Tavae "Tana" Themisal

Chapter 1: Rescue

'We're our own dragons as well as our own heroes, and we have to rescue ourselves from ourselves.' ~Tom Robbins

The alley was dark; the deepest pitch black that comes in the night. Tana huddles into one of the darkest corners, sending a prayer to whatever deity was listening that someone would come and rescue her from the slavers. It was a futile plea, she knew, but as she heard boots shuffling by and the searchlights kept passing she dared to believe that she had been heard.

It wasn't until a hand clamped down on her shoulder and another over her mouth that she cursed those same deities that she had beseeched help from. Everything in her screamed that she needed to get free, but something was holding her back. Was it the deceptively sweet tone of the voice as her captor said "Well my dear, you have lead me on a merry chase." or perhaps it was a sense of something else that was coming. It seemed as if the hush of destiny itself had settled around the area. She was within the held breath where focus narrowed and the moment became all that was registered.

"Now we shall take you to my master and he will add you to his collection."

An electric hum broke into the hush, not discordant to it, but pulsing and punctuating the height of the pause before exhalation. "I think not." Came the calm feminine voice. All of the sudden Tana felt herself being torn from her captor's grip. She felt herself gently cradled by a set of strong arms as the female voice spoke again. "Get her to safety, my apprentice."

The speed with which she was carried away from the scene of her near capture caused her to bury her face in the person's neck. That caused her to realize that the scent was all male. She began to tremble, though she wasn't sure if it was from fear or relief.

She was recalling what her mother had told her when she was just beginning to talk. "Dearest, never trust a man. They will do everything to win you then will break your heart just as quickly." The lonely ache she had felt when she was told that had made her weary and she had never asked of her Da again.

There was a difference with this one though. She felt her wariness just fade as he placed her feet down on the deck of the ship. She looked up to thank him and the breath of destiny released. As soon as she saw his eyes she rolled up on her toes and kissed him.

She perceived a very brief flash of surprise and resistance on his part before he folded her into a protective embrace. When they both finally came up for air, she was vaguely aware that they had moved from the top of the boarding and to the bunkroom. That was, however the last thing she was concerned about as his lips crashed back into hers. Everything about this time together is a frantic thing, as if destiny's heartbeat is hyper-accelerated knowing full well that they have mere moments to complete what was being asked of them.

It isn't until she groggily wakes to a cold draft, that she realizes that the whirlwind encounter had ended. The fog quickly clears from her head at the sound of a very disappointed voice reprimanding the young man she had given herself to. She only makes out, "You don't even know her name," before she springs to his defense.

Easily sliding her slight frame between her two rescuers, she at once places her left hand behind her fingers splayed on her lover's chest as she pressures him to step back slightly and steels her barely legal voice and lets the older woman in on what happened. "I gave him no choice." At the matronly woman's lifted eyebrow she continued, "It is no fault of his, do not presume to lay the shadow of blame at his feet when it rests solely on my shoulders," she barely paused in her thought process as it fully hit her just what her rescuers were, "Master Jedi." It was with that she finally brought her eyes to meet those of the Padawan's Master. She made sure that they reflected the truth of her words. The full conviction that the learners deviation from the strictest interpretation of their order's ancient code was indeed to be settled around her shoulders, much like the cloak that suddenly settled physically around her naked frame.

It had not even fluttered closed before the Master's cold assessing gaze raked over her. At the same time Tana felt an intrusive tingle, light and slightly ticklish, as if the old Master were looking with more than her eyes. A small light of surprise briefly lit in the woman's eyes. It was stifled faster than it came and the woman's cold voice addressed Tana as if she were a thing. "There are still consequences for his non-choice child, but as you see fit you will be the one feeling the brunt of the Council's displeasure on this."

Both Tana and the Padawan looked in confusion at the Master. The padawan spoke in a voice that made Tana shiver. "Master, she has nothing to do…"

One upheld finger silenced the young man. "SHE is the reason we were sent to this pirate infested system, my padawan. SHE was the one we were sent to bring back." She turned to go to the cockpit. "SHE is going to have a lot of explaining to do."