[ The mud sticks to her soles and makes the journey upward slicker than she's used to, her heels glancing off the extrusions of rock and leaving her to foist herself higher with the strength of her shoulders alone, fingernails chipping in the narrow grooves she picks for handholds. They are not as smooth, level, and reliable as the metalwork of the rusted, forgotten imperial ships on Jakku, but her muscles remember the movements, and no amount of slippage flags her progress as she scales steadily.
But his warning reverberates in the recesses of her mind, sudden and strangely second nature, and instead of questioning, she presses herself flush against the rock face and masks her face behind her raised arm as the ensuing blanket of heat settles over them like a wave.
Dirt sticks to the sweat on her face, rubs off more grit from her shoulder as she lifts her face to look out at the fire that blazes, and her heart aches. That smoldering TIE fighter once could have contained Finn, or if things had gone differently, secured Poe. She knew nothing of the state they were in, fighting the battle on another front, and truthfully, she tried not to think about it, but in this …
Shaking her head, she casts her eyes upward instead and begins to advance again, pulling herself over the edge to securely leave the blaze below, smoke stinging her eyes and watering them, but otherwise as safe and sound as one might hope. Despite the billowing clouds of thick black smog that plumed through the sky, she gazed down at the foliage behind, feeling for her lightsaber in the midst of it.
Survival first. The Jakku way had allowed her to leave her most valuable possession behind. Her hands close around fistfuls of dirt, breaths escaping her lips in heavy pants. If she were to fight a war on any front, it wouldn't be with Luke's lightsaber. ]
This is madness.
[ And it shouldn't be happening. None of it makes sense—it's pain begetting pain. Every battle they fight feels like a temporary solution, a bandage on a wound that gangrene has rotted. ]
it's all they're good for tbh
But his warning reverberates in the recesses of her mind, sudden and strangely second nature, and instead of questioning, she presses herself flush against the rock face and masks her face behind her raised arm as the ensuing blanket of heat settles over them like a wave.
Dirt sticks to the sweat on her face, rubs off more grit from her shoulder as she lifts her face to look out at the fire that blazes, and her heart aches. That smoldering TIE fighter once could have contained Finn, or if things had gone differently, secured Poe. She knew nothing of the state they were in, fighting the battle on another front, and truthfully, she tried not to think about it, but in this …
Shaking her head, she casts her eyes upward instead and begins to advance again, pulling herself over the edge to securely leave the blaze below, smoke stinging her eyes and watering them, but otherwise as safe and sound as one might hope. Despite the billowing clouds of thick black smog that plumed through the sky, she gazed down at the foliage behind, feeling for her lightsaber in the midst of it.
Survival first. The Jakku way had allowed her to leave her most valuable possession behind. Her hands close around fistfuls of dirt, breaths escaping her lips in heavy pants. If she were to fight a war on any front, it wouldn't be with Luke's lightsaber. ]
This is madness.
[ And it shouldn't be happening. None of it makes sense—it's pain begetting pain. Every battle they fight feels like a temporary solution, a bandage on a wound that gangrene has rotted. ]