Rukh took a real pleasure in his time as Muni's surrogate father. Sanjay had been his friend for a time, and he was expecting real parenthood for himself in just a few short weeks. The Human boy probably needed someone who had real experience at parenting, but he'd demonstrated a bond with Rukh, and Rukh felt a bond with him. Until they got him back to the Milky Way, where his mother was waiting, Rukh and Meewal were Muni's parents. What skills Rukh lacked in parenthood, maybe his time with Muni would equip him—especially if his child was a boy. He also wanted a daughter to one day be Maitrakh and carry on the family line, but the time he was spending with Muni was reminding him of the skills he could only pass on to a son. A daughter could only learn these things if she was not part of a Maitrakh line as any of his daughters would be.
Right now, the Noghri father and Human son carried makeshift spears as were accompanying the camp's hunter, and the child had endless questions for him.
"Samedi-ji, why does everyone call you 'Yeyinde,' now?" The child asked quietly as he and Rukh—the juvenile Human and adult Noghri being approximately the same height, with the Noghri being a few inches taller—followed the towering Yautja in single file.
Yeyinde looked as if he were staring into the wind for a moment. His face was impossible to read behind his mask. He then turned to look at Muni.
He calmly said, "Baron Samedi is a name I picked up in Haiti, after I destroyed a family the same way Krang destroyed mine. 'Baron Samedi' is the god of the dead in Voodoo. I saw myself and my people's hunting culture only as bringers of death."
"And now?"
Rukh didn't stop Muni as he too was interested in the Yautja's name change.
"I had a chance to take revenge on Krang, and sate my desire for revenge, and be no better than him, or I could make a braver choice—to let go of my anger, my cause for revenge, and live without it defining me. 'Yeyinde' was the name I received after my first hunt. It means 'brave one.'"
Rukh was a bit confused, knitting the skin folds above his eyes. "Why didn't you take your revenge?"
Yeyinde turned back to the path ahead and kept walking, but continued the conversation.
"Claudelle showed me mercy when I had no weapons or armor. I killed her ancestor in Haiti, but she still forgave me. I didn't forgive Krang, but I still knew that treating him as Claudelle had treated me—showing mercy—was the right thing." Those comments didn't sound like what Rukh knew of Samedi, but the next certainly did: "Besides, Krang was unarmed."
They had now reached a point where the forest trail circled into an area of denser woods.
Yeyinde pointed to the wooded area.
"The two of you, stay there. Block the prey's escape." Yeyinde cloaked and ran back the way they came. The 'prey' was a lizard-like creature with boar-like tusks, about the same length as Rukh's height.
Rukh was glad that Muni had come with them, he knew that the boy's religion favored vegetarianism, but the boy's family belonged to a dissenting school. Sanjay had taught him to fish after all.
Still, hunting was a rare experience for Rukh himself. Most Noghri communities were agrarian. Hunting was something done on journeys between communities. Here, it was essential.
The two waited in place, as seconds dragged on into minutes and nearly half an hour before…Rukh heard a gush of wind as he turned his head to see Muni be yanked by invisible strings backwards. It happened now when his guard was at its lowest, focused on the wait of the hunt. Muni was shaking violently, but for some reason the boy didn't scream. He couldn't.
Rukh quickly realized what was going on, and soon saw a Falleen-Chiss hybrid holding the boy.
He realized that he had no weapon other than her own over confidence.
"Rukh-ji!" Muni was finally able to yell.
"Let him go!" He stood firm.
"You have this all wrong. I'm not kidnapping the boy. I'm protecting him. The Quintessons want a powerful Force-user."
That was the key.
"Muni, use the Force!"
Muni gave into the feelings of fear and anger of what the Sith could and would do. He began to choke her, just as Veratil had taught him, but he released her when she let go of him. He then ran to Rukh's side and held him tightly.
Rukh then realized his best way to slay her was with Muni's help, and Muni was too young to take a life for a human. He'd have to rely on his own agility.
"Muni, go back to camp."
The boy voiced his concern for Rukh in a, "But—
Rukh cut the boy off and barked the command, "Go!"
Rukh tensed and did not relax even when the rustling of the branches let him Know Muni was safe. He drew out the knives he held in his gauntlets, as Shadow's daughter bowed her head.
Rukh paused, warily wandering why she wasn't fighting back. If her strategy required her to be quiet and focus, he wouldn't give her that opportunity.
"Well, face me, coward!"
She still didn't move.
"Whatever trick you're planning…" he advanced toward her.
"No trick…" she said in a strained voice. "They boy's back in camp and now the Quintessons know our plan. I've failed."
Rukh paused for a minute, realizing she could be speaking the truth or this could be an elaborate deception.
"I will kill you…"
"Better you than him!" She shouted, for the first time the Sith yellow burning in her eyes.
Rukh knew there was more to that statement. At least part of what she said was true.
"I can't look at my father's eyes again as he hands out punishment. This was my last chance."
While keeping in mind that this could all be an elaborate trap, this Sith could be no more than a Child trying to please her father. He once said N'thraw'nyusaya had the right to kill her daughter, but what about Darth Shadow? He was the one who raised her in the darkness, and now seemed ready to kill her for her failure. He thought about what Yeyinde had told him.
"Run, Sith, where your father can't find you. But if you follow us, or try to harm the boy, I will kill you." Rukh dashed back in the direction of camp, once he noticed the Sith was heading the opposite way.
