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‘Where did you put it!’
‘I don't know it was here somewhere!’
The scene Ahsoka walked into was a torn up barracks with mattresses flipped, sheets everywhere and helmets in the most random of places. In front of her, Fives flipped upside down looking under a bunk with a torch, Echo similarly searched for something in another, some other clones were in similar positions around the room and Rex was in a corner and looked like he was going to have a heart attack.
‘Seriously guys! I leave you for 5 minutes…’ Ahsoka said as she came in, officially announcing herself.
‘Commander-’ one of the men responded, flint, if Ahsoka remembered correctly
‘It's alright.’ Ahsoka stated, a statement that seemed to quickly calm them, ‘We still have time to clean up this… situation before Master skywalker gets back.’
‘Who would have thought that looking after Skywalker's lizard would be so difficult.’ Echo complained, as he yanked himself out from under a bunk.
"We've all served under our general for a few months, even the shinies know to never put 'easy' and ‘General Skywalker’ in the same sentence.’ Hardcase commented
Ahsoka couldn't have agreed more. This should have been so simple, but it wasn't. At least in the barracks there were few places for Anakin’s pet to hide, but the darn lizard, much like its human, could hide anywhere if it wanted.
According to Obiwan, the lizard had been found by Anakin on a mission in which he rescued it from horrific experiments on one of his last missions as a padawan. It was fairly young as far as its species was concerned so it lived in the temple’s wildlife sanctuary, which was standard practice for animals that were too injured to be released back to the wild. There, Jedi who trained for animal healing and care would care for the animals until they were healthy enough to return to their natural habitats or a local zoo of some kind who could properly look after it. This is where Anakin's lizard had gone initially, however, the lizard had decided that Anakin was its caretaker and it kept escaping and going to the Kenobi-Skywalker apartment, much like Skywalker himself would do when he had to live in the initiate dorms. Anakin, for his part, wasn't exactly helping. Eventually, Master Kenobi gave up on trying to stop this and arranged with the Jedi conservatory to have a habitat made for it. After a while, the lizard had to go back to the conservatory since the war started. However, Anakin had swapped his fish for the lizard since their next campaign would be in areas that, to say the least, weren't fish friendly. So Anakin brought his lizard. This lizard, Ashoka quickly learned was the pet version of R2D2. His best, non-droid friend. Apparently he was a breed of lizard that had a larger brain than most species of lizard. As far as neurology was concerned, this lizard species was closer to mammals. This was courtesy of highly advanced biology knowledge and advancements in ecology that Ahsoka really didn't understand.
Ahsoka definitely could see how the lizard crawled its little scaly body into her master's heart. For as much as it cared it was also crafty and quite the mischievous creature. The lizard was by no means ugly but it was clearly very small and the runt of its litter.
This made it particularly annoying that they somehow lost it. The fish incident was one thing, but a lizard was much harder to replace. Especially since this one had a name and a force presence- wait a force presence! Ahsoka could work with that.
‘Ill try finding it in the force! In theory, It has enough sentience for me to do that’ Ahsoka exclaimed
The troopers nodded their heads, their helmets covering the relief that would have swallowed their faces.
Ahsoka reached out into the force. Tracing back to where she last felt it, the lizard went down a hallway, through the hanger and now it was-
‘The Mess hall! That's where it is!’ Ahsoka concluded.
Not even a moment later, Ahsoka and the clones were racing down the halls of the Resolute with many clones looking very confused but not stopping them in any way.
When they arrived in a practically empty mess Hall, the only thing to greet them was a very confused clone, Chef, holding a clear bucket over a defeated looking lizard.
‘Chef! Thank the force you caught it!’ Ahsoka exclaimed
Chef looked up at them, still highly confused. ‘Glad I could help sir’
Ahsoka took the lizard from Chef. The lizard looked back at her with the most defeated look. Much like Skywalker when he failed to escape Medbay checks.
‘You really did cause us a lot of trouble.’ Ahsoka muttered to the lizard, which looked back at her with the most infuriatingly smug grin a lizard could muster.
As they left the mess hall, Ahsoka turned to Chef to thank him again. Chef, still overflowing with confusion, merely stated that he was happy to do his job. It didn't take a Force- sensitive to realise that he was very confused as to how lizard catching was a part of his job description as a clone who worked in the kitchens and managed rations and supplies on the resolute.
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Ahsoka and the clones eventually returned the lizard to its habitat. It was really a palace of a habitat. In the large terrarium in Skywalker’s quarters, the habitat had a bed of sand, logs and rocks which made for plenty of hiding spaces, planets and shrubbery that was native to tatonnie, a small rocky sunbed with a sun lamp and a food and water container which looked more like a senator’s dinner placement than a food and water tray for a pet. Skywalker, for as much as he seemed to be indifferent to them, seemed to really be an animal guy.
Ahsoka carefully placed the lizard in the terrarium and shut the lid. The lizard then proceeded to waddle into a hiding spot that was in range of the sun lamp. Ahsoka and the clones, deciding they had nothing better to do, decided to play a few rounds of Sabbac while keeping an eye on the terrarium. This time keeping a closer eye on the lizard since this was apparently the situation that got them in this mess in the first place.
A few Hours later, Anakin returned.
“Hey guys.’ Anakin greeted them but clearly his focus was elsewhere. ‘Hi buddy!’ Anakin greeted the lizard who had come out of the hiding spot to greet him. ‘Looks like they took perfect care of you!’
Ahsoka and the clones glanced nervously at each other. Their afternoon had been far from uneventful. They still had to put the barracks back to normal before anyone saw the chaos that the room was in.
‘Yep, that's what we did.’ Hardcase grinned
Anakin’s gratefulness and happiness spilled into the force and it made Ahsoka smile. Clearly the chaos was worth it, especially if it made her master this happy.
‘By the way Skyguy, you never said what its name was’ Ahsoka commented
"Its name is pigeon," Anakin said fondly.
‘But that means-’ Fives stared only to be cut off by Echo stomping on his foot.
‘That's a great name sir.’ Rex complimented awkwardly.