Chronicles of the Desolate

Slaved☀️

Exert: As predators, Togrutas had sharp canine teeth, which they used to painlessly kill thimiars, their primary prey, causing the creatures' post-mortem death spasms. This gave outsiders the false impression that Togrutas were venomous.

Handed around like a bowl of food, with no regard for the living, breathing, crying girl.

"Too noisy." This man held the young girl at arm's length, disgusted by her crying.

"What is she?" This woman was appalled by the absence of montrals, deeming the togruta eldritch looking.

"Too small." This man only took one glance at her.

The insults and scornful abuse continued.

"It looks ugly."

"I don't think she'll be strong enough for anything."

"How old is it??"

"I'll pay five credits for her."

"It's a scrawny piece of klutz, I'm not paying anything for it."

"Useless."

That was how 'slave shopping' went. Girls, woman of all ages, species and sizes were put on display, wearing scant clothing while men and few women haggled over them. There were few male slaves, but they were mostly young boys who were sold off to large farms for heavy working or factories. The females were sold for maid or serving purposes.

It was horrid.

This early morning the slave market was particularly busy. The lights were dim and flickering, in need of a repair or a replacement. Crowded spaces were filled with haggling slavers and both men and women looking for the 'perfect' house maid.

A certain Zygerrian by the name of Atai Molec held three togrutas chained to his side. The fourth was too young and too small for the iron fetters but didn't need to be chained up anyway. She was curled up at the eldest's feet, sobbing silently. Atai was all smiles, gesturing to the three young togruta teens, and soon all that was left was the young abnormal girl.

Where togruta's had montrals, she had none. Her skin was a cream colour, her lekku two shades darker, and had cone shaped ears like a Twi'lek. Her tribal markings looked like off-white tears, enhancing her brown-red eyes. Atai would insist to any buyer that she was indeed a togruta, but after being handed back and forth for the remainder of the day, without the promise of being bought, Atai told the newcomers that she was an unique Twi'lek, but they told him that lies as obvious as that would bring him otherworldly trouble. He growled silently to himself. Eventually he dragged the young girl to a small back room, tired from standing all day long trying to get a decent price for the girl.

Atai sat on the edge of his chair, glaring down at the whimpering child. He knew the girl was too young to fathom what he was about to say, but he spoke anyway. "Do you know how hard it is to snatch up four little togrutas? Twi'lek are pretty yes, and submissive, but easy to get. Togrutas are a whole other level." The man stood and approached the girl. "I wasted my time, my resources on you. I thought you would be unique." He cupped the girl's cheek, forcing her to look at him. His thumb traced her white clan markings as fresh tears leaked out of her eyes.

"Let's hope someone at the night market finds you appeasing." He grabbed her arm and roughly pulled her across and out of the room, ignoring the girl's soft cries.

* * *

Prior to the Clone Wars, Atai Molec was a nobody. A simple Zygerrian with no status on the planet Zygerria. A cruel, scheming man, he'd left the planet for a short while, building up a name for himself amongst the enslavers, raising ranks within the empire, aiming one day to stand side by side with the planet's queen; Miraj Scintel.

As Atai travelled to a disclosed secret building in his land speeder, the young togruta lay on her side with her arms covering her face. Her small, ragged blanket whipped around her wildly from the wind. Every now and the, Atai would glance over at her and make sure she was still there and hadn't been blown away by the rushing wind. He glanced at her cone shaped ears and came to the conclusion that she was a hybrid, a half breed of a togruta and probably a twi'lek.

"Maybe you could fetch more than I thought, I just haven't been advertising you properly." The man mumbled to himself, as he pulled up to the building, hiding his land speeder behind some crates. Atai pulled out a rough rope from the back of his speeder and tied the girl's hands together. When she cried out and nipped his finger, he didn't hesitate to backhand her. Her teeth were too small and blunt to have broken the skin, but the rumors about togruta's having venom scared him, and he hoped she was too young to for any venom to develop.

He wrapped his right hand around her chin and throat as he spoke "Don't you dare." The hybrid whimpered. "Shut it. You better get used to this; your next owner may not be as gentle as me." Using his left hand, he forced the girl's mouth open. She had nine, small pearly whites, two of them a little sharper than the others.

"Those are not going to last long." He muttered. He wondered if he should pull those teeth out himself and up her price, or leave it for the next person to deal with. Telling himself he didn't want to deal with potentially another bite mark or two, he decided to leave it.

But as a precaution, he slipped a rope into her mouth and tied it around the back of her head, gagging her.

The girl started crying loudly, screaming into the rope.

Atai smacked her again, and again, and again, until the young hybrid understood that he would continue until she stopped howling.

Having pulled up to one of the lesser known secret entrances, he was unaware of the Jedi entering from another door.

His plan to sell the girl was thwarted before it had begun.

"For thousands of years, Zygerria supplied slave labor to the galaxy. We prospered. Our customers prospered. Then the Jedi came."