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From a Soul to Another

Here is my prompt for @arcanefans4gaza! This is the first chapter, the second one will be posted this week!

Word count: 3k

I can feel the blood rushing in my veins as I run- they haven’t stopped chasing me for what feels like hours. The child in my arms keeps moving, and I have a feeling he won’t stop, no matter what I tell him. It doesn’t really matter, he’s not slowing me down that much. I just hope he doesn’t suffocate in all the cloth I’ve wrapped him in. It’s a gift that he stopped crying twenty minutes or so ago, so I won’t ask for more.

I hear officers shouting behind me. I hoped they’d have lost me by now, but I underestimated them. I got out of the base around twenty minutes ago, and they don’t seem to get tired. I have to reach the hangar, a spaceship might be my only way out of here.

The original plan was to get out of the facilities and immediately head to the hangar, but this kid changed it completely. I could have left him behind of course, but I believe that would make me worse than the Empire’s monsters. Now I’m headed towards the city, my only chance on actually losing the officers. I am moving away from any useful way of transportation, but hopefully I will be able to turn around and find a spaceship later, before they close the dome for the night.

The first houses start to appear in front of me. Good. There is a market opening today, so escape will be easier through all the stands and people- last time a market opened there was traffic blocking most of the roads.

The boy has started crying. I can’t exactly hear it, but something tells me he is slowly realising the reality of our situation. I take a sharp right turn and finally enter the market. It’s full with people, moving around here is going to be difficult. But as difficult it is for me, it will be more to the ones after us. My feet are starting to ache, muscles burning from all the effort. I try not to knock over things on my way, it would only alert the officers and guide them towards me. On the other hand, they themselves don’t seem to particularly care about that. I can hear the people who’s merchandise and edibles have been practically destroyed, yelling to my chasers to pay for the ruined items.

I finally stop in a narrow alley behind some bar. The kid’s cries are getting louder and louder now. I take a better look at him. He’s about two years old, with dark tufts of hair around his round face. He’s incredibly skinny, and you’d think they would feed force sensitive kids better, heck, take care of them like they are royalty, as they are likely to become the next genrals of the Empire. Yet this one is quite the opposite, his ribs showing on his chest. He must be hungry, that’s why he’s crying. It’s a good thing I stole some apples from back there then.

I’m not sure he can even chew it, so I cut the apples into smaller pieces with my pocket knife. He takes the slices with his small hands and starts nibbling on them, one by one- I was right, he wouldn’t have been able to eat even slices slightly bigger.

We wait there for a few hours. There is no sight of the officers, meaning I can finally relax, but not for long. We have to get a spaceship before the alarm sounds or we will be trapped here for the night, and I’m not sure I can provide shelter for myself, the toddler is a completely different thing.

When the sky starts getting orange, I finally start to move. I carefully head to the hangar. It’s remarkably easier to get a spaceship this time, without anyone chasing us. I am confident I will be able to fly this thing on my own, though I have never done something similar before. I tie the kid tightly to the seat beside me, just when the dome alarm sounds.

“Shit.”

As easily I’d sneaked in three minutes before, getting out was going to be five times harder. The last missions from the outside were already visible on the edges of the city’s horizon, returning before they get locked out. That’s when the hangar suddenly fills with officers weilding guns- fully loaded from what I can say from my own experience of hunting ‘traitors’.

“Put your hands where I can see them and get out of the ship! Now!”

Well at least they don’t know about the kid - yet. I look around for anything I can use to defend myself, as these types of spaceships are usually armed for emergency exits. My time is running out and I cannot risk them getting on the ship. That’s when I see it. A gun, longer than my forearm. It’s nothing like the ones the officers are weilding, but it’ll have to do for now. Let’s just hope it’s loaded.

I open the window to their direction. They raise their guns, ready to shoot at any suspicious movement.

“Alright, I’m coming out now!” I shout.

They remain at their positions. I reach behind me for the gun. Shooting above the kid is gonna be tricky - at least the sounds will cover any potential crying.

“Hands where I can see them!” The officer repeats. I don’t recognise him, he must be of the new ones. Pretty strange that he managed to get his own team this fast. Almost alarming.

