Hey, everyone, and thanks for checking out this story! It started as a school project, and once I got myself a Fanfiction account, I thought, "Why not post this story on my account?" So now I'm polishing my story, one chapter at a time, and publishing it here.

I would like to thank and credit Numbuh296 and Blu Taiger, as their stories, Pirates (and tiger) of the Caribbean (by Numbuh296) and Elemental Flux (by Blu Taiger) have largely inspired the first few chapters of this story.

(Reviews, Favs, and Follow are all greatly loved and appreciated!)

When Calvin opened his eyes, his first realization was that he was hot. Light shined down at him, unrelenting. Groaning, he sat up and surveyed his surroundings. His eyes were still unfocused, and his vision was blurry. He rubbed them, blinked several times, and resumed. He was in a small canyon in a plateau, with no shrubbery whatsoever. There were no clouds in the sky, and Calvin quickly decided that he was in a desert (obvious conclusion).

To his concern, he was already sweating, and his head throbbed. His skin felt sensitive; probably the work of a sunburn.

Then, he spied something orange in a sliver of shade provided by the canyon. Realization dawned on him, and Calvin rushed over (despite his head) to find Hobbes, peacefully napping, muttering incomprehensible phrases from time to time.

Calvin was a mix between confusion and frustration. After a while, he decided that the best thing to do would be to try and wake his best friend up. He tried to shake Hobbes awake, rattling the tiger's shoulder. But when that didn't work, Calvin's short patience showed itself once again. So instead of using a gentler method, he simply leaned next to Hobbes' ear and yelled, "Wake up!"

That got Hobbes on his feet.

"ZZz-Wha-tuna!" Hobbes jumped up and whacked Calvin to the ground. As he instinctively looked around, his eyes focused on the scrawny, blonde-haired boy in the red T-shirt who had just yelled in his ear.

"Calvin?" Hobbes asked, his adrenaline wearing off. "What are you doing?" he asked with annoyance.

"Getting hit in the head by overgrown cats, apparently!" Calvin shouted.

Hobbes however, was looking around.

"Calvin. Where are we?" Hobbes asked.

"I… I don't know, Hobbes."

Hobbes scowled as he remembered how Calvin's invention had (once again) gone wrong.

"You were the one who designed that invention of yours! You should know what happened!" Hobbes exclaimed.

"Well, sometimes, inventions don't turn out how you expect them to turn out!" Calvin countered, both angry and slightly embarrassed at how his machine had malfunctioned. He had been the one to build it, after all.

Hobbes just rolled his eyes and started to walk out of the canyon.

"Wait! Where are you going?" Calvin shouted after him.

"To find out where we are!" Hobbes called back.

Calvin thought about this and mumbled, "Good idea."

It was Hell. They were in hell. Or at least, they might as well have been. As the two surveyed the endless desert filled with dunes, rocks, and sharp plateaus, it was apparent that nothing grew here. As they looked once again, they lost heart.

"Well, this is obviously the Sahara or something. I'm going back to the shade." Hobbes sadly commented.

Calvin was about to do the same, and started trudging back inside the canyon. He turned one last look up at the sky. An incredible sight caused him to do a double take.

"Hobbes, wait! Look!" Calvin yelled in astonishment and shock.

"What?" Hobbes asked, slight hope filling him. Has Calvin found people? Water?

"The sun! Look at it!" Calvin shouted.

Hobbes emerged from the canyon, wincing at the sudden increase in temperature compared to the shade of the canyon.

He turned his head to the sky, and realized two things. Firstly, it's a very bad idea to look directly at the sun. And second of all, there wasn't one sun in the sky!

There were two.

"Okay," Hobbes squeaked. "So this is very, very bad!"

"So what now?" Hobbes asked, sulking on a rock in the canyon.

"Whaddaya mean what now?" Calvin demanded, looking up from his hands (which were buried in his face until Hobbes' question was asked).

"Well," Hobbes explained, "We just found out that we are not on earth, that we are stranded, and that we will most likely die unless…"

Hobbes stopped talking. He flexed his ears, listening to something that Calvin figured he could never hear. He didn't have Hobbes' cat ears, so he decided to inquire as to what Hobbes was listening to. "What's going on?" he asked, curious.

Hobbes stood still.

