[IC] Annabelle's Task

[Joslae]

Days 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10

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The young Alderaanian girl had gotten the hang of it after the fifth day. She knew how to balance the rocks on her head and was getting more and more numb to their ever increasing weight. Her neck and shoulder muscles were still incredibly tensed up, but she had long since passed the point where it appeared to hurt. What did change dramatically was her attitude. No longer did she start day with talking to the camera. She didn’t do much talking at all, in fact. Perhaps she had realized that whatever concentration she could muster should go to the exercise instead of her ill-conceived one-man stand-up comedy show.

The routine for the rest of the week was clear cut: Get up, exercise, eat, exercise, eat, exercise and finally sleep. On some days, she would spent eight straight hours balancing the rocks on her head and only giving herself minimal breaks. Her food regimen could be called meager at best and downright starvation-inducing at worst. By the seventh day, her abdominal muscles became more defined than they had ever been before, which came at the cost of her cheeks becoming ever more hollow. It would not take much to see that the girl was destroying her own body for the purposes of completing the exercise. In spite of this, Natellia didn’t complain. Not even once. The only time she would make her voice heard, in all of its monotony, was when she was reciting the sith code. Even there, she lost all enthusiasm. Who could blame her? For the past week, she had been doing the same thing over and over again. Her entire scalp was red and sensitive from the rocks, her hair was roughed up and dirty, and her skin looked dry as anything. This reached a peak at the ninth day and by the last day, day ten, she had developed small wounds on her arms and legs that had gotten covered with sand and gunk. It was a small miracle that she hadn’t gotten sick.

Day ten was perhaps the oddest day of them all. Natellia knew the end was in sight, but her efforts in preparation were nearly doubled. By the time she properly sat down to do the recital, she looked like a shell of herself. That made the fact that she managed to stack ten similarly shaped rocks on her head all the more impressive. She did that without so much as a drop of sweat rolling down her cheek. Had she finally found the perfect balance? How she got to that point mattered little. She had to finish, right here and now. The recorder was activated and Annabelle’s voice began calling out the word ‘jedi’ for a final few times.

‘’Peace is a lie, there is only passion… through passion, I gain strength… through strength, I gain power… through power, I gain victory… through victory, my chains are broken… the force shall free me…’’

Then… Nothing. The exercise was over. She had successfully completed the task Annabelle had given her and she could not even muster the energy to smile. Yet, it was the twinkle in her eyes that showed how much happiness and pride she felt. The stones that she had stacked on her head gently floated back to the ground. Natellia herself would rise to her feet moments after. In an almost disoriented state, she began gathering her things and packing her bags. Her knees buckled quite a bit and she even fell over several times. Though, she certainly wasn’t planning to have a regular cleaning chore be the death of her. Finally, once she finished, she took hold of her communication device. She sent a message to Annabelle:

‘’It is done’’