-The Dragon-
They stopped as the path through the canyon narrowed and were soon greeted - not very warmly - by some creatures.
"Those things don't look very friendly," Aula remarked as the creatures emerged from the rocks and growled, baring their teeth.
Suddenly, a loud howl echoed through the canyon, getting everyone's attention.
"Was that you?" Aula asked, turning to Lore.
He didn't answer, just kept howling. Tuskan warriors emerged, following the creatures. The creatures ran up to him, happy to see him now, and let him pet them.
"Aww, he made a friend," Aula said.
"He always like this?" Vanth asked her.
"Yup."
"Hey partner? You want to tell us what's going on?" he called to Lore.
"They want to kill the krayt dragon too."
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"They say it lives in there, that it sleeps. They feed it to make it sleep longer. Watch, the dragon will appear," Lore translated. The Tuskens had led them to the dragon's cave.
"I thought it was asleep - should we all hide or something?" Aula asked.
"Just watch."
"Yeah - this isn't sketchy. Not at all," Aula muttered as the Tusken warrior approached the dragon's den, leading the bantha behind him as the bait.
"Just be glad it isn't you."
"Oh, I am."
The Tusken cupped his hand around his mouth and yelled at the top of his lungs deep into the cave. Almost instantly the whole ground started to rumble.
The creature's giant nose appeared, poking out of the mouth of the cave. In one chomp, it ate the Tusken whole, ignoring the bantha.
Aula paled. "Now I'm really glad it wasn't me - oh, the poor guy."
"They may be open to some fresh ideas," Lore admitted.
They gathered round - far away from the cave now, thankfully - as the Tuskens lay out a game plan for attacking the giant creature.
"That's not to scale, is it?" said Vanth, nodding to the giant bones that represented the dragon and the tiny rocks that represented them.
"Oh, it's to scale," Lore translated.
"Kriff," mumbled Aula.
"Where are they getting the reinforcements?" asked Vanth.
"I volunteered your village."
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"They attacked us about a year ago - since then, it's been us against the Tuskens, back and forth," Vanth explained as they headed back into town, not optimistic about an allegiance between the Tuskens and his people.
"The town respects you. My guess is they'll listen to reason," said Lore.
The people were not thrilled, to say the least, about working with the Tuskens as had been expected. But Lore assured them it was the only way and their only hope of taking on the dragon. And so, as according to the Tuskens' to scale layout, they set a trap outside the dragon's cave and waited.
"The Tuskens say the belly is the only weak spot," Lore translated. "So we have to hit it from below. First, we bury the charges at the opening of the cave. Then we wake it up - we have to get it angry enough to charge. Once it's far enough out and the belly is above the explosives, you hit the detonator."
"And boom," finished Aula.
"Yes."
The Tuskens were in charge of waking up the creature.
"Here it comes."
The dragon emerged, thankfully not eating anything or anyone this time, but then began slipping back into its lair.
"Dank farrik, it's retreating," Lore cursed.
"I'm gonna hit it," said Vanth, detonator in hand.
"No, wait! We've only got one shot, we've got to get it back out."
The villagers opened fire by blasters upon the creature, and began hurling explosives at it, trying to draw it out into the open, far enough.
"It's working!" cried Aula.
"Now?" said Vanth.
"Not yet, it's gotta come out further." They waited, and waited... "Almost... Almost... Now!"
Vanth hit the button and the explosives went off. It was one hell of a blast, however, it didn't have the desired affect, for the dragon burrowed beneath the sand and slithered beneath them, only to pop out on the other side through the mountain, towering above them, catching them all off-guard. Clearly the explosion hadn't phased it any, if at all.
"It's picking us off like womp-rats," cried Vanth. "Let's get after it."
Lore turned to Aula. "Hang on."
"Yup. Do not drop me on that thing."
"I won't." He wrapped his arm around her waist and she held onto him as he and Vanth shot up into the air via their jetpacks.
They shot upwards onto the side of the mountain, opening fire with their blasters.
