Chapter Text
Sullenly, 8-year-old Obi-Wan Kenobi stared at his small practice lightsaber.
Brought down by a blow from his lightsaber-fighting master Qui-Gon Jinn, the young Padawan sat exhausted on the ground, his deactivated practice lightsaber in front of him.
"Master, this is unfair your lightsaber is much better than this ridiculous practice lightsaber!" complained Obi Wan.
"My dear Padawan, even with a good lightsaber, victory is never certain.
Even with an inferior weapon, with the right strategy and approach, you can win a battle."
Confused, Obi-Wan looked up at his master. The emerald lightsaber was reflected in his master's ocean blue eyes, giving him an exceptionally strong and powerful appearance.
Obi-Wan also wanted a lightsaber like the one his master had. A strong hilt made of black and silver metal with an emerald green blade. Similar to that of Master Yoda or Master Yaddle. Or rather an amethyst-colored blade like that of Master Mace Windu? But the young Padawan also found the citrine yellow double blades of the Jedi Temple guards quite intimidating and dangerous looking. Not to mention the spahir blue blades of many other powerful Jedi Masters like Master Ki-Adi-Mundi, Master Dooku, Master Shaak Ti or Master Plo Koon. The little Padawan didn't even dare to think about the vicious ruby-red blades of the Sith from the legends. After all, he wanted to become a Jedi, a warrior of the light side of the Force, and not a Sith, a warrior of the dark side of the Force.
Sighing, Obi-Wan crawled across the floor to his practice lightsaber, grabbed the hilt, jumped to his feet, resumed his basic stance, and ignited the small practice lightsaber with the blue blade.
Qui-Gon smiled lovingly at his small, impetuous protégé. When Qui-Gon met the then 3-year-old Obi-Wan, something happened that even the headstrong loner Qui-Gon Jinn could not explain. Apparently this boy triggered Qui-Gon's hidden paternity instincts and so he immediately claimed little Obi-Wan for himself and declared to the Jedi Council that he, Qui-Gon Jinn, would raise the youngling Obi-Wan Kenobi, take him as his Padawan and of course train him to become a Jedi Knight. At first, there was surprised silence in the council. Normally babies and toddlers were first brought into the nursery to be chosen later by a Master as a Padawan. But, that a master chooses a youngling right away was ... unusual. Especially when this master was a certain Qui-Gon Jinn, who refused to accept a Padawan from the beginning. Master Yoda, who was very astonished at that time, did not let another second pass and immediately approved Qui-Gon to educate and train the little Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan sat in Qui-Gon's arms and looked up at Qui-Gon with his gray-blue eyes.
Those gray-blue eyes now looked up at him again. Qui-Gon felt the slowly growing tiredness, but also the even stronger determination of Obi-Wan through their bond. His Padawan still had quite a bit of trouble with the shielding technique and so Qui-Gon often still got many of his Padawan's thoughts and feelings through their bond. Since it was getting to be time for dinner, Qui-Gon decided that he would go through one more training session with his Padawan before sending him off to shower.
"Remember your shielding, little one. Otherwise, even a weaponless opponent will be able to read you like an open book," Qui-Gon explained with amusement. Startled gray-blue eyes flew up at him and Obi-Wan blushed, taking several deep breaths and forcing himself to calm down and concentrate even more. The training bond abruptly fell silent, and Qui-Gon could perceive only Obi-Wan himself in the Force. Satisfied, the master nodded, took a step forward and lunged for a right-handed strike. Successfully, the Padawan quickly parried his blow, as well as the following one from the left and from above. Qui-Gon increased his speed and rained down blows on his Padawan from all sides. Obi-Wan's job was to successfully deflect these blows using the basic forms. Once Qui-Gon was satisfied with his work, they switched roles. His padawan was to attack him while watching his shielding. If the master would catch Obi-Wan's thoughts and feelings through their training bond, Qui-Gon would immediately switch to attacking, forcing his young padawan to switch to a quick defense and informing him that his shielding was weakening. After five minutes of testing Obi-Wan's defenses with increasingly rapid strikes from all possible angles, Qui-Gon nodded in acknowledgement, took a big step back, and switched to defense.
