Listen children, here is a story.
One day there was a slave named Kara. Kara was a rebellious slave and was always finding ways to mock Depur. Depur had a big ego and his pride could not stand to bear such defiance from a lowly slave. He thought that such disrespect was a bad example to the other slaves and would inspire them to disobey him. Depur wanted nothing more than to be rid of Kara. So he brought her to his palace and made her kneel before his throne. He said to Kara,
"You have disrespecting me too many times. Even when I punish you, you are rebellious. I must show the slaves once and for all what the consequences are for not showing proper deference to Depur." Depur told Kara that she would be taken out into the desert sands and killed.
Kara's heart was full of fear. But still she held her head high and looked Depur in the eyes in defiance. She told the Depur:
"You can kill me, oh Depur. But know this. My spirit will live on in the desert and in the people long after your power turns to dust."
Depur became enraged at hearing this and ordered the enforcers to put a binding on Kara's mouth so she could not speak any more words of rebellion.
So the enforcers bound and gagged Kara and took her out into the desert so as to kill her. But just before they were about to set her detonator off, a wild raging sandstorm blew in from nowhere.
The enforcers and Kara were trapped in the raging sandstorm. The wind raged and howled and blew. But Kara did not feel fear. The sand tore her clothes to shreds and dug into her skin and flesh and left her bleeding, but still she felt no fear. The sand also dug into the bindings around her mouth and arms and tore them open.
After the storm had ended Kara was left bleeding and in pain, and feeling like she was going to die. But she didn't die. Slowly her blood stopped flowing and her strength returned. And she stood up under the light of the three moons, all alone and covered in blood.
She walked until she came upon something. The tattered jacket of one of the overseers, the jacket that he wore as a uniform. She brought it with her.
She kept walking, looking up towards the sky. The stars guided her to a secret oasis hidden in the desert and here she went to sleep. She woke up in the morning and gathered nuts leaves and flowers to make her breakfast with. She washed herself in the river, keeping the jacket with her.
As the days went by she walked among the desert like Ikkelta and she gathered strength and healed. The Mother's suns shone above her and the Mother's moons gave her sweet, cool water.
She went to the balenka tree. And after asking for the tree for help, she took a piece of its stringy bark and boiled it down into fine thread. She went to the parchi bush. And after asking the bush for help she picked off a thin, dry, spiny leaf to use as a needle. She then went to the Alootha plant. And she asked for some of its white flowers to soak into a juice. Finally she went to the kaktru plant and asked for a piece of sharp cladode. She offered gifts of water to the plants in return for the gifts they gave her.
She used the needle and thread to stitch up the jacket. She then used the juice to dye her desert-parched skin light. She used the kaktru cladode to shear her hair down. She caked dust onto the jacket so that all the seams were hidden and she caked dust on herself so it looked like she'd been caught in a sandstorm. She put on the jacket. And finally she was ready.
Kara went back to Depur's palace. She bowed low before Depur and with a deep voice she said,
"Oh great and mighty Depur. I know you are wise and smart and keep track of all your business and thus have been expecting me to come a day earlier. But I am a foolish one and got caught in a sandstorm. I barely made it out alive. I know that you keep close track of all the proceedings in your domain and therefore expected a new overseer to arrive here yesterday. Please by your grace accept my humblest apologies."
Now Depur did not expect a new overseer but he did not want to look stupid so he simply said,
"Well you better not be late ever again! Now go to the overseers quarters and make yourself presentable."
And so Kara hid herself away as an overseer. But the other slaves recognized her as who she really was. They made sure to keep this fact hidden from Depur. And they conspired together in the darkness of the night.
Eventually they made a plan.
Kara took a small group of slaves and went in front of the Depur and she said,
"Oh mighty Depur. These slaves are rebellious and do not want to work. They are saying that they should be set free. Surely we must make an example of them."
Depur thought that these slaves must have been inspired by the rebellious Kara who he had killed. He didn't want any of his slaves to get ideas of freedom. So he said,
"Take them to the desert lands where Sketto flies. And chain them up there so that the Sketto can drain them dry. So that all may know what fate awaits them if they defy the great Depur."
And so Kara took the group of slaves. She took the children and the adults and the elders, and the babies in their parents' arms. And they went together to the place where Sketto flew. They brought with them water bags full of blood-red Tzai, a bundle of kaktru cladodes, and the rags of clothes that were too worn down for even the most desperate of people to wear.
