hiraeth. poe dameron

GIRL

Winter remembered much about her slave life in the First Order. She was 17 when the Resistance found her beaten and bloody in the tundra; she wasn't a child.

A pilot found her, only 19, but one of the best in the entire fleet. His name was Poe Dameron and he had been flying back to the base in D'Qar when he had noticed something in the woods. He had been flying low enough to see the snow drenched in red and was very surprised by what he saw. Nobody was usually in the woods, let alone an injured person. He contacted his commander and asked if he could see what the problem was, but Poe's request was declined, he needed to get back from the mission and check in.

A couple of days later, he asked his father, a Pathfinder, to let him please check it out. His father, knowing his son's abilities allowed him to search the woods for whatever was out there.

Poe set out. He circled the woods at least 3 times before starting to turn back, disappointed. However, as he turned,out of the corner of his eye he saw a flash of red was smeared across the snow. Landing in a nearby clearing, Poe grabbed his gun and followed the trail up into the brush.

"Hello?" he called out. "Is anyone here?" He dug his fingers into the snow, and smelled them. Blood, fresh blood.

"Are you hurt?" he yelled into the steadily darkening woods.

"Please...help her..." a teary voice croaked out, coughing. Whipping around, he followed the sobs into a place where the trees hung low, branches intertwining together. His eyes widened as he saw a young child with blood smeared across her shirt, and a girl around his age clutching the young girl to her chest. The older girl had a bloody lip and a bruises across her pretty face, and tears running down her cheeks.

"Please, please, please save her." The girl choked out. "She's-she's dying..." The girl's eyes were brimmed with barely masked terror. Poe ran over and leaned the older girl into his arms. Reaching his hand down he pressed two fingers against the young girl's neck and found her pulse. It was faint, barely there.

"Kalei, please. Please stay awake. I can't- you can't leave me." The older girl cried. Kalei opened her eyes for a moment.

"I love you."

"I love you, too, but please!" Her eyes shut and a shuddering breath left the girl's lips.
The older girl let out a heart-wrenching scream, clutching Kalei to her chest and sobbing into her hair. Poe gathered the girl in his arms, and turned away from the now dead child.

"NO, please no, you don't understand..."

"The sun is going to go down and it's winter. You are going to die of hypothermia and I can only take one of you. It's going to be okay, I promise." Poe whispered into the girl's ear. "What's your name?" He asked, trying to calm her down.

"103985-FS." She answered, clutching his shirt. He was warm and she wasn't, he understood.

"What kind of name is that? Your actual name." He replied.

"I'm a First Order slave. That is the only name given to me." He pulled her closer. "I'm going to call you Winter, okay?" She nodded, tears silently streaming down her face as he loaded her into his ship. Giving her one last look before they left, he grasped her hand.

"I promise you, you're gonna be okay, Sunshine." And with that he turned around and began the flight back to the base.