Chapter Nine: Heir of the Kumumgah
Under the spinning vanes of a forest of moisture vaporators standing in the desert, collecting the little bit of morning dew from Tatooine's air, three members of the Pyke Expansionary Corps are gathered by a decently-sized landspeeder. Robed in red and wearing small circular masks over their undersized faces for their huge heads, they hoist up several crates of rusty-brown spice for delivery to their refinery deep in the canyons of the Great Mesa Plateau.
"Have you gotten word from Mos Eisley yet?" the silky voice of one footsoldier inquires to his superior.
"No," answered the Pyke's superior, "The boss has been busy hosting the Hutt Cartel. A few … events have kept him scrambling."
"We should get these over to the refinery soon," hissed another Pyke. "Besides, where are the other two? They should be back by now."
"I wouldn't worry about them, gentlemen!" called a gruff voice, weathered by life on Tatooine.
Turning to the voice, all the Pykes catch sight of a tall human man with graying hair, dressed in a faded red shirt and bandana, with denim pants and a belt with a blaster holster.
"Where are they?!" hissed the lead Pyke.
Two Pyke guards ran with as much pace as they could muster. That Tusken on a speeder bike can't have gotten this close. She was just a savage, little more than an animal who could walk like a man.
"I think we lost her," gasped one Pyke, breathing rapidly.
"To think they use machines now," hissed the other, panting. "We were just supposed to collect protection from the town and now this!"
"Errrrrrrhhhhhhhh!" bellowed the Tusken chasing them.
"Oh no!" they both yelled in unison.
"Do you know where you are?" asked the man in red.
The Pyke superior reached for his blaster.
"Think it through," the man in red said, placing his hand on his blaster pistol.
A moment of silence.
"I'll give you the benefit of the doubt," offered the man in red, "And say you figured you're in the middle of nowhere but-"
He pointed around the area with his other finger.
"Everything out there to everything out there," he declared, "Is the Mos Pelgo territories. And these stripes-"
He points at a red and white striped patch on his belt.
"Indicate I'm the marshal of said territories. Now, I don't know your arrangement with the authorities in Mos Espa and, let's be honest, in Mos Eisley anything goes, but out here I'm the one who calls the shots."
The Pykes stare silently at the man in red.
"Why should we listen to you?!" snarled the lead Pyke. "The Collective has promised the Pykes control of Tatooine."
The man in red chuckled.
"Because my friend, and two of yours, should be back here any minute," answered the man.
As if on cue, the mutilated corpses of the other two Pykes are sent flying into the space between the man in red and the Pykes. As the lead Pyke reaches for his blaster, the man in red swiftly draws his and shoots him and all but one of the Pykes who stands astonished.
"Think it through," threatened the man in red, taking steps forward. "I have a proposition, anyone who gets lost running spice in Mos Pelgo again will be lost forever."
The man in red eyes the crates.
"Now unload those crates and go," he growls.
"It's worth more than your town," is the last Pyke's silky reply.
"Errrrhhh!" roars a Tusken female.
The final Pyke turns around only to come face-to-face with a spiked club headed right into his face.
"Aaaaaaaaagggggggggghhhhhhh!" he screams.
A'Kagri wipes the golden blood from the merchants of the evil sand off her gaderffii stick's clubbed end. As she does so, she looks to Marshal Cobb Vanth, or as she knows him "Sentry of the Free Village", while he examines the two corpses she had thrown into his confrontation. She sees him look at the body of each merchant, stained gold with blood, which flows from each of their mouths like rivers. One merchant's red, psychedelic eye is no more, with a charred hole where it should have been and another is folded in an unnatural position. A'Kagri watches as the Sentry locks eyes with her.
"You actually fit the image us town folks had of Tuskens, A'Kagri," he stated, blankly. "Even your men aren't so brutal."
"I learned from the best, Sentry of the Free Village," signed A'Kagri.
Vanth chuckled, though somewhat nervously.
"That outsider, the Warrior from the Great Maw," he replied.
She nodded.
"Let's get back to town," Vanth sighed.
Cobb was seated behind A'Kagri on her speederbike, dragging the spilling crates of spice and the corpses of the Pyke footsoldiers, as they rode back into the quaint, little village called Freetown, formerly known as Mos Pelgo. With the Krayt Dragon dead for months, the sandy streets of the town bustle with activity again, with townsfolk roamin' the streets conductin' business, tinkering with moisture vaporators, tending to livestock like eopies or banthas, settin' up shop for the day, and flat out just havin' a good time. As A'Kagri slowed down her speeder-bike, Vanth dismounted, as his other deputy besides A'Kagri, an Iridonian Zabrak named Komudo, approached him.
