Chapter Text
The forests of Sylvus were singing.
Nostalgia was not a feeling Obi-Wan was in the habit of indulging, but being back here on Sylvus gave him the closest approximation he could think of. Younglings from the Temple had been taken here for generations in order to learn about different ecosystems and map-reading. Older initiates came for survival training. As a student of the Temple, Obi-Wan had been to Sylvus a few times, and coming back now revived fond old memories of spending time with his clan mates and teachers.
He glanced down at his little Padawan beside him, trying to read the boy’s emotions. Anakin had only been his apprentice for three weeks, and they were still getting the feel for each other. It would have been difficult enough under any circumstances. But theirs was a strange partnership indeed, born out of loss and grief. Neither had yet fully healed from the scars of recent events - the untimely death of Qui-Gon, Anakin’s loss of his mother. But if it was the Will of the Force for their time together to have such a painful history, Obi-Wan had resolved to be as dedicated a master as Anakin needed.
Even if he had no idea what he was doing.
“How do you like it here?” he asked. They had hung back a little on the forest trail, away from the six-year-old Thranta Clan members they had come with. Obi-Wan knew Anakin didn’t exactly relish the idea of taking a field trip with the ‘little kids,’ as he called them, instead of going on an initiates’ training mission. Obi-Wan did not quite know how to explain to him that amongst the Jedi, experience and wisdom counted more than one’s number of years. At this moment, Anakin was where he belonged.
“I’ve never seen such tall trees,” Anakin said, looking around. “Are we going to climb any?”
“Climb trees? No...not on this trip, anyway.”
“I bet I could,” Anakin said. “I climbed the ones in the gardens. It was easy. They were way smaller than these. I bet you didn’t know I could climb trees, could you? Since I grew up on Tatooine.”
“Very impressive,” Obi-Wan said dryly.
“Do you want me to show you?”
He handed the boy a datapad. “I want you to show me how well you can read a map.”
Anakin didn’t take it. “You know I can read it, Master!”
“Remember how we talked about doing what you are asked without sulking or arguing?” Obi-Wan said.
“I’m not sulking,” Anakin protested quietly, but he took the datapad from his master.
It was going to be a long trip.
_______
It was a youngling who asked the question first, with a gentle tug to Obi-Wan’s sleeve.
“Master Obi-Wan? Where’s Anakin?”
Obi-Wan looked up from the map on his data pad. “Isn’t he-”
No. He wasn’t.
“Did anyone see Anakin leave?” San’ja, the Thranta’s clan master and the only other adult on this trip was already ahead of him. Well, she was probably used to this kind of thing. Obi-Wan had never really thought much about it, but being in charge of eleven Force-sensitive youngsters was surely not a task to be taken on lightly. It was a job often given to young Knights, as they had the stamina for it - and also to teach them patience. Anakin would probably teach Obi-Wan as much by himself as a whole clan of younglings could.
The children looked at one another, shrugging.
Obi-Wan sighed, annoyed with himself. He wanted to say, “he could have only gotten so far,” but he’d already discovered there was no making assumptions about Anakin. His eighth day at the Temple, Master Peel had found the boy wandering alone through the halls of the Senate Building when Obi-Wan had believed him to be studying in the Archives.
“Let’s go find him!” one little boy cried cheerfully, and the others agreed enthusiastically, and the whole group of them took off suddenly in one direction.
“Stay together - no scattering!” San’ja cried, running after the younglings.
Obi-Wan followed them, resigned. He would have preferred to search for Anakin himself, as embarrassed as he was to have lost him. Some master he was shaping up to be.
There were fire lizards in these woods. There were Sylvian bears. Anakin might have been snatched up before he could scream. Obi-Wan’s mouth went dry.
He trailed after the children for a minute or two, trying to calm himself, but the worry swiftly gave way to anger. What business had the boy had running off like that? Hadn’t he been told to stay with the group? That it was dangerous to be alone in these woods?
“Don’t center on your anxieties, Obi-Wan…”
Qui-Gon had admonished him, not even that long ago. And he had been right to. A Jedi never got anything done with a worried mind. Obi-Wan took a breath and felt the Force. He did sense something, but in the opposite direction of where the group of children were heading. Obi-Wan let them go. He wouldn’t let them see his nervousness.
He stopped where he was, listening. The forest was quiet, except for the singing and chatter or birds and other creatures that lived in the tall branches of the trees. But then, faintly, a distinctly human voice called out indistinctly.
“Anakin?” Obi-Wan called back, scanning all around. “Anakin, where are you?”
“Up here! I’m up in the tree!”
That did not exactly narrow it down. “Keep calling out to me, I’ll find you,” Obi-Wan said.
