The First of Many
As the beautiful crimson flames reaped the lives of the villagers I had known since I was born, I felt nothing but awe as I stared into their infinite depths. I felt no fear; no, I felt amazed as men wearing armor of pure white stormed the village, blasting those who tried to run or fight back without mercy. The thing I was most amazed by, however, were the two cloaked figures that commanded the army of white-clad men.
They tore through the best of our warriors with a grace and elegance that bellied their true wrathful nature. Lightning bent to their will as the flames themselves whirled around their bodies, shielding them from all kinds of attacks. They wielded strange weapons made out of a red beam that could cut through the strongest metals in mere seconds.
I was not afraid to die, for no fate could be worse than the one I all ready had, and I thought that my hellish life would finally end with this raid, however, one of the cloaked figures, a woman with a fair complexion, long blonde hair that covered her right eye, striking blue eyes, and a shapely figure that her robe couldn't hide, offered me a deal.
"Come with me, and I promise you absolute power. You will be able to go farther than I have, for your connection with the Force is stronger than any other I have ever felt before..."
These words carried a great promise within them, and I remembered how swiftly I accepted her offer. Shortly after, my motley village of Cathar friends was completely decimated and burnt to ashes. I felt no remorse, only happiness. My life had finally taken a turn for the better, after all.
I was just like any other ordinary Cathar with long, wild wheat-colored hair, pale silver eyes, and a rather deranged and psychotic disposition. I had a hunger and thirst for bloodshed that the village just couldn't quench. I longed to hear the sweet, pain tinged screams of the innocent as I ran a vibroblade through their limbs, and I had finally gotten what I wished for.
Before I was able to become Kaiana's apprentice, I was sent to House Rist on Alderaan to train in the ways of assassination and torture. I still remember my time on Alderaan, blood following in my footsteps no matter where I went. The first day I had landed on that beautiful planet, I was greeted by one of the only people that I had come to know as a friend.
It was a rather shy-looking, skinny Human boy with short brown hair, emerald green eyes, and a fierceness in his eyes that contradicted his demure personality. "G-Greetings! My Master informed me of your arrival, and I came to greet your personally! My name is Uther Rist, third son of House Rist." Uther bowed deeply, and I cocked my head to the side in confusion. The Humans really did have weird customs that went hand-in-hand with their weird looks...
Given my rough appearance and natural growl when I spoke, I gave off quite the intimidating figure despite being eight years old and with a naturally higher pitched voice than the average Cathar. "You would be rather tasty if you had a little more fat on you..." Uther's eyes widened as he looked down at his borderline malnourished frame before saying "D-Don't even think about eating me!"
Looking at Uther's frightened face, I couldn't help but let out a short, barking laugh in response. "I was just kidding! No need to be all afraid! Now, let's get going to this House Wrist, right?" Uther looked at me with a cautious gaze as he stammered "I-It's Rist, not Wrist!"
Shortly after, we left the private ship hangar and began to walk toward House Rist; its dark green flag waving proudly in the frigid winds of Alderaan. Once we got to the doors of the House, the guards saluted to Uther as the doors opened to let us enter. We walked through the ornate doors and found ourselves in a long, open chamber that led up to a golden throne with an old, wrinkled man with a dark hooded cloak around his body sitting atop its plush cushion.
"Welcome my boy. I see you have brought our newest recruit. Come, child, let me have a better look at what Kaiana sent me..." I walked forward with a cheerful smile on my face, earning a few grimaces from the guards surrounding the throne, and the old man leaned forward to size me up. After a few seconds, he finally spoke. "You seem to be one with the Force in ways that most Lords and Darths cannot achieve. You will be very special indeed..."
The man flashed a yellow-toothed grin as he sat back down and flicked his hand to his right, signaling for Uther to bring me to my chambers. Uther seemed to have a look of guilt on his face as he hesitantly took a step forward. "Uther, go..." The old man's voice woke Uther from his stupor and he quickly grabbed my wrist and guided me toward an open doorway off to the side of the throne.
The door opened up into a long, narrow hallway with dim lighting and a staircase that descended into a darkness that only I could see through. It was a dungeon. I snorted and began to walk forward as I muttered "Not like I haven't experienced a good ole dungeon or two! I'll make sure to add the Rist House to my list once I complete my training."
Uther stumbled after me and glanced over his shoulder before whispering "What are you doing!? You'll be locked up for days if you go down there! Flee while you can! I'll say you overpowered me!" I looked back at Uther and narrowed my eyes before saying "You're weak willed. I hate people that are weak. If I run away now, I'll betray Kaiana's expectations. I have a craving for power, and I have a hunch that this will get me on that road quickly."
With my parting words, I obediently walked down the spiraling steps and down into the depths of the dungeon. There was a guard down there, and he had orders to lock me up, and thus was my first day on Alderaan.
The next three days were much the same with only a single piece of stale bread to sate my ever growing appetite while I used the meditation technique that Kaiana showed me. It was used to help strengthen my bond with the Force, even though she said I didn't need it, I begged her to teach me it since I knew it would come in handy.
