She'd been taken from behind as she ran. The screaming of her people, her parents, and her sisters...the sounds of death and the smell of it...that sickening smell. She'd never be able to rid herself of it. She thought that if anyone, she had been the one to escape, the one to ensure that when it was over, she would gain revenge. But the second she turned to continue on, something wrapped around her head, blocking her view, dragging her kicking and screaming, biting and clawing to the ground.
She'd felt a sharp pain in the middle of her forehead and then? Nothing.
Nothing was the worst of it. The darkness left you wondering where you were, what was happening, and what would happen later. The silence of it all was terrifying, especially when the noises that broke it aren't the ones you're hoping for.
That was how Laashia awoke from the dark haze that claimed her. Not to the sounds of her sisters' laughter or her mother in the kitchen, or even her father coming in late again, apologizing quick so he could dodge the spoon being tossed his way. Not to the sight of her bedroom, her living room, or even the forests around their village. Instead, she was met with darkness, eyelashes struggling against fabric. The sounds of crying and low threats of violence if it didn't stop.
She needed them to be quiet. Just for a moment, so she could get her bearings. Right now, everything was just a mass of darkness with occasional ripples and flashes of thin lines that stuttered to life and drowned in the empty void. It was only when someone roared for the exact thing she needed that she hurried to open her mouth wide and flick her tongue along its roof. Bringing it back down with a SNAP.
The click it produced is sharp, like a dart being thrown, knowing exactly how to hit its target, cutting through the silence and colliding with several things simultaneously.
Each ricochet found her in different patterns. Three similar high-pitched acoustic rings mixed with steady, heavy melodic thuds. Guards, seven paces away. She would have thought they were pillars with how rigid they were, but there was no mistaking that rhythmic pulse of breathing. Next came the slow return of sharp, high-pitched ringing in vertical lines from either side of her. Metal cages?
It was what was through the gaps of those lines that sent a chill down her spine. Much lower than the guards was the unsteady flutter of four terrified heartbeats, that familiar high-pitched ringing clasped in a circle behind them, while a ripple of waves was being swallowed and muffled at their knees. Four beings trapped in their own respective cages.
Finally, a more thunderous, solid sound reflected off the four walls that caged her in. She had not been caged like the others, but she was bound, and the three standing, most likely, where the door was posed a problem regardless. She'd been kidnapped, and even if she wanted to pretend it was not that bad, she knew how things like this went. She refused to make it easy.
So when those guards stepped towards her, telling her that it was her turn. She snapped at them, biting into one and tearing at random flesh. Kicking out her feet and hitting the other hard enough, she heard him fall over. She'd been prepared to do more when the sound of heavy footsteps approached. Backup strong enough to pin her down, gag her, and begin dragging her, feet digging into the floor until they bled, out to where she was to be sold away, killed, or worse.
The blindfold was tugged away from her face the second she felt wind, and she blinked rapidly, taking in the sight of people surrounding a platform she was being dragged to. While further ahead, a blue Togruta was being led away by a chain around her neck. Head hung low in defeat.
Laashia felt rage burning in her chest. That would not be her. She would not go gently. She would rather die, and so she struggled harder. Bucking her body and slamming her head against the men dragging her, forcing them to yank at the chain around her own neck, before kicking out her feet. Mocking her as she fell forward, never hitting the floor because they held her up by the weight of her own neck. It was humiliating, and yet, and still, silver eyes narrowed in defiance. Glaring out at the people who cheered with glee at the sight of her. All except...one.
"Here we have a rare Togruta," one of the men holding her yelled as they forced her upright. Smacking her hard across the face when she bucked at them again, yanking the chain when she attempted to lunge at another. "A kind hard to find unless one wishes to traverse dangerous woods and mountains. Sheltered and fiesty...but all the more fun to break."
With a yank of the chain, she was once more falling, though this time no one caught her, and she crumbled to the ground with a loud thud. Her head bounced against the floor, her body curling into itself as a foot came to rest atop her.
"We will start the bidding!"
Her eyes roamed the crowd once more. Searching. Seeking. Clinging to hope that there was someone...anyone...her eyes locked once more on the man who'd been staring at the blue Togruta earlier.