I slowly raise my left arm, keeping the right down. Before they can react, I pull the lever that must be the one that starts the engines. A low humming sound informs me that I am right. That’s when the officers actually start shooting at us. I raise my gun and start shooting as well, through the window I had previously opened. The baby is safe, I’m pretty sure that all ships are made bulletproof now, and the angle to hit him is practically impossible to manage, more so considering the fact they don’t know he’s here.

We take off in a rush. The rest of our journey passes in a bit of a blur. I still remember the voices of the officers. Some I even recognised. I wouldn’t call them my friends, but still, we had our moments. I must be wanted in all the sustem now. Haidoral wasn’t for me anyway. I need adrenaline to survive. Our little trip ends in a few hours. We will land on Naboo and then hopefully I can leave the kid to some family to be raised. I certainly cannot raise a child. Not alone.

By the time we approach Naboo, the boy is long asleep. He probably should have been fed hours ago, but I don’t have anything to give him. It is then when the alarm goes off, red lights goinr on and off, the siren almost deafening. The engine is crashing down. There is no way to fix it. The kid starts crying again. We will never make it. We are miles away from the nearest city. We will crash. And if we don’t die during the landing... starvation is not going to be pretty. I wish I’d taken the biome survival class while training. I don’t know any of these plants or animals.

All the buttons and levers are useless. No matter what I push, pull or press, nothing happens. At this point, the ship starts filling with smoke. We must be on fire. I unbuckle my belt and search the back of the ship for anything that I can use to help us land safely. There is only some rope and fabric. It will have to do. I have about three minutes before we fall to our deaths. The siren makes my head hurt, the smoke blinds me. We need air. My craft is ready. It is supposed to work as a parachute, with four ropes tied on the sides of a backpack, and the fabric on the other sides.

I grab the child forcefully and wear the backpack. The doors aren’t opening. The ground is coming closer and closer. I kick the door again. It opens with a crack and falls to the ground. I can’t see. The smoke is too much. I finally breathe fresh air in the first time for what feels like ages.

Eight hundred feet from the ground. I tie the crying child on me with what’s left of the rope.

Seven hundred feet. A gust of wind hits me, almost pushing me out of the ship.

Six hundred and fifty feet. I take a deep breath.

Six hundred feet. I jump.

One might say that the parachute was not needed, and since imperial officers are especially trained on jumping from any kind of means of transportation when necessary, I could've easily just rolled on the ground to minimise any effects the landing might cause.

That one, especially that one, can go fuck themselves. You don't jump out of ANYTHING with an infant on you without a parachute. Thanks.

It opens just in time, and as I finally step on the ground, I realise that the ship is going to fall on top of us. I quickly run away as fast as I can. The wind is howling, as I try to avoid all the branches and roots. We had to fall in a forest.

I assume I must have been running for merely a few seconds but it feels like hours, when I hear a loud crash behind me. There is no reason to turn around, I know what has happened. I only hope I can find shelter in time, before the flames take our lives. I try to hold the kid as I can, but I can feel him starting to slide off of me.

It is when I try to readjust my hold that I don’t see the root and trip, twisting my ankle in the process. The last moment before I hit the ground, face first, I turn around to put the child on top of me, and I land on my back. I try to get up with a grunt, and the smell of smoke fills my nostrils. In an instant, fire is all around us. I look around trying to find an escape, but there is none. I start coughing, the kid is crying, but even if I call for help, who in their right mind would be in a forest in Naboo at this hour?

There is a log on my left that isn’t on fire - not for long. I try to lift it up, still coughing, but it doesn’t move an inch. By now I have grown desperate, pulling, pushing with everything I have. We will not die from a fire. Not after we’ve been through all this.

My vision blurs and my legs give out. I can no longer hear the kid. The log is suddenly lifted, by nothing, it seems. A hand reaches out from the other side of the wall of fire that surrounds us. I don’t stand to think who it might be, I just grab it and get up. We start to run.

As we race against the flames, she - for it is a woman that has saved us - guides me. She seems to know where we are going. From what I can see of her as she continues to pull me forward, she has bright pinkish hair, most likely dyed. She is somewhat shorter than me, yet more muscular. That must explain how she managed to lift that log to free us.

The fire clears up, now behind us, yet we don’t stop. While we run, I have plenty time to think. Replaying the memories in my head, I don’t remeber seeing her lift the log at all- it looked as if it was done with the Force. I push the thought aside. There is no way a Jedi just appeared here.

