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Draboon was a horrid planet.
The atmosphere was suffocating, a combination of humid and freezing that left a sheen of sleet on everything. Obi-Wan had already found it difficult to navigate with the thick foliage and the unpredictable weather. The muddy ground certainly did not help.
Satine was at his side always, despite her desire to return home to Kalevala a constant facet of her Force presence. That was the Mandalorian part of her, he'd come to realize – She had not wanted to run with him and Qui-Gon. Her wish had been to stay and fight with her father.
But of course, the young Duchess had not gotten her wish, and Qui-Gon had stayed back instead, leaving Obi-Wan and Satine alone to find their way to safety.
Without so much as a rendezvous point.
Just endless miles of mucky forest to traverse in the freezing cold.
Releasing his frustration into the Force – at least, attempting to – he mused, at least the canopy of trees can shield us from the rain.
As though the Force were mocking his gratitude, he was immediately slapped in the face by a wet tree branch.
Spluttering, he smacked it out of the way, only to realize Satine had gone ahead of him, further into the undergrowth. Blast it.
"Satine!" He called. Just to keep her in his sight, he had to jog, splattering mud all over the bottom of his tunic and robes. Force, he was going to need new boots. Narrowly dodging another branch to the face, he repeated, "Satine! We have to stay together!"
"There's a lake up ahead!" She replied. He wasn't quite able to hold back an exasperated scoff.
"Your point?"
Still, he continued to follow her, dodging more flailing branches. He was shivering and significantly wetter by the time he caught up to her.
Beyond the line of trees, she was standing, just at the edge of a lake. Fortunately for her, they'd encountered a brief pocket of clear skies. The storms here passed nearly as quick as they began. The weather was so fickle.
Folding his robes tighter about himself, he stopped at her side. "Well done. You've found us more water."
She gave him a glare, then looked out over the lake. Obi-Wan sized up the horizon as well. The lack of urbanization on this planet –for reasons entirely unbeknownst to Obi-Wan; who wouldn't want to settle here?– meant that the sky was clear, clearer than could've been seen from Coruscant. He was of the mindset that off-planet missions were the best kind, so he tried to appease the Force with some gratitude for the view. The expanse of water glittered with stars, reflected in the break from the rain. Some, he knew, were the other planets of the Mandalore system, brighter, taking up more space. Somewhere out there, Qui-Gon was galavanting alongside the Mandalorian Duke. Obi-Wan certainly would've preferred to be there with him.
Focus on the moment, he chided himself, turning to Satine with a question on his tongue. It was intended to be something along the lines of do you know how to swim? He came up dead when he met her eyes.
They were glittering, much like the lake. All thoughts of pushing her in the lake left his head. What came to mind instead were the words starlit, deeper than the sky.
Suddenly, her eyes narrowed shrewdly, and he looked over her shoulder instead. "Ah, a boat!" He observed. The look on her face was one of apparent discontent, before she turned and saw what he had seen along the shore.
A wooden boat – archaic and obsolete, yes, with oars and a few benches lining the inside.
Without stopping to consider what had just happened, Obi-Wan silently thanked the Force for the distraction and joined Satine in pushing the boat from the shore.
Together, they piled in, trying desperately to figure out how the oars worked and who was going to row. By pure chance, Obi-Wan ended up doing it, meaning his back was facing the rest of the lake. While the Force allowed him to sense where he was going, if he looked straight forward, all he saw was Satine, looking at him.
As they both settled on the surface of the water, they made eye contact. There was a beat of silence, where the waves lapped against the boat and a gentle breeze blew past, before Obi-Wan suddenly remembered there was currently a price out for the Duchess and they could, potentially, be assaulted at any given moment.
They both looked away, clearing their throats, and Obi-Wan began to row.
"It's quite lovely out," Satine observed. Obi-Wan answered with a noncommittal hum. "I've never been this far from Kalevala before."
He finally met her eyes, tilting his head. "Not even in your own system?"
Silently, she shook her head. Obi-Wan resumed rowing, watching with interest as she reached over the edge of the boat, dipping the tips of her fingers into the water.
Immediately, the surface was alight. She pulled her hand back with a gasp. Obi-Wan stopped rowing, instead looking at the water with awe.
Thousands of glowing bugs littered the water's surface, carried by gentle waves. It illuminated the water in a way even the stars hadn't, casting the edges of the lake in further shadow, but giving Satine a glow he had to admit was breathtaking.
While her eyes were still on the water, he looked away and at the surface.
Tentatively, he reached over the edge of the boat and dipped a single fingertip in.
There was a pulse of light from the bugs, accompanied by a flicker of excitement in the Force. He felt their hunger tingling at his skin and pulled his hand back – these weren't merely bugs, they were sentient, feeding off their warmth and life forces. A peculiar dichotomy of beauty and predation.
Obi-Wan's eyes drifted back to Satine. She was looking back at him, a smile on her face.
Suddenly, he realized just how small the boat was, just how close they were, nearly touching. The look in her eyes, carrying both a starlit glow and the gentle warmth of the water's surface, was almost tangible. The look on her face shifted to something mirroring his own.
Just as she opened her mouth to speak and his heart rate picked up, the bugs suddenly snapped off their lights.
That was all the warning they got before the downpour hit again.
Obi-Wan was soaked nearly instantly. Yes, he may have gone through years of training for better reflexes, but he'd been caught off guard. At least he threw up a clumsy force-shield while it still counted. It didn't quite cover Satine, though, so he had to shuffle even closer.
