OOM: AU Child! Ibani

[last_kallig]

The last few months have been even harder than usual, after the death of her mother figure. Perhaps grief made her weaker, more vulnerable to sickness, because she knows she's dangerously ill. She hadn't meant to wind up here, wherever here is, but it has shown up in the nick of time.

Ibani shivers against one of the walls of Milliways, her body wracked with fever and hunger both. She's somewhere between seven and ten, clothed in fabric with far too many holes in it, and wearing a slave shock collar around her neck. Her bones stand out too sharply against her skin, and her eyes are fever bright and darting around the room.

She's not sure if this is some dying hallucination, if she's gone mad, or if she truly HAS wound up somewhere utterly strange. Whatever this is, instinct and her body DEMAND food, fuel to fight the sickness that is killing her. Untrained in the Force, she's grasping on instinct for any energy it can give her.

Maybe, maybe if she gets close enough to one of the tables she can steal some food without anyone noticing. Yes, yes that's a good plan

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[last_kallig]

"Children are cheaper, can fit in smaller spaces, so we were bought for mining," Ibani explains. "There are a few grownups, to work the machines, but we gather the crystals. Everyone is in a collar, except the guards."

She fidgets, stabs another piece of breakfast. "I've never heard of any of us living long enough to be grownups."

[27_53]

Again, to his credit - and thanks to many, many years of practice at hiding his emotions, both 'inside' and 'out' - his reaction is minimal.

"Well," he says (once he trusts his voice to not betray what he is feeling) and shakes his head. "You will never wear a collar like that again, ever. You are free."

And if anyone disagrees who might walk through the Front Door in search of her, they will be met with a very angry Skellig with a grudge.

[last_kallig]

She can feel his protectiveness toward her, his concern for the children, his anger at the people running the operation.

"I know you wouldn't let them hurt me," she says, quiet. "But I feel...guilty, for being free."

[27_53]

"Time...moves strange, on our home worlds, while we are in this place. For me, while I am here it nearly pauses outside the Door, so that it is as if I never left. Perhaps once you are older, and stronger...you and I can go back out your door and get the rest of them out. I would help you to do that, if you wanted to."

Obviously she would have to recover greatly, and train herself and her powers.

"And I know others here who would not hesitate to join us to fight."

This is a very deep subject of conversation to be having with a child of her age, but he knows it is bothering her - he can see it in her posture, feel it in her energy, sense it with the sadness that reflects behind her eyes.

[last_kallig]

"Thank you. That, that means a lot," she says, quietly.

"Maybe that's why I found my way here, so I could save them." Even if they don't like her, even if some of them call her a freak.

[27_53]

She is not a freak. Skellig will shout that from the rafters of the bar, if he must.

"Maybe it is. When I first found myself here...I told you, I was very ill. I did not know where I was supposed to be, and after I recovered here for some time, I was able to return home and help others. I never truly understood why the Door showed up when it did, but I am grateful for it."

[last_kallig]

"Me too," she tells him. "Do you help people by healing them?"

[27_53]

"Most of the time."

Skellig nods slightly.

"Sometimes I do not have to heal people, but simply give them guidance," he adds. "Sometimes I am called to a place and I never seem to find the reason I felt pulled there, but I figure...even if I do not understand why, perhaps whatever was meant to happen did without me noticing it."

[last_kallig]

"Maybe I'm like you, just a little," she seems pleased at that thought. "I get...feelings that I'm supposed to go somewhere or do something that turn out to be right."

[27_53]

"You might be," he agrees. "Our energies are...different. They do not mix freely, when I try to listen to them...but they also do not fight, so I am taking that as a good sign, since you are to be under my wing."

Both physically and metaphorically.

[last_kallig]

Ibani can feel that she will be ill if she eats much more, so she stops.

"You'll keep me?" she asks, hopeful.

[27_53]

Without hesitation: "Absolutely."

