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TESS' HAIR WHIPPED about her face as they sped off through the grey canyons of Nevarro.
Dust flew behind them, dark clouds enveloping the brilliant blue sky as they wound in between the stone and boulders. It looked as if the chasms had been molded out of clay, clumped together by an unforgiving hand, welded into a facade of sturdy ash. These rocks were a stark change to what Tess had known on Tatooine, where the umber and burnt orange faces held a history burdened by time. Those canyons were home to monsters and prey alike, fighting over one another to gain dominance of an ancient home.
Here, everything was quieter, more peaceful. Tess did not believe there were leviathans hiding in the rock face, and nor did she think they had been there for over a millennia. This place was new, fresh, like a just-born baby finding their footing in an unforgiving world.
Tess squirmed in her seat to get a better look of the place around her. She sat in the back of the speeder, squished between the Mandalorian and Greef, who kept glancing between the two. Her hands were in her lap, shoulders hunched, but her head was held high and proud.
Memories of Tess and Mando's conversation still stung to think about, and every time he glanced her way, Tess would look at something far off in the distance, becoming keenly interested in a phantom not really there.
Greef and Cara shared a look from where the strongly built woman sat beside Mythrol in the front. They knew what had happened between the girl and her caregiver, having heard snippets of the argument when they came out of the clerical building.
Mando shifted from where he sat, heart heavy. Tess couldn't so much as look at him, and every time he craned his neck to see her, she would feign disinterest. It made his stomach squirm. He cursed himself for being so reckless, knowing it was the wrong choice to ask Tess about Trask. The girl wasn't necessarily known for being the most open person, and he wasn't sure why he'd decided to try his luck when she was clearly not in the mood to answer personal questions.
The Mandalorian thought the reason he'd asked her was because in these last few days, since the fall on the ice planet, Tess had slowly been changing. She'd been opening up, telling him about her parents' old saying, and she'd smiled, something he thought he'd never see. Tess was cracking, peeled back, and he'd thought that meant she would be honest with him, telling him the truth, explaining what was bothering her.
