STAR WARS: TAAREN

CHAPTER EIGHT.

        THE OXYGEN BURNED Braig's human lungs, and he looked towards Ashla, to find her huffing out a breath too many, as her body readjusted to an atmosphere left long ago.

        "Does the air of Coruscant affect you similarly, Puk?" Braig asked as they walked back towards the ship, no sign of Skulkers this time, minus the corpses of the ones they had slain earlier, and Puk shrugged.

        "Yep. There's too little there. The air's too thin. Couple that with all the kriffing pollution," Braig looked on disapprovingly as Puk cursed with Ashla present. She didn't seem to care. "and you have yourself one mighty cocktail of breathing problems. You get used to it." He sighed, and the human nodded.

        The ship came in sight and Puk, Braig and Ashla climbed aboard, starting it up and flying through the towering trees, dodging and skirting around them.

        "Wait — what's that? Just up ahead?" Braig called out after a time, and Ashla and Puk approached the viewport, before stepping back abruptly, causing Braig to feel confused.

        "Guys... What is that?" He asked again, and Puk swallowed a hard lump in scaly throat.

        "That's our village..." He whispered.

***

        Walking through the burnt out ruins of the Taaren tribe village was hard enough. Seeing the skeletal remains of the citizens was harder, but for Puk, seeing the longhouse where his father and two of his brothers were slain was the worst of it, and though he put clawed feet inside of the building, he couldn't will himself to go any further.

        "Look!" Braig announced, saber clutched in hand, and Puk and Ashla gathered around to see the empty, and ash covered helmet of an Imperial Stormtrooper.

        "What in the galaxy happened here Puk?" He asked quietly, and Ashla breathed a heavy sigh.

        "When I was little, I found an Imperial ship. A small one. Must've been a scouting ship or something. I killed the soldiers inside, and hid it. Four years later, give or take. They came back. They had tracked the weak signal that was given off by the ship before I had deactivated it so long ago. They brought a starship. They killed my people, and possibly those in surrounding villages. We climbed aboard and took them out for the inside, before sending the ship off into space, with nothing but memory wiped droids inside. That's where I discovered my power. That's where —" he looked at Ashla, recounting the wave of energy she let off, sending the soldiers flying.

        "That's where I found my power." Ashla mumbled, and Braig's attention snapped to her.

        "What do you mean, Ash?" He asked, and she turned her eyes to the powder covered floor.

        "When I was six years old, and we all thought we were going to die, I sent off this — this energy. They were all sent flying into the wall. I don't know what happened..." She confessed, and Puk and Braig shared wary glances.

        "Puk —" he went to say, but the lizard cut him off.

        "On Coruscant, Ashla and I were running from Stormtroopers. We didn't realise where we were going, and bumped right into one... But he didn't seem to notice. I'd been mumbling that he didn't see us over and over, as if that would help, and apparently... It did. He moved right past and told his troops they'd lost us."

        Braig couldn't believe his ears.

        "Two — Th-There's two...?" He whispered, and Puk tilted his head.