A/N: Hi to everyone who followed us, and to any new faces! Over the past months, we've been editing stories that originated as online role-playing, situated in the Star Wars universe - well, mainly the universe of Episode One, pretending the Great Jedi Purge never happens. ;) We are now getting to the characters we started with, Eeth Koth and his second padawan, Raven Trebeck – in our Alternate Universe which we started long before the Clone Wars series. The story of how they meet was the very first thread we co-authored way back in 2005! Man, time flies, right? So, re-reading and editing this is going to be fun for us! There are approximately twenty-five stories pre-written in this series, so we have a lot of work to do.

Now for some housekeeping. We realise that our master characters, especially Eeth, will at times come across as harsh to some. However, please keep in mind that this is a fictional universe in which teenagers with extraordinary, potentially lethal abilities are raised to do an incredibly hard, dangerous and responsible job. Their masters feel an obligation to keep them in line in order to protect them and others by various types of discipline, including corporal punishment, i.e., spanking with the hand and different implements. And sometimes, they will need to dispense with the cuddling and tell their charges to do their duty. These are teenagers, after all, not small children. There will always be times to offer comfort and moments of closeness between master and padawan, but they might sometimes have to wait. Plus, masters might have their own issues… which is certainly true for Eeth, as will become clear over time. His journey with Raven will be a learning experience for him as much as for his padawan. Fortunately for our padawans, our master characters have near-magical healing abilities at their disposal, allowing us to indulge our preference for strict discipline. ;)

We realise that this might not be everybody's cup of tea. We assure you, though, that there's always character development and growth involved in our story arcs. If you like our stories (or if you don't like them), write us a review; we love to hear what you guys think. Okay, so here we go. Enjoy.

"Oh, and you know what? Next week, Master Deleon is taking me to the Senate," twelve-year-old Orion Minarioth told his oldest friend, Raven Trebeck. He was not quite able to hide the excitement in his voice, mature as he was trying to come across. After all, he had been made a padawan two weeks ago. He was not a mere initiate any longer! And while he did not exactly want to treat Raven in a superior manner, he still felt rather grown-up when compared to her – not so much because of the difference in age, which was a little less than a year, but because of their difference in status. He was a padawan now while she was still an initiate. Among other things, that meant he could visit her in the creche in his free time, but she could not visit him in his new quarters because those were in the main Temple, which was off-limits to initiates unless accompanied by a Jedi knight or master.

Without giving Raven a chance to respond, he continued to chatter: "You should see the aerials gym! The creche gyms are nothing when compared to it. Of course, Master Deleon won't allow me on any but the smallest trampolines but even those are fantastic. I really hope you're chosen as a padawan soon so we can go together."

Although she tried hard not to be jealous – jealousy had no place in the life of a Jedi, after all – Raven could not help but envy her friend over having been chosen as a padawan. He was better at classwork than she was, and although that wasn't what dictated whether an initiate was chosen by a master, sometimes Raven wondered whether, if she were just a bit smarter, that bit more diligent in her studies, perhaps the Force would find her a master. She looked over at Orion. His dark brown eyes were bright with excitement over the things he'd told her, and it was contagious. Any feelings of jealousy that she might have held dissipated as he spoke, morphing into another emotion: joy for the fortune of her best friend and the fact that they could still see each other!

"Hmm, you can keep the Senate," she told him jovially. Force knew that having to sit through diplomacy classes as an initiate was bad enough. "But the aerials gym, now that sounds cool!" Raven scooted forward on her seat, pulling her feet up beneath her to sit taller. She often did this as she was quite small and lithe for an eleven-year-old human. "I'd give anything to see that!" And Raven meant it, too, because unlike her lacklustre academic career, athletics and lightsaber work was where she truly shined.

"Yeah, well, unfortunately, I can't take you," Orion said with a sigh. "I asked my master, actually. He didn't want to take you either." Deleon had also told him the reason for his refusal: it was unwise to expose initiates to the lives of padawans and Jedi knights too much, he said, given that there was no way of knowing whether they would be chosen for such a career. For all they knew, Raven might not be, and in that case, it would not do to increase her longing for it. Orion secretly thought that stupid. Raven was an ace with a lightsaber and was gifted at using the Force to communicate with animals. There was no way she was not going to be chosen! He did not tell her any of this, though. That might just discourage her.

His eyes lit up again as he thought of the gym and how thrilled Raven would be with it. "You should see the obstacle courses, too!" he told Raven. "I've only managed the easiest one, and so far, my master hasn't allowed me to try it with an ignited saber. But I bet you'd do much better than me." Orion was quite diligent in his workouts and was decent with a lightsaber but he was not a natural like Raven.

Raven's face fell a little at hearing that he wasn't allowed to take her. Then again, sticking to the rules had never been one of her strong suits. Raven often found ways to bend the rules to suit. It had always been hard for her to accept the authority of others given that she was such an independent, self-reliant personality. She grinned as an idea struck her. "Hey, what if nobody knew I was an initiate?" she suggested, her mind concocting the plan as she spoke. "You could loan me one of your uniforms and nobody would be any the wiser?" Raven knew that it was a big ask, and she did not want to get Orion into trouble with his new master, but the possibility of being caught out was virtually zero!

