They entered the desert planet's atmosphere after leaving hyperspace. Their silver ship took them through the bright blue sky and beamed from the reflection of Tatooine's two searing suns. Sol observed the hills of endless sand through the windshield as Anakin landed on the outskirts of the main city. She heard it was called Mos Espa from Padme and Anakin's discussions and was wary at their descriptions of crime and outer rim dealings that occurred there.
'Artoo will stay with the ship with Padme. It's safer out here,' Anakin instructed as he turned off the controls and stood from the driver's seat. Sol was surprised to hear Padme's lack of argument and was sure that this wasn't the average planet to bring a senator of Naboo. R2 whistled in acknowledgement and Sol prepared to follow Anakin into the desert.
'Good luck and be careful!' Padme called, the two Jedi descending from the ship. Sol looked over her shoulder with a smile, while Anakin continued in his stride. They left the ship and headed for the city off in the distance.
'Could we not have called for some hired speeders to come meet us?' Sol questioned. The crown of her head was already burning from the sun, and the sweat was forming underneath her Jedi robes. She pulled her thin hood up to be over her head, but it did little with its miniature holes that failed to keep the sun from burning.
'They're aren't any speeders for hire here,' Anakin answered plainly. Sol turned to watch the man next to her and noticed his permanent scowl and squinting eyes. He wasn't pleased to be back on his home planet, and to add more insult, he was here in the fear for his mother's life. Sol refrained from asking anymore questions and focused on trudging through the dense sand.
When they reached Mos Espa, Sol was on edge. The stalls and huts that sat in clusters had their inhabitants out the front, either selling scraps or watching passbyers. Species of all kinds stalked by and there were no signs of police, surveillance, or forms of government enforcements of any kind in Mos Espa. Sol was intrigued by the stalls that sold meats that hung from hooks, but she wasn't adventurous enough to try anything. Even if she wanted to, Tatooine didn't use republican credits as a currency. It was all trading or the exchanging of illegal substances, and Sol obviously didn't carry anything of the kind. But what she did wish she could purchase, was a pouch or bottle of water.
The walk had tired her and she was sure that the walk back would be equally as draining. But everywhere she looked, there was no sign of fountains or even the selling of water. How did people survive out here, she wondered.
Following Anakin, as he seemed to know where to go without a second thought, Sol stuck close to the back of the tall young man. Most people didn't look up when they passed him, meaning that she was also ignored as she was barely a foot away from him, but the few that did, made Sol uncomfortable.
A sudden yank of Sol's arm made her stumble and sand kicked up from the scuffing of her boots. Her breath caught in her throat at the action, and she whirled around at the grip that was around her bicep. She was met with a face of dark brown that had a curled trunk for a nose. Beady eyes looked into hers and the hand around her arm could have been made out of leather for all she knew. It was rough, wrinkled, and tight, making Sol try to pull away before the species had even started talking.
The person spoke a language that Sol didn't understand. It moved its head around as it spoke, and Sol mouth hung open to make sense of what it was saying. She tried to pull away from its hand, but it tightened and began to hurt.
'I-I don't understand. Can you let go, please?' Sol tried, but the replies were unintelligible. She realised that the species was starting to pull her away from the pathway, which made her dig her shoes into the sand defiantly. Her Jedi instincts were finally audible through the panic, and Sol's eyebrows arched, her expression growing angry.
'Get off of me! I don't understand you!'
More unintelligible words replied and Sol's free hand moved to her utility belt. People passed her and didn't bat an eye or try to help the woman who was in obvious distress. She didn't want to cause a scene on a planet she barely knew, but this person was leaving her no choice.
Before she could grab her weapon, a new hand appeared and grabbed the species that wouldn't let go of her. With a swift yank, Sol was free and she immediately caressed where she had been trapped. Glancing at the red marks in the shape of large fingers, Sol looked to her saviour and saw the dark Jedi robes that belonged to Anakin Skywalker.
Anakin edged himself in between Sol and the person who grabbed her, and somehow spoke in the language that Sol had been confused by. By his tone, Sol could interpret that he was angry, and wasn't trying to defuse the situation in the slightest. But no one looked at them or gathered to watch the scene, they just continued in their ways and avoided any opportunity for conflict.
'Away! Now!'
Sol jumped at the aggression in Anakin's voice. He threw a pointed finger in a random direction and leaned in with a glare at the species who was now backing away. Letting out some last words, the assailant walked away and left Anakin to glare after him until he disappeared into one of the huts.
Sol watched the hut wearingly as Anakin turned around, looking down at her with remnants of his anger still on his face. He swallowed, his Adam's apple moving up and down as he did so, and Sol blinked in clusters to regather herself. Anakin glanced around them to make sure no one else decided they wanted to intervene before he leaned down to talk in a low tone.
