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Maul was already taller than Master Yoda and Master Yaddle and that disturbed him to no end. There was nothing surprising about the two of them being smaller than him when he was an adult, but as a small child, it was extremely troubling.
He felt as if they might fall like a house of cards if he bumped into them carelessly, especially Master Yoda with his cane, and it was a strange feeling indeed. He understood Master Mundi's concern a little better now that he realised that. Up until now he had only seen them sitting in their seats, but when they walked they were... frighteningly fragile.
"Young Maul, you really need to watch where you're going."
"But I'm not even walking," he pointed out as he raised his head, leaning back to find Master Rancisis looking down at him.
The Thisspassian looked up to watch the two little trolls walk away without noticing the two of them and then back at the little red Zabrak:
"Precisely, you stopped without warning."
"Crawl over me then," he provoked in a flat tone.
"I must weigh about ten times your weight, boy, and by the time I'm crawling all over you, your ribs will have plenty of time to give way and break and you'll be choking on your own blood before a Healer can get there, so I'll refrain from doing it. Go and find your brothers, don't do anything stupid until we set up this school level test and don't get trampled underfoot."
A pat on the head later, the Master quietly walked away, leaving Maul very interested and intrigued.
He may have been a (former) Sith apprentice, but he was still a child to them. A child who was probably extremely dangerous compared to theirs, but a child nonetheless, and they had not hidden that fact.
And yet the guy had just said, without any pressure and with great naturalness, how he could kill him without any difficulty. To a four-year-old.
Abrupt and straight to the point! Maul loved it.
He let Master Gallia pass and ran after the serpentine Jedi.
"What kind of range of movement do you have with that tail?"
"I don't know, what kind of range of movement do you have with your legs?"
"I don't really know, but I'm very flexible," Maul replied confidently.
"That's very good. I'm still better."
"For real?" he asked curiously, looking at the very wide, sinuous tail that slid along the ground beside him. "And you control everything?"
"Of course I do. Muscles go all the way."
"It's brilliant. And can you hit people with it?"
"Why is your first question about violence?"
"I said hit, not attack, you can hit people to defend yourself," he retorted immediately. "Why does your first thought about my questions imply aggression on my part?"
"Oh I don't know, maybe because you bit Master Jinn for no reason less than three weeks ago?"
Maul wondered when he would stop hearing about it.
"I'm sure he deserved it."
"Did he annoy you?"
"No, not really, but I'm sure he's annoyed people before who'd be delighted to know I'd avenged them."
"It's not-"
"The way of the Jedi, I know, you all told me enough at that week's weekly meeting."
"Hmm... otherwise, why else are you following me like this?"
For once, Maul answered honestly and without any ulterior motive, revealing one of the many secret motivations he had not planned to reveal:
"Can I touch your tail?"
"Uh?"
Maul noted with pleasure that the other had stopped in his apparent surprise. It was incredible how much faster he could be than you would imagine from the outside, you would never know it when he was walking with other Masters. Or maybe it was Maul who was way too short, in either case it was boring for him to run around to continue his conversation.
"What was that?" He said, taking advantage of the pause to catch his breath, seeing the wide eyes of the other.
Hopefully not the harbinger of a hungry Thisspassian spotting an appetiser.
"You said you wanted to touch my tail?"
"Yeah? What, this can't be the first time someone's asked you that?"
"Well, it is."
"Is it? Everyone wanted to touch our horns when we arrived at the Crib, are you going to tell me that no one ever wanted to touch your tail?"
"Well, no one ever ask," the Thisspassian said carefully, looking confused. "That said... yes, I suppose you can?"
"You can touch my horns if you like," Maul offered in return.
"That's not necessary, I don't need anything in return, go ahead."
It was so fascinating, Maul could not even begin to understand how it was mechanically possible for someone to move without legs. It was incomprehensible.
Placing both hands on the long, thick tail, Maul made a surprised little noise as he felt the freshness of the scales. They also felt much softer and smoother than their appearance would suggest.
"You're so cold, how come you're not dead yet?"
"I think I can safely say that our organisms are extremely different," the Jedi Master said softly, arms crossed in front of him in a dignified and serene posture, as if he was not letting a curious child grope his body in a wide corridor.
"And it's all muscle underneath the scales?"
"Mainly yes, very supple, the bones aren't as thick as bipedal humanoids but it's also a spine principle."
"Like, if I stand on you, can you lift me up?"
"A shrimp like you? Effortlessly."
It did not take much more to convince Maul to jump on the Jedi and sit astride him, and he did not hold back his amusement as he was lazily lifted off the ground.
"Awesome!"
"Are you really having this much fun?"
"Yes!" Maul exclaimed loudly, squeezing even harder and giggling with delight as he was shaken harder and harder. "This is so cool!"
Eventually, he had to dismount and let the Master slid away with an air of respectability, but Maul did not care, he had already got what he wanted.
It would be easy to get along with this Jedi.