Star Wars: The Last Qymaili | ✔

18 | Food Fight

Song: "Torn Apart" from The Force Awakens OST

She groggily woke up the next day, her body heavy, and reached to take her pain-pills. From where she was sitting, she could see the light coming from beneath Arna's refresher door.

Casting her gaze upon the still-dark skies of Keldabe, she bit back a sob. If she hadn't rushed Qymaen to come to Jenuwaa-if she had simply run away with him-what would she be doing now?

It was early in the morning, and they would be married by now. Perhaps she would still be cuddled against his sleeping body, allowing his warm scales to bring heat to the cool of her own. It would be the first time she'd touched what lay beneath his linens.

If the sun was just beginning to rise, he'd be starting to wake up. They had slept in one another's arms on overnight missions before, especially when it was cold. He'd often pressed sleepy kisses to her cheeks, or murmured quiet songs in her ears. His voice was so beautiful to listen to, even when he'd just woken up.

Either way, she missed him so deeply that she began to tremble. Perhaps she could marry him here. Maybe Arna would let them spend just a day and a night together. Then he would know she was alright.

She spoke in a stuffy voice-something in the air was clogging her nose. "May I make a call?"

Arna stepped briefly out of the refresher, pulling on his robes. "Depends," he said through a mouthful of some foamy white solution. Dingbat. That's toothpaste. "Who do you need to call?"

She paused. "Someone back on Kalee."

He sighed. "Unless they have a cruiser or something, we're out of range. Kalee's halfway across the galaxy."

Her face fell. Qymaen only had a little com-link. She clenched her fists amidst the grueling pain from her cybernetics. I will not cry. I cannot cry. It's only two years. I'll get over it.

Arna touched her between the shoulder-blades. "Come with me. I'm on duty today at a school."

"A school?"

"They don't have schools on Kalee, do they?"

She shook her head. "Are there kids there?"

A nervous look came over Arna's face. "Yes," he replied slowly, "but you need to watch your language around them. I could get in trouble if-"

"I know damn well how to watch my language."

Arna gave a slow nod as he raised a brow. "Does your boyfriend have that mouth too?"

"Almost-husband. And he's nicer than in more ways than that."

"I believe it." He helped her up, and she shuddered as pain marched up her spine from the wires and circuits beneath her skin. "Get ready for the day. Then I'll take you."

✺✺✺

"On Kalee, we don't go to school," Ronderu explained as they entered his speeder. "Each child gets paired with a teen or adult in a tribe to be their apprentice," she said. "It happens as soon as they get their mask. They learn to read, write, participate in combat, and speak Basic. Sometimes singing and dancing, depending on who you have. They have to stay with the mentor till their twentieth birthday."

Arna nodded. "School is sort of like that, except an adult has a lot of apprentices."

"How many?"

"Usually twenty to thirty per person. The whole building probably has three hundred kids."

"Three hundred? Burkhadaar." She shook her head with a weak smile. "I helped at the masking one year. There were fifty kids."