[last_kallig]

"But, WHY?" She believes that he means it, she just doesn't get why he's turning his life upside down.

[27_53]

Shifting in the chair, he turns his to face her a little better, and reaches out for her hand.

"Because it is the right thing to do," he says, as if it is the most logical answer in the world. "I know it will not be easy, but I am not afraid of that."

He squeezes her hand lightly. "Because you are a child, you are a person, Ibani. A person who deserves to be treated with fairness and kindness, a person who is worthy of love and respect, and while that may not have happened before...I am going to change that."

[last_kallig]

"Because if you don't do the right thing, maybe no one ever will," she says, voice soft. She seems, in this moment, far older than her years.

[27_53]

Skellig knows that Ibani has already seen and experienced far more than any person should have to endure over a lifespan, crammed into several short years of existence. Horrors and torment that even he fears to try and imagine taking place.

"Right," he says. "You matter. You matter to me."

And if I were to do nothing, I do not know if I could live with myself.

[last_kallig]

She flushes, glances away, all kinds of emotions surging as she takes his hand. "You matter to me too, Skellig."

"I know I'm small, and fragile, but I'll watch your back."

[27_53]

"You may be small and fragile now," he corrects her gently. "But you will not stay that way. I am lucky to have such a strong and fierce companion to stand beside me."

He does not wish to make her uncomfortable, and he can tell that she is done for now with eating.

"Do you want to rest more? Let your body settle?"

Napping is always a good idea, even if the thought may be completely unknown and unheard of to her.

[last_kallig]

She's pleased at his calling her strong and fierce, puffing up a bit.

"Rest?" she asks, confused. "But, aren't there things that need to be done?"

[27_53]

He was prepared for this reaction from her.

"Well," he explains. "We will eventually need to clean up from breakfast. But typically when I am here in Milliways - that is what this place is called, I do not know if I told you that - I use the time to tend to things that need attention that I cannot while I am at home. A lot of the time...that is resting. Recovering. If I do not wish to spend time here in my room, I will sometimes go outside," he points at the balcony door. "And simply sit. Or I will go downstairs and walk outside. There are forests, and a lake, as well as a beach. But...there is no real work that needs done."

[last_kallig]

"A place to just....rest?" The idea seems alien. "And there's an outside?"

She seems most curious about that! "I've never seen a sky before," she tells him, excited. "I always wondered what they were like, didn't think I'd ever get to see one."

[27_53]

"You...you have never seen a sky before?"

Skellig cannot hide his reaction to that, as his face falls and his heart shatters in his chest.

How is that even possible? How is it that she has never seen the brilliant blue (or whatever colors skies are on her world) background endless and stretching to the horizons? Never seen clouds, never witnessed the rise and set of the sun(s) or moon(s)? Fog, rainbows, rain...she has never felt rain, before? Never felt a breeze rustle through her hair, never stood firm against a wind so fierce it threatened to knock her over where she stood?

Even when everything has gone wrong in Skellig's life, there has always been the sky, somewhere, to think about.

Heat burns in the back of his eyes and his vision blurs, voice going rough as he blinks away tears. This is not her fault. This is not something she should be ashamed of, feel guilty for.

"We will fix that," he says firmly. "After we clean up breakfast."

[last_kallig]

"They kept us underground," she says, voice quiet. "Inside the mine."

She leaps out of her chair, makes her way around the table to hug Skellig. She can FEEL his heartbreak.

[27_53]

The gravity of the entire situation hits him a little harder when she wraps her arms around him, and part of him realizes just how difficult this 'uphill' climb will be. But he is still up for the challenge, even if there will be moments like this one now.

"It hurts my heart," he says softly. "That you have never experienced getting to see the sky, that you were kept underground. But...that is not your fault. We can, we will fix that. And we will both heal, together."

[last_kallig]

"Yes, together," she agrees. Eventually, she lets go of him. "How do we clean up breakfast?"

Someone wants to see the sky!