One look into her eyes made him lose his focus. In a matter of seconds, they were drenched again.
"Ah!" Obi-Wan cried out, and threw the next best thing over their heads – Which was his robe, of course, already sopping wet and rather heavy. The boat rocked in the rain while the two of them huddled under his robe, water dripping between them.
"It was nice while it lasted," Satine grumbled, scooching in even closer.
Beneath the protection of the robe, all Obi-Wan could see were her eyes. It was rather awkward, objectively uncomfortable. He tried his very best to keep a respectful distance.
"And your robe isn't quite dry, either," She added. Obi-Wan gasped in offense.
"Well, why don't you try shielding us with the Force, your Majesty?"
She scoffed. While he couldn't see her face, he could imagine the sarcastic smile on her lips. "I wasn't complaining, dearest."
While Obi-Wan prided himself on not being susceptible to her teasing, he found that at their proximity, it was hard to keep his edge. A Jedi's resolve was not so easily fractured, he chided himself.
Briefly, he tugged on his Padawan braid to get his head back in the game. They couldn't afford distractions. In order to maintain their makeshift shelter, he found the only way to keep them moving was to use the Force.
And so use the Force, he did.
They moved swiftly, over choppy water, carried by the faint life forces of those glowing creatures. The rain was not as harsh and cyclonic as it had been throughout the rest of their journey. Instead, it fell in pattering sheets. The ripples of the darkened, disrupted surface were visible from just beneath Obi-Wan's robe; He kept his eyes on that, rather than looking up and meeting Satine's in the darkness.
"It's rather dark under here," She observed. Her voice was a distant sound to him, focused as he was on... well, maintaining his focus. When the underside of his robe suddenly lit up, he found himself pausing and looking up.
A small orb hovered between them, illuminating them in a faint candescent glow. This allowed him to see her eyes, to gauge the way she was looking at him.
Oh. Force.
All of a sudden, they came to an abrupt stop. Before Obi-Wan could reach out and sense what it was that they had run into, they were sent toppling over into the water. The moment he hit the surface, the glowing creatures in the water flared up. The sensation of drowning was the second on his mind; The sensation of being swarmed took precedence.
His feet just barely touched the bottom. His senses were still mottled from the sudden shock of freezing water. The Force was doing nothing to offer clarity, and amidst all the panic, he couldn't tell whether or not the bugs actually intended to feast upon his life force.
Fortunately, the water wasn't too deep. Obi-wan still didn't know if the Duchess could swim. Perhaps that was why his first instinct, upon swimming out from beneath the boat and breaching the surface, was to call out her name.
There was no reply – They were beneath a thick canopy of trees, protecting them from the worst smatterings of rain sending ripples across the center of the lake. The glowing creatures made it difficult to see beneath the surface, where Satine's glow-orb may have offered some sense of direction.
Obi-Wan's heart rate skyrocketed again, for an entirely different reason, and he began to splash around in a panic.
A head suddenly burst from the water, gasping for air. Satine floated in front of him. The glowing creatures had attached themselves to her hair, framing her face. She did not look pleased by this fact, nor by the fact that they were now shoulder-deep in frigid water.
"The- The shore," She spluttered out. Nodding, Obi-Wan grabbed his cloak by the hood and dragged it behind him, as he and Satine began making their sluggish way to the shore. Through a thicket of thorned bushes, they crawled, until the water was shallow enough to stand upright.
With waterlogged boots, he got to his feet, reaching out to pull Satine up behind him.
She was shivering violently. Oh, Obi-Wan wished they had some supplies, anything more than the soaking wet clothes on their backs. Gently, he cupped her elbows.
"Are you alright, Duchess?" He asked softly.
Coughing, she met his eyes, and said, "I thought you were guiding us!"
That was uncalled for! How could Obi-Wan have known there was a tree root right there?
"Well, my apologies, but I am the one protecting you," He spat, pulling his hands back petulantly. This girl was unbelievable. "You could help some."
Instead of saying what her eyes clearly suggested – which was something along the lines of do better, he was sure – she smirked playfully and reached forward. As she spoke, she twirled his Padawan braid around her finger. "Well, I appreciate the gesture."
The rain, in his mind, stopped for a moment, as did the shaking of their shoulders and the threat of those bugs. Even their capsized boat disappeared. Instead, it was just them, in a pocket of foliage beside a glowing, ethereal pond.
"Satine..." He began, bringing his hand up to wrap around hers. He watched as her eyes scanned his face. If he wasn't wrong, they looked hopeful, less spiteful than was per usual. Momentary boldness brought him a step closer, and without much intent or thought–
The mud beneath his boots gave away. The momentum had him tripping into her; She caught him by the shoulders, but suffice it to say, the moment was ruined.
Awkwardly, he pulled his boot from the mud, cursing softly at Draboon and its rain and the Force and everything else.
She laughed at him with all the spite he'd come to expect, and he jerked away from her. Perhaps the Force hadn't appreciated his gratitude, in which case he certainly wasn't going to offer any more.
"Come on," He grumbled, taking her hand and pulling her away from the shore. After all, they were still on the run. He was her Jedi Protector, and she was an irritating noble.
Who, upon a glance behind him, looked rather ethereal herself, her hair glowing around her face and lighting the path into the woods. And, well, despite all his irritation and dripping wet clothing, he had to admit, she was rather... beautiful.
Blasted Qui-Gon, leaving us alone on this planet.