Orion frowned and hesitated. He knew what a trouble-magnet Raven could be. He himself was not but he had gotten into trouble more than once because of her great ideas! He had to admit, though, that they had had a huge amount of unlicensed fun on account of her great ideas, too. And it wasn't as if they had always been caught. The thought of showing Raven around the main Temple was rather appealing. He had made no close friends among the junior padawans so far, and in any case, none of them seemed as much fun to be with as Raven.

"I dunno," he said, undecided. "I'm not sure Master Deleon would be thrilled if he found out. And it goes without saying that you'd be in serious trouble. I guess I'd be expected to keep you out of it, rather than help you find it, being a padawan and all."

"I guess you're right there, but we're Jedi, not soldiers; we have to know when it's okay to bend the rules. This can't do any harm. Nobody will be hurt, soooo," Raven bargained, a huge, toothy grin on her face. "C'mon, Orion, there is no way we can get caught. Master Deleon gives you free time, and I'll just ask Lowfac for permission to take a walk in the creche gardens with you which will keep him off my back for a few hours at the least."

"But I'm two sizes bigger than you are," Orion argued. However, it was clear from his tone of voice that he knew it was a battle he was destined to lose. And he didn't really want to win it, anyway. He knew how thrilled Raven would be to see the main gym, even if she didn't get to try any of the equipment. Watching the Jedi masters spar was really something else!

He sighed. "Alright," he said. "I might not be free tomorrow since I've got a presentation to prepare for my physics class. But the day after is Saturday and I've got those free. At least as long as I don't get into trouble, or so Master Deleon said." He grinned at Raven. "Are you free after breakfast?" he asked. "We could meet here at ten. I'll bring you a spare uniform and you bring something to shorten the hems. The width won't be such a problem; you'll be wearing a belt, after all."

If Raven's smile got any broader it would threaten to split her face. She jumped from her chair and hugged him. "Thankyouthankyouthankyou," she said, doing an admirable job at curtailing her exuberance when all she wanted to do was cover him in kisses! "Duct tape, is there no end to its uses?" Raven had shown about as much interest in sewing lessons as she had in diplomacy, namely, none whatsoever. Thus, while she could probably manage a crude job at a hem, the tape would be far easier and quicker.

Master Lowfac noticed Raven's delight over… something and he came to investigate; it had always paid to err on the side of caution when those two got together. He greeted Orion, complimenting his former student on his newly acquired status. When he was satisfied that no obvious mischief was afoot, at least not for the moment, he moved on to another group of students.

Raven turned to Orion once the man was out of earshot and whispered: "Piece of cake. Wait and see."

"I hope you're right," Orion whispered back. Out loud, he said: "Alright, I'll see you on Saturday, then. We'll take a stroll in the garden or something. For now, I need to get back to my master." It felt good to say that, he had to admit. He grinned at her, got up, waved her goodbye and left.

"No, we're NOT going to get on the trampolines," Orion hissed, pulling at Raven's too-wide uniform sleeve to drag her along. "First, you need to book them in advance. If we go in there now, the people who booked the room are bound to show up a few minutes later and ask questions. Second, I'm not allowed there without my master, and neither would you be even if you WERE a padawan. So if anybody sees us on one of the trampolines, again, they're bound to ask questions. I said I'd show you around but I'm really not keen on getting into trouble!"

He glanced at the wall chronometer, a little worried. As predicted, Raven was more than thrilled to see the main gyms but Orion hadn't expected that she would want to see absolutely everything and take so long about it! Clearly, she wanted to make the most of the experience and he could understand that but they needed to get back to the creche soon or Master Lowfac would go hunting for her.

"Let's make our way back," he said. "We can pass by the main gym where the knights and masters spar. It's quite a sight." Orion was not all that enthusiastic about lightsaber combat himself but he knew that Raven was, and besides, it really WAS quite a sight.

It was a Saturday morning, and that meant there were no Senate sessions and no regular Council meetings either. Many padawans had mission preparation classes on Saturday mornings, as would Orion, apparently, when the next cycle of classes started. Thus, the number of Jedi knights and masters who were free to schedule sparring sessions with their peers was higher now than at any other time of the week. Consequently, the private practice rooms as well as the main gym were packed with Jedi of all ranks and species, running through kata or sparring in teams of two, three or four. A gallery ran around the main gym that permitted spectators to watch the fights. Orion and Raven were by far not the only ones who made use of that opportunity.

Understandably, Raven was reluctant to return to the creche. Everything Orion had shown her, she had wanted to test out, but of course, she could not. It was both exciting and frustrating for the initiate: exciting because it was all fantastically new, not to mention right up Raven's alley! And frustrating because despite this, she couldn't try any of it out lest she land them both in hot water. No amount of personal satisfaction was worth getting Orion in trouble with his new master, and then there were her own consequences to consider, should her creche master find out. Thus, Raven followed Orion to the outside of the gym. There, they were able to walk around the gallery that overlooked the main gym area and observe.