"We still got repeated attacks by those droids," explained the Zabrak. "I believe them to be linked to the Pykes."
He paused, as he caught sight of the mangled corpses of the Pyke footsoldiers.
"That wasn't you, boss, was it?" inquired Komudo, pointing at the mutilated Pyke carcasses, behind the now empty crates of spice.
"Nah," replied the Marshal. "It was the handiwork of yer fellow deputy."
Cobb turned to A'Kagri who was using a vibroblade to saw off the head of one Pyke.
"Aeeerrrrrrhhhh!" called a stern voice.
A'Kagri turned away from the half-severed head of the deceased Evil Sand Merchant, catching sight of A'Garrha, storming towards her. A'Garrha was the most senior of the I'Ka warriors who, in spite of losing her right hand, was well-respected among I'Ka tribe, the Freetown Tuskens, and even the townsfolk. She now served as the interim chief of the tribe, as A'Kagri had yet to earn the respect of the survivors of the massacre by that strange, blue-
"A'Kagri, barbarism won't earn the respect of our people," she signed, fiercely waving her left, and only, hand as she did so, almost as if reading the young Tusken's mind.
"But A'Garrha, this isn't to earn their respect," countered A'Kagri in signals.
"I thought you got over your brother," A'Garrha solemnly signed.
A'Kagri tensed up. The Sentry of the Free Village and the Horned One stood by, watching the argument play out.
"Not after he came," A'Kagri signed, accompanied by a growl. "You forget he took your arm. And the Warrior from the Great Maw would have kept punishing those who hurt us."
"This Warrior from the Great Maw," called another Tusken in their bellowing language. "Is the problem!"
Everyone turned to the back, catching sight of the Freetown Tusken's Chief, U'Vnab, flanked by his teenage daughter, A'Vhri. U'Vnab's clothes were as beige as the sands of Tatooine, nothing in comparison to the ornate stylings of the I'Ka and especially U'Kaghho, A'Kagri's father. A'Vhri was dressed in a long, beige desert dress, a typical metal mask for a female Tusken, and her long black curls flowed out from behind a simple bantha wool cap. She was around A'Kagri's age and, while raised as a traditional home-caring raider tribe woman, was somewhat interested in the ways of the I'Ka tribe.
"Are you listening?!" barked U'Vnab in the Tusken language.
A'Kagri's attention snapped back to the Freetown Tusken Chief.
"This Warrior from the Great Maw has poisoned your tribe," U'Vnab signs, in an almost dismissive manner. "He has brought the sinful ways of our ancestors, the Kumumgah, back to you. And transformed you into their heir!"
A'Kagri tenses, as does A'Garrha. The Sentry of the Free Village looks back and forth between the two parties.
"Then he teaches A'Kagri the way of blood feuds," barks U'Vnab. "Such practices led to the war with the outsiders and drove the rise of the Demon Tribe!"
How dare he slander her friend. As A'Kagri moved to smack this raider in the face, perhaps tear off his face wrappings, the Sentry of the Free Village stepped in.
"You know we should all get a drink at Taanti's," offered the Sentry in the language of the outsiders. "It's getting hot out here."
A'Kagri glared at U'Vnab. She then turned to A'Garrha before backing down. As she storms off, A'Vhri follows after her.
"A'Kagri, he doesn't mean what he says," explains the daughter of the Freetown Chief in Tusken. "He is just very traditional in his ways"
A'Kagri lets out a sharp exhale. A'Vhri begins to reply.
"Not all technology is bad, A'Kagri," she tells A'Kagri. "Besides, you helped recover a Ghorfa weapon that allowed us, the Free Villagers, and the Silver One to help slay the dragon."
"Thanks friend," replied A'Kagri, in Tusken. "That giant crossbow isn't even too advanced. Wait until you see what the Warrior from the Great Maw has taught us."
The two teenage Tuskens let out what can only be described as a chuckle.
"However, my father is also concerned by-" explained A'Vhri, her tone hardening, as she paused, turning to the Pyke corpses. "That."
A'Kagri turned to the corpses. One thing was clear. The Merchants of the Evil Sand had sent the Warrior of the Swift Blasts. And they would pay until she finds him. And when she does, the sands of Tatooine will once again flow with oceans. Oceans of his green blood.
By sunset, in a small bar, run by the barrel-chested, rough-skinned Weequay called Taanti, A'Kagri, A'Garrha, and Cobb were all seated together, taking a drink prepared from the juices of a black melon. Taanti walked over to their seats, carrying a tray of three tall cups, filled with the pungent drink.
