(Star Wars) Laika & Arlaud Book 1 - Lady Sahshin's Sepulchre
Copyright© 2026 by Clee Hill
Chapter 7
And this morning, too, Laika sighed, unsurprised and even a little impressed that yet again Arlaud had managed to get up and out of their bed - not Laika’s; theirs, now - and start the day without waking her. This was all the more impressive given that, even though, alone on their ship in hyperspace there really were no threats to worry her, but Laika was habitually an alert sleeper, awake at a moment’s notice if she sensed anything potentially awry, either around her or through her passive Force awareness. Arlaud, on the other hand, could hide herself so well that she could come and go as she wished, it seemed, at least when it was just herself and the droids.
The droids.
How had she avoided them in the first place? Was she avoiding them again, now, or were they deferring to her freedom of movement? She knew what Arlaud had told her, but she hadn’t had time to test hiding from them for herself yet. Or even very successfully hiding from Arlaud. Teacher? Student? Both.
Checking the time and seeing it was just before 6am, Laika got up from her bed - hers when only she was in it? - and quickly dressed in her exercise gear. “S1? Where is she?”
“Hydan is in Cargo Bay Two, Captain.”
“What’s she doing?”
“She appears dancing, Captain.”
“Politely, let her know I’m on my way.”
“Acknowledged, Captain,” S1’s disembodied voice confirmed as Laika took a detour to the head before joining her slightly wayward young friend, the door into the Cargo Bay opening to reveal Arlaud, in her own exercise gear, tan and black detailing compared to Laika’s own, black with scarlet embroidery. She was standing there in the middle of the room, now in silence, breathing a little hard, sweating a little, and grinning.
“Hi!”
“Hello yourself—”
“—I’m fine,” Arlaud beamed, answering the unasked question of how she might be feeling this morning after last night. “Mostly. Bit, you know, sorry for what happened.”
“No need to feel sorry, gilus.”
“Yeah but you were really, you know, ‘ready’,” she said, smiling cautiously.
“That’s not so difficult with a cute blonde asking you to feel her up a little.”
“I know but—”
—Laika was shaking her head. “But nothing. Last night was ... a dress rehearsal,” she said, proud of finding a metaphor from Arlaud’s world.
“Wow, you have nekkid dress rehearsals too?” she asked, her smile more confident now.
“With you? Any time I can. Now, what were you sneaking down here for so early in the morning?”
“Oh. You want to try?” Arlaud asked, stretching her arms a little, one guiding the other as she twisted at her waist a little too.
“Try what? I thought we were doing exercises and stretching?” Laika said as she stepped inside, the door shushing closed behind her.
“I was, but these were more ‘dancer-ish’. You can try too, if you want.”
“Arlaud? How long have you been down here exercising already?”
Arlaud hastily checked the clock over the doorway. “Almost an hour. Snuck out, head, dress, and down here.”
“And you’re ready for another hour or so?”
“Yep.”
Laika shook her head. “I know you’ve said you used to exercise and drill a lot, as well as the dancing, but how much did you do, per day, in total?”
“Three exercise periods and up to six shows, depending, so, haha, about nine or ten hours a day. Every day.”
“Imu qui!” Laika said, shaking her head as she realised how it was that the younger woman was so toned and so flexible if she were exercising that much every day.
“Imu-who?” Arlaud giggled.
“It’s from my world. It’s not very polite. In this case it means extreme surprise and impressiveness.”
“Wow. That for me or what I can do?”
“Both,” Laika chuckled.
“And that’s how not polite?”
“My father would not approve though he would know what it meant; my mother would be cross for me saying it but wouldn’t have a problem in this case.”
“Imu ... qui... ? Got it. So you don’t exercise that much?”
“Between one and two hours a day.”
“Mostly fighty things?”
“Mostly fighty things.”
“You want to do this instead?”
Laika shook her head. “I like the alternating, combat exercises one day, general exercises and your stretching exercises the next, and we did the combat work yesterday.”
“Oh. That’s okay, I can do my stretching again.”
“You’ve already done that too?”
“Again...” Arlaud said, waiting and watching as Laika realised how, if she had sneaked out early, she had probably done an almost full session of that before exercising with her, or cooking breakfast, or both.
“I see. And the dancing?”
“Huh? Who told on me?”
