A/N: Another stampedin', screamin' story that was inspired by a picture on Deviantart. The title of this picture is "What if?...." and depicts Grievous in a very interesting situation. After looking at it I came up with an idea of how he got into that situation in the first place, and this story was born.

Disclaimer: I do not own General Grievous or Star Wars. They belong to George Lucas (I wonder if he'll let me borrow Grievous, though?). The creature, however, belongs to me.

The Creature

"Grievous! Grievous, answer me!" Dooku's voice appeared over General Grievous's personal commlink, much to his annoyance. He quickly bit down his first rather rude remark and instead answered with a more civilized one.
"I'm just exploring the region." Knowing Dooku would be asking why, he quickly made up an story. "There could be some resources that could help fund the Confederacy." And I'm just trying to get away from you, he silently added.
Grievous had first found the planet in the Outer Rim after retreating from a humiliating defeat on planet called Gepparin. It had a relatively comfortable gravity, an atmosphere suitable for humans, five oceans, and several large landmasses that contained climates ranging from pure ice at the poles to blistering desserts at the equator. The only life-bearing rock in this system, it orbited a bright blue star with four other planets.
The temporary outpost Grievous had set up was located in the middle of a savanna that apparently was just starting its dry season. Yellowing plants crackled and broke apart wherever Grievous stepped, yet the shapes of local fauna and the glint of sunlight reflecting off water could be seen in the distance.
An impatient snort sounded over the link. "Since when did you care about the Confederacy?" Dooku's voice dripped with sarcasm. "Besides, I highly doubt you'll find anything in this wasteland, unless you expect some sentient beings to come up to you and give you all their priceless treasure."
"You never really know, Dooku," he replied. Two could play that game. But he was really starting to lose his temper. This was only the latest of a series of pointless check-ups Dooku had done since he arrived, which was causing Grievous's nerves--and patience--to fray.
"You should just be careful, Grievous," Dooku scowled. "I have a very bad feeling about this place. And for some reason, it's connected directly to you."
"What? I'll get mauled by an animal?" Grievous retorted. "Devoured by some rouge plant? That's about all that can happen here, Dooku. Now go take care of some matters in your precious Confederacy, or something."
Dooku didn't answer, but neither did he shut down the link. Grievous gave a small growl of annoyance. He, the great General Grievous, supreme commander of the vast droid armies of the Confederacy and slayer of tens of Jedi, was being watched like a child. It was absurd and insulting. Ignoring the link with great effort, he continued picking his way to a giant rock that had caught his attention.

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After a half hour of walking, he tripped and tangled his foot in something. It was nearly impossible to tell what that "something" was in the waist-high plants, though. After a couple of minutes of cursing and disentangling, Grievous held up the mysterious object.
"Grievous? What's going on? Answer me!"
Grievous had forgotten about the link. He jumped at the unexpected noise and tripped over another object. Muttering darkly under his breath, he found it and picked it up.
"You may have been closer to the truth with that sentient being remark than you thought," he smirked. Held in his right hand was a net made of plant material and weighted with rocks. The second item was a crude spear carved out of some local wood and topped with a jagged rock. Both were primitive weapons and had suffered serious fire damage: almost immediately they started crumbling to ash.
"What do you mean?" Demanded Dooku.
"I just found some primitive weapons. They've been almost completely destroyed in a fire."
"Alright, Grievous, you've gone far enough. Come back to the outpost, now."
"Is the Republic attacking? Any assassins hunting you or me down?"
"No, but-"
"Then I have no reason to return right now. I'm just going to check out a rock. You can see it from the outpost with a pair of binoculars. Or is that too far for you, Papa?"
Grievous could just imagine Dooku glowering at the insult. "There's no reason to get snippy, Grievous."
He snorted and walked on.

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Grievous knew something was wrong when he stepped into the area of shorter plants. He tore some up to look at the dirt clumped around the roots. It was much darker than the soil elsewhere, full of nutrients.
Why just in this area, though? He thought. He looked around for anything that could shed some light on the situation. He spotted a black skull. It looked solid enough, but it disintegrated into black dust with only slight pressure from his fingers.
No, not dust--ash.
There had just recently been a fire here. But if the weapons he found earlier meant anything, then any sentients that lived here would have been unable to control a fire this large. It should have spread to cover miles of these plains.
So why just this small area?
Grievous then noticed the circle of rocks. They were situated in the middle of the area and were obviously put there by beings that were at least partially sentient. Looking around, Grievous could pick out charred skeletons, blackened animal bones that had been fashioned into tools, the pitiful remains of a few shelters. He was standing in the middle of a village, or at least what was once a village.
Despite the heat, Grievous could feel a chill run through his remaining organs. He had the feeling this fire was no accident. Still slightly shivering, he instinctively drew his cloak closer around him and hurried out of the deathsite.