They had barely been there two minutes when Raven spotted – no, not spotted, but sensed something. It wasn't an entirely unusual feeling as Jedi often sensed things through the Force, but this somehow felt different from anything she had sensed before. The idea of not following that feeling was preposterous. "Let's go over there," she told Orion, grabbing his sleeve in case he decided to do something silly like not follow.

Orion rolled his eyes but indulged her. "But only for five more minutes," he said. He didn't get the impression that Raven was listening, though.

Raven had been drawn to a fight happening on the opposite side of the gym between a Zabrak and an Iktotchi which had drawn quite a crowd of people. Raven was mesmerised, not just by the sight, but also by the feeling that was guiding her to observe.

When they reached the other side, Raven pushed her way to the front to get a better view. What she saw had her wide-eyed. The Iktotchi was good, there was no doubt about that, but the Zabrak man was something else. He was powerful, but also incredibly fast and agile! She watched in awe as the two used every conceivable ledge, wall, rope or obstacle within their area to give them an advantage in their fight. At one point it even ranged over the heads of a few other groups. This was by far the most exhilarating sparring match Raven had ever seen. Well, this explained her odd feeling, she thought; lightsaber matches of this calibre were not commonly seen in the creche, so no wonder she had been drawn to it! Then again, this was the first time she'd felt so strongly about viewing a fight. Raven couldn't take her eyes off the Zabrak. He was true poetry in motion and everything she aspired to become. His fighting style was fast-paced and packed with attack sequences that would have flattened his opponent, had the Iktotchi's defences not been so good. However, none of it felt aggressive. Despite the impossible speed and precision of the Zabrak's attacks, he projected calmness.

"These two are members of the Jedi High Council," Orion told her quietly. "Master Deleon and I were called in front of them when I was made his padawan. The Iktotchi is called, uh… oh yes, Saesee Tiin. And everybody knows the Zabrak. He's Eeth Koth. You had better not get on his wrong side because he's rumoured to be super strict. He sure is intimidating, I can tell you that. When I stepped before the Council and saw him glare at me, it made me feel as if I had jam stains on my tunic or something. 'Course I hadn't!"

"Eeth Koth," Raven spoke more to herself than to Orion. She had, of course, heard of him; most everyone had as his no-nonsense approach to teaching had created a few rumours during her years in the creche! This was the first time she had ever seen him in person, though. "He's pretty good. Whoa! Did you see that?!" Raven exclaimed, grabbing a fist full of Orion's sleeve and shaking it. Eeth had just rebounded off a wall and now clung to a ceiling rung by one hand while simultaneously deflecting an attack from below.

Orion snorted. "Pretty good?" he scoffed. "He's the best there is, with the possible exception of Master Yoda. Well, nobody has ever seen Master Yoda spar in public so we wouldn't know but his Force control is obviously superior to everybody else's, given how long he's been around. Master Deleon said only a handful of Jedi masters, like Mace Windu, can occasionally beat Eeth Koth. He's not seen fighting often but when he is, it's usually with Saesee Tiin. Tiin specialises in Soresu, though. It's a purely defensive form which means that he can hold his own almost indefinitely, but will be hard-pressed to score a hit."

Raven nodded, taking it all in. She didn't know a lot about Soresu or those who excelled in it. Her chosen form was Ataru, and it would appear that it was the form that Eeth Koth had chosen to master also. Raven was unwilling to take her eyes off the fight. Thus, she had no idea how much time had passed. Thankfully for them both, Orion did…

The boy glanced at his chronometer and flinched. "Force, we gotta go!" he exclaimed. He made to grab Raven by the sleeve but at that moment, his comlink buzzed. He pulled it out, checked it and grimaced. "Sith," he said. "I told Master Deleon I'd probably be back around one. He just wrote me to meet him at the entrance of the main dining hall in fifteen minutes." He thought quickly. "There's no way I can make it there in time if we go to the creche first and have you change out of my uniform," he finally said. "Besides, I'd have to drop the uniform off in our quarters before I meet my master because I have no idea how I'd explain it to him. I'll try to meet you tomorrow and you can give it back to me then, alright? C'mon, we can go to the Room of a Thousand Fountains together. We'll have to split up then."

He was already ushering her toward the exit of the gym as he talked.

"Hey, don't stress, we got this. You'll make it if we don't dawdle," Raven encouraged him as they practically ran from the gym and headed towards the Room of a Thousand Fountains. The further they got from the fight, the less Raven felt the urge to watch it. That said, she now had a strange hollow feeling in the pit of her stomach. It wasn't a terrible feeling, not at all, it was just a bit sad, like her heart had missed lunch! That had been strange. There was no time to explain any of this to Orion either since the boy had just enough time to make it as it was. She called her thanks to his retreating back and sat behind one of the fountains where she would be concealed from sight and anyone who was not actively seeking her out.

"Hello, padawan," Master Deleon said neutrally, several hours later, looking up from his datapad. "You're home late."

"Umm, yeah," Orion stammered, feeling quite nervous. He had not been in real trouble with his master so far and he had not exactly been keen on finding out how the man dealt with it. Unfortunately, tonight – the same Saturday that he had taken Raven to the gyms – his luck had left him. He had gone to the padawans' lounge and had met some new padawans with whom he had made friends. This had caused him to completely forget the time with the result that he now was more than an hour late. Which was a no-go, he knew. A few minutes were forgivable. More than an hour was not.

