Heart Of Darkness (Star Wars)

Chapter 19: The Krayt Dragon

Once we were at the Tusken Raiders' campfire, the child sat under Din's legs, while Delmira sat next to Din and me one of the logs. One of the Tusken Raiders broke a black melon before handing it to Cobb. He looked down at it rather baffled. He took a whiff of it and immediately grimaced.

"What am I suppose to do with this?" Cobb inquired.

"You drink it." Din mentioned. 

"It stinks." Cobb retorted.

"Do you want their help?" Din asked.

"Not if I have to drink this." Cobb shot back.

One of the Tusken Raiders grew angry, raising his voice as he spoke. Din immediately translated for us. "He says your people steal their water and now you insult them by not drinking it. They know about Mos Pelgo. They know how many Sand People you killed."

"They raided our village. I defended the town." Cobb argued, raising his voice.

"Lower your voice." Din advised.

Cobb threw the black melon into the fire. "I knew this was a bad idea."

"Your agitating them." Din warned.

One of the Tusken Raiders shot up from his log. Cobb also stood up, glaring at him. I grimaced. This isn't good at all. Cobb shouted at them. "These monsters can't be reasoned with. Sit back down before I put a hole through ya!"

As they argued, Din shot up, using his flamethrower to silence the both of them, which worked. Din then spoke in Tusken, calming down the Tusken Raiders with his words. Cobb furrowed his brows. "What are you telling them?"

"Same thing, I'm telling you. If we fight amongst ourselves, the monster will kill us all." Din argued.

"Mando's right. Together we can take it down. So we might as well set our differences aside." I chimed in.

"Now how do we kill it?" Din asked as he moved his hands for the Tusken Raiders to understand.

••• 

The next morning, the Tusken Raiders allowed Din, Kaytia, Cobb, and me to ride on their Banthas. They took us to the lair of the Krayt dragon. While Cobb, Delmira, the child, the Tusken Raiders, Din, and I remained at a safe distance from the lair, they sent out a Tusken Raider with a Bantha towards the lair. Din and I watched from the cliff with on with our macrobinoculars. One of the Tusken Raiders spoke up, explaining what was happening.

"They say it lives in there. They say it sleeps. It lives in an abandoned sarlacc pit." Din translated.

Cobb scoffed. "Lived on Tatooine my whole life. There's no such thing as an abandoned sarlacc pit."

"Well, there is if you eat the sarlacc." I pointed out.

"They're laying out a bantha to protect the settlement. They studied its digestion cycle for generations. They feed the dragon to make it sleep longer. Watch, the dragon will appear." Din mentioned.

The Tusken Raider let out a scream. In a matter of seconds, we heard growling coming from within the pit. I could feel the vibrations of the dragon as it charged towards the Tusken Raider that tried to run away. In a heartbeat, the dragon ate the Tusken Raider. Kaytia gasped, while the child whimpered, hiding behind a rock, getting terrified. The Tusken Raiders were also baffled, taken back that it ate one of their own instead of the bantha.

"They might be open to some fresh ideas." Din commented.

With this in mind, we returned to the nearest canyon, to come up with a plan. The Tusken Raiders surrounded some bones, which they used as a scale for the Krayt dragon. Next to the bones were small rocks, which no doubt represented us. While the Tusken Raiders, Cobb, Din, and I were around the bones, thinking of a plan, the child and Delmira were playing around not far from us, laughing and giggling. I couldn't help but smile. Kaytia had gone through a lot, more than most girls her age. I wished she didn't go through any of that, but unfortunately I couldn't control that. What I can do is change her future, to make it better than mine. As the Tusken Raiders spoke amongst each other, Cobb spoke up, eyeing the bones. "What are the bones?"