Chapter Text
“One day, you and I are going to get somewhere far from here, I promise” Your mother’s voice quietly reassured.
That’s what ran through your mind as you felt rough hands tie rope around your wrists. After your mother had been taken away from you, you had decided to run away. What was the point of staying in a place where the last bit of family was just gone?
She had been everything to you. Always there, even in the worst situations, you had each other. But then someone had wanted her and paid a high price, now she had been dragged away while you could only helplessly watch.
The Tusken raiders quickly placed you onto one of their ships and drove away, unsure if the fate you were about to meet would be better or worse. You could feel your heartbeat faster and faster as the wind blew past you. You could barely see with all the sand bruising onto your face and eyes.
You could see others among you, but they all looked like vague shadows that seemed to blur away. They all sat tirelessly, scared of the fate that awaited them when they arrived at their destination.
The Tusken raiders spoke amongst themselves in voices you couldn’t understand. You couldn’t tell if it was because of everything that had happened to you in the last twenty four hours or if it was because of the extreme wind; perhaps a culmination, but you could feel warm tears brimming your eyes as you kept flying.
A moment of freedom is all you longed for. Even if it was just for a minute, a moment where you were the one to make one decision for yourself. Where you didn’t have to worry about fulfilling all the duties for the day. You would get a ship and use every last bit of fuel to travel the entire galaxy just to find your mother if that were possible. Once you had, you would spend the rest of your life engineering ships and flying them, the galaxy in your hands.
You didn’t realize it, but you had closed your eyes and gone to this imaginary place. You were quickly awakened from it though, as the Tusken took you off of their ship and quickly dragged you away. The others that had been on the ship with you began to kick and yell but to no avail. You did neither of those things, it reminded you too much of your mother.
They took you to a small hut that had a fire inside. They quickly placed a cuff on your foot, connected to a chain that was tied down to lock you in. They took you in and placed your tied hands on a pole. They slightly pushed your hands which caused the pole to begin to spin. They looked at you expectantly, although still not entirely sure of what you were doing, you began to push the pole once more and the raiders nodded. You sighed, how long were you going to be stuck here? Had your conquest to escape meant nothing? There was no way your original holder was going to come and get you. Even if he had wanted you, the moment he saw you were in Tusken raider territory, any determination left in him would flicker out.
No one was coming to save you. You were alone now more than ever. At least back at the market you had your mom and the frequent customers that you could consider friends. Yes, you had to clean and consistently maintain the countless animals that came and went, but at least you were outside, not tied up in some den that grew dimmer by the second.
You hoped that they would at least bring you water or food as you continued your work, but it would be awhile before anyone paid any mind to you. Soon night came and you could feel your body beg you to lie down, but you couldn't even do that as you saw how the raiders would check in almost every minute to make sure you were still doing your work.
Finally, they brought you some food and let you rest for a couple of minutes. You devoured everything in your sight and quickly drank the water that was given to you. Before you knew it, you were back to spinning a crank. As soon as you fell back into routine, you realized you didn’t even get a chance to get some sleep. You could tell that you needed it, your eyes felt heavy, your legs ached, and your hands were covered in bruises.
This mindless work let you go back to thinking about the spacecraft you had envisioned yourself flying. It was out of reach, but it was the only thing that distracted you from this tiredness that bit at you. You would build this ship with the most up to date technology. You would make her have a beautiful f/c coat and plenty of supplies to live off of for days on end.
You could feel your eyes begin to droop. These modifications and detailed visions would always help you go to sleep back when you were in the markets. You had tried using them solely as a distraction now, but they were still lulling you to sleep.
You felt a sharp pain on your neck as you felt a raider throttle you awake. You let out a yelp and they let you go as they saw you go back to your duty, more alert than ever.
…
The days passed and soon they began to blur. Nothing seems coherent anymore and you just try to find both sleep and food into your schedule but you often have to choose between one or the other. You couldn’t even find the strength to cry as it felt that you would waste precious water that way.
However, a small tug would make you realize that your chain was slightly loose. You could feel it give in slightly when you tugged on it. Your heart raced; there were only raiders outside of the den you were working at but they weren’t actually inside watching you. If you tugged hard enough, maybe you could escape. These raiders were bound to get distracted or leave at some point, at that moment you could run as far as possible.
A loud blast snapped you out of your thoughts. It was a ship landing not far from where you were. The raiders quickly went to go see who it was. Since the guards outside were distracted, you stopped to take a small break and hopefully figure out a plan.
The doors of the ship flew open and a figure walked out. It was a blue creature that wore a huge black hat and gleaming red eyes. Despite none of the raiders doing anything to him yet, there was already a scowl on his face. He had his hand on his hip in which he was clearly trying to keep his gun in reach.
