Chapter 3: Peaceful Realization

The next morning Naita awoke startled not recognizing her surroundings right away. Her neck and shoulders were sore from not moving the entire night and she sat straight up in bed cursing at herself for it. She looked down and realized that all of her cuts had been treated and that she was had been stripped down to her undergarments.

Naita looked around the room for her clothes blushing and then set eyes on a fresh cream-colored tunic and matching pants folded over the end of the bed. She crawled to the end of the bed feeling each muscle ache as she moved and began getting dressed. The earthen floor was cool to her feet and she sighed at the simple pleasure of it as she tied the sash tightly around her waist. Her dark hair flowed wildly in her face and she growled as she desperately tried to pull it behind her ears. She then turned as she heard a laugh from the doorway.

"I was wondering when you were going to wake up." Obi-Wan chuckled leaning against the post.

"How long have you been standing there?" Naita asked blushing at herself.

"Just a moment. I thought I'd ask you if you felt up for some breakfast." He said casually with a small smile. Naita returned the gesture and nodded following him into the next room.

Naita sat hunched over in the chair with her feet folded quietly staring at the bread and fruit on the table with an absent mind. Obi-Wan sat opposite of her also ignoring his food, simply looking over the pattern of her injuries. They sat in silent for a moment before Obi-Wan asked, "What happened?"

She glanced over at her cup of water and took a drink of it hesitant to answer him. They had known each other for a few months, but she didn't want to cause any sort of trouble between her master and her friend. Ginfor was very powerful and well known on this side of Tatooine.

"Ben, I don't want you to protect me. I got into trouble with my master, and this is the punishment for my actions. " She set her cup back on the table feeling his eyes on her but didn't look up to meet them. Obi-Wan reached across the table and hooked a finger under her chin to stare her in the eye.

"If you are to say you deserve this," He brushed his thumb gently against the cut above her eye. "Then you are mistaken. Nobody, absolutely nobody deserves treatment like this." He concluded sitting back in his chair breaking his bread and taking a bite of it.

"Why did you offer to care for me?" Naita asked quietly still staring up at him, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. "Even Slaif, has just let me stay at the night club…but he's never taken care of me like you have. Why would you do that?"

Obi-Wan shrugged slightly tilting his head up as if the answer were more than obvious.

"Because," He started "You and I are friends, and I wanted to make sure that you were well cared for. And of course you know what they say, if you want something done right you might as well do it yourself. So, here we are hmm?" He smiled up from his cup and took another bite of bread.

"Oh, and I know the meal isn't much but it fills you up and makes you strong."

Naita smiled up at him taking a piece of fruit nodding in affirmation. She was truly grateful that he had volunteered to take care of her. This action proved all her theories that men were power-hungry creatures alive in the universe to please themselves to be untrue and a side of her felt relieved for that.

In her thirty-six years of being, no one had ever shown such compassion towards her as this man she had known for only a few months. She had tried to make the best of her life by being optimistic, and getting away to the tavern every night had made a worlds difference on her outlook. When she was there mingling and dancing with all the other species, she felt more than a slave. She felt like she was somebody. Like she was free.

Of course her Master, Ginfor had always disapproved of his slaves having other activities in the night but did little to prevent it. And thus, Naita kept her one small pleasure in life.

After the meal, Naita helped Obi-Wan clean the kitchen as best as she could. She had a small limp in her walk and Obi-Wan insisted that she sit down and let him take care of it, but she would have none of it.

"If I'm to stay here a few days, I should help out with the work. Its only fair." She argued with him. Finally Obi-Wan picked the woman up and took her into the bedroom setting her on the bed.

"If I can't take care of you, how are you supposed to heal?" He told her with his arms folded. "We would be at square one again if you were to take a nasty fall Naita." He reasoned. "Just stay off of your feet and let your body recuperate hm?" He then sat in a chair across from the bed and shut his eyes taking a deep breath through his nose and exhaling a moment later out his mouth.

Naita stared at him with interest, almost afraid to speak for a moment.

"Ben," She whispered. "What're you doing?"

"Trying to meditate. Let the force flow through me." He answered in a monotone voice and went back to his breathing pattern. Naita crept out of the bed as slowly and quietly as she could and sat on the floor in front of Obi-Wan trying to see if anything else was happening. Her child-like curiosity took over her actions at that moment and she drew her index finger up to poke him in the nose nearly dying of surprise when his hand came up to snatch hers and his eyes shot open. Obi-Wan laughed at her expression a moment pulling her hair out of her face.

"Ben…what is the force?" She asked propping an elbow on his lap with attentive ears.

Obi-Wan twirled a lock of her raven hair around his finger as he pondered a way to answer so that she would understand. "The force is the energy between all living things. It holds us all together." Naita nodded her head silently trying to process this.

"Do you mean, like the stuff that keeps us alive?" she furrowed her brow at him in question. Obi-Wan nodded at her thought. "More or less."

"What is it that you do all day? Meditate and let the force flow through you, then come to the club at night?"

"Oh no." He said leaning back in the seat some. "I do the work that is needed around here as well. The cooking, washing the clothes, if something gets broken, I fix it. " He continued to play with her hair absent mindedly as she laid her head in his lap sighing some.

"Wish I had such a non-demanding life style. There are always things to be doing where I live. People to serve, things to clean. Never a moments rest until after night fall." Naita sighed enviously.

Naita then stood up with Obi-Wan behind her and began to make her way back towards the bed limping slightly. Her ankle was swollen and she winced every time the slightest amount of pressure was put on it. She stepped to the side at just the wrong angle, and fell back onto Obi-Wan who just looked at her with a smile.

"You've got to be more careful Naita. " He picked her up once more and set her back on the bed, this time sitting beside her. " I wouldn't want you to further injure yourself." She lay back down with her head in his lap again and sighed peacefully.

"You're so nice to me Ben, and I don't deserve it. I'm just a slave you know."

"That isn't true." He corrected her. "You're a person, just like anyone else. No one deserves to be kept and made to do things against their will. Maybe one of these days, the universe will realize that, that isn't fair." Obi-Wan looked down and chuckled slightly at her; She had fallen asleep in his lap. It was the middle of the day, and there wasn't much else to do, so Obi-Wan shrugged and sighed settling beside her in the bed and drifted off to sleep as well.