Tatooine was a reasonable enough planet in Kobayashi's eyes. To be honest, she didn't quite know whether she preferred the sweltering heat of her current home on the desert planet, or the chill of the tundra planet Hoth. Regardless, it was where she must be at the time being and so there she would stay until it came time to take her leave.
It was early morning, just the perfect time for Koba. As she saw the sun rise in the distance, she emerged from her hut and glided through the sand in her sandals and simple tunic. Her eyes landed on her mentor's hut, sensing he was stilling sleeping within, and headed to the perch on the top of the hill where the sun shone the brightest and warmed the sand the most. There she sat, overlooking the desolate canyon below, although probably crowded with the unseen Tusken Raiders; typically hostile creatures of Tatooine that hid within crevices in the sandstone. It would seem that they were rather solitary creatures until someone were to trespass upon their 'territory'. Koba made sure to stay clear of the indigenous Sand People.
Koba inhaled, coming to sit cross-legged over the canyon with her face directed toward the sun. She rested her hands on her thighs, palm up and open, and began to meditate. Fantastical images of slender, somehow sentient tendrils of white light curled and twisted in the air all around her, sweet murmurs of reassurance streaming into her ears as she felt the connection between herself and the Force strengthen. It was a feeling of ethereal being, as though she was more than just a life form upon a planet within a galaxy.
Yet she knew that was all she was, and so her attitude remained level and she did not let arrogance cloud her judgement. As she felt the Force respond within her she concentrated on lifting herself, barely breathing as the sand began to lightly swirl below her when she began to hover a short distance above surface, coming to a foot, then two, and then three feet above the sand.
"I see you've awaken before me once again." Came the voice of her mentor. She wavered for a moment, then realized it was his intention to break her concentration.
"The Force never rests, Kenobi, yet I must rest to use it. Therefore I awaken early, for then it does not have to wait, and neither do I." His footsteps were soundless as he strode up beside her to overlook the canyon below.
"I see. An interesting perspective."
"From an interesting person." Her lip curled, forming a lopsided grin familiar to Obi-Wan's old eyes.
"And now you are being arrogant."
"A side effect of immortality seems to be to satirize one's life."
"I see, yet I do not remember Yoda, although not immortal himself but quite old, was not so arrogant." He commented slyly. Koba's eyes rolled beneath her curtained eyes.
Finally she sighed and hovered another foot above the ground before releasing her hold on the Force, and setting herself to her feet, relaxing her body as though she had exerted a muscle. "Let's not talk about this." She said, then opened her eyes to look to Obi-Wan. "Do you feel it?"
Obi-Wan's eyes crinkled at the corners as his brow furrowed. His apprentice- well, he could hardly call her that anymore, gazed off into the distance. Clouds of emotion shrouded her eyes. She could sense something. "I do not. What is it that you feel?"
"I feel something in the Force. I can feel it in my bones. Something is different, as though this day may be crucial... To what, I don't know."
Obi-Wan's expression relaxed, and his gaze followed Koba's. "I always found your connection to the Force peculiar, Kobayashi. As though it is something that can be felt at a far greater level than most Jedi. As though it is a being to you."
"Is it not? The Force is an anomaly, after all." She murmured. "I can't explain this connection but... I feel it. I feel the descendant of Anakin's power."
"Darth Vad-"
Koda's eyes flashed, mirroring the sun's fiery amber for a dash of a moment before settling on Obi-Wan and returning to the shade of faded moss. "That is not his name."
"Anakin," he corrected, and her gaze became lighter yet still bore the same weight, "is too far away to have an influence here.."
"Yet his son is not. I..." Something shattered within her. Her lips would not move to allow her to speak. A hand suddenly settled upon her shoulder, squeezing reassurance..
"The child is not necessarily his father. You are right to be wary, but do not over encumber yourself." Obi-Wan's hand slipped from Koba's shoulder to fold with its partner in front of him. His young friend's brow remained furrowed, and not just from the sun's harsh light.
"I haven't seen Luke since he was in his mother's arms. I wonder what he is like now." She murmured. The two, mentor and apprentice, shared one last look before they gazes stretched to the brightening sky and awaited what the day would bring.
The afternoon brought along a new wave of heat and fatigue that settled on Koba's shoulders. She had shed her cloak as she sat in her shaded hovel and read one of the many volumes that lined her shelf. The current being one she had read at least three times already, explaining in detail that history of the galaxy, and the origin of the Jedi. She skimmed through the worn pages, her eyes drooping as the heat took its toll on her.
It's decided. I much prefer a climate that I can stay awake in.
She closed the book, tossing it into the air and waving a hand, sending the book levitating through the air to settle onto her shelf. Koba rose form her chair and stretched her limbs, then stepped back outside.
"I miss Naboo. It was such a wonderfully colorful planet." She ventured toward Obi-Wan's hovel and peered within. Her mentor sat before a pot strung above a fire. "I wish I could visit again. I wish I could visit anywhere again."
"Perhaps you should stop declining when I request your company on my trips to other planets."
"It isn't my fault every time you've requested my company I've been tied up in other matters. For example, the time when the villages were being harassed by Tusken Raiders. The day I went to aid the village you decided to take a ship to Dagobah. Coincidence? I think not!"
Her hands collided forcibly with the chair before Obi-Wan, but he was not startled and simply turned his relaxed eyes on Koba. "You're imagining things."
She spun and plunked herself onto the chair across from him. "Since when do I imagine things?"
"When you are fatigued. You also act as though you are a child again."
"Will I ever really stop being a child, Obi-Wan?" Her liked curled in her familiar lop-sided grin, and Obi-wan allowed his features to soften and a smile to lighten his eyes.
"No. I suppose not."
"Besides," She began mindlessly petting one of the small braids that hung on opposite sides of her face, "this morning I decided it would be a less than satisfactory day."
Koba kept her eyes from meeting Obi-Wan's, instead turning to the fire crackling beneath the pot before her. She stared, longer and longer until her eyes felt as dry as the sand the had become enveloped in for the last decade and some.
The flames suddenly crackled, yet Koba didn't hear anything after. It was as though her surroundings faded into nothing. No longer did the same air circulate through her, but an ethereal force that gave her life and energy. Before her eyes was a new set of scenery. The buzzing of a motor began to hum rhythmically in her ears. A flurry of beeps accompanied the tiny motor, and with her mind's eye she could see the shape of a white and blue R2 droid buzzing as it strolled through a canyon.
Her vision faded, and reality snapped back into play to leave her slightly breathless and cheeks flushed. When she looked ahead she saw that Obi-Wan was already on his feet, heading out the door. Her vision must have been evident for Obi-Wan's eyes held the tone of urgency that no voice could replicate. Her heart hammered in her chest while she scrambled after him and shot through the door without a bother to the rest of her robe, leaving her sleeveless in her summer tunic.
"It was R2." She said.
"Are you sure?"
"Of course. It felt like R2-D2."
"Well then, perhaps you were right. Today may just be a pivotal moment in the galaxy's history."
The galaxy's history? I never said that... She thought stepping up to lead the way to the site of her premonition.