He ran so fast that he did not notice Deliberata's tentacle until he had tripped on it. He looked up to see Deliberata, Atrilo, and five mechanical beasts with sharp teeth and spikes that resembled fish.
Deliberata jerked his tentacle back and faced Rukh with his Face of Wrath.
"Watch where you're going, you stupid Noghri!"
Rukh swallowed the insult. He had more pressing matters to attend to.
"My pardon, Your Honor. Have you seen Muni, the Human boy?"
"The child who ran past us a few minutes ago? A Sharkticon is taking him back to the camp."
Rukh felt a physical weight drop from his shoulders and breathed a deep sigh of relief.
"He is well then. I should try to find Yeyinde. We were hunting together."
Deliberata swiveled to his face of doubt. "The Yautja? What kind of caretaker are you to bring a human child so near to a Yautja hunter?" Switching back to his Face of Wrath, he asked, "Do you realize how dangerous they are? Are you this boy's guardian?" Deliberata pointed a tentacle at Rukh.
"Yes. And Yeyinde is no threat. Yautja do not hunt children and I trust Yeyinde."
Deliberata switched to his Face of Laughter, chuckled to himself, and then spoke. At first it seemed he was speaking only to himself.
"Oh, you, stupid, stupid, Noghri." He switched back to his Face of Wrath. "Baron Samedi is a Badblood! He doesn't accept normal Yautja conventions of honor! He could've killed the child for the fun of it."
"He wouldn't do that." Rukh rose to his full, albeit diminutive, stature. "He is a Badblood because he thinks that Yautja ways are too cruel. I let the Sith who tried to kidnap Muni go because her own father would kill—
Deliberata turned to his Face of Doubt. "The Sith would kill their own for this child?" He turned his Face of Wrath to Atrilo. "What did you tell them!?"
"Only that we needed the new apprentices."
Rukh looked at Atrilo as if he understood the Quintesson threat for the first time. The Quintessons also recognized Rukh's threat for the first time.
Turning his Face of Wrath to Rukh, Deliberata said, "I charge you with child negligence."
This is ridiculous! Rukh thought.
"Has the imperial magistrate reached a verdict?" Atrilo asked as a member of her caste was required to in a trial.
A verdict? There was no council to debate the matter, no chance for Rukh to speak for himself—what was going on here?
"I have."
"Guilty or innocent?"
Rukh stared at the two, confused the entire time. He thought he was in for a reprieve when the Judge declared him innocent, but that was before he heard Deliberata, now with the Face of Death say, "Feed him to the Sharkticons."
Rukh's sharp reflexes would have saved him any other day, but the bizarre trial had left him confused long enough for a Sharkticon to jump on top of him.
Lands of Clan Khim'bar, Honoghr, One year later
Meewal's entire personality had changed with Rukh's death. The savage teethlike gashes on his body convinced her that then Sith were even more sadistic than she had previously believed and that the overprotective nature she had once scolded Rukh for was exactly what life in the galaxy called for. Trust used to be something she gave freely. She used to believe in people. Not anymore. Trust had to be earned. She fulfilled her duty and kept Muni safe until he could be reunited with his mother on Earth. Those were individuals who she could trust.
She had to be more careful now because she had a son, Khabarakh.
As a male, he could never be Maitrakh, though he could perhaps become the Dynast of another clan. Pressure had been put upon Meewal to marry again and have a daughter, but she refused. Her heirs would be her sister and nieces. She did not want to go through the prospect of whether or not her suitors were marrying her or her position once again. No, she would reign without a Dynast. That meant she would need to learn the skills of stealth that nearly all Noghri knew excluding those in her position. She did know some basic self-defense skills, but the skills she needed took decades to master, and she only had years. Still, she would carve out a path that brought safety and prosperity to clan Khim'bar and to her son.
She also needed off-world allies, and just as the Noghri had served the Empire and the New Republic in the past, she was determined that her clan would establish the Noghri's ties to the new great power—the Quintessons. The Judge, Deliberata, had given her the contact frequency for the Quintesson Imperial Arbiter Alðerata's holoprojector before they left Dathomir. She activated it now in her room in the clan Dukha, her infant in a low wooden cradle just behind her cross-legged position on the floor.
The Imperial Arbiter appeared in hologram. It was hard to judge over a hologram but his body seemed larger than Deliberata's.
"Princess of the Clan Khim'bar," he began, his jovial Face of Laughter to her in an attempt to elicit positive feelings. He switched to his green turbaned Face of Bitterness just long enough to express condolences for her late husband, before returning to his gentler Face of Laughter.
"I must confess that I have been waiting for you to contact me. It is a pleasure to speak to you directly, even if it is only over a hologram."
She slightly inclined her head, the position of a subordinate, before touching her chest with one hand, and holding the other to the Arbiter.
"His Excellency honors me, but I am no princess, merely the next-in-line to be Maitrakh of my clan."
"But you are to rule them one day?"
"To lead them," she corrected. "The duties upon a Mitrach and her clan are reciprocal. And it is for the benefit of my clan that I have contacted you."
"I understand the bond you forged with my justice Deliberata when he was looking for your husband's murderers on Dathomir."
"Then you should be aware that Sizhran Savazh still lives."
Still, affable, he answered, "Yes. He's in the Milky Way now. Retreating into the criminal underworld of Earth's Foot Clan, hiding behind his apprentice who is the Foot's leader."
"I was wondering if Your Excelency would consider hiring Noghri assassins to help you where your Sharkticons fail you, such as infiltrating these underworld groups."
Alðerata smiled. "This idea pleases me. What are your terms?"