Chapter 2: Changing Tides
Kanan took a deep breath and forced himself to relax as he fell. Once finally getting under the clouds, he scanned the air, looking for his falling Padawan. He felt Ezra's fear and panic, trying to hone his location finally seeing him about 500 feet away from him. They would hit the water in about a minute's time.
"Ezra! Keep your feet straight when you hit! Use the force to guide you and relax your body and don't breathe in when you hit!" Kanan shouted in a feeble attempt to prepare the youth.
He saw Ezra was almost in complete hysterics and new the kid hadn't heard him. He was slightly confused because even when scared, Ezra was normally able to keep his cool. What had him this terrified and why didn't he know of it?
He did everything within his power to slow them down; he was successful to a certain level, but still, he saw Ezra hit with a huge splash disappearing beneath the surface of the water.
Ezra didn't know why he had slowed but as he saw the water getting closer he started to panic even more. He hit the water, feeling the molecules shatter beneath him along with more pain surging through his body. He went under, struggling to get to the surface only to find that he didn't know which way was up.
Somewhere, he heard something else hit the water surface.
Kanan prepared himself to go under and hit the surface breaking the water tension gently becoming fully submerged. He willed the force to keep him from inhaling sharply as the cold water embraced him, shocking his body. His body relaxed, once he felt which way he was drifting, he kicked towards the surface.
Just as his lungs were threatening to bust from lack of air, the youth floated the surface struggling and kicking and fighting to stay above the line of water. Each time a wave hit, his head went under which sent him further into his panicked frenzy.
Kanan broke the surface taking in a huge breath, filling his lungs before he looked around. He saw the splashing and heard the boy choking, quickly making his way over to the terrified teenager, realizing hen that his student probably lacked the ability to swim.
Ezra continued to struggle getting more exhausted by the second. He had inhaled and swallowed a lot of water, choking trying to expel his lungs causing him even more exhaustion. Finally, unable to fight any longer, his body started to sink, the youth failed to have the strength to pull himself up and he sunk below the surface, powerless to the gravity pulling him down.
"Ezra!" Kanan dove under the surface when he saw Ezra disappear.
As the world started to go black, he felt strong arms grab him and haul him to the surface. His body took over again the moment it sense air and he started coughing and hacking trying to expel all the water that had entered his body. He was too disoriented, causing a new wave of adrenaline coursing through his body and he started to struggle again, scared of going back down.
"Hey! Calm down kid!" Kanan shouted, falling below the surface as he struggled to keep his flailing student above the water. He used the force to send calming waves hoping that Ezra would be able to feel them. The fear and panic was strong and flooding the youth's senses and rationality. Ezra kept struggling, his brain was currently working off survival, not cognitive thinking.
Kanan knew that panic caused situations to become dangerous, especially in the water. He knew that if he didn't get Ezra to snap out of it, he was at risk himself of drowning. He remembered at the temple watching one of the masters reviving one of his clan members that had been trying to save someone who was panicking. They had gotten shoved under as the person tried to use them to get above the water.
"Ezra!" Kanan wasn't going to give up even after the 5th time being shoved under the water. The older Jedi managed to keep his cool, knowing one of them needed to. He grabbed Ezra's forehead and focused all his energy there. He could feel something break finally and Ezra stopped struggling for the moment. The fear was still very prominent, but Kanan had at least gotten through.
Ezra started to cough and sputter more as a wave covered him right when he was inhaling. He was fixing to panic but Kanan was right there to calm him down and keep him above the water.
"Calm down Ezra…I've got you. I need you to listen and focus. If a wave comes, hold your breath until it passes over you. I promise, I've got you and I'm not going to let you sink." Kanan did his best to have a soothing voice but he was still struggling to stay above the surface from trying to support the both of them.
Water was not an enemy to him. At the temple they had many water exercises to prepare them for their future missions around the galaxy. He could swim and he could remain calm in this type of situation; Something that Ezra needed to keep from going into another frenzy of struggle. Kanan remembered as a youngling being put in situations similar to this. They had been terrifying, but not impossible.
With the TIEs gone, Hera was flying as fast as she could along the surface of the water looking for any signs of her crew. She didn't know exactly where she had been when she had lost them, she had made many loops and turns and spins trying to shake them. The pilot pulled up to make another round when the fuel light went off.
"Karabast!" She turned the com on.
"Spectre 1, Spectre 6 do you copy?" She tried for the 20th time to reach them. All that returned was static.
