𓏲ּ𝄢 ─── the sand was pale as bone char, fine enough to hang suspended in the air between breaths, coating her tongue with the taste of old fires and older silence. it gave beneath her boots with each step, swallowing her footprints before she’d finished making them. sriluur was a world the hutts had claimed and then forgotten, left to bake under twin suns while they moved on to richer spoils, leaving behind only their crumbling palace complexes and the weequay who still served them. they were a quiet people though. there were no greetings called across dusty streets, no laughter from the cantina doorways, just the soft scuff of bare feet on sand and the occasional murmur of their own clicking language, spoken low as they tucked a word of caution between greetings. not that she heeded them.
the air carried the metallic bite of overheated engines and old fuel, layered with dust that never quite settled. padmé walked over to one side of the bay, watching a grizzled mechanic in oil-streaked overalls crouch over the exposed hull of a battered starfighter. the acrid tang of ozone stung her eyes teary, but she could still make out the faint gleam of gold. it clung to its seams, its curves, thinned to a tired warmth that spoke not of years, but of decades. the kind she’d seen in the hangar bays of theed.
“excuse—” the mechanic twisted around too fast, one hand slipping on the hull plating, and had to catch himself with another arm before he toppled sideways off his work stool. “oh dear! are you alright?” she reached out, hand extended as though she might steady him from where she stood. he squinted up at her though, all four hands still braced for balance, eyes tracking from her boots to the shadow of her hood. she lowered the cowl of her cloak then, continuing, “i’m sorry, i didn’t mean to frighten you.”
he pushed himself upright, hopping down from the stool with a grunt. “‘s fine—just… you’re not from around here, are you?” the question hung in the air between them, neither accusation nor invitation, just observation worn smooth by years of reading strangers in transit—a trait most of the townspeople seemed to share. “no,” she said then. “no, i’m from ryloth.” the words came easier than she’d expected, though she supposed it wasn’t really a lie anymore. “i came here to see jaxxson.”
he let out a low whistle. “by the spires of dathomir—yeah, that’s one wild ride. hold on.” he unclipped a comlink from his belt, turning it over in one hand while another thumbed the activation switch. “hey, jaxx—got a pretty young thing down at the bay looking for you.”