Chapter Twenty-Eight
After hours of waiting in the hot Geonosian sun, another cart rolled out to the giant, stone columns. Sarali's ears perked up at the sound. Her eyes flicked over to watch Anakin and Padme be chained near them to die.
"I was beginning to wonder if you'd got my message," Obi-Wan commented to Anakin.
"I retransmitted it just as you requested, Master," Anakin said dejectedly without looking up at him.
"I suppose you came to rescue us," Sarali commented as her eyebrows shot up to emphasize just how poor of a job they were doing with that.
"Actually, yes," Anakin commented, drawing himself up to his full height to tilt his head down at Sarali.
"Good job," Obi-Wan commented sarcastically, glancing up at the chains holding him to the overgrown pole.
"Just what I would expect from the two most impulsive people I know," Sarali returned with obviously false cheerfulness.
"Any ideas on getting out of here?" Obi-Wan asked turning to regard her with inquisitive eyes.
Sarali glanced up the pillar, noticing the deep, decorative grooves in its worn surface. "I have one."
Just then, a portcullis blocking a tunnel on the opposite side of the arena lifted, allowing four nasty beasts from various planets to saunter, stumble, lumber, and hop their way into the arena. Clearly, these were the beasts intended to kill them.
The first beast was a reek from a Codian moon. Normally, it was a peaceful, herbivorous creature, but the Geonosians had starved it to the point that it would take any food it could get, even humans.
Second of the creatures to emerge was a spider-like acklay from Vendaxa. Its pincer legs were dangerous when combined with its hard exoskeleton.
The third animal to be herded into the arena was the feline nexu from Cholganna. Sarali hoped that this particular beast would go for her as she was the only one of her fellows that could evade its swift, deadly claws.
The last creature was a strange, though giant, creature: a rancor from Dathomir. It had two club feet and two hands with huge, sharp talons, which it used to propel itself forward.
As the creatures spread out and chose their targets, Sarali grasped the grooves in the pillar and propelled herself up to perch lightly on the top. The nexu, which had taken an interest in her and gone straight to her, clawed at the pillar for a few seconds before seeming to catch her scent. It dropped to the ground and sniffed around the pillar before letting out a whimper and curling up at the base of the pillar.
Apparently, the Geonosians did not like this as one of the guards on an ugly orray, its mount, hurried over to zap the nexu with its static pike. The nexu jumped up and swiped the Geonosian from its perch atop the orray and ate it on the spot before returning to its place beside the pole.
Cautiously, Sarali dropped back down to the ground beside the nexu. The nexu's quills perked up at the vibrations from her landing. The nexu looked up, saw her, and jumped to place its front claws just above her shoulders on the pillar to support it. It then surprised her by licking her cheek and nuzzling into her hair. At this point, her instincts kicked in. She responded to the care of this semi-feline being and nuzzled it back.
However, an idea struck Sarali. She stopped moving, which clearly saddened the nexu as it let out a questioning yowl. She peered up at her chains pointedly. Apparently, it got the message because it swiped at her chains, breaking them easily and allowing Sarali to move about with relative freedom. Sarali smiled her toothy grin and scratched the top of the nexu's head behind its eyes.
Now that she had made a new friend, Sarali looked around at her fellow prisoners. Anakin had somehow managed to get the reek to jerk his chains from their mooring on his pillar and was now riding it along with Padme. The rancor lay wounded beside a pole, and Obi-Wan had wounded the acklay with one of the Geonosian guards' electric pikes. He quickly ran to mount the reek behind the pair.
Sarali quickly ran to them; unsurprisingly, the nexu followed faithfully, though it did look questioningly at her when she did not attack them.
"New friend?" Obi-Wan asked as he saw her join them.
"Yep," Sarali said with a smile, patting the nexu.
Before Obi-Wan could say anything more, destroyer droids rolled out to surround them.
"Now what?" Sarali asked nervously, edging closer to the nexu.
"I have no idea," Obi-Wan answered honestly.
Before they could all be blasted into cinders by the rolling menace often called droids, hundreds of coloured lights sprung up all around the arena. They all quickly recognized them for what they were: lightsabre blades. In light of this, the Geonosians fled.
Unfortunately, Count Dooku had more up his sleeve than merely destroyer droids. An army of battle droids flooded the arena floor, but so did the Jedi. From there, there was only chaos.