Snippets of Ahch-To (AU) (discontinued)

#5: Teacher (Reach Out)

The wind was stagnant today, and the sun shone just enough that Anakin's frail body was warm, but his sensitive eyes did not ache.

"Isn't the ocean view spectacular?" The old man rasped, inhaling the saltiness that lingered in the soft breeze.

Rey nodded.

Being sick for the past three days, her grandfather was feeling well enough to leave his bed without suffering from agonizing bouts of coughing. So, he insisted that he teach his granddaughter something today, though first he wished to simply bask in the sun for a short while.

Two porgs flew near; one perched onto the edge of the rock where Rey sat, and its companion landed in Anakin's lap, squawking at the old man with its large, bulging eyes gazing curiously. Anakin gently caressed its feathery head and patted its abdomen, a benign smile on his wizened face.

After much affectionate cooing from the elderly Anakin Skywalker, the porgs flew away. Her grandfather, with slight disappointment, tenderly placed a rather shaky hand onto her left shoulder.

After a few moment's silence, he spoke up.

"Close your eyes now, my sweet one. Calm your thoughts."

Rey did just so, a slight smile growing on her face. She felt something brush past her fingertips and...

"Reach out, sweetheart... what do you see?"

Her feelings swirled, tying everything together, meshing every element into a masterpiece that was the universe...

"The island..." The rocks jutting out from the endless blue sea...

"Life..." The wildflowers, just... blooming. The fresh thunderstorm that granted the flowers to blossom. The Caretakers, the porgs, all up and about... Ahch-To teemed with life... The galaxy was filled with life...

"Death and decay, that feeds new life..." The damp, dark underground, where the sunlight did not reach, where the fossils that remained for dead creatures were buried for eternity... And the soil, the soil which was composed from that rot, bringing forth another beginning, for the sprouting of crops and the foundations of the Caretakers' domes...

"Warmth..." The sun, casting its bright rays down, shining a golden glow across the vegetation and the domes which were made from the soil...

"Cold..." The crashing ocean waves and the frigid breeze that it washed onto the shores...

"Peace..." A porg mother gathering her chicks into an embrace, the family all bundled together in their tiny nest that perched on a protruding rock above the sea.

"Violence..." The ocean waves, mercilessly crashing into the nest, washing everything away until all that remained were broken shells. She could feel the porg mother's frantic at the loss of one porglet.

Anakin slowly moved his weathered hand from her shoulder, then took one of her hands, holding it palm against palm. "And in it all?"

Rey's eyes were still closed, the Force drawing closer, surrounding her, penetrating her, binding her with the rest of the galaxy. She breathed in, letting the salty air sting her nose and tongue.

"Balance and energy. A... Force."

A grin grew upon her face. The mysterious energy enclosed her body, and her mind drifted, towards so many places, so many worlds she had never seen before...

A desert planet, so much like Jakku... A land of green and blue, with gorgeous waterfalls and a bumbling city in the center of it all... A bustling ecumenopolis, its metal spires rising into the high atmosphere, the distant chatter of the people below, the bright artificial lights, the honking of strange hover-mobiles in such traffic that gave Rey the greatest fascination...