We reach a wooden gate. She opens it, and quickly pushes me through. Inside I can see a clearing in the forest, with soft grass and even patches of flowers all around. In the middle of it all there is a wooden cabin. It doesn’t look too old or too big. If she lives alone, that explains the size. I can’t imagine her living with anyone anyway. Judging from the silence during our little happy race here, she’s not used to having visitors either.

By the time I finish looking around, she has reached the door of the cabin.

“Are you going to just stand there?” Her voice is hoarse, probably from the smoke. I wonder how mine must sound.

I follow her into the cabin. However hostile her behaviour towards me might be - despite the fact that she saved me, she has been torturing my wrist by pulling it endlessly, so that it might bruise later - the house looks cozy enough to rival it.

The room is filled with soft couches and pillows, an empty fireplace in the corner, and a small, round wooden table in the middle of it all. I examine the walls. They are bare, made from logs that have the width of my waist. There is no way she built something like this on her own. There is a door on the opposite side of the room, leading to her bedroom most likely.

I hear a small cough coming from below. The kid! How could I have forgotten about him! I look down. I am still instictively holding him tight to my chest. He is covered in grime, as I am, but otherwise looks fine. I place him on the table, and start looking him over for any injuries.

I hear the door opening again behind me. She - our savior, for I have been given no name to adress her by - seems to be leaving.

“Where are you going?” I ask, turning around.

“Stay here. There should be food in the cabinets in the kitchen, across the hallway” she points to the wall I noticed earlier. “Do not, under any circumstances, leave while I’m gone.” And with that, she disappears outside, closing the door behind her.

The next few hours definitely do not pass quickly, and since the kid has fallen asleep from exhaustion, I decide to explore around the cabin a bit. I start walking towards the hallway. Indeed, as she told me, there is a small kitchen, or more like a store room with a hearth in the middle of it, beside a tiny bedroom. There are cabinets all around, filled with all sorts of things. Some might think me nosy for searching around, but you can tell mucha bout a person from what they keep in their storage. There is some of, well, everything. Food, specifically oats, fruits, vegetables, nuts. Meat, edible-looking, but I don’t know from what. Cooking utensils, medical supplies of all sorts. A pile of logs, chopped for the fire most likely, in the corner. A closet, filled with clothes for all kinds of weather. There is even a small barrel with wine.

I go over to the last cabinet. My eyes widen as I stare to the huge collection of weapons. From lightsabers to guns to knives, there is nothing less than a small scale armoury. She is as dangerous as one can be. Yet she has not killed us yet, and I doubt she will. She would’ve done so already.

I take an apple and bite down on it. It tastes better than any I had ever tasted back in Haidoral. I take one more apple with me and head back to the living room. The boy is awake by now, unable to relax. I chop the apple with one of the knives I found in her storage and give it to him slowly. He chews on it, smiling. It is a miracle he hadn’t started crying again, as if he had sensed my distress during our escape. He would live a happy life here.

I would not.

That is when I realize that there is no us anymore. His journey has to stop here, for the good of both of us. This is no life for me, isolated in the woods. No, I need the action, the adrenaline. It keeps me alive. And I still have to find my parents. I must be wanted in the whole system by now, and I need to explain to them. They are not ones to forgive without reason.

I head to the storage once again. I take some bags made from a strange fabric, but they look steady enough and soft to the skin so I can carry them. I feel them up with everything I can find that won’t weigh me down too much. I end up with two bags, one filled with fruits of any kind I can find, and the other with bread and nuts. I have decided against taking meat, since cooking it would make smoke, which is traceable. I strap them on my backpack, which I fill with bottles of water. After further searching, I discover six pouches with coins. I take one of them. Credits would have been better, but I must work with what I have. I feel sorry for stealing, but it is necessary. It’s not like I will see her again. I strap the pouch to my belt. Lastly, I take a jacket. By the time I am finished, night has fallen outside.

I get out of the storage to see the kid moving around. His eyes light up as soon as he sees me, and he crawls towards where I’m standing. I can’t leave him like this, but I don’t know when she will return.

I end up walking all around the cabin until he falls asleep. I tuck himin her bed carefully. I don’t think she’ll mind. I try to get out as quietly as I can, but still the floor creaks under my feet. Thankfully, he doesn’t wake.

I close the door and head to the gate. I look behind me one more time before I run away.

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arcanefans4gaza

9 months ago

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