doesn't understa-" then he realized that Deanna most likely couldn't hear him from so far away

"FLOATING DOWN A STREAM? THIS ONE DOESN"T UNDERSTAND THE CONCEPT OF FLOATING STREAMS AND RUNNING". He bellowed in a weird lithing accent.

Closing his eyes, he tried to follow, but ended up awkwardly trying to move, and falling down into the snow covered meadow.

[Deanna Domino]

Deanna shook her head. She assumed that where ever he was from, it had bodies of water. Could be a desert planet, maybe?

She used the Force to run straight back to where he was to help him back up.

"I guess I assumed too much. But that's why I brought up the wind. Liquid and gas both move the same way, and when you're flowing through the Force, you move the same way."

She picked up a dried up leaf and threw it in the air. She conjured up a bit of a breeze with the Force to demonstrate.

"See the way the leaf moves without resistance? How it just picks up on the currents and moves with them? Once you feel the currents, you can move through them like this leaf does. Only much faster. Trust in the flow of the Force. You'll come to no harm."

[Risanith Fenn]

"The only stream stuff this one knows about, is something this one's brother told him about," clearing his throat, he then said what his older brother had told him, trying to emulate his deep gravelly voice;

"Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend."

"Anyway, this one is trying to understand how you compare wind and streams to each other...unless you are getting at how they weave and have quirks to the flow. A stream is a one way flow, and the wind is weaving and goes into all four directions."

Giving Deanna a not so trusting glance, he quickly said "this one doesn't know how the Force will keep this one safe."

[Deanna Domino]

"Your brother was wise. I couldn't put any of it better myself. Water, air and the Force all flow in the same way. Air can be stagnant, can be a rushing tornado, can be a gentle breeze. Does air ever worry about running into something? No, it flows around obstacles. The Force is the same way. When I first did this, I was afraid of running into things but when you get into the flow, you don't have to worry. Fear is the wall."

She breathes in and out for a moment. "Now, focus on the current of the Force, not the walls."

[Risanith Fenn]

He focused.

At first all he focused on the air around him. It was moving, flowing, with the breeze.

A leaf twisted and was thrown into all the direction as it floated down from a tree.

Breathing in deeply, he focused on getting from point A to point B. as fast as he could.

After he a few minutes he felt nothing, and started to assume that this wasn't the correct way.

Release your fear, he thought to himself. Release it, else you will run head long into it.

Inwardly he grimaced at that prospect.

He opened his eyes, trying to look for some kind of inspiration to hit him.

Finally focusing on the still floating leaf, kept in the air by the breeze, or another 'force' he thought, trying his hardest not to look suspiciously at Deanna.

I just can't see the currents, they aren't visible to me....although...

Closing his eyes, he drew on the power, or as Deanna called it, 'the force' and opened his eyes. With the power he could see the flow and ebb of the Force around him. there we go! he thought to himself.

Opening himself up to it, letting the power flow through him.

He ran.

He knew he knew he was going faster than it should be possible.

Closing his eyes, he turned lessened his connection to the power so he no longer saw the ebb and flow of the power, but he was still going on at full speed.

Success!

When he opened his eyes, it was just in time to see a dark shape moving at him...or maybe he was moving at it?

Regardless, he ran, with Force Speed into a tree.

[Deanna Domino]

Well at least he didn't catch on fire this time.

She Force Speeds over to pick him back up after he runs into the tree.

"Yeah, I said that I was afraid of doing that all the time when I started? That's why I did, several times. The room they had us practice in the Enclave had padded poles. I probably should've gone for those, but you work with what you can. You okay?"

[Risanith Fenn]

All Risanith could see were stars...although they kept their orientation no matter how much he turned his head, of even now that he was looking downwards, after staggering to his feet.

"This one....sees stars....very pretty stars......why are the stars on the ground this one wonders."

[Deanna Domino]

She hoped he didn't have a concussion. She had no idea what the symptoms of a concussion were in his species. She hoped he didn't have brain damage!

"Can you breath? Do you hear ringing? Can you remember anything? Talk to me! Oh man I'm such a terrible teacher I'm sorry!"

[Risanith Fenn]

"This one can breathe and hear that one quite well....just this one is seeing stars, and they are fading away, far away."

As Risanith stood, and stopped swaying he eventually got a hold of himself to the point that the head injury was just hurting and not altering his perception.

"This one is fine now"

[Deanna Domino]

She crunched up a bunch of snow and tried to put it on his head as an ice pack. She was too short to reach his head, so she telekenetically lifted it to his head.

"This should help. Contract the blood vessels, help the pain. I guess it isn't a proper ice pack, and it'll melt. But it'll help for now."

After standing by him for a while, she spoke again. "So you need more time, or do you want to try again?"