When you are traversing the wild and untouched landscapes of the savannah, just remind yourself that you are never the apex predator. The vast and desolate area of sand, rocks, dead and ancient trees are all the same blood-orange color for a simple reason: to hide your worst nightmare from your sight, the Akul. A large, bipedal and orange furred mammal, the Akul are the top predators that hunt all sorts of bovine, dog, hooved and giant mammals. Using their extraordinary sense of smell, they can trace your scent from days long past and track you down without mercy.

Throughout the Savannah, tall and wispy Turu-grass stretches out into long ranging fields. Watering holes are sparse and spread thin, and the terrain offers little safety from the blazing sun that hangs overhead. When the sun retreats and gives way to moonlight, the Savannah becomes almost chill, but the night is dark and full of wild creatures. In the Savannah, it’s hunt or be hunted.

Our goals are simple,

we shall have fun.

Either we shall find a way,

or we shall make one.

The quote blared like a siren through the mind of the Sith Zelosian whilst he trekked through the tall and wispy Turu-grass, his eyes on the horizon. It was the infamous quote of the disciples of old, who were strong followers of Marka Ragnos. Indeed, they had never heard of the Dark Jedi Brotherhood who were only a shimmer of light in the existence of time, but it fitted nicely. The most honourific representative of this House named after the Sith Lord, Sanguinius, slithered through the grass like a hunter on the scent. His eyes had no trouble discerning life from the camouflaged landscape, while Lexiconus couldn’t determine the grass from Sang. The Sith was becoming impatient from the travelling and decided to prod his partner for answers.

“Sang, why didn’t we just take the shuttle to this village? They use technology just like us.”

“Because this village doesn’t, and is completely cut from the cities. This also gives us the chance to stalk enemy recruiters, should they decide to get here first.” Sang replied, a wisp of peace accented this voice.

“There’s competition!? Then we should of been there by now and left! We don’t want to go in guns blazing!” Lexic quickly retorted. His response was not met with an answer, but with a hard and quick slap across the face. Sang slowly raised his hand to the Zelosian’s shocked face to cover his mouth for silence, and lowered to the floor of the savannah. Lexic couldn’t see anything at first, of course his light dependant eyes were going to have immense trouble with visual illusions. But the longer he stared, the more he could detect the presence of something. He felt the intentions of something large, with the principle to kill and stalk for the joy of itself and the pack. He felt the emotional spectrum of this killer in the grass, an emotion of anger, of fear and of intense pain. Then a sharp glint of ruby in the grass was all Sang needed, he slowly began to crawl through the grass and towards the glinting light, whilst his Sith partner followed suit. Once the creature revealed itself in the opening, the duo could see there was an issue. A large and powerful Akul, the apex predator of this savannah, lay on it’s side wheezing. With the cherry blood clashing with it’s tigerous fibers, Lexic could distinctly tell the beast was in immense pain. As the two looked around, the Jedi found a hand-made spear poking from the belly of the Akul, it was lodged deeply and possibly met the spine.

“We should kill it quietly, it’s gonna call for the pack constantly and that’ll warn anyone else out there.” Sang said to Lexic, as the Jedi began to take out it’s lightsaber.

Lexic stared into the beast’s bright eye and pressed his warm palm on it’s ribs. He felt a harsh and struggled gasp of breath, something commonly related to internal bleeding inside the lungs, it was something Lexic could mend. All of this was something he could bind back to use, the Force had given him great powers for this exact scenario. But when his eyes searched into Sang’s, he could only see sadness and not hope.

“I can fix him, Sang. He’ll be better again by my hands in some hours.”

“We don’t have that time, Lex. Put him down and lets make up for lost time.”

“No!” Lexic growled out in anger at the Jedi, he wanted to save this creature and he wasn’t going to allow it a cold and careless death. Sang approached the head of the beast with his lightsaber carefully in his hand and looked into the weak eyes of the Akul, he could see the pain and the fear. As Sang aimed his weapon at the dying beast, Lexic had his own lightsaber ignited, the emerald glow close to the Jedi’s neck.

“I may not be as talented with this blade as you. But I will not let you end his life just because you cannot save it. We could of saved time by taking a shuttle to this village, so time will not be your excuse.” Lexic stared at Sang as the Jedi slowly ran his eyes down the blade which was close to his neck and into the jade eyes of his Sith partner.

Lexic gulped and trembled slightly as he tried to keep up a false confidence. He knew this wasn’t a winning battle.

“Put the blade down, boy.” his voice was iron. “You don't want to do this.”

Sanguinius stared into the wavering eyes of the Warrior before him. The Entar was disappointed with Lexic's choice. The young Zelosian loved nature, it was the one redeeming feature of the Sith. But his dislike of people left something to be desired. He had picked the young man to join him in order to train him, influence him and hopefully broaden Aurelius' horizons.

That hope had been dashed in one swift instant. The emerald blade at his throat was the last straw for the Vanguard. Sang turned fully away from the Akul to face Lexic, his cerulean lightsaber a counterpoint to the bright orange savannah.

The cerulean blade swept up, smashing the lightsaber away from his throat before the Jedi darted in to slam a fist into the surprised face of the Zelosian. Lexic staggered back, quickly recovering and defended himself from a follow up slash from the Anaxsi.

Sanguinius sighed as he continued to attack his fellow Sadowan, he had no wish to kill the young man, especially with the injured Akul behind him. Vital seconds lost fighting meant other Akul in the area becoming alerted and coming to the injured one's aid.

“Use your brain, Lexic. His cries will bring other Akul here, they will hunt us and kill us.”

Lexic deflected a half-hearted strike and shouted in response, “I don't care, Sang! You should trust me!”

“You're an utter idiot sometimes, boy.” Sang replied as he moved his head to one side to avoid a thrust aimed towards it. The Jedi ducked beneath another swing and rose to deflect a third as his half-hearted attack allowed Lexic to counter-attack.

The cries of the wounded Akul punctuated the sounds of the lightsabers connecting, its legs moving pitifully as it slowly died of blood loss. Sanguinius felt sorry for the creature, but at the same time, it was the story of life that all life ended.

Chills ran down the Vanguard's back as he sensed danger behind him, sudden realisation dawned as his ears registered a chorus of replies to the wounded Akul's cries.

“Lexic.....I hate to say I told you so. But I told you so.”

The Zelosian smiled at the sound of the cries, “Should've taken the shuttle.”

Sanguinius spun away from Lexic, trusting the Sith to not attack him from behind. He scanned the savannah, desperately trying to spot the oncoming Akul. This mission had gone completely awry and his carefully laid plans had gone to nought. The Entar was not happy.

Sanguinius is Disqualified for failing to meet the 450 minimum word cap.

-W