High Heavens (Star Wars - Luke Skywalker)

III - Luke Skywalker

Mara woke up to heat and a sharp sting of stand in the wind. She sat up from the ground, coughing out dirt and dust. 

Well, it seemed she had made it to Tatooine.

She suddenly became alarmed as she realized that she sat alone in the desert, still strapped into an ejected chair from the escape pod. 

She was alone. Meaning Elix was also alone, and the Death Star plans - along with Princess Leia's message - were in the care of an astromech droid.

It took a moment, but Mara found the strength to slowly rise to her feet. She squinted against the bright sunlight, subconsciously cursing the twin suns that had risen above her. Almost against her will, she smiled to herself. Not too long ago, Tatooine had almost been like a home to her. Almost.

But she had more important things to think about now. For one: surviving, and finding Elix somewhere in this sea of sand. But without even a pillar of smoke to point her in the right direction, she had nothing to go on. The only real choice she had was to find a town or outpost of some sort, and hope that Elix could find his way there.

She narrowed her eyes at a dark, jagged line on the horizon: Beggars Canyon. That was a start. From there, if she headed north, then she was pretty sure she could find her way to Mos Eisley. It was her best bet.

The rest of the day she spent walking, Beggars Canyon in sight the whole time. She stripped off her flightsuit early on, leaving the orange fabric discarded in the sand. The black tank-top and loose brown pants she wore underneath were certainly breezier, but didn't make the heat any less unbearable.

She didn't see any of sign of Elix or the droids the whole day. Her steps felt heavier in the sand as she sank with dread. 

By the time night fell, she had only halved the distance. The canyon still seemed so far away. Mara tried to walk through the night, but it was pointless. She was practically walking blind when she finally stopped to sleep. She slipped below a small outcropping of rocks, which would have to serve as shelter for the night.

As her eyes closed, Mara did her best not to think. She fought of the urge to let her mind wander to Elix, or to worry about the princess, who was most definitely in the hands of the Empire, by now. Flashes of Scarif, of Cassian and Navi, shot through her mind, and she gritted her teeth and banished them. Don't think about it. She just forced herself not to think, and prayed that sleep would come soon: so she could wake early, and carry out her mission.

The next morning, a loud and guttural cry shocked Mara awake, her heart giving a heavy thump at the unfamiliar sound. She was quickly putting distance between herself and whatever made such a noise, not eager to stick around and face it.

Not long after she started walking, the terrain morphed from the usual sand into a narrow, rocky valley. The stones were a ruddy, brownish-red, and a strange smell was in the air, but it provided relief from the heat, so she didn't complain. But half-way through the valley, the same frightening cry from before sounded. This time, it echoed off the stone walls around her, making it impossible to tell where it was coming from. Disoriented and admittedly afraid, Mara spun around with her blaster in hand, on high alert.

She let out a shriek when something grabbed her shoulder, and she whirled around, blaster raised.

"Woah, wait, wait!"

Her finger froze on the trigger as she realized it was a kid - a boy, actually, likely her age. His arms were up, shielding himself from whatever harm he thought Mara might inflict. He carried a long rifle, but aside from that, appeared rather harmless, to Mara's relief.