Jakku

"W-what?" Rey said out loud. "Jakku?"

She spun in disoriented circles, but there was no sign of the door or the dark corridor. How?

Cool sand squeezed between her bare toes. She closed her eyes and took a deep, calming breath, trying to tame her mounting frustration. The Millennium Falcon was lost, countless light years away on a world without a name. Han Solo’s legacy. Chewies only home. A symbol of freedom for a generation of galactic citizens.

And she was still naked. Humiliatingly, degradingly naked. Whatever this creature was, this Zildrog, she would find it, and she would destroy it. But for now? Let go of your modesty, Rey.

She embraced the humiliation, leaned into it. She was a survivor, had been ever since her parents had abandoned her on Jakku. And survival on Jakku meant being in the right places and at the right times. She opened her eyes and ascended the tallest dune. There, she saw something on the horizon that made her smile.

Jakku's biome was a single, planetwide desert. **** awaited the conclusion of every poor decision. Luckily, Rey had turned up near where her journey had begun. On the horizon, she recognized the ship where she had once found an old Rebel helmet.

The position of the sun and smell of the sand told her it was early morning. This was good, and bad. Good, because if it had been much closer to noon, her feet would be a blistered mess long before she ever made it to the ship. Bad, because it gave her scant hours to cover the distance of an entire horizon before her feet were ruined anyway.

She juggled a few mental tricks she had been taught and guessed the distance at somewhere between five and fifteen miles. She hoped it was less than eight, she wouldn't make it in time otherwise.

Rey jogged. Within a few minutes she remembered why she liked her robes wrapped so tightly around her chest. Her breasts ached from the bounce, forcing her to grasp them with her hands, which impaired the efficiency of her stride. She had to slow because of the awkward motion.

The first hour went by, up and down the endless dunes. Rey lost precious time zig-zagging when the angle was too steep. Took time she didn't have realigning herself with the distant ship at every crest. Her legs and lungs burned. Blowing sand stuck to her sweat, irritating her thighs, clinging to her pubic hair. She had to slow even more.

The second hour was worse. She was **** to stop at the top of every dune to catch her breath. Sweat stung her eyes, she tasted it on her lips. A teasing torment serving only to stoke her growing thirst.

But the ship was closer. Much, much closer.

Don't let that trick you, Rey. It's a huge ship.

You won't make it this way.

A defiant breath. "I will."

The sun was higher, the sand hotter. One advantage she hadn't expected; Because the temperature of the sand only gradually increased, her skin had been able to cope and grow accustomed to the brutal heat. So far. She knew this wouldn't last.

Rey lost her footing near the top of an enormous dune and tumbled. At first, it did not hurt, the sand was so fine and soft. But as her descent accelerated she felt every impact like a Luggabeast's kick. Her back, her hip, her shoulder, bloomed in searing pain.

Rey lay at the base of the great dune, sand caked on her sweat-soaked skin. Every inch of her, pain.

I can't make it back up that, she thought.

No, you cannot.

"Why are you still taunting me?"

Such a small mind. I cannot feed on what is dead.

"Then tell me what to do!" she screamed, using the anger to pull herself upright.

Never before had she felt such exhaustion. Rey stumbled to her feet, watched her toes sink into the fine grains. An idea formed. An absurd, insane idea.

I made rocks float once before. This can't be that different. It's just a matter of scale.

Rey stretched her fingertips toward the sand. Her mind formed intent, tempered by discipline. The sand shifted, a tunnel forming. Deeper, until her concentration faltered at her excitement. The tunnel collapsed, but she was not discouraged. Far from it. She fell to her knees laughing and crying in triumph.

A deep inhalation through the nose. She smelled the sand baking in the heat. It was now or not at all.

She climbed back to her feet and stretched her fingers out. A tunnel formed in the sand, big enough to walk through standing up. Unafraid, she stepped into it's dark depths. She spared a thread of thought and darkness fell away, **** enhanced vision showing her the proper path. The inside of the dune was wonderfully cool. Rey inhaled a lungful of sandy, refreshing air.

She came out the other side into sweltering heat, but in the Jakku desert, there is very little distance between one dune and the next. In a dozen strides she was safely within the cool confines of her next tunnel.

Traveling through, rather than over or around, proved to be the faster route. When Rey finally entered the ship, she felt almost rejuvenated by her triumph, though the feeling passed quickly when she found a cool, dark corner to lay down in.

Her eyes closed, she slept.