Memories…Memories from a vastly different time strike the Warrior Wookie, Graank furrows his brows as he so often does these days…Focus drifting between threatening memories and the training Droid in front of him.
“Honour Son…We are not beasts to be set loose upon our home. No, that is why we do not use our claws, that is why we fight without them. We are not what others often think of us. Remember that.”
Echo’s in the Wookies mind, a voice of authority…His Father. The memory sharpened in his mind, they were atop a Wroshyr tree on Kashyyyk. Graank a young Wookie at the time, before his departure from his home and clan…That memory caused a strike of almost pain in his heart. The memory though fuzzy with age still lingered…His Father was teaching him to fight, first was a thin, lengthy branch…A quarterstaff in essence. Thunk, thunk as wood clashed against wood, basic blocks, parries and swipes. But never with claws…Never that.
The memory was shredded apart by a hasty swing from the training Droid, the electric crackle of an electoblade whizzing by his ear as he raised the topmost blade of his saberstaff up into a block, his feet didn’t move…They rarely did with his training in form V, focused steps and cantered gravity…Blocking, parrying until clashing back with strong winding arcs to apply pressure on ones foes.
“Again” Came his Fathers voice “You will not always be fighting me, more often then not you will be larger then your foes…Use it. Your reach is your advantage.”
He kept the pressure on the training Droid…Clash after clash of his burning purple saberstaff against the crackling electroblade of the training Droid…Each heavy arc forcing the Droid back step after step until it could no longer effectively threaten the Warrior without having to dive close.
The memory that dug and nipped at the Wookies thoughts altered, it was as if it had shattered suddenly to glass to be reveal another…A dark night with lashing rain, the booming waves of the ocean not far away…A form before him…was it…Human? Lessons put to use not in defence but…Horror.
The Warriors focus was broken as the training Droid pressed the advantage, the charge of the electroblade pressing to the Warriors armoured chest, energy a buzz as it leapt through his armour to shock the Warrior beneath…A rumbling growl of pain and anger was offered in return as the Warrior focused, expelling a boom of force towards the Droid. Pushing it back against the far wall off the training arena with a metallic clatter, the force pinning the Droid to the wall lessened for a brief moment as it thunked back to the floor only for waves of electricity to dance towards it, crackling and lashing in the air before rending into the Droid until its circuits fried, movement ceasing… Graank shifted his gaze from the smouldering alloy pile to the lightning zapping between his extended claws, a flicker of shame crossing him as they retracted.
He wondered…If his Father could see him now…Would he be proud? Graank knew he’d cast aside a lot to persue this path…To earn power and strength…To call himself a True Sith…Had he given up his honour as well? He had something to cling to that was truly his own before this…It was quite possibly the only thing he had left from those days. Would his Father be proud that he still held to some honour…Even if it put him in opposition to his fellow Sith? Would he even see beneath the title of Sith? Would it even matter? Does it even matter what he thinks?
Questions…So many questions plagued the Wookie as he departed the training Arena. “Honour Son…We are not beasts to be set loose upon our home.”
Had he become one without realising?