The Ancient Homeland

1

You sat criss-cross on a medium-sized cylindrical stone, meditating as best you could. Trees covered the meditation area, but you still had that gut feeling of being watched or observed.
    It had been almost an entire year since Order 66, and every day had felt like endless mental torture. You'd fallen into a routine, if that could be considered a good thing. You'd wake up early to grab some food and water from the river downhill, get your food all ready and together, eat, read for an hour or two, meditate, take a nap, read, meditate, have dinner, read a little, then go to bed. You wanted to scream every day, it was an infinite amount of torment constantly every moment you spent in that cottage. The security since the 'collapse', as you'd come to call it, had heightened, the Empire stretching it's filthy tentacles into the deepest reaches of the galaxy, striving to desecrate all remnants or utterance of the word 'Jedi'. You were very strict on your outside time, knowing the dangers of being seen would cause an Inquisitor Inspection. Today was no different as you got up to pick at the shrinking supply of edible food outside. You'd planted seeds, but it'd take a bit for them to grow completely.
   You watched the sunset that morning, the hope inside nevertheless burning bright.

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It had been two years now, you'd spent your days alone, save for the occasional animals that would hop on by to see if the house was empty. The hope was still there though, diminished slightly, but ever-present that Cere would make it to you.

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You had made an animal friend, and you were so ecstatic you couldn't contain it. It was a boggling type animal, but smaller and furrier. You'd been to Bogano once, Cere had taken you when you were younger and you had loved chasing around the little bogglings, and you'd begged to have one of your own but Cere had laughed and said no, to your disappointment. But to finally have something to call a friend, it felt like somebody was actually looking over you after all. Maybe it was the force, maybe it was something else, but whatever it was you were incredibly grateful. You named the adorable little thing Boogie.

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The hope was decreasing little by little every month as there was no sign of Cere, but Boogie kept you wonderful company as your seventeenth birthday rolled around. You'd grown tiresome of the same routine, but as time passed, the amount of Empire ships had greatly decreased, and you felt safer outside than you had in a while.

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      Boogie had gotten sick and didn't seem to be looking too well, and you hadn't felt this amount of anxiety and distress since the collapse. Boogie would be okay, but the mere thought of losing him made your heart jump into your throat.
    Your eighteenth birthday had come and gone, and you'd grown into a beautiful young woman, and your connection to the force had only been strengthened since the collapse because of your daily meditation, and everything seemed like it should've been reasonably good, but something was still always missing. You had still been holding out hope that Cere would still come, but you didn't think that Cere caused this hole. While you still obviously missed Cere, you felt drawn to something, something that had experienced the same amount of pain as you, but you spent every day confused by it, and it only grew the more you meditated.

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    You spent your days now meditating and practicing with the lightsaber that you had regretted to touch for years. It had brought you too many painful memories, the loss of your Master, of Cere, of your home, but you were determined to get off of this planet soon. Your hope had diminished to small little flame on a torch, just waiting for a small puff to finish it off. Every day had been agonizing and utter torture, and the words Cere said every day wrang in her head like a continual mantra, never to end, always to trouble.
"I can't go now, but I will meet you there when I can Y/N."
You were tired of staying up late, hoping to see a starship that just screamed, "I'm here, " or other nights silently crying yourself to sleep. You were exhausted from feeling like a zombie, tired of walking around like a numb being without a sense of purpose or belonging.
   It was a normal day, a steady trickle of rainfall from the sky, the dark clouds a continuous sight nowadays, and the mist that never failed to tickle you and bring a laugh and grin on your face as Boogie tried to swat at the mist with his diminutive paws. You had walked down to the river at the foot of the hill, passing the many markings on the trees you'd made to remind yourself of the way, but by now it was muscle memory, you knew exactly where to go. You stood by the stream, watching Boogie bounce around and play with the tiny minnow-like creatures under the surface of the water. You giggled and swirled your finger in the water, watching the fish chase after it and try to nip at it. After a bit, you brought the pail from the cottage and dipped it in an area where the fish weren't and got some fresh water for the day. Soon after you rinsed off in the brook quickly, and got back into your clothes and dried your hair off as best you could and put it up into a braid that surrounded your head.
"Boogie!" You called out, and sure enough, a furry yet dirty head popped out of the dirt at your feet, eliciting a laugh. "Is Boogie a good boy??" You asked, causing him to jump out of the ground and shake off all the mud onto you and climb onto your shoulder. "That makes me question it a bit but, who could say no to your looks baby?" You cooed, making Boogie let out a funny noise that never failed to make you laugh. You walked back up to the cottage, pouring the water into a small basin outside that you'd built to help filter the water and run into a homemade sink inside.
    Boogie had gone inside but had been eerily quiet. A feeling grew in the pit of your stomach, growing with every slow and calculated step you took towards the entrance. Before you walked in you ignited your lightsaber, hairs standing on end as the realization that you could've been found hit you. You schooled your features to hide any presence of fear and you slinked inside carefully.