Jeeze, finally got this story posted! I hope you guys enjoy! I'm working on a cover for this story right now, so hopefully I'll have that up within the next couple of weeks!
"There, this should be high enough for now," Rose instructed. They had reached just below the canopy of the great tree they were climbing. The limbs were smaller than the ones near the base, but they were still thick and plentiful, running every which way. They had settled Qui-Gon into a small crook in the tree, making him as comfortable as they could with a makeshift bed made of the tree's moss.
"We're going to have to make a fire," Rose said, carefully moving over to a flat part of the branch.
"A fire? Are you serious? I'm basically wearing sweat like a blanket under these robes," Obi-Wan joked, holding up his pit-stained arms. Rose laughed a little before making a face.
"That's gross, Kenobi. We don't need it for heat, dork - this planet is a giant greenhouse. We need it for those beasties on the floor. They normally don't climb this high, but there are some that will. The fire'll ward them off. See these vines?" she held up one of the branching smaller vines with her hands and took a knife out of one of her belt's pockets. "If you cut them at the top here - you see where it meets the bigger root? - you can get both a drink of water and nice kindling." Rose sliced the edge of the vine with her knife. Water spewed out for a moment before the cut on the main branch healed over in a glazed goo. She lifted the edge of the now cut vine up to her mouth and drank down the watery contents, grateful for the refreshing drink. When the vine was empty, it shriveled up almost instantly, the once green color turning a muddy brown.
"Where did you even learn all of this?" Obi-Wan asked, cutting his own vine and taking a drink for himself. Rose took the shriveled root from his hand and searched around for a natural dent in the branch. Luckily, there was one close to Qui-Gon, and Rose began tearing the dead vines and putting them into the hole.
"My old man was a hunter for our tribe. I tagged along every once and awhile," Rose began to explain. "Well, snuck along, really, and then got yelled at. Hey, I need to borrow you for a second," Rose said. Obi-Wan crouched down opposite to her, ready to offer whatever help he could.
"Draw your saber and put the blade next to the roots," Rose instructed, moving onto her stomach. Obi-Wan did as he was told and drew his saber, placing the blade dangerously close to Rose's head. She picked up one of the roots and nudged it close to the blade until she saw small embers on the root. Slowly, she placed the root back into the hole and began to blow gently onto the embers, hoping they would spread and ignite. Within a couple of minutes, a fire was roaring in the crook of the branch. Rose saw the look of horror cross Obi-Wan's face and laughed.
"Relax, dork. These big ass trees are fire proof. Trust me - I tried to light these suckers a hundred times when I was a kid, but the bark has more heat resistance than most metals," Rose reassured him. She leaned against the tree next to Qui-Gon, and Obi-Wan breathed a sigh of relief before sitting next to her. They sat in silence for a few moments, watching the flickering of the fire in front of them. Rose Took her robe off and covered Qui-Gon before taking out her saber pieces.
"Guess I should try to fix them," she said, dumping out the pieces in front of her.
"Aren't the crystals shattered?" Obi-Wan asked, picking up a screw. Rose put a hand on her chin in thought before reaching into one of her belt's pockets, taking out the two krayt pearls her uncle had given her years before.
"Yep. Remember my uncle, Ty? The one we met on Dantooine? The pearls he gave me can be used in these suckers, just gotta tune them right," Rose said, looking at the small, white balls in her hand. They clanked together lightly before an idea hit her. "You could help me do it."
"Er, what?"
"Help me tune them, Obi-Wan," Rose said, her hopeful eyes meeting his. "Come on, Obs. Not like we're going anywhere anytime soon." Obi-Wan looked at the held-out marbles in her hands and took one before turning to face her, crossing his legs. Rose did the same and the two of them joined hands, pearls clasped between their fingers. She was momentarily caught off guard by the softness of his hands in her own sweaty ones.
"How does this work, exactly?" Obi-Wan asked, peeking one of his eyes open.
"No clue, but I think this is the part where the Force will be our guide," Rose said, trying to draw her attention back to the pearls between their fingers.
"My, you have changed, Rose," Obi-Wan said quietly. The young padawans focused their energies together, feeling the Force circling between them. Rose allowed her consciousness to melt into the flow, losing all sense of existence. The endless stream of light that filled her mind seemed to grow brighter and brighter with every moment that passed until, in an instant, there was darkness once again. Rose opened her eyes to the soft glow of the fire on Obi-Wan's face, his stormy eyes staring back into hers. It was night now, and the light of the fire was the only thing allowing Rose to see. In the distance, the songs of the night could be heard, the thousands of creatures communicating with each other in a thunderous chorus. Rose's eyes dropped to their hands, and Obi-Wan hastily untangled his from hers, leaving two milky marbles in her palms.
"Holy shit, it actually worked," Rose said, holding up the pearls into the light.
"That was the easy part if you consider the fact you have to reconstruct your sabers from scraps," said Obi-Wan. He got up from his seated position and moved over to Qui-Gon, checking his master for any signs of life.
"Well, I never say 'no' to a challenge," Rose mumbled, picking through the pieces of her sabers while she looked for a place to begin. "How is he doing?"
"He'll be fine. Just needs rest," Obi-Wan said, leaning back against the tree. "You have fun with that."
"You know, I did some reading on these pearl things while I was on Shili. Master Ti would bring me some, ahem, 'light reading,' as she liked to call it. More like libraries, if you ask me. Anyway, one of the books she brought had these pearls in it. Said that only the Jedi who tuned the pearls could use them," Rose said, fumbling around with some pieces. Luckily, in her haste to scoop the pieces into the bag, the screwdriver had also been swept away, leaving Rose with a tool to use. "If it turns out only you can use them, I'm totally stealing your lightsaber. Just a heads up." Obi-Wan laughed a little, pulling his cloak over his eyes.
