Chapter 6

Pulling his dagger out with a crunch, Valin let out a breath. It has been four days since he started to his adventure in the dry and rocky deserts of Tatooine. The biggest problem and most important task were securing a source of water. The one bottle he was given at the start would only last so long and even if he would ration it carefully, it would last at most for a day considering the extreme temperatures this planet showed until the sun finally set at the end of each day. Staying hydrated was one of the basics after all.

After he luckily managed to find a small spring, he focused on the next three necessities he deemed as important. Fire, shelter, and food. Since the nights could get as cold as the days would get hot, fire was nearly as important as water. He was just glad that he could start one with his gun and could otherwise spend his energy on other tasks. The shelter was to escape the extreme weather and sudden sandstorms that happened from time to time.

Thinking up to there, he thought if it was the right decision to start his training on this hostile planet. Till now he had a mostly pleasant experience as his money could satiate all his need in terms of living experience. Shaking his head he concentrated on the task at hand, he could think about it when he was finally picked up again.

Looking down at his last prey, he grimaced. It was a small dune lizard that he managed to surprise while it slept, and he was glad he did. It would have been a pain to chase it through the sand and at night at that. Those things were part of the staple food of Tusken Raiders and they were horrible as he didn't even have an ounce of spices to cover the taste. Not that it was of high priority at the moment. Having something to fill his stomach was of more importance, but he swore he would visit a planet with a rich culture and variety of foods as soon as he left this planet.

Wasting no further time, he started to skin the lizard. Afterwards he removed all the mostly inedible or dangerous parts like the head, claws, and most of the intestines. Some parts of it were just disgusting, while others were outright dangerous as they contained poison.

He took his prepared meal back to his camp, a small, abandoned cave he chanced upon on the start of his second day. It definitely helped him cool down from the constant heat that tortured him for most of the first day.

Planting his prey onto a small stick he scavenged from the rare tree one would find out in the open, he put it besides the fire and sat back, leaning onto the cold wall from the cave. Besides him was his water bottle he fixated and complemented with a rather big leaf to gather the occasional drops of water that fell from the ceiling

He spent the next two hours going over his plan again while eating and drinking as much as possible without upsetting his stomach. He planned to finally hunt something worthy and leave this place for good.

The last two days he saw a multitude of creatures, ranging from the mostly small species of rats to the apex predators inhabiting this desert. That was the reason why it took him so long to find a worthy prey, he had to avoid getting killed by some straying krayt dragons and not to wander into the territory of a sarlacc. Those were nasty and not always obvious to spot.

Objectively he could have tried to build a trap and bet on his blaster's firepower to go after one of those predators, but truthfully his chances were slim with his current equipment. He had no plan to get chased by a hundred-meter-long beast just to let his fantasies get over his head.

No, the plan was to go after a wraid. They were still dangerous as they were giant compared to humans, averaging out around four to five meters and rarely ever seen alone, but he managed to spot one that was cast out from his group. As they are most active during the day, he chose nighttime close to morning to strike and surprise the creature if possible.

Taking one last look at his home for the last few days, he gathered his belongings and prepared himself mentally before he exited the cave.

With only the moons at the horizon illuminating his path, he followed the trails he discovered earlier. Thankfully there was no wind tonight and they were still present. He concentrated on following them silently for nearly ten minutes while avoiding every possible hideout of other being inhabiting this desert.

After he came close to a big rock, he began to get extra careful. The only think one could hear was the loud snoring of a big beast and occasional cries of animals in the distance. Slowly creeping around the rock, he came to face the creature he made out as his prey.

Its height should be around four meters if it was standing on its humungous front legs. Together with the sharp claws at their end and the rows of sharp teeth it was one of the more dangerous beings around. Even his breath would classify as a lethal weapon Valin chuckled internally.

He decided to use his dagger again as the element of surprise was on his side and the wraid was still sleeping.

Standing beside this behemoth compared to his own size he analysed the wraid. The bodily structure of wraits had several peculiarities aside from the claw's teeth and overly muscular front legs. Their necks were outstandingly muscular and even their heads had thick plates of bones that made it nearly impossible to penetrate. The weakest parts of their bodies were their throat and the area around the stomach, which were not visible as it was currently lying on its front.

As he was thinking if it wouldn't just be better to just shoot it and make a run for it before anything else could appear, he heard several screeches nearing in the distance. The voices even making the wraid react.

"F*ucking hell!" Valin cursed under his breath. How could he even expect something to go the way he wished. The only species he could relate to flying hunters that mostly went out in the night, were the female population of bonegnawer's. He really wanted to bring his squad of space marine droids to blast those damn oversized vultures.

In the end this just showed to always make back-up plans and to be be prepared for the unexpected.

He quickly hid behind the rock and took out his particle magnum. No way in hell would he still try to sneak around and get a kill with his dagger. The odds were bad enough as it is.

Taking a peek around the rock again, he looked at the moving form of seven silhouettes coming closer at breakneck speed. The biggest having a wingspan of over ten meters if his estimation was correct.

Since his old plan went out of the window, he made a new one on the fly. He would use the now awoken and pissed wraid as a bait to shoot down all the bonegnawers while they concentrated on something else. He was just glad that he didn't use his gun aside from making a fire once and the power cell still had most of its energy left.

As their winged opponents closed in he took in their positions one last time as he counted down. He would shoot them close before they managed to rip apart the wraid. Wraids were strong, but even they can't last against seven flying enemies of this size. And Valin knew he needed a bait for as long as possible.

He wanted to shoot down all of them here so that they couldn't flee and come back later to hit him unexpectedly.

