Chapter Text
"This sucks..." Anakin heard Ahsoka mumble from behind him, as he peeled off yet another layer of his sweat-soaked robes. He agreed with his padawan: this did suck. They had been trudging through this force-forsaken jungle for what seemed like hours now, the hot and humid climate of this planet was becoming less and less tolerable each minute. He was sweating—a lot. He could feel the beads of moisture dripping down his face, his neck, his—honestly, his whole body was slicked with sweat, which was a very uncomfortable feeling to say the least.
He swung his backpack round to hang from one shoulder, loosely folded the layer of soddened clothing into the pack. He caught a whiff of the smell as he tucked the robes into the pack; a sour sort of stench. It smelled awful—he smelled awful—but he didn't care, although he still winced slightly. All he could think about was the fact that he was just so hot.
Anakin was usually fine with the heat—he had grown up in the desert after all. But the heat he was feeling now was a different kind of heat. The air in this jungle was humid, which made everything a hundred times worse; the air was sticky and wet, coating his skin with a layer moisture, which only added to the sweat that was already seeping out of his pores.
He swung the pack around, pulled the other strap over his shoulder, took a step forward before he paused, glancing behind him.
"How're you holding up, Snips?" he asked, studying Ahsoka's form, from where she was standing a few paces behind him. She was sweating too, he could tell. Her cheeks were flushed, tiny beads of moisture were trickling down the sides of her face, her arms.
"I'm okay, i guess," Ahsoka replied, wiping the back of her hand across her forehead, to catch another trickle of sweat that had begun to drip down her face. She gave Anakin a weak half-smile, then started forward, adding: "We should keep moving."
Anakin let out a short sigh as Ahsoka swept past him, before he too started forward, jogging slightly for a few steps, until he caught up with his padawan's swift pace. "Alright, wait up."
They were trying to make their way to a rendezvous point. Their ship had crashed—or, to be more precise: Anakin crash-landed the ship into the jungle. By accident. It wasn't his fault...exactly. He had been flying the ship, but he must've dozed off somehow—which he still didn't understand how he managed that, but hey, it happened. And all Anakin could remember was that he woke up to alarms blaring, smoke billowing from the engines, and an extremely panicked Ahsoka, as the jungle grew into sight across the view-screen.
Now, they were stuck on this hot, horrible jungle planet, making their way towards the rendezvous point that Rex had given them—Rex managed to give them coordinates to follow, but the transmission was abruptly cut-off before they could confirm anything, so now, all they could do was hope that they were actually going to be rescued when they arrived.
The two Jedi continued forward, trudging past moss-ridden tree trunks, bushy green leaves, and the occasional snake, which would slither around branches high above them, giving a sharp hiss, as if to remind them that they were in its territory. Anakin didn’t like that very much, so he kept an eye out as he continued to hike forward, to make sure there were no unexpected surprises; in case one of the snakes decided it didn’t want them in its territory anymore.
Anakin ignited his lightsaber and swung at a thick mass of leaves that were blocking their path. The leaves sizzled, fell to the ground, Ahsoka continued forward, trodding on the felled palm leaves.
Anakin clipped his lightsaber back onto his belt, let out a sigh. It was still so hot. And humid. The back of his shirt was wringing with sweat, and he could feel the moisture dripping down his skin, streaming down his legs.
Why did we have to get stuck on this stupid jungle planet? He thought to himself, as he continued to pace forward beside his padawan, who was clearly suffering as much as he was; her skin was flushed, there was sweat slicking her arms, dripping from her body. He could even see the sweat soaking through her leggings.
Anakin was lucky enough that he could just take off his layers, which he had been doing; he was down to his final layer now. But Ahsoka, on the other hand, wasn’t so lucky. Her clothes were already pretty thin, so she couldn’t really take anything else off. There was nothing else she could really do.
A buzz sounded from somewhere close to Anakin's head. He waved his hand, swatted away the bug. It was some sort of bee, and it had a relatively large stinger, which he didn't really like the look of.
