Cold cold, what my Yuca?

[Kyla Foy]

"I am so cold​

Why is this cold not stopping​

Let me stop shaking​

Cold, I do not like you"​

​

It was one of the coldest winters on the planet Saburane. Yuca, a young Echani, age eight had been outside from the earliest of mornings. That was a strict house policy, when parents go to work, he had to stay outside. This was until they came home from work, which was always around night-time. He always fell asleep at an instant and didn't have a talk with his parents. He was too exhausted to do so and they always send him to bed, since it was bedtime.

This morning started like all the same. It was 6 AM, the night lamps around the street were still on for another hour. He did not know, he would meet someone today that he would help open an entire new world and that a new world would be opened by that as well for him. The day went like always, first dwelling alone on the streets and going around a few just opening stores, in order to ask for some food. Some stores supplied him with some food, he was still young and they knew of the hardness of his parents. Some other stores called him a brat and that he shouldn't come there any longer. This made his food supply get lower by every single week or maybe days.

Through the days, it was getting colder and colder for him where he was sitting on a bench shaking like no other. He had in his bag, his supply of food and drink, all cold nothing warm. His cheeks were red, his nose was red as he sneezed over and over again. He walked over the street and sneezed again and *BOOM* he bumped against a woman with a silver colored hair. He fell onto the ground and his entire bag of food and drinks fell from it.

"I am so sorry, I should've looked.."​

​

He had said with a very polite voice as he was grabbing all the stuff. He had kept on shaking especially as he got onto the ground. It was also heard within his voice as he was stuttering sometimes, because of it.

"I hope I have not broken anything, are you alright, miss?"​

​

[member="Ahani Najwa"]
​

 

[Ahani Najwa-Zambrano]

Sabarene, although being a desert world, had a wicked and perilous tundra. The settlers who rose to the challenge of the winter plains were for the most part Nelvaani Huntsmen, with a scant brave Echani souls to round the towns. This was their first winter on Sabarene and it was harsh. The planet was cruel. Ahani was about to discover that some of the people were more cruel than the winters.

And it would boil her relatively lucid, sane blood.

Tromping through the winter cold, Ahani was tripped on by a ragged collection of bone and flesh. She stumbled and grimaced. "Hey! Eyes are made for seeing, y-y-y-yu-yu..." A tiny, malnourished boy with bright silver hair and dashing eyes winced up at her. Had her nightmares crept to living time, or was this another genetic anomaly of the Chandaari Echani who still kept Yuca's face in their genetic code? Ahani Najwa stared into the face of her youngest son - that same son she lost when he was but a baby still weaning. "Yuca."

She gulped. Her eyes hazed over and Ahani didn't much care for the lump gouging at her air supply in her throat. Yuca was freezing. . . but no. [member="Yuca"] was dead. He died. Ahani's son was dead. All at once the mother in her burst through the shocked mental fog and Ahani yanked her thick woollen cloak off pale shoulders and threw it over the boy's tiny, shivering body.

"You're freezing, how long have you been out here? What are you doing outside in th-th-that little bit?" She picked him up off the ground, nearly heaving at how light the boy felt in her arms. No boy should feel so light. "Wh-wh-where a-a-are your p-parents?" They had to be there. . . th-it couldn't be.

She'd been doing so well. Barely hallucinating at all. She hadn't cut herself on her sword, had she? The Deathsticks which normally resided in her pocket were replaced with candy straws for pity's sake!

 

[Kyla Foy]

From the strict desert warmth to the icey cold strict winter. This was having a huge impact on him and most people that lived on the planet, that's why they decided to stay inside as much as possible.

"I know, I know...My mind was on something...d-d-different." He told the woman as he was shaking while very slowly picking up some of his food. Then he was able to hear something by a person, he had yet to meet. She called him by his name 'Yuca'

He turned with his head over towards Ahani and asked her, "That's my name, do I know you from somewhere?" He asked her with his adorable but freezing cold voice, placing his small jacket tighter around his body, "I am not quite sure if we me-me-met before." He did look exactly like that Yuca figure, but he did not know the story nor did he seem to think any further than one thinking that she might know him, but not the other way around.

