I feel the calm quiet breeze brush against my face and I lay back in the grass, Rooda laying back next to me. We stare up at the blue shy and Rakine sits up.
"You interest me, Lord Venison." He turned our way. "You are likely the first Sith Lord to be emotionally attached to another than yourself, unlike mosh Sith."
"Unlike most Sith?" Rooda asked.
"From what I've heard, they don't normally have feelings or love another person. It's mostly about them. Sith are selfish."
"Not this one," Rooda put a hand on my shoulder and shook me slightly.
"I may be a Sith but I don't have to act like one. I can still do what I want. I can be happy. I can love when I want to."
Rakine rubes the back of his head and cleared his throat.
"There's one more thin about the Sith that I should tell you." He sighed, "They call it the Rule of Two. Only two members of a Sith branch can live at once. A master, and an apprentice."
Rooda and I looked to each other, then to Rakine.
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying that you can choose an apprentice, but you can't have a master at the same time." He looked at Rooda.
"But would I have to- kill you if I took an apprentice?"
"No-" he looked around nervously, "no. I am not a Sith. I'm a rebel. Grey Side." He wove his index finger at me with a chuckle. "Doesn't count. You already killed your old master on Hoth, so now you can choose an apprentice and carry on the Sith legend."
I could take someone as an apprentice, to train into the Dark Side myself. But who? I turned to Rooda, her ears raising in surprise.
"What? You want me to join you?" She looked at me confused.
"Yes, Roo," I grinned. "You may not be as Force-sensitive as we are, but," I reached my belt for Sorin's curved crimson-blade lightsabers. "You can join as a warrior."
She looked at the lightsabers and took them in her hands, carefully examining them. She attacked the pommels together into a saberstaff and began swinging it around her, a smile growing on her face. She turned to me and knelt down to me.
"I will accept," she looks up at me with a wide smile, "Lord Venison. Wherever you go, I will follow."
I grin and nod.
"Good. You may be an apprentice to me now, but you are still the same to me. You're still my fellow warrior, my best friend, my crush. Apprentice is just another word. We still remain loyal to each other?" I suddenly thought about my offer to her. Have I gone too far to take Rooda, a fellow warrior, as an apprentice?
She nodded.
"I have always been, and always will be forever loyal to you. Even as Eyt back on Zant, I was always loyal to you." She stood up. "I love these weapons much more than the old lightspear forged on Zant. These are more useful." She bowed down to me in respect.
Rakine came up behind me.
"She might want to do something about her outfit. I don't think two leather straps and a loincloth is going to last long."
"What do you mean it "won't last long"?" Rooda came over to him.
"It's not intimidating is it? It's meant to allow for free movement of the body when in combat."
"I understand Roo, it's just, you got to pick something better to wear.i don't see you fighting in that working well." Rakine paced and thought for a moment. "We need to find you a new outfit."
"I'll decide what I'll wear." Rooda looked at Rakine annoyed. She then looked down at her outfit and sighed. "It is getting annoying though."
"What do you suggest to wear?" I looked at her curiously. "You want a new outfit?"
She nodded.
"Then we'll get you something."
She thought for a moment.
"I'd prefer an outfit to allow for free movement of the body, but to cover it up more. Maybe one piece over my torso and abdomen."
"A simple suit," Rakine nodded. "I don't know where we can get one of those."
"I'll make it," Rooda replied. "We Zan-Deer make our own clothing. I just need two things. Leather and black dye."
We nodded.
"We'll get those things then, but we might have to steal for some of it." I thought of the black dye used on Zant. "We should go back to Zant for the dye and the leather."
"Ven, are you sure a or going back to Zant?" Rooda looked at me. "You said you never wanted to return there."
"I know what I said." I sighed. "But even some promises are meant to be broken." I looked to the Zant's Nightmare. "We're going to Zant."
I walked to the ship and looked back at Rooda and Rakine, following. I entered and sat in the pilot seat while the two sat in the back. The ship started, taking off the grassy fields of Naboo, and we headed back to Zant. Some bitter feeling of regret began to grow the further away from Naboo we got, and the closer we got to Zant. I felt Rooda and Rakine, a sense of worry growing in both. Is Zant really where we need to be? The large antler-sails popped out of the top of the Nightmare as it sped up through space to the Zant system in the western outer rim.
"I sure hope this is a good idea. The Zan-Deer might start a riot against us." I sighed quietly. "I don't think they like me anymore."
"They're primitives, Ven," Rakine stood up. "You can easily wipe them out."
"But they're still our kind. We can't just commit a mass murder." Rooda looked at Rakine.
"But Chief Tzano?" He asked.
"He had it coming," I muttered. "He got me removed from the Zan-Deer Warriors."
Rakine rolled his eyes.
"Remember we're just after a black dye and leather. Where do you get these materials anyway?"
"Spiders. The venom of the desert spiders are used to make black dye and their soft "leathery" skin is used to make clothing."
"How big are these spiders?"
"You can wear their skull on your head as a mask." I answered.
"Large," He nodded quietly.
