The Vow of Two Creeds: A Mandalorian Story

18: The Assassin

Nova wished she had thought to put on some sort of hat or head covering. She could feel her scalp burning from the Tatooine suns. She appreciated what little shade Din's figure provided from the suns. After some time she found herself snuggling closer into his beskar armor. Nova found comfort in the rumbling of the speeder and the swaying of the sand waves. It almost didn't phase her when sleep began to lull over her. She had yet to get more than an hour of sleep before nightmares woke her up since Sorgan. The slight bags under her eyes were the only physical evidence of her sleep deprivation.

It was something she and the Mandalorian had in common, their ability to mask their internal pain from the outside world. Well, that and the way both of them could go days without sleep and not have it impact a thing.

Sleep almost came if it weren't for the sudden stop of the speeder which woke her from her daze in a jolt.

"What's going on?" Nova asks suddenly her grogginess showing in her cracky voice.

"Look. Up ahead," The Mandalorian points into the distance where two Bantha's and their riders reside. Toro gets off his bike to inspect them through his binoculars.

"Tusken Raiders. I heard the locals talking about this filth," Toro talks still looking through his binoculars.

"Tuskens think they are the locals. Everyone else is just trespassing," Din motions to the raiders that were approaching on their left. A devious smile forms on Nova's face, Toro was an idiot. 

"Well, whatever they call themselves, they best keep their distance," Toro lowers the binoculars not yet seeing the raiders who stood behind him. 

"Yeah? Why don't you tell them yourself?" Nova could hear the slight humor in Din's voice. Toro turns slowly turns around to be greeted with the roaring Raiders. Out of instinct Toro takes out his blaster and points it at the Tatooine locals.

"Relax," The Mandalorian says hopping off the speeder and beginning to communicate with the Tuskens. 

"What are you doing?" Toro's face contorted with confusion.

"Negotiating," The Mandalorian continues his sign language. Nova had never had the privilege to learn the ways to communicate with the Tuskens and watching Din brought her curiosity. She had thought of the Mandalorian to be a shoot first ask questions later type, but this was an interesting act.

"What's going on?" Toro continues to jumble on with questions.

"We need passage across their land," The Mandalorian answers. "Let me see the binocs."

"Why?"

"Just listen to him," Nova grunts.

"Anything for you princess," Toro smirks handing over the binoculars to the Mandalorian. Nova once again rolls her eyes with a scoff. The displeasure only fuels the playboy to continue his hopeless antics. Once given the binoculars the Mandalorian throws them over to Tuskens. "Hey! What...?" The Mandalorian hops back onto his bike rejoining his position in front of Nova. "Those were brand new."

"Yeah. They were." Din fires up the engine leaving Toro behind.

"Love the sass by the way," Nova chuckles once they have driven away from Toro. "I think you have spent too much time with me." Nova almost thought she heard a subtle chuckle from under the beskar helmet before the Mandalorian's speeder stops with another halt.

"Get down," The Mandalorian commands which Nova follows immediately. Toro on the other hand stops the speeder and looks around like a puffin on Skellig Michael.

"What? Oh..." Toro says before joining Nova and the Mandalorian on the edge of the sandhill.

 "All right. Tell me what you see," The Mandalorian asks the bounty hunter in training. Nova, although appreciated Din's patience for Toro, couldn't sit down for much longer. She decided to scale the edge of the hill to head over to the Dewback. She slid down the sandhill with ease and crouched over to the Dewback whose rider was hanging from it.