"You could have called me," he said in a small voice. "I would have come right away."

"I had no reason to call you," said Deleon calmly. "You do have a chronometer. And I wanted to find out whether you were going to come home on your own eventually."

"Of course I was going to!" Orion protested. "I didn't mean to be late. I just… lost track of time."

The end of all this was, just as Orion had feared, a stern scolding and a stinging bottom, both of which left him suitably chastened. On top of all this, Deleon grounded him for a week and assigned him a heap of additional chores. Orion dared not object; that would accomplish nothing and just make matters worse. The spanking had not been the worst he had ever received, after all, but he was sure that it could be "improved" upon if he annoyed Deleon sufficiently which he had no intention of doing.

Since his master did not even allow him to make a comm call which was, apparently, counted as "socialising" and thus forbidden while he was grounded, Orion's only option was to write Raven a message.

"Hi Raven," it said. "I'm sorry but I managed to get myself grounded. I won't have time to meet before next Sunday. Look after my uniform for me and don't do anything stupid. No need to follow my 'great example.' Hope to see you next Sunday! Orion."

Raven did as Orion asked and kept the uniform safely hidden under her mattress. Yes, yes, it was a rookie hiding spot, but when you did not have access to anything worth hiding, your superiors tended not to check. As the week drew on, though, Raven found herself more and more often replaying the fight she'd seen on their illicit excursion to the gym…

Three days later, Raven sat on the single bunk that she had called her own for the last three years and pulled out her datapad. It was just past lunchtime on Wednesday which meant that her creche group had half an hour of quiet time. This could be spent either meditating on their connection to the Force or, in Raven's case today, daydreaming about the fight she had seen with Orion. It was then that a thought occurred to her and her eyes opened. She peeled back her mattress and peered under it at the neatly folded (now solidly pressed) square of fabric that was Orion's uniform. Who would know if she used the disguise again and went back to the gym? Nobody! The mattress was quickly dropped, and Raven was back on her bed when master Lowfac walked by. If she was going to pull this off on her own, she would need to be smart about it.

Raven waited until Thursday's mid-afternoon free period and then asked her creche master if she could go for a walk in the gardens. Her request was granted as it was not unusual; Raven often asked to go to the gardens since it gave her a chance to 'talk' to some of the critters she found there. She had Orion's uniform stuffed in the pack that she carried. As they had done last time, once past the creche entrance, she found the nearest refresher and changed before anyone could question her unsupervised presence. She sat cross-legged on the closed refresher seat, doing her 'padawan's braid' for the second time that week, and had to admit that it felt right, even if she was only pretending. She taped up her hems and gave herself a once-over before leaving. Wow, she looked like a real padawan, albeit a small one. It made her smile, and that smile only grew as she located the gym Orion had taken her to last time and found a spot to watch.

An hour passed by in which Raven had made her way around the gallery surrounding the gym. Nothing had struck her as it had last time. Sure, it was awesome to watch the masters, and in some cases master-and-padawan teams, spar, but not like it had been last time. Maybe it was the thrill of having her best friend to share it with? Before she could leave, though, something had her stop. Raven stepped closer to the rail that separated the gallery from the gym floor and recognised Eeth Koth entering at the far side, flanked by several padawans of various species and ages. She blinked in surprise. This must be one of the open sparring sessions that Orion had been telling her about! The girl looked down at her padawan's attire and crudely tied padawan's braid; she was so doing this!

Eeth shrugged out of his cloak and handed a datapad to the nearest padawan, asking her to register her name. They still had six minutes until the official start of the session. The general rule was that any padawan could take part in the open sparring classes. However, Eeth, in particular, required that their masters had to clear their padawans for his classes because he was teaching advanced aerial sequences that some padawans might not be allowed to attempt without their masters present. Anyone not cleared for his class who entered their name would garner an alert. Anyone who arrived late would, of course, not even be allowed to register. Eeth had no patience with tardiness whatsoever!

He had to admit that he quite enjoyed being back to teaching. After his padawan, Lakhri Tumuel, had been knighted seven years ago, he had spent several years on long-term missions and had not been at the Temple much. One year ago, he had been appointed to the Jedi High Council and was thus expected to stay at the Temple for extended periods of time. He used much of that time for working with the Senate and quite a bit of the rest for teaching. And his classes were quite popular, at least with the more ambitious students. He was known to be an extremely strict and demanding teacher but also a committed one who made a real effort to help his students improve their skills. Therefore, around a dozen padawans, aged between ten and about sixteen, were assembling around him now, taking turns at registering their names on the datapad.

Never having attended one of these classes for real, Raven did as she would have done in the creche; namely, she stood in what she hoped was a developing line and waited to be told what to do. When the datapad was handed to her and she noticed the list of names, her heart skipped a beat. Putting down her own name was going to immortalise her guilt! And recording nothing at all would surely be noticed. So, she took the stylus and scratched the name: 'Ithan Kord'. Ithan Kord had been taken as a padawan about six months ago. She was a human female and that ought to be precaution enough. Raven stood tall, adjusted the wide-waisted pants into her belt for the second time and rested a hand on her training saber. This was going to be awesome!

