Notes: Dedicated to everyone at the Rogue Squadron Discord Chat!
Chapter 1: Home On The Valley
Nimmi - Lady Serina Janson (fancast)
Daouneer Valley, Taanab, 17 BBY
The thunderstorms were getting nearer at each passing minute. The cracking sound got louder and louder and the rain would pour at any instant…
And the boy was nowhere to be found.
"WES!" The woman called, a mix of worry and annoyance in her voice. She wrapped her thick green shawl around her shoulders.
What was it with storms and her younger son, that forced her to search the entire farm for him?
Other small children ran indoors with the first thunder. But not Wes! Not ever!
The boy was fascinated by the dark skies, suddenly lighted up by the blinding glow of the lightning!
"WES!" She tried to make herself heard over the deafening sound of the storm, already over the roofs of the Janson homestead. That boy…!
"I found him, Maree !" Derrit's voice came from the edge of the family orchard. The twelve-year-old boy carried small Wes in his arms. "He was by the brook, the little rascal…"
"I'm not cold!" The six-year-old complained, pouting at his mother. The boy was in a disarray, his clothes muddy and his ponytail almost loose, with strands of dark curls over his golden-brown eyes.
Lady Serina Janson approached her sons with a stern shake of her head. "I really don't care. We've been searching for you for over an hour now! The rain will fall at any minute and if we don't get indoors before that, we'll all catch a cold! And then you can say goodbye to our trip to Pendath!"
Holding tight to his brother's neck, Wes looked at his mother his lower lip trembling slightly. "But you promised…"
"And you promised me you wouldn't run outside whenever a storm broke, imeda tanee …" Serina squinted at the boy picking him up from Derrit's arms. "Comm your sister, Derrit. Tell her we found our little fugitive…" She shook her head at her son, brushing his hair away from his face. She pinched his little nose slightly turning towards the house. "What am I going to do with you?"
Wes giggled, hiding his face on his mother's neck holding onto her as strongly as his little arms could.
"Don't squish me, sweetie!" Lady Serina chuckled. "There's your sister, "She nodded at the running figure of her daughter. "and she doesn't look too happy…"
Fourteen-year-old Mia huffed, dragging her shawl through the ground. "I swear by Ithylia, Wes! Next time I have to run around like crazy looking for you -" She left her sentence unfinished as the heavens suddenly seemed to open and the rain came in a violent downpour. "Great! Now I'm gonna be all soaked!"
"Go, go! Run inside!" Lady Serina hasted her children. They ran inside closing the door behind them. "Derrit, take your brother with you. I want you all to go take a hot bath and change, or else there won't really be any trip to Pendath to any of us."
Lady Serina took off her shoes, dragging herself to her bedroom. She threw the shoes and the shawl on the soft rug by her bed, before heading to the private refresher. The sound of the warm water filling up the round bathtub helped to take off the edge. She loved her children to death, but being a mother could be exhausting…
And Wes, - Always Wes! - being unable to stop for one minute! Always on the move, his inquisitive spirit always thirsty for new adventures!
He wanted to see everything, know everything, do everything!
His restless ways had made it a bit difficult for him on his first days at school. The teacher had reprimanded him for not paying attention, for always speaking out of turn, for not standing still. Old Mr Kareyn had asked him a question in front of everyone, waiting for the boy to fail so he could make an example out of her son, but Wes had left him speechless when he answered word for word. No one would have believed that the boy had spent the last minutes scribbling and doodling instead of listening to the teacher, and yet he had answered correctly!
Allowing the scented water to envelop her tired body, Lady Serina grimaced thinking just how much Wes resembled his father in spirit, if not in looks…
A solitary tear streamed down her cheeks while the conflicted woman reminisced about a city far away from her own world, where the sun didn't reach its lower levels; strange streets and avenues embedded on the walls of a yellow stone crevasse; People that were so different from her own; A family that had looked down on her and treated her like she was inferior; a young man with pain in his eyes, his pale features somewhat paler as he watched her leave; memories of light brown hair through which her hands ran with passion; blue adoring eyes making oaths he wouldn't be able to keep…
It was all gone now. She had come back to Taanab and neither her nor Kallen had mentioned anything more about that issue since Wes' birth.
Kallen was her friend, her confidant, the father of her older children and he had taken upon himself to be Wes' father. And he had been so! The child had never been treated any different and for everyone else, Kallen was his biological father!
But that didn't ease her guilt. They kept a marriage that was just a front. A convenient union of two people that had no real love between them anymore.
Still, the persistent feeling that one day she could be forced to tell Wes the truth scared her. If that day arrived, would the boy understand? Would he forgive them?
" Maree …" Wes' soft, still high pitched voice sounded from the other side of the door.
"Wait a minute sweetie." His mother warned, getting out of the tub, drying herself vigorously and reaching for the green fluffy robe hanging on the door. She put on her slippers and opened the door to see her younger son already in his yellow pyjamas, with a small stuffed bantha on his hand. His hair was now loosened around his shoulder, falling on a cascade of perfect curls, just like his mother's hair. She leaned to pick up the boy in her arms. "You seem all ready to go to bed. Want maree to tell you a story?"
The boy nodded enthusiastically, holding his bantha closer to his chest.
"Alright." She carried him along the corridor to his bedroom, laying him on his bed filled with stuffed animals before going through the shelves. "What story do you want tonight?"
"The kitten who wanted to be a tiger."
Lady Serina smiled, taking out the holobook and sitting on the side of the boy's bed. "Get under the covers if you want me to read the story. All set?" The boy nodded briefly, covering himself taking the bantha and a tiger with him under the blankets.
" Maree ?"
"Yes, Wes?"
"Are you mad at me?" His voice faltered slightly
"No. But I always get worried when you run off like that." She ran her fingers through the child's hair, playing with soft curls. "And you did promise you wouldn't do that again…"
"I'm sorry…" Wes pouted, reaching his round arms towards his mother. The woman bowed down with a chuckle to kiss her son's forehead before covering him again. "Ready?"
"Uh-uh!"
"On a house on a hill lived a small little silver kitten named Tahl…."