wrghwighg

Chapter VIII - Enter the sandman

I've been back on Tatooine for less than two rotations, and I already wish for the sand to just swallow me whole and be done with it.

I know there's no such thing as luck, but I seem to be having a lot of bad luck as of late.

First, I'd wasted hours longer in Mos Espa because I couldn't find a large enough canteen of water that would last me the whole journey, I ended up settling for two medium sized canteens and hid one of them inside one of Effree's compartments. I regretted that decision later.

Second, when we finally made it to the shuttle port to get a shuttle down to Anchorhead, the only shuttle left for the stinking spaceport was broken down. So I had to wait two hours to get a shuttle to Mos Eisley instead, which was sure enough closer to where I needed to go, but still left me with a full day's journey to get to this 'Lars homestead'.

I then decided to go find a speeder that should easily be able to take me the rest of the way there, I managed to bring down the price to about a 30% decrease, the price was not the problem however. It was when half way through my journey through the desert, the speeder suddenly broke down, me and Effree figured out that the speeder was so low on fuel, it's a miracle it even made it as far as it did.

So that's why we're walking the rest of the way there, you'd think that would be the end of it, but you're wrong. Because of our travel through the sand filled dunes, certain motors and gears inside Effree had jammed, including the compartment that housed my last precious water canteen. I spent a quarter of an hour trying to unjam it, with little to no success, now more frustrated and tired than I was previously.

It might've been more bearable if it was completely silent, but Effree had decided to complain a third part into our journey about how much they hated the sand. I came close a lot of times to just kicking them in the side and toppling them over the edge of a dune, and then leaving them at the bottom there.

Effree's about halfway through another spiel of dreadful sound, having resorted to speaking in poetic rhyme an hour ago, when suddenly I see something on the horizon.

"Effree, do you see that over there?" I ask with a small hint of hope painting my words, the droid swivels their domed head around to face the direction I'm pointing at, Effree activates their long range sensor before letting out an affirmative beep. "Well come on then, I don't want to stay out in the sand for much longer, do you?" I get no complaints from my companion before we both quicken our pace, the thing on the horizon growing larger and larger, eventually making out into a clear silhouette of a hut surrounded by moisture vaporators.

The backdrop of the setting binary suns making the view all the more of a sight for sore eyes.

I manage to make it to edge of the hut before I suddenly get hit by an alarming wave of vertigo, I topple over to the side while my vision goes spotty, the last thing I see and hear is the blurry figure of a woman and the worried bleeps and trills of my astromech...

I feel heavy yet weightless at the same time, I feel calm and at peace with myself, something I haven't felt in a long time. I feel as if wrapped up in the warm embrace of familial comfort, yet I also feel as if I'm batting off the cold air of the harsh world outside.

I'm in a weird state of limbo, it feels as if I'm here, yet I'm not here. As if myself, yet not myself.

I rest my hand on my stomach, yet I can also feel myself reaching for the walls, which feel strangely warm.

Bleary eyes slowly blink themselves open to a room submerged in darkness, the only light coming from between the cracks of the door.

The weird sensation of oneness recedes a little, but not entirely, I rub my hand up and down my belly absentmindedly. Soothing a strange ache in my soul I hadn't even realized I was feeling.