[FIC] No Man Can Tame Cold
Title: No Man Can Tame Cold
Characters: Roar Strand, Johannes Høsflot Klæbo (16 years old).
Warning: Contains spoilers from the future third and final part of #Crossover2017
Fandom: Crossover Star Wars - Sports
Summary: The teachings of Roar Strand, the Jedi Master from Nidaros School, the oldest
exoplanetarian Jedi Academy in Gaia (nickname of the Earth in the Star Wars galaxy), teaches
Johannes to respect the snow as more than just a simple solid state from a nature element.
Lerkendal Stadium is now the headquarters of the oldest Exoplanetarian Jedi Academies. Nidaros School has at least 300 years old and it was established
circa 1722 by Jedi Master Bira Daam during the Exoplanetarian Exploration (1600- 1897).
They have a book called "Jedi Master's Oak Book", in which they tell the story of her arrival:
"In a ship of sky, a woman arrived with square-shaped marks from cheek to cheek, in the eighth day of the month of August, in the year of the Lord 1722.
The water of the river lifted up and the ways were filled of water. Young people of all ages were astonished with this woman. She got a dark and tight dress
and had a short staff on her belt.
She went to some young boys and girls which had That Power, which according to her, only a few were gifted with it, and she decided to educate them in the
art of war, using the city as their place".
Despite they got educated with traditional swords, and not with lightsabers; it got to go forward 300 years to get the first Norwegian lightsaber, called
Rosenborg I.
When Johannes was just a kid, Roar Strand knew that he had the Force. He talked to him and told that he had "beautiful skills" and he would teach him to
be "a warrior, from the old days, but smelling new".
He improved his physical skills; indeed Johannes discovered he was very elastic and he could lift up a leg to the height of his ear - not trespassing till the
point of being a contorsionist - and he could jump, run faster and climb.
And even he could stand up on inverted position to concentrate and reach the Force à la Luke Skywalker, but the most useful and gifted skill was precisely with the snow.
Master Strand felt that Johannes had some kind of affinity with the snow.
In his teen years, he was practicing an exercise as an analogy for blaster reflection
with the lightsaber. He used to destroy snowballs with his fists.
Johannes was shalling his efforts for soon get his lightsaber and being a Jedi like his Master.
Certain winter, when he was sixteen, he was preparing for the last chance. His constant seances were losing the focus of the Force. With so much effort, he
concentrated and called the Force. His face got blushed for cold.
"It's freezing, Master, let's go home..."
"You will go home, but only if you can destroy these snowballs... concentrate, young boy. Forget the visions you have. Clear your mind..."
"D'accord, Master. Go."
He puts in position. He got his mittens and Roar requests to remove them. Young Johannes mumbled some bad words and he removed the gloves.
"Okay. Here we go..."
Once more in position.
Roar makes a snowball and throws it at Johannes, but the snow hit on his eyes.
"Holy...!!! My eyes!!"
"You are not concentrated. Stop complaining and close your eyes"
"I can feel the cold, Master"
"But you are from head to toes with a coat..."
"I can feel the storm approaching... the wind talks to me... is just so difficult for me to focus in the ways of the Force. I'm sorry, so sorry, Master"
Suddenly, Roar showed a strange artifact.
"This...is the weapon of a Jedi. Officially. In three hundred years no one could hold a weapon like this. They nicknamed it "shorted staff". You are a strong,
wonderful pupil; but the Force will slide into your fingers... and you will not reach the level you need to get this."
"What? Man, I mean---"
"If you don't focus, this will be the first and only time you can see this. Is not clumsy as a blaster, but is more powerful than a bullet."
Roar ignites the weapon and a blue light comes from there, in the middle of the inception of a storm.
Johannes gasps. He cannot believe what his eyes are watching... a lightsaber. A real one.
"Oh...okay, Master... I will shall my efforts to get that stuff. Go, throw me snow, show me... come on."
Roar throws snowballs and the teen Johannes succesfully calls the Force and punches each and single one of them. It would look very weird, but his moves were
similar to Wonder Woman in certain sense.
First the wrists, then the fists, and then entire handpalm. But after that, cold appears and the uncomfortable sensation
"like needles" stands in his hands.
And he keeps calling the Force trying to cope with cold to evade those snowballs threw by his Master.
The storm gets worse, but was not an excuse for Roar to keep the training.
But suddenly, he sees that his hands are turning pale...
"Stop, Johannes, stop..."
"Master... I'm fine..."
"No, boy. Stop now...look at your hands"
"Oh... oh holy dear... what I've done??"
