broken [1]- a Star Wars story

XV

"Greed and fear of loss are the roots that lead to the tree of evil."

Anakin pushes the speeder further into the sand dunes of Tatooine. The suns dip below the horizon, casting a dark orange glow across the ground, like lava and fire in the night.

Aayla holds onto him as he speeds across the canyons; large structures of rock and sand towering over them as they pass.

They had already been on the move for what must've been an hour by now, and with no sign of the Tusken Raiders, or Shmi. But neither Padawan were giving up; they were going to find her.

Anakin pushes on into the dunes, a towering bridge of rock above them as they pass the setting twin suns. Aayla could feel the anger radiating off of the boy, and she felt it in herself.

The closer they got towards Shmi, towards finding her, the more Anakin's emotions radiated within her. Aayla couldn't make any sense of why she felt so connected to the boy, nor if he actually felt it too. They'd have to talk about it one day, especially with Obi-Wan.

They continue into the sand dunes and rock canyons, both of them looking for any sign of Shmi, or somewhere they could get directions for the last known location of the raiders.

Aayla begins to sit up straighter, having gotten somewhat used to riding on the back of the speeder bike, and she looks around for anything other than sand and rock.

But it was all she could see. Towering structures of iron coloured sand and boulders, golden glows cast on them by the twin suns.

"Can you see anything?" Anakin asks her, sensing her tension and unease as she looks around. Aayla shakes her head.

"No. Wait." Her eyes fall on a silhouette down in the sand dunes, light coming from inside it and small figures milling about.

"Down there." She points over to the silhouettes and Anakin follows her direction, steering the speeder down the canyon and towards it.

As they grow closer, the silhouettes grow bigger. The figures remained small, perhaps up to Aayla's chest. But the other silhouettes grew larger and Aayla saw that they were transports of some kind.

Anakin pushes on, speeding towards the machines and the people beneath them. Aayla finally saw that they were scavengers, much like herself. The odd bits and bobs of scrap metal shining in the light of the inside of the transport.

"Jawas." She hears Anakin mumble, and she senses his discontent with the humanoid creatures. She says nothing and let's Anakin drive closer.

The bike comes to a stop and Anakin hops off the bike.

"Wait there, I won't be long." He tells her, and walks off to meet a small figure who began walking towards them.

"Wasn't gonna move anyway." Aayla mumbles, and Anakin looks back at her, rolling his eyes.

She watches as Anakin and the Jawa converse, the boy asking for any sign of the Tusken Raiders or their whereabouts.

The small figure turns around and points off towards the distance and Aayla leans forward and follows the direction. She couldn't see anything for miles that way, but if they said the Raiders were that way, they'd have to take it.