Imperial times- Dantooine

Eighteen hours later, the rebel copilot kept as far from Tarik�s slowly awakening form as possible as he walked back toward the exit ramp. He glanced over his shoulder at the groggy creature as Mina helped undo his seat restraints and tapped him on the snout with a finger playfully.

He snorted, then yawned, exposing his huge teeth and stretching his claws. The copilot backed into Minero as Tarik closed his mouth and scratched at an ear sleepily.

"Don�t worry, he�s more yawn than bite," the old man said with a smile, nodding toward the scaly creature. Tarik hopped out of his chair, uncurling his tail and scratching his ear again. He pivoted his ears curiously, sniffing the air.

"Mina, what noise?" he said, looking around curiously.

Mina listened, "That�s just a bird outside," she said, stuffing the blanket Tarik had been sleeping under back into the storage compartment. He flicked his ears at the chirping curiously.

"What burr?" he asked, cocking his head curiously.

"No, bird," she corrected, "Come see," she said, gesturing toward the ramp as it opened. He trotted along behind her, ears flicking curiously as they neared the outside. Mina walked down the ramp and waved for him to follow, but he stayed put on the ramp, staring around dumbstruck.

Tarik stopped dead on the ramp, bewildered and awestruck by the strange environment surrounding him. There were no buildings in sight, only big flat places of some sort of green stuff that the others walked across without caring what it was.

The green stuff moved in the breeze, and it smelled alive, Tarik guessed it was some sort of plant, but he�d never seen so many green plants in one place. There were a few tall things that looked like the trees he�d seen in planters in the top-side park with the statues, but these were huge in comparison. Some sort of feathered animal flew out of a clump of green plants, flying away into a sky bluer than any he�d seen on the clearest day on Coruscant.

He peeped timidly, sitting down on the ramp in confusion and awe.

"No building?" he finally cheeped out, sounding strange.

"Nope, no buildings," Derek said, standing a few paces away next to some alien Tarik didn�t recognize.

"All green," he whispered, awestruck, looking under the edge of the ramp to see how far the grass went.

"Mostly. The ocean�s that way a few kilometers," another person he didn�t know said from the small group assembling curiously nearby, watching him and talking to the others. Tarik sniffed the air, he smelled animals and plants, and only the very faintest trace of a large body of water.

"Big water, no stink? no like dead water in city?" he asked, slowly starting to adjust to his strange new surroundings.

"Nope, it smells pretty nice. Nothing like that stagnant pond they call an ocean on Coruscant," Derek said, then turned away to greet someone in a uniform.

Tarik crept closer to the end of the ramp, timidly sniffing at the grass in wonder. He flicked his tongue curiously, and instantly backed his head away from the grass in distaste.

"Bah, dirt," he muttered, rubbing at his snout and flicking his tongue again to clear the taste of dirt from it. He tentatively poked at the grass with a clawed hand.

"It�s not going to eat you, scaly," Derek laughed. Tarik snorted at him, looking back toward the ground.

Satisfied that it was safe if everyone else was touching it, he set a hand onto the grass, feeling the warmth of the sunlight beaming down on the field. He chirped, stepping off the ramp and arching his tail to the side curiously, only the tip moving slowly.

He chirruped again, flicking his ears and clicking happily. The group seemed to have mostly forgotten him as he paced around curiously, exploring the area around the ship.

Mina glanced over in time to see him roll onto his back in the grass, almost blending into the deep emerald field-grass. He sighed, orange eyes closed, letting the sunlight shine down on him as if he�d never felt the sun before. He had one arm propped under his head, and the other hand flopped across his tan-green chest.

That was when Mina first noticed how scrawny Tarik really was. The only mass on his bones was pure muscle, everything else was just color camouflage. The lines of his ribs were more visible in the highlighted relief from the sunlight.

The dark patches she�d taken for part of his normal coloring along the jaw were actually hollows that looked frighteningly emaciated in a brighter light. The look of relief and joy at being back with her friends and safe disintegrated from her features as she studied Tarik�s gaunt form lying in the grass.

Derek tapped her arm, asking something quietly. She whispered an answer, and they both looked over at Tarik as he lay basking in the sun. Derek shook his head, starting to look uneasy.

Tarik chirruped from the grass, rolling over onto his stomach and looking toward a small thicket as another feathered creature flew out of it. His tail twitched slowly, he flexed his claws thoughtfully, tracking the bird as it landed in the grass not too far away.

His ears pivoted forward, orange eyes intent, he flicked his tongue slowly, watching. Something gnawed at the back of his mind, an instinct long-restrained, forced onto another target instead of normal prey.

This was something to hunt, not a person, or a Jedi. Something that could be caught, eaten, chased with a reason.

Powerful muscles twitched under mottled and striped green skin, he flexed his claws, watching the little avian hop through the grass unafraid. It didn�t see him, it would never see him if he kept low and....

"Tarik?" a familiar voice called, pulling him out of the hunting instinct. He snorted loudly, the bird had flown away when she called him. He grumbled something to himself, then sat up.

"Made it go," he grumbled, trotting over to Mina.

"Sorry, I didn�t know you were watching the bird," she said, looking down at him as he hopped over a stone.

He sighed, "No sorry, no eat," he chirped, the looked around, realizing most of the group had disappeared, including Derek and Minero.

"Where Derek?" he asked, long pointed ears pivoting around curiously.

"Follow me," she said, walking toward a low, bunker-like prefabricated building.

----

The inside of the temporary base was a lot more like what Tarik was used to. It reeked of warm metal and plastic, and of too many people and non-human people. Most he didn�t recognize, but a few he did.

One alien, some sort of furry creature with a foul attitude, made a rude comment and shoved him out of the way with his foot. Tarik snarled viciously, making the alien back away until Mina called to him.

"Behave, please," she said quietly as he trotted over and stood beside her.

"Him kick," he complained with a soft snarl.

"I saw him, but you can�t go attacking him, he�s our only Bothan contact out here," she said quietly. He hissed at the fuzzy being softly, flicking one ear unhappily. His non-verbal warning seemed to be taken as the Bothan looked anxious, then went back to concentrating on what the others were saying.

"We�ll be moving the last of our people off this world soon, it�s getting too dangerous to stay put this long. We�ve all gotten a little complacent out here in the apparent safety of the trees and the grass. The new people are going to have to wait until last to go though, your group needs as much rest as they can get before moving," a human officer was saying.

"We can�t take the risk your people might be tracked back here from Coruscant though, so we�ll have to trade your ship. You�ll have to stay low, even here for a while, we don�t know what the Empire�s up to, but our Bothan friend here has warned us it�s probably going to be big. All right, that�s it for now. Everyone get some rest tonight, we�ve got to help pack up camp five in the morning and get our own gear loaded too."

Tarik nudged Mina�s hand, but she walked away without noticing him. She walked over to the officer who�d spoken and started asking him something. Tarik sighed, slinking toward the exit, ears drooping.

The flutter of something in the undergrowth near a small stand of trees distracted him from his dejection, bringing back the uncomfortable grumbling in his stomach. He flexed his claws in reflex, watching the shrubbery intently.

The light breeze had the scent of the same small avian creatures he�d seen earlier on it. He idly wondered if they were safe to eat.

One way to find out, he thought, dropping closer to the ground and creeping toward the shrubs.

----on to Part 3 of Chapter 5---

© 2000 Michelle Petrosky

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