He looked around. The trees of this region of Sylvus had smooth trunks that extended for nearly seventy meters before the branches even started. Had his Padawan really shimmied himself up one of them? And why? Or was that even worth asking?
At last, with his head craning upwards, Obi-Wan found the tree from which Anakin’s voice seemed to be calling out of. “Anakin, are you all right?”
“Sort of. Master. I’m stuck!”
“Stuck?” Obi-Wan called upwards. “You mean you can’t climb down?”
“I’m stuck, ” Anakin repeated. “There’s something sticky coming out of this tree, and I’m stuck in it.”
Sap , Obi-Wan thought. The oldest of the trees of Sylvus exuded the stickiest sap. It was harvested on parts of the planet and used to make a powerful industrial adhesive.
“Stay calm, I’m coming up,” Obi-Wan told him. Dropping his robe on the ground, he gripped the trunk of the tree and started pulling himself upward. Despite the Jedi powers and skills he possessed, it was not easy or comfortable, and by the time he reached the lowest branches his hands were scratched up and stinging from his efforts.
Thankfully, he was able to stand on the first branch he reached and could make out the form of the Padawan standing near the trunk about fifteen meters above him, one foot on a branch and the other dangling off while his upper body hugged the trunk. He shook his head, frowning at the sight. He would have to be careful in this operation, knowing that if he wasn’t careful he’d get stuck as well. The relief he’d felt that Anakin was safe was now turning to irritation.
“This is really not what I had in mind when I brought you here,” he said. Opting not to shimmy up the trunk again , he instead made a jump up to the branch above him, gripping it tightly and then swinging his leg over to sit on it.
Anakin looked over his shoulder as much as he could. At least neither his head or face were stuck. “Are you mad?” he asked.
“That’s hardly relevant,” Obi-Wan said curtly. “What matters is getting you down. Is any of your skin stuck to the tree?”
“No. Just my clothes and one boot.”
A small relief.. Clothes could be ripped and cut off. With skin, it wasn’t so simple.
Obi-Wan took a small vibro-knife from his belt. “Don’t move,” he ordered. “I’m going to cut your sleeves loose first.”
With a couple swift cuts, Anakin’s hands were free. The boot was trickier, but only the very front seemed to be stuck in the sap. When that was free, Obi-Wan reassessed the situation. It seemed that the whole front of Anakin’s tunics were stuck in the sap, and Obi-Wan didn’t trust himself to get that close without also getting stuck.
“You’ll have to wriggle out of your outer tunic,” he said. “Here, I’ll cut your belt.”
“Okay,” Anakin said. “I think there are bugs in my shirt anyway.”
“Yes, that’s one of the unfortunate side effects of tree-climbing,” Obi-Wan said. It occurred to him suddenly that he should probably let San’ja know he’d found the boy, and that they’d be there in a moment. But he didn’t need to. The voices coming from the ground below told him they’d already been found.
“Everything all right?”
Obi-Wan peered down to see San’ja looking up at him, a remarkably small figure on the ground below.
“Yes, but he’s gotten himself stuck in some tree sap,” Obi-Wan called down. The younglings giggled and gasped.
“You didn’t have to tell them!” Anakin cried, wiggling around as he attempted to get himself free.
“Well, what exactly am I supposed to tell them, Anakin?” Obi-Wan said crossly. “Be careful, you’re going to fall. Here, lift up your arms.”
Anakin did so, and Obi-Wan grabbed him by the hips and gently began to pull him backwards.
“This is hard,” Anakin stated, quite unnecessarily.
It was. Obi-Wan considered cutting him out of his clothes, but that was not ideal either.
Patience patience patience . Obi-Wan repeated the mental mantra over and over.
“Um, Master, what’s that thing? It’s got a lot of eyes.” Anakin’s arms were still outstretched, but he was pointing upward. Indeed, there was a horrible face looking down at them from the branches above, and it was getting closer.
“Didn’t you do the reading assignment, Padawan?” Obi-Wan asked, tugging a little harder and more urgently. “It’s a Sylvian Giant Tree Spider.”
“There wasn’t a picture of it in the book!” Anakin said defensively.
Obi-Wan shushed him, then ceased his freeing efforts to reach out toward the spider. He’d always had a hard time connecting empathetically with such creatures. Why couldn’t it have been something like a snake instead? In his experience, snakes could usually be reasoned with.
The thing was creeping closer, bolder now. Obi-Wan could make out the fangs.
“Right,” he said, pulling out the vibro-blade again and slicing it cleanly down the back of Anakin’s tunic. He pulled the boy toward him, and without thinking took a leap down from the branch. Anakin screamed in his ear as they fell, but dissolved into wild laughter as soon as they hit the ground. The younglings clustered around, wide-eyed.
