The residense of Andoran Numerod, Tal's uncle, is positioned near a lake.
The house is placed on top of a small hill leading down to the water.
It is, in fact, a small mansion.
It is surrounded by a one half metre tall and one metre thick wall.
Down towards the lake there is small, iron bared gates.
Well inside is a little garden.
Most of the flowers are red, but there are also white, and some yellow.
(Over there, a hundred metres to the left of the gates, is the rosebush under which Tal stole his first kiss)
The bushes forms a path leading from the gates to the front door of the mini-mansion.
The mansion itself seems a thypical mansion, with three building forming a smal semi-circle.
In the middle, there is a statue of a naked woman.
The doors to the biggest building, the main house, looks like the gates, but are wooden, whitout bars, and bigger.
There are many windows, most towards the water.
Inside is a small entrance hall, from which there are three ways to go.
The door to the left is to the kitchen, amd the door to the right is to the livingroom.
Then, straight ahead, there is a stair, leading to the second floor (obviously), where the bedrooms are.
The building to the left is for duels and practising with vibroblades, and is very often in use.
It has only one window, a big one in the roof to let the sun in.
The building to the right is one big hall filled with tables and chairs, for balls and other such occations to be held.
It has, as the main building, many windows, but is only one floor.
Though the roof is high above the ground, making the beuilding itself about one and a half storey tall.
The people who live here is the servants, only two, one cook and one serving maid. Their rooms are located on the side of the second floor with view only to the grassy plains.
Also we have the 'court' living on the side towards the lake.
This are the uncle and the 'aunt' living in the biggest room, together, and Tal.
He is living in the second biggest room, which has great view towards the lake.

"Greetings, my young nepheu! What class did you chose?"

"Blessings for you and your family, my dearest uncle! I did chose Politics."

"Ah, and exellent choice, my young gentleman. You learn how to play with power, you learn basic laws and business... An exellent base... How was first day at school? Did you learn anything useful?"
Andoran smiled, remembering his own education.
Only luck and a certain sense of business had secured him enough money to keep studying when his brother had run out of money.

"Well, it was a hard days work. But I do believe something good came out of it. We did learn some of the most basic common laws of most planets in the galaxy, and also we learnt the marketing price of a few, important merchandises, besides the value of credits, compared to a few other money systems.
Then, we also did learn the basic rules of speaking.
Though that was nothing new for me, as you yourself have seen to my education on the critical matter."

He smiled, and his uncle grinned back.
That was not common, grinning was not considered proper.
But in private, who would care?
They both broke out in grins, and that was how Lilley found them.

"Hello my gentlemen," she smiled.
She also tiptoed to kiss Andoran on his cheek, something Tal, without showing, took as a small, personal defeat.

"Hello, Lilley, my dearest," Andoran said with a serious voice, with a touch of sweetnes behind.
Tal took this as a battle lost. But he could still win the war.

"My young nepheu here just had his first day in the School of Politics."

"Oh, did you? You have grown a man, my boy!"
The sweetnes in her voice was a challenge, Tal figured.
And when she, in the next moment, tiptoed to kiss him, too...
He was completely shocked, and the blush did not come from the kiss, but the knowledge of another lost battle.
But his uncle did not understand. He was blinded by her beauty and charm.
And, Tal sourly admitted, she had er share of that.

And now, that Andoran held her in his arms, they both smiling at him, he barely managed not admitting they looked good together.
He managed a politie smile, and a short nod.

"Thank you, my dearest aunt (the words burned his tongue like liquid fire). If you may excuse me, I think I will take Rondan (the cook/chef) to practise some with the vibroblades.
I can need some fun, to relax after the classes.
Besides, we both seem to enjoy it."

His uncle smiled, and nodded him away.
Before he could close the door fully, he heard his aunt say something about what a lovely boy he was.
With a grim expression he concluded that this time he had lost at least 4-0.
He needed to distance himself, and invent new strategies.
But first some fun. He would need to be cheared up a bit.

Tal swore. Well, it was not a particular good swear, nor a very loud one- more a sophisticated whisper- but he swore. Tal didn't swear. Tal was way abowe such irrelevant oddities. Yet swear he did.

"Drat," he added, colly. He had missed. Again. Of course.
Why was it that those targets wouldn't get hitted? He snarled in frustration, and shot, only to see a faint red beam scare the fishes something nasty, by crashing into the water at least five metres right of the targets...
He roared in open anger, now,and threw the gun to the ground. He hit his own foot, and groaned inwardly.
He sighed, and sat down, miserable.
He couldn't shoot. Well, bublebees couldn't fly, either, but it didn't seem to bother them much. At least that was what he had told himself not five minutes ago.
The laugh still echoed through his head. They haunted him, he realized. His only way to avoid them seemed to be to learn to shoot.
They had laughed from the very beginning. His sophisticated manner of acting and conversating had seemed to have a negative effect on those brutes.
At one point they had told him he better 'close his eyes and pray or the best to happen'.
And so he had done, after snorting at them, insulted.
The fact that he had actually, by some wondrous miracle hit the target when doing so, had not done anything to silence their laugh. 'Nice one, newbie! hahahaha!'
He had snarled at them, a most rude, bestial snarl- he honestly had never suspected he had it in him- and shot one more time, with eyes open. Yeah. He'd missed. The laughs had never stopped since.

