Star Wars: The Forgotten Student

10.

The suns were setting as we arrived. I landed my vessel outside of the sandy dome house before grabbing the bag I packed on Coruscant and slinging it over my shoulder. I clambered out the ship as Ceth parked up his speeder bike and removed the goggles he was wearing to protect his eyes from the sandy terrain of Tatooine. The front door to the beige igloo opened and out pondered an old lady, with grey hair and weak knees, but a welcoming and delicate face.

"Ceth, what have I told you about parking that speeder so close to the house!?" She said.

I felt a bit guilty for parking my own ship by the dome now.

"Fiolla, my love, what have I told you about getting unnecessarily stressed?" Ceth said, greeting his wife with a hug and a kiss. Fiolla looked over Ceth's shoulder and her gaze fell on me.

"Oh! Hello. I didn't see you there." She Walked towards me smiling.
"And who might you be?"

"Fiolla, this is Delta. She's going to be helping us here on the moisture farm, like we spoke about."

Fiolla kept smiling at me, examining my face. She was a sweet old lady, and one of those people you wish that no harm would come to.
"My what beautiful eyes you've got. Bet you can see the whole galaxy in those." She said to me.

Neither of them knew about me being a Jedi or my seeking ability yet, and I didn't know whether I should tell them or not. I decided not to, straight away at least.

"Thank you, ma'am." I replied.

"Oh please, call me Fiolla. We don't need any of that fancy 'ma'am' business here. Now, let's get you inside and settled."

We all headed inside. The interior of the dome house was bright and homely; I felt quite safe inside. There was a small circular table with three chairs where we all sat down. They gave me food and drink as we spoke about payment and the work I would be doing on the farm, so I won't bore you with those details. Eventually, we ended up talking about just general life. Ceth and Fiolla were, understandably, curious about me and who I was.

"So what brings you to Tatooine? I mean there I much nicer planets you could be running away to." Ceth asked.

"I don't know. It's far away, different and a fresh start." I answered.
"How did you know I was running away?" I chuckled.

"I mean no disrespect when I say this but I've seen your look before; the look of wanting to escape and find a new start." He replied.

"So what are you running from?" Fiolla added.

I wasn't sure how to respond. I didn't realy want to tell them that I accidentally killed someone, got sentenced to death, took out a load of guards and went against the Jedi Order then stole a starfighter and flew across the galaxy. So I simply responded with,
"It's a long story, but I made a mistake. And the people back home didn't believe me. I lost a lot of trust. I came here to start a new journey, on a new path."

"Well it's a good job we found you before the scrappers did." Ceth said, standing up from his seat, taking away my empty plate.

"Scrappers?"

"They're a nasty lot. They'll try and convince anyone to work for them in the wreckages and ruins. Dangerous work too." Fiolla said.

At the end of the night, Fiolla showed me to the annex behind their house. It was nice, cozy and had a bed, work table and a few chairs and shelves.

Anyway, that night I slept like a baby. I woke up the next morning and went straight to work on the moisture farm, maintaining the vapouratpors, collecting and moving the harvested water and just generally helping out.

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And that's really how I spent the next few months: I worked, I got paid. Simple.

I put half of the credits I made to one side, as savings, and the half I spent, whether that be on drinks, clothes, anything really. I quickly learnt that the main town, Mos Eisley, was a pretty rough place; there was a lot of bars and cantinas where people would get astonishingly drunk and take it out onto the streets. There was also a lot of crime, some petty and some major, but I never got too caught up in it.

Each day I spent on Tatooine, I strayed a little further from the Jedi ways and rules. However, I wanted to remain strong with the force and keep my connection to it secure. So I meditated every evening, in my little hut on the farm. I still kept my upmost respect for the Jedi and the Jedi Order, I just knew that I was no longer one of them, and probably never would be again. Even so, I carried my lightsaber with me anytime I left the farm, to prove to myself that I'm still worth something. And also to give myself the upper hand if I was to come into conflict.

———————————————————————————

A year passed and Fiolla, Ceth and I were getting along amazingly, I started to think of them as family. But still, they didn't know about my seeking ability or my Jedi past.

A year after settling on Tatooine was also when I had my first run in with scrappers, the people I had been warned against.

I was out in Mos Eisley one evening, spending my months wages on drinks and what-not. As I wandered the streets I heard a voice whisper to me from an alley.
"Psst." It said, to grab my attention.

I turned and peered down the dark alley. I could briefly see the outline of a person, a hood shielding their face.

"Who's there?" I cautiously asked.

"Come closer and you'll find out." The whispering voice responded.

A sighed in frustration and slowly headed down the alley.

"I don't have time for this, what do you want?." I said, not expecting anything exciting to happen.

The figure lowered their hood and revealed their face. It was a young girl, most likely a year or so older than me. She had long, brown hair with braids and beads woven into it. And her eyes were bright green.
"I can make you a lot of credits." She very bluntly said.

I looked blankly at her, unimpressed. I rolled my eyes.

"No no, I'm being genuine." She spoke with a tone like she'd grown up on the streets.
"You see, me and my mates, we go round, finding antiques and sell them on for a profit. You look like you'd be good at that." She added.

"What makes you think I'd be good at that?" I asked, because I knew I'd be great at finding antiques, it's literally my hidden power.

"I don't know. You've just got that aura about you. So...you interested?"

To be completely honest, I was definitely interested. I know that I shouldn't have been intrigued but I really was curious about this. I liked earning money and spending it. I thought maybe I could get some money to help the moisture farm out too, some of the tools and equipment was getting old and needed replacing. I was young and naive and wanted to help.

"What sort of antiques?" I inquisitively asked.

"Ah, that's something for me to know and you to find out." The girl said.
"So what d'ya say? You in?"

"Yeah...yeah go on then." I chuckled.

"The name's Krista, by the way." She held out her hand for me to shake.

"Delta." I replied, shaking her hand.

Then she told me a little more about what exactly she meant by 'finding antiques' and gave me some coordinates. These coordinates were where she told me to meet her and her friends the next day. After that, I headed home, back to the farm. I thought a lot about my encounter with Krista that evening and questioned whether I was making a mistake or not; I wanted the credits to help Fiolla and Ceth, but I didn't want to get caught up in any dodgy business. I promised myself that no matter what was going to happen tomorrow with Krista and her friends, I was NOT going to get riddled into any sketchy jobs or trouble.

Oh boy how I was wrong.

A/n
Hello,
I really hope you enjoyed and thank you for reading!
Always open for any feedback or constructive criticism! :)
-A