Chapter 7:Force Powers

I woke up the next day to find Master Yodal smiling and standing on my chest.

“Deep sleeper, you are.” he stated

“ahhh…Very heavy for a small jedi, you are.” I tried to make fun of the way he spoke, but it seemed to amuse him even more.

“Kekeke… funny, you are”

I got up to see that Rolg wasn’t around. I looked out of the hut to see him doing some kind of work out.

“I didn’t know you work out.” I said as I approached him

“You like to train at night, I like to do it at dawn.” He shrugged and continued his workout

Soon after we had our morning meal which consisted of the meat and oreo balls that Rolg and I brought.

“Is there no other food?” I asked

“Yodal gathers plants, he does” Yodal replied and brought out some type of weird fruits.

There were three different types of fruit that he brought. One was was red with blue dots around it. It was the size of an apple but was rectangular in shape. It tasted a bit sour and bitter. The second one looked to be a type of blueberry. It pretty much looked and tasted like any old blueberry, but a lot sweeter. The third one looked alive and as I was going to pick it up, it bit me.

“What the heck!” I screamed. It didn’t really hurt but it  surprised me. I quickly threw it to the ground. My hand was soaked in some kind of slobber.

“hmm!” Master Yodal said as he picked it up, “Brought wrong thing, I did”. He threw it back into the wilderness.

The rest of the meal continued with me just eating the oreo balls, not trusting the pile of organic fruits that Master Yodal brought. After, Master Yodal brought us out to the clearing again.

“Training, we will.”, Yodal said. “Meditate, you will.” Rolg and I sat down in a cross legged manner with our hands between our legs creating a circle with our hands. I could hear master Yodal pacing around us.”Focus, you have to maintain.”

Although I had a good night’s sleep, I was still a bit tired. I peeked over at Rolg to see how he was doing, but he seemed to be meditating perfectly fine. All of a sudden I felt a sting on the back of my head. Master Yodal had swung his cane at my head.

“Concentrate, you must.” Yodal said

A bit irritated I started to meditate again. Weirdly the smack on the head helped me focus a lot more. I entered a zone where there was nothing in my head. After Rolg and I maintained this state for a little, master Yodal spoke.

“Shift focus to nature, This is the Force”

I started to shift my focus like Master Yodal said to do. I listened to the surroundings and found much activity. I heard creatures and insects screeching and scurrying around. I felt the breeze and the slight mist that hit my face from a nearby waterfall. I tasted…Well, I tasted left-over oreo balls… Anyways Once Master Yodal was satisfied with our meditation he began the lesson.

“The Force is the life and elements that surrounds us. Water, Air, Earth, Living creatures, and much more. Every being is born with certain affinities to the Force. Look into your selves to find your affinity.”

I wondered what he was talking about. Did that mean we could control the elements too? I started going through the common elements one by one. The first I thought of was fire, but quickly dismissed the idea as it wasn’t appealing to me at all. I thought about the wind. What is the wind like? It is unpredictable, always going wherever it pleases. I thought of freedom, Who would want to be constricted? I would come back to it later. Next was Earth. Earth was solid and stubborn. It reminded me of my best lightsaber form, soresu. Soresu was a Jedi form that focused on defense and stubborn was a good way to describe it. But it didn’t feel right. The last element I could think of was water. I always did love water and fishing. I was stuck. I had come down to Wind and Water, but I didn’t know which one I had an affinity for.

I was at a loss. Master Yodal seemed to sense my discomfort as he came to help me.

“Assistance, you need?” He asked

“Yes, I can’t figure out what my affinity is” I replied

“Close your eyes, help I will”

Master Yodal then put his hand on my head and entered a meditative state. After a few moments, he let go.

“Interesting, you are. Dual Affinity, you have”, he concluded

“What does that mean?” I asked

“Affinity of Water and Wind”

On the other hand, Rolg found out his affinity was with fire and wind. Which makes sense for him. I feel like Form IV:Ataru, a highly aggressive and random form, would go well with those  affinities.