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When he finally arrived, Grievous could only stand and stare in awe. The rock was more like a small mountain. It reared over the savanna like a huge plant-covered monolith, its features worn from centuries of erosion. Grievous felt like an insect compared to it. A huge cave loomed at its base, like a mouth ready to swallow him for a snack.
Grievous looked rather reluctantly into the darkness. Another unnatural chill swept through him, and he was getting a paranoia-inducing feeling of being watched. He thought he could almost hear a low, breezy sound almost like the breathing of some beast. Deciding he could return tomorrow with proper lighting, he turned to head back to the outpost.
COME.
He stopped, then slowly turned back to face the cave. He thought he felt something--slightly like a thought, but more like an inexplicable feeling that there was something in there that he just this one chance of seeing. But even as he started climbing up to the entrance, a small part of his mind started to rebel. Why was he doing this? In a best case scenario, all he would find would be an unusual rock formation; at worst, he could fall down some bottomless pit in the dark. With that logic, he turned to climb back down.
COME.
Again he stopped. His curiosity was thoroughly perked, but his doubt was increasing as well. What could be in there that he wanted to see so much? How did he even know there was anything in there at all?
COME.
He had once again started climbing. He stopped with great effort. Something was seriously wrong. He wanted, no, needed to see what was in there, but the logical part of his mind was demanding that he leave and never come back. He stood there indecisively, quivering with conflicting emotions.
COME!
He suddenly found himself almost flying into the cave. He tore through the absolute darkness, tripping over stalagmites, running into stalactites, falling into pools of freezing water. Still he continued as if he was chasing after his greatest desire--but he had no idea what that desire was.
It took him a while to realize he had somehow been climbing upward the whole time. He turned a corner and was struck by a light that was dazzling after the seemingly endless night. As his eyes adjusted, he saw that it flowed from some source through a vertical shaft. With barely a pause, he started scrambling up.
His head popped out into blinding sunlight. He waited impatiently until star bursts quit going of in his field of vision, then tried to take another look around.
He was in a vast cavern at the peak of the rock. A huge hole in one of the walls was letting in the light. Unlike in the rest of the cave, the only evidence that there were stalagmites in here was huge table-like bases. The ceiling mirrored the floor, except that tiny and short stalactites have been left hanging. In the middle of the cavern loomed a huge rock formation, looking not unlike a giant sleeping creature. And surrounding the formation was heaps upon heaps of--. Grievous gasped in shock.
"What? What is it? Grievous, answer me, what's going on?" Dooku still had not shut down the commlink.
Grievous was having much trouble registering what he was seeing. He finally managed to work out one word: "Gold."
"What?!"
"Gold."
A kingdom's fortune spread almost like an ocean, covering half of the cavern floor. It was mostly made of coins, but there were many pieces of jewelery, archaic weapons and suits of armor, and statues made of gold and other precious metals and studded with every precious stone in known existence. There were tapestries made of shining threads that looked as if they were woven yesterday. Scattered across the cavern were books with jewels embedded in leather covers and scrolls kept in tight rolls with metal twine. Crowns and tiaras mingled with instruments of various highly polished woods. Vases, cups and bowls were all filled to the brim with uncut stones. Thrones and chairs were covered with all manner of beautifully woven shawls and gowns.
Grievous shuffled over the hills of treasure in a trance-like state, gazing all around him. He climbed the formation in the center to get a good view of the entire room. The treasure amounted to probably hundreds of trillions of credits, and it was doubtful that it wasn't worth more.
Dooku's impatient voice jarred Grievous back to reality. "Grievous, what are you doing?! What gold are you talking about? Answer me, Grievous!"
Grievous started trying to explaining what he was still having trouble accepting. "There's a massive treasure up here."
"How could there be anything valuable on this Force-forsaken planet?"
"I don't know, but it's here. There's all kinds of jewelery and statues and-"
YOU CAME.
Grievous stiffened and immediately fell silent. He could feel a sensation like something boring into his back.
"Grievous? Is something wrong? Grievous? Grievous!"
Grievous couldn't hear him. His warrior instincts were screaming that there was something hostile right behind him. He readied himself, then whirled around, his hands reaching for his lightsabers, ready to do battle with this unknown foe. He was halfway through drawing his sabers when he suddenly couldn't move. He stood paralyzed as a wave of unnatural terror and dread crashed over him.
"Grievous! Grievous, what's going on ?! Grievous! Grievous!"
Grievous couldn't answer. He couldn't even move. He just stood there, staring in dumb horror.
The formation he was standing on was actually a living, breathing creature. And it was staring directly at him.

A/N: Personally, I think this chapter may be a bit rushed. :/ But what I think isn't important it's what you think. Review and critique, please. Flames will be used to make s'mores.