Unfortunately for Raven, Ithan Kord had not been cleared to take part in Eeth's sessions yet. Besides, Eeth had been present at the Council session in which Ithan had been made a padawan and he vaguely remembered what she looked like. When the datapad alerted him to an unauthorised registration, he looked at it, then looked at the group of padawans, back at the datapad, and frowned. None of the padawans in this group was Ithan Kord but obviously one of them had entered her name.

"Which one of you is Ithan Kord?" he asked in a perfectly neutral tone of voice. He intended to get to the bottom of this!

Raven froze, the question having taken her off guard. She looked left, right and then behind her, but of course, nobody spoke up. Not wanting to look guilty lest this be a simple formality, Raven raised her hand.

Eeth folded his arms across his chest and looked the girl over. Perceptive as he was, he immediately noticed that her uniform was too large for her small frame and her braid was inexpertly done. He also noticed something else; a strange feeling niggling at the margins of his Force awareness. He had sensed it this clearly only once before, when he had run into Lakhri eighteen years ago.

His face not betraying any of his thoughts, he asked neutrally: "And what are you really called – initiate?"

Initiate? Initiate! Now how the Force had he deduced that! Raven chewed on her bottom lip but only for a second, and then her chin came up; if she were busted it was best to go down with dignity. "I'm called Raven," she answered him honestly. At that moment, it felt like the entire gym had stopped what they were doing and started staring at her.

"Very well, Initiate Raven," Eeth said, stony-faced. "Join me for a moment. The rest of you, wait here and leave your sabers deactivated."

He beckoned Raven into one of the few small rooms adjacent to the gym that gave teachers the opportunity to prepare their lessons, take notes afterwards or talk to students individually. Once they were inside, Eeth handed Raven his comlink and said brusquely: "Kindly call your creche master. Tell him or her where you are and that I will require some more of your time."

Raven accepted Eeth's comlink, but did not immediately make the call. Instead, she just stared at him, mouth slightly agape. If she called her creche master, he was going to be seriously displeased, and that was something that Raven tried to avoid, however unsuccessful she had been at that this time… It briefly occurred to her to mention that Lowfac knew where she was, yet she dismissed the idea just as quickly; if Eeth was perceptive enough to notice she wasn't who she claimed, further bullshit was probably only going to be detrimental to her situation. Reluctantly, Raven punched in her creche master's comm code and waited.

The conversation that followed was as she expected, that being, incriminating and guilt-inducing, but worse was his disappointment over the fact that she had deceived him. After the call had ended, the initiate handed back the comlink without meeting Eeth's gaze. Lowfac had granted Eeth an hour with her and would send an aide to escort her back. Apparently, he did not trust that she could make it back to the creche without wandering off which, had Raven not felt so guilty, she would have been indignant over.

When Raven was done, Eeth pocketed the comlink and pulled out the paddle that he kept tucked into his belt whenever he was teaching. "Bend over and touch your toes," he ordered.

For the second time that day, Raven was surprised by the man standing before her. Did he just pull a spanking paddle from his belt? Force. The eleven-year-old was no stranger to corporal punishment, especially as her personality made it hard for her to accept authority and follow the rules, but her regular teachers usually did a bit more talking before they started spanking. For once, she was lost for words. That left her with only one option, and so she reluctantly turned side-on and put her hands on her toes. How bad could it be? She had kept her trousers, after all. Surely he was just going to give her a few taps and send her to wait for the aide.

Eeth was not in the habit of meting out mere taps, though, and he was certainly not going to make an exception for an initiate who had broken the rules and been deceitful in order to gain privileges she had no right to. Given that there were a dozen padawans waiting for him to start his class, he made short work of this punishment, bringing the paddle down half a dozen times fast and with considerable force.

It was all Raven could do not to spring up and start jumping around. She didn't, though. Instead, she let out a yelp of pain with each whack.

Despite the fact that the girl was wearing rather loose-fitting pants, the swats rang off the walls. Had she been in Eeth's charge, he would have given her more but he assumed her creche master would see to that. When he had completed the half dozen, he stuck the paddle back into his belt, waiting for her to straighten up.

Okay, so that had fucking hurt. The initiate was certain she was going to feel that for the next few hours at the very least. Both hands flew to her backside and she hopped from foot to foot, doing her best to rub out the burn. Raven wasn't crying, but her eyes were over-bright and she was far from pleased.

Paying her antics no mind, Eeth laid a datapad onto the small desk. "You will sit down now," he ordered. "And I know that will hurt so there is no need to point it out. Write down your full name, your creche master's full name, and the name of the padawan who lent you their uniform. I also want you to put down an explanation of why you tried to masquerade as a padawan and enrol in my open sparring class. I will pick up the datapad when I am done teaching my class."

He gave her a curt nod and left the room to tend to his students. There would be time later to analyse the connection he felt to the girl through the Force. But first he had duties to perform. And Eeth took his duties seriously.

