AN: Ahsoka is one and a half now.
"Ahsoka, please." Mai said with exasperation. Mai and Ahsoka were out in the garden, Mai to care for the plants, Ahsoka to destroy them. Ahsoka looked sweetly up at her mother and waved a handful of roots at her, dirt falling onto her lekku and shoulders. Mai groaned and hurried her daughter to snatch the roots away. Ahsoka smiled again. Mai hated it when she did that, Ahsoka could look so innocent, so charming, that Mai would fall for whatever Ahsoka did and she just couldn't bring herself to punish her.
"No." Ahsoka said promptly before standing, albeit shakily, and toddling over to her mother. "Mama." The girl peered into her mother's eyes, searching for acceptance. Ahsoka frowned when Mai dismissed her casually. "No, Mama." Ahsoka said urgently, wishing her mother could understand.
"What, Ahsoka? Just tell me." Mai said. Ahsoka stomped a small foot. She couldn't tell her mother. She didn't know the words for what was happening. A dream filled her thoughts at night, tormenting her. A man who was good to her and Mai came to them, but he was truly evil. And then, Ahsoka would wake up sobbing, only for her mother to think she wanted food or something.
Ahsoka, so small she could only understand the words 'no' and 'mama', had no idea of how to inform her mother of what haunted her. Even though she could walk, she crawled away, back into the dirt. She wrapped her hands around a plant and yanked hard. The plant held fast. Though Ahsoka couldn't see her mother with her back turned, she could tell she was smiling. Annoyed, Ahsoka yanked harder, and when the plant ripped free, Ahsoka flew backwards, landing heavily. Despite her ungraceful fall, Ahsoka was satisfied. She had at least part of what she wanted.
"Oh, is it a secret then?" Mai answered with bemusement. She raised an white eye marking at Ahsoka. Ahsoka frowned and shook her head, feeling her small lekku just brush her shoulders. Why couldn't her mother understand? Mai took the plant from Ahsoka smeared hands, and replanted it. For once, the young mother didn't reprimand her small daughter's actions. Mai knew that Ahsoka meant no harm, she was just so much trouble because that was her way of fun. She never did it intentionally or to be actually cruel to Mai.
Ahsoka looked at her mother curiously before patting the dirt down with her hands again. She paused, mouth twitching, somebody was down the road from them, and coming closer. Ahsoka meant, Somebody's coming now. She could feel their prescience and hear faint whistling. The man felt...uneven. His mood was cheery, but at the same time, grimly satisfied. Ahsoka gave a small cry of fear and crawled quickly over to her mother. She hid her face in the folds of her skirt, waiting.
Mai shifted and said with confusion, "Ahsoka, what is it? There's nothing here to hurt you." Ahsoka looked warily into her mother's face when she turned and nodded. Mai looked into Ahsoka's nervous face and shrugged, "It's all okay, child." Silence fell as the whistling subsided, but the looming presence grew closer and closer, so overpowering that Ahsoka shook with fear. Stoutly, the petulant child thought about her lack of fear, her dislike of fear. She hated the way it paralyzed her, grabbed her away from her senses...she was not afraid. Ahsoka showed her face, and wandered to the rusty gate. The whistling came again, chirping and without rhythm. Ahsoka cringed, and glanced at her mother for reaction. Her mother paused, no words coming out of her throat, her expression of unbelievable joy. Confused, Ahsoka's wide eyes looked at the gate again. He's back? This man-from what she could sense-was a far cry for something to be joyful about.
"He's back." She whispered to herself and hurried to the gate. Her face was wreathed with smiles, the fatigue fell from her like curtains. Curious, Ahsoka inched closer, waiting for the man to strike them, to kill them. The man came into view, and stopped, nose-to-nose with Mai, a small smile playing on his lips. The name that Mai uttered so many times in Ahsoka's short childhood came from her lips, but this time, with comfort. "Aron."
"So this," Aron whispered to Mai, "is what I've been waiting for." His face was filled with joy, but not enthusiastic joy. He solemnly glanced at Ahsoka and smiled at Mai, "This is our daughter?" Mai ignored the cold, stony voice, she ignored the lines that creased Aron's face. She barely noticed the particular hardness that entered his eyes as he gazed down at her.
