EAST OF EDEN ( anakin s. ) ✔️

008 | Flickers of the Dark..

━━━━━━ ༻ 🌄 ༺ ━━━━━━
" flickers of the dark "
...
━━━ ༻ CHAPTER EIGHT ༺ ━━━

          THE HUM OF THE MOUNTAIN, the dripping of the water within the humid temple and even the quiet buzz of the hologram beside them got traded away and replaced with a diffused chatter, heard in the incomplete darkness of closed eyes as through ears submerged in a pool. A short inhale popped the illusion of water out and sound flooded in, loud and raw. Its apparent realness was flame brought to the gasoline of Eden's desire to believe it was all true; she opened her eyes with eagerness and was immediately subdued to an uncontrollable gasp. 

She closed her eyes in a Gihec temple with Anakin, but now she opened them in the middle of a marketplace she did not recognize. Shortness of breath commenced at the widening of her eyes and parting of her lips behind the now lowering hands. Vaguely, she heard Anakin's confirmation that the Gihec technique the holocron held worked exactly as predicted and that, through the Force, they have projected their shaped energy away from their bodies left in meditation on Anope to instead exist, on a stretch of the term, in Mos Espa, on the planet he grew up on, Tatooine. 

The binary stars of this new system were setting towards the golden horizon of dunes in blurred reflected fire... Eden has never seen a binary sunset before. 

The market stands were closing, preparing for the night, but the area was still buzzing with far more people than she had ever seen in one place at once. Such gatherings were a mere fantasy to her merely moments ago, nothing but far away truths she could glimpse at through the painted murals on walls. So many different species she had no idea even existed in the first place were walking around with their own business on the dusty, wide street. After only having met people so attuned with the Force her whole life it felt intriguing, even unnatural to suddenly be surrounded by beings unaware and highly ignorant to this primordial aspect of life in general.

Peculiarity just grew in abundance, because even the smallest of things were entirely compelling to observe: the constructions of the town, with their rounded roofs and white cloud pumping chimneys, the myriad of articles being sold on the stands now closing, the very idea of an economy happening, even on this planet supposedly at the very edge of the busy galaxy, too far away from the conglomerates of power to have an significant value; yet here they were, the people of Tatooine, trading, selling, exchanging, far more than could ever be accomplished on Anope where the idea of ownership was abolished centuries ago. 

Everything she was seeing and feeling was endearing, because with their spirit travelled some reassembly of sense to them as well, albeit delayed. The air smelled different, with more to it than the apparent first dryness. Little to no wind indicated that they were nearby a cantina. She's only ever imagined how food might play a much more significant role anywhere else in the galaxy and how much more diverse it could get than the berries, leaves and roots they consumed on Anope.

Anakin has seen enough of the galaxy and plentiful of Tatooine to frown at the banality of the spaceport town, but Eden's eyes were filling up with tears. She was seeing for the first time in twenty years a different planet, a different people, a different sky... 

Back in the Gihec temple, the tears streamed down her face, but her Force projection felt the ripples of it as a blur of sight and much of her judgement too, in an undeniable spiraling effort to control the overwhelming sense that she has lived within reach of the path fulfilling her dreams all along. Somewhat dazed, Eden took charge of stepping further into the street buzzing with more activity than their little alley. A hurried merchant and his wheelbarrow appeared from the right and, with not enough speed of reaction to spare on both focusing herself and avoiding the accident, he ran right into... and through her.