Kylo lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling. The journey back to the house had been grueling, and it didn't help that the mysterious woman had been less than gentle on their way back. She wasn't nearly rough enough to cause him further damage, but she didn't go out of her way to make him comfortable. She walked around the room he was in, pouring water for herself, though she did not pour him a glass. She turned to him, her expression neutral.
"Give me the robe," she said. Kylo didn't feel like cooperating. She scoffed and walked over, holding her hand out. "You've got blood all over it, give it to me." Kylo paused for a moment, but painstakingly sat up to hand it to her. She took it without ceremony and walked passed him. Kylo could've sworn he heard her muttering under her breath, but he elected to ignore it. She didn't come back inside for a long time, but Kylo could hear her splashing water around outside, supposedly washing the robe.
How was he supposed to get off this planet? The girl would do as a servant until he was healed, but how long would that take? Beyond that, though, it had been a week. Why had no one come looking for him? The woman came back in, paying him no mind.
"Have there been any search parties?" Kylo asked, watching her uneasily but trying to hide his discomfort. She turned to him, shaking her head.
"Nothing has flown over, if that's what you mean," she said. Kylo's face showed no reaction, but the woman's large eyes narrowed. "Why do you need to find a ship so quickly?" Kylo didn't respond, he just looked at the ceiling. The woman sighed and took a few steps towards the outer door. "You're going to be cooped up here for the next few weeks, you might as well try to be cordial." She was quiet for a moment, but the next, she grabbed her bag and left. Kylo heard her footsteps get softer as she moved further and further away.
A quiet filled the room, and Kylo remained motionless for the next few hours. It slowly got darker and darker, the temperature in the room decreasing significantly. Kylo shivered, but the action made it hard to breath as his ribs tensed. He tried to meditate, focus on his rage to speed his recovery. But footsteps outside the cabin ripped him from his thoughts as the woman returned.
She took one step into the house and shivered, wrapping her long arms around herself. She walked into the adjacent room and returned a moment later, throwing a thick blanket over Kylo. She then turned away, starting a fire. The fire flared up, and Kylo could feel the heat reaching him quickly. The woman did not move, she just sat next to the warmth, soaking it in. The glow from the fire almost made her pallid skin look flushed. Kylo stared for a moment, but that same curiosity from the clearing overcame him.
"What do I call you?" he asked. The woman's head ticked over, the silhouette from the fire making it look like her black eyes were just sockets in her face. It was very unnerving, she might as well have been a corpse.
"Notti," she said. "You can call me Notti." Her soft voice carried through the room, her motionless figure doing nothing to ease the tension between them.
"Where are you from?" Kylo asked. She didn't even blink.
"I lived on Tatooine for many years," she said, not offering any information beyond that. She didn't ask about him, she didn't move. Kylo suddenly regretted trying to start a conversation with her.
"Why are you out here?" he asked, wondering why she would live out in the middle of nowhere. She, however, did not seem to want to answer that question.
"You're rather chatty," she remarked, standing up. "Are you hungry?" She stood up and walked to a cabinet and pulled out a pot, going outside to fill it up with water. She came back and set it over the fire, throwing in various objects from her bag into the water. Kylo looked at the concoction warily, not entirely trusting the strange plants she seemed to deem edible.
"What is it?" he asked, trying to sit up but grunting and lying back. Notti looked over at him, smiling softly. She picked up her bag and walked to his bed, sitting down and showing him the contents inside.
"This," she said, holding up a root, "is ilth. It tastes like it sounds, but it has remarkable healing power. The rest of this, Truvian potatoes, kilari, pell, will hopefully help mask the ilth. Unlikely, but we can hope." She smiled at him, bringing the vegetables back to the pot and throwing them in. She held up the ilth, looking back at Kylo. "I am so sorry," she said, and she threw it in. She immediately stood up and opened the window above the counter, and Kylo understood why a few seconds later.
A rancid smell hit him like a punch to the nose. He coughed and then groaned, his sides convulsing. Notti coughed as well, laughing slightly. She approached him with a rag, one covering her face. She held it out to him, and he held it to his nose. It wasn't perfect, but at least he could breath again.
"Is there any healing thing on this planet that doesn't smell like rot?" Kylo asked, and Notti laughed. It was a different laugh, a true moment of amusement for the first time.
"Not really," she replied, her voice muffled through the rag. "All the best medicine smells like it'd like to kill you." She approached the pot slowly, stirring it with her arm completely extended. Kylo almost chuckled at the absurdity of the motion. Almost.
"You expect me to eat that?" he asks, sneering. Notti chuckled, nodding her head.
"You'll get out of here faster if you do, so it'd be in your best interest to take whatever I give you," she said. Kylo rolled his eyes and stared at the ceiling, trying not to breathe too deeply. A short while later, Notti brought two bowls to his bedside, sitting down on the chair next to him. She put the bowl down on the bed, obviously having learned not to try to help. She crinkled her nose for a second, but picked up her spoon and took a bite. She swallowed and stared at the bowl, her face expressionless in the low light.
