Title: Mud
Summary: Obi-Wan and Anakin in a sticky situation.
A/N: Written for a challenge given by a friend of mine. The challenge was to have a story under 1000 words begin and end with the phrase: They were right back to where they had started.
They were right back to where they had started.
Covered in mud, humiliated, and in the bottom of a primitive trap set by natives. Of course, Obi-Wan thought, whose fault would this be but Anakin's?
The Padawan in question was less than a foot away from his unamused Master. It was about as far away as he could get in the small pit. He was also completely covered in mud, with little bits of it drying on his Padawan braid and face. A mud bath, indeed.
The sides of the mud pit were smooth but malleable, and brown slabs of the goo came off with ease. However, that was the problem. The mud pit was several meters deep, and since neither Obi-Wan nor Anakin could get a grip on the sides, they couldn't climb out. All they could see was little bits of forest hanging far above their heads.
When the Council had sent them on a mission to this reservation to negotiate a deal between two primitives tribes – the last remaining tribes on their industrialized world – Obi-Wan had thought it would be an easy mission. The two tribes were not at war, and were not known to be violent. They had never really had any trouble before. Now, though, both tribes were being inescably stubborn about the whole thing and so a compromise could not be reached – and had not been reached for nearly two years.
Little did he know that was because the whole lot of them were nuts. He had soon found them to be not only stubborn, but very odd in their thinking. Well, odd in the sense that there appeared to be no rhyme or reason to their tradition. What was true one day, was not the next. A strange happening on one day was a tradition a week later. A mistake became a rule. And of course, these things added up so quickly it was impossible – except for the tribes, it would seem – to adapt. The constant shifting of everything served to completely confuse not only the issue, but the Jedi as well. Or maybe the tribesmen were just seeing if they could play with a Jedi's mind. Both tribes seemed to be enjoying the confusion they were causing. It did seem to make sense to Obi-Wan, though, after he remembered the rest of the culture of the planet – they were industrialized, but known for their creative techniques in getting things done. And the people treasured mischief, believing that through it one would be truly living life.
Then Anakin, being his untactful self, flirted with a teenage girl his age, sixteen or so. Apparently this treasuring of mischief didn't extend to outworlders . . . or when it concerned certain family members.
Disaster. Very insulted – the family, not the girl – they had thrown the Jedi into this pit. Obi-Wan had told Anakin when they were being brought to the pit that they shouldn't resist, since they still had to work out the deal. And they would likely be able to easily escape anything the natives could come up with.
How did they dig this hole, anyway?
In a slow, inevitable motion, a slab of their prison wall slithered down and buried Obi-Wan's boot.
Obi-Wan looked at Anakin.
Anakin shrugged helplessly and averted his eyes. Obi-Wan sighed, and mentally recited the Jedi Code. Surely there was something about not harming Padawans in there. He knew there was. Otherwise, he was pretty sure Qui-Gon would have murdered him at some point during his training. Although, come to think of it, Qui-Gon was known for breaking the rules . . .
Quickly meeting and then turning away from Obi-Wan's eyes, Anakin made another noble attempt to get out. He tensed and sprang, seeking to jump out of the small prison. Obi-Wan, having tried this before, doubted it would work. And it didn't. The mud on the bottom of the pit was just as sticky and malleable as the rest – which made it impossible to get a firm purchase, with the mud actually drawing in his feet and making it stick in there.
Anakin, not able to get high enough, bounced off a wall – well, smacked it with a wet sound – and fell.
And fell nearly on top of Obi-Wan. The young Master didn't even yell at the boy – he just patted the muddy, sticky shoulder and sighed. Obi-Wan supposed they would just have to wait. Drawing his robe around himself – with difficulty, as it was weighed down with mud – he sat down with a plop.
They were right back to where they had started.
The End.