"Here are the brews," he announced, setting the tray down as he turned to A'Kagri. "I hope my brew has improved since last time, Chief-to-be."
Cobb watched as A'Kagri tilted her mask up, taking a sip of the black melon brew. He sees her shudder.
"Tell your drink master that he needs another lesson, Sentry of the Free Village,"A'Kagri signs a message to Cobb. "Too sweetened."
"I'm sorry Taanti," apologized Cobb, translating the message. "A bit too sweet for her tastes."
"Very well," replied Taanti with a sigh. "I'll keep trying."
The Weequay returns to his kitchen, as a question forms in Cobb's head.
"Hey, A'Kagri," began Cobb, "I picked up something from the argument you and the other Chief was havin'. Somethin' 'bout a Demon Tribe."
A'Kagri and A'Garrha both paused. They exchanged glances and signed frantically among themselves, so quickly that Cobb couldn't pick up what they were saying. Furthermore, these signals were filled with shudders, as if Vanth had brought up a Krayt Dragon. Finally, the two Tuskens turned back to Vanth.
"The Demon Tribe are a band of Tuskens who submitted to barbarity," answered A'Kagri. "They are the monsters that keep young Tuskens up at night."
"They were once the I'Shara tribe, peaceful, with an openness to outsiders," explained A'Garrha. "But a shaman among them was a wicked sorcerer, who worshiped dark gods and wielded dark forces. He declared all those who oppose his gods heretics to be punished. He was thankfully seen as the madman he was. But…"
A'Garrha paused as if at a loss of words.
"One night, a Tusken stranger came into their midst," she continued. "He was the last survivor of an attack by a vicious demon of the off-worlders with a blood-red blade and dark powers. The I'Shara were convinced of their Shaman's words and burned the stranger in honor of the demon."
Cobb watchers both shudder.
"They became the Demon Tribe," concluded A'Garrha.
"My father once mentioned they lead raids against other tribes," added A'Kagri. "Takes the boys to be sacrificed to his false god of the off-worlders and the girls-"
A'Kagri's hands grow limp, freezing in their place before she retracts them. Cobb didn't need to know what she was going to say to get the rest of the point.
"Well, there goes my sleep tonight," Cobb quips nervously.
U'Vnab was out in the desert, together with A'Vhri, some townsfolk and a few other Tuskens of his tribe. Armed with rusted shovels, they were digging the small dunes for black melons, as several of the moisture vaporators around Freetown have become haunts for the Pykes and other unsavory factions. As he digs beside a triangle-headed Arcona townsman and his daughter, A'Vhri, he begins to muse on his argument with A'Kagri. The young Tusken was certainly violent, even more than a vengeful raider tribe. Yet, in the overall scheme of Tusken history, from the raids by the one the outsiders called Alkhara to the blue-sworded settler, such violence had some reason. He turns to his daughter and begins to grunt in their language.
"I think I may have been too harsh to A'Kagri," he explains to her.
"Glad you agree," she replies in Tusken.
"But why is she so violent?" he inquires. "You are close to her, daughter. So please enlighten me."
"Well, it's a long story," replies A'Vhri. "It all started after the Merchants of the Evil Sand-"
"Urrrrrrrhhhhhhhhh!" roars a Tusken sentry.
Everyone turns to the roaring Tusken, who has seen something.
"Pykes?!" the Arcona asks, his wide-set eyes glowing with fear.
"It's not so simple, townsman," signs U'Vnab. " It's raiders of the Demon Tribe."
"Uraraaaaheeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrr!" roar another band of Tuskens, the sound reminiscent of a Krayt Dragon's piercing shriek.
U'Vnab turns to his daughter only to find her being dragged away by one of the Tusken heretics.
"A'Vrhi!" he cries in Tusken.
As the Freetown Chief begins to rush after her, a blue, ring-shaped stun bolt whizzes at him from behind, leaving jolts pulsing throughout his veins. As the world begins to spin around him, U'Vnab's knees give in and he collapses into the blackness.
"He's still alive," A'Kagri signs to the Sentry of the Free Village.
The heir of the I'Ka kneeled over the chief of the tribe who took hers in. The Twin Suns beat down on the two, as they watched U'Vnab awaken. The Tusken chief struggled onto his knees, his arms trembling as he pushed himself up from the sands.
"U'Vnab, what happened?" inquired the Sentry from the Free Village. "Where's the party accompanying ya?"
"The Demon Tribe," weakly signs U'Vnab. "They took everyone. Including A'Vhri."