His fast-breathing padawan successfully calmed his breathing and moved into attack position. The training bond between master and student was calm, Qui-Gon parried the first ten blows without moving to attack, but until slowly Obi-Wan's concentration waned and Qui-Gon picked up Obi-Wan's first attack plans.
The exchange of blows was uninterrupted and Qui-Gon followed Obi-Wan's strategy through their bond with interest. He continued to block Obi-Wan's slow, weakening blows, leaving his apprentice to believe that he was unaware of his plan and was not receiving any information through their bond.
*Four more blows to his right side ...*
Qui-Gon casually parried the four right-sided blows.
*Perfect ... and now two more on his left side...*
Qui-Gon parried the two left-side punches as well, and watched the corners of Obi-Wan's mouth twist into a grin when he saw that Qui-Gon's back was inches from the wall, and that there was a corner of the rectangular training room to Qui-Gon's left.
*With a leap to the wall and over the corner, I will land a frontal hit and then ...*
"And then you will find that through your lack of shielding, your opponent has successfully taken you out with just one blow, my young Padawan!" Qui-Gon explained in a firm voice to Obi-Wan, who had used the Force to push himself off the wall with a leap to the wall and was now flying at Qui-Gon with furious speed in a frontal attack. Qui-Gon's grip on his lightsaber tightened, changing his stance from defensive to offensive. The two lightsabers collided. Emerald green with sapphire blue. For a brief moment, due to the severity of the collision, sparks flew. The gazes of master and student also met for a brief moment. The calm, powerful ocean blue eyes of the master with the now fearful, frightened gray blue eyes of the student. Qui-Gon launched Obi-Wan back into the center of the training room in a high arc with just one blow. With a thud and a stifled cry, the defeated Padawan landed hard on his back and lay exhausted.
Qui-Gon winced inwardly at the sound of the impact. Perhaps he had overdone it a bit. He quickly deactivated his lightsaber and hurried to his student, who lay in the middle of the room, still not moving. Qui-Gon knelt down to Obi-Wan and carefully slid his hand under both of his small shoulder blades, bringing his padawan to a sitting position.
Obi-Wan coughed and gasped desperately for air, his eyes darting open and darting around anxiously.
"Easy little one, easy. It's all right I'm here. Keep breathing slowly.", Qui-Gon soothed, lovingly stroking his little redhead's short hair.
Obi-Wan's hands immediately grabbed the sleeve of Qui-Gon's dark brown robe and pressed it to his chest.
"M-master I ... Why ... What happened? I thought I was winning, but ..."
Qui-Gon laughed and patted Obi-Wan paternally on the tip of his nose.
"But you were thinking too loudly again. I was curious what strategy you'd come up with this time around. I let you think that I knew nothing of your plan. Your idea deserves recognition, my young padawan, but you should never reveal good plans to your opponent."
Qui-Gon continued to stroke his padawan's soft, silky hair until he calmed down completely and slowly let go of Qui-Gon's sleeve.
"I'm sorry master, I really am. I ... I'll do better next time, I promise!"
Disappointed, Obi-Wan hung his head, but Qui-Gon continued to encourage him.
"Of course you will, my young Padawan. I am very proud of you and your daily progress."
With these words, Qui-Gon set his little Padawan back on his feet.
"Go take a shower Obi-Wan. I'm still going to clean up here and tidy up your practice lightsaber. I will be waiting for you outside the training room."
"Yes Master. And thank you for this training session!" smiled Obi-Wan and instantly disappeared into the locker rooms.
Qui-Gon looked after the departing boy. He didn't think his Padawan would take this crushing blow so lightly. Qui-Gon would talk about it in detail with Obi-Wan at dinner and then, in their quarters, make sure that his Padawan was not physically injured. The small training lightsaber lay at the far edge of the training hall and Qui-Gon called it to him with the Force. Slowly, the Jedi Master strode to the cabinet embedded in the wall, the door of which popped open with the entry of a special code. Qui-Gong hung the small training lightsaber with the others, shot the door, and made his way toward the exit.