He sighed, fought a tear or two, and picked up his blaster again.
He examined it, whiped some dirt off it, and rose. He aimed as they had briefly told him. Close one eye, arm straight, look along the barrel, let the "newbie-corn" help you pinpoint the target.
He shot, and he missed. He was about to have a breakdown, he realised as he fought despair. Then, suddenly behind him- a familiar voice...
"Didn't those security guards teach you anything?"
"..Uncle?"
"Yes, nephew. It is me."
"Uncle, I..."
"I know, Talmerion. I have, no matter what you think, understood how you feel it about me and Lilley. I understand your feelings, Tal." Tal had been about to turn, but now froze. His uncle never called him Tal.
And then he laughed, even.

"Tal... Tal, Tal, Tal... My little boy. I have seen your face. How your expression changes when you call her 'aunt', how you enter any conversation with her as you would a battlefield... Believe me, Tal, I was once like you, myself. I must admit, I was never very fond of your father... We often argued, and we tended to fancy the same girls. Oh, what a bitter defeat it was, Tal, when your mother chose him... But do not worry, Tal. All that is over now. In truth, I regret every harsh word bitterly. You are too young to understand, Tal. But one day you will perhaps thank me. I cannot watch you go through what I did. You will one day regret it. Later today, when we are done practising here, I shall help you speak with her about it. I am sure she will understand..."

Tal opened and closed his mouth. He didn't understand much of what he had said, but he knew his uncle had just saved him from a very unpleasant conversation. He nodded slowly, and for once hugged his uncle. He felt the tears behind his eyes, but he let them come. For five full minutes they embraced each other, speaking softly. at last Tal broke away, and whiped his tears away.
He didn't trust his voice was steady and not crumbling when he spoke again.
"You said 'we', uncle..?"
"Yes, Tal. I did. I do not know what those guards taught you, but I think it is lucky I know how to shoot... Now, firstly..."
Andoran smiled secretively, and fished a small blaster from somewhere beneath his jacket. He rose it, his arm straight as Tal had been taught, but he didn't close one eye!
He used the barrel as an indication, not relying completely on it, focusing just as much on the target, and fired. as he had held his left arm above the right which held the gun, there were nearly no recoil.
The shot hit one of the bottles Tal used for targets perfectly, and it broke instantly, not even moving. Tal stared at his uncle in wide-eyed surprize. His uncle grinned, something he never did, and so the grin seemed a bit rusty... He nodded at Tal, who nodded back, and tried to copy his uncle. Everything from the position of his legs to the straight back, and the arms, of course. He had both eyes open, and found that he could judge distances and positions much better. He shot, and he actually managed to hit a bottle. On the very right side. It spun off, and broke on a stone a few metres away. He grinned in surprize, and turned to his uncle. His uncle smiled at him, and they executed a most unsophisticated high-five, before starting to laugh. They trained for hours, before it was time to speak with Tal's 'aunt'... dum-dum-duuum! :o

Resei looked across the lake. There was some kind of minor mansion over at the other side. Oh, well. They would probably not even notice him if he practised quietly.
Right. Let's sart with something easy... Just a weak protection bubble...
Right... Oh blast no. This was not the way.. How did you do this again? Bugger! Oh, wait, maybe... No. NO! Let's see...

..................................

After half an hour it still made no sense. He was tired, nearly exhausted, when he made a discovery. Some quite hot-tempered red and black insect charged at him, with murder in mind. It's small silvery wings made a buzzing noise as they flap-flap-flapped expectantly, as a plump man would with his hands before a tasty meal, preferably involving turkey.
And, all of a sudden, the protection bubble seemed to explode out of him. A quite bewildered insect was sent spinning away as it collided, or, indeed, was collided in, by an invisible wall.
It's hard to tell which was more surprised- the insect or the boy, at the appearance of a large, glassy bubble around the latter.
Then Resei grinned. That was it. He had to trigger his defensive instincts. Of course! He attempted a few times to imagine a threath, and slowly, ever so slowly...

......................

Right, now I've got it right. I'll get to practising lightsaber skills then. Just the basic positions. And blaster presision and reaction training. Better reactions will effect my lightsaber skills as well, I hope...

......................

The hour was late as Tal observed the stranger finally left. There was something frightning, yet something soft about him. A man torn between two views. He was not sure the red lightsaber of a sith fit tthe man's personality. Oh, well. He hadn't come to them, so why bother. Only he felt he should... His tought trail ended abruptly as auntie called. It was dinner time. Late dinner. It meant good food, usually. Splendid. But for him the most important was that they finally could dine together like a family.