Haught Iron

[Reddnn]

The rumors of the Matukai that had arrived in the nearby mountains proved to be true as it turns out. Elyd had made the trek out to find them and ask for their instruction. She found three monks - Mon Rar, Celestine, and Nern. Surprisingly, they were very willing to share their knowledge.

Celestine tested her combat abilities - and seemed genuinely impressed. Elyd was no pushover, after all. She’d specialized in close-quarters combat for all her fighting years and at this point, she was back in peak physical condition - aside from her legs, of course.
They’d sparred for a time and then moved on to proper lessons. The first of which being on how to confine the force of a blow to within one’s arm, without outputting it to the target. Elyd picked up on it fairly quickly, though the more complex directions resulted in the metal plate flying out that very much could have decapitated someone.

By the end of the day’s lessons, despite being soaked with sweat from the training - Elyd left that mountain peak with a sense of pride she’d not felt in a long time. That smile Celestine had given her before their departure… that was the kind of thing she’d missed. Someone seeing potential in her.

~

Over the next few days, Elyd rose before the sun to complete her regular regimented workout with a new addition. She’d kept the metal plate for her training in her bags that she did her morning runs with - and once she’d climbed to the peak of the mountain range - she’d set it down and got to work.

It was a rhythm she fell into. Press. Strike Twice. Thud. Press. Strike Twice. Thud.

Elyd hummed along to it, an orchestra of her own creation. The echo that rocked off the mountain bounced back to her in tones that drove her on. Vibrations in the ground as the metal disk fell that surged up her feet and into her body. She’d remain there for hours of diligent training until the sun finally completed its morning crest.

She’d make her new mentor proud. She wouldn’t fail them. Not when she had another chance.

[Reddnn]

The Matukai had made another return, and Elyd was not going to miss her second lesson. Ambrose had expressed interest in beginning his own lessons with them, so she brought her friend along. When they reached the summit of the mountain, the Matukai were waiting. There were two new faces, and Nern was not attending this visit. Regardless, she introduced Ambrose to Mon Rar and Celestine, and the lessons began.

Elyd had been practicing her precision technique as instructed, as it had become part of her morning ritual. She fell into the rhythm as she demonstrated her improvements, and when Celestine praised her for her diligent efforts it only made Elyd crave it more.

The next step was to combine precision with speed. The Dragonsnake. Mon Rar acted as their target, hardening his skin till it became dark, like obsidian rock.
Celestine became harsher in her instruction - it reminded Elyd somewhat of her drill sergeants in the Republic. Bite and bark. One foot a pivot, and the other a beast of it’s own. It was almost a dance, in a way, the arms like vipers that struck out and gnashed their venomous fangs. It was beautiful.
Elyd found a comfort in this stance, it wasn’t an unfamiliar feeling to her body - to be quick and precise was what she trained for all those years ago. Her torso knew what she was doing, old muscle memory slowly resurfacing and growing into something new.

However, her legs were another beast to tame. Celestine had warned that they would be in pain from this training - to push the body to such a limit as they were was to break down everything that made them human and reforge it into something stronger, more disciplined. Even with the aids from her hydraulic harness, she felt too slow, and her legs began to be set ablaze in pain.
Elyd was afraid this would happen. She’d always been afraid that her old injuries would cause her to fall short of her goals. It would have been a fitting punishment for her past failures, which had caused them in the first place.

A glimmer of hope, though. She confided in Celestine and Mon Rar about her physical struggle. They presented her with potential. A technique they referred to as the Sacred Sleep that, while it could not re-grow that which was lost - could shift and heal the body where things were not quite right. Broken, shattered bones could fit themselves back together like glass that was never broken.

Celestine became gentle once more, and guided Elyd into the beginnings of the meditation. This was far from Elyd’s first time entering such a state, though this was different. Rather than emptying her mind of what bound her to her physical form, Celestine encouraged her to find her anchor. A bond that brought her joy, happiness, love. The image of her now Wife quickly came to Elyd, the woman who had somehow become such a significant part of her in such a short time.
Celestine’s voice once gave her instruction - to find a memory where she felt most at peace with this bond - and Elyd could think of no better time than that first day. Laying on the fur rug in Glitch’s room after sharing their first kiss. Running her hand through the unbelievably soft fur of the tooka, Nip. That blissful moment where the two of them found complete acceptance in one another - unconditional and pure.
Celestine’s voice was distant now, as if she was in another room. Guiding her to drink the liquid that would complete her transition into the Sacred Sleep. As the vial touched her lips and her physical world melted away into all but that blissful memory… all of the worry and anguish that plagued Elyd’s mind was washed away into that singular moment of peace.

It was Celestine’s gentle voice that coaxed her back into the world. Time had passed, though it remained unclear how much exactly it had been. The soreness that had invaded her body from the day’s training had gone, with only the memory of it keeping her neck and shoulders tight. Or, perhaps that was simply from how she’d been sitting. More people had joined them on the mountaintop since her decent into the Sleep - Solomon, Kathea, and Callista. Celestine’s gentle whispers praised Elyd once more, and that surge of success filled her chest with warmth.

