And The Memories Were Lost So Long Ago

Brow furrowing, Tyssa leant on her makeshift rake as she glanced up at the crimson sky where the two suns circled each other in a seeming dance of desire, never near enough to touch, but always in each other's orbit.

"Storm is a-comin'," Jaxra said dourly, his lone eye following the path of her stare.

"You don't say," Tyssa said sarcastically, before resuming digging her row.

"I do say."

"Well, good thing Goj and Lika got the greenhouse finally finished," Tyssa said, straightening up, "but you better tell them to chuck some tarp over it."

"Why don't you?"

"Why don't you?"

"Why don't you try and make me, Tyssa Myor?" Jaxra challenged, stabbing his hoe into the purple earth, before crossing his arms over his chest. "I am due a laugh. Need it for my health."

Tyssa eyed Jaxra's broad girth and thought better of it. Nobody in their right mind would take on a seven foot Pothian who weighed at least twenty stone. "Fine, I'll do it," she snapped, dragging the back of her hand across her forehead, "if you finish up the digging, that is."

Jaxra ran a paw over the strip of orange fur lining the centre of his bald skull. "Who is boss around here?" he asked with a frown. "Me or you?"

Tyssa pretended to ponder this. "You?" she hazarded, playing along.

"Precisely."

Tyssa rolled her eyes before setting her rake aside. "I'm going now, boss," she drawled, wiping her palms on the back of her patched trousers, the grime too engrained in her skin for much else.

"You go," Jaxra said, yanking the hoe out of the ground with a grunt.

Whistling, Tyssa set off for the greenhouse at the back of the croft, high-fiving Lopa as she went past, the other girl winking in return. The croft was a ramshackle building composed of hope, tin and mortar, sheltering the strays that came and went, working the land to pay their way. Tyssa was one such wanderer, and so far Hedda had become the planet she had lingered longest upon despite the broiling heat of its two suns. Jaxra drove his workers hard but if you played fair, he'd pay fair. But there was a reason he ran his various businesses in the backwaters, the farm one of many pots he had his paw in, and he didn't ask questions as long as you didn't, showing a discretion the dissolute more than appreciated.

Tyssa rounded the side of the croft, dodging a water-butt as she did, only for her hip to hit it, nearly knocking it over. Cursing, she caught it just in time, splattering purple droplets of rainwater everywhere. Striding on, she cast a glance over the various plots and patches scattered haphazardly here and there, all experiments she had sweet-talked Jaxra into embarking upon. The greenhouse had been her doing as well, a nugget of an idea she had nursed for years, and with winter coming, it had been the perfect time to put her plan into practice.

Tyssa's people had been farmers for generations, barely scratching an existence out of the acrid earth, but a love of the land ran strong through Tyssa's veins, and she ached to own her own homestead, so she could create and nurture to her heart's content. As it was, she had to further her dreams thirdhand, arguing Jaxra into undertaking her suggestions. So far there had been more successes than failures, and so he had reluctantly agreed to the construction of a greenhouse, Tyssa envisioning it as just the first of many, producing yield after yield of exotic fruit.

Jaxra's main agricultural enterprise was choklat, a hard-shelled nut that when cut open, revealed a dark, thick, sweet-tasting liquescent inside. The liquescent was especially prized in the use of making sweetmeats, and used in a variety of ways, being fermented, baked and moulded into fantastic concoctions and creations. The humid heat of Hedda made it ideal for cultivating a large choklat crop, and equinox after equinox, Jaxra made a highly profitable return on it. Choklat was much sought by the upper class denizens scattered across the universe, and the high demand for it paid the extortionate taxes exacted by the New Republic.

But for all of Tyssa's agrarian aspirations, the rundown farm was merely a front, Jaxra using it as a base for orchestrating various rackets, the latest being an illegal teresco operation. Teresco was a banned opiate substance, and punishment ranged from transportation to death but many risked it for the huge monetary returns. Being of a canny business disposition, which was a common Pothian characteristic of the mercantile class he originally came from, Jaxra had constructed a profitable pretence to conceal an even more profitable con, meaning he could have the best of both worlds, much to his financial benefit.

Exhaling sharply, Tyssa suddenly slowed to a stop, the sight of the new greenhouse with its shining aqua glass panels inexplicably depressing her. Beyond it lay acres and acres of shining jade fields, the horizon hiding whatever awaited them all. She had always told herself not to get attached, but that was precisely what she had done, putting down roots that would only end up getting ripped out again.

And so maybe my home isn't what I had known
What I thought it would be...