“Anda akan kembali ketika anda siap. You will return when it is time, Tali.” Her father’s voice had been smooth and sickly sweet as he brushed his lips across her black cheek, seeking to soothe and calm her as they looked at the waves that crashed across the coast of their country. The shore was far, far away from where their colony had been situated- in a place where there were trees and greenery enough to feed them, and water that trickled straight through the land. A shallow river. “Just go, Tali. Anda harus pergi. You have to.”

With a flick of his head, his teeth are set into her neck, and she is off into the waves with a squeal, disappearing into the froth of the ocean and leaving her home behind without a second glance.

Her pilgrimage had started when she was only just weaned. Barely independent from her mother’s teat, and she was being battered and beaten around the waves. Sometime later, she had grown to be beautiful and black-skinned, landing up on the dusty and sandy coast of a far away land… but it looked so familiar. With the water dripping away from her skin, she wanders through the dusty terrain of this land, watching as the dunes waved at her, bringing a soft smile to her lips as she felt at home in this foreign and strange place.

“Di mana aku berada?” Where have I been? She mutters quietly to herself in her native tongue. Ah, there was something strange and foreign about Tali’Zorah, for she was beautifully built- lean and handsome. Sporting her mother’s pretty face, lined with a fine and delicate strip of white, the rest of her (save the smallest tip of a leg) was the most flawless ebony black. She was a strangely well educated creature, having learnt all the languages of the world that came back to her home with her brothers and sisters. There were so many words that she had loved. Bosheit. Malice; it sounded pretty, the way she said it. Amore. Love; so strong and ancient sounding in that foreign tongue, but it sounded so weak and delicate when she mentioned it in her own tongue, or in the language that everyone seemed to understand.

Wandering up across the edges of the dunes, her hooves find the edge of the sandy ridges almost expertly. That smile slowly growing across her black lips, she moves deeper into the terrain, relishing the warmth of the sun as it presses against her dark skin.

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