As U'Vnab begins to tear up beneath his mask, A'Kagri shudders. She had heard tales of the Demon Tribe's atrocities from across her childhood. She knew they could attack any tribe, yet… this. Someone she knew. Though U'Vnab was unyielding to her as the desert storms, A'Kagri couldn't help but see her father's image sitting in front of her.
"What'll they do to A'Vhri?" A'Kagri signs. "And to the others."
"It is the day of a dark ceremony for the Demon Tribe," answered U'Vnab. "No one who knows the nature of that ceremony has come out alive. They are holding it in an old cave that the settlers dug long ago. You will have until midnight to stop them."
The teenage daughter of U'Vnab sat in a durasteel-barred cage with the townsfolk of the Free Village in a dimly-lit chamber, with craggy walls. Standing guard over their prison are two Tuskens, evidently from the Demon Tribe by their lack of face wrappings. As A'Vhri gazes upon their sacrilegious bare faces, she grimaces. They look nothing like a Tusken should. In place of their noses are gaping holes, their eyes are clouded over and milky, with slits in place of their ears, and massive fangs protrude from their lips.
"Lord Krayt isn't too happy today," she hears one of the guards snarl in a brutish dialect of the Tusken language. "He even slashed my face."
He points at a gaping scar between his clouded eyes.
"Word has it that some armored warrior stole a beast from him," replies the other guard, in the same guttural dialect. "Right as he bought it. What a jerk!"
The first guard snarled before loosening up and turning to A'Vhri.
"Do you think Lord Krayt will let me keep her?" the first guard mused with a smirk. "I bet she is pretty under her mask."
"I can hear you!" snarled A'Vhri in the Tusken language.
"I'm afraid not my friend," silkily bellowed another Tusken. "The Trader of Thinking Beings would like to sell her offworld."
A'Vhri shudders, as a cold sensation creeps down her spine and throughout the rest of her flesh. A towering Tusken shaman, wearing bright red robes and a hairy womp rat's skull over his face wrappings, enters the chamber, casting a deep shadow over this torchlit branch of the cave. On his survival belt was a long sacrificial dagger, its blade painted a bleeding crimson in color. As for his wrappings, the opening to his mouth was stained with the Evil Sand, as the I'Ka called it.
"You won't send me offworld," growled A'Vhri. "My tribe and their allies will come for me. Among them is A'Kagri, a warrior like no-"
A'Vhri began to choke on her words, as she caught sight of the shaman closing his fist as if strangling the air.
"Be careful not to upset Daart Krayt, sweetheart," snarled one of the guards. "Or he may sacrifice you to the incarnation of darkness instead."
"It's a shame we won't have A'Garrha with us," the Sentry of the Free Village told A'Kagri, who rode next to him. "She seems to know her stuff."
"She used to be a great warrior," A'Kagri signed with one hand, as she rode with the other. "You should have seen her skill!"
A'Kagri, the Sentry, ten of the I'Ka Tusken warriors, and five townsfolk were riding roaring speeder-bikes and a strange tubular bike (for the Sentry). They were following the horned one the Sentry calls Komudo towards a town, known to the settlers as Mos Eisley. A'Kagri and the Tuskens know it as the Great Village of Thieves, where the Warrior from the Great Maw went to strike a deal with the Merchants of the Evil Sand.
"Komudo, what's so darn useful in Eisley!" the Sentry calls from his strange bike.
"I have an old source, Marshal!" replies Komudo, riding his own landspeeder, also ferrying several of the Freetown Tuskens and U'Vnab. "He's a famed bounty hunter who frequently operates on-world! He might know where this cave is. And he can provide muscle!"
Soon after exiting the Great Mesa Plateau, the party can see the town settlers call "a wretched hive of scum and villainy" in sight. As they ride, A'Kagri catches sight of a towering reptilian figure, resembling a Krayt Dragon who could walk like a man.
"That's my source, fellow deputy!" Komudo shouts.
Soon enough they stop in front of the reptilian figure, all their speeders screeching to a hum and then a halt. A'Kagri takes a second to examine their unlikely ally. The reptile's frame was slender yet tough, with firm muscles visible under his clothes and skin. His scales were thick, leathery and green, with his arms and feet ending in three massive claws each. He was clothed in a yellow jumpsuit, wrapped in a belt and a silver armor vest. His short, stout neck emerged from a red, felt collar and was topped by his massive head, crowned with several keratinous horns. Around his fiery orange eyes were thick scales, his nostrils flared with air, and in his mouth were numerous small, dagger-like teeth, between which his tongue flicked in and out. Slung over his shoulder was a massive mortar rifle that would take two junior Tusken Warriors to use.