If you had had the energy, you would’ve rolled your eyes. If these raiders wanted to overpower him, they easily could, even if he had that extra protection.
“Where’s my payment?”
You were taken aback from his voice. It was so robotic, but still full of malice. His voice alone made him seem more deadly than these people despite having little reinforcement.
You snapped out of your thoughts and watched how the raiders quickly all looked amongst themselves. It wasn’t long before the man began to bark at them about his money once more. In a hurry, all those in the area quickly dragged him elsewhere. Leaving you alone with his ship.
I can’t, you thought. The very idea of already loosening up your chain had made you nervous.
But you could only remember your mother’s words, “somewhere far away from here,”. You pulled on the chain, feeling it give in to your weight. You began to pull on it with your hands, pulling it harder and harder, making the chain finally get loose and break from its original position. You fell hard onto the ground, dust clouding your vision.
Once again freedom in your grasp. If you did this, you were at serious risk suffering a punishment more terrible than you already had. These raiders could make your last moments alive a living nightmare for insubordination.
The light pouring in from the outside beckoned you. Wonderful liberty right in front of you. If you ran now, you might be able to escape the raiders. There weren’t any in the current area.
Slowly, you picked yourself up from the ground. You made the decision in the moment, that if you were going to die, you were going to die trying.
You took a step forward, feeling the warmth hit your face. You took a deep breath before looking down again, there was the ship you had heard.
You ran towards it. You knew you should be trying to run away but you couldn’t help yourself. You had never been this close to a ship before. It was an enormous piece of art that gleaned in the Tatooine suns.
Gently, you brushed your fingers against the metal. It burned but only a little. You could feel small sand particles that had drifted on it. You smiled, you had always dreamed of flying a wonderful aircraft such as this beauty.
A loud blare quickly cut through the base of the raiders.
You felt your stomach drop. They must know I escaped. Quickly you tried looking for a place to hide, any place that could keep you safe, but there was nothing.
Even if you went back to the den now, they wouldn’t just welcome you back in with open arms, you would be punished for running away.
Terror coursed through you, there was no way out of this.
Before you could think of a comprehensible plan, something grabbed you from behind. They pinned your arm behind your back and placed a hand over your mouth.
You tried to wriggle out of their grasp, but it was no use, the grip they had on you was strong. One of the raiders had gotten you, you were officially out of options. You felt your legs begin to shake, you had gotten a chance to escape, and you had gotten distracted by some silly fantasy.
“Stop moving,” The person behind you snapped.
You recognized the voice, “Man from the ship!?” You tried saying although your voice was muffled.
“Quiet!” He snapped once more.
But you kept talking in hopes that he would eventually respond to you.
“What are you doing? Did they tell you to come after me? What’s going on?” Although once it filtered out, it sounded like gibberish.
From the corner of your eye, you saw a Tusken approach. You began to jolt away and the man turned to look at it. The blue man quickly took his hand off of your mouth and grabbed his blaster.
You felt a small sense of relief to see that he was going to defend himself against these men, which meant you were under protection as well. However, instead of pointing it at the raider that had just found the both of you, he placed it on your head.
“What are you doing?!” You screamed, once again trying to squirm out of his grasp.
“You come any closer I’ll shoot dem,” He snarled.
The raider stood there for a second before taking out its own weapon.
“What is happening?!” You yelled in panic once more.
“You belong to dem kid, they won’t hurt anything of ders” He said matter-of-factly.
He then began to drag you to his ship. The ramp began to open up and let him inside. He kept pointing the gun at your head.
Did the raiders want you back that badly that they weren’t willing to let you get hurt?
You assumed he would let you go once he was safely inside but instead he let you fall to the floor and quickly got his ship started.
You felt your heart race as you felt the ship quickly begin to shake and get ready to launch.
Was this man taking him with you? Although it meant he may take you somewhere far, he wouldn’t leave you here and any place far from the raider base was better than staying.
You could hear the Tuskens banging on the side of the ship, trying to harm the object but to no avail. The ship was already beginning to take off.
You could feel as the ship left the ground as it was starting to steady itself.
You looked out the window and saw how tiny the base of the Tusken raiders was. Now that you were so far off the ground, they seemed far less threatening, almost insignificant now.
You saw as you grew closer and closer to the atmosphere of the planet. All you could hear were your heart beats, thumping louder and louder. You had always dreamed of leaving Tatooine, but deep down, you always thought it would stay as a part of your imagination, nothing else.
You almost forgot about the man who was holding you hostage until you saw him in the corner of your eye, facing a blaster in your direction.