"Hera the Phantom is too low on fuel. I need to take her back before I run out." Sabine said. She had started looking the moment Zeb said Kanan had jumped. She had no lucky what so ever even with the use of her Mandalorian tech gear.
"Alright, I have to too. We'll meet at refueling station and think of a more organized plan." She shut the link off and headed for land, staying low, still scanning the water for signs of life. She knew that the older Jedi could swim and would be fine, but if Kanan hadn't reached Ezra….
The two humans remained floating above the surface for a few hours. Ezra had gotten into a good routine of holding his breath when Kanan told him to but his fear hadn't gone down any. They system they had found was working well, except the youth was exhausted and injured, the coldness of the water helping to keep pain and swelling down, but it would only be a matter of time before the adrenaline would start wearing off.
Kanan's focus was currently on Ezra and making sure he stayed calm otherwise he would have tried to locate their ship. Even still, Kanan kept his eyes and mind out slightly for any signs of Hera, he knew she would be out looking.
Another wave hit, this one much larger. The swells were getting bigger and more frequent; the tides were changing and that greatly concerned Kanan. Sabine had told him that the changing tides could potentially get dangerous. He had Ezra under the control at the moment, but he knew that the smallest thing could trigger another panic attack, for example, remaining under water much longer than he wanted or expected.
" Kanan?" Ezra was stuttering, he held his breath from another wave, gasping when he was above water again. Kanan looked over to him, his lips had turned a pale blue, his whole body shaking. The needed to get out and get warm somehow. Once the suns went down the temperature would plummet. Kanan tried to remember what else Sabine had told him about the planet.
"Yeah?" Talking was still a good sign. It meant that Ezra was feeling a little more comfortable; if he could keep him talking, maybe he would finally calm down to a rational state of mind. The older Jedi was cold, but he had been using the force to keep himself warm, it was always a nice trick to know and something he planned to teach Ezra, after he taught him to swim.
"I'm.. .cold…" He coughed as water entered his mouth as he tried to speak. Kanan felt bad, he didn't know how to comfort Ezra but he wanted to.
"I know. We're going to get out of here soon. Just stay calm and focus on me okay? Focus on the Force." He was worried about Ezra, not in his usual way however.
He had a sudden urge to scoop him up and hold him close telling him everything would be okay. After he calmed down he would start to kiss him softly on the lips and then his chin followed by-. Kanan shook his head violently letting himself plunge slightly into the bitter cold water. Where the hell had that idea come from?
Over the last month or so he had noticed strange changes happening in their bond but he didn't know how to describe them. They were confusing but familiar at the same time. Ezra had also been acting strange, more so the last few days. He avoided staying alone with him for long amounts of time and didn't like to spend time talking like normal.
"I...I feel…" Ezra started again, feeling something in the force. As his student spoke, Kanan felt a small ping as well in the system. He looked in the direction the force pushed him. There, in the horizon, was a small islet. It was a fair distance away. Ezra wouldn't be able to swim that far with his level of exhaustion, but they needed to try.
"I see it. Alright Ezra..." He saw his student nod as his eyes lids fluttered as he forced them to remain open.
"We're going to swim to the island. I need you to kick your feet up and down just like you do when we're in anti-grav mode on the ship okay?" Ezra gave him a small nod and kicked a little, shutting his eyes in pain and going under slightly. Kanan kept him up though.
After a few more tries and a lot more pain radiating through the force, Kanan had him stop and rethought his plan.
"Okay, let's try this, I'm going to put you on your back so that I can tow you over there." Kanan started to do so eliciting Ezra to panic and shoot straight back up, accidentally getting away from his master starting to weakly panic as he sunk. Kanan grabbed him quick enough and calmed him wrapping an arm gently around the youth's body to comfort him, using his legs and other hand to keep them afloat.
"Hey…Calm down. I need you to trust me alright. I won't let you sink and I won't let you go." Ezra nodded again and remained calm this time when Kanan gently placed him on his back and started to tow him. Ezra relaxed after he found out that he was able to stay floating much better this way.
It took almost another two hours of swimming with all the swells crashing around them, pushing them back and forth in directions they didn't want to go, but the two made it. Kanan managed to drag them onto the beach moving them away from the crashing waves before he collapsed himself from exhaustion. It took several minutes before he recovered enough to move and looked over at his student.