“There are many affinities, but the main ones are related to the elements, they are. Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind. All those that are force-sensitive can manipulate single elements, but some exception, there are.” He pointed to me and Rolg.

Yodal then demonstrated some of the applications.

After he walked us to a nearby waterfall and pulled out a ball of water from the waterfall “Start with water, we will. Flexible and flowing water is. Place a rock in the middle of a stream, the water will simply move around it. But it can be sharp and cold.” as he said this the ball of water that was floating in the air froze with point icicles coming out of it.

We walked back to the hut and Master Yodal started a fire. “Next is fire. Fire is warm and impassioned. If left, unchecked though, it can consume everything in it's path.” The fire intensely for a second and then suddenly extinguished.

Yodal’s raised both of his hands and looked into the sky, “Free and random, wind is. It does its best to avoid conflict and does its own thing.”

“Earth is stubborn and unmoving. Helping those that help it, but will neglect those that do not.” He planted two seeds, but watered only one. The one he watered produced fruit while the other withered and died.

After he finished teaching, I realized that I hadn’t seen anyone use Nature manipulation before. “Master Yodal I haven’t seen anyone use this technique in the school.” I said

“Been to combat building, you have not” He said matter-of-factly

The combat building was restricted to 1st years to discourage any kind of fighting. After thinking about it, it made sense. It’s not like any of the other padawan had a use for nature manipulation outside of the combat building, so it was highly likely that I wouldn’t have seen anyone use it.

“Practice we will.” Yodal said

So, we practiced manipulating the elements for the next couple of hours. Maybe it was because I had experience with Force Lightning, but I was able to control both elements decently well once I focused. As we were practicing, Master gave us a new task.

“Believe in self-growth, I do. Survive and learn for one night you will, in the wilderness” Yodal said

“What?!” Rolg exclaimed

“But you just said it this kind of force manipulation was dangerous!” I said

“Trust in you I do.” Replied Yodal

Rolg and I weren’t sure if Master Yodal was serious or just playing around.

“I remember Master Yodal eating some mushrooms today. Do you think they’re messing with his head?” Rolg whispered

“I don’t know, but you never know” I replied

“Leave the clearing you must. Survive and come back after 1 night. You will find your way back, Trust in the Force.”

These were the last words I heard from Master Yodal as I was knocked unconscious.

---A bit later---

Danger! I woke up, something was nearby. Not wanting to make any sudden movements, I used my eyes to look around me. I tried to see but it was too dark. While it was still mid-afternoon, the trees were blocking out any sunlight from coming through.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

“Rolg!” I ugently whispered. “Rolg?”

Rolg was either sleeping or we had been separated. Master Yodal did say something about self-growth, I guess that means he separated us on purpose. I shouldn’t be thinking about that right now though. Whatever was stalking me was getting closer. Laying down wouldn’t solve anything, I slowly stood up and reached for my lightsaber only to find it wasn’t there.

Shoot! Don’t tell me Master Yodal took our sabers!

I searched my pocket to find a single Oreo ball.

“Well at least he cares…” I said sarcastically

I threw the treat into my mouth and  quickly focused on my surroundings like Master Annon had taught before. I wish I hadn’t because there were three large creatures staring right at me. They were like wolves except at least twice as big. I couldn’t tell much, but they looked hungry. I had to act fast. I quickly used force movement to run away from them. Although I was running extremely fast, I had to split my focus between the roots and plants on the ground and sensing my surroundings. While I was ahead by 100ft, the animals were gaining on me. Knowing I couldn’t keep running forever, I force jumped onto on tree and used my momentum to jump to another nearby tree trunk. Unfortunately, the lowest branch I could reach was still a few jumps away. And while the animals couldn’t jump from tree to tree like I could, they were able to jump high enough to clip my ankles. I rapidly zig-zagged up the trees and made it to the branch.

The beasts were angry now. They started to ram the tree I was in with their bodies. The good news was that the branch I was on had plenty of space for me to keep my balance.The bad News was the they disrupted the huge caterpillar that was living in the tree and it had landed right in front of me. The caterpillar was even bigger than the wolves combined. It’s mouth consisted of rows and rows of saw-like teeth and it was crawling closer and closer to me.

