EAST OF EDEN ( anakin s. ) ✔️

002 | Ripples in the Sand..

━━━━━━ ༻ 🌄 ༺ ━━━━━━
" ripples in the sand "
...
━━━ ༻ CHAPTER TWO ༺ ━━━

          THE MUCH DESIRED SILENCE turned on Anakin within minutes since Eden begun leading them into the Anopian forest. There wasn't much to say, she believed. The Jedi had been very clear that he did not wish to be there and though she had little chance to voice an opinion on the matter, she would argue that the Sanctuary and the mysteries of the Force should really not be coerced into anyone's life. Taking kindly to the absence of free will was not in her nature, but though bitterness stung the back of her tongue, Eden preferred the silence through a steady paced walk through one of the most beautiful forests on the planet. 

It wasn't just her thinking at play, but mere common sense. The forest, in its depth, held the hypnotizing gradient from the darkest greens to a silked turquoise. What little tree trunks strayed from that palette of color, simply plunged into the realm of silver and obsidian instead, forming batches on both sides of a barely visible path where one would have to blink twice to recognize their sight has not just naturally turned to black and white. Walking between blankets of color was what made the forest so appealing, because while the tree crowns meeting above and leaving little space for tunnels of orange light to slither through, those abstract patterns fell on a reddish soil, soft to the point that it felt each step sunk into sponges, making little to no sound.

It was that lack of sound which soothed Anakin right back into a more casual discomfort. The further he was from the clearing, the further back into his mind the argument with Obi-Wan was pushed and eventually, he even started to feel the shivered tingles of an incredibly strong Force evoking field. Finally, he started noticing the present he was into, with not only the mesmerizing surroundings he immediately blamed for the palpable presence of the Force, but also his supposed guide. Eden. 

He thought 'supposed' because one of his first observations was how young she really looked. She couldn't have been older than him, that much he could bet on already. As for her allure, undeniably distracted by her hair, Anakin could not help himself but think she reassembled a sunset, but not on a planet like Coruscant where sunsets are bruises painted so they cast a shadow over an infinite city turning into a sky full of stars. Looking at her felt awfully familiar to a distant memory of watching the binary sunset cast golden ambers over the quietly sill horizon of Tatooine. 

That boring planet looked almost enchanting right at the passage between day and night, when rolling over the sand, a mystified illusion made the air shine in the only hour when it was neither too hot or too cold. 

It's been almost too long since he thought back at Tatooine without being drenched in a night terror's chill or in the rush of anger of everything that went wrong during the years spent between dunes and attempted houses choked up by sand. As soon as a ghostly smile appeared on Anakin's lips from all this melancholic endeavor Eden's presence challenged from him, a pang of guilt made him grimace at his own hand to play in why now, after she had been so openly excited about the month to come, the girl was silent.

Her joy was another thing Anakin could add to the never-ending list of things he had broken without meaning to and the worst part was that he was struggling to even come up with a decent way to brush this guilt aside and maybe... break something that should be broken for once, like the silence building up now to be rather uncomfortable. 

He's been staring intently at Eden for so long that the second she turned to look over her shoulder at him, Anakin was taken completely off guard. Mouth hanging open, he simply thanked whatever forces were at play that he didn't stumble on something like thin air to complete the picture of a fool acting like this was the first girl he's met since forever.