The sand was hot beneath his feet, Ā his hair sticking uncomfortably to his forehead. He sighed, wiping away the sweat from his brow. He could say that heād grow accustomed by the high temperature of Tatooineās desert by now, but it was still tiring for a child of his age to walk for so much time in the desert. Itās been daysāor MONTHS, Luke wasnāt sure, Ā since heād started living on his own. He never wanted that, but he had no choice. Luke could still remember clearly the night when his Aunt and Uncle have been killed by pirates. Out of panic, heād ran out the homestead looking for help, but heād just ended up lost. They must have thought he had died, either at the hands of Tusken Raiders or some dragon Kraytābut what they didnāt know was that Luke Skywalker was no normal child. He hadā-as he liked to call, some ā weird magical powersā that helped him when he was in real danger. They had helped him survive until now.
His stomach grumbled but he tried to pay no attention to it. Well, at least until the grumbling got too uncomfortable, then he would go looking for something to eat.
He was forced to stop when something in the distance caught his attention. His heart skipped a beat. It could be anythingāPirates, Tusken Raidersāor some other strange alien monster that lived on Tatooine. He gripped his Gaffi stick tightly ( heād stolen it when heād stumbled in an abandoned Tusken Raiderās camp) and watched the figure in distance move. He squinted,Ā trying to understand what it was doing. But he couldnāt see really well from where he was now. So he decided to approach it. As he slowly got near, Luke was able to identify the figure.Ā As he slowly got near, Luke was able to identify the figure. It looked like a woman, and she seemed busy doingāsomething. Something shiny then caught his attention and Lukeās eyes widened. She had caught something !
His slow steps turned into quick paces. If she had caught something so shiny she could get many credits from it. Or at least he supposed so. Either way, Luke wanted to try to trade with her. Maybe the sight of a child would have softened her?
He waved his arms in the air, trying to get her attention.Ā
āā Hey !Ā You there !Ā Wait !!Ā āā
He shouted, now running towards her.
The life of a smuggler was no easy in any corner of the galaxy, but it seemed as though fate had brought her to just about the last place fit for anyone. Tatooine was a hot, desolate place, filled with raiders and dangers lurking in every dune. Rey had been left behind defenseless at such a young age that, if not for the mercy of other smugglers and crooks, she would not have survived into adulthood. Even so, and despite the yearās worth of acquired skills, each day presented a whole new set of challenges that could potentially become her last. No one could ever predict what lay beyond a dune, what lurked inside the wreckage of a ship or what came in the storms ā a Krayt dragon, possibly. Though she had a somewhat peaceful relation with Jawas, Rey avoided Sand People for fear of their unpredictable behavior, leaving all her negotiation to be held with the small hooded creatures. Sometimes, when she had a particular good find, she could even come directly to moisture farmer, but they always eyed her with suspicion and never offered a second glance despite her trustworthy selling goods.
The twin suns shone down over her back, burning through the fabric of her makeshift garment. There had been talk in the cantina from a recent reemerging of the wreckage of an imperialĀ ship over the dunes outside Mos Eisley. Rey wanted to be there first, before the remaining of the broken ship were ravaged beyond recognition. It was likely that many of its parts would not be salvageable, being for so long underneath the sand dunes as they were, making their value almost null. Still, this was essential to the girlās survival, the only income she had to provide food for the remaining of the week. It was at one of those dunes that a voice called out to her, while her fingers examined the lost forearm of a protocol droid, shining in the desert sand ā she could use some of the circuits inside to repair other parts.
The girl was quick to grab her staff, pointing it toward the childās general direction, aiming so that he could not come closer. There was no being careful enough in these parts, not even with children. Many times theyād been the ones to steal away her scavenged goods. This one was particularly small, just a boy, with nothing visible at hand that could harm her. Still, he could be laying a trap for a bigger group hidden further away.
āWhat do you want?ā, she shouted back, placing the part inside her bag, away from his stare.Ā āAre you alone?ā