When smiled to her, he was still shivering and only half of his day had gone and another half, he had to go through till he would be in a lovely warm bed. He was lifted on the ground only to be noticed that he was very light and pretty skinny for a boy his age. It could've been the slight difference between him and that other Yuca figure or maybe it was because, he was the one to gather the food and drink and staying outside would burn bucket load of calories.

"I have been outside as always...s-s-since six in the morning...I always go outside..." He said trying to squeeze in Ahani's shirt, but his fingers were very light colored, pale of the cold his squeezing strength was like nothing. "They are at work", He spoke softer than before, "They won't be back until midnight l-like very day"

[member="Ahani Najwa"]

 

[Ahani Najwa-Zambrano]

"N-nnngh." This was insane. He was flesh and bone. He breathed and his breath hit the air with frosted clouds. Ahani's jaw worked. "No. You're not Yuca. My son was Yuca. He's dead." Saying it aloud helped bring that moment of clarity that the woman needed to push her fantasy out of her mind.

Yuca was dead. He died. Her baby was dead.

She looked down at the boy in her arms and groaned. He was nearly identical, but for the slight body and blue eyes. Yuca's had been silver. Hadn't they? It'd been so long. It'd been a year and a month, maybe two since she lost her son. . . had it only been that long? Through the fog she heard his tiny voice speaking.

The neglect reeked off of his tiny shaking muscles, words about staying outside when parents were at work. "Why aren't you in an Academy? What sort of parents leave their child out in the winter's cold? They ought to be flogged." Lifting the child better onto her hip, the mother of three cuddled him to her side and put the cloak more firmly around him, tugging the hood over his head. "We're getting you warm, giving you something hot to drink and finding your parents. Do you like cocoa? My kids loved it." Inside her ribcage, Ahani's motherly heart bled. What parent would leave their boy out in the cold while they worked? Had the child simply run off?

His cheeks were pink, he was freezing cold. Clearly if he could he'd have gone inside. . . unless he was some form of idiot. . . yet there was a spark in his eyes which betrayed an unused yet keen mind - at least for a child. She walked briskly down the street and into a residence with the mark of the Vornskr on the door.

Inside, a middle aged Echani man barked and reached for his blaster. He stopped. "My Lady?"

"Fire. Where's yours?"

The man spied the covered bundle in her arms and rose out of his chair, pushing it backward with a screech against the floor and guided her to the fireplace, moving the chair back in front of the crackling flames. She put [member="Yuca"] down on the chair and stood to look at the aging man. "Do you have a kettle?"

"Y-yes Ma'am. . . that's. . . that boy is outside everyday, I thought he was some sort of urchin until I met his father. Hard man."

Ahani's eyes narrowed. She threw her hand out and telekinetically lifted the kettle to water, then on to the small stove. "You know his father, then?"

"Of him. The family keeps to themselves. Neither him nor his mate were deemed fit for the Fleet."

Ahani moved back beside the chair and the fire, pulling the hood off Yuca's head. "Boy, tell me where your parents work. Who are you?"

 

[Kyla Foy]

She didn't seem to understand the young boy when he was being held warm by the woman, "But my name is really Yuca..I am not your son, ma'am but I really am Yuca.." He spoke in an innocent fashion. When she looked at him, and wasn't sure about the eyecolor, it might could've changed after the child would've grown up, but who knows the baby was already dead.

"My mama and papa says school doesn't teach you about money, money can be made without money. If you got a job you are a poor person. Rich people make other people work." This was an incredible hard lesson but it was true, why would the rich work for money? They had other people doing that for them. Now why would a parent keep his/her child in the cold. "I am always outside from six until midnight that's when they came home." He told her as grabbed the coat more firmly and his arms were against his body and his side of his head cuddled by the woman's warmer body. She had suggested something and this caused him to smile but his lips to tear open. "I would like that, but I do not have any credits" His blue eyes almost looked as cold as the skin around his eye-socket as he was brought.

