3

Raiders & Traders

I've always had confusing dreams.

They came to me in short bursts of faces color and emotion. After the figure in black knocked me out it was no different.

At first I saw a ship's cockpit, it's roof and ceiling are covered in switches and buttons. There are four seats and a metal console with more levers and knobs. I've seen this room many times before but only while asleep. I keep waiting to see it for reel. The stars that I could see out the large window in the front elongated and then the scene changed.

I was looking at the face of a woman. She was incredibly beautiful and she had an air of authority about her, she was obviously a leader. She had black hair tied into two circular buns on the sides of her head. Her shoulders were covered in a piece of flowing material, that looked very expensive. She smiled and it seemed to give of a glow of warm heat.

She looked to her left as a boy came darting into the picture. He had dirty blonde hair that fell to his shoulders in the back. He was wearing a orange uniform and he was grinding his head off like he had just won an important victory.

I wanted to know who they were. I wanted to know there names. This boy and this girl. Had been popping up in my dreams since I was a 12 year old. I felt like they were my friends and I wanted to befriend them. My dream changed again.

The happiness and warmth was shattered by a dark and sinister red light that illuminated the face of a boy about my age. He had dark, long, curly hair. His eyes were filled with tears. He looked down at his hands. In them was a long metal cylinder. It had two smaller cones jutting out on either side of one end. I saw another pair of hands also gripping it. They were old and worn. The way they moved, they must have been mine. I looked back at the face. It's eyes held so much sadness and grief. As if the owner was being torn apart.

A single tear rolled down his face.

And an explosion of red fire engulfed my chest. I felt a searing pain. And my eyes flew open.

I was lying face down in the sand. I had some of the gritty stuff in my mouth. I rolled over and saw that the previously orange sky had turned a dark purple as the light of the two moons faded beyond the horizon.

I sat up and took in the scene around me. I saw small igloo like shelters at uneven intervals around me. The furthest one fifty feet away the closest was about 10 inches away from my head. Strewn about the ground was several bits of junk and a few bones.

Off to my left came a rattling growl. I scooted quickly back against the wall. I saw a shape round one of the igloos and start tearing at something I deeply hoped was not an other prisoner.

I scanned the ground around me in search of my blaster. I saw it lying ten feet away from me. I shuffled on my hands and knees to the blaster.

I tried to grab it and pick it up with out the shadowy shape noticing.

I picked up the gun and as I did it's nozzle scraped against a bone lying in the sand. There was a soft clack as the bone shifted. I clenched up trying to avoid any sound. My fingers curled around the trigger and that's when I noticed that the safety was off.

To late.

The blaster fired and night turned to day. I winced as I was temporarily blinded.

I looked up and the shape was gone. I made the stupid mistake of relaxing. The growl came again louder and behind me. I whipped around and saw two red lamp like eyes attached to the body of a skeletal wolf bearing down on me.

I tried to get my blaster up in time, but the wolf jumped and it's outstretched claw dug into my right arm, my gun arm. I cried out in pain.

My arm was a piece of burning ice. Waves of cold and heat washed over me. The imbalance made my inside squirm. I tried to hang on but the agony sent me off to sleep faster that the blow from the dark figure had.

When I woke I was tied to the inside of a wooded cart. It was moving through the sand, rolling hypnotically as I lay there still. My arm was bound in the blue cloth I had been using as a mask. My arm wasn't hurting any more. All that remained was a dull and endless throbbing.

I tried to sit up but the binds held me fast. I felt slightly well rested. Despite the fact of how I was knocked out. I must have been asleep for a long time. It was the first minutes of twilight when the wolf had shown up and now it was almost noon.

I couldn't move my hands, but I didn't have to to know that my skin was as rough and crusty as the sand.

I moved my head to the side and saw a man. He was wearing a black cloak identical to the one belonging to the man who had knocked me out the first time. (All these induced sleepers were beginning to get out of control.) However it was his head that was peculiar. It looked like it was wreathed in bandages with little spikes coming out like horns from the top. Instead of eyes it had pieces of metal and glass jutting out like goggles. There was a pair of buck teeth protruding from the cloth like face where it's mouth could have been. In it's had was a long staff with metal spikes at one end.

The man looked over at me and saw that I was awake. It made a series of grunting and yowling noises. Two more of it's kind came over. One of them held a leash, and collar to it was a skeleton wolf with a bloody claw.

I jerked back, trying to get as far away from that as I could.

It's eyes bore into me like a drill. What little fur it had was brown and gray, with splashes of red, like dried blood. I felt very grateful for that leash. Unfortunately it was as if the man could read my thoughts and wanted me to have a bad day.

He drew out a dagger and slashed the rope connecting him to the beast.