“What kind of crazy training is this?!” I shouted

I had no where to run. No more branches to jump to. I had no choice but to try and manipulate the elements.

I examined the giant caterpillar and my surroundings. The caterpillar, while it looked menacing, had a flimsy exterior. The bug’s shell was transparent and I could see liquid swirling around. If I had my lightsaber, I could have easily cut the caterpillar open so I could make use of the liquid omsode, but I didn’t. That’s when I got an idea. Who said I needed a lightsaber to cut the caterpillar open? I would manipulate the elements like I had learned today.

The first thing I did was to check if I could use the liquid that was encased in the oversized worm. Like I had thought, I couldn’t. Maybe the force doesn’t allow someone to manipulate the inside of an organism. I don’t know why but I would have to ask later. So I moved onto my next plan.

I used a Force enhanced punch to punch the trunk of the tree. I did this a few times until I saw leaves falling off of the tree. “

“I hope this works”, I said

While I was jumping from tree to tree, I had noticed that the leaves of the gigantic trees were extremely sharp. I actually saw a squirrel like animal getting chopping in half while it was eating some fruit. Hopefully I could use the leaves to my advantage.

Seeing the leaves falling off the branches of the trees, I used Wind affinity to create a mini-tornado around the caterpillar. I centered the wind around the Caterpillar so that the leaves would cut it. While the leaves couldn’t cut the caterpillar open in half, they did create cuts around the caterpillars body so that the liquid oozed out. I ended my tornado and started to use water affinity. Making use of the caterpillar’s liquids that was now outside of the body, I quickly froze it. The outcome was a bit unexpected. When I froze the caterpillar, I thought it would become like a frozen statue. Instead, the ice spread throughout the body and sharp icicles punctured through the bug’s flimsy casing from the inside out. When the process was finished, the caterpillar looked more like a blue porcupine.

Worn out I dropped to the ground. The Forest was getting darker and colder. I needed to make a fire. So, I gathered some dried would and leaves and used Force lightning to start a fire. I was still prohibited from using it, but I was too tired to care. I was proud of myself though. I was able to display an significant increase in skill after only a little bit of training with lightning. Master Annon would be proud too, actually maybe more mad than proud...

I made sure to create a small indent in the branch I was on, to keep the fire in check. I wasn't really concerned with lighting part of a tree on fire, because it was still healthy looking and contained enough water within it to withstand a small blaze. But just to be careful, I lined the indentation with some dirt and rocks.

I passed the rest of the time by playing with the elements around me.

A while later, I noticed that the sun was coming up. Knowing that the individual training time was up, I started walking back to the camp. I don’t know how I knew, but I knew, more like sensed, the direction the camp was in. I made my way back and dropped into my bed to let sleep over take me.

Quest completed: Grand Master Yodal’s Training

Survive one night in the wilderness

Rewards: Exp for Affinity of Wind

Exp for Affinity of Water

Affinity of Wind Beginner 8 (34%)

The ability to manipulate wind

Affinity of Water Beginner 8 (34%)

The ability to manipulate water

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author’s Notes

*Not gonna lie, this chapter was weird to write for some reason. I wanted to include uses of the elements but it felt off... Seriously, this chapter took me about 10x the time to write compared to the previous chapters...I don’t even know if I am satisfied with it. (Dealt with now)

*Now that I think back, many of you guys liked the originality of my ff, so having a Yoda-like character can turn some of you off. I respect that. Will do my best to keep it original.

*Tell me your opinions.

*Thanks for reading!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Edit notes

*Made the decision to change his affinities. This is because I needed to make room for his main ability later on in the series. IDK if “make room” is the right way to say it, but what’s done is done.

*Chose Wind because I wanted him to have some similarities with his best buddy. Want to attach a kind of free attitude with him.

*Chose Water because I wanted him to have a Opposite side with his best buddy. He also has some experience with pulling water vapor from the air in one of the previous chapters. Likes water, fishing

*I am satisfied with the chapter now