Rey

ii

Rey woke up the next morning and smelled the rations as they boiled.

She sat up quickly and looked around, disoriented. Then she saw Jase and hopped out of the basin.

"Good morning."  He greeted with a tilted nod.

" 'Morning."  She pulled herself onto a stool.

He handed her another one of the biscuits and she ate it.

Then she tugged at her hair. "Can you do my hair?"

He paused in stuffing his face. "What?"

"Mummy used to do it for me in the morning."

Jase shrugged and ruffled through a drawer for a comb. He gestured to the ground in front of him.

She sat obediently as he combed through her hair, remembering how he had seen her hair the day before.

He put it into the three buns, and tied each off with a bit of twine.

Jase gave her a bit of reflective metal to see her reflection. "Is that good?"

She smiled at herself. "Thank you!"

Rey wrapped her arms around the boy.

He smiled and picked up a bag, which he handed to her. "Ready to scavenge?"

She hitched it over her shoulder. "Yes."

He smiled and held out his hand. She took it.

They walked to a rusty red speeder, with a net on the side.

Jase boosted Rey up onto the craft and climbed on behind her.

He pulled goggles down over his eyes and they sped off.

Rey closed her eyes against the blowing sand and held her breath through the worst of it.

They stopped by a field of fallen TIE-Fighters and X-Wings and Jase slid down.

He saw her face, covered in sand and helped her brush it off.

"I'll get you a mask soon. Maybe even before we head back."

Rey smiled through the veil of sand and flicked her eyes open, trying not to get sand in them.

He helped her down and showed her how to break the windows of the TIE-Fighters to get inside.

She crawled in at his command, and he instructed her on what to grab.

"Do you see that long, skinny, shiny thing there?"

She pointed at it.

"Yes. Grab that. Look for anything shiny."

She pulled it off and passed it back.

Rey found more pieces to give to him and passed them back. Then she moved to the other side of the space.

She screamed when she saw what was up there.

"What is it? Rey? Are you okay?"

"It's dead!" Rey cried.

A pilot, all in black, was sitting slumped on his dash.

"Does it have a helmet?"

Rey saw it. "Yes."

"Can you remove it?"

She wrestled with it a bit, squeaking when it popped off, revealing a skull.

Jase called to her. "Climb out now."