A Life Without Meaning

𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕄𝕒𝕣𝕤𝕙𝕒𝕝 (𝕀𝕍)

When the suns rose the following morning, the Tuskens led them from their camp, via Bantha, over a large dune ridge, and down towards another collection of red rocks, before finally coming up on the mouth of what looked like a deep cave.

A group of them perched up on a distant hill, while another Tusken escorted a Bantha up towards the mouth of the cave.

One of the Sand People turned towards the group of humans by their side, and began to speak.

"They say it lives in there. They say it sleeps." Din translated, taking the binocs the Tusken offered him to get a better look at the terrain. "It lives in an abandoned sarlacc pit."

"Lived on Tatooine my whole life." Cobb sounded, "There's no such thing as an abandoned sarlacc pit." the Marshal said very matter-of-factly.

"There is if you eat the sarlacc" Din noted darkly, handing the binocs back. "They're laying out the Bantha to protect the settlement. They've studied its digestion cycle for generations. They feed the dragon to make it sleep longer. Watch, the dragon will appear."

They all turned to look on with interest.

At the mouth of the cave, the Tusken that was standing with the Bantha sent out a call. It echoed out into the air. And not long after that did a rumble and a low roar follow. Even at the far distance that they were located, they could still feel the ground tremble.

The Tusken at the cave turned around and immediately started to run away back towards them as the roars continued to grow louder.

Just then, out of the shadows of the cave, a pointy head and a mouthful of sharp teeth, bigger than the Razorcrest, came slithering out of the pit.

Ellia's eyes widened in fear as she watched it completely ignore the Bantha, and instead chomped down on the retreating Tusken.

The child whimpered in fear from next to her, as the Sand People by their sides shouted in shocked horror as the dragon slowly retreated back into the cave.

A tense silence followed its leave.

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

The group traveled back to the camp to regroup. They stood behind a squadron of Tuskens as they knelt in the sand, encircling an improvised battle-strategy, frantically discussing a plan.

"What are the bones?" Cobb asked in reference to the makeshift model.

"That's the Krayt dragon." Din answered.

"And those little rocks?"

"That's us."

"It's not to scale."

"I think it is" Ellia piped up, her arms crossed over her chest.

"Can't be. That's too big." Cobb argued again.

Din turned to ask the Tusken closest to him for some clarification. He leaned back a few seconds later,

"It's to scale." he reported.

Cobb scoffed,

"I've only seen its head and neck." he admitted. "That's a whole lot bigger'n I guess. Might be time to rethink our arrangement." he noted, pointing to the battle plan, worry evident in his voice.

Din turned to converse with the Tuskens once more. And in response to that, they dropped a few more rocks into the model.

"That's more like it." Cobb said excitedly. "Where are they getting the reinforcements?"