Chapter Text
The darkening sky cast long shadows on the tall, brown, grassy fields around them. Obi-Wan wasn't sure if his Master was smart for sticking to the country roads, what with a group of Death Watch soldiers not far behind them. But at the same time, Obi-Wan could see that walking into the tall grass could easily get them quickly lost, as most of the flora was taller than Obi-Wan himself.
Not that Obi-Wan felt as if he had much control over his Master's decisions or the situation. It didn't help that Obi-Wan had hit his head while trying to push Satine out of the way of one of the terrorists laser rifles, when the group had surprised them at their last hiding hole.
The sky and land around them were slowly growing dark with both the approaching night, and what looked like a large thunderstorm headed towards them from the north.
The three of them hurried around the bend of the road, only to be met with an unmarked crossroad.
“Which way, Master?” Obi-Wan asked, consciously not moving his hand to touch the cut on his scalp, and draw attention to the wound that was sluggishly bleeding into his hair.
Satine's intelligent, pale eyes flickered between them, as if trying to see their thoughts. They'd only been travelling together for two standard weeks, and both Satine and the two Jedi were still learning to trust each other.
He was sure that seeing her father murdered right before her very eyes hadn't helped.
His Master paused, looking both ways. Obi-Wan could tell he was sinking into the Force to discern which road would be the better to take, just by the way his eyes went a bit distant.
“There's a few buildings to the north that would work,” his Master nodded to the road to their right. “They feel abandoned.”
North, into the oncoming storm, and possibly closer to the soldiers from Death Watch who were hunting them from the East.
But at this point, Obi-Wan knew better than to argue with his Master. They were tired, dirty and each of them carried a minor injury or two. It would be best to find shelter, if they could safely and quickly.
They hurried down the road for the next twenty minutes, hoping to find a respite soon.
Wind was whipping dirt from the road into their eyes as the storm grew over their heads. The first sense of their goal was the sound of the wind whistling against duracrete, then a small clearing with a farm house and barn crept into their view on the left.
The homestead was older, uncared for, and looked to be uninhabited.
His Master's pace increased, eager to secure the buildings before looking for a place to rest. As his Master stepped off the dirt road and onto the property, a low rumbling came from the tall grass, and a man that smelled strongly of alpha stepped into their path.
The alpha was broad shouldered, but not tall, if anything he was only a little bit taller than Obi-Wan, but the aggression in his demeanor would have been evident to even the most blind of creatures.
“Usenye,” he scowled at them.
“Do you live here?” Master Qui-Gon gestured to the farm house, just as the clouds started to spit on them. “We are injured and in need of shelter for the night.”
The alpha took a step closer, violence in every line of his body. “Get. Away!” His words sounded stilted and forced.
Satine took a step back, from where she'd been standing behind his Master, and Qui-Gon instinctively unsheathed his lightsaber, feeling her unease.
“Jetii,” the man spat, growling deeply from his chest.
Great, Obi-Wan thought, they'd wandered into some feral alpha's territory, and now they'd most likely have to fight their way out of here.
The man in question was dirty, his grey tunic, black trews and wrap boots scrapped and torn. His dark curly hair had grown unevenly around his ears and his thick beard looked tangled and unwashed.
The man's Force presence felt illusive, but injury and the stress of their flight from Death Watch meant that Obi-Wan couldn't tell if the man's illusive presence was from either a lot of training, or him having no Force sensitivity at all.
“I'll kill you in the name of my buir and all the Haat Mando'ade!” And suddenly there was a knife in his hand, and he was moving towards his Master with a speed that was frightening.
Above them, the dark clouds rumbled with thunder and a cold rain began to pour.
***
Obi-Wan had only been three months away from his 18th life day when the Senate decided to send Jedi ambassadors to Mandalore to help the leader of the New Mandalorians establish his rule over the system.
Despite the Mandalorian system being neutral and not a part of the Republic, the Senate wanted the peaceful faction – the New Mandalorians – to take power over the system that had been in the midst of a civil war for a very long time.
The hope was that with the backing of the Galactic Republic and its Senate, the warring would finally come to an end. And if the pacifist New Mandalorians were the group suddenly in power, Mandalore might be more open to the idea of joining the Republic and sharing their rich resources with the rest of the galaxy.
So the Jedi Council had decided to send him and his Master. They were mandated to protect the new Duke of Mandalore (the head of the New Mandalorian faction) and help him negotiate peace talks with the two other warring factions. The first was Death Watch, who wanted to continue the warrior and warring culture of Mandalore. The other was the slowly dying True Mandalorians, who wanted to uphold the old traditions, culture and lifestyle of Mandalore.
In all honestly, Obi-Wan was hoping it would be a short and unmemorable assignment. It would be nice to be get back to the Jedi Temple with enough time to celebrate his life day with his friends. But the bad feeling that formed in his gut when they stepped off their ship and into the capital, made him worry this assignment was going to be anything but easy.
He and his Master had only been in the capital of Mandalore for a few hours when Duke Kryze had been assassinated by one of the other factions. The immediate violence that devolved throughout the Capital meant him and his Master, plus the Duke's heir Satine Kryze, had to hightail it out of there quickly, or risk certain death.
That didn't mean that Satine Kryze would go quietly. But as someone who had devoted her life to pacifism, Satine knew she wouldn't be able to stay and gain hold of her new leadership while staying true to her morals.
So she'd left with them, and they'd run, only to be shot down by Death Watch. Their ship had crash landed on the planet Concord Dawn, right in the middle of the most rural and remote part of the planet.
Currently, they had no way to contact any of the late Duke Kryze's forces. And even if they could, with the extensive damage to their ship they would have no way to join them. Obi-Wan, his Master and Satine were well and truly stuck on Concord Dawn; with no money, no means of communication, and no ship.
It didn't help that the few people they'd seen on planet in the last two weeks were either trying to kill them, or wanted nothing to do with the Duchess or her two Jedi protectors.
Not that any of it mattered at the moment, Obi-Wan thought as he returned to his task at hand. He was currently looking through the abandoned farmhouse for food. Anything edible would have been nice really. There wasn't much of anything in the building though. The farmhouse had obviously been empty for a long time.
Obi-Wan opened another squeaky cupboard door, peering into the dark and dirty space. He was trying his hardest to finish his search and ignore the dirty alpha they'd had the misfortune to run into outside. The alpha in question was currently passed out cold on the dusty stone floor, breathing steadily.
Satine was exploring the rest of the farmhouse, looking for the most secure and sheltered place to sleep, while Master Qui-Gon sat at a rickety kitchen table, poking at their small, broken, communication unit. They should have been able to use it to send encrypted messages to the Duke's Forces back in the capital, but now all the communicator was good for was sitting on a stack of flimsiplast as a paperweight.
The sound of heavy rain beating against the duracrete walls was loud in the little house. Water was trickling into the house where the walls were cracked and exposed to the outside elements. Small puddles had begun to form anywhere the floor was starting to sink.
Almost two months and one week until his 18th life day, and at this rate, he couldn't imagine their situations would be much improved by then. Not that he hadn't sleep in worse, more exposed places. But still, it would have been nice to have stayed the whole mission in the grand government house in the capital. A padawan could hope, after all.
Obi-Wan glanced again over at the strange alpha on the floor, where he was sleeping off the strong Force-suggestion Master Qui-Gon had sent his way when he'd charged at them.
Well, at least whatever the next morning brought, it was going to be interesting.