"Nothing more I will teach you today. Come with me"
Roar gets into the car and calls the Force to clear the way, full of snow.
He decided to take Johannes to E.R, but the teenager denies it, so Roar drives home.
The Jedi Master tries to warm his Padawan's hands. Rubs his hands, put some hot air from his mouth.
"Come on, kid. Come on!"
Roar felt guilty for the lesson he gave to him.
"So sorry, Master. I was just, releasing myself... is just that, the Force was flowing through me... the storm began the chant through my ears, like a whisper.
I could touch the snow and feel the cold before I could ever punch it with my fists..."
"Can you feel it?"
"Two fingers my Master..."
Roar sighs peacefully. His sensibility and temperature returns.
"Hot chocolate, Padawan?"
"Yes, Master. Thanks."
After Master Strand pours the chocolate into the mug, Johannes calls the Force to lift it up and sip some, then he takes the mug with his hand to put it down.
"Now we are talking in big words"
"I know. Excuse me, Master. I know is my fault that... I can see things so clear as I'm seeing you... with my eyes closed. Sometimes I got distracted with my
seances and---"
"Forget it, Johannes. The point is you learned to focus. And also feel the things before your physical body can do it. Snow is soft. Is white. Beautiful.
Snow looks very soft... but then, softness becomes crystal knives. So, be careful, Johannes."
"I'm so afraid of getting freeze... our people gets used to cold, but I'm afraid of dying. Hypothermic."
"Thinking that Luke Skywalker almost dies of hypothermia. The taun-taun was riding fell down. Her fur get covered in ice and snow. It can be a murderer. But
is time to learn to befriend it."
"Befriend?"
"No man can tame cold... but every man can cope with it... but the difference is that only a few can befriend it. Through the Force, you can befriend the snow...
not to tame, but being a friend of it. If you are always afraid of getting freeze, the snow will feel your fear and it will kill you... but if you don't...
you will be always her friend..."
Johannes blows and sips of his hot chocolate once more, while listening to his Master teachings.
"So, every sportsman who... has... certain relationship with...winter sports... is because they think that they can tame cold... but it's a false sensation of
control... is just they are doing what they do at their own risk..."
"I'm not a... risky person, if you know what I'm saying. Yes..." Johannes replies.
"No! A Jedi does not search for adrenaline. Adrenaline is the false sensation of taming the elements. Snow is one of the many manifestations of the most vital element
of nature. You know that, if you reach low temperatures, it doesn't rain. There's snow."
"Yes..."
"So, the elements are part of the Force. Earth, air, fire, water. If you befriend them, you will improve the ways of the Force and get better focus. You improved
now... with their costs."
"You said I've improved, but I almost lose my hands...why?"
"Because the snow listened to your constant fear of losing a limb due to freezing... so... if you want to be a sportsman... a real winter sportsman...
befriend cold, befriend snow... and the Force will listen to your call clearer than before and your visions soon will go to another place..."
Johannes grins, looks at the ceiling and sighs. The fireplace was lightning his light-colored eyes. At last he could find the way to control his visions
in the Force, which caused to lose concentration in training.
The "storm-chanting" he felt it, was indeed the Force telling about a future storm, but it was the answer to his constant fear of losing a limb for freezing.
Indeed, with time he could apply the teachings from Roar. He began to learn to respect cold and in every race, he takes some snow with his hand and claims:
"I know you will never be tamed; but you can be my friend. I am one with the Force and the Force is with me. The same applies for you.Respect"
Since he began to say this "prayer" before every race; he uses the Force to slide through the obstacles and reach curves.
Later, his dream came true at the age of seventeen, when he built his lightsaber inside of Science and Technology Norwegian University campus. He called it
"Boreal Snow". Accurate name, considering that the hilt was a Luke Skywalker's white-colored replica (Whole white Graflex style) and also the light is
in the same color.
And also it was worth to wait... considering that in 2016, won several titles in Junior category. He could not be part of the Cupric Wars, because for the time
of his graduation from Nidaros School, the act passed in the Galactic Senate and the conflict was over.
But then, he is the new hope for the Exoplanetarian Jedi Knights in the middle of the "Petty Lightsabers" (Sables Truchos) case, which began in Uruguay. In his country
is pretended to pass an act that protects the Exoplanetarian Jedis in Norway. And also is the first one who dares to show his real state as a "warrior of light"
as he prefers to be called. A warrior of light which befriended snow.
RANCAGUA, MARCH 17th, 2017.