He was about three kilometers away
from the homestead working in the south field when he started to feel uneasy.
This feeling had always been a precursor something horrible happening. The
first time he had felt it was when he was 4 and a kinrath had made its way into
his room. His father had shot the kinrath, but he never forgot that feeling he
had. He had also felt the same uneasy feeling right before the last mission he
had with his parents. His mother and father simply thought Lucien was being paranoid;
Lucien should have pushed the issue more. Now they were dead, and he was going to be
forced to deal with something really bad really soon. Lucien started running
back towards the homestead; he could hear the whine of military grade speeders
roaring in the distance. It wasn’t nearly as unsettling as when the speeders
stopped he could tell that the speeders stopped at Llorian’s home. Lucien ran harder; he could hear the muffled
sounds of things breaking, and he saw blaster bolts being fired into the sky.
He wouldn’t make it in time, but that knowledge didn’t stop him from trying.
Lucien
reached the home as black smoke billowed into the sky the house was on fire,
and Lucien only managed to get a few pot shots off at the raiders as their
speeders tore off into the distance. They likely didn’t even notice anyone was
shooting at them, and that made Lucien even angrier. When they were gone he realized Llorian
wasn’t anywhere to be seen, that meant he had to be inside the house. Lucien
dashed into the burning home without thought for himself; he didn’t have to go
far. Llorian was right inside with a blaster bolt wound to the knee. Lucien
grabbed Llorian and carried him out of the house. Llorian coughed from the
smoke inhalation, Lucien sat the man up against a boulder and gave him some
water.
Llorian
didn’t look good, Lucien frowned, “Don’t worry old man; I’ll kill them for what
they’ve done to you.” Lucien swore to him, and Llorian managed a pained smile.
“Don’t seek out revenge my young friend; it will only kill you in the end.”
Llorian choked on the words as he said them. The house burned as Llorian’s life
force faded away, and Lucien felt helpless. Lucien could have used a bacta
solution to heal the old man’s lungs which were ravaged by the fire. Llorian managed a faint smile as he passed.
Lucien closed the man’s eyes and after a few hours of digging, buried the only
friend he had left in the world.
Llorian
had told him not to seek revenge; Lucien wasn’t quite ready to listen to that
advice yet. His Bes’kad had been in the house, but Mandalorian Iron would never
burn. Lucien fumed for a day as he
waited for the smoldering remains of the house to be safe to sift through. He
retrieved his sword after another entire day of searching; his other weapons
had been on his person before the fire. Lucien readied himself for the trip he would
take to the Mandalorian raider’s camp. As he loaded up Llorian’s speeder, he
saw a very official looking speeder pulling up to the destroyed homestead.
Lucien recognized its pilot as the same Jedi who was snooping around when
Lucien first came to Dantooine, this time he had a young female apprentice with
him. She looked to be about his age, and she was pretty for a Jedi Lucien
caught himself being distracted and quickly regained his composure. Lucien started subtly gearing the speeder up
for a quick getaway as the Jedi got out of his speeder. The apprentice stayed
put as if she had been given a silent order to stay still. The Jedi spoke in a
gruff manner, “Excuse me young man, what happened here?” Lucien’s expression
was steel, though his stomach felt queasy, “I dunno, looks like thieves.”
Lucien said in as unassuming of a tone as he could.
No comments:
Post a Comment