"Yes." Mai spoke without hesitance. She gave a wry smile, "Her name is Ahsoka, but I should have called her Disaster." She smiled at the tiny figure, who didn't cower at her father's tall figure. Mai beckoned for Ahsoka to come and greet her father, but the child dug her feet into the ground and shook her head vehemently. "No!" She implored. She remained standing where she was, but she opened her eyes curiously to see what her parents would say.
"No?" Aron asked. Mai was surprised at the danger in his tone. She never expected her husband to be dangerous, or merely angry. He glared hatefully at the child, but only for a moment. His face relaxed into a strained smile. "Come here, Ahsoka." He said gruffly, kneeling stiffly.
"No!" Ahsoka repeated stoutly. Mai was surprised to see her child glaring at Aron angrily. Surprised, Mai walked over to Ahsoka and knelt so they were eye level, "Why not?" Ahsoka looked back at Mai as if she were stupid, "Bad." She said, adding to her vocabulary list. Mai was annoyed. Here was Ahsoka's father, a man that her young child had never even met, but still, all she would do was refuse to even walk over and treat him fairly? Mai took in a breath and held out her arms for Ahsoka to climb into. When Ahsoka stared at her arms like they were snakes, Mai felt anger flare again, but she reminded herself that Ahsoka was still little...eighteen months. Plus she was opinionated and feisty, especially for a girl of her age. Mai nodded, a mental message that meant 'Suit yourself.' and returned to Aron's side.
"She's little." Mai said softly, knowing that her words were hardly an apology, but a mere excuse. Aron grunted a wordless response and Mai looked into his deep blue eyes, bright as Ahsoka's, and asked, "What's happened to you, Aron? Are you all right?"
"Never better." Aron said, a thin trickle of warmth in his voice, "Let's go in, sweet one. I haven't see the house since..." His voice trailed off and he looked into Mai's eyes, "Since they tried to kill us."
Mai nodded and glanced at the toes of her boots, "Yeah, I know." How could I forget?
The moon formed a crescent and cast shadows over Ahsoka's small room. She looked out the window, worry obvious in her small blue eyes. Scared by the feelings of warning filling her stomach, she crawled over to the door and pushed with her small hands. She knew Aron was evil...she knew Aron hated her. Ahsoka didn't know why, she didn't really think about it. In her mind, there were no words, only pictures, of what were, what is, and sometimes, very occasionally, what might be. The what might be, to be put mildly, scared her. It wasn't normal that Ahsoka's thoughts at her age were a little advanced. Ahsoka knew that, too, because Mai didn't even feel what she felt. Her mother was a nervous person, but she took pleasure in small things. Ahsoka had gradually learned to enjoy that. She had even learned to enjoy the small reprimands she got because every time, Mai's eyes grew gentle as they passed over her daughter. Mai was like an angel to Ahsoka, always there. So far, Ahsoka's impression of her father was worse than a nekk battle dog's or the mysterious Akul that her people were said to hunt.
Ahsoka crept through the house. She paused suddenly when the unfamiliar thump, thump, thump came from Aron's heavy boots. Ahsoka wondered if he felt the same unease she felt, or rather if he was the whole cause of the ripples of nervousness crawling through her small body. She wasn't going to crawl up to him, expecting kindness, though. There was something about him that lead to a deep mistrust in her. Ahsoka listened to his footsteps nearing the stairwell. Cringing, Ahsoka began her brisk crawl again.
Ahsoka hurried out the door, and in the shadows of the dark, crawled out of the rusty gate and into the red and white grasses of Shilli, the reason her skin looked like fire and ice. Of course, Ahsoka barely knew that, barely acknowledged any of her thoughts. She just left. She stopped to look back at her home. In the milliseconds of happening, Ahsoka's home burst into flame. The girl never saw that happen, though, but she knew that if she had remained in her home, she would be dead. So, what about her mother? And what about Aron? Was he the one who tried to kill them, or was he the target?
Sorry 'bout the cliff hanger. I'll update soon!