Tales of a Comet (A Kylo Ren Story)

Chapter 1 - The Beginning

"Take the basket and take-", my mother was cut off by me quickly taking the basket filled with my father and brothers lunches. "I know mama, I can do it by myself", I said with excitement. This would be the first time my mother was allowing me to walk from our home into town to bring everyone their lunch. Every day I would walk with my mother to give my father and four brothers their midday meal, but this time I was going alone.

My mother sighs and begins rubbing her temples. I pause, knowing her headache was a bad one. She starts again, "Take the basket, and take it straight to your father. Don't stop and goggle at the venders. You go straight there and back. Do you understand?" I was bouncing with energy and nodded with enthusiasm. She didnt have time to throw my shawl over my shoulders as I ran through the open door.

If mother and I were walking, it would take about 1, 823 seconds to get to my fathers shop – I know because I've counted. Being too excited to walk, I ran as fast as my six-year-old legs could carry me.

I made it to town quickly and jogged to my father's shop. The town had a center ring that held the variety of shops and venders, which was were my fathers store was located.

I opened the door, hearing the tinkling of the bell that serves as the notification of a customer. My father and brothers buy and sell fabrics of different textures, colors, shapes, etc. The shop smelled of freshly cleaned linin, which was my favorite smell. I didnt immediately see anyone behind the counter, but I heard voices in the back room. Still carrying my basket, I walked into the back where two of my five brothers were unpacking and making an inventory of the new shipment.

Hearing someone walk in, they stopped to see who it was. Upon seeing me, Zuke smiles. "Hey comet! Watcha doing here?", he asks while using my nick-name he gave me years ago.

"I came to drop off your lunch"

"Oh, and what do you have to offer? Anything good?" He came and picked me up swinging me around the back room.

Still giggling he set me down and took the basket from me. While Zuke was rummaging through the basket, Kael stretched and set down the stack of papers he was using to make an inventory.

"Did you finish those figures I left you this morning?" Kael asked me.

"I haven't looked at them yet. Mama got one of her headaches and had me make the lunches"

"I see, so she's not here?"

"No, Mama let me walk here alone!" I said again with excitement.

Ghent walks in carrying another crate while he comments, "That, I believe, was a bad call"

"Leave her be, you were walking alone to bring Delmon and father their lunches at her age, and so did I", Zuke stated.

"Still was a bad call", mumbled Ghent.

My brothers all had similar features that included dark almost grey eyes, blonde wavy hair of varying lengths, strong jawbones, and lightly tanned skin. I, on the other hand, had dull, curly brown hair with eyes that were a mix of brown around the pupils and blue and green on the edges. My mother used to comment how I had the entire world in my eyes. My mother was slim and had curly blonde hair similar to mine and grey eyes. My father had dark brown eyes and darker, more straight hair.

Out of my five brothers, Delmon was the oldest. He married last year and was expecting his first child soon. Ghent was the second oldest. Ghent was constantly timid, always followed the rules and never disobeyed. In my opinion, he was the dullest. Then there was Kael, who helped my father with the shops numbers and the money coming and going. He could count a variety of numbers in his sleep and he made sure the shop was running as smoothly as possible. Zuke was my favorite brother. Father always said that Zuke could sell ice to a Wampa from Hoth. I've never met a Wampa, but they must seem nice if Zuke would sell our fabrics to them. Finally, there was Percy. Percy always said he was going to leave home and become something better than a fabric shop owner. So, he contacted our fabric supplier who offered him a job with Skypath Industries. He is now selling fabrics as a vendor on the Dravian Starport. My father finds this remarkably funny, but I didnt understand the irony at the time.

"Nymeria, where is your mother?" A deep voice asked behind me. I turned and found my father wiping his callused hands with a rag. "She let me come alone", I said tentatively while looking down and rubbing one foot on a raised nail in the floor.

"Now, why would she do that?" He asked. Behind me I heard Ghent exclaim rather loudly, "Exactly!"

"Mama is having one of her headaches", I said wearily.

"Hmm, alright then", my father turned and walked back through the doorway. "Nym, why don't you go to one of the vendors selling your mothers herbs that she uses for her headaches", he said, handing me a small bag of coins, "then go back home and make her some tea"

I nodded, taking the bag of coins and waving goodbye to Zuke. After closing the shops door and hearing the tinkling of the bells, I began to walk to the different makeshift booths that had vendors from surrounding planets and even galaxies. I glanced up at the sky thinking of Percy and where he was. I shook my head, feeling angry that he left me here, even if I didnt want to go. Tears pricked my eyes thinking about how he left without telling me goodbye. I wiped a stray tear and continued to the vendor that my mother favored for her headache teas.

I was collecting the coins from the bag to pay for the variety of herbs when the old man that was selling them looked at the sky with concern, "Did you see that? Looked like a ship was landing towards the hills"

I looked up and saw a bright blue sky without a cloud blemishing it. I looked back at him, raising one of my eyebrows like Zuke taught me. The old man just glanced at my outreached hand and took the coins, still taking peaks at the sky. I thanked him and took the package with the herbs.

I began to walk back home while taking my time. I found the most perfect stone and started to kick it down the path when I heard a deep rumble ahead of me. I looked up and immediately forgot about the stone I was kicking. A large black mass of smoke was beginning in the distance. I began to run when I tripped on a rock, making me stumble and scrape my knee on the path. I wanted to just sit there and cry when the wind picked up, causing me to smell the smoke from a fire. Scrambling back to my feet I raced towards home. Rounding the second to last curve on the way home, I saw a thick amount of smoke coming from the direction of the house. Still clutching the bag of herbs like it was my lifeline, I sprinted as fast as my juvenile legs could carry me.

I could finally see the house and it was covered in flames. "Mama!", I screamed trying to get to the house faster, tripping over roots and rocks on the way. The front door had flames extending from the house, so I ran to the back door, which was open too, but only black smoke was coming out. "Mama! Mama, where are you?"

Tears were now streaming down my face, but they were mixed with the ash from the house. I didn't know what to do. It was too late to run back to town. What do I do? My heart was pounding in my ears and it was getting too hot to stand so close to the house. I looked around trying to find anything that could help me. losing hope fast, I turned back towards the back door and ran inside.