Right now, Raven's connection to Eeth was entirely of the paddle-to-ass kind. Her ass hurt, deserved though it may be. Having been stripped of all her arguments before having a chance to spout any, she pouted at his retreating back and lowered herself into the chair. At least it had a cushioned seat, small mercies!

For a while, she just stared at the datapad, unsure what to write. The audacity of the guy, assuming that she didn't have the wherewithal to procure a padawan's uniform without help from a padawan! She huffed, her back straightening, only to wince and curl again. The burn was starting to ebb now, despite the fact that she had felt as if she would never sit again less than two minutes ago.

Raven began by inputting her and Lowfac's names on the top of the pad. That was easy. The rest, that wasn't so easy. Raven spent the next hour – which was how long this class lasted and how long her creche master had given her with Eeth – trying to come up with a way to spare Orion further trouble while putting into words why she had wanted to do this in the first place. Why had she? It was almost impossible to say without admitting that this was not the first time she had ventured out, nor the first time she had watched Eeth. Eventually, she decided on a version of the truth that explained how she had been curious about the Temple and felt drawn to join his class. She finished by stating that as a Jedi she was supposed to protect the rights of her sources, and therefore, was honour bound to preserve the anonymity of the supplier of her disguise. If she could spare Orion through this loophole, it was worth a try.

Anybody who had dealt with Eeth before could have told her that it wasn't, especially Lakhri who had tried the same thing once, early into his padawanhood, with disastrous consequences. Eeth had improved his people skills ever so slightly since then, though, which was why he did not pull out the paddle straight away after having read Raven's evasive confession. He did, however, level her with a look that was as stern as it could get.

"You did not see fit to fully comply with my instructions," he said in an even tone of voice that could not deceive anyone over the fact that he was seriously displeased. "Now, I am going to ask you one question. Did you receive this uniform from a padawan who knew full well that you are an initiate and would use it to illegally explore parts of the Temple that are off limits to you? A simple 'yes' or 'no' will suffice as an answer."

Eeth was certainly an imposing, and some might argue frightening, figure, but Raven was not easily intimidated. She was small, but she was also confident and strong-willed. Her chin came up and she straightened, hefting up her trousers. It was on the tip of her tongue to inform him that such information was classified, yet something in the way he looked, no, in the way he felt through the Force told her that this would be a very bad idea. Thus, she replied with a "Yes" that came out sounding far meeker than anticipated.

Eeth had to concede that this initiate was certainly pluckier than the average. That was not going to save her from the consequences of her attempt at deception, though.

"In that case, he or she broke the rules and knew full well what to expect, should you be found out," Eeth said curtly. "Write down their name, and do it now – unless you are ready to be paddled until you see fit to comply with my instructions."

Well, those were not very good options; tattle on Orion or be paddled until she did. Her jaw squared, but again, instead of hitting him with creative arguments, as she may have, had this been another Jedi, Raven acquiesced and accepted the datapad.

The creche aide chose that moment to enter the gym. She made her way to the small room in which Raven and Eeth were talking, pleased to discover that the girl appeared to be doing as asked sans protests. Then again, Raven tended not to argue if she was blatantly caught out. Besides, being busted outside of the creche grounds and impersonating a padawan was pretty condemning to any case she might want to mount in her defence.

She scratched Orion's name on the pad, her expression clearly displeased. "For the record, I think it's unfair that you force me to tattle," she said, holding the pad up for Eeth to take and hitting him with her most intimidating glare. Raven knew that Orion would not have expected her to do differently, and he certainly wouldn't hold this against her, but that wasn't the point!

Eeth did not particularly care whether Raven thought this fair or not, nor was he likely to be intimidated by any kind of glare an initiate might point at him. He acknowledged the creche aide's entrance with a nod, accepted the datapad and glanced at it.

"Alright," he said. "How many times have you done this so far?" He was not only perceptive but also quite a fast thinker, and he did have a bit of experience with children and teenagers by now.

By this point, Raven's hopes of getting out of this without having to make a full confession were starting to dwindle. "Just the once," she lied to the floor and folded her arms. Raven was not crazy, and she would have to be not to at least attempt getting out of that one. Besides, there was no way anyone could prove anything. Yeah, no way other than her creche master's infamous interrogations. The girl groaned internally at the thought; he never gave up until he had the full story and he could outlast the stubbornest of initiates.

With Eeth on Raven's tail, there was no need for her creche master, though. He could nearly always tell when someone was lying. It would need more than the skills of an eleven-year-old initiate to deceive him.

"And if I called this padawan Orion now and asked him," he said coolly, "are you sure that he would give me the same answer?"

Had Eeth asked that question just two weeks ago, Raven would have taken her chances and said yes. Now that Orion was a padawan, though, he seemed to be a lot more cautious which had her rethinking that reply. Everyone knew that any Force-willed master-and-padawan team shared a special connection that was created over their training bond; Orion might not be able to lie convincingly to Deleon even if he wanted to. She looked up at Eeth, and for a moment felt – something? It was the same feeling she had had when watching Eeth spar with Saesee Tiin and the same feeling that had urged her to join his class. The girl huffed, resigned. "Probably not," she confessed and managed to meet his gaze again. "But why do you care?" It was an honest question, and one Raven was curious to know the answer to. Did he have this feeling inside him, too? Was that what was pushing him to ask more questions than usual? Or maybe he was ultra diligent? Nosy? All of the above?

"That," Eeth said cuttingly, "is none of your concern right now." Yes, it was probably all of the above. He would never have accepted anything less than the truth from any initiate or padawan he was dealing with, nor would he risk letting them get away with misbehaviour. In this case, it was more than that, though. He was entirely aware of the connection he felt to the girl and where it might lead to. And although he was wary of being too rash about this, he felt a particular obligation to teach Initiate Raven Trebeck what was expected of her, as a young Jedi – and one who might be a padawan soon.

He turned towards the creche aide and asked politely: "Could you give us five more minutes?" The woman nodded in understanding and withdrew from the room. Eeth was now free to focus on Raven. He fixed her with a penetrating look.

"I want the truth, all of it. And I want it now," he said abruptly. In order to discourage any attempt at stalling or evasiveness, he pulled the paddle from his belt, folded his arms across his chest and tapped the paddle against his left upper arm impatiently, the implication clear.

Raven wanted an answer to her question, and she was about to say as much when he produced his paddle. All right, apparently she had two choices, neither of which were appealing. Confessing to the fact that this was her second ramble out of bounds seemed like the less painful path, though. Besides, what else could she do? Refusal would only get her paddled until she complied.

Reluctantly, she began telling Eeth the story of how she had convinced Orion to help her. How she had seen him sparring with Saesee Tiin that day in the gym, and how she had felt about it over the days that followed. She was also very clear about the fact that Orion did not know about this second jaunt… "He even warned me not to do anything stupid," she told him, not that she considered her venture outside of creche to be stupid. No, getting caught was the stupid part! I just wanted to see again, is all," was said in way of conclusion. Raven felt kind of stupid explaining all that; he must think her a complete lunatic. However, what was more surprising was the fact that she actually really cared what this Jedi, a complete stranger, thought about her.

Eeth was not as surprised at her explanation as he might have been. It only confirmed the feeling he had about the girl, after all. But he was not about to jump to conclusions and create facts that the girl might later regret. He would think about this carefully when he had time. For now, he merely said: "Thank you for finally being honest. I expect you to grant the same courtesy to your creche master. For now, I am going to teach you to think long and hard before you try lying to a Jedi master again. Once again, bend over and touch your toes. And pull down your pants before you do."

Just when Raven thought the interrogation was over with, things took a turn for the worse, and her courage followed suit. Both hands slid back to cover her backside, her once brave expression now looking decidedly more piteous. "Uh, but wait! Not again, you already paddled me once." It had hurt, too. Granted, it had not been the smackdown of the century, but that didn't mean she wanted another one. "Twice isn't fair," was added on in a last-ditch effort at saving her backside.

"The first paddling was for trying to deceive me in order to get into my class," Eeth replied, stony-faced. "After that, you chose to lie to me again. For this, you will be punished again. This is entirely fair, and it is not open for debate. You just raised the count from six to nine. If you are not in position in ten seconds, I will make it twelve."

"Awwwww!" Raven whined, jumping around on the spot to emphasise her displeasure. Thankfully for her, though, her fingers were working the clasp on her belt as she did this. It did not take much, and once the belt was off, the oversized trousers fell to her ankles in a pile without any effort on her part. The burn from the last six had only just faded, so the idea of copping another nine on top was horrifying. Still, Raven wanted the count raised to twelve even less. Therefore, she bent over and put both hands on her boots for the second time this afternoon.

Eeth was not famous for his willingness to cut students any slack. True to his reputation, the paddling he dealt out now was quite formidable. Raven would probably be able to stay in position, but only just, and only if she possessed a bit of self-control. Which Eeth was interested in finding out. After all, the girl seemed to be quite young, possibly too young to be considered as a padawan. As that thought crossed his mind, Eeth wondered fleetingly whether he was hoping for this to be the case – or the opposite. All in all, raising Lakhri had been a daunting but also a very rewarding experience; Eeth was truly proud of the Jedi knight Lakhri had become. At the same time, up to this day, he was struggling with feelings of guilt over having been too harsh on Lakhri, especially during the first year of the boy's padawanhood. He was not sure he had it in himself to behave any differently, though. If he didn't, it would be all the more important to see how this girl, Raven, dealt with his approach. And he was currently doing his best to give her a realistic impression of that approach!

Given that her backside was somewhat pre-tenderised, Raven had hopes that he would not swat her quite as hard as he had earlier. These thoughts were blown clean out the waste hatch when the first few landed with no less force and at the same speed as earlier. It fucking hurt, and as before, by the sixth smack Raven had tears in her eyes. She let out a wail at the seventh, the eight saw her hands rise to her knees, and the final swat of that Force-awful paddle had the tears spilling over. It took all of her willpower not to jump up, but if what she deduced of Eeth Koth so far was anything to go by, obedience was key in sparing herself further pain.

Unfazed, Eeth stuck the paddle back into his belt. So the girl did have some self-control. Good.

"You may get up now," he told her, his face and tone of voice quite emotionless.

