Warrior ◊ Star Wars

chapter twenty; the stars sing

"No, no! My left."

"Goddamnit that is your left!"

"Then your left- Wait no your right-"

"Why am I listening to you! You're concussed!"

"There's a spot right there just move over-"

"Shut up!"

Mara jumped down in a more irritated mood than ever. A few thoughts of just leaving his unconscious ass where it had been could've been a good idea, but she settled for ignoring him as she put her hands on her hips. She studied the obstacle in front of her more carefully now.

"You could try the other side-"

"You're not helping." She threw a rather unpleasant look over her shoulder at him, to which he didn't even acknowledge.

Dameron pointed a few feet away from what she currently was trying to scale, "There's a few more spots you could try over there."

Mara did briefly look at the spot, but passed it off without too much thought, "No, this'll work."

It didn't work and twenty minutes later she was still attempting to lift herself up by her knife, now not even having the strength to fully get up. BB-8 of course sided with his master, and his little chirps telling her to move over didn't help Mara what so ever. So she jumped back down, so tired and worn her pride had started to fade.

Now, she glanced back at the other part of the wall, and with a defeated sigh moved over to it after wrenching her knife out of the rock.

"So I was right." She could hear the satisfaction in the Resistance fighter's voice stamping all over her very, very bruised ego.

Mara sucked in air before stabbing the knife into another divet, "Maybe. This could fail too."

She lifted herself up, trembling while her boots lodged themselves immediately. Mara felt relief and annoyance at all of this as she heard BB-8's little gleeful beeps that resembled chuckling. Dameron shook his head as the blonde hoisted herself the rest of the way up, "Like I said: right."

"Shut up Dameron."

"Poe." He corrected, though Mara was focused on getting her entire body on top of the ledge that she didn't quite understand.

She finally sat down on jagged rock at the top, heavy breaths passing past her lips as she uttered, "What?"

"That's my first name. No real sense in keeping it some secret. Now what do you see?" He asked her, attempting to stand up after hours of resting. BB-8 rolled beside him, both anxious to hear what she observed.

Mara let her legs dangle down the other side as she scoured the endless landscape before her, "Poe? That's an odd name. Like P-O-E?"

"Yes," She heard slight playful irritation in his voice, "You wouldn't believe how many people teased me about it when I was kid."

The blonde cracked a small mischievous smile as she continued to try scan the flat land, "Sure, it's so easy to rhyme with. Mow, sow, glow, bow, hoe-"

"I've already heard all of them. Now what do you see up there?"

Mara kept gazing over the dry desert, turning her head back to get a glimpse at everything. She did spot the maze of formations where the tarnished village had been afar off to one side. The other revealed more to the east, but no abandoned base in sight. She let out a long, displeased exhale that alerted the man below to the situation.

"Nothing?" He questioned her, and she gave a tired shrug.

"Nothing at first glance, but I'll keep an eye out." The blonde scooted over a few inches to get more comfortably seated on the uneven ledge. While examining where to sit next, an oddly shaped rock caught her eye. She moved towards it, reaching over the jagged rock to grab it once it was close enough. The rounded rock fit nicely in her palm. It was dotted with muddy copper-colored speckles that took her a minute to identify. Her face lit up as soon as she realized what it was, "Hey, I found something!"