Then, he whispered, "Hide!" and jumped behind a huge boulder. Calvin was perplexed, but trusted Hobbes's senses. He likewise took cover. 60 seconds later, he saw why Hobbes had been so spooked.

A group of beady eyed, hooded beings about 3 to 4 feet in height walked past Calvin, carrying a strange blue, metal android or robot with them. After waiting until they rounded the corner of the canyon, Calvin and Hobbes slowly snuck out of their hiding places.

As he watched the last creature shuffle out of sight, he had another great idea.

"Hey Hobbes! Let's follow them!" Calvin whispered.

"What?! No! What if they're hostile?" Hobbes questioned, worried about Calvin's enthusiasm.

"Well," Calvin explained. "Even if they are, there must be civilization where they're going! Right? Supplies! Water! I'd say that the reward outweighs the risk in this case."

Hobbes stopped, considering the idea. "Can't argue with that, I guess," he finally concluded.

"Exactly!" Calvin motioned. "Let's go!"

As the sun slowly started to disappear behind the dunes, leading to twilight, Calvin and Hobbes stealthily crept behind the hooded beings, making sure to stay far enough behind to avoid detection.

Scooting behind a rock, They looked out across the rather flat stretch of ground in front of them at what was the weirdest, but also the most incredible vehicle they had ever seen. A massive, rusted, crawling fortress of scrap. Almost 40 yards long and 20 yards tall, with two pairs of oversized treads on each side, it made a tank look like a tiny toy car.

"Wow. So that's their home," Calvin marveled. "A building on wheels…"

After a moment, he shook himself out of his gawking.

"We have to get on!" Calvin declared, pointing at the crawler. "That's the path to civilization!

"And how do you plan on doing that?" Hobbes asked. "It's Impenetrable!"

After a moment of thinking, Calvin answered. "Then we ride on the outside. See that platform? The one with the handrails? We can get on that!"

Hobbes sighed. "Well, since the other choice of dying due to dehydration doesn't exactly tickle my fancy… let's go."

As the Creatures walked inside of the huge crawler (after securing their android via a chute that extended from the bottom), Calvin and Hobbes made a mad dash for a boulder to get high enough to be able to jump onto the platform, which had all sides except for one built with handrails.

Hobbes, with an incredible jump, easily made it across the foot drop. However, Calvin stopped, worried that he might not make it.

"C'mon Calvin!" Hobbes encouraged. "Jump! I'll grab you!"

Calvin looked down. He was more than ten feet up at the top of the rock. He definitely didn't want to fall. "I… I can't, Hobbes! I'm scared!"

"You'll make it!" Hobbes promised, extending his paws. "Just jump in my arms! You can-"

A rumbling made the vehicle shudder as its engine activated. The platform vibrated, and the treads slowly started to rotate.

Calvin, it's now or not at all! C'mon!" Hobbes shouted to be heard over the noise. "Jump!"

With a breath, Calvin steeled himself. He pushed his fears to the side, and with a scream, he ran to the edge of the rock and jumped.

For a moment, Calvin felt himself falling, and then strong paws grabbed his arms and he was hoisted up.

And not a moment too soon. Because the treads fully came to life as the engine roared with vigor. Hobbes, with a strenuous effort, pulled Calvin up onto the platform where the boy clung to the rusted old handrails, hyperventilating greatly.

After some comforting and assurance from Hobbes, Calvin calmed down."Thanks, buddy." he managed.

As the crawler lurched across the dunes, the two got themselves comfy. After a couple of minutes, Calvin voiced the next question.

"What now?"

Hobbes pondered for a while and said, "I suppose we wait."

The next morning was windy. Very windy. Calvin was no math genius, but even he could figure out that desert plus wind equals bad, and he was right.

A sandstorm engulfed the crawling fortress. Rough sediment blasted them, sand stung their faces, and pieces of rock left bruises all over. Add that to the fact that they had to shout at the top of their lungs to be heard over the deafening whistle of the sand.

"CALVIN!" Hobbes yelled, hanging on to the handrails for dear life. "WHAT?" Calvin shouted back. He could barely see Hobbes at this point. "ARE YOU OKAY?" Hobbes hollered. It took a few seconds for Calvin to discern what Hobbes had said. "NO!" he yelled.

Only hours later, at noon, did the wind stop. And by that time, both Calvin and Hobbes were exhausted. They were buried in sand. Sand caked their legs, their arms, their bellies, their faces, and their hair. Even the platform they sat on had a pile of the stuff layering the rusty metal.

