Learning new skills is not an easy path for anyone. Everyone is good at something.
Some are great athletes, dancers, painters, or cooks. Some are great at knitting scarves and sweaters, others can do unusual things like play the drums with their feet or pop and lock on roller skates. Some are super smart and can solve complicated problems in their heads, whereas others will just be good at drawing smiley faces or giving a big hug. But even the most talented people who seem able to master any task within minutes face a time of struggle.
This was a proven point when the children at the Naboo Palace were taking a martial arts class.
"Hiyah!"
A wooden board was broken clean in half by none other than Carousella Mareheart, a karate master from a young age. The fact that she was an equine may have given her a slight advantage at being a naturally strong kicker, but she required practice just like any student.
Carousella was no joke when it came to karate. She became a black belt when she was just a small filly; great guards ran in her family, so there was a lot of pressure to be the best. Her great-great-great-great grandmother Melodina Mareheart was one of the first female guards in Equinaro's royal guard, and she passed the skills she mastered on to her children, who passed it to theirs, who passed it to theirs, and continued to do so for generations as well as teach other royal guards, and Carousella and her brother Crescent were no exception.
With Mariverde still at large, the royal family needed to be at the top of their game day and night. But, even royal people couldn't be guarded by others every second of every day. And the children would possibly be the most vulnerable. So, the family's teacher Garrett was there to teach them any spell that would aid them in defeating his sister-in-law. But, any good teacher knows that it often takes more than one teacher to teach a class everything they need to know. So, he wasn't alone in his job.
Princess Bo-Katan Kryze, younger sister of Duchess Satine Kryze of Mandalore, was not quite as easygoing as her sister. From a young age, she had what you might call spunk, attitude, a strong will. So, it wasn't surprising that she'd taken an interest in combat, including martial arts in case she should ever find herself without a weapon in a fight. But she wasn't the only one with such skills
Garrett's wife Mariposa grew up on her own, having to teach herself how to survive in treacherous terrains, using every experience as a lesson. After losing her father to doresho hunters, and with no friends and no other family to turn to, she needed to learn independence earlier, in other words, she needed to grow up sooner than she should have. There was no plan, no schedule, or even a private tutor to aid her when she was a child. So, when her husband asked her to aid in teaching the children martial arts, she didn't hesitate to participate.
"Alright, children." Mariposa said. "That was just a demonstration of what you will learn to do as you get better."
All the children were dressed in karate uniforms, all of them wearing different colored belts; Boba and Gabby each wore a green belt, Goldie a yellow belt, and Lamenta a blue belt, each of them having been taking martial arts for a while. But the newest family member, Mona...she had a white belt. In other words, she was a beginner.
"Martial arts is not easy," Mariposa explained. "It takes more than physical strength and/or flexibility. You must have discipline, focus, and most importantly, you mustn't overthink it."
"Overthinking your next move is the quickest way to face defeat in combat," said Myra, who also came to help, being a black belt. "Let's see what you guys are made of."
So, with Myra, Mariposa, Bo-Katan, and Carousella as their instructors, and the Batchers aiding with props and occasionally being practice opponents, the children all demonstrated their skills in punches, kicks, and swift movements.
Boba was pretty quick and skilled with his aim, probably due to practicing such during bounty hunter training. Gabby was great at jumping high, knocking down heavy objects without hurting herself, and being fast. Lamenta could disappear from sight without even using her invisibility magic and then pop out where her opponent least expected it. And Omega was improving at sticking her landings too. Goldie was good at avoiding a lot of obstacles, that being a skill her mother taught her early on, given she'd had to learn that while spending most of her childhood running from doresho hunters.
Mona, however, she did not have a lot of fighting experience. Being a prisoner most of her life, she was taught a little differently. Mariverde said allegedly that she was trying to make Mona a tougher woman, and she attempted so by torturing the poor girl, beating her, verbally abusing her, and forcing her to watch her father die. All that did was traumatize the poor girl and make her helpless because she didn't know how to defend herself or how to fight back; she only knew how to run, hide, and cry. It wasn't until the Bad Batch found and rescued her that she was brought to a safe place where at night she was given kisses goodnight and tucked in to a soft, warm bed rather than a hard cold concrete floor without even a pillow, hearty meals that tasted good and nourished her, and she got her very first toy. Still, she proved to be a little jumpy from time to time. Today was no exception.