"This ain't doing a thing!" cried Vanth over the combined noise of the dragon's roars and their blaster fire.
"Just keep shooting! Aula, do you think you could hit it's eye?"
"I'll try - it's moving a lot though." She drew an arrow and notched it, then taking a shot and firing it. It bounced off the creature's side - its skin sure was tough. "I missed!"
"Down!" cried Vanth, and they sped downwards, landing on the ground.
They weren't safe, however - at least not yet. The creature burrowed back down before popping out of the sand behind them.
"I've got an idea - get it's attention!" cried Lore.
Vanth blasted an explosive from his jetpack and struck the creature in the side of the head, making it howl. "I got it's attention - now what?!"
"Now get out of here!" Lore charged towards the dragon, leading a bantha carrying explosives.
The dragon chomped down right on the bantha and the explosives - and Lore.
"Lore!" Aula tried to run over but Vanth stopped her, holding her back as the creature burrowed beneath the sand once more.
"No, don't! It could come up again!"
The seconds ticked by, long and painful, nothing happening.
Suddenly, the sand burst as the dragon emerged once again. Lore had gotten the dragon to swallow the explosives and hit the detonator, exploding it from the inside. That did the trick. There was a blast of smoke and sand and giant monster collapsed in the sand, dead.
There was a moment of collective shocked silence before everyone began cheering in victory, both the villagers and the Tuskens.
Aula and Vanth approached Lore. "That was your plan? To get eaten?!" Without another thought she threw her arms around him - even though he was covered in dragon spit. Just as quickly she drew back, feeling him stiffen beneath her embrace. "Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable or anything, it's just - I thought we'd lost you..."
"It's okay," he assured her.
"Here - take this-" She handed him a piece of cloth so he could wipe the dragon spit off himself.
"Thanks."
"You had us worried!"
"Sorry, I didn't have time to explain."
"I hope our paths cross again," Vanth told them as they loaded up their speeder bike for the return to the Crest. Lore was driving again this time.
"As do I," Lore returned. Aula gave Vanth a hug and then they were off, back into the desert, speeding back across the plains.
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Suddenly, and unexpectedly, they were all thrown off the bike, their belongings scattered this way and that.
Lore managed to sort of catch himself from falling thanks to his jetpack, but Leo went rolling.
Aula didn't have such a safe landing either. "WA!" She gave a surprised cry before landing with an, "Oof!" hard on the ground, receiving a mouthful of sand. Spitting and spluttering, she jumped to her feet to see that they were under attack by a group of raiders.
"Hey! That's our stuff!" she yelled, swinging madly with her staff at a couple of them while Lore dealt with the others.
One of the raiders was holding Leo captive, a knife to his throat.
"No!" cried Aula.
"Do not hurt the child." Lore held up his hands in surrender. "If you put one mark on him there will be no place you can hide from me. There's a lot of value in this wreckage - take your pick." He then nodded to Aula, who was still on the defensive, and she hesitantly lowered her weapon.
The guy said something in his language, pointing at Lore with his knife.
Lore removed his jetpack. "Here, take it - it's yours."
The guy basically dropped Leo - who scurried over and into Lore's awaiting arms - and grabbed the jetpack, taking off with it.
Lore scooped up Leo. "Are you okay?" Leo cooed in response, looking shaken but otherwise unharmed, thankfully.
Then Lore, always the man with the plan, pressed a button on his gauntlet, activating the jetpack. It shot up into the air, taking the guy with it, before he pressed the button again, deactivating it, and it went crashing down to the ground below - also taking the guy with it.
Leo snorted up a Lore who just shrugged, satisfied, and went to go collect his jetpack.
Aula was howling with laughter. "That was fantastic!"
"Will you still be laughing when I tell you we have to walk the rest of the way back to town?"
She stopped. "Excuse me?"
(Thank you so much for the 200+ reads! :D The episode with the frog lady is next and that's one of my favourites!
Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :))