Shimi's Revenge Part I
by Julie Joe
Her heart is pumping so hard that it's about to burst out of her
chest. But she doesn't stop. She doesn't let the pain get to her and
continues on. She has been running for a while now, the darkness
blocking her view of what is in front of her. She uses her instincts to
guide her through the eerie forrest, trying to outrun an invisible
force. She feels a tremor flow up her body, and instinctivly reaches
for a silver handle cliped to her belt on her lower back. She takes a
step up onto a log and does an amazing flip into the air, igniting the
glowing silver blade in mid-air, casting an eerie glow in the fog. As
gravity begins to pull her back down, she hears a whooshing noise, and
lashes out with percision and skill. She drops to one knee in a
defensive position, blade held at the ready, as pieces of a once-whole
metal rod clang to the ground in front of a figure standing before her.
Sucessfully sliced neatly by her light blade, she disengages her saber
and tries to control her breathing.
The figure before her speaks in a deep tone, "If you were a true Jedi
Knight, you would not be as tired as you are now..."
She looks up at the dark clad figure and stands, finally getting her
breathing back to normal, "If I were a Jedi Knight, I wouldn't be doing
these excercises..."
The tall figure steps out of the shadow to reveal a young man, near
his thirties, short brown hair, deep brown eyes. The man, dressed in a
brown robe with a sand-colored tunic underneith, stands a good foot
taller than his younger student. Clad in leather knee-high boots, black
tight pants and a mid-drift sleeveless dark forest green top, her very
long brown hair tied low, a single braid extending from behind her
right ear, and two more braids along each side of her face, the
12-year-old seemed a lot older. Her tired emerald green eyes stare at her master.
Jedi Master Nareem walks next to his student, "You must be patient
with your training, Shimi," he places a large hand on her shoulder,
Shimi looks up, a hint of impatience in her eyes.
"Master, why waste time training me? I am ready for the council's
tests." Shimi pleaded.
"No, you still have more to learn. You are not quite ready yet,
although you are a fast and excellent learner, Shimi." Master Nareem
speaks in a caring tone, "Now, we must rest. We will start more
training in the morning."
"Very well, master..." with that, Shimi walked to a nearby tree and
proped herself against it. Shimi wasn't one for getting much sleep, and
most of the sleep she'd get was very light. Spending a night in the
forest of Malastare wasn't what she had expected. She had heard about
the planet's lush forest preserves, but never expected them to be quite
this fantastic. The grand Naroo trees grew way beyond any normal human
beings sites, and the majestic sounds of the exotic creatures could
lull somebody to sleep. But not Shimi. Not tonight. She sat there
proped up against one of the smaller Naroo trees and watched the bright
moon give off a bit of a glow in the forest darkness. It was so
peacful, why would someone want to destroy it?****
The Jedi Coucil room is lit only by the multitude of night lights from
the grand city-planet of Coruscant. In the room, built in a circle to
show balance, stands 2 figures.
A tall man, greying hair half pulled back, stands at a window of the
Coucil room, icy-blue eyes staring out at the wonders of this giant
city-planet. But he has been here before. Many times has he come back
to this planet at the bidding of his fellow Jedi members. With a sigh,
he crosses his arms and thinks about the many times he's had to come
back to speak to the Coucil about not joining. He was a rebellious
Jedi, he admits it, and not one to sit on a coucil all his life. He can
never be still for so long. He is expertly skilled in the Jedi arts,
better than most Jedi's currently on the Coucil. Many admit that he may
be the most noble Jedi the galaxy. For 45 years he has trained and been
trained by the greatest guardians in the galaxy, and he's not about to
let all his training waste away as he sits on the Coucil.
"An assignment, have I for you Qui-Gon Jinn." Yoda catches the Jedi
Master, who turns to face him.
"To Malastare, you will go. Duties have you to do for me." Yoda tells
Qui-Gon straight off, "leaves in the morning, your transport does."
Qui-Gon, with a slight shift in his stance, asks, "What am I to do
when I get there?"
Yoda grunts and wobbles closer, "Find it there, you will once there
you are..." Yoda turns away, as if he has nothing more to say.
Qui-Gon nods and watches his Jedi friend dissapear out the door.
Turning back to the window, he places his large hands on the railing
and sighs again. ****
As Shimi awakened the next morning, realizing she hasn't had that good
of a rest in a while, she was greeted by a creature that had perched
itself on her knees. The creature, small and furry, cooed at Shimi.
Shimi smiled and reached out slowly to touch the animal. As soon as
Shimi's hand touched the furry creatures head, Master Nareem returned
with some fruit and scared away the creature.
Shimi stood up, "That wasn't nice of you to sneak up on my little
friend." Shimi said, refering to the furry creature.
"Little creatures like that tend not to be what they seem, Shimi," her
Master advised. Nareem handed her a sweet fruit. Shimi took it
thoughtfully and began munching away at it's sweet meat. The tasty
juices dripped down her chin, which she half-heartedly caught with her
hand. Once finished with the fruit, she discarded the un-eddible part
into the bushes behind her.