“Goodness, what an adventure,” San’ja said, picking up Obi-Wan’s robe and draping Anakin with it.
“We saw a tree spider!” Anakin told her. “It was huge!”
“It could’ve eaten you!” gasped a little girl.
“Yes, it certainly could have. What did you learn, Anakin?” Obi-Wan asked, only needing a moment to get his breath back.
Anakin thought for a moment. “I think I need my own vibro-knife.”
“How about, ‘don’t go wandering off in an unfamiliar place without telling anyone’?” Obi-Wan offered.
Anakin blinked. “Oh. Yeah, I guess that too.”
Obi-Wan looked down at him. He wondered if Anakin understood how close he’d been to grave injury or death, or how relieved and grateful his master was that he had found him in time. Perhaps he didn’t need to understand. The more Obi-Wan got to know the boy, the more he could sense how the Force enveloped and surrounded him, forming what Obi-Wan perceived (perhaps too fancifully) as a cocoon of protection around the boy. Perhaps Anakin simply understood that no harm would ever befall him.
Obi-Wan had come to accept that Anakin was the Chosen One, as well as he understood such things. But he’d also come to understand and accept something very clearly about himself: he would never stop worrying about his Padawan.
San’ja began to shepherd the younger children back toward the clearing, but Obi-Wan hung back, regarding his Padawan sternly.
He knew he would have to make it clear to Anakin that running off like that was unacceptable, as much as he dreaded the task. Somehow, he’d hoped they’d make it longer without having to have a talk, as Qui-Gon had once referred to them. But Anakin was a willful boy, and knew how to push boundaries, no doubt expecting his new master to firmly make very clear what was expected of him. Obi-Wan wouldn’t be doing him a favor by letting this slide.
He touched the boy’s arm, or what he thought was his arm, through the layer of the robe wrapped around him. “Anakin, we are going to discuss this thoroughly when we get back to the Temple.”
“You are mad!” Anakin cried.
“This is not about my emotions. We've discussed this before, Anakin. You disobeyed me and put yourself in needless danger. Obedience is very important, Anakin, especially in the field. You will be punished.” He’d only meant to make his words sound plain and straightforward, but almost winced at how harsh they sounded. Anakin must have thought so too, because tears immediately welled up in his eyes and he started to sniffle.
“I didn’t - didn’t mean to…are you going to spank me?”
Obi-Wan sighed, then led the little boy over to a fallen log, where he sat down, taking Anakin onto his lap as he did so. They had already talked a little bit about potential consequences for misbehavior, but not in great detail. He would have to make some things clear to the boy now.
“Anakin, take a deep breath. Like we practiced.”
Anakin breathed in, though the breath was shaky. Obi-Wan let him continue until the breathing was deep and even.
“Discipline is an important part of training,” Obi-Wan said. “Beyond that, it’s an important part of what it means to be a Jedi. You must learn to discipline yourself. But if you cannot, it is my job to discipline you.”
“You mean punish me?” Anakin wiped his sleeve across his eyes.
“Sometimes, yes. But there are other ways as well. Like training exercises and meditations. I would prefer those ways, but Padawans who disobey their masters must be punished. It’s quite serious to disobey. If I had done what you did today, Master Qui-Gon would have put me over his knee and spanked my bottom.”
Anakin looked at him, wide-eyed. “Really?”
Obi-Wan nodded.
“My mom spanked me twice,” Anakin said. “I didn’t like it.”
“You won’t like it when I spank you, either,” Obi-Wan said. “But you must accept it as part of your training. It is meant to help you grow and learn from your mistakes.”
Somehow, Anakin’s eyes got even wider. “Are you going to spank me now??”
“No. We will deal with that when we get back to the Temple. For now, I would like you to think very hard about how you can behave better. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Master,” Anakin said quietly.
Obi-Wan squeezed his shoulder. “It will sting, but know that I will never injure you, or spank you because I’m angry.”
Anakin nodded, still looking unhappy. Of course, that was to be expected; punishments were not something to look forward to. He just hoped the boy would take something away from it.
_______
Obi-Wan and Anakin returned to their quarters as soon as the ship got back to the Temple. The rest of the trip had been uneventful, and Obi-Wan hadn’t mentioned anything else about Anakin’s getting in trouble. He hadn’t mentioned anything else about the spanking Anakin was supposed to get, either. Maybe he’d changed his mind, Anakin wondered. He hoped so. Even though he didn’t think Obi-Wan was mad at him, he still didn’t want a spanking, or any punishment for that matter.
