DEFIANCE | The Mandalorian

XVI

"Are we going after her?" I asked tentatively, watching Din swoop up the child in his arms and stand to his full height.

He glanced at me out of the corner of his helmet, right through a layer of frost. "Do we have a choice?" He responded, and I knew the answer was a hard no.

I bit my tongue while I walked beside him. We entered the tunnel side by side, and I let him guide the way as he followed the invisible footsteps left behind by the frog lady. Drawing us further and further away from the ship, he veered into a small cavern with a billowing stack of steam wafting towards the ceiling from a hot spring.

My breath caught in my frozen lungs.

A hot spring.

"Oh, thank the Maker," I muttered happily, the steam filling up the small space already warming my frozen cheeks. Sitting in the water was our missing contact, her eggs gently floating in the hot water near her to stay warm. As my words echoed throughout the cavern, the frog lady jerked her head in our direction and let out a small croak.

Din groaned softly beside me. "Don't even think about it," He whispered, and my face immediately drooped into a frown.

"Why not?" I snipped angrily, placing my hands on my hips. "We're all freezing our asses off. Now we find a hot spring and you're gonna tell me we can't get in?"

"It's not safe out here," He countered sternly. "We need to go back and fix the ship so we can leave."

"Five minutes?"

Din inhaled a long, deep, calming breath, and a huge smile broke out on my face.

"Fine," He snapped, and I happily skipped towards the warm water and began stripping off my armor. Setting it into a neat pile in the snow beside the hot spring, I shucked off the rest of my clothes until all that was left was my bra and underwear.

I spared a quick glance back at Din before wading into the water, giggling to myself when he physically had to shake the image of my body out of his head.

I hiss of utter relief escaped my lips when I got waist deep, not wasting any more time until I completely dove under the surface. The water was deliciously warm against my frozen skin, and the numbness that had settled into my bones slowly began to dissipate.

"You really should get in," I called to Din once I popped my head out of the water, who was now kneeling beside the spring next to the frog lady. One of her eggs slowly began to float towards me, and once it bumped into my arm, I gently nudged it back in her direction.

"I can't," He said, and I pouted my bottom lip out in a childish manner.

I dipped my head under the water again, letting my mind wander about what it would be like if we were here alone, without a trashed ship and other company, and Din would smile and laugh and wouldn't hesitate to jump in with me.

I felt my cheeks turn rosy pink, and I knew it wasn't because of the hot water.

Wiping my hands across my face once I broke the surface again, I heard Din say, "C'mon, let's gather these up. We need to go back."

The frog lady croaked anxiously.

Din hummed to himself as he began gently placing her eggs in the canister. "I know it's warm," He said, dropping the third egg he'd gathered in the tank, "But night is coming fast and we can't protect you out here."

My eyes immediately flicked to movement to Din's right, where the child had peered his tiny little head over the side of the spring. The kid glanced up at me for a moment and smiled before getting distracted by one of the orange eggs floating his way.