The wolf leaped up onto the wagon and stalked across it toward me. I was sure it would take a chunk out of my head with it's dripping teeth or bloodied claws, but instead it came over and sniffed my claw wound. It acted a bit nervous and turned away. It scrambled down off the cart and lay on the sand.

The men began to honk and hoot again, one raised its staff over it's head and began jerking it up and down furiously. I was beginning to get really afraid when I heard a voice down by my feet.

"You're are lucky bugger aren't you."

I lifted my head up and peered down by the base of the cart. There was a rope tied to one of the posts that kept the wagon's supplies and carry load from falling out. At the other end was a small boy.

He was about 10 years old and he was as skinny as a shrimp. I could see all 12 of his ribs clearly through the thin layer of skin. I wondered what this kid was eating, or if he was eating at all. He had a mop of dirty blond hair on a tan face. For a moment I thought if this was the boy from my dream but somehow this kid seemed more dull and crest fallen. I thought about what he asked me and almost laughed. There was nothing about my situation that seemed lucky. My brother was missing, I was stuck in the middle of the great dune sea, and held captive by honking, bandaged wrapped, buck toothed men.

"What's so lucky about it?"

I asked. He looked up at me with pure envy in his eyes.

"Look,"

he started

"I've been with this pack of riders for almost two months and I've started to pick up a bit of their language. They only want to keep the one who will serve them the best. And there mutts can sense the ones who can be along for the ride the longest. They slave the one who do and trade the one who don't have the steel in there hide to continue on."

He finished. I had no clue what he said and it showed through on my face. He sighed and tried to explain it again.

" Listen, I know it's a bit boogie boogie but that's what these Tusk-ens believe. Now, if the wolf sniffs your blood and it tried to drink some of it and that means you stay on with the raiders as a slave."

I remembered how the wolf just went away.

"And if it goes away, then what?"

The boy looked up and saw something coming up over the horizon. I turned to see a few shapes of animals and other life forms coming up over the dunes. The boy looked back down at the ground.

"Then you get traded off as a slave to someone else."

I noticed the raiders coming back over to the wagon. I looked back at the boy

"Traded to whom?"

The kid peered over and squinted at the caravan coming closed with every dune.

"Oh, boy" the kid said "You're in for a treat. Do you see that green mark on the side of that bantha?"

I peered and saw it. It was a trident crossed with a bow. It had many hoops and stretches of points along the blades.

"Well that is the symbol of the Hutt. Jabba the Hutt."

I lay there as one of the raiders used a long knife to cut the ropes that tied me down. That kid was right, I thought to myself, I am a lucky bugger. The kid looked confused,

"I just told you that you're going to the Hutt's palace. You probably would rather stay here."

"No,"

I said still grinning

"I'm going to see my brother."

He looked bewildered.

"If your brother's with the Hutt then why are you grinning your head of, he's probably dead by now."

I still smiled, although with a little less enthusiasm. A whole year with nothing but a recording.

The raider finished with my bonds and I leaped out of the wagon. My skin cracked and strained with such a sudden and energetic motion.

I stood and waited as Jabba's traders came up to the raiders wagon. The one who seemed to be in charge stepped up to the tallest raider. The trader was a blue man with red eyes and instead of hair he had a main of blue tentacles. He spoke in a wheezing voice,

"So kely mala ke wanga wanga."

The raider grabbed me by my jacket and through me in the sand at the traders feet. The blue man looked down at me and grimaced. The trader and raider continued to converse as I lay there. I turned back to the kid. I said

"Hey what's your name?"

He looked in the cart and then said,

"I'm San."

I gave him a meaningful look,

"Hey San I dropped my water next to the bag of Carla beans could you give it to me?"

He scanned the cart then he grinned.

"Interesting water bottle you've got there."

I had my canteen of water swinging from my belt as usual, what San tossed me from the cart was my blaster that I concealed beneath my jacket but fell out when I leaped out of the cart. I grabbed it and stuffed it in my jacket as quick as I could. I turned to see that the raider and trader were still talking. I reasoned that it was not far to Jabba's palace because I could not see any great water supply and it must have taken a lot of water to take care of that bantha. I also knew that I would be getting water soon if they wanted to keep me fit so I turned and called out

"Hey, San,"

He turned

"Yea, what?"

I unstrapped my canteen and held it up to hi eye level

. "I'm really not that thirsty and you look like a shrimp so here."

I tossed him the water and looked on a he greedily slurped from the bottle.

"Thanks for the information. And for everything else."

I looked back and saw the blue trader retrieve a small pouch from the bantha. He moved over to the raider and he through the pouch down at his feet. The man in the bandages leaned over and picked it up. It gave of a small jangle and I knew there were credit standards inside. The blue man turned to me and to my surprise spoke in my native tongue.

"Come slave, time you learn real work. And real pain."