The Journey Only Just Begun (Tayel/Juraan)

[Juraan Ren]

Juraan Ren (16 years old)
[Bajor - Hedrikspool Province - Abihl Resistance Cell Hideout - Year 2366]

Juraan sat on the cold and hard ground of the underground cave, knees tucked up to his chest. In his hand he held a phaser, he'd been inspecting it to familiarize himself more with the weapon. But his gaze lingered somewhere else. Absent-mindedly he stared at a random spot in the distance.

It hadn't even been a full day since he had managed to escape from the labor camp in Batal. He had been lucky. The Cardassian guards had not even been close to catch him. His luck had been his father's death sentence. At least Juraan kept believing it was that way. Maybe he had been too careless. Maybe he had made a mistake without realizing it. Whatever it had been, something had alarmed the guards and four of the group had been caught. His father among them. Only Juraan and a girl around his age named Taimo had been able to make it. Even while they were still running, trying to escape in the hills that surrounded the camp, Juraan had heard the disruptor fire. He had stopped and turned his head just in time to see his father dropping to the ground dead from his elevated position.

Juraan remembered how he had been stopped rooted to the ground by the shock. Taimo had to drag him along so they wouldn't get caught.

After hours of running and hiding they had been picked up from Bajoran resistance fighters and brought here. Juraan had been fallen asleep for a few hours soon and now he was just as awake to process all that happened. Well, he tried, that was.

The Abihl resistance cell was rather small in comparison. Only seven Bajorans belonged to it including Juraan and Taimo. But maybe that was because it only had formed not too long ago. Juraan hadn't spoken to everyone here yet but his attention was very much on a Bajoran with clear Cardassian features. He didn't know his name. He didn't know anything about him. He barely did about anyone here. But the sight disturbed him somewhat.

[Hebrin Relar]

Hebrin Tayel (16 years old)
[ Bajor - Hedrikspool Province - Abihl Resistance Cell Hideout - Year 2366 ]

They'd taken in some refugees.  A girl, and a boy his age.  People you could call lucky, for they'd managed to escape the torture that were the labor camps.  It had been about four years since Tayel himself had been freed; they'd liberated the camp he was a part of.

His mother, his poor mother, was still, somewhere, being forced to serve as a 'comfort woman'.  Tayel had pledged to himself to free her.

He had his own phaser now; a Bajoran phaser.  The one he'd stolen from the Cardassians had since worn out.  He was useful to the cell, or at least he liked to think so.  If they put putty on his nose, straightened his hair, and put him into a Cardassian soldier's uniform, he could fool at least some of them.  The officers, however, seemed to know their people by face and name.

And he knew just what the Cardassian eidetic memory was like.

Right now, he was himself.  He hated his face.  He hated being part-Cardassian.  For he hated every Cardassian with an intense loathing...and he hated the lull in between missions.  He wanted to spill Cardassian blood, free Bajoran peoples, help drive the scaled bastards out of his homeland.

He felt a sharp sting on his back, and stood up, pulling off his shirt.  A bug.  He crushed it, and felt the sting.  Nothing to waste a dermal re-generator on, really.  He'd live.  He began to pull his shirt back on, unaware that eyes were upon him.

[Juraan Ren]

Juraan Ren (16 years old)
[Bajor - Hedrikspool Province - Abihl Resistance Cell Hideout - Year 2366]

Juraan told himself not to stare. But he couldn't help it. He tried to figure out why someone like him would be allowed here. The only reason he could think of was that the boy was the result of a non-consent connection of a Cardassian and a Bajoran. He had heard of rumors of so called 'comfort women' throughout the camp but none of the fellow Bajorans had been ready to explain to him what it was about. He had hated to be treated like a little child. Though he figured as much.

Juraan stared at the boy a little longer when he noticed the boy shifting and pulling of his shirt with what looked like mild discomfort on his face. He saw him crushing an insect or something like that, probably vermin of some kind. He knew that all too well.

Getting up from his crouched position on the floor he walked over to the small fire place. He mixed some of the herbs that were there to make tea of them but he soaked them in water and made a paste of it. With the small jar he walked over to the half-breed.

"Here", he said unceremoniously, showing him the paste in the jar. "My father is a doctor- ... I mean ... he was a doctor." Juraan looked down, swallowing a lump in his throat. "Uh ... that will help the itching and burning." He said, barely making eye contact with the other boy.

Waiting for a reaction he stood there, ready to help him applying it depending on his reply.

