The young girl guided Anakin through the small town, dragging him by the cuff of his robe, followed by her friends.
One of them spoke up. "How long have you known Lady Kenobi for?" She asked looking up at him.
"Oh, actually we've never met." He admitted.
"Well, she's very beautiful and kind, you'll see." His little guide, a brunette girl, chimed in.
"Yes!" Another one added. "You will most certainly love her."
Anakin was certainly amused by the group of young guides. They had clearly read too many fairy tales. Yet, he couldn't help but entertain them. It reminded him of his childhood on Tatooine when he had hopes and dreams. In a way, his fairy tale had come true. He had been saved from slavery and brought to Coruscant to become a Jedi knight. Though, back then, he thought Padmé would be his princess, his true love. That was before learning of the rules of the Jedi, before Padmé made it clear she wasn't interested.
Soon enough, they had reached a small villager's wooden house on the outskirts of the village.
"Here we are!" The girl who was holding his cuff opened the door. It was most probably her own house. "Mommy?" She called out.
No reply.
A conversation could be faintly heard in the adjacent room.
As the group of girls scattered around, sitting on the couches, Anakin turned his attention to the conversation going on on the other side of the wall.
"I couldn't be more thankful Mrs Magrid, but I really must carry on before they catch up to me. I would me mortified if your village was under attack just as our city was." Spoke a clear female voice. "I will kindly accept whatever you can give me for my journey. But once this is all over, please do lend me a visit so I can repay you."
The brunette led him towards the sound of the voice.
Just as they were about to turn the archway to the room, he felt the force inside him stir like a quick lighting strike in his vein. Half a second later he collided into another soft body just as he was turning.
A confused face looked up at him, her body knocked back by his.
He could finally see her in colour. She had dark brown eyes adorned by equally dark lashes and soft arched eyebrows. Her pink cheeks seemed as if they had been dusted by a galaxy of freckles. Anakin could see the resemblance to his master in her nose, strong, straight and frank, slicing her face in half in a narrow line. Bellow her nose, her cupid's bow stretched forward prominently to set the stage for a plump upper lip followed by a thiner lower lip. The whole of her features framed by a mass of thick copper hair.
He blinked a few times. His eyes instantly engraving her features into his brain. She looked lovely.
In the single second she stood there before him, her surprised expression quickly changed to terror as she promptly turned around and darted across the room.
"Wait! No!" Anakin shouted as he quickly understood she probably thought he was the enemy.
He chased after her through the house, his flying robes knocking things over in his way. "Sorry. So sorry!"
She had the advantage of knowing the territory as well as being much smaller.
The young Jedi chased her outside and down the street. "Lady Kenobi, wait!"
She showed no sign of slowing down, holding the hem of her dress as she avoided obstacles, red hair flying around.
Lucky for him, she was heading straight to his master.
"Obi-Wan!" He yelled out.
Not far from there, the master heard the commotion coming closer. He got up from his seat and excused himself from the young girl he was talking to.
Just as he did, he saw, rounding the street corner, a crazed girl running towards him, Anakin right on her heels.
Getting up from his seat, he calmly raised a hand, using the force to simply shift a basket in her way.
The redhead tumbled over, face first, tripping over the foreign object. Her body falling forward, she reached out with her hands to catch her fall.
Anakin, following so closely behind, found himself tripping over as well. His body, attracted by the same gravity, soon found the same fate as the girl before him.
His long robes flipped over their heads in the fall.
Obi-Wan watched in disbelief and exasperation as his Padawan plummeted right over the girl. He shielded his eyes from the embarrassment. Such grace. He thought to himself.
"Get away from me!" The girl yelled as she fought from underneath Anakin's body.
She tried crawling away from her "assailant" only to get tangled in the fabric of his robes.
"Lady Kenobi calm down!" Skywalker tried to reason with her.
But still, she continued to fight him off, screaming for help.
Soon enough, villagers were attracted by the ruckus.
