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- I don't know how you can see that.
- I'm not kidding! It really seems like Ashtaa!
- No it doesn't.
- Of course it does.
- It's just a cloud, Ahsoka! What do clouds and togruta girls have in common? And Ashtaa?
-Alright, alright, if you want the cloud can seem like you instead…
Ahsoka Tano laughed.
-Togruta girls are all similar to each other.
-No they are not.
-Yes they are. A lot. Not counting with tattoos.
- See what I mean now?
Shaak stood up and slightly caressed her lekku.
It was a habit she had and never noticed.
-No, no I don't. It's a gift of yours, Ahsoka. You see things the others don't.
-Really? I'm more special than you?
-You are quite sassy today, aren't you.
Ahsoka imitated her sister and rose.
-Thanks. Let's go home?
-No, it is too early yet. Shall we take a walk?
-Let's.
Ahsoka, owner of her eight years, measured less than half of her sister, of seventeen.
She tangled her orange fingers in Shaak's red ones.
-Where is everybody?
- I told you, they went to hunt. It's not our turn.
- I never went hunting, Shaak! I'd like to do something, for a change.
- Well, aren´t you walking?
-…Yes?
-And aren't you talking and breathing?
-Yap.
- So you are doing something.
-Come on, you get it!
-Yes, I do.
-I feel…
She dropped her sister's hand and walked faster.
-I feel like I should do anything to help the group, do you understand? Something big. I want to because…
She blushed and shook her hands randomly, trying to explain something she couldn't.
Shaak lifted one tattooed eyebrow and half-smiled.
-I understand. I understand more than you can think.
-Yeah, says the all mighty togruta-who-already-went-like-fifty-times-hunting.
-Pfff, it's impossible to convince you of anything.
Ahsoka tread on a dry branch harder.
- You know you are too young to go.
- I knooooooow.
- You should… you have to use your spare time training.
-I know! I run almost 25 kilometres everyday!
-Mind that running isn't everything you must learn, dear. You also need to grow.
-To the sides.
-To grow up. To the sides you've already grown enough.
-Hey!
-And your lekku!
-My lekku what?
Shaak smiled and bit her lower lip.
She knew how much Ahsoka hated to be teased about her microscopic lekku.
-Go on. My lekku what?
And then it happened.
An enormous sound echoed around the Shili's savage savannah.
Their eyes widened.
-Shaak, wha-
-Hushhh.
Ahsoka frowned as she concentrated all of her energy to realise what kind of noise this was.
Shaak gasped as the grotesque sound appeared again and again.
Like a huge roar.
-Ahsoka, you said you could run 25 kilometers a day. Can you show me if that's true?
-Shaak, but wh-
-It's nothing Ahsoka, everything is fine. It's only the wind tricking us for sure.
She pulled her younger sister and without noticing they were dashing freely through the hot fields of wild wheat.
-Shaak!
-Calm down. It's nothing.
Shaak smiled in a way to comfort Ahsoka, but the little girl wasn't so easily fooled.
She tried to show her insecurity to her sister, but she ignored her and kept a confident grin.
-What are you doing!?
-We are running. Just as you like.
-Stop!
-In the middle of a run? No way!
-SHAAK!
Ahsoka attempted to say anything else, but the air she had was totally consumed by the race.
The air…it had a scent of something Ahsoka never felt before.
So she turned her head back with caution.
She wanted to warn Shaak, or to show horror and concern, but she just couldn't.
The city…
Their city was on fire. The grey smoke was so thick it could be touchable. She didn't hear them, but she imagined the people screaming in pain and terror in the middle of the flames.
She moaned quietly when she bumped against a rock, but Shaak's grip was too tight to let her go.
-Hang on.
They entered the densest part of the field.
The wild wheat made her legs and arms itching and Shaak's lekku whipped her face repeatedly without intention.
-Aaaah!
Ahsoka fell.
-Come on, come on now. We're almost there. Let's go.
Shaak grabbed her little arms and placed them around her neck, in a way that made Ahsoka's belly facing hers.
-Shaak! Behind us!
With her face resting in her older sister's shoulder, Ahsoka was allowed to see what was going on behind them. And she wasn't liking it.
With a pure scared expression, Ahsoka glared to the horizon.
The almost-black grey smoke was stalking them as if alive. And it was quicker than they were.
The tree they were sitting in some time ago was completely swallowed, alongside with the neighbours.
It was like the Son Himself had arrived to Shili.
And the sky!
It wasn't blue and full of poufy white clouds any longer.
It was red. Blazing red.
-The color of danger!
And Shaak's.
The running Togruta jumped over a river without even touching it. Her agility was always remarked by everyone.
And then she stopped.
-Oh no. No. I knew we would reach it eventually…
-Sister?
Shaak straightened her back and hugged the little girl, before placing her on the floor.
-We have just arrived to "The Edge".
"The Edge".
A wall of stone the Togrutas built to isolate themselves from the dangerous "outside". Ahsoka never saw "The Edge". It was forbidden since she was just a young girlie. And she always wanted to see it. And maybe sneak to the other unknown side.
But not under this circumstances.
-This is the most wrong thing we will ever make Ahsoka. But we have to take the risks if the threat comes from inside. Okay?
-Nobody knows what kind of things there are there. It's dangerous.
Shaak felt pity of her sister's fear. She kissed the top of her lekku.
-Not more than being here. It's one thing or another. Where is my brave rebellious sister?
The giant grey fog was coming their way.
The giant wall was standing on the other.
-Come.
They approached "The Edge".
-Tea! Look, a sign.
- What does it say?
-…"Forbidden the pass to those who aren't amazed for existing". Now, that's strange.
-What?
The strident roaring sound echoed against the Wall of stone and injured the Togruta girls' sensitive ears.
Their hearts were beating in the same time.
The darkness and the smell of ashes and burning plants came to them. More and more.
The wind was blowing, dragging the fire to their position.
-Ahsoka! You go first, now!
Shaak stretched up her arms and opened both her hands.
Ahsoka placed a tiny foot in each one, and Shaak then sent her arms to the top of "The Edge".
-See if you can reach it!
-I can't! Just a little bit closer…just one...got it!
-Go Ahsoka! Stand up! Hurry!
Even if tired and scared, Ahsoka thought she heard a hint of relief in her sister's voice.
It alarmed her.
With lack of balance, the little girl fell on knees on the large rocky top of the stone wall.
And then she saw it.
The fog, the smoke, the smell, the red sky, it all came from that figure, that monster.
A dragon.
Ahsoka screamed as she never did before.
-SHAAK!
The dragon came closer and stared at Shaak with its two yellow eyes of the size of the sun.
It pushed itself to the front so hard it created a gust of wind which took off the grass and wheat from the earth, the pebbles and fishes from the river and Ahsoka from the wall.
-No-
And then a vertigo sensation of falling…
The wall seemed like it never ended…
She made a harsh landing in the other side and felt something warm spurting from her head.
And then everything went dark.