Star Wars Ep VIII : The New Empire

Chapter 5: Captive

The blaring light of the sun woke Rey as she coughed and sputtered awake, struggling to breathe. She blinked groggily at the blue sky passing overhead. Her mouth felt sore, and she realized she couldn't fully close it; there was something wrapped around her head, going through her mouth. It felt like some sort of thick cloth. She raised her hands to untie it, but they were caught against something, tethered.

Rey's weak body lightly jostled around, and she had the sensation that she was moving. The surface she lay upon was hard and flat, like wood. She slowly up, pushing her tethered wrists against the wood, but as she did so her head thudded with pain.

Rey looked dazedly around her as she took in her unfamiliar surroundings. She sat atop a large wagon, various large boxes and overstuffed bags surrounding her. Her blurry eyes came to focus on the thin but tight metal cuffs around each her wrists, which she came to realize were tied to the sides of the wagon. Panic rising within her, she tugged her arms repeatedly, but the tethers would not loosen.

She squinted at the expansive yellow grassy field that stretched ahead of her, purple, orange, and blue trees sparsely scattered about the environment. The landscape was moving steadily away from her, and she was slow to realize that she was facing backwards from the direction in which the wagon was moving.

"She's awake, Disfol," a deep voice behind her said. She flipped around to her right, squinting at a blue figure riding on a pack animal that resembled something of a furry Eopie. A coarse-looking human male rode on the same type of animal alongside the blue creature.

"S'fine," a scratchy voice behind her responded. "We'll give her another dosage soon."

Rey leaned around and saw another human man riding a similar animal, which was attached to her wagon, pulling it along through the short grass. The man turned around to look at her, revealing a scarred and bearded face. Rey's eyes widened in horrified recognition: this was the man that had approached them in the port town. Stuck in a state of dazed shock, Rey blinked silently at him as turned back around.

The blue creature riding near the wagon said something in an unfamiliar language. Rey's head begun to spin, and she leaned back down against the hard grain of the wagon, her thoughts slowing as she drifted out of consciousness.

...

When she awoke again, it was dark. As she slowly focused her vision, Rey found that she was inside some sort of makeshift cloth tent, placed upon a few thick and dusty blankets. Warm orange light seeped through the crack in the tent ahead of her. She slowly sat up, a familiar throbbing pain returning to her head. She moved her hands up to rub her forehead, but as she did so she found that her hands were now bound together with the metal cuffs, so she could not separate them. She then twisted her arms to feel at her side, and her eyes widened in shock as she realized her lightsaber was gone.

Rey sucked in a shaky breath as she sat up straight and felt that her feet were also bound together. She leaned forward to observe them, seeing her ankles tied tightly together with some sort of crude rope. She still had all of her clothes from before except for her neck scarf and her shoes. She winced as she observed her red and swollen feet in the firelight. The bindings wrapped tightly around her ankles were cutting off most of the circulation from her feet.

Rey's heart began to race as she took in the cold air in short, shallow breaths, her heart pulsing loudly in her ears. Despite the protest of her throbbing headache, Rey dragged herself forward to peer out the split cloth of the tent's entrance.

Her vision still somewhat unfocused, she saw a clearing with a fire in the center, three figures huddled around it. A dark border of trees and twisting plants framed the clearing. The three men she'd remembered seeing before-it hadn't been a dream, she realized-were sitting around the fire, talking. An animal was outstretched near them, some sort of large dog. Rey strained to hear the men's conversation.