Chapter 6: Still Waters
The Kenobi/Skywalker apartment was a calm place. Extremely calm. Actually it was far too calm for Obi-Wan's likings. He knew he shouldn't complain, because in the few months that had passed since his unplanned and swift elevation to the Master's ranks the apartment had been a whirlwind of…well, chaos. The source of the chaos, namely his own padawan, was lacking. And that was weird indeed. At this time of the day Anakin would normally have come running in half an hour ago (why did he never enter walking, like normal people?), screeching to a halt in front of the cooling unit to pick up a snack and disappeared into his own room for some quality time tinkering with his mechanical projects. His own toes still ached by the memory of 'One C', -the toe pinching droid Anakin was so proud of, but he realized that the mechanical inventions somehow comforted his padawan, especially since said padawan hadn't found any good friends yet.
Where in the galaxy had he disappeared? He really should have been home by now. For a split moment Obi-Wan hoped that Anakin had found a new best friend whom he was playing happily with after the last class of the day. Furthermore he hoped that it would last so that he every now and then could have some quiet moments in his own company knowing that Anakin was content and was using his unstoppable energy on something, no someone, else.
He was fairly certain that this was not the truth.
Running through the corridors yelling 'Anakin' from the top of his lungs wouldn't be a very masterly thing to do so he assumed he would have to try a more subtle method to try to find Anakin. He stretched out through the training bond and found nothing. Where Anakin's usually sparkling energy normally would appear, there was now a mass of something grey and dull and general 'unhappiness'. It was all very vague, but it was there.
"Blast it!" he muttered to himself, "I shouldn't have been so thorough when I taught him how to shield properly. He learned that lesson too well."
From what he could feel the shields that prevented him from reaching his padawan really were strong. But at least his padawan was there - somewhere. He just had to start looking. Whatever it was that was going on wouldn't be good. With a deep sigh he left the apartment to start his search.
Anakin was nowhere to be found. The refectory was full, but no small sandy haired nine-year old boy was to be seen. Same with the dojos, which admittedly took some time to search through. He hadn't expected his protege to be found in the creche, and a closer examination proved him to be right. He ended up in the Teaching Wing of the Temple, which would have been a wiser place to begin the search now that he was thinking about it. Well, he most certainly had a lot to learn about being a Master.
His apprentice was nowhere to be found, which again was according to his suspicions, but that didn't matter. He went directly to the planning desk. The old master in charge looked up at him, quizzically.
"How can I help you, Master Kenobi?"
"I'm looking for my Padawan, Master Geobok," Obi-Wan explained, "his name is Anakin Skywalker and he didn't come home after classes so I wonder where he went off to."
"Ah, young Skywalker…" the older Master nodded, "his class in basic astrophysics was cancelled. The Master who is teaching the class has got the flu, so instead the students were sent to the pool for a swimming class."
Obi-Wan froze. A very bad feeling nudged his mind.
Oh, Force, I didn't see this coming at all. They shouldn't have had swimming training at all in this cycle. Anakin is from a desert planet and he is hardly used to any water at all, except for drinking. And barely so. He never uses the water shower if he can avoid it. He only steps into the sonic one. He must have been terrified.
"Where is he?" he asked.
"Well, I heard his teacher say that one of the students had ran off from class, and never came back. That might have been your padawan. He himself had to stay behind with the rest of the younglings."
"So, you actually tell me that my padawan ran away from the class and nobody even thought about informing me of the matter," Obi-Wan said in a terrifying low voice. "I will find him myself, thank you very much."
It took him several hours more to actually fulfill his promise. After searching the lower parts of the temple he finally felt a familiar tug in the training bond from the reactor creating heat for the entire Jedi Temple. Well hidden behind a hot heat transformer a small figure sat hunched together on the floor, wearing only swim shorts. Nothing more. His face was grimed by tears and dust when he looked upon his Master.
Obi-Wan instinctively sad down beside him.
"Anakin…?"
"I'm not going back. I'm absolutely not going there again," the boy shot his chin forward with an all too familiar stubborn expression in his face.
"What happened?" Obi-Wan asked plainly.
The boy sniffed and wiped his already red-rimmed eyes.
"They laughed of me because I cannot swim… and I wouldn't let them. And I couldn't fight them because they were already in the water and I…couldn't go there. So I just left."
"Why didn't you come home?" Obi-Wan asked softly and laid an arm over the boy's slim shoulders.
"I…I couldn't. I was in a hurry to get away before I got really, really mad and I couldn't run through The Grand Hall in…in this," he gestured towards himself, "so I took the stairs and ended up here. "
"Well, at least you found a warm place," Obi-Wan wiped a thin layer of sweat from his brow. "But you cannot stay here forever, so come with me now. We need to go home."
"No!" Anakin was determined now.
