Week 1 (09.24.07) (UDC 2)


1. Smooth


The inside of the container was smooth as she cleaned it carefully, inspecting it with her fingertips. It had to be smooth everywhere, and she wasn't allowed to look inside to find the imperfections. It would have been so much simpler if only she could have.

Feeling a wave of unspoken reproach at her longing to look rather than feel, Mara winced. Without even looking up at him, she knew he was frowning while he watched her from his throne chair.

She sighed noiselessly and continued the exercise, careful to shield her unruly thoughts better and more carefully.


2. Rough


It was on her third circle around the containers inner surface that she finally found a rough spot. It wasn't very big, maybe a centimeter across, but it was there. Now, she willed herself to look up at him, nodding once.

When he didn't say anything, she sighed again and continued to feel around the inner surface. Not two inches from that one, she felt another rough spot. Then another… Soon she began to lose count of the rough spots.

"Didn't think you'd find any, did you?"

"No." She saw his point as she pulled her arm out of the container.


3. Dry


"Is it dry, child?"

Mara blinked up at him, startled that he would ask. "I… yes."

"Are you certain?" He stared at her coolly with his eyes, unblinking until she reached back in and began again. "Didn't think so."

"Why…"

"Must you do this?" he finished for her.

"Yes."

"Let me worry about that."

She wanted to sigh longsufferingly and dramatically at his answer. It seemed to be the only answer he really ever gave… his way of saying to be patient when she least wanted to be patient. It wasn't wet, exactly, but it wasn't dry, either.


4. Wrinkled


Her first impression of the desert planet as she piloted her ship toward it after exiting hyperspace was that it looked… wrinkled. The surface of what had to be millions of sand dunes, craggy mountains, and deep valleys… reminded her of wrinkles. Was it possible for a planet to have wrinkles?

Thinking of wrinkles brought her master to the fore of her thoughts. That ever-present and reassuring weight in the back of her mind… Mara decided she liked that thought of wrinkled, ruined flesh and smiled slightly. It wasn't something she could tell him, but Tatooine, for all it's dust, reminded her of home and training.


5. Weathered


Dancing slowly in the arms of the man she loved, Mara felt at peace for the first time in far too long. As if, after being weathered and tanned and trained, she was at last… home, if that made any sense. She closed her eyes and let him lead, and they glided across the dance floor.

It made sense to her, anyway, and that was all that mattered. They'd both been weathered over time… experiences had led them here. To each other.

As she opened her eyes again and looked back at him, she smiled. It was worth it.