The Rise of the Final Order - A Star Wars Story

Chapter 7

Kelsa Antilles

Everything hurt. That was the main thing Kelsa realized when she finally came to. She felt warmth on her face and opened her eyes, staring up at what appeared to be the roof of a hut and realized she was lying with her head on a pillow on the floor. She turned her head slowly, since it hurt to do so, and saw a small fire burning in the middle of the room, surrounded by three large, furry creatures with four big, black eyes and tube-like mouths who were eating something on a stick and speaking in a language Kelsa didn't understand. In fact, it didn't sound much like talking at all. It seemed more like grunting than anything.

Suddenly, there was an excited beeping noise coming from behind her and Kelsa realized that BB-11 was sitting above her head.

"Hey, BB," she said in a hoarse voice. He chirped happily in response and leaned over so Kelsa could see his little white-and-blue head. "Where are we?"

She tried to sit up, but pain wracked through her body and she had to lay flat again. Her left shoulder especially hurt, and she realized it must have been dislocated when she had hit the tree.

She was pretty sure she had broken several ribs too, and from the way her head swam probably a concussion too, along with the various cuts and bruises she had sustained that had been bandaged up while she was unconscious.

The beings by the fire, Kelsa recognized them now as Talz, had noticed her attempt to sit upright and where now coming over to her. One stopped and grumbled something, then walked out of the hut while the other two kneeled down beside Kelsa.

One of them pointed at her injured shoulder and grunted something at the other, who made a sound of agreement. They gently poked at her shoulder and arm and she winced at their touch.

They moved their hands away and from her arm and inspected her other injuries, occasionally touching them and watching for her reaction. After a few minutes of poking and prodding, they pulled away, and the Talz from before returned with a copper-colored protocol droid with triangular patterns painted on her face and arms.

It stopped at Kelsa's feet, fixing her with its yellow photoreceptors, and said in a monotone, female voice, "Greetings, Kelsa Antilles. Chieftain Tak-Chu welcomes you to his village. I am TC-70, and I will be acting as your translator."

"Uh, great," Kelsa responded. "Can you ask them what they're doing?"

"Of course," TC-70 replied, turning towards the Talz and asking Kelsa's question in their language. After they had grunted their response, the droid moved to face her again and said, "They said they want to fix your arm. It is dislocated and needs to be put back into place."

"I kind of had that part figured out," Kelsa muttered. "Just tell them to do it quick."

The protocol droid repeated her request to the two beings, then listened to their response before informing her, "They say they will do it quickly. Just lay still and they will fix it."

"Alright, I can do that," Kelsa said, feeling more nervous than she allowed herself to show. "Let's do it."

TC-70 gave the Talz the go-ahead to begin, and one of them put his hands on her dislocated shoulder and arm, while one of the others held down her other arm and the other one held down her legs so that her body wouldn't be able to jerk around when her dislocated shoulder would be popped back into place.

The one with his hands on Kelsa's injured arm said something to the others, then without warning, he shoved, hard, and Kelsa felt a bright bolt of pain and heard a loud pop as her shoulder was put back where it was supposed to be. She couldn't stop the short yelp from escaping her mouth and her limbs tried to fight back against the brief pain, but they were firmly held and didn't move much.