Read The Force Awakens (Star Wars) for Free Online

she reflected. The sun going down. Tomorrowmorning, the sun coming up. And so on to another day, not unlike its predecessor and the interminably repetitive ones that had gone before.
    She tried to think of something else—something that had changed,something that seemed different—if only to keep her mind from atrophying. But there was nothing. Nothing new. Certainly nothing to daydream about. On Jakku, things never changed.
    There
was
that occasional mention in the market of a rising new power in the galaxy. An organization that called itself “The First Order.” Determined, relentless. Nobody seemed to know much else about it. Not something to worry about here, she knew. Whatever it was, whatever it represented, it wouldn’t come to this backward, out-of-the-way world. Nobody came to Jakku.
    She was alone.
    Somethingsquealed that was not shifting sand.
    Rising quickly, she removed the helmet. The sound could not have come from within its long-dead electronics. Even as she inspected the headpiece, the noise was repeated. A hysterical, panicked beeping. Whirling, she ran back into the dwelling and emerged a moment later clutching her staff. The beeping was sounding continuously now, no less frantic for itsfrequency.
    Reaching the top of a nearby dune, she found herself gazing down at a sight as curious as it was unexpected. Trapped in a net of local organic material, a small spherical droid was attempting to escape its prison, an effort rendered extremely difficult by the fearful mechanical’s total absence of limbs. Mounted atop a squat, four-footed, square-helmeted luggabeast, a native Teedowas struggling to constrain and reel in the legless but overactive and insubordinate droid.
    When uncertain as to anything taking place on Jakku, Rey knew, it was always reasonable to assume that something untoward was happening. At least until she understood the particulars of the confrontation she was witnessing, it was only right to call it to a momentary halt.
    “Tal’ama parqual!”
    Motion ceased as both the Teedo and BB-8 stopped wrestling and turned to peer up at her.
    “Parqual! Zatana tappan-aboo!”
    Making an effort to simultaneously control both its heavy-headed mount and its captive, the Teedo yelled back through the mouthpieceof the goggle-eyed helmet that covered its reptilian cranium. Its attitude was decidedly unconciliatory, even threatening. Meanwhile thehovering head of the imprisoned droid swiveled rapidly back and forth, trying to watch both Teedo and human simultaneously.
    Rey immediately took offense, not only at the Teedo’s tone, but at its speech, which far exceeded the bounds of common courtesy that existed between fellow desert-dwellers and made difficult coexistence possible. The luggabeast rider knew better, and its intemperate wordswere enough to decide her on a course of action. Descending the far side of the dune, she drew her knife and began hacking at the netting.
    “Namago!”
she growled.
“Ta bana contoqual!”
    Observing that it was on the verge of losing its prize, the Teedo unleashed a stream of indigenous invective. None of it had the slightest effect on Rey, who continued cutting away at the mesh until the nativepromulgated a slur that would have been vile in any language. Pausing in her work, she turned to face the tightly clothed creature, gesturing with her knife and fairly spitting a reply.
    “
Noma. Ano tamata, zatana.”
    Long and drawn out, the Teedo’s response to this would have been unprintable on any of a hundred civilized worlds. Turning the metal-enclosed head of its mount, the unpleasantscavenger departed in the opposite direction. As soon as the native was a safe distance away, BB-8 rolled clear of the netting and began beeping loudly and challengingly in its direction.
    “Shhh,” Rey hastened to quiet the droid. “Don’t tempt it. Enough insults can override anyone’s common sense, even a Teedo’s.” BB-8 instantly went silent. Together, the two of them