"Whatever you say, shorty."
"Don't call me shorty," Rose shot back at him, her head snapping around at his. "My height is perfectly fine, thank you very much."
"Whatever you say, shorty," said Obi-Wan with a yawn. Rose shot him a death glare - one he could feel through his hood. "If you can call me dork, I can call you shorty."
"But you are a dork. I'm not short - I'm fun-sized," Rose corrected him with a growl. "There's a difference."
"Right, my mistake, it seems," he said with a light chuckle.
"Guess I'll take first watch," Rose ignored his bantering and went back to work. She worked diligently, but was sure to keep her eyes and ears open. Occasionally, she thought she heard the low growl of something lurking in the shadows or the snap of a branch below her. Deciding it wasn't going to do him any good while he was unconscious, Rose carefully unhooked Qui-Gon's saber from his belt and kept it close by her side in case she should need it. The night had grown still, sending uncomfortable chills down Rose's spine. Her people had regarded this as the "Quiet Time" - a period when the whole forest would go silent until morning. It was when the largest predators hunted - a time Rose was dreading since they had landed.
Rose swallowed her fear and worked quicker, her fingers beginning to fumble over the small parts. This time around, she found it easier to see how the different pieces fit together, but found it annoying when she had to stop and pound dents out of a part that had been smashed by the boulders. As her only tool, Rose had used the hilt of her knife to try and smooth out the metal pieces, a gash in her hand forming from the scraping of the blade against her palm. She frowned as she looked at the pieces in front of her.
"Oi, dork. Wake up," Rose said, shaking Obi-Wan awake. He stirred for a moment before propping himself up.
"You rang?" he yawned, reaching a hand up to rub his eyes.
"Were these the only parts you found?" Rose asked, still searching around the pieces with her eyes.
"Yeah. Why?"
"I'm missing a part for one of these," Rose said, a hint of annoyance in her voice. "One of the crystal mounts - it isn't here."
"Well, I picked up all the parts I saw," Obi-Wan said, his eyes glancing over the metal fragments. "Guess you'll have to improvise."
"Improvise?" Rose echoed venomously. The other padawan was taken aback by the ferocity in which she spat out her words at him, and a feeling of fear tingled at him as he saw her eyes light up with tints of fury. "One of the most powerful hand held weapons a person can have, and you want me to fucking improvise with one of the parts to this thing?"
"Well, you always did like a challenge," Obi-Wan pointed out. "I don't know - put something in there to hold it in place that can withstand the heat."
"Where in the blazes am I going to get something that could -" Rose stopped for a moment. Obi-Wan opened his mouth to speak, but Rose held up a finger, silencing him immediately. Quietly, Rose picked up Qui-Gon's lightsaber, ready to draw it. The scraping of claws against something confirmed Rose's fear: whatever it was that was hunting them, it finally caught up.
Silently standing up, Rose moved over closer to the fire, her eyes darting everywhere at once. The light crackle of the fire filled the air, only drowned out by the occasional scraping sound. A low growl came from her right, but when Rose turned to face it, the mystery creature had disappeared. Obi-Wan came and stood next to her, their backs together as they stared out into the darkness, looking for any sign of life.
"This isn't right," Rose mumbled.
"What do you mean?" Obi-Wan asked, eyes still on the darkness.
"If it was something that was going to eat us, it would've by now," Rose hissed. "Come out, ya scaredy cats. I know you're out there."
A rustle behind them startled Obi-Wan, but when he looked over at Rose, he saw no emotion on her face except for a solid frown etched in stone. Three figures emerged from unseen places. Rose assumed two of them climbed from below and one from above based on the way they approached.
"State your business on Varia," one said, presumably the leader. He spoke in the native tongue of the planet, sealing Obi-Wan from the conversation.
"We crash landed a long distance away from here. Just need a ship and medicine and we'll be out of your hair," Rose replied blandly, her eyes steady on the tall man in front of her. She noticed the markings on his arm and how they seemed to flex with his muscles. He stared her up and down for a moment before nodding to the other two men, who each grabbed an arm of Qui-Gon. The leader snuffed out the fire and spoke to Rose and Obi-Wan in the common tongue.
"Follow," he ordered. Rose's eyes never left his retreating figure. After swooping down and picking up their materials, Rose followed him down the side of the tree, Obi-Wan close in suit. Carefully making their way back down, Rose saw the ship they had come in that was parked a few branches down. They all climbed in, the two padawans sitting on either side of Qui-Gon as the ship took off.
"What's going on?" Obi-Wan whispered into Rose's ear.
"I'm handling it," Rose snapped back. "I think." One of the men swiveled around and faced them, his dark hair blowing in the breeze.
"Need something?" asked Rose, unamused. His eyes laughed at her own.
"Not a thing," he smirked. "You're those Jedi, aren't you?"
"What's it to you?" Rose hissed. Obi-Wan put a hand on her shoulder.
"I don't think it would bode well for us if we taunt the people who rescued us," he cautioned, but Rose just shrugged his grip off.
"Don't call it rescuing just yet," the ship rose above the treeline just as dawn was approaching. Obi-Wan looked out the side of the craft and down into a canyon below, the roots of surrounding trees spilling into the chasm.
"What a beautiful planet," Obi-Wan murmured quietly. In the distance, he could just barely make out what seemed to be huts suspended in the trees, vast bridges connecting them together. As they moved closer and the thick fog cleared out, he saw a grand tree that hovered far over any he had seen since they had landed on the planet. Faint lights came from outcoves everywhere, and as they neared the treetop village, the curious eyes of villagers landed on them.
"Welcome to Tarumba."