He knew he’d done something Obi-Wan told him not to do, but he’d truly believed that he would only be a few minutes. All he’d wanted to do was quickly climb a tree, then return to the group. He hadn’t anticipated getting stuck in the stupid sap. Maybe Obi-Wan understood that.
“Will you help me go over my reading assignment?” Anakin asked as Obi-Wan hung his robe up by the door.
“Have you forgotten what we needed to discuss?” Obi-Wan asked.
Anakin sighed. He definitely hadn’t forgotten. “No. But I don’t want a spanking, Master.”
“And I don’t want to give you one. But you’ve earned it. Now, I want you to go put on your sleeping clothes and meet me back in the sitting room. And don’t dawdle.”
Anakin stomped off to his room, feeling like he might cry. But crying wouldn’t help. There was just no way out of this. He changed out of his pants and tunic (a borrowed one that he’d taken from the ship), and quickly got into his sleeping clothes, before despondently going back into the sitting room. Obi-Wan was sitting on the sofa and patted the seat next to him.
“Anakin, I would like you to tell me what you did wrong today.”
Anakin swung his legs for a moment before answering, knocking his legs against the sofa. “I didn’t do what you said.”
“Please be more specific.”
“You told me to stay with the group, and I walked away.”
“And why did I tell you that?”
“It’s dangerous,” Anakin said quietly.
“That’s right. What happened to you when you left the group?”
Anakin sighed. “I got stuck.”
“Yes, and many other things might have happened to you.”
“But, Master, you said a Jedi shouldn’t be afraid.”
“Yes, but you should still be mindful, and use your sense. You have only just begun your training. A Jedi trusts in the Force, but he also understands his shortcomings. That also means he accepts advice and discipline from his elders.”
Anakin looked down at his hands, silent. He couldn’t think of any other arguments to make. Even though he hadn’t meant to be naughty, it was still hard to excuse himself.
“All right, Padawan,” Obi-Wan said. “Let’s get this over with. I want you to stand up.”
Anakin did so.
Obi-Wan reached forward and gently pulled Anakin over his knee before pulling the boy’s pants and underwear down. “Not all spankings will be bare bottom, but I think you should remember this one,” he said.
Anakin had a full and sudden realization about what was about to happen. “I’m sorry, Master!”
“You can show me you’re sorry by accepting your discipline,” Obi-Wan said.
That wasn’t at all what Anakin had hoped to hear. But he knew he needed to show Obi-Wan he could be brave and take it. That’s what a Jedi would do.
Obi-Wan’s hand came down quickly, spreading a stinging fire across Anakin’s bottom. He barely had time to react before a second followed, causing him to buck a little.
“Ouch!”
His promise to himself to take his punishment quietly had quickly been abandoned as the sound of rapid smacks filled the room. “Ah! Ow!” He kicked his legs uselessly against the scorching onslaught to his bottom. Nothing helped.
But it seemed to be over almost as soon as it started. Anakin did not remember exactly when he’d started to cry, but he was sobbing now, his chest heaving against his master’s leg as he felt sorry for himself and his burning backside. Obi-Wan might as well have made him sit on the hot sands of Tatooine under the noonday suns.
“There now,” Obi-Wan said, gently sitting him back up. “You lived. All over now.” He pulled Anakin close to him, hugging him tightly. Anakin snuffled into Obi-Wan’s tunics, a bit surprised at the development. Somehow, he hadn’t thought Obi-Wan was the hugging type, but something about being hugged now almost made him want to cry with relief, even though he wanted to be angry. It felt like Obi-Wan really meant it.
“Feeling better?” Obi-Wan asked after a couple moments. He wiped a couple of the last remaining of Anakin’s tears with the edge of his sleeve.
“Mmm,” Anakin answered noncommittally. He was afraid if he said yes, Obi-Wan would make him get up. But he didn’t feel like crying anymore.
“Would you like some tea?”
“Okay,” Anakin said. He didn’t really like the taste of tea, but he did like drinking it with Obi-Wan. It had been one of the first things they’d ever done together, talking and asking each other questions while they drunk the tea. Even if Anakin hadn’t liked the tea, but sitting there with Obi-Wan he had felt almost at peace.
Obi-Wan got up and started to head toward the kitchen, but Anakin called him back.
“Master? You said Master Qui-Gon would spank you if you ever did something like I did?”
“Yes?” Obi-Wan said.
“ Did you ever do anything like that?”
Obi-Wan smiled at him. “You want to hear a story about when I was naughty?”
Anakin nodded. “But I don’t think you ever were. I think you were always perfect.”
“I haven’t always been this perfect, Padawan,” Obi-wan said, turning again.
Anakin had a feeling Obi-Wan was joking with him in the way grown-ups liked to joke with kids. But he also had a feeling he was about to hear a pretty good story.