"That was the worst storm EVER!" Calvin moaned.

"Tell me about it," Hobbes grumbled back.

Without warning, the crawler lurched up, starting to cross a large and steep dune. Now, this would have been fine if Calvin and Hobbes had been holding on to the handrails but, in their exhaustion, they moved too late.

As the platform went up at an angle, Calvin and Hobbes started to slide along with the sand under them. Before they could lunge for a hold, they fell off of the platform.

"AAAAAUGH!" they both screamed in unison.

Hobbes fell first, smacking onto the sand with a thump. Calvin followed, and accidentally had his fall broken… by Hobbes. Then, before either of them had the chance to get over their shock, the sand that had accumulated on the platform fell smack-dab on the two friends. By the time they had gotten up, the crawler had already passed the dune and was steadily rolling away.

For a few moments, not one of the two uttered a word until Calvin yelled, "Well, this is just GREAT!"

Since they couldn't catch up to the giant rust machine (believe me, they tried), Hobbes proposed that they follow its tracks instead. They could still make it to wherever the crawler was going if they did so. Calvin had no argument.

And so the two trudged across the sand following the crawler in the wake of its tracks. The twin suns radiated heat, robbing them of water and making their mouths dry. The sand covering them like extra skin didn't help either. After a few hours of walking, they were tired, dehydrated, dusty, dirty, and hot as heck.

After the fourth… fifth? Yes. After the fifth hour of wandering, both of them finally stopped under the small but sweet shade of a sand dune. They basically keeled over, breathing heavily and groaning quietly- only quietly because any more attempt to make noise would hurt like a really, really bad sore throat.

Despite the pain, they exchanged a few words.

"So, Hobbes. How's your plan coming along?" Calvin panted sarcastically.

Hobbes didn't have the wit to lash back. "Not- Not good," was all he could manage.

After a few minutes of rest, Calvin had the determination to see what was on the other side of the dune. "You coming?" he asked Hobbes. Hobbes slowly turned his head to look at Calvin, shook his head. "Just… give me a few minutes," he mumbled, and exhaustedly slumped back onto the sand.

Calvin couldn't argue with Hobbes' action, and so he walked/crawled up to the top of the dune himself. When he saw what was on the other side, his eyes threatened to pop out of their sockets (no matter how dry they were).

"Hobbes! Get your stripey butt up here and look at this!"

Hobbes slowly got up, and stumbled to the top. "What?" he asked, then winced at the pain. "I-I thought you were as tired as…" Hobbes got to the top.

His silence was understandable, as anyone who had been dumped on a foreign world, caked with sand, and made to wander for hours on end in sweltering heat would have the same reaction at seeing an active settlement.

From where the two stood, the dwelling appeared fairly large, consisting of a circular pit with several entrances inside of it that most likely led to more rooms. Machinery dotted the area around the pit, and a small building shaped like an igloo (perhaps a shed) was on the left of the hole.

"You don't suppose that this is where those guys in the metal crawler live?" Calvin asked.

"Nah," Hobbes said. "This place is too small, the crawler isn't here, and-"

"But the tracks go right by the place," Calvin pointed out.

"Okay, so maybe they visited some of their alien friends who live here- hey, do you think these guys are hostile?" Hobbes wondered.

"Maybe," Calvin shrugged. "Why don't we go see?"

"But what if they pull some guns on us with their tentacles or whatnot?"

Calvin rolled his eyes. "A, I don't think aliens who live on a desert planet would have tentacles; those are for aliens on wetland planets or seas. B, I am an expert at extraterrestrial diplomacy! Remember how I negotiated with Galaxoid and Nebular?"

"Yeah. You gave away the entire earth for a leaf collection."

"Whatever. I also told them that girls make good zoo exhibits, so it all evens out in the end." Calvin turned to look at Hobbes. "Just follow my lead, and everything will be A-ok!"

And with that, he trudged down towards the settlement.

Well, Hobbes decided, It's either this or shrivel up in the dunes. He sighed, and began to slide down the sand after Calvin.

Both of them stopped a few yards in front of the entrance down to the pit. The inside was more impressive up close, with several doorways and circular windows, a multitude of foreign plants, flowers, and shrubbery, and metal crates stacked around the walls of the pit. By the shed, a curious vehicle was parked. Probably an antigravity cruiser of some kind, Calvin decided after giving it a once-over.