Raven did not need to be told twice. She jumped up and started rubbing furiously at her underwear-clad behind. It burned something fierce, and again she hopped from foot to foot in the hopes that the motion would somehow lessen the pain, or at the very least, knock it down to her feet! She swiped a sleeve across her eyes briefly and buried her face in her tunic sleeve; she didn't want Eeth knowing he had brought her to tears even if it was blatantly obvious that he had done just that.

Of course, Raven needn't have bothered; Eeth was quite used to seeing tears in those he had punished. The punishments he dealt out were usually designed to make sure of that.

"Now go back to the creche and tell your creche master what happened," he said. "Completely and truthfully. And return the uniform to Padawan Orion, whose master will be informed of this whole affair tonight. You might want to give him a chance to own up before that. May the Force be with you, initiate."

He was going to have a talk with Raven's creche master later, which was going to give him an opportunity to make sure that Raven had complied with his instructions. But that was not going to be the only purpose of that talk. In any case, Raven did not need to know this, for now.

For all of Raven's faults, she was not a disrespectful child. So it was because of that, and despite her discomfort and dislike for his parting instructions, she managed a curt bow and left without complaint.

The creche aide was waiting outside the room and took in her red-rimmed eyes and dishevelled uniform with a knowing expression. "Fix your clothing properly. You do not want to walk the halls looking like a vagabond, now, do you?" the woman said, but there was no bite to her words. She knelt, started helping the girl tuck the oversized pants into her belt properly and dusted her off. "Good as new?"

Raven managed a weak smile. She wasn't the sort to need coddling, but she liked this creche aide. The human woman was a new knight, maybe only knighted a few months ago. Nobody knew the story of why she was not out in active field service. Well, now was certainly not the time to start asking questions about that. The entire way home, all Raven could think about was how she was going to break the news to Orion, and the feeling she had experienced when Eeth Koth had entered the training room that day. Had it been the right thing to do to tell him about that? Her heart said yes, but the lingering burn across her backside disagreed for the moment.

That evening, Raven lay on her bed, skimming through the additional classwork Lowfac had assigned thanks to her illicit 'outing.' Fortunately for her, he had considered the fifteen swats Eeth meted out to be sufficient physical punishment for an eleven-year-old, and much to Raven's great relief had not added to it. She sat up when he came to tuck her in that night. It was too early, but he had taken half an hour off her bedtime for the next week; apparently, the less free time Raven had, the less trouble she found herself in, or so he had joked. Raven groaned, but lay back and let him tuck in the sheets around her. "It's onlyyyy eiigghhttt."

"Iiii knowwww," he copied her whining, but his eyes were smiling. "Better remember this the next time you try swindling your way around the rules. They are there for a reason, you know."

Raven huffed, a tuft of blonde fringe blowing up with the effort.

Lowfac brushed it off her face and closed his eyes. Lately, he had felt Raven needed more of his attention, yet he was struggling to spread himself thin enough. It was a common problem in the senior creche as all the students were nearing that point where they really needed a master to take over. "Link with me, let me help you," he told her.

Raven did so without hesitation, bombarding him with all her pent-up thoughts, feelings, emotions and whatever else was in there. It was nice to have this sort of help and she told him as much before he turned out her lamp. "Thanks. Maybe going to bed early isn't so bad, if just for tonight," she said through a yawn and rolled over. Today had been a memorable day.

Later that evening, while Raven was already fast asleep, Jedi master Eeth Koth was sitting on his small balcony, staring into the distance, deep in thought. He was sure of the connection he had felt with the girl through the Force, and having raised a padawan before, he knew what it meant. But the girl was so tiny! Rationally, he knew by now that she was eleven years old and therefore by no means too young to be taken as a padawan. This afternoon, he had talked to her creche master and studied her file; he had all the information he could wish for. And still, he was hesitant to move forward with this. He was also entirely aware that he had no good reason for this hesitation. If he was honest with himself, which he usually tried to be, he knew that the excuses he had thought up were nothing more than flimsy attempts at justifying a deep-seated feeling of insecurity that he kept well-hidden from anyone but himself. He had been an awful master to Lakhri at the outset. His former padawan had told him once that he held no grudge but Eeth was not sure whether he could trust that statement. More importantly, he was not sure whether he could trust himself. It was not so much the fact that he was an extremely strict master that worried him; it was more that he was finding it incredibly hard to provide emotional support and to create intimate connections with others. He was well aware that children needed both. What if he could not satisfy that need? Maybe Raven would be better off waiting for a different master? But what about the connection they had both felt to each other? If the Force guided her to him so clearly, it must be for a reason. Eeth had allowed the Force to guide him throughout all his life. It had saved him during the initial years of his life on Nar Shaddaa and it had always been his refuge. He was not about to dismiss anything that he sensed in the Force to be right.

With an internal sigh, Eeth decided that there was nothing for it: he would need to create more opportunities to meet with Raven and explore her potential for becoming his padawan. He felt he ought to give her a chance to get to know him. Only when she really knew what she was getting herself into should she be asked to make a commitment that would have a profound impact on the next twelve to fourteen years of her life. Raven was only eleven years old, after all; there was still plenty of time.