Force Sensitive (Merrical Fanfic)

Life on Bogano

Year 5 BBY: 6:23 AM

5 years later...

Another peaceful night passes on Bogano, and besides the chattering of boglings outside the Mantis all sound is hushed. As the sun begins to rise, Cal wakes to find his arm wrapped around Merrin's waist, her back is to him and she's breathing slowly since she's still asleep. Carefully moving to avoid jostling her around, he rolls out of bed to check on the smaller one in the corner of their room, only to find that it's void of his child... again. With a long sigh through his nose, he closes his eyes and tilts his head back in exasperation, then decides to let Merrin sleep in and go looking for her alone.

In the ship's main room, Cere sits on the couch playing quietly on her hallikset while BD-1 perches on the coffee table watching her curiously. Both of them look up when they hear Cal's fast-approaching footsteps.

"Cere, have you seen Ilyana?" She notices his brow is lined with worry, but that he's trying his best to stay calm.

"Not since I said goodnight to her last night, and I've been awake for about half an hour now." Cal curses under his breath, and quickly thanks her as he runs off the ship to find their all-too-curious daughter. 

"Call the intercom when you find her!" Cere yells to him and he signals a double okay sign over his shoulder in response. He hears beeping on the ground behind him so he slows down to let BD hop onto his back. Ily is BD's best buddy so he's always eager to help find her.

He figures she must've snuck out before the sun came up making his chest tighten with worry. 

'What if she falls off one of the cliffs because she can't see the edge in the dark of the morning and the dew on the grass made her slip? Or an Oggdo could have attacked her leaving her hurt and stranded somewhere. Or worse...' He shakes his head trying to stop himself from reeling into the never-ending abyss of worry since that would do nothing to help find her.

"Ilyana! Where are you?" BD lets out a worried-sounding string of binary, "She can't be too far away, it's still pretty dark out. It's okay BD, we'll find her." He tries not to let his mind slip into panic, he has to remind himself that she does this all the time. Always searching for new places to explore without any fear even being as small as she is. It makes sense, her father being a Jedi and her mother a Nightsister, it's in her blood to have an adventurous spirit. Not to mention the Force is bound to draw her to places, he just wishes she would remember to tell them before leaving.

Suddenly he hears a high-pitched scream in the distance and his blood runs cold. His feet move faster than his brain can towards the sound and his heart races with pure fear. He hasn't felt this way since the day his Master gave his life to save him, or since he and Cere barely escaped from Darth Vader at Fortress Inquisitorious, yet this felt impossibly more gripping and intense.

"She's okay... she's okay..." he kept repeating to himself in between heavy breaths, praying to the Force he would get to her in time. His limbs feel heavy like someone is using the Force Slow on him. He runs as hard as he can until he crests the top of the hill, and the first thing he sees is the Binog, a giant creature who strangely sounds like he's giggling. He sprints to the right to get a better view and finally sees Ilyana swinging from its tail laughing and shrieking with glee, her bright red hair messy and swaying with her movements. Her bare feet dangle as she holds on to the Binog's tail, he's gently swinging her back and forth a short distance off the ground.

Once it finally sinks in that his daughter isn't in any danger he breathes a long sigh of relief resting his hands on his bent knees to stabilize himself as his mind spins from the adrenaline spike. He knows the Binog, protector of Bogano, is one of the last of its kind, just like Merrin and him. He's no threat to anything or anyone who comes here in peace, and he recognizes Ilyana as a friend since she's been here her whole life and met him when she was a few weeks old. When Cal thinks about it, he remembers the fascinated look on his baby daughter's face when seeing the Binog.