Lost And Found - The Mandalorian

1.01 - Under Siege

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Luz's breathing was ragged and panicked as she ran through the corridors of the sandstone corridors of the monastery like encampment. All around her, commotion raged on. The sounds of blaster fire and bodies falling with dull thuds could be heard from outside the walls of the building. Inside, more and more fighters were snatching up weaponry and running to defend the place. Soon the interior would be empty; all the Nikto guardians would be outside in the thick of the fight. That left only Luz to do what needed to be done. 

Her feet pounded against the rock floors as she skidded around a corner to where the hovering pram floated, the child inside whimpering with fright. 

"Hey," Luz panted, out of breath but trying to manage a small smile, "hey there little buddy. I'm here."

The baby cried out, a soft little noise that went straight to Luz's heart. The green child, with its big ears and big eyes, and constant danger on its heels, was, perhaps, the only being in the galaxy that she actually cared for. Perhaps because it was so helpless and cute, and she was unable to find any resentment for it. Perhaps it was because the baby was always happy to see her, always giving her smiles and giggling when she made shadow puppets. No one else had ever been happy to see Luz, but Squish, as she had so affectionately nicknamed the baby years ago, was overjoyed. 

Luz had been eight years old when her cousin (who was not a bounty hunter, despite his fancies to the contrary) got himself killed trying to pursue a bounty on the baby, leaving Luz stranded on Arvala-7 to be taken in by the guardians. Luz had been ten years old when the next attack from a fortune seeker had come, and though it had been dealt with quickly, she had decided then that for as long as she was living at the temple, she would help protect the kid. 

Now, nearly six years later, a fifteen year old Luz was finding herself doubting her abilities to keep the child safe. Yet she plastered a nervous, fake smile onto her face anyways. There had never needed to be so many reinforcements to deal with one of the bounty hunters come to fight before. The sound of blaster fire had never lasted so long. But the child didn't know that. Children shouldn't have to know danger and fear like that (Luz knew all too well from experience).

"Alright, Squish, time for a game of hide and seek," Luz said, hoping that there was no tremble in her voice, nothing that the baby could pick up on, nothing that she'd be forced to admit was weakness. 

The baby cooed, his large eyes looking up at her trustingly. Luz managed another weak smile, "aww, it's okay, silly. You like hide and seek. I'll be counting to, um, thirty, and then I'll come find you, okay?"

Of course, she didn't think that the baby had any way of understanding her. But she blabbered on anyways, because if she had been in a situation like this when she was small, she'd have craved words of reassurance (she had never gotten any, but she was over it now. Mostly). Then, Luz closed the hover pram and turned off the anti-gravity mechanism, so that the pod was on the ground. Luz rolled it behind some of the room's sparse furniture; a chair, which she overturned, and a cabinet, which she leaned to one side. Hopefully, if whoever was attacking them this time managed to make it into the temple, they would walk right past the child without blinking an eye. 

It was, all things considered, the best that Luz could do. That was more than anyone had done for her. She just hoped it would be enough. 

With that, the teenager grabbed the nearest weapon she could find - a rifle firearm - and hid herself behind an upturned table where she could have a good view of the child and anything that happened to him. Now, Luz thought grimly as the sounds of death continued to reach her ears, it was just a matter of waiting out the storm.