He watched as the rising suns began to peer out over the distant hills to the far west, for Miradwin orbited it's binary suns "backwards" relative to other planets in the system, Valus didn't know the precise reason for this, something about the planet having been knock out of its original orbit billions of years ago. Ancient astro-history wasn't a concern of his, the fact that the suns had failed to reveal his herd of Drongas, however, was. The massive beasts were semi-wild, but very circular in their habits, dispersing into the forests at night and coming out into the fields of tube-grass in the mornings to feed. As Valus approached the edge of the tube-grass he could not spot the leathery backs of the Drongas which normally spotted the fields. He made his way to the fence and through the waist high grass, the fence was more of a formality, used to designate the edge of his property, Dronga could easily step over the fence. At twice his height, nearly six meters, Drongas were the largest animals in the region. Despite an impressive set of tusks and their large size, Dronga were very passive animals, Miradwin's early settlers found that they could easily milk the beasts without fear of retribution (Dronga nursed their young). Valus could see no prints in the grass, the herd hadn't even arrived yet. This was very troubling, Dronga milk was his family's main source of income, if his herd had wander too far off, or worse been slaughtered by poachers, his family would be out of a home! Letting out several short clicks, intended to resemble the calls Dronga young make when separated by their mothers, Valus tried to couch any beasts in the area to show themselves. Drongas never traveled in small groups, if he could locate at least on of his animals, the rest would be nearby. After a few minutes of searching the outer fringe of the nearby forest, Valus came across a gruesome sight, three dead Dronga, their massive bulk lay by the stream that trickled from the far off hills. As he got closer he could see that the smaller of the three, a female, had been partly skinned and beheaded. Valus let out a deep sigh, Drongas breed only once every two years, the loss of a female was a serious punch to the gut. He retrieved his comm-unit from his bag and contacted his oldest two sons to come and help him with cleanup, and to bring the gun. Valus didn't like having a gun around, he despised the damned things, but he had heard one too many stories of poachers who were willing to harm farmers.

After a couple of minutes his sons, Keah and Ralun, arrived. Keah, the oldest, had the gun slung across his back and carried the gas canister. Dronga were simply too big to bury, so it was customary to burn them when they died, considering how importuned the animals were to them, Valus though it was only appropriate to give them a funeral pyre. He began to douse the animals in fuel while Keah stood watch, Ralun walked up to the largest of the Dronga and rubbed his hands through the beast's patchy hair. "They got Skeevo, poor old Skeevo!" He said, kicking the dirt. "He never hurt anyone, and they killed him just to feed those ravenous maggots they call children!" Part of Valus sympathized with his son, but he also wished he would watch his words. While their people* were one species, they were divided into two very different races, Valus and his sons were members of the Nakandri race, who were shorter, more robust and more "wild" in appearance than the taller and slimmer Malvika race. The differences weren't just of the physical variety, Nakandri breed slower and took longer to reach maturity than Malvika. While Nakandri see themselves as closer to the ancestral type, Malvika saw them as "primitive", a throwback to a more savage time period. Miradwin was one of the few planets where Nakandri were allowed to live on somewhat equal terms as Malvika, who were both more populous and held more political power. And that showed no sign of changing.

The funeral was relatively uneventful, and after making sure that the bodies had burned  thoroughly they began their return journey home. Aside from a few broken branches they saw no sigh of poachers, nor of the rest of their herd. While Nakandri were happy to trade Dronga milk to the Malvika cities in the east in exchange for supplies, many Malvika felt that they had a right to simply take what they wanted from the "lesser" race. It was a sad state of affairs, Valus thought, that his sons and daughters (of which he had three), would spend their whole lives being looked down apon by Malvika. The pain of a lost herd was at least lessened softly by the sight of Valus' homestead coming into view, a two story domed structure, composed of wood and various metals gained through trading, it was just big enough for their whole family, smoke ebbed its way out of the trio of chimneys and filled the air above the homestead and light shined out of the colorful glass windows on the upper floor. It was a welcoming sight to Valus, and he was reminded that, while their lives were an almost daily struggle, he at least had his family, many Malvika sons were recruited from a young age to serve in the armed forces, battling out on distant worlds, against alien enemies, likely to never see home again. Valus hated conflict and war, and it saddened him that his species were more concerned with slaughter and conquest than trying to find peaceful solutions to problems. He had taught his children that violence and force should only be used as a last resort. As they approached the homestead, Keah and Ralun went off to the shed to gather tools needed to harvest the day's supply of fruits, while they gathered Dronga milk to trade, Valus' family sustained themselves of fruits and fish gathered in the surrounding forests and streams. Valus himself headed inside, where he met Meva, his wife. She had the most beautiful hair, a light auburn color, like harvest grain. They hugged and he rapped his arms around her and brought her in for a warm embrace.

"Is something wrong?" She asked him, and he told her the whole story about the Drongas. She placed her hands on his shoulders and tried to comfort him, "We can find a new herd, or gather enough fish to trade!" She said, trying her best to cheer him up. "I can't take it anymore!" Valus said, raising his voice, something he rarely did. "They treat us like dirt, steal from us and threaten to take our land if we don't have enough to trade with." Valus had lived almost his whole life on Miradwin, but he was at the end of his ropes, after everyone had gathered to eat, he announced to his family that they would take everything of value and trade it for an inter-planetary ship. "And just where do you suggest we go?" Meva asked him. "I once heard of a small, watery world, on the far edges of the Imperium, it already had a sapient species present, so it was only lightly colonized. We could start fresh, no poachers, no fear of eviction hanging over our heads." He explained to her. While it was true he wasn't sure if that world was even real, he knew that sometimes you just had to hold your breath and dive into the metaphorical waters. It took a bit more convincing before Meva finally agreed. "That settles it then, tomorrow me and Ralun will head into town to find us a ship and someone to fly it." He said, hoping for all their sakes his plan would work.