tritanopia | The Mandalorian

fifteen

The ride to the middle of nowhere was not at all glamorous, nor comfortable, in any way. However, based on the way her life at been going at that point, Fae wasn't at all surprised — in fact it was rather fitting.

Mando had returned not long after he had left, too early in Fae's opinion; but, whilst he was gone, he seemed to have caught a wild Cara Dune amongst the trees. Fae supposed that wasn't the worst thing in the universe to happen, at least that way she was less likely to stab Mando in his sleep. (Although it didn't eliminate the possibility completely.)

"So, we're basically running off a band of Raiders for lunch money?" Cara asked shortly into the journey. The woman was sat opposite Mando, the pair of them casually leaning back against their respective sides of the transport. Meanwhile Fae had set up her little camp at the back, minding her own business, eating some packet rations Mando had wordlessly tossed to her earlier. For every two bites she had, she fed the Child a small one of his own, her being secretly smug about the fact that he had waddled his way towards her, away from Mando, as soon as he saw the opportunity.

"They're quartering us in the middle of nowhere. Last I checked, that's a pretty square deal for somebody in your position," Mando reasoned, "Worst case scenario, you tune up your blaster. Best case, we're a deterrent."

"Actually," Fae spoke up, pausing to take a bite out of some sort of jerky, "the worst case scenario is all of us dying horrible, painful deaths due to your cockiness." She smiled at them, letting out a short, dry laugh at her own words, before going back to feeding the Child little torn off pieces. Cara and Mando looked at her, then glanced to each other, and then back to her, several times, until they managed to shake the moment off and move past it.

"I can't imagine there's anything hiding in these trees that an ex-shock trooper couldn't handle," The Mandalorian continued; and after that it was mostly quiet. When Mando shifted to rest his arms on the back of the transport, the Child abandoned Fae to go and sleep against the bounty hunter's side, despite her food bribery. And therefore, due to the lack of entertainment, Fae also curled up and managed to fall asleep herself. Her knees practically tucked underneath her chin due to how small she made herself, years of sleeping in tight spaces somewhat paying off. Cara, one of the two people still conscious, found it difficult to not notice such a characteristic, along with everything else, and simply had to open her mouth about it.

"So," She started pointedly, snatching Mando's attention away from readjusting the Child's blankets, "for real this time, what's the deal with her?"

Mando made sure to look over at the sleeping girl Cara was referring to, to ensure she was actually sleep. Although, for all he knew, she was just good at pretending. "What do you mean?" He asked, a large part of him really not wanting to partake in the conversation.

Cara looked at him as if he had just snorted a mountain of spice, "What do you mean, what do I mean?" She said incredulously, "Y'know, even if you don't wanna tell me, at the end of the day, you're a bounty hunter travelling with a teenage girl and tiny green baby — you're gonna get questioned."

The man sighed, eventually figuring she was absolutely right, and he should probably practice the story he would tell people — no doubt he would have to recite it countless times.

"Long story short, I saved both her and the kid from some underground Imperials," He replied as blasé as possible.

Cara scoffed, "Oh yeah? And what's the long version?" Admittedly, Mando was getting slightly irritated over the woman's persistence, but nonetheless he gave in to her.

"I was hired by the Imp to go and collect them and hand them over, and, before you ask, no, I don't know why. But after I did," He hesitated for a moment, breathing out a shaky sigh before continuing, "I-I just had to go back — to get them. And it's a good thing I did, because when I found them they were...she was..." Mando had to take another second to recompose himself, shaking his helmeted head slightly to get rid of his knotted tongue, "And now, here we are."