"I smell water," Hobbes commented.

Calvin was ecstatic. Finally, water! "So, uhh… how do you reckon we get whoever lives here out?" he asked.

"Don't ask me. You're the, 'expert at extraterrestrial diplomacy,'" Hobbes sarcastically remarked.

Calvin thought about it for a moment. Then he yelled, "Hey! Aliens! We mean you no harm! Come out and face us like real men!

Hobbes put a hand to his face.

For a minute, nothing happened. Then a door flung open and a man, probably in his 50s and sporting a fine beard, burst out leveling a rifle at the two.

"WHOA, Whoa, whoa!" Calvin and Hobbes both called out nervously raising their arms into the air.

The man spoke, just as a sandy-haired teen and a woman with short, brown hair stepped out of the doorway. The teen also held a rifle, and anxiously pointed it at Hobbes. "Alright. Who are you two?!" he demanded.

Hobbes answered rather quickly. "We got lost in the desert!" he started to babble. "We're-we're newcomers, and… we're sorry to scare you."

My name is Hobbes," he pointed to himself, "And his name is Calvin," he pointed towards Calvin. "Right?" he asked his friend.

Calvin absentmindedly nodded. He was more interested in the people in front of them.

"What's wrong, Calvin?" Hobbes asked.

Calvin raised a finger at the group in the pit. "They're- they're people.

For the first time, Hobbes noticed that… these were no aliens, as they had previously thought. They were just… humans.

The man looked confused. "Yeah, we're people. We're humans!" He stated. "There's lot's of us in the galaxy." He looked at Hobbes, and slightly tilted his head to one side. "But I've never seen someone like you before."

He straightened. "Where did you come from? What's your home planet?" he asked. "Why do you have a kid traveling with you?"

Hobbes was about to answer that they didn't mean to be here, that they had come from a different reality. However, Calvin knew that he was about to accidentally fib on them.

Before Hobbes could answer, Calvin blurted out, "We're from… Canadia! It's on the edges of the explored galaxy, so you probably have never heard of it. We were just traveling to a different planet, and had to take a pit stop at this place, y'know… what's it called?"

"Tatooine," the teenager said, speaking for the first time.

"Tatooine! Yes, thank you, I forgot." Calvin grinned in what he hoped was a display of camaraderie. "So on the way down, Hobbes here accidentally swerved off course and we crash-landed in a canyon-"

"I did not!" Hobbes blurted, his dignity hurt. Calvin gave him a look that said, shut up and go with it.

"Um, yeah… fine, I crash-landed." Hobbes said, annoyance hidden in his tone of voice.

"So then we secretly hitched a ride on this giant, rusty crawling fortress-"

"Do you mean a Sandcrawler? Those are the vehicles that the jawas use for travel and protection," the teen corrected.

"Um, I guess so. As I said, we're new here," Calvin said. He grinned again.

"So, uhh… after a while, we were unjustly flung off of the crawler, and followed its tracks until we got to here," Calvin explained. "End of story."

The man considered this. "And you swear that you're not lying?"

"I'm not lying," Calvin lied.

Then, the woman, who had previously stayed silent until now, spoke up. "Owen, dear. These two look harmless enough," she reasoned, placing a hand on Owen's rifle. "Now why don't we give them some food and water. They can stay for a night, and then we drive them to Anchorhead or Mos Eisley so that they can find a place to work?"

Owen seemed to mull it over. After a minute, he conceded.

"Alright. You two can stay for one night, but no funny business!" Owen turned towards the teen. "Luke, help your Aunt Beru," he ordered, and made a motion to tell Calvin and Hobbes to come down.

"Hey, Uncle Owen!" the teen, Luke, called out.

Owen turned. "What?"

"They could stay here and help you with the moisture farming. That way, I could go to the Academy this summer and-"

"Luke," Owen firmly said. "They are not going to stay with us. You'll just have to wait another year."

Luke sighed, and nodded. Owen walked off.

"Whaddaya think that's all about?" Calvin whispered.

"I don't know," Hobbes whispered back.

Luke turned towards Calvin and Hobbes. "C'mon," he beckoned. "Food and water in the kitchen."

He was almost bowled over when Calvin and Hobbes ran past him.