"If you keep looking back we'll only get to the Donari by morning!" Called Lie Ren as he led the way through the unfamiliar paths of the forest, guiding Obi-Wan up numerous ladders, rising them higher into the canopy. Leaves and branches grabbed at Obi-Wan as he climbed after the Miraluka, slowing his progress further. "She's safe with Jem'ah and Father."
"I'm not worried about Satine's safety." Sighed Obi-Wan as he continued to pull his body upwards, his hand already reaching out to grab the next wooden rung. "I'm worried about her stubbornness."
"You actually think she'd follow us up here?" Lie called back down, pausing on a hidden platform at the end of the ladder. The Miraluka had his hands on his hips, taking this opportunity as the Padawan struggled to catch up with him to catch his breath.
"There's nothing she wouldn't do if it meant protecting her sister." Panted Obi-Wan, finally reaching the platform besides Lie and placing his hands on his knees as he struggled to catch his breath, silently wondering how much higher Lie expected them to climb. The Padawan looked up at the canopy that created a dome around the forest inhabitants and started to see streams of light breaking through the thicket. Faint, warm steaks of sunlight, the first he'd seen since the bounty hunter had marched them into the darkness so many days before.
"Say's the man who's literally going to fall into the belly of the beast, one he's just escaped from I may add, for that same woman."
"It's my mission to keep her safe." Obi-Wan argued, repeating the same excuse he had been using for months, the response escaping him before he could stop himself.
"What you've done for her, that goes beyond any mission." Lie observed, leading Obi-Wan towards a rope bridge that continued to take them higher.
"Hmmm, you may be right there." Admitted Obi-Wan wandering once again just how much higher Lie Ren planned to lead him. "She's been at my side for so long I've come to consider her as my companion."
"Companion? As in friend?!" Lie exclaimed, causing the bridge to rock with his sudden movements.
"I guess… Why do you say it with such surprise?"
"Because there has to be more to it than that!" But, before Obi-Wan could ask the scout to elaborate further, the Padawan gasped as his head broke through the canopy to reveal the sky above. Bathed in the crimson light of sunset a sea of leaves surrounded the pair in a breathtaking sight. Birds Obi-Wan had never seen before fluttered away at their sudden appearance, their refuge invaded by these two unknown invaders. It was a sight beyond words and, for a moment, Obi-Wan couldn't help but feel small. He could feel the hum of the creatures of this forests- the trees, the birds, even the insects. These were all organisms living their own life, unconcerned by the turmoils the Padawan had had to go through and those yet to come, Creatures unaffected by the wars waged upon another planet's surface. And yet, Obi-Wan couldn't help thinking of each creature, and how small he fell in contrast to all the lives that lived on this rock too small to be called a planet. Each was on its own quest, none less important than his own in their eyes and the realisation left him with a strange, lonely feeling. The Padawan dwelled on this sonder as the sun began to touch the horizon, allowing its warmth to give him strength for his upcoming task.
"This way." Lie Ran explained, manoeuvring across yet another, even narrower platform, towards a passage embedded in the branches completely hidden from the world below.
And, with the Miraluka's words, the spell was broken, and Obi-Wan and his mission became the center of his world, of his own life, once again. The young man spared the way they had come from a final glance, sending a prayer to whoever may listen to keep her out of harm's way while he was gone.
"If you continue to pace like that you'll open your wounds again." Jem'ah sighed, as she continued to prepare an ointment that she was carefully scooping into resin lined wooden jars that she had steaming over the central village fire. All across the Miraluka village, the residents were continuing with their usual work, clothes being washed over smaller fires, food being prepared for the many mouths to be fed that evening. In a corner, a small group of children were eagerly beating the dust out of some furs that were hung, making a game out of their chore.
However, amidst this village of normality Satine was unable to vanish. Her anxiety distracted the villagers as they worked however, most chose to ignore it, understanding her concern and worry. That is, all but Jem'ah.
"He shouldn't have gone alone to help my sister." Satine murmured, continuing with her anxious pacing. "We should have done reconnaissance… she may not even be there!"
"I know Lie Ren doesn't count for much but he is not technically alone." Reasoned Jem'ah, carefully placing a lightly glowing berry into the jar she had been working on.
"I should be the one to have gone with him though!" Continued to protest Satine, each muscle filled with energy to the point that she feared, if she didn't move, she'd explode.
"And then he would have to worry about you as well." Jem'ah explained mercilessly, placing a strangely whittled stick, one which had a narrow shaft and a large, flattened end, into the jar, concentrating on crushing the berry and mixing the contents of the ointment evenly.
