Chapter Text
It was the beginning of another beautiful day in the city of Canto Bight as “Broom Boy'' woke up in his tattered blanket on a pile of dirty straw. He got up and stroked the neck of his stallmate, one of the 3 meter tall Fathiers that he maintained the stables for. Without looking he reached out his hand, his broom flew into his grasp and he began his daily routine, sweeping the debris and shoveling the racing beasts fodder. He had always found it curious that no matter where he thought he had put his broom, it always seemed to be right where he was reaching when he needed it.
His real name was Temiri Blagg, but since no one had cared to ever ask, or call him by name, he had eventually (With a little assistance from the laundromat lady) made another up on his own: Wynn. It seemed fitting enough for someone in the famous Casino city, yet somehow ironic for the name of a slave, but that was the point. He even preferred ‘Broom Boy’ to the slave name forced on him since before he could remember, which is how most people referred to him anyways, no one ever caring to put much more thought into formalities with a common slave child.
His days were always the same. The only excitement Wynn had ever had was when he had helped some strangers go for a night gallop through the city on Fathiers; the racing animals Canto Bight was famous for. He had always been told that they weren't sentient, but he couldn't help but feel a connection to them, almost as though he could feel their thoughts, and they his. Ever since helping to free the giant beasts, upon returning the Fathiers had been even more in tune with him and he had somehow felt stronger around them.
After their destructive run through the crowded casinos and streets that night, they had been rounded up fairly quickly, within a few days actually, some bruised and cut from their tirade through the city and all of them weakened and scraggly due to the fact Canto Bight was nothing like their planet of origin. Their natural food had to be shipped in once a week (at great cost mind you) but they were expensive animals and one of the main attractions so they were actually treated much better than he ever was. Still, since he had opened the large stable door that fateful night they all seemed to appreciate him more, as if grateful for the limited time they could roam free of their riders' painful whip strokes.
Since then, he had aspired to be a Resistance member (Mainly because they were the only closest thing to what had previously been known as The Rebels that he had heard fantastical stories about) and he had begun dreaming up possible ways to achieve his goal. The only thing he knew he would miss were those large eared, shaggy mounts.
In the meantime, he had kept sweeping and tending the stables. In the year or so that had passed since the excitement, he had hit quite the growing spurt. He must have grown a foot or more in height in that remarkably short amount of time. Being taller and stronger he began getting tasked more often with errands outside his masters compound. He loved going near the arrival pads and seeing all the ships coming and going, learning what he could about the various designs, names and shapes. E ventually came the day that The Force lined up all the necessary circumstances for him to make his move….
It seemed like any other day, he had been tasked with picking up a parcel at the landing platforms, when he arrived, an almost round but flat shaped ship landed, It looked like a Corellian freighter but he’d never seen one so old and patched together, he could tell by the carbon scoring and modifications that this vessel had seen more than its fair share of action. The only thing new looking was the round dish on top. Most ships arriving at Canto were sleek, shiny and new, the majority of gamblers were nothing if not gregarious, showing off their wealth in any lavish way they could.
As Wynn waited for the courier to arrive, he saw none other than the same fellow that had made the whole ruckus with the racing beasts, right behind him was a shiny black ball shaped droid with a round flat top followed in turn, by another man coming down the ramp of the ship.
Just then the Nymhbodian courier arrived with a long narrow box, passed it to him and went on his way. He stared longingly at the dilapidated ship his Resistance friend had just arrived on.
Gathering all the wits and courage he could muster he headed towards it. There was a strange orange coloured slug looking creature inside the passageway to the left of the ships entrance, across from the aft cargo bay, focused wholly on fixing some unknown problem. It seemed to Wynn as though it had been to no avail, due to the multiple access panels and compartments open throughout the ship. After being repeatedly ignored by the distractedly busy large slug, he ventured further down the twisting hall.
A WOOKIE! He had heard all about their penchant for pulling arms right out of their sockets and didn't want to be the next guy to pay an arm and a leg. Fortunately, the hairy giant hadn't noticed him yet either. He seemed to be making some sort of adjustments to the Holo-chess board while also trying in vain to swat away a Porg that kept troublesomely hopping from the table to the bench, and back again, intentionally staying just out of his reach. Watching in amusement was another much older blue and white R2 type droid.
