Vibrant Eyes | Din Djarin

12: life

Din set the Razor Crest to land in the lava fields, as requested, and exited the cockpit to find the rest of the party getting the blurrgs situated. He paused at the ladder, double-checking the number of people to the number of blurrgs.

Three blurrgs. Four people.

Cara noticed it at the same time he did. "What are we going to do about this?" she asked.

Venus tilted her head in question, though he wasn't sure what. He never really knew with her, even with the events of earlier.

Din strode forward and laid a hand on the hide of the middle one. One of them would either have to walk alongside them or stay behind. And then he thought of Jawas and the last time they got a hold of his ship. 

He really couldn't risk it again.

"One of us will stay here and watch the ship," he decided.

"What?" Cara exclaimed. "We can't spare—"

She paused and all eyes fell on the woman that swayed where she stood.

Venus smiled at the blurrg under her hand. "You worry about Jawas."

"Yes."

"Because of the mudhorn's egg."

The—

Then he pieced it together. "How did you—"

"I will stay," she said, cutting him off.

Cara frowned. "That easily?"

They'd all expected more of an argument, or something more her style.

Venus shrugged. "Why not?"

Then she floated over to the Child's pram and murmured soft words to it. He could've sworn its babble in response actually had some sense to it. Like an actual exchange.

As they mounted the blurrgs, Cara in the lead, Din next, Kuiil in the back, and the Child's new pram hovering at his side, it was to the reassuring thought they were able to drop their dead weight here and she wouldn't get in the way later on. That kind of dreaminess was not made for the battlefield they were likely entering. One of both wills and weapons.

The ramp lowered and the blurrgs lumbered out, leaving Venus inside and alone. Standing in the lava fields was Grief Karga, flanked by three bounty hunters of different species. The one thing that united them was the tension in the air, the weapons on their persons, and the danger (whatever it may be) that lay ahead.

The Guild leader greeted them in such a friendly manner that Din almost forgot what had transpired the last time they saw one another. But he could never forget that day. The one that changed all those to come after.

As they set off into the blackened fields of ash, Din looked behind him one last time to the Razor Crest standing still and silent against the horizon.

And the woman they left within.

~*'*'*~

As the Child lay his tiny hand over the wound on Greef Karga's arm, Din couldn't believe who he thought of.

Because in that moment he wondered if Venus would have scolded him for such a use of his abilities. Or maybe she would have commended it. Would she be in awe, as they all were, at the sight of the fading claw marks and the receding lines of black coursing through the man's veins? 

Or was it something she'd seen before and knew as well as she seemed to know everything else in the universe?

Well, everything but flying, apparently.

For a moment he was glad she wasn't there to get hurt in the dark of night with a fog as heavy as the one on her mind. Glad she wasn't there to get carted away into a dark thick enough to hide her piercing gaze.

Then for another, secretly, in the very back of his mind, he wished she was there.

He wasn't sure why.