"So?" Kylo asked, unnerved by her lack of a reaction. She coughed once, pressing her lips together.
"No, it's awful," she said, laughing between coughing fits. Kylo sneered, eyeing the bowl next to him.
"Why are you eating it, then?" he asked. After all, she wasn't hurt. Notti pointed at his bowl, then at him.
"So you don't have an excuse," she said, taking another bite. She ate quietly, waiting for him to do the same. Kylo rolled his eyes, anxious to be rid of this irritating woman. He tried to sit up, propping himself on his one good arm. He reached for the bowl with his bad arm, twisting uncomfortably. Notti paused for a moment, watching, though she offered no help. He took the spoon and shoved it into his mouth, immediately going for another before he had a chance to taste the first. As soon as he did, though, he gagged and spit the entire mouthful out over the floor.
"That's vile," he choked, and Notti just laughed, agreeing.
"I know, but you've got to stomach it," she said. "I've seen it shave weeks off recovery time. That has to appeal to you." The idea sound preferable. Kylo eyed the soup, as if sneering at it would scare it into tasting better. Notti watched him for a moment, the intensity of her gaze not helping. Her face fell into a rather sarcastic grin. "If you can't feed yourself, I'll have to feed you." That was it. She'd done it.
Kylo put more of the soup into his mouth, knowing that she was trying to manipulate him. Still, the idea of being spoon-fed was enough to stomach the pain…and the taste. It truly was the most disgusting thing he'd ever had, but if it got him out of the pit faster, he'd oblige. Notti chuckled and stood up, apparently already having finished hers.
"It wouldn't be the first time," she said, turning away from him. His vision immediately turned red with anger as his eyes tracked her through the room.
"What did you say?" he asked, his voice deadly again.
"You think you went a week without eating?" she asked, apparently unaware of the danger she was in. "You were sedated, but I got you to wake up enough to eat whatever I gave you." Kylo burned at the thought. Notti looked at him, her smile falling at his expression.
"Why?" he asked. Notti's face suddenly looked so sad, and she approached Kylo slowly. She sat down on the bed next to him, her eyes looking straight through him. When she spoke, her voice was so soft he could barely hear her.
"What happened to you?" she asked. Kylo was surprised by the question, and his eyes widened slightly. "I'm trying to help you, and you act like everything I do is an attack on you personally. Kylo," she said his name, so gently he leaned forward to hear what she had to say. "Why are you treating me like an enemy?" Kylo looked at her, the unremarkable woman. Something stirred in the base of his stomach, something compelling him to a moment of honesty.
"People don't just help someone they don't know," he said, his voice betraying no emotion. "So why are you?" Notti's head tilted as she stared at him, smiling sadly.
"Because sometimes people just help someone they don't know," she said. The firelight flickered on her face, half of it in shadow. Still, her emotions were so easy to read, though Kylo still didn't understand.
"But what do you gain?" he asked. Notti's face again betrayed a myriad of thoughts, a deep sadness the easiest thing to identify in her coal eyes.
"I don't gain anything," she said. "Why do I need to?" Kylo thought for a moment, thinking to everyone who ever tried to help him. They'd all wanted something from him, and the concept of someone wanting nothing from him made him uneasy. An image of Han Solo flashed through his mind, but Kylo was brought back to reality by Notti's voice. "Who made you like this?" she asked.
Kylo looked at her. Really looked. She didn't even look like an actual person. She was an unfinished painting, indistinguishable from fog on a rainy day. You'd never pick this woman out in a crowd, except to take a few steps away from her soulless eyes. Still…
Kylo turned away from Notti and lied on his side. As much as the position hurt, he didn't want to look at her anymore. He heard Notti sigh, but she stood up and took a few steps away. He listened as she stoked the fire, her shadow dancing on the wall above Kylo's head. She moved to the doorway to her room, stopping for a moment.
"Make sure you finish the soup. If you need anything, just ask." With that, she went into the next room, leaving Kylo alone in silence. He tried to focus on his breathing, but after two hundred and fifty six agonizing breaths, Kylo returned to his back. He picked up the rancid smelling soup and finished it, leaving the bowl on the floor.
The next few days passed in silence. It seemed to Kylo that Notti had given up trying to ask him questions. She kept the fire going, fed him whatever she was eating. She continued to eat the ilth with him for the first couple days, but subjected him to the torture alone after that. Sometimes she would leave the cabin for hours at a time, coming back with various plants and vegetables to eat. She barely looked at him, except to change his bandages or help him move outside to relieve himself.
Kylo didn't mind this exchange. It was easier to tolerate being taken care of when someone didn't speak. Her dull metallic complexion allowed him to think of her as a medical droid, sent to tend to him until the First Order found him. To Kylo's increasing annoyance, no ships flew overhead. Where were they?
