Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Regency AU)

III

Rey, Scavenger

The rope snapped taught and I slid down into the belly of the ship.

The cavernous interior creaked as I stepped over beams, in search of a bit of gold or silver or a tiny mirror that might fetch me my next meal.

I held my candle aloft, eyes flitting about.  There, a glint of gold.  I pounced, eager to find it before he candle snuffed out.  Three golden coins and a silver charm.

The charm was of a little dog.  I pocketed it and grasped the coins in my hand to test if they were real gold.  I bit down on each in turn.

Then I placed them in my almost empty pouch, only accompanied by a shiny stone, and blew out my candle.

The light came from behind my left shoulder, and I turned to follow it outside, coiling my rope as I went.

As soon as I emerged from the wooden ship, I pulled out my little bottle of water and downed a large gulp.

The ship, built and used over thirty years ago, had no steam engines, like most did now. It had four broken masts hanging from fraying ropes. Instead of a metal hull, it was all wood. This ship had been carrying precious cargo before it had been struck by a cannon ball and dashed against the rock in one of the final battles of the civil war.

I slid down the banked sand on a bit of canvas and end up near Speeder.

He shook his head at me, whinnying softly. I patted his warm neck. There wasn't much shade around here.

It's strange, that we lived in the middle of a vast ocean and yet had so little water. But Jakku is surrounded by other islands, which block all of our rain from getting to us.

It's hard to believe that this island is even habitable.

I swung a leg up over Speeder, and we started off to the outpost.

Instead of going all of the way to the outpost, I stopped at my little hut.

I had a bit of bread stored away, and I pulled that out to eat.  I didn't necessarily want to go down right now.  Anyway, Speeder and I both had food.

So I sat down against the back of my hut and watched as the sun dipped lower and lower towards the sea.

The peacefulness of the warm evening was shattered by a sharp caterwauling.

I sprang up and ran up the hill, stopping only momentarily to grab my wooden staff.

Two boys had an orange cat trapped in a net. They chatted to each other in Portuguese.

I called out, "Deixe o gato ir!"

They looked up and ran away, bare feet pounding against the sand.

The cat hissed at me as I walked up. "Easy," I whispered, kneeling next to it.

I worked to untangle the cat, whispering to keep it calm. When it was free, it finally stopped struggling to run its cheek against my leg.

A little golden charm dangled from its leather collar and I caught it to see what it said.

"BB?"