𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐒𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒 ━ 【Ｃ． Ｋｅｓｔｉｓ】

••► Chapter Two

20 BBY, Jabba's Palace in the Dune Sea, Tatooine

The shackle was cold around Kivtal'Shala's ankle, she couldn't remember how many times she'd been passed around and traded in the past year, from one syndicate to the next. To many places for her to remember, from bustling cities to sandstone palaces like the one she was being crowded away from now.

The heavy air burned her throat, and she drug trembling fingers across the hot blindfold she wore. She could hear the clinking of her leash being fastened to the wagon, and she reached out blindly, feeling along the vehicle until she could pull herself up and drop into the back.

"Watch it!" Someone hissed from her left, and a foot collided into her ribs. Kavtil'Shala groaned and drug herself to the opposite end of the cart, pressing uncomfortably against the wood. Her body ached as the buggy lurched into motion, slamming her against the side. Numbness crawled across her skin, bleeding into her like a poison, and the creaking of the wheels and chatter of the drivers faded in and out.

The sun warmed the cloth against Kavtil'Shala's face, and made the shackles she wore burn into her skin. She didn't bother to pull herself upward, despite the person across from her persistently digging their foot into her side. Beneath the blindfold her eyes fluttered shut, she worked her mouth a few times, lips sticking together and cracking with dryness as she faced the sun. 

╔═══*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*═══╗
╚═══*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*═══╝

It was easy to forget the cruelty of being transported. From wagon to starship to shuttle station to another starship. It wasn't uncommon for the crew that had picked her up to make pitstops on other poor, convenient planets. After all they were just couriers for their own masters, picking up luggage and dropping it wherever they were told.

She didn't know whether it was luck or not that they'd decided to drag her out of the ship with them. They'd left her blindfold intact, and she was stumbling with every tug of her chain. Bile rose to the back of her throat, and Kivtal'Shala's eyes water as she swallowed down every urge to get sick across the ground, shoulders shaking with the effort. Another harsh tug harsh tug had her stumbling once again, bare feet dragging across rugged metal as she tried to keep up without landing on her face.

A bruise was unfurling on her side, like an angry flower blooming across her skin, it's thorns driving through her flesh to implant into her bones.

"Ah- Prauf!"

The end of her chain clanked against the ground, and her keeper's footsteps drifted further from her. Kavtil'Shala wiggled her toes, then drug one foot backwards, the weight of her metal leash slowed her already weak movements, but didn't stop them.

"I hope you've got those parts the boss was looking for! You know," lackey's(that was Kavtil'Shala's new nickname for him)voice dropped to nothing more than a sinister whisper, "We've got quite a payment waiting for you back on the ship,"

His voice crawled along her bones and made her heart stutter in fear.

Kika'lekki chose you she told herself, You did your part, you fed your family.

Another shuffle backward, and suddenly the ground beneath her was tilting, the sound of metal sliding on metal collided with her scream as she teetered over the edge of a precipice on a slab of tin. Her chain drug behind her, screeching against the ground until it was falling with her.