CoH CoS (Chapter 30)
Damien stood in the doorway, silently watching Athena. Since the trial she had taken her training more seriously, working on it every day. She moved through her forms, slowly and gracefully. The lightsaber hummed softly as it moved through the air. It wasn’t her saber, the one taken away right before the trial. The one she was using was just a novice’s. She moved through each form with delibration and skill. He could see soft traces of red and blue light as she pushed at molcules in the air. He smiled softly, feeling peaceful watching her. Things had been on such a rush with the constant battles between their forces of the Knights and Arias and the opposite force of the Randon. The Knight ship, Sagittarus had been able to keep the Randon crusier at bay from the planet, but it didn’t stop the crusier from occasionaly sending out fighter ships for strafing runs. The lead squadrons of Knights had done well against the Randon swarms, but it was still hard to find a sense of peace during this time. For now though, Damien stood and watched his daughter. She moved slowly toward finishing her forms. She moved in a graceful style, like her father. She bowed and closed down the saber. She put the saber back in the holding wall she had taken it from and turned around. She smiled as she saw Damien and ran over to him.
“Hi daddy!” she hugged him tightly.
“Hey sweetie! You looked great out there.”
“Thanks. I’ve been practicing extra hard.”
“I’ve noticed…and so has the council.”
Damien reached behind him and brought out a soft black pouch and handed it to her. She took it and felt the shape of what was in the pouch. Her breath caught and she looked up at Damien. He just smiled and nodded toward the pouch. She opened it slowly, with shaking fingers and saw it was exactly what she had thought…her saber. Her eyes filled with tears and she hugged Damien again.
“Thank you! I promise I’ll do good. I promise I’ll follow orders and be the best cadet out there.”
“No need to thank me. It was the whole council’s decision. And it’s just a start. You’re going to be in one of the lower fight squads, but just work hard and you’ll move up in no time. Now come on and show me how you handle that.”
She grinned, “Sure you can keep up? You’re getting kinda old.”
He laughed and grinned back at her, “Come on then, I’ll show you I’m not ready for the wheelchair yet.”
They laughed together and headed back to the practice room.
Damien