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Sabine sighed as she pushed her orange tipped bangs out of her eyes, wiping the sweat off her forehead, her body suit and colourful armour doing a good job at regulating her body heat under the Lothal sun. Stepping back from the stolen tie fighter , she admired her handywork on the wing, the orange and yellow pattern bringing fire and life to the otherwise colourless ship. Just one more coat and the wings would really pop.
Whilst she waited for the current coat to dry, she decided to plan the designs for the cockpit, retrieving her sketch book from her satchel, and found some much needed shade in the Tie’s shadow, resting her back against the outside of the wing. Just as she started to jot her ideas down she heard the rustling of grass as someone approached her.
Looking up she saw the newest member of her crew stroll towards her, clad in an orange jumpsuit and jacket, his newly constructed saber hanging from his belt.
“I see the Tie is coming along well, I love the orange” Said Ezra, giving her his best grin.
“Who would have thought, it’s not like you wear any other colours” Sabine jokingly jabbed before returning back to her designs, the sound of her pencil gliding over the rough paper filling the air.
The mischievous padawan took a seat next to her, leaning over slightly in attempt to watch her work. In a swift motion the book slammed shut in Sabine’s hand, hiding the contents from the prying eyes of the resident Lothrat, “And what do you think you’re looking at” She chided
The padawan dramatically raising his hands in the air in defence, “Sorry, I was just curious to what you were drawing”, his voice an octave higher than usual, clearly surprised the Mandalorian caught on so quickly.
“What is it they say about curiosity, oh yeah, it killed the Lothcat” The young warrior mocked, giving the young jedi a playful shove in the shoulder, forcing him to scooch away, ensuring he couldn’t steal any more glances of her sketch book.
“Hey, it’s only fair I get to know what you’re planning to paint on it, I did steal it after all with Zeb” He defended, suddenly realizing the Lasat may not be to impressed by their Tie’s new face lift.
“I don’t think so, the deal was I get to paint your Tie fighter and you get to watch” Sabine reiterated, “At no point did I agree to you deciding what it will look like and the contents of this sketch book is for my eyes only”
“Fine, fine, I’m sure it will look great either way” said Ezra, trying to get back into her good graces, “I can’t believe I had to bribe you with a Tie fighter to get you to hang out with me, am I seriously that annoying to be around? on second thought, don’t answer that”
Chuckling, the Mandalorian shook her head, “You’re not as bad as you used to be, I just prefer doing this stuff on my own, helps me think you know” Pausing for a moment, Sabine looked back at the Tie, “I don’t think Kannan is going to be too impressed when he discovers his oh so obedient Padawan went against his orders”
“Oh I can handle a grumpy Kannan, it’s Hera I’m really worried about” Said Ezra, causing them to snicker, both knowing what it was like when you got on Hera’s bad side and her Rylothian accent broke through.
The two of them continued to banter and chat about their previous missions, Sabine enjoying his company much more than she thought she would, admittedly she found the street rat quite annoying at first and may have kept a closer eye on their inventory than usual for the first week or so, but over the last couple of months he had really become part of their crew.
Realising she had been distracted from her work and had made no progress on her designs she decided to change the topic in hopes of ending their conversation, knowing they only had a couple of hours before they would be expected back on the Ghost.
“Weren’t you supposed to be doing meditation practise?” She asked, “As far as I can tell it doesn’t seem to be going very well”
The padawan groaned, hitting his head against the black solar array, “It isn’t is it” he replied, “I’m still trying to get my head around it to be honest” sighing
“What are you struggling with?” Sabine asked, genuinely curious about his training, totally not because Kannan said she gets to shoot at Ezra in their next lightsaber session.
“Just… Everything, what being a Jedi means, what I’m supposed to do, consistently connecting to the force” Ezra explained, “It’s all just so, so foreign to me, a few months ago I was living alone in a tower, just trying to go from one day to the next but now I’m a rebel constantly training to be a peacekeeper when we are fighting for our lives against an empire”
Sabine pondered Ezra’s words, instantly understanding his conflict. Jedi philosophy didn’t really work in today’s galaxy, if you asked any of her ancestors they would say it never worked at all. He was being taught about peace yet was being trained to fight in a war.