Upon seeing them, Sketto swooped and snapped. But the people looked at Sketto with Dukkra in their eyes. Sketto calmed down and said to them,
"Who are you to dare to cross me?"
A grandmother looked Sketto in the eyes and spoke.
"We are the children of Ekkreth, and we come to you with gifts of Tzai. In return we seek your aid so that we may walk into the secret oasises of the desert without Depur following our tracks."
"I know this Ekkreth," responded Sketto, "and I would be very foolish to make an enemy of them. For they are like the desert sands, ever changing yet always the same. Fine. I will aid you."
So the people gave Sketto a bag of Tzai to drink.
The other bag of blood-red Tzai they emptied upon the ground. They placed their torn clothes on the ground and stained them with Tzai, and buried among them they placed the broken kaktru cladodes. Finally, Kara placed locked shackles and chains among the clothes.
Then the people walked into the desert, towards the secret oasises of water. And Kara covered their tracks.
Kara went back to Depur and showed him the torn clothes and shackles and the red staining the ground. Depur saw this and thought that surely these rebellious slaves were dead. And he commended Kara for her great work.
"You are a very good and loyal overseer," he told her.
In the darkness of the night Kara went back to the hovels of the slaves and she planned with them further.
A few weeks later a day came when Kara went to stand in front of Depur again, this time bringing a larger group of slaves.
"These slaves refuse to work," she told him, "and they refuse to obey your orders."
"Then they must see that only death awaits those who refuse to obey my orders and work. Take them to the Sarlacc pit so that Scarlacc might eat them!"
And so Kara bowed low before Depur and took the slaves away.
She went with the people, with the children and the adults and the elders, and the babies in their parents' arms. Again they took their rags and their blood-red Tzai. And they went together to the Great Pit of Carkoon where the Sarlacc dwells. They stood in front of the pit and started singing.
Grandfather Sarlacc emerged from the sand and said to the people, "Why my grandchildren, are you singing? Do you not know that Depur sits in his palace?"
The people replied, "We are singing because soon we will become free. We ask for your help, Grandfather Sarlacc, to become free. Will you help us fool Depur? We have brought for you a gift of Tzai."
"Why definitely, children of Ekkreth, I will help you become free."
So they gave one bag of Tzai for Grandfather Sarlacc to drink. And one bag of Tzai they poured over the ground and their rags, which they arranged around the base of Sarlacc's pit. And they went out into the wild places of the desert. And Kara covered their tracks.
Kara went back to Depur, and showed him the rags and Tzai. And Depur was very satisfied indeed, thinking that the slaves had been eaten by Sarlacc.
Finally on the eve of Marukeppu Kara brought together all the slaves. All the children and the adults and the elders. All the babies in their parents' arms. And she stood in front of Depur.
"All the slaves are refusing to work," she said, "and not even whipping them is convincing them to do their tasks."
Depur grew very enraged but he also grew very frightened. If he killed all his slaves he would have no-one left to work for him. So he told Kara
"Come with me so that we may discuss their punishment."
Kara swallowed own her fear and followed Depur into a secluded room of the palace. Depur turned to her and said,
"Do not kill all the slaves this time. Make them believe that you will kill them but at the last minute turn around as if you are having a great change of heart and ask me for mercy. When I grant them this mercy they will be so grateful that they will learn their proper place under me."
Kara bowed before Depur.
"As you wish," she told him.
And so she went with all the people out into the desert again. Again they brought with them destroyed clothes and Tzai. They kept walking in the sands, under the suns.
Suddenly Ikkelta strode out from the great distances in the desert and met them.
"Ikkelta!" the people cried, "have you come to set us free?"
Ikkelta let out a great roar into the sky. The people gave her a bag of Tzai to drink and spilled the other bag of Tzai onto the ground. Then they walked with Ikkelta into the oasises of the desert. Kara walked with them. And the swishing of Ikkelta's tail covered their tracks.
Depur thought all his slaves had been eaten by the mighty krayt dragon. And he fumed and raged because he no longer had any slaves.
That night, Kara thanked the sandstorm, and the night, and Sketto and Sarlacc and Leia, and the desert and the plants and the river, for bringing her her freedom. And she thanked her people, who were now all free.
I tell you this story to save your life.
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