Still, after a while, the silence was tiring. He could feel Notti's patience, but there was a curiosity within her. Out of the corner of his eye, he started to catch her watching him. The longer he spent with her, the easier he was able to read her. If he was particularly bored, he passed the time by studying her, trying to separate her emotions. It wasn't particularly thrilling, as she was mostly a calm, placid being. Every once and a while he'd catch something interesting. Annoyance, frustration, quirks of emotion that rocked the tide of her mind. Mostly, though, she seemed content in the forest.
It was the sixth day when Notti returned after being gone all day. Kylo turned his head to watch her, listening to her hum softly. He'd become very acquainted with every little knot in the wood of her ceiling and desired a different distraction. Boredom more than anything else compelled him to strike up a conversation. In the long run, he barely cared what her name was, much less anything else about her. But cabin fever impacted even him after a few days in a forest.
"Where do you go?" Kylo asked, and Notti looked over at him, her eyes surprised. It was the first time either of them had really spoken in days.
"It depends," she replied, sitting down. It seemed to Kylo that she was as bored as he was of the silence. "Some days I go find us food, some days I look for medicinal herbs around the forest. Some of it I have to walk fairly far for." Kylo nodded, suddenly wary of how she looked at him. "What do you do all day?" The question annoyed him, but he didn't have anything better to do.
"I count every imperfection in your ceiling," he said, looking up. She followed his gaze, giggling.
"Imperfections? In my ceiling?" she said, her voice sarcastic. When Kylo looked back at her, she was already meeting his gaze, one of her eyebrows cocked mischievously. When he didn't respond, she just chuckled. "This house was built long before I ever came here. But I love it." Kylo listened to the fondness in her tone, looking around the house.
"Why are you out here?" he asked. It was a point of mystery since he'd woken up. He kept expecting someone else to come home, but all evidence suggested that she lived alone, seven miles from anyone else.
"I'm not much of a people person," she said bluntly. Kylo watched her, studying her face. "I go to the Village every so often, but usually not for any longer than I have too. It's not the villagers," she said, as though ashamed of the confession. "They're lovely people. I just don't like being around that many people for a long time. It's peaceful out here, quiet." Kylo looked at her, understanding the feeling. He lived on a ship with thousands of people, and he preferred the company of a decaying mask.
"You don't strike me as a hermit," Kylo said, listening to her laugh.
"Well, I spend entire days out of the house to get away from just one person," she said, "so imagine me surrounded by an entire village." Her tone wasn't cruel, and even Kylo could recognize the humor. He didn't give her the satisfaction of a smile, but his eyes narrowed slightly. Apparently, that was enough for Notti as she wrinkled her nose and stood up, going to start the fire in the fading light.
The next couple of days, Notti seemed more willing to carry a conversation with him. She taught him different herbs, identified different birds when they'd sing. He figured out the easiest way to get her to talk was if he asked about the animals on the planet. Living out where she did, apparently she'd had plenty of experiences with them. It was the eighth day when he got her going on a story about kips.
"What's a kip?" Kylo asked, Notti having mentioned it in passing. She smiled, shaking her head.
"Have you ever seen a wolf?" Notti asked, and Kylo nodded. He'd actually met two when striking a deal with a thug on behalf of the Supreme Leader. The man had two wolves as guards, large animals with sharp teeth and short tempers. Notti didn't know that though. "They're like those, but bigger. They live for hundreds of years, and I don't think they ever stop growing." Despite his best effort to remain apathetic, he couldn't help feeling inquisitive.
"What are they like?" he asked, wondering what her encounters with them looked like.
"Age does not make them kind," she said. "Most of my interactions with them ended up with me in a tree. The longest they've kept me up in one is four days before they lost interest." Kylo's eyebrows rose involuntarily, and he couldn't help but be impressed.
"Do they come here?" he asked, halfway between hoping they lived far away and hoping he'd see one. He imagined bringing back the hide of that animal. But Notti laughed, shaking her head.
"No," she said. "They live much deeper in the woods. The only time I've seen them is when I travel into the mountains to the east." Kylo nodded, finding enjoyment in the mental image of Notti camping out in a tree to avoid razor sharp teeth.
After only two weeks, Kylo was already up and walking around. He could tell that Notti didn't approve, but she didn't say anything. He didn't think a seven mile hike was quite possible yet, but soon. He often left the cabin now, going a little ways into the woods to train. Three weeks without wielding his saber left him restless, so he passed time cutting down trees and stacking them with his mind. He was pleased that the setback hadn't dulled his skill. Now that he'd given himself to the darkness, he couldn't afford to fall behind. He couldn't disappoint his grandfather now.
The sun set on the fifteenth day after he'd woken up and Notti walked by him, going to her room. He watched her retreating figure, her limp hair swaying lightly. She made him consider getting a personal protocol droid once he returned to the First Order. Useful. Kylo closed his eyes, leaning back. He stretched an arm above his head, pleased at his ability to hide his discomfort. None of the others would be able to tell he was injured. He'd just have a scar down his face, a testament to his power and perseverance. He contemplated the idea of no loner wearing his mask as he drifted off to sleep...