The Zant's Nightmare sailed to the Zant system and we approached Zant, the sails of the ship retracting back into the walls. We reached the atmosphere and landed near the butte where Rooda and I hunted the morning at the beginning, before Rakine came. Rooda and I took our lightsabers and looked back at Rakine.
"Their bites are so venomous, that your whole limbs will swell up, lose all blood, shrivel up, and die. So be careful when hunting them down." I warned Rakine about the spiders. "And they're known as "ticking desert spiders" because of the noise they make in the dark. They should be easy to spot." We stepped out into the dark caves of the butte, Rooda raising her ears and listening cautiously. Rakine and I used the Force to locate the spiders around us. The spiders glowed bright blue, through the Force, and Rakine and I started jumping up and slashing at them. Rooda began swinging the two crimson blades at the ground level and all the ticking sounds slowly died down. We picked up as much spider corpses as we could and began extracting venom from the long fangs. Rooda slowly and carefully ripped the leathery skin off the legs and thorax of the spiders and began taking off the layers into soft layers of cloth. Rakine watched us as I ground the spider venom with a rock into a soft black liquid substance.
"Here's the dye, Roo. Do you want your leathery outfit dyed?" I looked to her as she pulled a long black string from one of her chest straps and began stitching up the cloth into a one piece suit with the long string, to cover her main body. She nodded and I rubbed the outfit with the dye. We watched as it dried instantly on the soft spider skin. Within seconds the soft skin cloth was blackened.
"So that's how you make cloth on Zant?" Rakine watches Rooda finish stitching up a soft, perfect, black suit. She motions me and Rakine to turn around. We nod and turn our backs to her to give her privacy to change. We hear her groan as she pulls the tight straps from her chest and activate a lightsaber to cut the straps off. She takes a deep breath and I hear the blade cut a hole in the black suit. I hear the knots in her loincloth untying and she slips her legs through the bottom of the black suit. She pulls the black suit up her back and breasts and sticks her arms through the shoulder holes. She clears her throat.
"You can look now." She stands up and sighs. "It's a lot better than the loincloth. With this I can actually breathe." She hugs herself, wrapping her arms over her body. "And it's really soft too." She turns around and I see the hole in the lower back, just above her rear, where her tail sticks out of the suit.
"That looks better, doesn't it, Ven?" Rakine turns to me.
"It does." I nodded. "More intimidating in black." I watch Rooda grin and take off the belt from my outfit and put it around her waist to attach her curved lightsabers to it. I never really needed it. I always held my darksaber into my hand. I watch Rooda slice the head off the spider and carve out its insides, hollowing its head. She then dyed the outer shell of the spider's severed head black and wore the exoskeleton skull on her head and over her face like a mask.
"That's creepy," I smirk. "I love it." She pulled the spider mask from her face and grinned.
"So how intimidating is it, Rakine?" She turned to him for an answer.
"It's good. It's not usually what Sith wear, but it's still good." He gave a thumbs up. "Are you sure this outfit, you'll stick with it?"
"Yes," she nodded.
"I think it looks fine." I walked over to Rooda and pat her shoulder. "We got what we came for here." I turned to Rakine. "We should get back to Naboo. I sense the people of Randin growing suspicion. They might have seen the Zant's Nightmare fly through the atmosphere."
"Then we go." Rakine walked to the ship and watched as Rooda and I follow after him. We entered and sat in the back as Rakine flew the Nightmare back to the Naboo system.
"Now, Roo, I know you're not as Force-sensitive as I. So the Force may not be fully strong in you. But I think we can teach you basics like telekinesis. Would that work?"
"It's all good with me master," Rooda bowed her was down to me in respect.
"Good. When we get back to Naboo, your training will begin." I looked at Rakine as he flew the ship off the desert ground. "Need I mention the Rule of Two?"
"It is a Sith tradition," he shrugged. "If you want to."
"Very well," I turned to her. "The Sith Rule of Two, a master and an apprentice, if you grow to a strong Sith Lord and pick an apprentice, then you must get rid of me. Only two Sith of the same branch may exist at once." I shrugged my shoulders. "It sounds stupid I know, but-" I looked back at Rakine, "do we have to follow that rule?"
"It's up to you. No other Sith know of your existence."
"Then, Lord Venison," she grinned, "I'll do my best to help keep you alive."
Rakine flies the Zant's Nightmare through space and the large sails of the ship emerge and quickly glide the ship toward Naboo. He looks back at us.
"Are you sure that this whole Sith choice is still good for the both of you? I mean, Ven, you have brought your best friend to the Dark Side as your apprentice."
"We both agreed to it. It's a choice we both made. This is our path now. And remember, we have no loyalties tied with the Empire." But he was right. I still wondered if it was a good idea to turn Rooda in this direction.
Rakine steered the ship off course from Naboo.
"Then we should go somewhere where the Empire can't find us." The ship turned left off the track and head toward the galaxy core.
"Where are you taking us?" Rooda asked Rakine.
"To the birthplace of the Rebel Alliance. Where everyone opposes the Galactic Empire. Yavin 4."