WHO I AM, WHO I KNEW, ALL GONE - MY ONLY CLUE, A LIGHTSABER
NEAR THE VALLEY OF THE EREMITE; JAKKU
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
Jakku was an unforgiving world.
Sand, dunes, rocks. No real life, sandstorms and dangerous creatures. All for as far as the eye could see.
The fact there were sentients that inhabited the planet was a shock, because the environment was harsh and unforgiving, and anyone who lived on Jakku was either a survivor or a fool. Or someone desperate enough to be a scavenger. It was impressive the sheer amount of debris and hulks of starships that littered a portion of the planet, honestly, which had been witnessed from low orbit on arrival to Jakku proper. The pilot of the freighter had said they were Star Destroyers and all kinds of cruisers and capital ships, all from centuries past. It had been interesting to learn a little more, at any rate.
Still, the environment, when one stood on Jakku, was unlike anything else: Blazing heat. Skin-peeling sand winds. Difficult to find water supplies. Distant outposts.
"I may have made a mistake." The words were muttered through a thick wrapping of scarf, as a bundled humanoid shape trudged through the endless sand for miles and miles. "What am I doing? This is madness, right?"
Boots sank into the coarse surface with each step, as the sentient huffed and puffed in the evening dimness of the desert. Beneath the layers of protective fabric clothing was a young man, his name simply Astos, and - though he didn't know why, exactly - he was on a mission to find the Jedi. Some months ago, Astos had been a survivor of a star cruiser crash, which had killed thousands, with few who walked away; and of those that did, many were injured beyond help, while others were hospitalized for long periods of time, and given drastic bacta treatments to pull them back from the brink. Astos had suffered a severe head injury, a trauma, and once healed found his memories simply gone... and his only clue to anything, a lightsaber on his person.
"I wish I had had the credits to hire that speeder. Deciding to walk was a bad call, for sure, I don't have enough supplies for this."
Once Astos had procured passage to Jakku, he had arrived at a remote community called Niima Outpost. A home to scavengers, it was said, and to some who might help the amnesiac locate the Jedi, rumored to be out in the desert near the Valley of the Eremite. So, with what few credits he had left, Astos had gathered some protective clothing, water, food and a ride to the valley entrance... and some hours later, now, he was very aware of how bad things looked.
"Okay... I have to stop..." Astos huffed, as he sunk into the sand with his knees and keeled over. His hands pushed into the surface like his legs and boots, and he tried to calm down. "They said there... was a hermitage, some old place, not... far..."
Astos eased back onto his haunches and reached under the robes, to pull out a water sack. He gulped some of the liquid, which tasted like bliss after walking in the late afternoon desert, before he resisted the urge to drink more and put it back. He had been told to conserve water, at all costs. So he would. On the belt the amnesiac wore, was a small device with a cracked screen; and once it was held in hand, Astos looked at his coordinates in comparison to the location the scavengers had marked out:
"You'll find it around here, in the valley." They had said. "It's not much, there's some water and plants you can eat. But it's your best bet to find the Jedi... I guess."
The information had been worth the last of Astos' credits. And now, here he was, alone in the dimming evening of the Jakku desert, on a wander to locate some old living place to hopefully find Jedi...
"This was a mistake."
After several more moments of rest, Astos sighed and pushed to his feet. There was nothing for it, he had to keep going - what other choice did he have...?
Last edited by a moderator:
