Xaphine | Star Wars

New Awakening

I screamed as another blast barely grazed my ship, my hands jerking the controls to avoid an asteroid.

Of all the stupid ideas, why did I think it would be a good idea to lose them in an asteroid field?

Another blast, this time it hit. I checked my shields, cursing beneath my breath as the blaring red lights answered my question. This was it. This was how I was going to die. I should have listened.

Should have paid heed to all the warnings before I set out on this stupid quest. Listened to my grandmother. If I could go back to where it started, I'd have taken that opportunity in a heartbeat.

I yanked the controls again, my ship diving and avoiding another lump of rock. Only to be met with another one. I scrambled, trying to avoid it.

I didn't know if I was going to last much longer. All my alarms were blaring, red filling my vision. I could feel my fingers turning white from how hard I was gripping. I closed my eyes. Where did it go wrong?

~~~~

It started here. In this very cave, stone etched from centuries of tribal history, blue fingers and hands the only proof we were ever here.

I remember it clear as day the last time I saw this cave. The beginning. A wailing that bounced off the walls, warmth switching to cold, a daydream of seeing a woman's face seconds before everything went dark again.

I bowed my head, shirking the vision away. It didn't matter. I'm finally seventeen solar rotations, which too many it may seem very little, but I knew it was a shock to my tribe that I survived my first ten.

I couldn't blame them. I shared their surprise, carrying the scars as evidence of how many times I thought my journey was over. How many times I clung to the side of a cliff after a foolish misstep, how many times that stone had bit and chewed my palms to get me to let go.

How many hailstorms I had braved even when the ice was as big as my first. When my feet turned blue and I was stuck in the elders hut for weeks until I could walk again.

And now I was here. Back in the cave I was born in. In the cave I would some day be paired in, then die in. The celestial cave.

Three familiar faces studied my approach. It took me a second to recognize their faces from the shroud of their cloaks. My grandmother was easy, the only one that shared my blue markings on her cheeks and the dotted line beneath her hollow eyes. Missing, from an accident three years ago.

Then there was Ru-Nek, lending me a smile with his comforting eyes that blended in with stone.

And in the middle, Syl-xa, bestowing me a blank look with only a deep frown from her lips. I could feel my stomach falling in those dark pits, like her eyes were the ocean at the bottom.

"Xaphine." Her voice boomed and I fought the reflex to cover my ears. "You have completed your training and now have the ability to decide which path speaks to your vuh'cor'a."

My hand reached to my chest, gripping the fabric of my robe to feel for it. My vuh-cor-a. It was beating faster, like it mimicked the drums I'd hear at ceremonies similar to this one.

"I want to travel the stars. I want to be a star sailor." I quickly spoke, not missing a beat from my vuh-cor-a.

"As always, she is eager." grandmother hummed.

"Eager or presumptive?" Syl-xa frowned.

I sunk within myself in shame. I had spoken out of turn, and I scrambled to fix it. "My apologizes. I just... I want to follow my mother's footsteps, to continue her journey of exploration. To see if there's life beyond our world."