~

Later that same day, Elyd led Glitch to one of the medical rooms in the Community Center. Her legs had felt better, though it remained yet unclear what if anything had changed. The only way to truly tell would be to run scans.
As Elyd lay still on the medical table and the machines did their work, she found it increasingly hard to sit still. She was terrified of the hope that had bound itself so tightly around her heart, so fragile. When Glitch expressed confusion at the results of the scans, though - that fragility instead hardened into triumph.
Her damaged femurs had begun to knit themselves back together - bruising that showed the seeming impossible progress of slivers of bone that had shifted of their own volition towards their intended place. The two of them celebrated in this revelation - Elyd’s lower legs did not seem to share in this healing process - but the most dangerous and problematic parts of her had.
This was confirmation to herself that she did not need anything more than she could provide to herself - she just needed the training to further unlock her own capabilities.

~

Another addition to her daily regimen was the Dragonsnake - after she warmed herself up with the precision training of the metal plate - she’d begin to practice the movements of the dance. Though it was difficult to find the precision without a proper target, Elyd found herself closing her eyes as the allowed the fluidity of the movements to take over. Slowly, then quicker. If she fell behind on her precision - she’d start again. She had to be perfect in her form if she was to gain Celestine’s praise again. Her legs kept her slower still, but she did not allow that worry to cloud her mind. Instead she found herself practicing the anchoring process while she danced. The rhythm of her body, her breath, and her heartbeat all lending itself to the mute song that drove her on.
When she was done for the day, she’d finish the anchoring, and find herself in that near-dreamlike state. She could not enter the Sacred Sleep yet by herself, but she knew in time she would find the key that unlocked that blissful room once more.

[Reddnn]

Practice had been grueling. It had taken some time for Elyd to get used to her new legs, and the weight of them - but now that she’d had the time to learn them well enough, it was simply a matter of incorporating them into her fluid movements.

Peace before the storm, it had felt like. As the ship Elyd had ridden on with her companions had traveled towards the Leviathan towards the fall that had awaited Revan, Elyd finally broke through the wall that had been blocking her. All her self doubts, her echoed memories that drove her mind in circles. It faded away into a moment of serenity - perhaps the last moment of it she’d ever get to experience. She fell into the Sacred Sleep for the first time of her own volition. No mysterious vial, no assistance from the Matukai. She found her peace.
Thinking back on it, had she not succeeded in it, she very well might have died in the ensuing battle.

Barriers broken, new pains to endure and thrive through. Her knuckles had become more callus than skin, breaking down the soft and tender parts of her hands and gradually becoming like steel. It had been perhaps the most rudimentary lesson she’d been given, but effective in it’s own ways. It was no fighting stance, no expression of precision, speed, or power. It was endurance, and determination.
To break one’s body down to the rawest, truest form, and heal one’s self back to the peak. The more she hurt, the harder she became. Self discipline above all else, she was the master of her own body - and she would command it to become more, without the magic of the Force, without stims or surgery.

A culmination of her efforts would result in a splintering of bark, sap, and wood. A ridden high of triumph. Elyd had become more than her shadow. She’d become a fuller self that broke through the cage she’d contained herself in for so long.

This was more than just physical. This was everything.

[Reddnn]

A new lesson to add to her daily regimen. Elyd had scoped out a sheer cliff face for this new aspect - it towered above her, rising somewhere between forty to fifty feet high. The ground below it was smooth rock, worn down by the natural forces that scoured Viscara.

She tucked her bags and jacket off to the side, and began her warm ups. Stretching her muscles, she could feel the strength in her body that had only grown in the past months. It was not an uncommon ideal to treat one’s body as a ‘temple’ so to speak. With Teras Kasi however, Elyd had begun to take this in a more literal sense.

The body was something to be worshipped, in a way. The building of it into a perfectly sculpted creation, much like chipping away at a marble slab to reveal the art that was hidden within it. To make herself into something no Jedi or Sith could truly understand. They were distracted by the immaterial Force, and though that clearly worked for them, Elyd had a different plan to attune herself. By carving herself both physically and mentally into one who fully trusted in her own body and it’s limitless capabilities - there was no need for the Force. If it ran through her as the Adepts claimed, then so be it. It was not hers, and she was not it’s.

The acrobatics came to her easier than some of the other lessons from the Matukai. Her physical existence had been built around this for the majority of her life. Behind her eyelids, she could remember in perfect clarity the feeling of leaping through the thick jungle of her home world, the vines and branches that were stepping stones and vaults. A singular jump that could lead to a momentum that carried you for miles. A trust in herself that she had forgotten, for a time. When she kicked her legs off the ground, her core was the fulcrum. She was the heart of all her movements.

Eventually, she’d find herself staring up at the cliff face and the sky that cascaded above it.

”The desire to touch the sky.”

This would mark the beginning of an extended goal. From one of her bags, she pulled out a canister of paint she’d acquired. A deep blue that was reminiscent of the deepest portions of Mon Cala’s oceans. Elyd coated one of her hands, and set to work.