“S1. I asked them where you were, and they added the detail of what to where.”
“Oh. Yeah. I was missing it, so I thought, down here, lots of space, that would make an ideal studio. I asked S1 to find me something fast paced and kinetic, and just went with it. Flowing, not following any planned steps or anything like that.”
“Would you like to show me? Teach me something?”
“For real?” Arlaud grinned, clearly delighted at the chance to do exactly that.
Laika nodded. “I had been trying to think of a way to ask you to let me see you dance without...”
“Reminding me where I came from? It’s okay. I can’t change it, and I won’t stop dancing because of it. I love how I feel when I get really lost in it. Don’t know if I can teach you that, though,” she explained, happy to be letting Laika into her world, just a little.
“I wonder how close that is to when I do my forms and stances? I don’t really care for shadow fighting, but there are times when I connect several positions into a chain and it can become very fluid at times.”
“Deal!” Arlaud laughed. “I’ll show you mine and you can show me yours?”
“Deal. So. How do I begin?”
“How good is your counting? For steps and beats, I mean?”
“I’m not sure I have ever tried.”
“Ever danced?”
“I have, though mostly formal dances at my father’s palace—”
“—Palace? Your father lives in a palace?”
Laika smiled. “Not when he can avoid it. He has a private residence in the city, a smaller residence in the forest to the west of the capital, and he has a suite of rooms in the palace where my uncle lives.”
“So your uncle is the King?!”
“He is.”
“Imu qui!” Arlaud laughed, Laika smiling to have her own words quoted back at her, even if her father would not have openly approved. “Okay. So these dances you know? How fast are they?”
“Processional.”
“Ah. Any others?”
“A few but not many. I was more of a visitor there.”
“And your mother? Was there any dancing there?”
“There was some, but it was either to perform part of a play, or ceremonial, though her ceremonies were a lot different to my father’s.”
“Oh? Why? Wasn’t she a High Priestess?”
“She is, but her ceremonies are more ... orgiastic.”
“Ooh! So, haha, free-form?”
Laika chuckled. “Very ‘free’ form but many of them were also ceremonial, ways of strengthening one’s grasp of the Force, or ways of connecting a congregation, at last for a little while.”
“Wow. They sound amazing too.”
“They were, so yes, I know a few dance steps, but no, they are none of them ever very swiftly performed. Your dances were ... different?”
“In the shows, it was all show your tiddies and a bit ‘writhey’, but the dances between those, they were more flowing but never, hah, stately,” she said, pausing a moment, Laika sensing the memories flooding through her mind’s eye. “That’s okay. You pick the music, let me improvise for a couple of minutes, tell me what you think you can do, and then I can lead and you follow, like call-and-answer singing only it’s dancing?”
Laika nodded, unconsciously glancing to the ceiling as she ordered, “S1? Music from my mother’s home town, please. The piece is called “Awoken Awake”.”
“Acknowledged, Captain,” came the reply, immediately followed by the beginning of the music, Arlaud cocking her head to one side as she listened, and as she began to listen she began to move a little, swaying slightly, her arms moving enough to suggest she was picturing what moves would fit the music and which moves she was deciding Laika was capable of.
“Okay. Got it. Does it repeat or keep going?”
“S1, loop until I say stop.”
“Acknowledged, Captain.”
“It lasts just under ten minutes.”
“But the main theme is repeating every three?” Arlaud said, Laika nodding, impressed how quickly she had picked out that detail. “Okay, let me show you how I would dance those three minutes, tell me if it looks too...”
“Hard for a non-dancer?”
Arlaud smiled and blushed a little and nodded. “So I’ll show you, and when I say ‘you’ we chain, three steps from me, three to you, and when you look like you’re okay with that, we can move to five steps but maybe not any more than that.”
“How many steps in one of your dances, Arlaud?”
“More...”
“How many more?” Laika smiled, curious as to Arlaud’s reticence, especially given how proud she was of her dancing and her ability to move with such ease and fluidity.
“Don’t scream, okay. One ‘show’ is up to five dances usually, and each dance can have ... lots—”
“—How many, Arlaud? I’m really curious, now. If it helps, some of my father’s ceremonial dances last for ten minutes or so, but you are repeating the same steps every minute, roughly.”