I patiently sat there in my cell biding my time until, finally, the old cloaked man appeared in front of my cell door with no more than a mere breeze to alert me to his presence. "Heh. I guess you aren't the leader of a House of assassins for nothing." I said with a toothy grin. My Basic was far from perfect, it was barbaric even, but it got the point across.
The old man sneered and yelled "Quiet, you filthy mongrel! I'll not have you doubt my power! Ahem, now, I've come to discuss you...'training' in detail." The old man, who goes by the name Naent Rist, gave me a half-baked excuse as to why I would be receiving a lesser version of the training that the Rist House troops usually get, and I just sat there through it all, resisting the urge to yawn and go to sleep.
Once Naent finished, he instructed the guard to open my cell door and put a shock collar on me. As the guard neared, however, I lurched forward and pretended to bite him before saying "Careful. Get too close and you might lose an ear..." in a playful tone. The guard recoiled before clicking his tongue and delivering a heavy fist to my jaw, sending me sprawling to the floor.
Honestly, the punch didn't phase me all that much. I pretended to be hurt and even bit the inside of my cheek to draw enough blood to make it seem like I was hurt so that the bastard would end his tantrum quickly. Once he put the shock collar on me, however, that was a different story. The guard pressed the button on his remote, and a jolt ran through my body and caused the fur on my forearms and the sides of my face to stand on edge as I released a startled yelp.
"Damn, that thing packs a punch, doesn't it?" I asked as I rolled my shoulders and bounced on my heels for a second to get my blood flowing. The guard snorted in a disgusted tone before shoving me out of the cell and taking out a blaster and aiming it at my head. "Move, or you die, filth." I put my hands behind my head in a nonchalant manner as I began to walk up the steps and out into the frigid air of Alderaan once again.
Though I had a blaster and my back and a constant stream of curses and bloodlust being hurtled at me, I found the place to be rather lively as I strode around the training grounds with a smile on my face. Though many people were beginning to get riled up and most likely wanted to beat me into submission for no other reason than for fun, the old man cleared his throat and made an announcement.
"Now, now, everyone, the time for 'sparring' will come shortly. I'm here to introduce a new student of mine, so please treat him well." With the short introduction, if you could even call it that, over with, the old man turned and began to walk back toward the safety of his house while the instructor of the training grounds moved toward me and slapped me hard.
This time, however, I didn't move a single inch. Now that the only man that could kill me was gone, I was planning on using the cannon fodder here to further educate myself on 'proper' combat techniques. This must have been what Lord Kaiana wanted. The instructor grimaced as he turned and addressed the trainees on the grounds.
"Boys, today we will be having a special sparring match to see who can beat this little vermin to the ground first! All of you will face off against each other in one-on-one exhibition matches to see who will go first, and who will go last. It will be in the standard Tournament Style, so get in formation and get ready to step forward when your name is called!" The trainees stood at attention and yelled "Yes, sir!" as the instructor moved to the front of the lot to start assigning who would fight who.
I sat down on the ground and made myself comfortable as the trainees were assigned their partners and began to fight each other to get a crack at little ole me. While they were having all the fun, I took the liberty of analyzing the skills and techniques they used against each other and added them to my not-so-small library of combat expertise.
After a little over two hours, the winner had been decided. It was a tall, muscular man with short red hair styled into a mohawk with tattoos all over his face. He had a rough expression on his face and he was panting from over exertion, but I could tell that he was still itching for a fight just from looking at his eyes. The instructor was barking out commands, but neither me nor the big guy were listening to his ramblings.
We were both hungering for the taste of blood.
The man spit out a glob of blood and cracked his neck as he said "You look like you have quite the energy, mongrel. How about I wipe that smile off of your face for you, eh?" I chuckled and stood up before brushing the grass off of my clothes and saying "You can try, but you'll find that I'm more than what you think I am. My name is Kho Lok, Son of the Bloodied Chieftain. I hope you can offer me guidance..."
The man shook his head as my words trailed off. "The name's Hodrig Rist. Show me whatcha got, beast!" Hodrig leapt forward as a pair of vibroknives appeared in his hands; each aimed for one of my vitals. I flashed a wild smile as I spun and hit the pressure point on Hodrig's left arm, disabling it effectively, before using my momentum to sweep his feet out from under him.
Sadly, Hodrig was able to jump over my leg and deliver a kick to the side of my jaw that I was barely able to duck, leaving my quite vulnerable to a follow-up attack. Hodrig thrust his vibroknife toward my thigh, looking to incapacitate me, but I had all ready seen through his meager attack. I had faced Giant Horned Hoppers that could fight better than this lump of flesh.
The smile on my face didn't diminish as I used my open palm to direct his thrust to my side before slipping under his arm and using his momentum to flip him over my shoulder, sending Hodrig crashing to the ground with a muffled groan. Looking at the battered Rist assassin, I felt a sense of pride emerge from within my body, however, that was quickly suppressed by a sudden jolt from the collar on my neck.
I looked back at the snarling instructor and felt a wry smile creep onto my face as I realized that I was supposed to let Hodrig win, not get carried away...