Nareem seemed to tense up suddenly. Shimi could feel it as well. She
glanced at her Master warily. Feeling the worry in Shimi's glance,
Nareem motioned for her to stay calm. He dropped the rest of the fruit
that he had been carrying and put a gentle hand on the hilt of his
saber. Shimi glanced around the surrounding forest for a sign of what
was giving her this itch. A dark wave seeped into her body, sensing the
danger, Shimi reached for her lightsaber.
But before she could ignite it, the creature's mommy picked her up by
the throat and held her in the air. Shimi dug her nails into its
muscular forearm. She quickly realized this was useless as the
creature's arm was like a solid bone or claw. She felt herself
panicing. 'Calm down!' she thought. 'A scared mind does not think.'
The beast suddenly let out a pained cry and realed dropping Shimi. Hot
blood from the creature splattered her face. She choked, and felt her
tortured throat. She glanced up and saw her master fighting the beast.
She wanted to cheer, until she sensed another presence. "Master!" her
voice hardly carried, and it hurt too much to try and speak again. The
creature fell dying, Nareem disengaged his saber. 'No! Master look
out!' She knew her warning thought to him came too late.
There was a dark form with a blue saber, it cut Nareem down. Shimi
tried to stand and fight, but she only passed out.
* * *
Shimi felt sick, lost and miserable. She watched the funeral pyer
send her old master's spirit away from this planet, away from the
terrible horror of these last few events, and felt her bitterness grow.
They had come to this lovely planet to train, and now the planet
looked more like a prison. And a fellow Jedi had killed her master!
"I've got to get away from here! But how? I have no ship, and Master
said one would be here soon but he didn't say where..." 'Calm down' She
told herself. 'An answer will present itself.' It was then that she
heard a ship, it was cloose to landing, she ran after it hoping to see
where it was going.
* * *
"The fact that it is so difficult to find a landing spot will cost ya
extra." The haughty young pilot said to Qui-Gon. Qui-Gon sighed, she
had seemed such a nice young lady. But she was a perfect example of
appearances being deceaving. Her medium/short blond hair was usually
under a feature hiding cap, and she loved a long khaki colored matching
jacket. When she wasn't wearing her coat, her dark brown pants, black
boots, and shirt were visible, as well as a very nice blaster.
Qui-Gon pointed out the window to a small clearing in the trees,
"There...land there."
The pilot aimed her starship for the small clearing, "You know, Jedi's
don't like to be mannerly. A 'please' could be in order here..."
Qui-Gon sighed, "Just do it."
"Okay, but I'm warning you, if this overgrown shrubbery overpowers my
ship, I'll know exactly who to go to when I need it cleared." the pilot
said, eyeing the Jedi over her shoulder.
The starship landed with a thud, and Master Qui-Gon summoned his
Padawan, a young rebellious teenager named Obi-Wan Kenobi. Obi-Wan, in
his early twenties, was wearing a similar outfit to the one his Master
was wearing. His hair was cut short and a long Padawan learner's braid
dangled from behind his right ear and rested on his shoulder.
"Master, how are we to find this person? We don't know who he even
looks like." Obi-Wan questioned his master.
Qui-Gon stepped up to the brash pilot and started negotiating with her
on how to pay her. Obi-Wan indistinctly heard her moaning about
Qui-Gon's only currency: Republic ditarians. Obi-Wan stepped up to the
opened door and walked out onto the lush forrest planet.
Just then, a dark figure appeared running towards the ship,
instinctivly, Obi-Wan reached for his silver hilt and ignited his
saber's blue blade.
Once Shimi caught sight of the icy blue bade, her anger tore at her
and she remembered the figure who had cut down her master. Grabbing her
saber she ran faster and ignited the silver blade. With sudden speed,
Shimi leaped on Obi-Wan, catching his saber against hers. With an
electric sizzle, their blades scrapped against one another. Shimi
pushed Obi-Wan away, and to his surprise, she was quite strong for what
she seemed. Anger. The one motivational tool her teacher told her never to use,
but that is all she could feel. Anger. Anger for this fellow knight to
have struck down her master, her teacher...her friend. Shimi swung away
at the Jedi, unaware of his mild attempts to block her strikes. Shimi
wasted no time in trying to slice the Jedi's knees off. Taking a risky,
yet powerful move, Shimi spun around.
To Obi-Wan, he wasn't quite prepared for what this woman was about to
do. He had invisioned her spinning around, then striking at his legs,
which he could no doubt predict, but the girl was far better prepared.
When Obi-Wan jumped up to avoid her blade, he did not expect her to
kick him in the face as he came back down.
Sprawling backwards, Obi-Wan lost his balance falling to the grassy
forest floor, but kept his grip on his saber. Confused, Obi-Wan was
disoriented. Shimi approched him swiftly, her saber held high in the
air, preparing to strike down on the young Jedi...
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