'3'

His finger tensed slightly while he relaxed his wrist for the sudden movement to take aim.

'2'

He opened his eyes and tensed his legs as the cries became louder.

'1'

He moved his body as he quickly began to spin out from behind the rock and stood eight meters behind the unsuspecting wraid. Three bonegnawers were already diving onto the wraid, intent at ripping it apart. Their focus shifted onto Valin the moment he showed himself, but it was too late.

'0'

His gun blasted three consecutive shots, hitting the outer two birds of prey onto one of their wings, easily ripping them off. The one in the middle was not as lucky as his head exploded with the energy impacting it.

The wraid was confused but had no chance to react as the injured bodies impacted close to it, forcing it onto the offensive. Valin meanwhile rolled out of the way. There was no chance that he would tank those giants hitting him directly.

He was glad that he could take out three enemies directly at the start as he heard the furious cries of anger from the leftover birds in the sky. The wraid managed to rip out the throat of one of the crashed birds and instantly made his way over to the other one.

In a weird way they made for a good team at the moment. While wary, the other bonegnawers were blinded by their emotions of loosing part of their flock and began to descend in a nosedive. Valin took a few shots, they barely avoided, barrel rolling out of their way as the wraid roared to the sky, his giant legs pounding the ground.

As they came closer, Valin grazed two of them enough to loose their stability as they crashed, the other two targeted him and the wraid respectively. The wraid began to roll around with his opponent, both of them earning themselves a lot wounds from claws, teeth and aggressive pecks.

Valin had no other choice but to roll out of the way again. This whole hunt felt more like playing Dark Souls than anything else at the moment. One wrong move and he would lose his life and the best way to go about it was to roll around on the ground.

As he stood up, the bird was already upon him an he just barely managed to angle his gun and blasting off the leg that meant to strike him. The bird losing his balance flapped its wings furiously and directed its gaze at Valin again, only to be met with eyes that showed their single-minded focus. Not even a second later a red light lit up before it went dark again.

Having survived this close call, Valin took in his surroundings, and his eyes met those of the wraid for only a moment, surprised that it managed to win its own fight. Despite its bloodied appearance it made its way over to one of the still living bonegnawers, its action prompting Valin to do the same as they ended the last oppositions they had for the moment.

As they concentrated on each other again, it was clear that both of them had no interest in fighting against each other anymore. Valin was sure he easily accomplished his objective already and was tired as hell. The wraid was injured already and it had no reason to fight Valin as he helped it earlier from its limited understanding.

It was a weird moment of bonding they shared after their battle together. The wraid that was considered as a non-sentient by most people showed more character than a lot people he met in both of his lives. He might be wrong and just on a high of adrenaline, but he would cherish this weird memory. He might have just imagined the wraid giving something akin to a small nod as it grabbed one of the corpses and dragged it with him, disappearing into the distance.

Cutting of one of the biggest bonegnawer's claws as a trophy to remember his accomplishment he sat on the rock and decided to wait. He was sure that the Mandalorians watched from a safe distance and would come to pick him up soon.

His expectations were met positively not even five minutes later as he turned to the slowly rising sun and spotted a quickly approaching ship in the distance.

"Finally." He breathed out as a small smile made its way onto his face.

He walked in their direction and already imagined a comfortable bed for the first time in several days.

To his confusion the ship turned in mid-air as it made to land with the ramp at the back of the ship already slowly opening. Due to the sun blinding him, it took a while to see Brachium and Thwak frantically waving at him. Quickening his steps a bit, he wondered what this was about until they ship fired one of its turrets behind him, followed by a loud cry of a creature, causing pain to his eardrums.

As he turned around, he was met with a sight that he wanted to avoid at all costs during the last few days. A freaking krayt dragon was chasing him as he neared the ship. Letting his instincts take over, he began to sprint into the direction of the ship with the last of his strength, hoping that they would manage to hold of the dragon long enough for him to arrive and them to start flying.

There was no way he was trying to fight this beast that could even shrug off the shot from their ship for the most part, especially not in his tired condition.

Seconds felt like hours with the ship growing bigger and bigger and occasional blaster fire passing him. His heart rate speed up as he ran. After agonizing moments of panic he reached the ramp and managed to jump in.

"The hell was that, where did that dragon come from so suddenly!" He knew they were dangerous, but not that they could be that silent considering that they were the size of multiple buildings.

They could have probably killed the dragon with the turrets of their ship and additional weapons and explosives they had, but there was no guarantee to end the beast before he got to Valin or not to implicate Valin in their

bombardment using heavy weapons.

Looking back as the ship further ascended, they saw a giant krayt dragon emerge out of the sand and he would have gotten close to them if they were only a bit slower. Its maw that was filled with multiple giant teeth closed shut loudly, grasping nothing but air.

Dunn came up behind Valin and patted him on the shoulder.

"Well done, Valin." He said, his eyes concentrated on the beast as well.

"I just want to get some sleep, we can talk later." Valin replied to the amusement of the crew, but they understood that he was in no mood or conditions to humour them at the moment. Internally all of them were impressed at how he handled himself. They weren't sure they would be able to do as good with the limited amount of equipment he had. Their impression of Valin became a lot better while watching him the last few days and just moments before.

He would definitely be able to grow into being a worthy leader for them.

As the ramp closed, they moved to sit down, while cheering at the close call.

He was still thinking about how this giant and majestic creature could move like this in- and outside the sand. That was something unthinkable in his old life, but it only made him more excited to see more of what his new reality had to offer.

As he sat beside the window, lost in his own thoughts, the exertions of the previous days finally began to catch up as he drifted into sleep.