"Keep your eye out in case there's another one of those bees," Anakin said, scanning the area. "I don’t like the look of that stinger."
"Do you think it's venomous?" Ahsoka turned round to look at Anakin, slowing her pace just a few steps ahead of him. The bee flew close to her head, she swatted it away.
“Mm...not sure. But i don’t want to hang around to find out.”
“Yeah,” Ahsoka replied, her eyes focused on the bee as it flew away, buzzing around a nearby branch. “That thing looks creepy.”
"Agreed."
And at that, Anakin and Ahsoka quickened their pace once again, winding their way through the dense foliage of the jungle floor beneath them.
Anakin could feel his shirt sticking to his skin from the sweat, which was pouring down his body now. It felt gross. And the unrelenting heat and sticky, moisture-filled air wasn't helping the matter. He shrugged his pack off of his back, quickly peeled the soiled shirt away from his sweaty skin.
The relief wasn't as good as he hoped it would've been now that he had removed all his top layers, but it was still slightly better—just slightly. He tucked the shirt into the pack, closed the lid, swung the pack over his shoulders and caught back up to Ahsoka who was a few paces ahead of him.
Ahsoka craned her head towards him as he caught back into step. "How are you holding up, Master?"
"I'm fine, Snips," Anakin replied. It wasn't exactly the truth though, and Ahsoka must've been able to tell because she gave him an stern look, as if to say i don't believe you. After a moment he added: "It feels a little better now that i'm not wearing all those layers, but it's just so hot and sticky. I just feel so..."
"Gross?" Ahsoka suggested.
"Yeah. Gross. It's just—i wish it wasn't so hot."
"I feel you. I wish this heat would just go away too."
Anakin nodded. A comfortable silence fell between them as they continued to trek forward through the leafy foliage of the jungle floor. Anakin's mouth and throat felt quite dry, he noticed, after a little while. He was thirsty.
They did have some water, luckily, stored away in Ahsoka's pack. But seeing as they didn't know how long it would take them to reach the rendezvous, and the fact that there was only one canteen of water left, they were having to ration it carefully to make sure the water would last long enough.
“Hey, Snips?”
“What is it, Skyguy?”
“Umm, can i have some of that water? I’m kinda thirsty.”
"Yeah, sure." Ahsoka shrugged off her pack, started fumbling around for the canteen of water. "As long as you don't drink all of it."
"I'm just gonna have a sip." He raised his arms in surrender. "Don't worry."
Ahsoka rolled her eyes, handed him the canteen of water. "Here."
"Thanks." Anakin took the canteen from Ahsoka, screwed off the lid, took a sip. The water was still somewhat cool as it trickled down his throat, even with being in the sweltering heat for a few hours. He passed the canteen back to Ahsoka. "You should have a sip too. I don't want you passing out from dehydration."
Ahsoka took the canteen of water from Anakin. "Don't worry," she said, raising the canteen to her lips. She took a sip, screwed the lid back onto the canteen. "I'm not gonna pass out—i'm fine."
“I just wanna make sure you stay that way.”
“I know,” Ahsoka replied, shoving the canteen back into her pack. “You wouldn’t want me being a burden for you...”
“Hey—i never said—”
“Shh.”
“Don’t shush me!”
“No, wait—listen.”
“What?”
“Listen...”
Anakin huffed out a breath, listened. There was a rustle coming from somewhere in the nearby foliage. A twig snapped. Anakin looked at his padawan, who had suddenly stilled, staring into the foliage.
“What is it?” he whispered.
“I’m not sure...” Ahsoka whispered back, without shifting her gaze. “I think—wait, i think it’s...”
“What?”
“It’s—” Ahsoka’s words were cut-off by a high pitched roar. Whatever had been hiding in the foliage—a creature, suddenly jumped out from behind the leaves—
Landing right on top of Ahsoka.