"But-" Began Satine.
"But!" Echoed Jem'ah, exasperated and silencing the girl. "What if you got captured again? What if the girl isn't your sister? What if the Donari realise we Miraluka have aided the escape of their captives- again? What if our sun decides not to rise tomorrow?"
"What if he gets hurt… or worse?" The duchess whispered, tugging at the sleeves of her dress. Jem'ah sighed inwardly, asking the Force for patience
"Have faith, he's not your usual city boy."
"Yes, I know, he is a Padawan." Sighed Satine, that realisation doing little to calm her nerves.
"Not only… he's also got someone to come back to." Jem'ah added slyly, causing the younger woman to blush. Ever since the pair had spoken about her feelings towards Obi-Wan, Satine, much to her frustration, had been finding difficulty hiding her emotions as efficiently as she used to. Obviously, the Padawan was oblivious to the reaction certain things he did had on the duchess- when his hands would linger a little too long, or he would look at her a little too intently. Satine couldn't make her feeling clearer if she didn't, almost literally, wear her heart on her sleeve.
Unable to come up with a suitable comeback to the healer's words, Satine returned to her pacing. The duchess did so as Jem'ah attempted to continue with her work and she succeeded, for the most part. She'd prepared a number of the ointments she required, however Satine hadn't been much help, her unrestrained emotions an unwanted distraction. Jem'ah had had enough when a young Miraluka mother in one of the closer huts struggled, and failed, to calm her infant's bellowing wails. Nothing the new mum could do would silence her child, carefully swaddled in blankets, for the infant's crying was not for its own anguish, but a result of Satine's emotions polluting the usually peaceful air of the village.
"I've had enough!" Jem'ah mumbled to herself. "Satine, stop your blasted pacing and help me carry these to the sunning area."
"R-right!" Jumped Satine, being dragged out of her thoughts but was still not oblivious to the irritation in the healer's voice. She quickly reached out for the jars Jem'ah was handing her and, in her rush, dropped one. Gritting her teeth, Satine reached down to retrieve it as Jem'ah looked up at the canopied sky, asking the gods for patience. The healer then placed the rest of the jars in a basket, surely big enough to carry those Satine was also holding, and began to lead the way across one of the many bridges. As Satine struggled with her balance as she walked over the slightly swaying bridge, she couldn't help wonder why the healer insisted she hold onto these jars as she was, rather than carry them in her basket. However, Satine didn't have to be Force sensitive to know Jem'ah was not in the mood for such questions and she'd rather not face her wrath.
The pair walked in silence, Jem'ah leading the way through the branches and leaves until they came to the end of a large platform with a ladder disappearing into the leaves above, securely held in places by thick vines.
"Give those here." Ordered Jem'ah, reaching out her free hand to finally take back the jars Satine had been carrying. Careful not to drop any of them again, Satine did as she was instructed. Relieved of her load, Jem'ah walked towards a dangling vine, as inconspicuous as the rest, and carefully tied it around the handle of her basket. When she was satisfied with how secure the knot was, she carefully placed it on the platform's wooden floor and walked towards the ladder.
"It's only up from here." She said as she began to climb up, giving Satine no other option but to follow.
They climbed for several minutes, Satine's still healing back protesting at this unusual form of exercise and she almost sighed in relief, when she pulled herself onto another platform. However, Jem'ah was already at work, tugging at a piece of vine that seemed to have been integrated into some primitive pulley system. With the ease of someone who had been doing such things for years, Jem'ah swiftly pulled the rope towards herself only stopping when the basket of medication was dangling within reach.
"C'mon, we have to get all the way to the top." Jem'ah explained, leading Satine towards a bridge, hidden amongst the unruly upper branches and leaves of the trees.
"What is the reason for all this?" Satine gasped, looking up at the end of the bridge, where another ladder awaited them.
"Before the agreement with the Donari, the lower levels were considered almost uninhabitable so our ancestors chose to build upwards, deeper into the canopy leading to places only the sun and moon could touch and, more importantly, out of the Donari's reach.'' The healer explained, having arrived at the end of the bridge and was tying the basket to yet another vine which, Satine assumed, was attached to another pulley system somewhere beyond her vision.
"You went through so much trouble…" Satine began as she watched the healer begin to climb up the next ladder.
"We had no ships to leave this place and, when it's the only home you've known, it's not so easy to leave." Jem'ah elaborated.
