The New Mandalorian (Cara x Din)

Chapter 10: The Visitor

"She has birov kebise at hibirar," said the man to the other elders. Cara gritted her teeth and tried not to blurt out an insult. Instead, she cleared her throat and tried to talk civilly.

"I see you don't have anything against Grogu," she said slowly.

"What is a Grogu?" The man didn't look at her.

"The kid. Mando's kid."

"What about him?"

"He's a Jedi."

The man jerked his head towards her quickly. "What? You brought a Jedi into our camp?"

Cara frowned. "I-I thought you knew..."

The man stood up and started heading towards Din's tent.

Arelle snickered. "This'll be interesting," she said.

Cara shot her a look of annoyance. For the first time, she didn't like her sister's fun-loving attitude. She hadn't meant to get Din in trouble. What if they got kicked out of the village? What if she couldn't join their tribe? What if it isn't part of "The Way" for a Mandalorian to feel affection for a Jedi? Will they force us to get rid of the kid? she thought. 

"I'm going to watch this," said Arelle, standing up and following the man. "Wanna come?"

Cara hesitated. How was Din going to react when he found out it was her fault the elders now hated him? She swore under her breath, hating that she, an ex-Rebel Shock Trooper, could face an AT-ST with only a blaster, but couldn't face her best friend. Well, at the end of the day, I can still beat him at arm-wrestling. I've got a good chance of winning if he tries to kill me.

She jumped to her feet and followed Arelle, flinching when she heard the elder shouting from inside the tent. The two women found themselves standing in the presence of an unfair fight, with the elder yelling so Din had no chance to get a word in.

"Cara," Din exclaimed in relief. "What's going on? What did you tell them?"

Somehow she found her voice. "I didn't mean to. I just thought they knew."

The elder then started shouting at her in a language she didn't understand. But she was staring at Din, and could feel him staring at her, and imagined a hurt look in his eyes. Her lip trembled and she left the tent, running into the woods.

Din started after her but the angry elder stood in his way.

"I thought you were a true Mandalorian!" the man shouted. "You should know that we never deal with those freaks, no matter what! You think you can just waltz into our camp with a dangerous sorcerer like that? Where is he now, the little-"

"Ne'johaa!" Din demanded, the first time he'd said something in his native language for a long time. "We can deal with this later. But it's my own fault. If you bring Cara into this, you're going to wish you never met me in the first place." He paused. "If you want to hurt her, you'll have to go through me." With that, he left the elder speechless and headed into the woods to look for Cara.

He found her not too far from the village, sitting on a log in a clearing. She raised her blaster when she heard his footsteps, then lowered it with a sigh.

"You here to start yelling too?" she muttered. Din didn't answer, but he sat down beside her.

"I didn't mean to say it, you know," she went on. "It never even crossed my mind that they didn't know. That they would get so upset about it. I didn't mean to hurt you."

"It's okay," Din replied quietly. "I knew we'd have to tell them at some point."

"I'm sorry," Cara said earnestly.

"It's okay."

"But what do you think they'll do to him? To us?"

"It doesn't matter. If they want our help against those Imps, they won't do anything," said Din.

Cara looked down. "Do you think they'll still let me into their tribe?"

"They've got to." Even behind the mechanical echo, she couldn't miss the sincerity in his voice. "Cara, listen." He reached out and took her hand. "We're going to be okay."

"You really think so?"

"I do."

Cara sniffled. "Okay. Where's the little menace that started our problem?"

Din laughed. "Somewhere the elders wouldn't like him to be."

"And where's that?"

"With Ahsoka Tano. We've met before this, but it turns out she's been defending the villagers too. She offered to look after Grogu for the day so we could get some time to plan our fight."

"It was sure a fight of some sort," said Cara, chuckling slightly.

A loud rustling in the trees behind them. They both stood up, blasters raised, and found themselves face to face with a frantic woman.

"They destroyed the village," she was weeping. "They came and took everything, and only a few got away." Something about her voice sounded familiar.

Din gasped in realization as he saw who it was.

Omera.

She stumbled towards them, not even hesitating to see who they were, and would have collapsed if both Din and Cara hadn't caught her.

"Who did this?" asked Cara.

"Imp- Imperials," murmured Omera before passing out. Din noticed blood on the side of her face.

"Cara, go get your sister and possibly Rickton. We can't let anybody else know. Hurry! I'll stay with her," ordered Din. Cara didn't hesitate. When she was gone, Din tried shaking Omera. "Wake up," he muttered. Dank farrik, Ahsoka is with Grogu, that must be why the Imps were able to attack the fishing village.

"Omera," he said. "Come on." Her eyes fluttered open and she stared into the visor of his helmet.

"It's you," she whispered faintly. She was so weak that she would have fallen if he hadn't been holding her upright. He nodded. Omera reached up and brushed his helmet with the tips of her fingers. 

At that very moment, Cara, followed by Arelle and Rickton, arrived at the clearing. She bit her lip when she saw what Omera was doing. Now's not the time; we need to figure out what she's doing here, Cara told herself firmly.

Omera was able to sit down on the log, and in no time, Arelle was kneeling by her side and tending to her wounds. Din took Rickton aside to explain everything, including his meetings with Ahsoka. He knew Rickton would understand, especially since Ahsoka had been keeping them safe for some time.

Cara only stood helplessly and watched, feeling like she should do something. If they hadn't brought Grogu to Sorgan, Ahsoka would have been able to defend the fishing village. There also would have been no problem with the elders. If only Din had been willing to leave Grogu with Greef on Nevarro... If only Cara hadn't decided to join him on this mission...

"Guys!" called Arelle. "She's ready to talk now."

Cara shook her head to clear her thoughts and joined the others to see what Omera knew.

~ Sorry this one's a bit shorter than the others!! ~