DEFIANCE | The Mandalorian

XII

I leaned my head closer to Peli so I could whisper harshly, "We're not a taxi service."

Her expressive eyes only widened a bit. "Yes, I know, I know, I hear you," She said quietly, so the frog lady didn't overhear. "But I can vouch for her."

"Oh, really?" I said sarcastically, but my words went unheard. The frog woman began speaking in her croaking language to Peli, and in the satchel slung across my body, the child cooed once he spied the newcomer. It was the first sound he'd made since...

Well, since I electrocuted that hunter.

Din sighed resolutely. He exhaled, "What's the cargo?"

Once the frog finished speaking, Peli translated, "It's her spawn. She needs her eggs fertilized by the equinox, or her line will end." Then she pursed her lips. "If you jump to hyperspace, they'll die. She said her husband has settled on the estuary moon of Trask in the system of the gas giant Kol Iben."

My brows furrowed slightly beneath my helmet. I had heard of Trask before, but the only think I knew about it was that it was a big fishing planet. And it wasn't too far from here, if I remembered correctly.

"She said all that?" Din asked skeptically.

Peli only shrugged again. "I paraphrased a bit."

I glanced back at the frog woman. I asked sternly, "Is she sure there are Mandalorians there?"

Peli furrowed her brows in thought for a moment before turning to the contact and speaking to her in her native language. When Peli was finished, the frog responded, in which she quickly translated for us, "She said her husband has seen them."

Apparently pleased with how this conversation had happened, the frog woman walked past us as she croaked softly to herself, plopping down next to the hot fire that the dragon meat was roasting over. I glanced down at the child for a moment, who was staring intently towards the lady. I didn't know what had ensnared his attention so fully, but it was of no importance.

"Do you know the husband?" Din asked Peli.

She only laughed. "No," She said, "I just met her ten minutes ago."

My nose twitched as my temper flared. I hissed quietly, "I thought you said you vouched for her on your life?"

Peli shrugged again, and I found her abundant use of the gesture infuriating. "What can I say?" She drawled, a small smirk growing on her face. "I'm an excellent judge of character."

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After a few minutes of debate, Din reluctantly agreed to let us rest for the night. Both of us were extremely exhausted and overworked, and I wasn't going to lie, I desperately wanted a free night to just sleep peacefully next to my riduur. Not to mention that Din had looked like he was going to collapse with fatigue.

Night had fallen an hour ago, and Peli left with the contact to show her a decent place to stay for the night not too long after we had finished up the dragon meat. So with Peli gone, the child dozing in his compartment, and the Crest securely closed for the night, my fatigued fingers fumbled with my helmet and armor before, eventually removing them before I allowed myself to plop down on the bench and close my eyes.

The faint patter of the shower running echoed in my head, filling my brain with just enough noise to keep my erroneous thoughts at bay. I focused only on the white noise, allowing it to lull me closer and closer to sleep.

But then the water abruptly shut off and Din emerged thirty seconds later, hot steam wafting out of the tiny shower room behind him. His top was bare, and a white towel was slung low on his hips. I blinked sleepily at his beautiful form, admiring the way his back muscles rippled as he walked. His skin was still a bit damp, and the scars that marred his tan skin gleamed in the low light of the bay, almost twinkling, like the stars in the sky above.