Wynn slipped past the distracted and increasingly annoyed Wookie to the next compartment, in the forward section of the ship. He heard the Wookie roar, followed by excited whistles and a long loud screech. Frightened, Wynn quickly scanned the room and noticed a tan jacket near an open wall panel. He quickly put it on and quietly shimmied himself and his box backward into the small maintenance tube. He had once heard about the cold depths of space; and having never been, wanted to be prepared.
Wynn later learned that Finn had convinced Poe to accompany him to the city of Canto Bight, located on the planet Cantonica while Rey was doing her training, after he had realised the best pilot in the fleet would likely have a better understanding of their strict parking permit regulations than Rose had had.
He insisted that they bring along a BB series astromech droid. BB-7 was Klauds droid that helped him with diagnosis and repairs, it was black with gold coloured embellishments and a round flat topped head that seemed somehow disconnected as it rolled around. (Matching the decor of the ornate casinos of Canto Bight much better than BB-8 ever could have, in fact.)
Also, since the Falcon had recently been having some issues with power surges, bringing Klaud along allowed him and BB-7 to work on tracking the issues down and correcting them while they were enroute.
That's when Wynn had taken his chance and stowed away in one of the many hiding spots onboard the Falcon. Once the three of them had gotten back they dumped out all the credits the patrons had inserted into BB-7, as Chewbacca looked on, gnawing on a drumstick.
"Dang ferrik! You were right about coming here! I haven't seen this many credits all together since my younger days when I ran sp....." Poe’s voice trailed off.
"Ran what?' Finn inquired as he checked the comms for any messages they might have missed.
"Oh, nuthin', a good story... For another time.”
"O.K. Well, speaking of time, we’ve run out, we gotta get outta here! There’s a message here saying we need to go get some encrypted intel that can’t be transmitted for fear of the First Order intercepting it. We're already almost late for the rendezvous at the Sinta Glacier Mining Colony… We just happen to be the closest ones that can be trusted with the info. "
Poe smiled to himself, he was always amazed how Maz Kanata's line worked every time to stall or change a subject. He had used it on multiple occasions since he had heard the story of what had been happening on the ground when he had swooped down in his X-wing. Single handedly taking out a good majority of invading Stormtroopers, from the air, that were invading her castle on Takadana.
He imagined himself telling her "I don't think I'll see you again, aside from a hologram. So spill it!" Oh well. She had finally filled the interested people in on what had transpired once she had finally arrived at the base; following her “Labour disputes” resolution. (You guessed it, it too was another good story.. For yet another time)
Turns out the tale wasn’t all that interesting anyways. Just the same ol’ “guy gets his saber holding hand cut off... Someone else finds it..., Yadda, yadda, yada... They put it in a box.” story.
Poe shook his head, as if to stop a flashback, while he came up the still open ramp bellowing “Have you got that power surge figured out yet Klaud?"
The large orange slug grunted and shook his head as sparks zapped from the conduits in front of him.
"Well hurry and get at least some of these panels shut, we might be in for a bumpy ride." Poe said already halfway to the cockpit.
Klaud pushed the panel back into place over the tube's opening but Wynn was still able to hear some people talking and a loud noise which sounded like multiple metal items being poured onto the floor.
Once the ship had gotten underway Wynn waited quietly in his cramped, hiding spot for what seemed like forever. There was barely room for himself, let alone the box as well. He eventually heard the faint squeals of Holo-chess board characters being defeated and raised voices insinuating cheating as the Wookie howled in protest.
"Was that what the Wookie had been up to?" Wynn whispered to himself. The Holo-chess game ended abruptly when a proximity alert sounded. He felt the ship come out of hyperspace and not long after, the ship started flashing and jostling around. Purple light bathed the ship, then blue , green followed by yellow . Soon some parts of the ship were even starting on fire. He wasn’t sure if he should be worried, or if people weren't kidding past times when he heard them say a ship had ‘ come in hot ’.
He let out a big sigh of relief as he felt the ship come to an abrupt and rough landing. He heard the sound of people outside running past his tube from the cockpit towards the ramp. After pushing the panel open, he crawled out of the tube and followed everyone else through the smoke filled passageways, down the ramp and into a bright, lush jungle world unlike he had ever seen. Overcome by the recent events and the relief that he was finally free, he felt faint and laid down, falling asleep in the sweet smelling grass and foliage…