Chapter Ten: Colors
Black.
The darkness offers safety. In the shadows, men fear to trek and sights fail to track.
The hunters hunt and the seekers seek. The children of Ryloth are removed from the pack.
The exotic prize, beings of purple, pink, and blue. Passed by hands from here to there, and there and back.
The Twi'lek buried by burdens. Women under the lustful gaze, men under the whip's crack.
Blue.
The child finds solace in the shadows. They offer safety for the boy with no family, no home to return to.
The darkness knows no masters. The child moves within it, the clans and their slavers holding nary a clue.
The boy is alone. No friends nor enemies. Forever unnoticed, nothing is owed, nothing is due.
The days are long. The nights longer. The child runs and hides, plotting his next moments hidden from view.
Red.
The coated stranger arrives on Ryloth, searching amongst shadows with neither fear nor dread.
The two meet amidst the darkness, the boy standing his ground when he thought to have fled.
The Sith speaks of the Twi'lek's gift, his potential, and all that needed to be said.
The tears to be shed. The fluids to be bled. The ever-present threat to become one with the dead.
The most important prospect, however, to rattle the boy's head, was the future gift of his very own bed.
With the aspect of knowledge and power and the promise to be free, Ryloh was heading for the Academy.