Solstice • The Mandalorian

Prologue

"A plant grows towards the sun
   As we grow towards happiness
But the sun in 93 million miles away
   And happiness is out of reach"
                    Solstice - Lexi Harwick
***

I couldn't stay here any longer.

Not anymore.

With one final sigh, I tightened the stings on my sack, pulled on my hood, and quietly hurried through the hallways. The guards were extra aware tonight, Father knew I would pull something, but he had no idea just how far I was willing to go to avoid his plan for me. However, I knew the routes of my home better than anyone, so it didn't take me long to sneak past the guards and reach my father's spacecraft. There were two guards stationed at the door of the craft and I wondered if my father did know what I was up to. If he did, he should have known two guards weren't going to be enough.

I reached into my sack and grabbed ahold of the blaster pistol I had stolen earlier that day. Although I had never shot one of these before, I tried my best to aim from behind the storage crates where I was hiding. Before I attempted my first shot, I made sure the setting on the blaster was switched to stun. I didn't want to kill, but if that was my only option to escape, then I wouldn't hesitate to switch the setting back.

With one deep breath, the took my shot.

It was so far off from the guards they almost didn't see it.

   It would have been great if they didn't see it, because they now had their weapons ready, aimed to shoot at the next person they saw.

So, I switched to plan B.

I fired madly at the guards, not even attempting to aim, just pulling the trigger over and over again until the two men eventually dropped onto the floor. The shots had definitely been loud enough to draw attention from other parts of the house, so I ran into the craft and closed the door before anyone could stop me.

When I got to the front of the craft and looked out the windscreen, Father was staring up at me, his men lined up behind him. His face was hard, but he didn't order his men to shoot. He would never risk harming his only heir.

So, I started up the craft and took my seat as captain. The craft roared to life and hovered off the ground. I was in charge of my life now, he couldn't control what happened next, and I knew that infuriated him.

"I'll find you, Mena," Father said, burning a warning inside my mind.

"Bye, Father," I said before turning the craft around, putting it into lightspeed, and disappearing into the depths of space.