Chapter 3: Exile - Tatooine
Upon crash-landing on the desert planet, Obi-Wan Kenobi traded the space pod as spare parts in the city of Mos Eisley. In exchange, he received an eopie on which to begin his trek to the Lars family homestead.
He arrived just after sunset. Beru Lars greeted at the door of their hovel. Passing her nephew off to her, Obi-Wan did not say much, only that the boy's mother and father were both dead. After watching Owen Lars, Anakin's stepbrother, get acquainted with the baby, Obi-Wan boarded his eopie, and set off into the desert dusk.
The exiled Jedi wandered for days, along cliffs and dunes. All the while, he kept a data pad of the planet's readouts in his grasp at all times, to know where the hell he was going. After a while, the terrain began to all look the same.
And the sand. Oh, the sand! It was everywhere. It appeared in his bed, in his clothes, in his hair. Nothing but sand, sand, sand. Anakin had always hated sand. Now Obi-Wan knew why.
At last, he reached the edge of something that was known as the Dune Sea. Specifically, the Jundland Wastes. Flat rocky ground that once must have been a sea bed was now all dried up. Miles from the perceived 'shoreline' sat an abandoned hovel. Perfect, Obi-Wan thought, disembarking from his eopie and beginning to unload his supplies. Home sweet home: for the rest of my days...
"Urrrrrrrrr! Ur, ur, Urrrrrrrrrr!" A band of Tusken Raiders suddenly appeared out of nowhere and moved to attack. Obi-Wan must have wandered onto their land. The Jedi ignited his lightsaber. No intelligent life-forms were out this far, so he was in no danger of being seen.
His blue blade whirled. He killed one Raider, then another. The rest he hacked off their clothes, revealing their nakedness - viewed as a sin punishable by banishment amongst the Tuskens. Shrieking and howling, the Tusken Raiders fled into the sandy wilderness. Little did Obi-Wan know that in years to come, he would become a legend amongst the Sand People.
He wondered if the Tuskens were aware that a Jedi was a rare find these days. Brushing the curious thought aside, he proceeded to furnish the hovel he had stumbled upon. It had some decent amenities to start with: running water, air vaparators. Even some old power converters for minor electricity. A chest in which to store his belongings. In the latter, Obi-Wan kept his lightsaber, as well as Anakin's. A manual he rescued from the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, detailing how to build a lightsaber. He had a feeling a certain someone would need it later. Also, he kept a journal, the pages of which would soon be filled of his experiences on the desert, Outer Rim planet.
Hours later, Obi Wan looked around his newly furnished home and sighed. It definitely was not what he was used to. Heck this whole planet - what a dump of a place it was! But perhaps living out his life here would humble him.
Life. He was alive. Obi-Wan knew he should consider himself lucky, considering how many were dead.
Plo Koon. Kit Fisto. Sassee Tinn. Mace Windu. Gone.
Cin Drallig. Adi Gallia. Stass Allie. Depa Bilaga. Gone.
And the Jedi whom he had raised as a son and loved as a brother: Anakin Skywalker. The young man's wife, Padme. The pair were married - had to have been! Gone.
Gone. The words echoed like a toll in his head. Gone. Gone. Gone.
And as far as he was aware, Obi-Wan knew of only four other souls who could share his pain, spread out now all across the galaxy.
The Jedi sat down on the small rug he had purchased in Mos Eisley. He began to meditate. Master? Master Qui-Gon, are you there? Answer me!
Nothing. It would be a while before Obi-Wan received a response.