Solivagant-The Mandalorian

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" the fall "

Lana woke from her slumber when the light shined into her eyes, annoying her to wake. She rose from the bed to begin getting dressed for the day of farming with her father which was ahead of her.

She threw on her green and blue tunic, along with her black pants which sat tight to her body. She drew a breath in, putting a hand through her hair. She sat down at the desk in her home, combing through her short hair. 

Her father was a krill farmer all his life, which meant it was to be passed onto Lana when her father was to retire from his work. All her life it was just her and her father. She never met her mother, she died during childbirth. She often wished she could have at least met her mother. Sometimes she would blame herself for her mother's absence. She tried her best to push those thoughts away.

She looked around her home, it wasn't very spacious as others, but she didn't mind. She had her bed, her desk and most importantly she was across from her father's cabin. She remembered when she decided to move out and into her own home. Her father was slightly saddened by her absence, but he knew she was growing older, and was beginning to become more independent, even though she wasn't very far away. Her father had seen her strength while growing up and saw how different she was from the other younglings, it blossomed as she did into adulthood.

Lana was taught to be independent, and that she was. Her father and her had worked together but he knew that she could've easily taken over the entire settlement on her own. She was naturally intelligent, but often struggled when it came to making relationships with others. She had her father and Omera, those were her closest companions. She knew the other villagers, but none she would consider great friends.

Pulling her hand through her hair and back to rest it on her neck, she collected her hair scarf to wear for today. It belonged to her mother. It was a beautiful dark blue with gold stitching of flowers. It was worn now from hard days of working, but Lana still found its beauty.

Lana's hair was short, right above her shoulders. Her hair would naturally dry wavy, her father said it resembled much of her mother's hair. Her hair is a way she differed from other women in the village who desired to wear their hair long. She found it difficult to deal with while working and cut it short. She hadn't seen her hair long in ages.

Putting on her boots over her black pants she started her way toward the doorway of her hut, but before she could leave the door her father was standing at the bottom of her porch with baskets in hand ready to go along to their pods. She stood in the doorway admiring her father, he had a large smile on his face as he did everyday prepared for the day's work. He was getting older, yet he kept his smile on each day for his daughter, even as the years went on it, the work was tougher and tougher on his body.

"Ready?" Her father asks, still standing at the bottom of the porch. Lana nods and begins to make her way onto her porch. When she gets to him, she accepts a few of the krill catching baskets he was carrying. They began their short walk to their pods just outside the village.

All was normal, everyone was also getting ready for the day and started on their typical work day throughout the village, trying to get everything done before daylight ran out. It was a strange feeling day, everyone seemed happy, like all was well. It was a strange feeling, like calm before a storm.

Lana had only started working when she started to feel as if something bad was to happen. She glanced over to her father while throwing a basket of krill to the outside of the pod. She could hear the voices of the kids playing and the other women of the village talking among themselves. All was normal she tried to think to herself. She just shook her head and went back to working, you're just overthinking again.

Lana had a history of overthinking things. She would never admit, not even to her father, but it happened more often that she would like. She was shook from her thoughts when a large flock of birds frantically flew over her head. She was right, today was not a normal day.

Everyone looked up from their work to try to understand what was happening around them. Lana scrunched up her eyebrows while searching the perimeter of the village. She was searching for the reason behind the birds sudden escape. She swallowed the ball in her throat, looking over to her father who had a worried expression painted on his face.

There was rumbling. She could feel it in the ground and in the water, it produced waves. Everyone was starting to panic now, as was she. She waited though, in the eeriness of these booming sounds, she stood painfully still. Terrified. Her father began his way toward the edge of the pod. People began starting to panic even more and began running toward the huts.

Then there they were.

The raiders.

Shots began going out and exploding on impact. The water would explode, and so would the land be surrounding the pods. Lana began shaking in fear slowly backing to the edge of the pod. She was moving in slow motion. She couldn't believe what was happening in such a backwater town like this. Nobody here in this village would hurt a fly, and now, they were being attacked? For what cause?

She threw herself over the edge of the pod and stood up quickly, she was almost knocked over by the retreating villagers. She starred frantically at the incoming raiders. She looked to her father who was struggling to try to get out of the water. He had such fear in his eyes, the look she had never seen from her father.

There was smoke everywhere, she could hear their low growls all around her. She grabbed her father from the pod and yanked him up before trying to sprint away from the incoming attackers. Her father was falling behind, his feet kicking out beneath him. Lana noticed his cries of pain behind her. He had twisted his ankle but refused to stop running with his daughter. She stopped and on instinct threw his arm around her neck, trying to take the majority of his weight.

She could hear them violently raiding through all the work the villagers had been doing. The bags of krill were being torn open and knocked over, like their work was meaningless. They were crushing the baskets they used to catch the krill without any hesitation. They would destroy the working stations in seconds, which took lifetimes to prepare all the work they had destroyed with a drop of their boot or a swing of their staff.

Lana cringed at the sound of it. They were ruthless beings, if they could destroy this, what would they value a human life? She began to panic more. She could feel her father become weaker and weaker, continuing to lean on her. She began running faster and faster until her father and her reached her home. She tried to climb up the stairs with him to hide until the invaders dispersed. She felt his body shoot forward, away from her grip. We were almost safe she screamed in her head. her father laid in the dirt, face down with a shot through his lower back. She screamed when she saw him, she could hear his painful groan.

She didn't know what to do, she picked him up with all the power in her body and brought him inside her home. She had tears boiling in her eyes. She knew what was happening. She collapsed on the ground with her father's head in her lap. He was holding his stomach with every breath bringing a pained groan.

Her tears would spill and hit his fingertips, which he brought to her face with the last once of strength his body had. "I love you, I'll be alright." His fingers wiped away a single tear weakly. Her father's hand fell back to his side as he took his final breath in his daughters' arms. Lana looked into her father's eyes until he was gone. She knew the moment it happened, the moment he stopped feeling pain. The moment her father left this world. She dropped her head and sobbed. She sobbed so uncontrollably she hoped the raiders would come and take her too.

But they didn't.

They left, minutes after her father died in her arms.

Silence fell among the village again. They got what they wanted and left the village in shambles. Lana didn't know how long she had sat there crying. It was like she had blacked out. All she remembered was Omera coming into her hut and seeing her broken down on the floor.

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