"Komudo, old buddy!" chuckled the reptile. "I see you've brought company, heheheheh!"
"Indeed I have Bossk!" called Komudo casually. "How have things been?"
"Looking for work," hissed Bossk, the reptile. "Just sent a request to an old colleague, you know, Boba Fett. He is now Emir of Tatooine. It's been taking a while to get it processed. Don't know what he's busy with, so I am doing, well… whatever this is. Tell me what the job is."
A'Kagri hopped off her speeder-bike and began signing to Bossk, hoping to explain to this bounty hunter what was going on.
"Can someone translate the kid?" requests Bossk.
The Sentry of the Free Village steps forward, translating the hand gestures into Galactic Basic, the language of the outsiders, for the reptile to understand.
"I see," mutters Bossk. "It's interesting that I am rescuing a Tusken, among others. Boba and I once were involved in a job with Cad Bane where we rescued a child taken by a similar tribe of Raiders."
"Anyway," interjects the Sentry, stopping the reptile before he continued musing. "You in? And more importantly, where could that hideout be?"
"During Boba and I's old job, he and Bane went near an abandoned silicax mine," explained Bossk, flicking his tongue. "From what Boba told me, it was swarming with Raiders, led by a towering shaman."
"That's him!" A'Kagri signed. "The leader of the Demon Tribe!"
The Sentry translates to Bossk.
"Well, I think we have your cave," Bossk growled, with an eager grin. "Let's go hunting!"
"Do you guys look like that beneath your masks? the Sentry from the Free Village asks A'Kagri.
The rescue party is hiding behind some rocks in a deep canyon at the Jundland Wastes. As the twin suns begin to set, showing some of the moons of Tatooine, they watch four hideous, unmasked raiders of the Demon Tribe, standing guard in front of a large opening boring into the rock.
"No," A'Kagri signs. "No normal Tusken is that ugly. They are twisted by a dark power wielded by their shaman."
"Hey they don't look half bad," remarks Bossk, having caught on to some of the Tusken language.
A'Kagri watches, as a twisted grin comes onto Bossk's scaly lips and a low, guttural rumble echoes from his throat.
"Think I can take them?" asks Bossk, eager for the raiders' blood.
"Stick with the plan partner," chastises the Sentry.
"You're no fun," snarls the reptilian with a pout.
A'Kagri gave a hand signal to U'Vnab, perched on a nearby ledge, flanked by other Tuskens, Freetown and I'Ka. Flashing a bike mirror, he jumps down, accompanied by his fellow Tuskens.
"URoRRuR'R'R!" he chants, utilizing a traditional raider tribe war call.
Two of the guards leave their post to attack the Freetown Chief, as A'Kagri, the Sentry, Bossk, Komudo, and some townsfolk with Tuskens slip out from behind their hiding place and slip into the opening to the abandoned mine. At first, everything is obscured by the shadows of the rock above them. However, after a few meters, some torchlight begins to fade into view. The party arrives at a massive chamber, covered in webs of rusted durasteel railways, with a few old minecarts running along them. The vaulted ceiling reaches high above them, nearly the size of the massive gateway into a Palace in the Northern Dune Sea. Scattered around the hallway are several massive crates nearly the height of Bossk himself.
Eeerrekkkkkhhhhhhh!
A loud creaking echoes through the chamber. A'Kagri and Bossk leap behind one crate, as everyone else hides behind another. They all watch as a minecart, carrying several Demon Tribe Raiders rolls by along the rails. Another passes soon after. Then another, carrying Raiders and several townsfolk and captive Tuskens. And then one passes carrying a towering shaman with an animal's skull crowning his head, accompanied by an unconscious…
A'Vhri, thought A'Kagri.
After several more carts passed, including one with a slim feline, vaguely Tusken-like offworlder in a strange plated outfit, A'Kagri looked towards one of the abandoned minecarts. They lead somewhere.
URoRRgguguguguguuuR'R'RURoRRuR'R'RguguguguguguguguguguURoRRuR'R'RURoRRuR'R'RURoRRuR'R'RURoRRuR'R'RURoRRuR'R'RguguguguguguguURoRRuR'R'RURoRRuR'R'guuuuuuuuuuuuR!
A dark chanting echoes from around the corner, as A'Kagri, the Sentry of the Free Village, and Bossk peer past the wall, having disembarked from their minecart. An immense chasm, probably leading to the center of the world, stretches across a gigantic chamber filled with iridescent bleeding red crystals, illuminating the walls of the cavern, as if staining it in blood.