Skywalker managed to kick back in place his overbearing cloak as he spun her onto her back, grabbing hold of her wrists. He was now kneeling over her, each knee besides her ribcage as he held her hands to his chest to keep her from hitting him. "We're here to save you! Please stop!" He cried out.
He looked into her eyes to see the sheer fear plastered all over her face.
"Save me?!" She yelled out in disbelief, voice cracking.
A group of men quickly made their way towards the pair, ready to intervene.
Sensing the altercation coming, Kenobi rushed towards them, putting his hands up in defence towards the men.
"We are Jedis, we were sent after we received your distress call." Kenobi cut in, not taking his eyes off the saviours. He shifted his robe to reveal his lightsaber to the men. "Now will you get off of her Anakin for the force's sake!" He pleaded.
The girl's body had relaxed ever so slightly after Kenobi's words, but her expression remained alarmed as she looked into Anakin's eyes.
Pinned down under him, she had finally stopped squirming.
"I don't know. Will I have to chase you again?" He asked her.
Panting underneath him, her heart beating out of her chest she shook her head rapidly.
Anakin could feel her pulse racing under his palms as he slowly released his grip on her wrists.
He then promptly got up, outstretching his hand out to help her.
Hesitant at first, she finally had the chance to study his face for a second.
He was about her age, his skin a soft shade of almond complimented by the beige tones of his clothing. His eyes were completely opposite of hers. They were almond shaped, in a shade of pale greyish blue and crowned by a pair of low set, thick and straight brown eyebrows. His nose descended down his face in a straight line to finish in a soft button tip. Farther below, a set of pink lips stretched past the corners of his nose, then again, unlike hers, his bottom lip appeared fuller than the upper one. His overall features were smooth and balanced. Below low-set cheekbones, his cheeks slightly caved in to then run down to a defined jaw and a wide chin. His sandy brown hair had been buzzed off about an inch away from his scalp all over. Except for a small braid that trailed from behind his left ear and down onto his shoulder. Only now did she recognize the classic padawan hairstyle.
Letting out a sight of relief, she lifted her eyes to the sky as she placed her hand in the apprentice's taller one.
The adrenaline washed off as she stood up, letting place to a sudden feeling of embarrassment.
"I'm alright good sirs." She turned towards her good samaritans. "I thank you for your concerns." She gave them a small smile to which they replied with by small nods before dispersing.
"I must admit Anakin, you have a way with the ladies. I am most definitely taking notes." The master Jedi told his Padawan, hands on his hips, an amused smirk plastered across his face.
Skywalker let out an awkward laugh, scratching the back of his neck. "I deeply apologize my Lady." He gave her a courteous nod.
The young girl's cheeks flushed. "No it's me who must apologize. How much of a fool I must have looked to you. You see-"
"Oh no, no, it's quite alright my lady." He offered her a small smile, revealing a set of perfectly aligned white teeth.
The smile quickly faded to be replaced by an expression of concern. "I hope I didn't hurt you?" He suddenly became mortified as he realized he had quite literally been sitting on her mere moments ago. "Or frighten you!" his blue eyes stared her up and down looking for signs of wounds.
The redhead felt herself flush even more as she felt his eyes searching her realizing how much of a mess she looked. Her hair had fallen out of it's braids a long time ago. She was still wearing the same dress as she was when she had escaped the massacre almost 2 days ago. Except she had torn off the hem to allow her more movement and was covered in mud from sleeping on the ground. She had stopped at the village for a few hours for some food and some supplies. Her old nanny had kindly helped her and offered her to stay until help from the republic arrived. But she knew by now her attackers would have noticed her missing and sent after her.
"I'm… I'm alright." She reassured the Jedi apprentice. That was a lie, she had cuts and bruises all over on top of the soreness from getting crushed. But she felt already so bad for causing such a scene seeing as all she could see now was the kindness in his eyes and voice. If she hadn't been so on edge none of this would have happened.
"You are clearly not, my Lady." Kenobi intervened. "Let's sit a moment"
Both Jedis helped her sit by a well nearby.
"Anakin, will you go fetch supplies for us please?" The master asked.
