Bounty hunting is a complicated profession

Bargaining

Kuiil woke you in the morning, though it was so early it was still dark outside — or perhaps it was dark because it was raining nonstop. After eating something quick, you were on your way to meet with the jawas. Luckily for you, you didn't go on foot, wet socks for shoes didn't sound very nice.

When you reached upon the jawas' sandcrawler, Kuiil waved to them while saying something in jawa. "They really don't like you for some reason." he said looking at the Mandalorian.

"Well, I did disintegrate a few of them." You could feel pride in his voice, and you wondered about what part of pursuing a moving fortress on foot, getting electrocuted by a bunch of jawas, and falling from the top of it while unconscious, was he proud of.

Kuiil stopped beside the sandcrawler and turned back "You need to drop your rifle."

"I'm a Mandalorian. Weapons are part of my religion."

"Then you're not getting your parts back."

The Mandalorian looked at Kuiil for a moment and, after a long sigh, he said "Fine". Then he got off the sled and left his weapon there.

Kuiil dismounted the blurrg and added "and the blaster."

The Mandalorian turned around and left the blaster too. "Stay here" he added, looking your way.

They sat for the negotiations and a couple of jawas came near you.

"You understand this?!" suddenly exclaimed the Mandalorian as he blasted a stream of fire from his flamethrower. At this point, you thought it was safe to assume that the negotiations weren't going well.

Kuiil held him back and spoke to the jawas. Meanwhile, the ones that had approached you were getting closer and you didn't really like it, so you moved your hand slowly towards the Mandalorian's rifle beside you.

"Get away from her!" As the Mandalorian shouted this, you hit one of the jawas on the head with the butt of the rifle then, you held it in the right position, pointing it at them. The jawas shouted and scattered, and you put the rifle down, though you didn't let go of it.

Kuiil kept talking to the jawas and suddenly they all started chanting something as he groaned and facepalmed himself.

It seemed they were saying something about an egg. You assumed that's what they wanted in exchange for the parts, since you all got into the sandcrawler to go somewhere.

When you got out, the Mandalorian turned to you. "You're coming with me, I don't trust these jawas."

After walking for a while, you reached a patch of land completely covered in mud. In the background you could see the entrance to a lair.

"Stay here ok?" He said before heading to the lair's entrance.

Nothing happened for a few minutes then, you heard a few shots and, all of a sudden, the Mandalorian came flying out of the lair and fell hard on the ground, clearly thrown out by something. That's when you saw the something that had thrown him out. A big animal, covered in hair and mud, with an enormous horn on its forehead.

The Mandalorian got up and took out his rifle but, when he shot, nothing happened. While he was trying to fix this, the animal charged towards him and threw him flying again, making him lose grip on the weapon. That's when the beast saw you and decided to charge your way. You barely managed to jump out of the way at the last moment, while it hit the rocks behind where you had been standing, with amazing force.

Then it focused its attention back on the Mandalorian. It charged at him and kept pounding him against the ground and, as much as the mud could be cushioning the impact, you couldn't help wondering how was he managing to keep fighting after taking such a beating. He tried using his flamethrower against it to no avail, and then tried to hold it with his whipcord, but he only managed to be dragged around through the mud by the beast. When he let go, the animal charged at him once again and threw him flying through the air.

For what felt like a long moment, he laid still, and you were afraid he might be dead. You focused on him; you could feel his pain as he was aching all over but you also felt he was resigned. Slowly, he tried to get up but, as he realised he couldn't even stand completely, he unsheathed a dagger from his boot.

The animal was charging again and you wanted to shout at the Mandalorian to get out of the way — though you knew you couldn't — when you saw him hold out the dagger in front of him and look down, as if accepting his fate.

Yet, his hands were shaking and you could feel his emotions.

They overwhelmed you and, before you could stop to think about it, you held your hands up and concentrated on the beast, managing to stop it just before it hit the Mandalorian. The animal was strong and it kept struggling against you, stubbornly fixed on hitting the man.

You had to make use of all your energy to hold it, lifting the beast in the air to make it harder to fight against you. But it was still very strong and you were not, at least not at the moment.

The Mandalorian stood up and looked at you bewildered; he was definitely having a hard time understanding what was happening.

You started to feel your strength failing, as you tried to hold you could feel the effort draining you. Finally, darkness took you and you fainted.

_______________

When you passed out, the animal fell to the ground and the Mandalorian took advantage of its confusion and killed it. Then, he headed towards you to make sure you were ok, feeling relieved that you were just unconscious.

He marched back to the jawas carrying both you and the egg. When he got back, the jawas were preparing to leave.

"I have it. I've got The Egg." He shouted, so they would wait.

"I'm surprised you waited." He added to the Ugnaught.

"I'm surprised you took so long. What happened to her? Is she hurt?" Said Kuiil worried.

"No, she just passed out." he said as he carefully lowered you on the sled. "But something strange happened"

The Mandalorian didn't want to explain what you had done in front of the jawas, so he waited until they had all the parts back, and they were on their way to the ship. Then, he proceeded to tell the Ugnaught what he had witnessed.

"Is she still sleeping?" Kuiil asked.

"Yes."

"Was she injured?"

"I don't think so." answered the Mandalorian "Not physically."

The Ugnaught looked back "Explain it to me again. I still don't understand what happened."

"Neither do I."

___________

For a moment you thought you were back at the repair facility you used to work at. You could hear the noise of repair work, the "clunks" and the "clanks", and you thought that, maybe, all that had happened had been nothing but a bad dream.

But you were hurting too much for it to have been a dream.

When you opened your eyes, you were surprised to see it was the middle of the night. Slowly, you sat up and looked around. You were laying in the sled, beside the Mandalorian's ship, which was almost completely repaired.

How long had you been out? You wondered.

"You're awake" Kuiil had approached you while you looked at the ship "we were starting to worry. Here." he said as he handed you some food and water.

You tried to gesture to him that you could help them with the repairs. "You've done enough, now rest. I have spoken."

When morning came, they were finished with the ship and ready to go.

You had reached the conclusion that you had been unconscious at least a few days, maybe a week, mostly because you knew it was impossible that they had put the whole ship together in less time.

You waved Kuiil goodbye as you got into the ship and climbed your way into the cockpit. The Mandalorian stayed back to talk to him and you took advantage to take a look around the cockpit, they had made a surprisingly good job with it.

A few minutes later the Mandalorian joined you in and you took off.