"Yes, you will," Obi-Wan stated. "Here, take my cloak and if we meet someone I will carry you. They will most likely believe you have hurt your foot or something."
Anakin nodded reluctantly: "Well, I am hungry…"
….
The dinner that evening was a quiet meal, which they ate in their apartment. While they ate Obi-Wan questioned his Padawan further.
"You are aware you will have to learn to swim, Padawan?" he asked.
Anakin snapped back in his defiant position. Arms crossed over his chest.
"No, won't do it."
"You will have to, " Obi-Wan repeated calmly. "What would you do if you were sent on a mission to one of the water planets, such as Glee Anselm? Walk on water?"
"I could stay in my ship," Anakin retorted hopefully.
"You couldn't do that forever. There will be multiple occasions where you'll have to swim."
A somber silence gathered around the boy.
"But all of them can swim already. And I cannot…"
"I know," Obi-Wan sighed, " after all you are from a desert planet so where would you have had the chance to learn? But that doesn't mean I can allow it to continue."
…
The Jedi Temple was quiet and radiated peace in the middle of the night. If anyone were awake they were not out in the corridors and thus the two figures, one small and one larger, who stealthily moved through the halls towards the pool area managed to remain unseen by human (and other species' eyes). Deliberately they aimed for the pool farthest away from the entrance.
Obi-Wan slid quietly into the pool. Anakin stayed behind on the edge.
"Come down, Anakin, I'm here to catch you and it is not deep."
Anakin looked suspiciously down on his Master and realized he had a point. The water only reached Obi-Wan to his waist and he was not an overly tall man, so Anakin could easily stand on the bottom of the pool and still keep his head above water.
"But Master, it's so…wet," he protested.
"I know," Obi-Wan confirmed, "that's one of the things with water. It is supposed to be wet."
The silence between the two hung thick in the humid air.
"We agreed upon doing this," Obi-Wan reminded his Padawan mildly. "If you don't want to slide into the water like I did, use the stairs."
Anakin swallowed hard and nodded.
A little while later he stood in the water, alternating casting skeptical glances to his Master and to the water.
"What if there's something in it?" he asked shakily, "I mean big fishes or something."
Obi-Wan stifled a laugh, and refrained wisely from quoting Qui-Gon's saying about 'there's always a bigger fish'. It would probably not be a good idea feeding Anakin's imagination with that right now.
"I promise you, Anakin, there are no fishes here," he said, "the water in the pools is recycled, cleaned and disinfected. Neither fishes nor bugs will survive the cleaning process. Now, please do look at me…"
And with that he leaned back and let the water carry him. Anakin watched with large round eyes.
"Wizard, the water is carrying you, " he exclaimed.
"Right, and it will carry you too," Obi-Wan explained. "You just have to trust it."
Anakin frowned. Admiring the water's ability of carrying his Master was one thing, trusting it to carry himself was something entirely else.
"I will hold you if the physics should fail," Obi-Wan promised. "I will put my hand behind your neck and now you can lean back and float."
"You certain, Master?" Anakin asked shakily, "you won't let me down? Literally…"
"I won't. You are perfectly safe," Obi-Wan assured him.
Slowly the padawan laid back and as his feet lifted from the floor Obi-Wan could see the anxious expression in his face change into something that best could be described as marveling.
"It's really true, Master. I'm flying!! "
"Technically it's floating," his Master corrected solemnly, "but you're right. It feels like being weightless and thus we may consider it as flying, sort of."
The lesson continued and before one hour had passed Anakin had overcome most of his fear of the water and he was even able to swim 2-3 strokes. Neither he, nor Obi-Wan heard the entrance door open, and the intruder was certainly hiding his force presence very well.
"What are the two of you doing here at this time of the day, uh…night?" Mace Windu's deep voice droned through the silent room.
Obi-Wan looked up and saw the Master of the Order standing on the edge of the pool, looking sternly down at them.
"I…we…I am teaching Anakin how to swim," he stuttered.
"So I can see," Mace Windu replied dryly. "But why do you do it now? After living in this Temple for the last 25 years, you should really know that the pool area is closed after 22th hour."
"Well, since Anakin doesn't have very much experience with water, I thought it best to be a bit discreet when we were working on the initial lessons," he explained truthfully, "you know how kids can be. Besides, it's important that Anakin catches up with his peers as quickly as possible."
The Master of the Order nodded: "The explanation is accepted. However, I would recommend you to keep your….bathing sessions to a more normal time of the day, Master Kenobi. The rules are valid for all of you. I suggest you both leave the pool area now. And I mean now. "
"Yes, Master Windu," Obi-Wan confirmed sheepishly.
The tall Korun Master quickly turned and began to walk towards the exit, expertly hiding the small smile that threatened to form in his face.
Behind him a wave of water rose from the still water as if lifted by an invisible hand, and splashed down over the pair still in the pool.
"Now, Kenobi. Now!"