Ezra had turned onto his stomach and was shivering violently, the clothing on his right leg was in shambles from being hit almost directly, his leg was badly burned and still bleeding. Kanan felt the cold air hit causing him to shiver and knew they would need to find some kind of shelter. He looked around and saw the there was a fairly large group of trees in the center. He didn't feel any danger but decided to go check it out first anyway.
First thing was first. He grabbed his com link and tried to activate it.
"Karabast…" The Jedi cursed, getting nothing from the device; it had become waterlogged. He dragged himself up off the sand, not caring about the grains of sand that stuck to his wet clothes, hair and everything else. He took a deep breath to calm his body before he looked to his student.
"I'll be right back Kid. I'm going to go find a warm place for us to stay until Hera can come pick us up." He knew Ezra hadn't heard him, the youth had lost consciousness by this point. Kanan stood and made his way inland further to find a place where they could stay.
After investigating the area, he found a group of rocks that provided a nice shield from the wind. Using his light saber, Kanan cut down some branches and hauled them over to better insulate the area. As he worked, the older human thought back to earlier after Ezra had tried to skip out on Jedi lessons.
"Kanan, can we skip lessons today. Today doesn't feel right." The youth said as he leaned against the walls of the ship with his arms crossed not looking up at his master. Kanan was halfway up the ladder to the top hatch.
"We skipped lessons yesterday because yesterday didn't feel right." The Jedi pointed out to his student.
"I know...but today is different. I feel like something is going to happen. I don't think we should go up on top. Please Kanan?" He sounded a little depressed and Kanan just assumed that it was because of how their bond was acting over the last month. He guessed it was teenager issues.
"Nope, come on." He said as his opened the hatch and climbed out.
Ezra had done anything and everything but pleaded with him after leaving the cockpit, begging him to cancel the lesson. The teen said he had a bad feeling but couldn't explain it. Kanan had just assumed it was the strange occurrence going on between them and forced him on the top, thinking an easy, fun lesson would help.
The older Jedi had made his way back to the beach walking over to Ezra. One sun had already set, the last was getting lower.
"I'm sorry kid…I should have listened…" The older man bent down and gently picked up the youth earning a small groan of pain from him.
Kanan turned and started walking for the trees, walking much slower, his body still trying to recover after hours in the water and moving branches. They had been lucky that there were no hungry sea or land creatures that had discovered them.
He set Ezra down gently right outside the shelter as he finished building up an area they could use as a sleeping pad. He lined it with dead leaves for extra warmth. By the time he had finished there was hardly any light in the sky besides the rising moon.
The Jedi picked up his padawan and got him settled in the back part of the make shift shelter. He had built up sand around any cracks or openings between the rocks to make sure no breeze got through. It was getting cold enough to see breaths but Kanan continued to make sure Ezra would be warm as possible.
He still felt guilty for forcing his student to train; he had just wanted to spend time alone with him, something that was becoming less and less common. With them being part of the fleet now, their training sessions were constantly cut short. He always felt calm and alive around Ezra, and something more.
"More? What has gotten into me? He's my student, he's another guy, and he's younger." Kanan lectured himself knocking the thoughts from his head once again and hopefully permanently.
Kanan spent several minutes gathering up some wood before taking out his light saber. He hoped that it hadn't died in the watery rescue. He heard it activate and breathed a sigh of relief. He managed to get a small spark and quickly built up the fire. Lightsabers weren't designed as fire building tools, but Kanan figured why not?
During the wars he had to do this with his master a few times, so it wasn't new to him. He stripped out of his wet clothes and put them out to dry before going and starting to do the same with Ezra. The teenager groaned in protest as cold hands started to remove clothing from him exposing him to even more cold. Not once did he wake up though.
Kanan couldn't help but admire the teenager's well defined muscles and caught himself gently tracing the ones on his arms. Once again, the Jedi began to mentally beat himself at his actions not understanding what had gotten into him.
Changing directions, the Jedi started to do an overall assessment of Ezra's health. Kanan cursed at the sight of Ezra's leg. It had been burned pretty badly and was already starting to show signs of infection from what Kanan guessed was the bacteria in the water. He put up the orange and brown clothing to dry as well before climbing into the shelter and getting settled next to this student.
Being this close to Ezra felt foreign but comforting. He pulled the kid closer to him trying to share his warmth. This was the best way to do so, share body heat. Kanan was glad he had been trained to use the force to help guard him from weather elements and wished Ezra could do the same. After doing one more mental scan to make sure there was no danger, Kanan shut his eyes and allowed himself to drift while remaining partially alert to any signs of danger.