The two women continued to travel in silence after that, the exertion of the continuous climbing causing them to focus on their breathing and not falling down. The pair reached two more platforms before Satine's head emerged above the canopy, a beautiful, fresh breeze washing over her face causing her to blink at the sudden openness that greeted them.
Night had fallen over Draboon, filling the sky with countless stars and Satine's first thought was to wonder which one was Mandalore, an inkling of homesickness diminishing the splendour of the view before her. However the beauty of the night was not limited just to the sky but her surroundings as well. Fluttering slowly in the cool night air, hovering over flowers that bloomed only at night, were small specks of lights, insects so small and yet capable of producing their own light. Nestled amongst the canopy, fluorescent berries similar to those found closer to the ground continued to contribute to the area's ethereal feel.
"Wow." Satine gasped, the light reflecting in her pale eyes.
"I must agree with you there." Jem'ah smiled, looking around and savouring the world's beauty before she began her work on the pulley, bringing the basket to them one last time. Jem'ah worked as efficiently as she had on the lower levels, however, the main difference on this level was that she placed her basket within a large wooden cage strapped to the platform, locked with a thickened cord to keep creatures away.
"I wonder what Obi-Wan would say if he saw this." Satine couldn't help wonder.
"Well we can always wait and find out," Jem'ah casually said, causing the younger woman to look at her quizzically. "If Lie Ren's plan is a success they should return through here. It's a different path to the one you used to escape the first time. We've used it only a few times and the Donari are too busy looking at the ground to look at the skies."
Jem'ah said that last observation rather smugly, most likely pleased at having the upper hand over the Mandalorian tribe.
"I can't ask you to wait…" Began Satine but Jem'ah quickly shut her up.
"You'll cause more trouble for the village if you go back feeling so angsty."
"R-right." Satine sighed, shaking her head. "I'm sorry for causing you trouble."
"Don't apologise." Jem'ah snapped, though not cruelly. "Let's just wait for those two idiots to get back."
And so the pair waited, each left to their own thoughts. By the time they heard the explosion the moon had travelled quite some distance across the sky. The leaves rustled in the warm breeze that it emitted, the light it produced short and bright, a blinding contrast to the darkness Satine's eyes had become accustomed to. The sudden sound caused Satine to stand and jostled Jem'ah out of her sleep.
"Damn Lie and his explosions." She grumbled, rubbing her head where a headache was forming.
Satine couldn't help hold her breath, the two men had briefly explained their plans but seeing it unfold made it seem even more insane. If Obi-Wan could confirm the girl in question was Luna, they were to use small explosions to direct the Donari's attention away from the prisons while Obi-Wan used the Force to sneak in and free the captives. He'd then slip out before the Donari even knew they had been infiltrated. The pair had entered the fray assuming that that plan wouldn't work for very long but it was something.
Satine watched, almost captivated, as a number of explosions followed the first, each a different colour. From this distance Satine couldn't hear the Donari but she could imagine the chaos and she couldn't help feel a little satisfied with causing that despicable tribe some trouble. The satisfaction was only hindered by the thought that, in the midst of that chaos and destruction, was Obi-Wan and, possibly, her sister.
Satine was not one for prayer but she sent a silent wish to the Force, an entity that had filled her days since the start of the war, that they would return to her, safe. However, if the Force heard her wish she didn't know, but with each explosion that filled the night Satine's unease grew.
"That fool better calm it with the explosions, we don't want to set the whole forest on fire!" Grumbled Jem'ah, folding her arms, but then she looked up at the sky. " If I scold Enoch on his son's stunts he'd just say he read the weather."
"Weather?" Satine echoed, so preoccupied with Obi-Wan's wellbeing, the fact the forest could actually burn down hadn't crossed her mind. The duchess looked up to see that, since their arrival that evening, the sky had slowly clouded over, the moon barely visible through the thick layer of clouds.
"With the rains we've been having it means the soils and wood won't burn so easily." Jem'ah explained, "but I doubt that fool would have thought that far ahead."
"Right." Satine's mouth felt dry as she continued to realise that, due to her selfishness, the whole forest and all the inhabitants in it were at risk. "As long as they don't touch the Mandalorian Fire…"
"If the glow turns green, then we'll run, agreed?" Jem'ah finished, strangely unfazed by the prospect of her home being burnt down.
Although the healer was most likely joking, Satine couldn't help but catch her breath each time an explosion occurred, watching to see if she saw even the slightest tinge of green. And then, just as suddenly as they had started they stopped and, although the light of the Donari's village was still obvious, the silence that filled the night sky was deafening.
"Now we wait." Jem'ah concluded, her voice cementing the spell the silence cast.