Ezra suddenly winced, “Sorry about that, I’m sure you have better things to do than listen to me rant about jedi training” standing up to give the Mandalorian some space to work
“Hey, I get it, we don’t exactly lead the most normal lives in the galaxy, but for what it’s worth I think you will make a great jedi someday” Sabine reassured, “You just need to take it slow, the jedi of old where far from perfect, you just need to find a balance between the life of a rebel and your duties as a jedi”
Ezra look back at her thoughtfully taking in her surprisingly wise words before a roguish smile plastered itself on his face, “Did Sabine Wren just give me a compliment?” quickly deciding now was a good time to leave.
Rolling her eyes at the comment she picked up a small pebble conveniently resting by her foot, “Don’t look to much into it kid” letting the stone fly straight towards the back of his head. Sensing the sudden “attack”, the jedi in training stepped aside, dodging the stone.
She could see the cocky swagger in his step as he continued to walk away, damn him. She defiantly wasn’t going to go easy on him tomorrow, thankfully she and Kannan had very different definitions of a light stun.
Sabine continued to doodle designs in her book for the stolen tie, finally settling on continuing the current yellow and orange colour palette and adding some of the designs and symbols from her armour. She must have lost track of time as the sky had changed from it’s light blue to a warm pink and orange as the sun began to set, lowering towards the horizon. If they left now, they might just be able avoid the majority of Hera Syndulla’s wrath.
“Ezra” She called out, “We should probably get going” Only to receive no reply. “Where is he” She thought, knowing he had a knack for getting himself into trouble.
Sabine got up to look around to find her friend, “Ezra” she tried again but he was nowhere to be seen. Going around the stone mounds that hid the tie, she spotted him in the distance, kneeling amongst the golden plains.
As Sabine approached she could tell the young jedi was meditating, his breathing slow and even, his hair waving in sync with the grass in the gentle breeze. Lying by his leg rested a wild Lothcat curled up into a small ball also seemingly unaware of her presence. She had never seen their crew’s jedi meditate before with Kannan exclusively doing so in his cabin and Ezra usually struggling to sit still for longer than a minute but now he looked so calm, so peaceful.
Deciding to test how deep in a trance he was, the Mandalorian snapped her fingers to the side of his head, only for the lothcat to stir before going back to sleep at his side. Looking at the serene scene in front of her she pulled out her sketchbook and rested against a small bolder a few metres away to capture the moment, her pencil dancing across the paper. Ezra did say he wanted to be inspiration for her work after all.
She drew the beautiful scenery before her, the towering mounds of rock with the rolling plains. At the centre of it all knelt Ezra, becoming one with the landscape.
As she made her final touches to the sketch she felt her eye lids began to droop and slowly close…
Sabine’s eyes blinked open as she awoke, pulling her out of her pleasant dream. Cursing her body clock she attempted to rise out of her bed only for one of her legs to be weighed down.
“Morning Murley” Sabine cooed, brushing her hand through his long fur to ease the feline awake, “Can you let me get up please”, the Lothcat finally arching it’s back in an exaggerated stretch before jumping down to the floor, freeing the Mandalorian from her bed.
Getting up, Sabine carried out her morning routine, brushing the knots out of her long hair as she waited for her caf to heat up. Taking her mug she went to the balcony, the cool morning breeze helping her wake along with her strong caf.
The sun had just started to rise, it’s rays emerging from the horizon, casting warm light onto the flourishing fields below.
A tear rolled down her cheek as she thought about the dream of her past, realising the beautiful scene before her no longer filled her with joy like it once did all those years ago, a vital piece still missing after all this time.
“I guess you figured it out afterall” She said despite knowing she was alone, “I told you that you would”