The dewback lunged forward, planting itself between Zak and Tash and the avalanche.
Tash and Zak threw their arms over their heads as the boulder slammed into the dewback’s side. The dewback Hoole grunted, but didn’t move.
Shocked out of her paralyzed state, Tash felt a flush of anger. She had seen someone on the hill. Someone had started the avalanche on purpose!
Around them, the Dantari shouted and screamed, searching for cover.
“Over here!” Tash yelled, motioning for the Dantari with her outstretched arms. Her voice was drowned out by the rumbling and scraping of falling rocks, but many of the Dantari saw her movements and dove for the cover of the dewback’s broad body.
More boulders slammed into Hoole, but the Shi’ido stubbornly held his ground.
Most of the Dantari had reached safety behind Hoole, but a small Dantari child stumbled and fell to her knees, crying. Her mother turned and started back for her just as another boulder came hurtling into the ravine. It was going to land right on the child.
“Look out!” shouted Zak, but they could see that the little girl couldn’t move in time.
Tash was too angry to think. She reached out with the Force, trying to move the flying rock the same way she’d moved the pendant. She pushed with her mind. In the split second before the falling stone would hit the girl, Tash felt something give, like a stuck drawer suddenly opening. The rock slammed to the ground, just missing the Dantari girl’s head.
“That was close!”
“Yeah,” Tash said. She felt exhausted, as though she’d just finished a footrace.
The dewback shivered, and a moment later, Hoole stood in its place. Boulders were piled up all around him. The Shi’ido’s stern face wrinkled into a grimace of pain, and he rubbed his left arm.
“Are you all right, Uncle Hoole?” Zak asked.
“I am… bruised,” Hoole replied. “Many of those boulders were quite heavy, and traveling quickly. Even in the form of a dewback, I’m afraid I took a beating.”
It seemed like a miracle, but no one else was hurt. Many of the Dantari had not yet entered the ravine. And those who had, managed to find safety as the rocks fell.
The travelers hurried the rest of the way through the ravine and came out on the other side of the hills. By now the sun had begun to set. Before them stretched the prairie.
“Oh, that’s just prime,” Zak groaned. “More grass.”
“This looks different, though,” Tash said. She squinted and stared at something. On the horizon, she could just make out a few shapes rising out of the grassland. They were too small to be hills and too large to be trees. “There’s something out there.”
Zak squinted, looking where Tash pointed. “I wonder what it is.”
“We’ll have to find out tomorrow,” Hoole replied. “The Dantari have decided to set up camp for the evening.”
This was the most unsettling time of day for Zak and Tash. They were nearly blind in the thickening darkness, while the Dantari seemed to have no problem setting up their animal-skin tents in the dark. Today, however, Zak, Tash, and Hoole quickly set up their tent while the sun was still throwing reddish rays over the prairie. By the time it had set, they were sitting around a small campfire in front of their tent, just one of a dozen campfires lighting the temporary village.
“I’m glad no one was hurt,” Tash said, finally catching her breath. “But there’s still a problem. Who started the rockslide?”
Hoole raised an eyebrow. “Why do you ask that? I suspect such occurrences are quite common in these hills.”
“Maybe,” Tash said. “But I think this one was started on purpose.” She told them what she’d seen on the hill.
“Are you sure you saw a Dantari?” Hoole asked.
Tash shrugged. “I can’t be sure. Everything happened so quickly. But I saw someone… and whoever it was, was as big as a Dantari. As big as a certain Dantari we all know and hate.”
Hoole sighed. “You mustn’t hate Maga, Tash. Remember, we are intruders in his tribe. And we have taken away some of his authority. But,” the Shi’ido added, “if you think that Maga is the being you saw, we must report this to the elders.”
Zak and Tash jumped to their feet and followed Hoole through the collection of tents until they reached a campfire burning at the center of the temporary village.
Unlike some other cultures, the Dantari didn’t have one single leader. All important decisions were made by five or six of the oldest and most experienced members of the tribe. These elders generally discussed any problems facing their people and tried to find a solution together. The closest thing the Dantari had to a king or a chief was Maga, the garoo.