[Hebrin Relar]

Hebrin Tayel (16 years old)
[ Bajor - Hedrikspool Province - Abihl Resistance Cell Hideout - Year 2366 ]

The people in this Resistance Cell had always been so kind with Tayel.  Always been so understanding.  Despite his mixed heritage, despite him bearing the face of a spoonhead, they cared about him; he was one of their own.  The bite of an insect was hardly anything dire–at least in this case–but it was the thought that counted, and he would gladly accept the other boy's help.

He felt sorry about the boy's father, too.  He wondered about his mother, himself.

"Thank you," he replied, graciously accepting the paste, and removing his shirt once again so that he could apply it.  He could understand how nervous the other boy looked around him.  "You're the one who escaped the labor camp, aren't you?" he asked.

"I hope we can liberate the rest of the people there someday," he added solemnly.
"I'm Hebrin, by the way."

[Juraan Ren]

Juraan Ren (16 years old)
[Bajor - Hedrikspool Province - Abihl Resistance Cell Hideout - Year 2366]

Juraan watched the other boy closey as he removed his tshirt once more, not quite sure yet if he should be repulsed, curious or sympathetic. When he thanked him Juraan moved closer and started to apply some of the paste to the bug bite like he had seen his father doing so many times. It should soothe any itching or burning.

"Yes", Juraan replied faintly before he moved around the other boy again, setting the small jar down on the uneven stony ground, then lifted his gaze to look at the other. Look in those features that made him so furious. He swallowed the lump of anger, sadness and desperation down as he moved to sit and lean against the cold wall next to Tayel. "I'm Ren", he replied quietly. "Juraan Ren."

His gaze dropped from the half-breed's face, as if too heavy for him to keep it upwards any longer. "Why do you look like this?", he asked out of the blue as he glanced back at him.

[Hebrin Relar]

Hebrin Tayel (16 years old)
[ Bajor - Hedrikspool Province - Abihl Resistance Cell Hideout - Year 2366 ]

Tayel hated how the scales continued along his chest and his back.  There was a teardrop shape in the indentation between his pectorals as well.  Every time he looked down at himself, he was reminded of Cardassians.

Because he had the blood of one.

He was jealous of the other Bajoran, for being fully Bajoran.  For not being a freak like himself.  [spoiler]Sometimes, he wished his mother had been merciful; had drowned him when he was a child.[/spoiler]  At least this way, though, he could kill more Cardassians.  He was surprised Juraan would give his personal name, too, and ask to be referred by it.  Wasn't that usually reserved for family and close friends?

He asked why Tayel looked like he did, and it didn't take long for him to realise what Juraan meant.  "Part Cardassian?  You can blame the spoonheads for that.  They can't resist taking what they want by force," he said with disgust, then clarified, [spoiler]"A Cardassian officer raped my mother...."[/spoiler]

[Juraan Ren]

Juraan Ren (16 years old)
[Bajor - Hedrikspool Province - Abihl Resistance Cell Hideout - Year 2366]

At Tayel's words Juraan felt his stomach churn. His fist clenched just like his jaw as his he furled his eyebrows. There was a mix of emotions inside him. Part of him was repulsed by the sight of their oppressor's features on the boy's body. But there was also sympathy. He knew his own mother probably had endured a similar fate. And had died in the end.

Juraan swallowed down a lump of anger and desperation as he looked down, lost for words for the moment. Lifting his eyes back up to the scale framed eyes of the other he asked. "Where are your parents?"

[Hebrin Relar]

[ Bajor - Hedrikspool Province - Abihl Resistance Cell Hideout - Year 2366 ]

Tayel could completely understand Juraan's anger.  He felt it too.  He felt such hatred whenever he looked in the mirror; the face of the man who had used his mother.  Whoever that man might be, wherever he might be.

He deserved worse than death.  All of the Cardassians did.

He frowned.  "I was taken from my mother, to the labor camp," he said.  "The last I heard...she was taken to Terok Nor."  No doubt to be forced into serving more Cardassian scum.

"As for my father, if I knew, he'd wish I didn't know..."  His tone was cold.  He wanted that monster killed.

[Juraan Ren]

Juraan Ren (16 years old)
[Bajor - Hedrikspool Province - Abihl Resistance Cell Hideout - Year 2366]

Juraan realized his mistake too late when he asked after Tayel's parents, although he had just learned he was the product of a forced connection, unwanted by his mother. He winced and looked down, but Tayel seemed to be friendly enough to ignore his mishap.

The young Bajoran glanced over to the half breed in thought. "How did you escape on your own?" There was a hint of admiration and disbelief in his voice. He doubted he could have escaped alone.