Rough Day by guardianangelicas

Ask Me Again Tomorrow

This story doesn't belong to me. It belongs to guardianangelicas on AO3.

Headstart—12:17pm:

The sky is so pretty.  There isn't much to look at on the surface—rolling hills and plains, grassy but with dry bare spots breaking up the green stretches, but the sky.   It's an oil painting above you, pastel swishes of yellows and pinks and purples with an enormous ringed planet taking up half the horizon and another sizable moon hanging high.

You should probably be running.  Like, for real sprinting, but you can't push yourself to go faster than a brisk walk.  It's so... free out here, more hills springing up every time you get to the top of the next, warm air filling your lungs.  Even though you know realistically that the beginning will likely be the hardest—where you need to focus most on running and putting distance between you instead of hiding—truth be told, you're not foreseeing making it more than a full day.  You're going to try , obviously, but in the grand scheme, you wouldn't be surprised in the least if he finds you tomorrow.  So, instead of wasting all your energy going as fast as you physically can right out of the gate, you just decide to stroll and think for a little bit.

You know what your goal is.  Obviously, to last as long as you can, but more specifically... well, if Din is going to chase after you, then he's going to try to think like you.  Anticipate your movements, if he can't already see the tracks you leave plain as day.  Very soon, he'll be walking this same exact pathing, following the footprints you're leaving behind, but if you're ever able to shake him or throw him off course, he doesn't have a tracking fob.  He doesn't have any mechanical device that points him in your direction—if you can lose him with the footprints, then he'll have to rely solely on predicting you. Which means you need to think... exactly the opposite of yourself if you want to outsmart him.

That's harder than it sounds though, because... is he going to predict you predicting him?  At what point does it stop?  You somehow have trouble seeing this as an advantage the way he said it would be—you almost wish you had someone else chasing you, someone you didn't know and someone who didn't know you if only so this paradox could end before it begins.

You're walking for about ten minutes before spotting a dirt road in the distance.  There's a person following it in the direction of the sun—you don't know this planet's magnetic field but you do know it's after noon and the sun would set on Arvala-7 in the west, so that's what you'll call it for now.  You call out to them as soon as you're in range, and the stranger turns to you.

"Excuse me!"  It's a woman, you see it as you get closer.  "I'm so sorry to bother you, but can you tell me where this road leads?"

She removes a sheer yellow shawl covering her dark hair and gives you a friendly smile.  "Hello," the lady greets, before spinning around and pointing back the way she came.  "Osiruu is a few hours that way.  There's not much there, but it will take you to G'ila, a transport hub with many opportunities for drifters, or Nariss, the capital.  I'm on my way to Shabeth," she points in the other direction.  "It's far—a day's walk, but it's a holy place and offers quite the view.  I would be glad for the company, but I understand its lack of practical appeal."

So this place is safe enough to be inviting strangers along on your travels, noted.  You're going to have to make the decision right now, then.  Which path should you take?

Something deep inside you tells you that you want to see this holy place, and just from a few sentences, you already like this woman and feel safe with her.  But then all of a sudden, you remember something.

Last known locations tell you a lot about a quarry, Din's voice drifts back to you, sounding soft and distant from the dark forests of Naboo.   Smart ones go to populated planets, planets like Coruscant, planets that make it nearly impossible to find people.  Brave ones go to dangerous planets, suicidal ones try their luck in the Unknown Regions, idiots continue to go about their business on their homeworld without caring.  But planets like this—like Naboo... those are the pacifists.  The ones that don't ever put up a fight.