Chapter Four – Of deserts and ice

Everything was dark around him. Far away, he could sense something familiar. A presence which made his insides tingle with joy, though he could remember why or who it was. Slowly, he opened his eyes and looked straight into incredibly bright green eyes that were filled with worry.

"Taro," he said as everything came flooding back to him: freeing Knight Secura, the female Werin who had come for Taro and jumping into the ship to save Master Yoda's Padawan. He tried to sit up, and Taro helped him.

He looked around, and noticed that they were in a holding cell. He was lying on the only bed in the cell, and Taro was sitting on the edge of it. "Are you alright?" Anakin turned around to look at Taro. The voice in which he had asked the question had sounded weak and Anakin noticed that he looked a little pale.

"I'm fine, but what about you?" Taro got up from the bed and walked to the other side of the cell. "Taro, what's wrong?" Taro sighed.

"Jendri overloaded your senses when you jumped aboard, so you don't feel it yet. But you will soon," the Werin said. Anakin was confused. "Who's Jendri? And what can't I feel?" Taro turned around and looked at Anakin. Never had Anakin seen such a serious look on the Werin's face, and though he remained as handsome, Anakin decided he liked the Werin's smile a lot more.

"Jendri was the one who fooled me into thinking she had been sent by my father to retrieve me. She is a notorious Aravanian general, but she managed to fool me. And when you came to rescue me, she used her empathy to overload your senses and now you can't feel the cold. The cold that eats me from within," Taro said, his voice still weak.

"The cold? But I grew up on a desert planet as well, and it doesn't bother me so much. Also, why would an Aravanian general want to kidnap you?"

"Because being Aravanian does not mean being Werin, Anakin. Two people inhabit Aravane, and though we share an ancestral line, we could hardly be more different. Even despite our outward appearances. The Werin and the Aravane have different values, beliefs and ways of life. Where the Werin are social and caring and look after one another, the Aravane believe in the Right of Might. Only the strong can survive in their society, because they can exploit and mistreat those who are weaker."

Taro sighed before continuing. "Millions of years ago the ancestors of the Werin decided that there should be another way, while the ancestors of the Aravane defended the primitive form of life they maintain still. Civil war broke out then, and it lasted three Werin lifetimes. But when it stopped, an uneasy peace settled that would last several generations. But during the rain of my grandfather's father the Aravane attacked, rekindling the ancient flame. And now one of their best generals, sister to their king, has captured me. I'm the only heir to the throne."

Taro closed his eyes, and Anakin sighed. He didn't want to ask the question, but he had to know. "What is she planning on doing with you?" Taro opened his eyes and looked at Anakin.

"I don't know, Anakin. My best guess is that she plans to take me to her brother so he can use me as a means of negotiating, leverage to make my father cave in to his demands. But whatever her plan is, she wants to make sure I can't do a thing to stop them. The cold gets to me because my body cannot produce heat like yours. My body is capable of using desert heat and transforming the emotions I sense from other people into warmth to maintain itself. There is little of both here, as was their plan."

Anakin averted his eyes, and Taro remained silent. Anakin knew that though Taro had left it unsaid, not wanting Anakin to feel he was being accused of something, the Werin knew fully well that Anakin was shielding his emotions from him purposely.

"I feel the cold," he said, using the sudden return of his senses to break the silence he found very uncomfortable. Indeed, as Taro had said, the temperature in the holding cell was almost down to freezing point.

Anakin focused, using the Jedi techniques he had been taught so the cold wouldn't get to him. "But wouldn't the cold bother Jendri as well? I mean, you guys are from the same planet. And I'm guessing that you have the same physiology," he said, watching as Taro rubbed his left hand over his right arm.

"We have technology on Aravane which would enable her to vary the temperature in this room from the temperature on the rest of the ship. I wouldn't be surprised if the temperature in the corridor just outside this holding cell is as high the tropical temperature we usually have on Aravane, Taro answered as he sat back down on the edge of the bed.

Anakin looked at Taro with a worried expression on his face. The Werin was even paler than he had been when Anakin had first woken up, and even his eyes had now lost some of their brightness. "How long was I unconscious?" Anakin could not believe he had been out of it so long that Taro's health had been reduced to this.

"Not long, Anakin, a few hours at best. But when it comes to cold, we Werin are surprisingly frail. I have tried using the same techniques you are using now, and it has gained me some time. But now I cannot fight it any longer. There rests me only one option now," Taro said before suddenly starting to cough.

"A technique my people use when we are badly injured called the Healing Sleep. I shall go into a meditative sleep to lower my use of energy. Then I might be able to fight my body's deterioration if I can spend the extra energy to keeping myself warm. I will still be to sense emotions, hear sounds and feel if something touches my skin. But I won't be able to react to them. I will be completely unresponsive," Taro said and looked at Anakin.

Anakin nodded, realizing that Taro was explaining what would happen so that he wouldn't panic, and got up from the bed. "Do it, I'll stay awake to look after you," Anakin said while helping Taro lie down on the bed.

"Anakin…the Healing Sleep may not work. It could be that the energy I have is not enough to fight this blasted cold. If it doesn't…if I do not open my eyes when we arrive on Aravane, make sure to escape. Go to my father, and tell him….Kele-ar ne arroyo," Taro whispered, his eyes closing.

"Kele-ar ne arroyo," Anakin repeated. "You'll save him a seat in Heaven," he said, somehow knowing the words without ever having heard them before.

Anakin was torn. He had been sitting at Taro's side for several hours now while the Werin slept the Healing Sleep, but his beloved had only become paler and paler by the second. Anakin had put a hand on Taro's heart, to know if it was still beating and the Werin was still alive, but the muscle's contractions were slowly become less frequent and weaker.

And that's when he realized that the Healing Sleep wasn't working, like Taro had warned him. The Werin was dying…his beloved was dying! Anakin felt his eyes filling with tears, and he wanted more than anything to see Taro awake one last time so he could tell him how he felt about him. His mind went back to a few hours earlier, when he had had the chance to tell Taro but hadn't.

And immediately he realized that it wasn't too late. He still had a shot at saving Taro, or at least letting him know how he felt! Without wasting time, Anakin laid himself down on the bed and took Taro in his arms. Then he did something he never thought he would: he dropped his emotional shielding, and focused on getting his love for Taro through to the Werin.

For the first time since he had become a Jedi, Anakin let his feelings flood his mind. His worry for Taro's health and safety, his love for the Werin, his grief at feeling such a powerful yet forbidden love and all the emotions he had suppressed for so long, not being as good as his Master at relinquishing them into the Force.

Anakin didn't know how long he lay there, tears flowing freely, but eventually he fell asleep out of exhaustion.

T.B.C.

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