Author's Notes: Over on the Jedi Council fanfic forum, the fourth annual Kessel Run challenge just started. To quote from its official thread: "We all know that Han and Chewie made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs, so in honor of that achievement, you will complete eleven writing prompts spread out over twelve weeks. Ten of these prompts will be secret prompts – you won't know what they are in advance, and once they're posted, you'll have one week to write and post your fic. Given the time limits involved, most of these prompts will have a word range of 100 to 1,000 words. There will also be one longer prompt for a 2,000 word vignette. This prompt will be revealed at the very beginning of the challenge, and you'll have the whole twelve weeks to write it."
As with the three earlier Kessel Runs, this story will not be a cohesive narrative, but rather a collection of individual bite-size vignettes set in my Renewal!verse. Since I don't know what the prompts will be in advance, the stories may be all over the place as far as genre, characters, and timeline, but they'll feature a mix of Luke Skywalker, Mara Jade, the extended Jade family (OCs), and very possibly the Solo family and other established and original characters. Title and summary come from Sleeping At Last's song North; thank you to Mira-Jade and Viari for the respective suggestions.
If you're new to the Renewal!verse, I do really recommend reading Renewal first. That said, I've tried to make each story in this 'verse work on its own as well, and will mention any previous installments that might be necessary to understand anything in this collection. If you haven't read Renewal, here's a quick summary to help set the scene:
When Palpatine took Mara from her family, her parents, Ronan and Nadira Jade, survived despite Palpatine ordering their execution. They spent years on the run out of fear that Palpatine might be searching for them, during which time they had two more children, Nico and Corissa. They reached out to Mara approximately six months after The Last Command, after seeing mentions of her in news reports about the new Smugglers' Alliance and its liaison. Now Mara faces the challenges and rewards of reuniting with the family she never knew.
The rest of the Renewal!verse so far:
Renewal
Fragments of Jade
Fractured
The Story So Far
And They Danced
From the Ground Up
Goes On and On
Bloom
Week One Challenge: Write a story between 100 and 1,000 words that ends with this sentence: "For the first time in her life, she felt powerful."
Lost and Found (Skywalker family; 22 ABY)
The world, it turned out, was far bigger than she'd imagined.
She wandered through the towering greenery, only becoming more and more lost and feeling smaller and smaller, until finally, overcome, she huddled under a bush and called for help as loudly as she could.
Someone heard.
Above her the leaves parted, and a face appeared, blue eyes wide. Hands reached down, lifting her, and she clung tight to her rescuer and wailed some more, this time in relief. "Don't cry," the girl told her, holding her close. "You're safe." There was something about the girl that inspired trust, and she relaxed in her rescuer's careful grip—though she still held on tight, just in case.
The girl carried her into a huge unfamiliar box-cave-thing, calling out as she did so. "Mom! Dad! Look what I found!"
Another voice, and she looked over the girl's arms to see the speaker. "Nakari, don't yell. Mom just got Ben to sleep." The new person—who had blue eyes very like her girl's—came close and peered down at her. "Oh, look at that."
"Look at what?" Another new person had appeared—this one with sunset-colored fur on her head—with an even smaller girl than her own following behind, and the girl held her out for inspection. She held on even tighter to the girl's sleeve, uncertain.
"A KITTY," the smaller girl shrieked, and Her Girl pulled her back and held her close.
"Don't scare her, Kaela," Her Girl scolded.
"And everyone stop yelling," Sunset Fur said. "If anyone wakes Ben up before I have time to eat something, I swear—"
"But Mom," Her Girl said. "Look."
Sunset Fur leaned over to do so, and their eyes met. "Let me see her," Sunset Fur said, and Her Girl lifted her toward Sunset Fur, who took her. Her first instinct was to reach back for Her Girl, but Sunset Fur's hands were soft as she inspected her, then let her fingers pause to rub at the base of her ears. "No injuries that I can see. She's so little, though." The ear rubs felt good, and she began to purr.
"We'll have to see if her mother and littermates are still around," Blue Eyes said, also leaning in.
"I am not having a menagerie in this house," Sunset Fur said firmly, though the fingers were still rubbing her ears. "That's Leia's thing."
"But we can keep this one, can't we, Mom?" Her Girl's voice was pleading, as though she expected a refusal, but Sunset Fur's grasp was gentle and kind. Content, she closed her eyes and purred louder.
"We have to keep her," Smaller Girl said, almost whispering now. "Mommy, please."
"How did I wind up being the one to make this decision?" Sunset Fur asked. Though she felt secure now, she nevertheless opened her eyes to look up at Sunset Fur, letting loose a single mew amidst the purrs. "Oh, that's playing dirty," Sunset Fur told her.
"She's just lost and needs a family, Mara," Blue Eyes said, reaching out a single finger to rub under her chin. She leaned into the caress. "Like someone else I could mention once was."
"Don't you start," Sunset Fur said, and sighed. "Fine."
"Yay!" Smaller Girl whisper-shouted, and Her Girl bounced excitedly on her toes.
"I guess I'm off to a pet store to buy cat supplies," Blue Eyes said, giving her chin a final rub.
"She needs food," Her Girl told him.
"Toys," Smaller Girl said.
"Litter box," Sunset Fur said with another sigh. "We're not putting such a little thing back outside."
"Nakari," Blue Eyes said, "call Jacen and tell him where you found her, please. Ask him to look around for her family."
"If he finds them, he's adopting them, not us," Sunset Fur insisted.
"If he finds them, we could take one more," Blue Eyes said. "She could use a friend."
"Luke—"
"She can't be lonely, Mom," Her Girl protested.
"Families stick together, Mommy," Smaller Girl agreed. "You always say that."
She looked up at Sunset Fur and mewed again. This was a good place, safe and warm. The others would like it too.
"This is getting entirely out of hand," Sunset Fur said firmly. "For right now we have one kitten, and that's what we'll deal with." She found herself handed back to Her Girl while Sunset Fur continued speaking. "Nakari, Kaela, you take care of her—gently—while I find something for her to eat until Dad gets back with food."
"We can play with her," Smaller Girl said, rummaging in her pocket and coming up with something long and mysterious. "Like this." She held one end and let the other dangle enticingly along the floor.
"Kaela, that's one of your good hair ribbons," Sunset Fur began, but the ribbon-thing wiggled like a bug, or a sister-tail, and she could no longer resist. She squirmed until Her Girl set her down on the floor, then reared up to bring her full weight down toward the ribbon. Smaller Girl yanked it away, giggling.
"I have an idea," Blue Eyes said. Much to her dismay, he took the ribbon from Smaller Girl, handing it to Sunset Fur and reaching toward something up high, past where she could see. His hand came back with a pale flat thing that crinkled, and her ears perked as he crunched it up and handed it to Smaller Girl. "You can roll this on the floor like a ball. Maybe she'll chase it."
"She could use the pouncing practice," Sunset Fur murmured, pocketing the ribbon.
"She's just a baby, Mara," Blue Eyes said, his voice warm with amusement. "She'll get there."
"Like this," Her Girl was saying to Smaller Girl, crouching down to roll the crunchy ball past her. It bounced and crinkled, and Her People were safe and kind, and she was happy now, and brave. She pounced, pleased to find the crunchy ball between her paws, just as it should be. For the first time in her life, she felt powerful.