Ezra and Sabine had been walking for nearly 3 hours in the blistering Tattooine climate, searching desperately for a water source. They were now walking in a valley, hoping to gain some shelter from the planet's twin suns. Both of them were thirsty and hungry, but mostly thirsty. They sat down in a small opening in the rocks that formed the valley, intending to rest a bit before continuing their search. Sabine took off her helmet and sighed, realising the awful repercussions of their earlier duel with the Sith and each other.
'Well, the Empire's certainly not coming to rescue me, where's your Republic?' Sabine turned to ask Ezra. The Jedi removed his hood and sighed. 'They're probably searching for me right now...' He replied, though his tone wasn't convincing. Sabine opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted by a blaster bolt flying in between them and hitting the rock behind them. The Jedi and the Mandalorian turned to where the shot came from and found three creatures with rifles aimed at them perched on the large rock cliffs opposite them.
'Karabast! Sand People!' Ezra said, drawing his lightsaber in time to deflect a rifle bolt. Sabine also drew her blasters and returned fire. They ran down the valley away from the Sand People, only to be met with another group armed with metal staffs. The sand people raised their weapons above their heads and let out an odd sounding roar, almost like a battle cry before charging at their prey. Ezra didn't waste any time. He cut into them, fully aware of the consequences of taking a life but at the same time trying to reason with himself that it was all in self-defence.
Sabine, too started shooting at their enemies, gunning them down. She was quite a good shooter, placing blaster holes in between their enemies eyes with relative ease. The horde of Sand People fell to the ground in pieces or with blaster holes in their faces, not one was left alive. 'They'll most likely have friends, we should leave.' Ezra suggested, returning his lightsaber to his belt. Sabine nodded and they quicken their pace, walking out of the valley.
It took another hour before they were safely out of the valley, thankfully there wasn't another ambush. Ezra looked up to see a plume of smoke on the horizon. 'Look!' He exclaimed, pointing to the smoke. They ran toward the source of the smoke. As they got closer, Ezra and Sabine saw three Tusken Raiders picking at something from which the smoke was coming from. 'Let me borrow that.' Ezra said, grabbing one of Sabine's blasters from its holster. Before she could protest, he fired a set of warning shots at them, but they instead turned and attacked them.
'Well, we warned them.' Ezra said, activating his lightsaber. He spun round and sliced at them in one swift strike. The three Tusken Raiders collapsed on to the sand, dead. 'Wow, you know for a Jedi, I expected you to be a bit more peaceful.' Sabine commented, appalled by how Ezra killed the Sand People so indiscriminately. 'We do what's necessary to survive.' Ezra replied, rummaging through burnt pieces of metal. He gasped in delight when he found two containers full of water. They weren't big, but on Tattooine, where it was impossible to get water without sophisticated equipment, it would have to do for the time being.
'Probably a transport heading for an outpost to trade water that got ambushed.' Sabine suggested, examining the burnt metal pieces. By now, it was late evening and daylight was running out. They took whatever was salvageable from the wreckage and made off.
As the twin suns of Tattooine dipped below the horizon, the desert was shrouded in darkness. Ezra and Sabine sat down on the sand, exhausted from the hours of endless walking. The Jedi dug a small hole in the sand and stuck his lightsaber in it. He hit the switch and the green blade of light shot out, illuminating both of them. 'Is there a way to silence it?' Sabine asked, irritated by the humming of the lightsaber. 'Nope, even if there was, I won't do it. I like the sound it makes.' Ezra replied, his eyes fixated on the pulsing beam of green light in front of him.
'Well, I hate it. It's annoying.' Sabine shot back, turning to lie on her sides. She hit a few buttons on her helmet and it blocked out all sound, before playing a soothing cantina jazz. Before Sabine knew it, her eyes were closed and she was in deep sleep. It then dawned on her how drastically and quickly the surrounding temperature had changed; in the day, Tattooine had the dry, hot and arid climate it was infamous for. At night, the desert planet became as cold as Hoth. The little amount of heat being emitted by the lightsaber wasn't making it much warmer for her.
The Mandalorian, clad in a thin black jumpsuit and armor shivered in the cold. Then something warm was draped over her body, it had a texture like cloth. She also felt something lay behind her. She rolled around and found herself facing Ezra's sleeping body, his cloak just big enough to cover them both. Every instinct of hers was screaming at her to roll away, deny the Jedi's kindness even if it meant freezing in the night. 'The hot weather will probably defrost me in the morning anyway' She mumbled sarcastically.
Then another thought entered her mind; seize the opportunity and kill him now, then take the cloak for yourself. Sabine dwelled on the idea for ten seconds before she lowered her head back on to the sand mere inches from Ezra's. She couldn't. She wasn't sure what, but something was keeping her from killing Ezra; someone she should as a Mandalorian be eager to kill, even more so since he had the blood of her father on his hands.
'This is for the sake of survival' She told herself before sleep once again consumed her.
A/N: Thanks for reading! I was doing some research on Tattooine and discovered that unlike say, the Sahara Desert on Earth, Tattooine is dryer, with no surface or ground water, so there is no way to get water apart from moisture farming. It was then I realised I had essentially condemned Ezra and Sabine to die in the desert. So I ex machina-ed the crashed speeder with water to give them a chance. So um... Yeah, sin on the story. *Ding* Anyway, thanks again and May The Force Be With You.
~Paul