“No!” screamed Raenen as she awoke. “Jae!”
She pounded the wall of the snow shelter. Snow fell. She screamed again, a scream of emotional torment. “Why do the people I love give themselves up for me? Why? WHY?”
She screamed again. And again. Until her throat refused to utter another word. She coughed harshly, her throat hoarse, and curled into a tighter ball. Crying.
How long she cried for, she did not know. Wave after wave of gut-wrenching anguish poured over her. When it all subsided, she lay back against the material of Barras’ snow coat, wiping tears from her face.
“Oh, Barras,” she whispered. “Did you have to do that?”
The words brought on another wave of crying, and she moaned.
A voice spoke outside the shelter. “Raenen, are you all right?”
She sat up straight, pulling the snow coat closer about her shoulders. “Barras? BARRAS?”
Barras smiled into the snow shelter. “Yes, it’s me. How are you today?”
“You’re alive?”
Barras frowned. “I am. Though you wouldn’t want me to tell you how I survived.”
“How?”
“You’ll hate it. It’ll make you sick.”
Raenen lunged out of the shelter, wrapping her arms around Barras’ neck. “You’re alive!”
“And you’re cold,” Barras said, unwrapping her arms from his neck and rubbing them. “Are your clothes dry?”
She grinned at him, drying a happy tear with the sleeve of his coat. “In this temperature? Are you kidding me?”
Barras glanced over Raenen’s shoulder at the pile of clothes. “Glewthon’s got a really dry atmosphere, so they could be dry.” He gestured at them. “Put them on if they are, and let’s go.”
Raenen looked him up and down, taking in a deep breath. “Are you hurt? Your armour’s covered in blood.”
Barras laughed again. “It’s part of how I survived, and it isn’t my own. I might tell you later, but right now you won’t want to hear it. Get dressed, and I’ll go and wash it off with snow.”
Raenen nodded and grinned at him. “Yes, sir!” She pulled back and rested against the snow wall, sighing. From darkness to light her hopes had risen.
They had both survived.
–––––
When Barras had scoured the wampa blood from his armour, he returned to the snow shelter and sat down a few metres away. He looked up at the black labyrinth dome, shaking his head silently. How strange this mission had turned out to be. With the joy of rescuing Raenen had come sadness. Falex was dead. Remin. Dalfis. Hirda, Perayn, Naldon. And Captain Moran.
He sighed. Maybe he wouldn’t return to the Sith. Maybe he’d go to live with Raenen on some distant planet and take up another trade.
“I’m ready,” came Raenen’s voice from behind him.
He turned and smiled at her, forcing his previous thoughts from his mind. “We have a Sith to catch, m’lady.” He offered his arm to her. “May I?”
She tossed his snow coat over his shoulder. “Put this on first. You don’t like the cold.”
“I don’t think I mind it any more,” said Barras, pulling the snow coat over his head and raising the hood. “I’ve found a fire inside.”
She cast a grin at him. “Let’s go. You can pilot the ship. I’ll go to sleep.”
“I can do that.” Barras suddenly paused. “What if Radoth’s taken it?”
“I—” Raenen slapped her hand against her forehead. “We’ll have to run, Barras!”
––––––––––––––––––––––––
Dmitri Pendragon
Blog Moderator
:0 They'd better hurry . . . so glad Barras is alive.
ReplyDeleteYes, RUN! You're alive, stay that way!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad both of them are alive. Very, very glad.