“Okay. So. There was this one dance we had to learn. It was a real show-off piece. Not meant to be seductive, not meant to be, you know, relaxing to watch, it was the kind of dance where you got cheered at the end. I danced the solo part most times. It lasted twenty minutes and even I was sweating by the end of it. And it was fast. I’m not sure how many steps it was because I don’t count it like that, it was more and this ... and this ... and this...” she said, clapping her hands to show the beats. “So say forty steps a minute, for twenty minutes, so that’s, haha, eight hundred steps, but you didn’t need to memorise eight hundred, just forty, repeat, forty, repeat,” she grinned.
“You can dance like that for that long?”
“Show you after this?”
“Please do.”
Another grin, Laika realising how much movement was a part of who Arlaud was, that her body was expressing who she was in ways Laika had never imagined a dancer even could, let alone might, her presumption being they were dancers only on the stage. They weren’t. It was a whole way of seeing and experiencing the world. And the Force?
“Okay, we’re coming up to a repeat ... remember, watch first...” Arlaud said, and as she did she began to dance, moving from step to step, holding each one a little longer than Laika thought she needed to, holding it, she realised, for her to study her form before hurrying herself on to the next step.
“Ready?” Arlaud asked, bouncing up and down to keep the time as she waited for the next repeat to begin.
“I think so...”
“3... 2... 1 ... Step!” she began, leading Laika through the three-step pattern, Laika realising how each step not only flowed into the next but prepared her body for the next step, none of them being too far from where she had been, the steps clearly well chosen from a repertoire of who knew how many? Hundreds? Thousands? And that was without improvisation? If all of that awareness of movement had been challenged instead into lightsabre training, she would already be almost unbeatable, and if Laika could even pick up a little of her ability, her own skills would take a jump.
“Fives?” Arlaud asked, Laika realising she was still holding that last move as a pose, Arlaud bouncing up and down again as if she needed to keep in motion.
“Fives,” Laika said, already beginning to feel how hard a form of exercise dance could be to muscles and tendons unfamiliar with such.
“3... 2... 1 ... Step!” Arlaud called, dropping into the first step, and by the second Laika had realised this was a new cycle, not two new steps added on to the three she had already learned, her body crying ‘unfair’ as she followed, missed some of the details on the fourth, Arlaud slipping back to three and back to four between the beats, showing her again, emphasising what she had missed, Laika seeing it, following it, and moving on to the fifth this time with no problem.
“Keep going?” Arlaud called as they came to the end of their fifth cycle of five steps, Laika’s calves beginning to complain with growing clamour.
“Not too much.”
“Ha! Okay. Want to see me dance,” she winked, knowing Laika was trying to politely let her know this was beginning to get intense and not belittling her for it.
“I do. In a couple more minutes, first,” Laika smiled, determined to find her own limits as they continued cycling through the steps.
“Okay. Five more repeats? Okay. And...”
... And they were off again, Arlaud changing things a little this time, moving more between the steps, using more of the space of the Cargo Bay, Laika following her, loosening the space between her own steps, and surprised to see how, with more space for the transitions, their steps seemed easier, as if they were meant to be used across the whole of a stage rather than just a few feet apart. She had no doubt, too, that Arlaud had, if not planned for this, then at the very least factored it in so that, if they were to continue, Laika would see how even a dance’s steps could be transformed depending on how they were placed around a stage. This, too, was another skill Laika wanted to learn and practice, something to enhance her own repertoire of lightsabre moves, her own focus having always been to move quick and move through rather than use the space as well as it might have been.
“And ... rest,” Arlaud said, grinning, hardly winded, seemingly glowing with energy.
“Thank you,” Laika said, exaggerating her fatigue a little. “I thought I was fit...”
“You are, but you’re fitness isn’t like mine, just like mine isn’t like someone who runs a lot, or lifts weights, or who knows how many other ways there are to be ‘fit’.”
“I wonder, do you think you are drawing on the Force when you dance?”
Arlaud shrugged. “Maybe. Not on purpose. I didn’t know you could even do that until you told me,” she said, scampering over to the corner where she had two bottles pre-prepared, coming back and handing one to Laika. “I got S1 to help make these. It’s mostly water, but she found some things to add to make it better for your muscles,” she grinned, taking a big gulp as Laika took a hearty drink from her own bottle, noting the slightly sweet and floral aftertaste.
