Get down from there
"Obi Wan, get down from there." Qui Gon only threw the order over his shoulder. He didn't pause his steady hike through the trees to say it and his voice wasn't stiff or scolding, so Obi Wan paid it little mind.
They were traveling along a packed-dirt footpath from starport to a low tech village in the Lodi System. The walk took them through natural forests and impressive granite mountains luring Obi Wan to find amusement on the side of the thin road, hopping on rocks and leaping over logs. He was bouncy and curious. He liked reaching for glimpses of mountain peaks through the trees or peaking around trunks into the forest just to see what was there.
When the path traveled across a stone footbridge, Obi Wan leapt onto the railing and shot his arms out like an airplane to tight-rope across the short expanse.
"Obi Wan -." Qui Gon interrupted himself when he saw what the pre-teen was doing, stopped his march and turned back to face the boy. He wrapped his hands patiently in front of him and waited, chin down, almost smirking but not quite.
Obi Wan glanced up from his focus on his feet, meeting Qui Gon's parental glare with a guarded but daring eye… and continued his fast balanced feet along the top of the railing.
From his clasped hands in front of him, Qui Gon lifted an index finger in gesture to speak, but Obi Wan never got the chance to hear what he said. His boot yanked back before stepping on a silver and orange snake curled up on the railing. Obi Wan jumped back with a yelp, lost his balance and plunged into the stagnant pool below.
Dirty water wrapped around his body in a shock of cold. Slime tickled his face. He did not want to open his eyes to the filth. Moss clung magnetically to his tunic. His robe tangled between kicking legs. He found the bottom and pushed off with his boots, only to have them sink into the mud. Tadpoles swam between his fingers. His arms flapped to push himself to the surface, but the stems of lily pads tangled his wrists. Moss weighed him down, preventing him from floating. He wasn't sure which way was up. He had to open his eyes.
He squinted only a peak, just enough to spot the light and know which way to go. The surface of the water was only a few feet away and the edge of the pool close by. Stringy moss and floating foliage framed a circle of clear surface water, a rippling picture of sunlight shining down on Qui Gon's brightly laughing face, a glowing vision in the dark depths of the icky pool.
Obi Wan swam in that direction, fighting the moss that tangled him, found the soft mud in the shallow, crawled out of the water on his hands and knees and faced the big brown boots of his master.
Qui Gon calmed his laugh out of respect but the mouth behind his beard was still rippling with a poorly contained smirk. "Are you all right?"
Obi Wan spit moss and twigs from his mouth. He glared up the towering length of his Master. "You did that on purpose."
Qui Gon shrugged away and shook his head. "I only created the vision of a snake to see if you were paying attention." He cocked an eyebrow at the boy as he turned back to the foot path. "You fell in all by yourself."