When Bo-Katan tried to show Mona some punches, Mona got scared and curled up into a ball on the floor.
"What was that for?" Bo-Katan said. "Come on. Get up, little one."
Bo-Katan tried to get Mona to stand up, but the child freaked out even more, catching attention from the others.
Mona started to cry as Mariposa dropped her attention from Omega's practice, abandoned the role of strict sensei, and knelt down to her niece.
"It's okay, Mona. She wasn't going to hurt you." Mariposa said, gently taking the girl into her arms, until Mona squirmed away and latched onto Hunter's leg.
Despite knowing her aunt Mariposa was a loving mother and that she wouldn't even hurt a housefly, Mona still felt scared of her own species. No surprise, she felt safest around Hunter, not just because he wasn't a doresho but also because he was the first person to pick her up gently and hug her.
"What's wrong with her?" Bo-Katan asked, not having a lot of experience with children.
"Mona was trapped and abused for years," said Carousella quietly from behind her wing.
Mona clung to Hunter like her life depended on it. Hunter, of course, got her to let go of his leg and picked her up. Mona seemed to like being held; the way Hunter exposed her to being held gently and comforted for the first time, she'd formed somewhat of a special attachment to him, in the sense that he made her feel secure.
"Hey, it's okay, Mona." Hunter said gently, grabbing Squishy, Mona's duck plush.
"I'll never be a good enough fighter!" Mona cried. "Why do I even need to learn to do this anyway? Don't the grownups always tells us not to hit people?"
"Yes, that's true, Mona." Mariposa said. "We're learning self-defense though, which is in case of entirely different circumstances. You know how Mariverde is a bad peron for the bad things she did?"
Mona nodded.
"Well, there are sadly a lot of bad people who may want to hurt you or someone you love, and there might not be anyone else around to help you. That's what these exercises are for, so you can protect yourself and others if someone ever tries to hurt you. Most attackers will be less likely to come back if you know how to fight back."
"I can barely even open a jar by myself. How am I supposed to break a board?"
"No one said you have to get it right away, Mona." Carousella said. "Those of us with black belts had to train really hard for a long time to gain these skills."
"It's true." Myra said. "I was about your age when I started karate lessons. It took me twenty tries before I broke my first board. Sprained my ankle the first time. Believe it or not, I was convinced I'd break every bone in my body before I broke a wooden board, but with practice, I got better over time."
"But your daddy is a Jedi. It's in your blood."
"Yeah, but I didn't have Jedi training until a few months ago. And that's a little harder to catch up on since I started later."
Mona still didn't feel any better. She'd been called a disappointment so many times, she thought nothing she did would ever be good enough, no matter how much praise she got. She didn't know what her talent was, wheras all her friends seemed to.
Boba did gymnastics, Omega built stuff, Lamenta was probably the youngest prima ballerina in history, Gabby wrote stories and made all kinds of great crafts, Comedia made people laugh with her jokes, Buttercup was good at sports, even her cousin Goldie was amazing at gardening. But Mona didn't know what she was good at. She liked blowing bubbles and playing with her duck, but she was pretty sure those would be pretty useless in battle.
"You know, Mona. Lots of people often thought they would never amount to anything in the beginning." Mariposa said. "But eventually, like any seed, came to bloom. Some do take longer than others to fully blossom, but when they do, they most often are the most beautiful of all."
"But I'm not good at anything like everyone else is."
"That's not true, Mona." said Mariposa. "Remember how you rescued Goldie? That took a lot of courage to do, and it shows you do have some skills with your wings."
"I had to do something," shrugged Mona. "She was in trouble, and I was scared someone else might not get to her in time."
"Speed is a good skill, Mona. And it's important you learn how to use it properly, but the faster way isn't always the best way. Sometimes, you need to take it slow."
"What if it's too slow."
"Well, just because one way of doing something doesn't work, it doesn't mean another way won't. There are the traditional ways to solve various problems, but sometimes, you may find a different approach is more effective."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Boba asked; now he was getting confused.
"It means that everything in the world has a certain balance. And to make balance, it takes more than one thing to balance the scale. Opposites are one. One cannot exist without the other. For instance, light cannot exist without darkness. And sometimes, the opposites we think are nothing but rivals may actually make a stronger team than two with identical strengths."
Mariposa decided they should take a break; it seemed the children needed to hear a little story about the secret to mastering the most important skill of anyone's life: the ability to see and embrace their true self.