A step he took back, but being taken inside with the lightest push, Where he saw a man taking out a blaster and quickly he had hidden his face against the woman her side of her body, only by his silver hair he was being noticed while he was being placed in a chair near the fire, which was warming him up the man spoke about his father, but this man didn't tell everything in one moment. He listened to the exact thing and the middle aged Echani spoke after that once again, "His family is rich, like filthy rich, they own mostly of these grounds, they have a goal with him, but his father is a very hard man, I do not know about his mother."

His hoody was pulled off by Ahani and Nick looked at here. His hands were near the fire. They were still shaking but not dangerously close to the fire, quite insecure on her questions he was speaking, "Well, my name is Yuca, I am an Echani, uhm...I don't know where my parents work.." He told her honestly not knowing, "I knew where they worked I would waste their energy, they told me" He said, he was too young to understand the matter of money, his parents loved.

[member="Ahani Najwa"]

 

[Ahani Najwa-Zambrano]

Named after her son, with her son's face. . . could his parents be of the Blood? Ahani shivered. She poured the boiling water into three mugs and rummaged for tea. "Don't fret, young one. I've got the credits, you have the only task of keeping warm and feeling better. . . your parents are messed in the head." She smiled down at him and left [member="Yuca"] by the fire to talk with the elder Echani.

"Do they?" Ahani scowled. Ownership had already come to Sabarene? The Matron of Royal Houses crossed her arms over her chest. "We'll see what his family does and doesn't own after I tell my son." The man bristled. "Monarch Xextos wouldn't do much up here, would he Ma'am?"

"The Master Xextos cares for all his people. You would know, you fought beside him at Tythe didn't you? You have the look of one of his infantry."

"Lost my leg." He tapped at the crude prosthetic which laid under his trousers. Ahani nodded. "It was a glorious battle."

"You're the one who took out the Fifth Legion, weren't you?"

"I was."

"Singlehanded."

"I was."

"Never seen anything like it since holorecordings in my history lessons. Old battles on the lost planet."

"Oh, I was younger then. . . do you have cocoa?" Ahani winked toward the boy, a creaky smile coming to the elder man's face.

"Yes, I'll. . . Yes, Ma'am." He went off to his small kitchen and Ahani got down on her haunches to eye level with Yuca.

"Your parents don't send you to the Academy. They keep you outside and make you beg for food. They are wealthy like dragons hoarding ill begotten prizes. If this is what your parents are doing to you, they are wrong, Yuca. No one can rely solely on money. It does not buy everything. Community is essential to the Echani way, and you should not be left alone and cold. I would like to find your parents and discuss this with them. If they do not change, you will not go back. I will not allow it."

 

[Kyla Foy]

These questions which were all within the head of Ahani were soon to be answered, but currently a mystery. What if they really were family? What would've happened? Yuca smiled as she had told about the credits. "Thank you" He said holding his hands near the fire warming up slowly.

When he was near the fire a conversation was going behind him, he did listen and heard about a certain battle, "Wow..." His eyes were shining because of the amazement he found within this woman. When that conversation stopped and she winked. He quickly looked away, he was blushing. When the man want off Ahani was speaking to him and soon after that he answered.

"If you would like to speak with my parents, miss. You have to wait until midnight, when the moon is at the peak. That's around the time mother and father are near home." He told the woman sneezing after that once again. He did not yet understand that much about the principle of life, being slightly brainwashed in the fashion of it having become quite normal for him to beg for food, then he suddenly thought for a moment, "Huh wait, -sneezes- Who said papa and mama are Echani?" Since they were not Echani at all. This could've become even more a mind twisting event as the man who knew about Yuca's family the smallest bit was starting to speak once again with a bit of information.

"The child his father is Arkanian, His mother I am uncertain off, It is not that we see her every day." The man had said.

[member="Ahani Najwa"]