'Are you okay?' he asked, and Sol was surprised at the concern in his voice.
'Yeah. That was my fault... I should have sensed him coming,' she let out a shaky breath and rubbed at the pain in her arm.
'You need to be careful here. He was asking me if I was selling you-'
'Selling me?!'
'Shhh!'
Anakin shushed her and Sol looked down in slight embarrassment. Still, no one turned their heads.
'Slave trading is big here. If you get lost, you're done for,' Anakin said and noticed the face of offence Sol wore. 'You look like you're not from around here and that's what they're looking for; especially since you're a woman. Don't be offended, it's just how it works on the outer-rim.'
Sol huffed and shivered at the thought of the female slaves that weren't as lucky as her. She had a weapon and was trained to defend herself, but women across the galaxy, humanoid or different, were vulnerable and weak. She didn't want to think about what happened to them in the seedy places that are in Mos Espa, but she was thankful to have Anakin beside her, who knew the city well.
'Stay close. We're nearly there.'
With that, Anakin headed past Sol on the route they were originally on. Sol wasted no time in following and made sure to look into the Force to make sure no one was close behind her. Anakin led them through the city and headed towards a stall, where a Toydarian sat on a stool with pit droids scavenging around him. He was blue, with small wings on his back and a droid head in his hands. He appeared to be yelling instructions to his droids and didn't notice the two Jedi who stopped in front of him.
'Excuse me, Watto,' Anakin said, and Sol moved to stand beside him. She was thankful for the cloth that was stretched over the stall and felt the cool relief in her warm scalp.
'What?' the Toydarian sneered rudely. He looked up and met Anakin's eye.
Anakin changed languages, which Sol assumed was Huttese as he was communicating to a Toydarian, and Watto paused. He said something to his droids in a hurry and they snapped into their folded states.
'You two look like Jedi...' after some Huttese words, Watto changed to English as he looked at Sol and Anakin with wide eyes. 'Whatever it is, I didn't do it!'
'Let me help you with that.'
Anakin reached down and took the droid head out of Watto's three-fingered hands. He started to tinker with it and Watto watched wearingly. Sol glanced over her shoulder as Anakin did what he did best before Watto began to realise who was in front of him, fixing his droid.
'I'm looking for Shmi Skywalker,' Anakin announced without looking up.
'Ani? Little Ani?' Watto's face churned with a smile, and Anakin put the droid down on the stool in between them. It was silent, before the droid whirled to life and Watto cheered, his assumptions corrected.
'You are Ani! It is you, you little womp rat!' Sol blinked at the greeting that could have been taken as an insult. But Anakin didn't flinch, even taking the flying Toydarian into a hug.
'You sure sprouted, weehoo! A Jedi! Waddya know!' Watto's eyes moved to Anakin's partner who was yet to say anything. 'And you have a girlfriend now, aye? Good for you, Ani!'
'My mother,' Anakin cut him off and Watto stopped with the pleasantries. Sol tried not to dwell on his words of being Anakin's 'girlfriend', and eyed Watto who turned nervous at the mention of Anakin's mother.
'Oh, yeah, Shmi...' he scratched the bag of his wrinkly neck. 'She's not mine no more... I sold her.'
'Sold her?'
'Years ago. Sorry, Ani, but you know, business is business. Sold her to a moisture farmer named Lars. Least I think it was Lars... Believe it or not, I heard he freed her and married her. Can ya beat that?'
Sol's skin crawled at the way Watto talked about Anakin's mother. She could feel the anger radiating off of her partner but was trying to hold back his irrational actions. Sol had never heard someone talk about another person as if they were an object, and she couldn't believe that slave trading was still present in the galaxy. It was inhumane from the very start, and the core had been working on freeing all slaves on every planet. But when it came to the outer-rim, they had no power. But there was always the underground market on all planets, and Sol had a feeling that a large supply of slaves came from the outer-rim planets like Tatooine or Jakku.
'Do you know where they are?' Anakin said after a while, his voice strained.
'Long way from here. Someplace over the other side of Mos Eisley, I think...'
'I'd like to know.'
Watto took in the serious face on the man he only knew as a boy. He swallowed, eyeing the lightsabers on the belts of Anakin and the woman who hadn't said a word, before agreeing to look in his records for Shmi Skywalker. Anakin and Sol followed him into the workshop, and Sol grimaced at the sight of it. She knew Anakin once worked here and thought about how Master Qui-Gonn and Master Kenobi had worked to free him. It saddened her, and she knew that Anakin was beginning to feel helpless in the search of his mother.
Sol stayed silent throughout the whole ordeal, and they set out to find Lars the moisture farmer.