ℝ𝔸𝕋𝕀𝕆ℕ𝔸𝕃 ➵ o. kenobi {my only hope; book 1}

【 ELEVEN 】

     ʙʏ ᴛʜᴇ ᴛɪᴍᴇ ᴡᴇ ʀᴇᴀᴄʜᴇᴅ ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴛʀᴇᴛᴄʜ ᴏꜰ ᴀᴘᴀʀᴛᴍᴇɴᴛꜱ in which Anakin and the rest of the slaves lived, the sandstorm was already starting to roll in. We had to have been only walking for a couple minutes--ten at the most--yet we were already being pelted with intense wind and swirls of sand, making it hard to walk straight or even see clearly.

Thankfully, Anakin seemed to know where he was going. He led us to a row of apartments, with door after door built into the sandstone structure. All of the apartments looked mostly the same to me, with their monotonous structure, but Anakin easily knew which home was his. We reached the metal door, and he pressed a button on the keypad next to it, causing the door to hiss open. Anakin was the first one in, shaking excess sand off of his hair. "Mom!" He called. "Mom, I'm home!"

As a pretty woman with tightly-tied brown hair rounded the corner into the entryway, she blinked in surprise, taking in our large group.

"Ah! Dissen cozy," Jar Jar remarked.

Anakin noticed his mother's confused expression as Qui-Gon, the last of our group, settled into the entryway and shut the door cautiously behind him. "These are my friends, mom!" Anakin enthused, introducing us. "This is Padmé, and her friend Emeré. And that's Jar Jar."

"Hello," Jar Jar said enthusiastically, and I bowed, smiling at her.

"I'm Qui-Gon Jinn," the Jedi Knight said, stepping forward to introduce himself as Anakin turned to Padmé eagerly.

"I'm building a droid! Wanna see?" Anakin grinned and grabbed Padmé's arm. "Come on, I'll show you 3PO!"

As the two ran off, R2D2 keenly following, I turned back to Anakin's bewildered and overwhelmed-looking mother. "Your son was kind enough to offer us shelter from the incoming sandstorm."

Qui-Gon smiled at her and pulled the fruit Anakin had bought us earlier from his pocket, along with some food capsules he'd brought from the ship. "I have enough food for a meal, as a thank you for hosting us."

The woman looked positively delighted, and I could see why--from the thinness of her stature and the sullenness of her face, it looked like she hadn't had a proper meal in days. "Oh, thank you," she breathed. "Thank you so much." She took the food thankfully from Qui-Gon and led us toward the kitchen, smiling back at us. "I'm Shmi, by the way. Shmi Skywalker. I'm sorry if I was rude earlier, I was just a bit shocked to see you all here." She laughed a little. "I don't think I'll ever get used to Anakin's surprises."

"Don't worry about it," I told her. "Anakin's hospitality came as a bit of a shock to us as well."

Shmi squeezed through a small archway that led to a small but cozy kitchen, complete with a couple of appliances and a little bit of counter space--just enough to prepare a meal in. She set the food carefully down onto the counter and smiled over at us. "Don't worry. Not everyone in the spaceport is conniving or dangerous. You do come across decent people every now and then. And my Ani... he sure is special."

"Special, indeed," Qui-Gon agreed. A little beep sounded from his belt, a sound I recognized to come from his com-link. He pulled the little machine off of his belt and examined it quickly before turning back to Shmi. "If you would excuse me for just a moment."

The woman nodded, and Qui-Gon fixated his blue eyes on me for just a moment, sending me a private message. Stay here, he seemed to say.

I nodded in reply, then turned to Shmi. Qui-Gon's message could only mean one thing... there were developments from the ship, which meant I had to keep Anakin's mother distracted. "Here," I said, touching her shoulder. "I'll help you with dinner."