“Still want to watch me show off?” Arlaud giggled.
“You still have the energy?”
Arlaud grinned.
“Of course you do, but I do still want to do some of your stretches as well as my own exercises, so not a whole show’s worth?” Laika suggested, intending her comment to be a tease but wondering, no, certain that if she had asked Arlaud to dance a whole show’s worth for her, she would. With ease.
“Got it...” she said, thinking for a moment. “S1? Hi! Can we have some new music please? I need something about twice that speed, drums, and something stringed, if you can find it?”
“Would this suffice, Hydan?” came the disembodied voice, followed by the beginnings of a piece with a heavy drum keeping the time, a higher-pitched drum playing a melody on top of that, with what sounded to Laika like something between a guitar and a cello playing a staccato melody on top of that, the others clearly in its service.
“Laika? Can I have it louder?” Arlaud asked.
Laika nodded.
“S1? Hi! That’s great, but can you make it ... yeah, make it a third as loud again?”
“Would this suffice, Hydan?” came the voice followed by the music getting abruptly louder.
“Cool! Thanks. I’ll let you know when to stop.”
“Acknowledged, Hydan.”
“Laika?”
“Please,” Laika smiled, waving her bottle in salute.
“Almost,” Arlaud grinned as she crossed over to Laika, removing her bra and shorts, leaving her only in her ballet flats, handing a surprised Laika her clothes to hold for her before stepping back, standing straight, arms by her sides, head down, holding that pose as she waited for some cue in the music before she looked back up, and Laika realised she was seeing someone else, now; this was Arlaud the Dancer.
For a moment Arlaud remained standing, cocking her head to one side as if listening to something far away, something new, something different, and from there she began to move as she began to tell her story. It began with her scampering around the Cargo Bay, swift movements between poses of curiosity. And then she heard or saw what it was she was looking for, dancing backwards, making space, Laika thought, for someone or something else.
That had all been the introduction as she transitioned into dancing a duet with her invisible partner, still skipping her way all over the Cargo Bay, but now she was responding as if someone were physically touching her, dodging and weaving, entwining and intertwining, her movements not quite ‘savage’, they were too clearly considered for that, Laika thought, but also not at all the kind of civilised that Laika’s father would recognise.
Faster and faster she moved, Laika doing her best to count, sure she was increasing the complexity of her steps and her transitions until she leapt into the air—
—and held it!
She was at least six feet clear in the air, holding herself there, Laika opening her senses to the Force for a moment and seeing her glowing with energy as she slowly lowered herself to the ground, dropping into a kneeling position, head up, eyes on Laika’s, and grinning.
“Hi? S1? Shush, please,” Arlaud said.
“Acknowledged, Hydan.”
The music cut off, leaving the Cargo Bay in almost deafening silence for a moment as Arlaud began to stand up ... and Laika applauded, Arlaud’s grin even wider, now.
“Guess you caught me,” she smiled, Laika holding her arms, the young woman happy to be embraced and, swiftly for now, kissed.
“Care to explain?”
“It was the spoon. When I did that, I thought maybe if I was to leap, I could hold it, not like that, just, you know, so I could really leap, haha. So I tried this morning, before you got here, and ... Laika, is it as easy as that? Like you told me? Believe it and you can do it?”
“It depends what you are trying to do, but if it’s something close to something you can already do, yes, generally.”
“Wow, I’m going to be such a dancer,” she beamed. “I just ... I don’t know how to explain how I did it. Instead of hiding inside the rengan I think I kind of asked it to help hold me up, and it did. I didn’t know I was going that high, haha.”
“And almost as high as me.”
“You can do that too?”
Laika smiled. “The ceiling of this Cargo Bay is a useful target.”
“You can go all the way up there?!?” Arlaud asked, the ceiling being some twenty feet above the deck.
“I can.”
“Teach me?”
“I don’t think I need to. More practice, and me being there, in case you fall.”
“Ah. Didn’t think of that. You don’t ever fall?”
“When I was learning how to go so high? Lots, but that was why I did it in my father’s home where he had people to catch me and a padded floor if they missed.”
“Yeah. Metal is not good to fall on. Or dance on. You know our stages are wood, so they give. Some are even sprung though ours wasn’t.”
“I didn’t know that, no.”
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