On the end near to the trio, is a rocky walkway, lined with dozens of Demon Tribe Raiders and a few Merchants of the Evil Sand, along with the feline individual. On the other end is a massive relief, carved into the walls of the cavern. The image depicts a large armored being, eyes made of the red crystals and wielding a weapon of similar material. His face is fearsome, ridged with what appeared to be a helmet, with a grill where his mouth should be.
"Is it just me or does that carvin' kind of look like Darth Vader?" the Sentry notes.
"It doessssssss," hisses Bossk. "I did a few odd jobs for him."
A'Kagri didn't understand what this "Darth Vader" was. Yet, the very image on the wall radiated a deep cold. The searing cold of hatred. A hatred that seemed to pierce straight into A'Kagri's soul.
"NOOOOOO! Please no!" cried a voice in Galactic Basic.
A'Kagri snapped back into the present and caught sight of the Shaman from earlier, standing by a triangular-headed being, one of the townsmen, tied to a pole. Flanking the Shaman are raiders, who are holding A'Vhri and other prisoners in their grasp, as they struggle against their grip. The Shaman wields his ceremonial dagger in one hand and appears to have some white sand in the other. Approaching the whimpering townsman, he tosses the sand, which A'Kagri realizes is salt, into his face, leading the hapless prisoner to begin giggling hysterically. His green eyes gradually shift to a yellowish hue, as the Shaman's dagger ignites into a reddish flame.
"I, Daart Krayt, emissary of the Darkness, honor thou, great incarnation," chants the Shaman in a dialect of Tusken so ancient that A'Kagri suspects A'Garrha would struggle to understand it. "I offer thee a worthy sacrifice in exchange for thy blessings!"
The Shaman, Daart Krayt, plunges his dagger into the stomach of the townsman, setting him ablaze.
"EAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" the alien townsman lets out a raw, agonized screech of pain and fear.
A'Kagri watches, petrified, as the townsman's body is consumed by the inferno while Daart Krayt lets out a guttural cackle that would send shivers down A'Garrha's spine and perhaps even down the Warrior from the Great Maw's, let alone everyone present. When the conflagration dissipated, everything that was left of the townsman was a simple charred husk in his vague shape.
"That was-," Bossk began to say, almost choking on his words. "Something."
"Hey!" called a harsh, gruff voice in Galactic Basic. "I think we have visitors."
A'Kagri, the Sentry, and Bossk turn to catch sight of the feline offworlder pointing in their direction. Everyone in the room, from the merchants of the Evil Sand to the Demon Tribe to their captives.
"A'Kagri?!" calls A'Vhri in Tusken.
A'Kagri immediately rushes towards the walkway, ready to stop this evil.
"Wait!" cries the Sentry of the Free Village.
His call comes too late, as the young Tusken is swarmed by hostiles.
"Well might as well fight, Marshal," mutters Bossk. "GRARARARHHRRRRRRR!"
Vanth watches with a sigh as the Trandoshan Bounty Hunter leaps into the action, unloading a flurry of solid rounds into Pykes and Demon Tribe Raiders alike. Looking to the other end, he also notices Daart Krayt disappearing behind a wall. He turns back to watch Bossk biting into the flesh of one Demon Tribe raider's arm, before tearing it off in an explosion of blood and tissue. He also sees A'Kagri bashing opening the heads of numerous Raiders and Pykes, with the grace of a flowing river in all its twists and turns.
Why does everyone have to get so scrappy? Vanth asked himself, as he unsheathed his blaster pistol.
The Marshal of Freetown starts blasting away at the Tusken heretics as well, swarms of them pouncing towards him, armed with durasteel vibroblades, rather than gaderffii sticks.
As the Raiders holding the prisoners rushed to defend the other members of the Demon Tribe from the intruders, A'Vhri caught sight of a blaster rifle, laying by the feet of the great demon's image, seemingly an offering. Now held by one guard, she began to struggle one of her hands against his grip. As he grunted and squeezed, she slipped her hand free and plunged her knuckles into his deformed, clouded eye.
"UAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGG!" the Tusken heretic screams in pain.
A'Vhri slips free and dives at the rifle, snatching it into her grasp, before sending a bolt into her captor's chest. As he collapses, she shoots the captors, leaving the other prisoners, Tuskens and Townsfolk, to slip from the dead Raiders' grasps.
"Let's go!" she signs with one hand.
All the prisoners nod and begin to rush away headed right for the exit. However, they run into a tall, slim feline offworlder with the vague looks of a Tusken.
"You won't get away from us that easily, skugs!" he growls.
"Neither will you!" calls the voice of the Sentry of the Free Village.
The feline turns to look behind him.
