Imperial times- Dantooine

Claws flexed, heart pounding, senses focused on the peeping bird in front of him. It hadn�t seen him or sensed him yet, but he sensed it like a flare in a dark room. He rested his chin on the grass, ignoring the tickle of the green blades against his twin-goatee.

The bird hopped and peeped, pecking at some bugs it scratched out from between the roots of the shrub. Half-hidden in the mottled shadows of the tree and perfectly camouflaged against the grass, motionless, Tarik waited.

Food, not Jedi, not Stormtrooper, but food. This was the kind of hunt he liked, this is what he should be doing, not living off garbage on the streets, hoping no one killed him before the sun set.

He flicked his tongue slowly, patiently scanning the surrounding scents. No one would scare the bird this time, it was all his. He leaned forward, muscles tensing, tail twitching anxiously behind him. The bird heard the rustle as he moved, and looked around, peeping uncertainly, searching. It didn�t have time to see him, it was over in one swift lunge and bite.

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Tarik chirped happily as he came back to camp, carrying the bird with him. A few of the rebels had a small fire going, with the same kind of bird roasting over the flames. Mina was sitting next to Derek, talking as he approached. He chirruped in triumph as he hopped over to Mina.

"Hiees!" he said cheerfully, sneaking up behind her.

"Tarik!" she gasped, jumping in surprise.

He snickered, "look!" he said, holding out the bird.

"It took us hours to catch one of those!" the rebel who was sitting closest to the fire said.

"Tarik snickered again, "Beginner luck?" he said with a shrug, handing them the bird. "Dinner!" he chuckled, sitting next to Mina on the ground, tail swishing happily.

"Looks like you finally put all that to use hunting more than Stormtroopers, huh Tarik?" Derek teased, pointing at his claws. Tarik peeped softly, giving his closest imitation of a smile.

"Said me was hunter," he said.

"That taste better than trooper, Blagh!" he added, wrinkling his snout and sticking out his tongue. A few uncertain snickers filtered around, no one was quite sure of what to make of Tarik yet.

"Well, I�m glad you�ve found something you like," Mina said, smiling. Tarik chirped, swishing his tail happily.

"Yeah, me like here! no troopers, no Drathan, no big stink-tunnel rats!" he said enthusiastically. Mina suddenly looked thoughtful, then serious.

"Tarik, how would you like to stay here?" she asked.

"Like!" Tarik said happily, then thought of something, "But rebels no stay, so mees not be stay," he said, looking a little confused.

"We have to leave," Mina said, "But you could stay," she finished, watching the confusion turn into disbelief.

"No! no stay, come with you!" he insisted.

"Tarik, you wouldn�t be happy trapped on a starship, but you�d like it here, you said it yourself, and you�d be safe here," she said.

"No," he growled "No stay, Mina go, I go," he said, crossing his arms over his chest insistently.

"Tarik, think about it," she persisted. "No Empire to hunt you, no Stormtroopers to chase you, plenty of things to hunt other than people."

He growled at the last comment, "No hunt people, people hunt mees," he grumbled. "Man in black, Drathan, troopers, Drekano thugs, all hunt," he said quietly, unhappily. "Man in black no look here," he mused aloud, looking around.

"No one will ever look for you here, Tarik. Stay here, be safe," Mina pleaded. He ticked softly to himself, thinking.

"Mina come back, visit?" he asked.

"Maybe," she said.

"Maybe?" Tarik said, snorting.

"Tarik, there�s a war happening. I�m not sure how much you understand, or if you even realize what�s going on, but the galaxy is a dangerous place right now," she said.

Tarik�s ears snapped flat to his head with a hissing snort.

"No, big dumb animal not know what war is," he snapped angrily. "Mees just stupid lizard, live on street and eat garbage," he growled. "Me person, Mina!" she shouted, standing to his full height. "Maybe slow, but no stupid. I see fight, I see more troopers, I see people kill for no reason on street. I see city choke to death slow, even down to roots, down where me live."

He growled, sinking back to his normal half-crouch/ half-stand. "More pain gonna come before people wake up," he said quietly, orange eyes on the verge of tears. "Things gotta change, things are change, just no see, hafta look to see," he said emphatically. "Tarik no stupid," he said gently, "Just no talk right, and maybe look funny," he said with a shrug. He sighed, looking at the assembled rebels.

"Mees stay here, you no need me in way, just be trouble," he said with a sad chirrup. He leaned over to Mina and pressed his snout to her cheek in the best imitation of a kiss he could manage. "Bye Mina," he said softly, backing away.

"Tarik..." she began, but he turned away. He walked away from them, toward the small forest northeast of their encampment. He faded into the grass in the waning light, disappearing from sight before anyone had a chance to realize what had happened.

Derek was the first to recover. He swore quietly, shaking his head.

"He loves you," he said, looking at her, dumbfounded. Mina shook her head in denial.

"He loved you and you just called him a dumb freak to his face!" Derek said, angry and astonished.

"I...I didn�t!" she said, stunned.

"You might as well have! did you even think about what you just said?" he shouted, standing.

"I.." she began, but couldn�t find anything to say.

Derek just turned and walked back to the temporary barracks. A few astonished and confused comments filtered around the campfire. Mina just sat there, stunned and confused, and extremely embarrassed.

She stood and walked back to her own tent, barely making it there before she sank to the ground, crying.

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Tarik spent the night on the ground, shivering despite the relative warmth of the night compared to Coruscant. He sobbed himself to sleep, wondering if that�s all Mina ever saw, a big dumb freak who crawled out of a cloning vat and rescued her.

"Not a freak," he hissed to himself as the sky grew progressively darker. His sensitive ears could hear them packing up some of the parts of the camp, but he didn�t care. He hissed angrily at them, Mina included. "Not a freak," he snapped at nothing or no one in particular, uncurling his tail from his leg.

He chirruped softly, wiping at his eyes with the back of a clawed hand. And after all that, I even lost the bird I caught, he grumbled to himself.

He shivered again, rubbing his rumbling stomach unhappily. If he really did stay here, the first thing he was going to do was hunt another bird and cook it himself, no more asking people to help. Maybe he�d go see if their ocean had real fish in it, maybe something he could eat, maybe he�d just go for a swim.

No more city, no more people, just Tarik, he thought, looking toward the faint glow from the campsite fire.

"Not a freak," he hissed one last time, falling asleep slowly, still crying.

----on to Part 4 of Chapter 5---

© 2000 Michelle Petrosky

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