The young man nodded before disappearing.
"I must firstly apologize for my Padawan, his actions were way out of line. He will be reprimanded for his behaviour, not to worry." Obi-Wan told her.
"Oh no no. Please, that's not necessary. It's all my fault actually. I have been on the run for two days and when I saw him I instantly thought of the worse. You see, I wasn't sure any help would even come." The girl explained has Kenobi examined her wounds. "I only hoped the republic would care about our valuable assets enough to not let them be taken away by thugs."
The man lifted his attention to the girl's face as she studied him. He found nothing to say for a moment. She was right, if it wasn't for the monetary value she and her family's company carried, the republic probably wouldn't have poked it's nose it it. But if it was true and an abundance of Kyber crystal had been found, they couldn't let the deposit fall into the wrong hands.
Under normal circumstances, the Jedi wouldn't have cared. But the girl before him, a complete stranger no less, was actually his sister. He somehow felt for a moment what Anakin had described so many times; that invisible connection between members of the same family. He quickly brushed the feeling aside as he got up to fetch some water from inside the well.
"Lady Kenobi!" A young girl's voice shouted as she ran towards the Kenobis, Anakin trailing behind.
"Reinar!" The older girl replied.
As the child approached, she was carrying bottles with her that she set aside the pair.
"Master Skywalker said you needed healing so I came as quick as I could." The little girl sat next to her, dropping the bottles to the ground.
"You are too kind, dear." The Lady replied with a small laugh.
Reinar was the daughter of her beloved nanny. Her parents had had her quite late in their life and so needed a pair of extra hands to deal with her as well as the company. When she had learned, not long after she had outgrown the need for a nanny that Mrs Magrid was finally having a child of her own, she was often came to visit them to make sure they had everything they needed. And so, Reinar had grown to be the sibling she never had.
Well, actually, she did have a sibling. Growing up, her parents always were raving on about their first born son who had gone on to become a master Jedi. In fact, they constantly talked about him, how much of an honour it was for them to have a Jedi in their family. She felt like her whole life she was compared to this stranger she had never met while her parents went on about this and that exploit they had heard their son had done. She knew, deep inside her, they only decided to have another child after it was certain their son had a place amongst the Jedi. They had always hoped he would come back, she knew that for a fact. But when the brother was officially accepted into the order as a padawan, her parents finally resigned to replace him.
Anakin approached as well, giving the bandages he was holding to his master.
"Help me clean her wounds, will you?" Obi-Wan demanded.
As both of them got to work, the little brunette leaned into the older girl's ear.
The redhead bit her lip to contain her smile. She whispered back to her friend.
Anakin tried to ignore the giggling next to him, but he could feel both girls' eyes on him.
What is it with girls in this place? He taught to himself.
Then again, he never really interacted with girls his age, only politicians, diplomats and Jedis.
"You're jesting, my Lady." Reinar gasped as the redhead laughed, nodding.
Anakin looked up at the girls, an amused grin on his face, eager to know what all the giggling was about.
He raised an eyebrow at the older one of the two, questioning her with his eyes.
She smirked back at the boy, taunting him, refusing to reveal her secret.
He softly raised a hand to her face as the girl's expression widened. She observed closely as he reached in her long locks and retrieved a twig from her curls, just above her ear.
He reached with his other hand to turn over the hand that was resting in her lap, softly unfolding her fingers. Never taking his eyes away from hers he set down the twig in her hand.
She flushed again as he gave her another one of those charming teeth baring smiles.
"I don't believe we've actually introduced each other." He spoke up. "I'm Anakin Skywalker." His hand lingered on the twig in her hand. His rough fingers tickled her palms as he retrieved his hand.
She swallowed thickly, suddenly finding her throat dry. "Fawnrielle Kenobi." She started. "But you already knew that." She continued, regaining her composure.
She reluctantly peeled her eyes away from the Padawan to look at his master.
Both men exchanged a look she couldn't quite decipher.
"And I am Obi-Wan." The blonde man cleared his throat. "Obi-Wan Kenobi."