Cobb Vanth, Marshal of Freetown, stares this Zygerrian slaver in the eyes, having made his way through the chaos of the battle.
"Velar Lash, I presume," the Marshal guesses. "The elder of the Lash brothers."
"Yes," Lash snarls.
"Slavery ain't got no place on Tatooine," growls Vanth.
"Do you even know how it works?" scoffs Lash.
"More than you know," replies the Marshal.
Before Lash could reach for his blaster, Vanth drew his and fired a quick shot into his chest, leaving him to fall off the walkway and into the chasm below.
Uraraaaaheeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrr!
A deafening roar echoes through the chamber. Vanth and the recently freed prisoners, from A'Vhri to the townsfolk watch as a massive, lilac-hued lizard-like creature climbs onto the walkway from beneath the chasm supported by four massive legs. It is the length of a Corellian freighter, around 34 meters, with numerous keratinous horns on its head and spikes on its tail. Its eyes glow an unnaturally crimson red and its staggered gait suggests immense agony. It is, or at least was, a Canyon Krayt Dragon and riding it is Daart Krayt.
By the gods! A'Kagri told herself, upon laying her eyes upon the mutated Krayt Dragon.
She looked to the Sentry of the Free Village and Bossk, who had just finished mowing down the Demon Tribe raiders and now stood protecting the rescued prisoners.
"RUN!" A'Kagri screams in Tusken. "I'll hold them off!"
With a dilation of its pupil, the Shaman's dragon twisted its gaze towards A'Kagri standing on the walkway. The others didn't need translation or signs to understand what she was saying, immediately bolting out of the chamber. A'Kagri turns to face the evil shaman and his mutated monster.
As Daart Krayt raised his flaming dagger, his dragon let out a terrible gurgle, spewing plumes of toxic gases into the air. A'Kagri readied her staff as the scent of a thousand hells pierced her nose. The monster's gurgling venom burst out of its mouth, raining out towards A'Kagri. The young Tusken warrior leaps out of the way.
Whoosh!
The dragon charges A'Kagri, blowing her locks to the side, as she sidesteps it. Aiming for its hindleg, she plunges the spiked end of her gaderffii stick into the gap between its scales, drawing red blood.
GHRRRRA! the dragon growls in pain.
"DO NOT FEAR HER!" commands Daart Krayt in the Tusken language. "FEAR MY WRATH IF YOU FAIL ME, ANIMAL!"
Its pupils narrowing, the Krayt dragon kicks A'Kagri aside, roaring with fury while she is sent tumbling along the stone walkway. With a great rumbling of its throat, the beast sends a downpour of its venom towards A'Kagri, as she narrowly twists her form away from the rain of fiery acid. As A'Kagri makes a feeble attempt to reach for her staff, just inches away from her hand, she feels the mammoth weight of the Krayt Dragon's claw crash into her side, knocking her onto her back. Within seconds, she is being crushed by that same mass, as the Krayt Dragon roars, spewing its noxious, toxic breath into her face.
Cobb Vanth, Bossk, A'Vhri, and the other rescued prisoners rushed towards their minecarts, when a loud screeching of the rails echoed from the entrance area.
"Careful!" calls Vanth. "We've got company."
Vanth aims his blaster pistol, as a minecart arrives into the hallway. Soon enough, its rider emerges from the shadows.
"U'Vnab," the Marshal sighs in relief.
"Errrrhhhh!" A'Vhri cries, rushing back to her father's arms, embracing him.
A small smile crept onto Vanth's lips, until he remembered what still was occurring back in the ritual chamber of the Demon Tribe.
"Sorry to interrupt fellas," interjected Cobb, "But A'Kagri is engaging Daart Krayt riding a Canyon Krayt Dragon alone. Shouldn't we help her?"
"Don't worry," signed U'Vnab. "I am one of the best shots in this northern desert."
"It's true," signed A'Vhri.
A'Kagri struggled under the foot of the Canyon Krayt, as its rider let out a guttural, maniacal cackle. Her life was about to end. She hoped her father and the Warrior from the Great Maw would be proud of her. As she was about to close her eyes, A'Kagri looked towards the exit one last time. At least it would have been one last time, as she caught sight of U'Vnab taking aim with his cycler rifle.
"Any last words, Heir of the Kumumgah?" snickered Daart Krayt, fiddling with his dagger, now alight with fire, as his dragon prepared to douse the young warrior with venom.
"Watch your back," A'Kagri signed.
Before the evil sorcerer knew what hit him, a round from the cycler rifle whizzed into the right eye of the Krayt Dragon.
GHRRRRARARRARARRR! the dragon roars in agony, clutching at its bleeding eye, releasing A'Kagri.
"What the?" the evil shaman cries in disbelief.
His dagger slips from his grasp, as his dragon rocks back and forth, writhing in pain. A'Kagri rolls towards the falling dagger and snatches it from the air. As the mutated beast makes one last attempt to consume A'Kagri, baring its many dagger-like fangs, A'Kagri raises the flaming ceremonial dagger and plunges it into the roof of the Dragon's mouth, piercing through its skull.
URAAAAAERERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
The mutated Dragon lets out one last cry of agony, as flames engulf it.
"URRRRRRRRRRRRRRRHHHHHHHHHH!" screams Daart Krayt, as the flames consume him too.
A'Kagri watches, panting, as both the beast and its rider fall into the darkness below, like fiery falling stars racing across the night sky. After their flaming carcasses vanish into the abyss, A'Kagri staggers onto her feet, looking to the entrance of the ritual chamber.
The rescued prisoners and her rescue party, Tusken and offworlder watch her, silently. Words do not need to be spoken or signed to convey their thoughts. Beneath her metal mask A'Kagri let out a sigh of relief. It was time to go back home.
The next night back in the outskirts of Freetown, as drums beat, Tuskens, I'Ka and Freetown, begin to march around two blazing campfires, twirling and thrusting their gaderffii sticks once in a while. A'Kagri kneels between the fires, flanked by both Tuskens and townsfolk (including Bossk), wrapped in a shawl, resembling her father's tent; tan with a red interior, green fringes, and interwoven with blue reminiscent of Tatooine's lost waves. A'Garrha approaches her flanked by the Sentry of the Free Village who is carrying a cracked black melon.
A'Kagri's eyes remain towards the sandy ground, as A'Garrha and the Sentry pass A'Vhri and U'Vnab, who stand by watching with joy, as they approach the young Tusken warrior. Soon enough, A'Kagri feels A'Garrha's oiled finger running horizontally along the top of her mask, anointing her with the juices of the black melon. A'Kagri can see A'Garrha backing off from her and she can hear her voice delivering a rousing speech in the Tusken language.
"Our very own, A'Kagri, has finally earned the respect of both our tribes!" declares A'Garrha, as the Sentry signs along for the townsfolks' sake. "She has slain a Krayt Dragon and helped rescue some of our own."
The ex-warrior turns to A'Vhri with a curt nod, which she returns.
"Now rise, A'Kagri, Chief of the I'Ka and Heir of the Kumumgah!" declares A'Garrha.
As the crowd erupts into applause, A'Kagri stands, letting the shawl fall into the sands as she lets out a bellowing cry of celebration.
"Errrrrrrrgggggghhhhhh!"
"WUUUUURRRRRRR!" calls a bantha from the desert beyond.
Everyone turns to the direction of the sound, catching sight of a large female bantha, accompanied by her mate and several baby banthas, wandering into the procession. The onlookers step aside, as the female approaches A'Kagri. Within minutes, it arrives at the newly anointed chief of the I'Ka and begins licking her with its tongue. As A'Kagri lets out a giggle, she can tell this beast knows her. But she never found her own Bantha. The only Bantha she was close to was the Warrior from the Great Maw's. But they were both killed on their way to meet with the Merchants of the Evil Sand. Unless…
"A'Garrha," signed A'Kagri, ignoring the murmurs of the crowd.
"What is it, my chief?" inquires A'Garrha, signing back.
"The Warrior from the Great Maw lives," she replies.
Author's Note:
Hello everyone!
I have finally returned with yet another Chapter of BoBFR. Due to a number of factors from being busy in my personal life to starting up a new writing project for this website, I had quite a bit of trouble initially in writing this chapter. However, as I continued, the chapter became more and more fun to write, culminating in A'Kagris epic showdown with Daart Krayt riding his Canyon Krayt Dragon (I assure you that was a coincidence).
The evil shaman of course is my homage to the Legends character of Darth Krayt, raised among the Tuskens, much like Boba Fett actually. Speaking of Boba, this is going to be the beginning of A'Kagri and Boba's long-awaited reunion, which I bet many of you have been eager for since I revealed her survival in Chapter 4. And don't worry, this is the only chapter where Boba isn't the main character of the story; Mando, if he appears, won't hijack my book, like was done with the show.
Lastly, I would love to thank all my readers for the last two months' traffic, in spite of me going on hiatus for so long. It is always a joy to see who comes in and out of my stories and the sheer diversity of their backgrounds.
Thanks again for all the support, guys! This is the Way!
Best wishes,
-Benedict Sky