The Princess, The Pea And The Bounty Hunter

Chapter Five: Rich Yellow...

A vision she would see in an instant...

Flashes like light in a primitive spinning projector...

A boy of coffee skin, brown eyes and black hair being thrown into a cellar before his mother and father were killed by Stormtroopers...

The same boy being given his first helmet and armor...his first blaster... becoming the Mandalorian...

This boy, now grown into a man walking down the streets of Naboo after a target, only to be bumped into by a girl of dark blonde hair, dressed in a frock of rich yellow and lilac...the scent of the same in the air, her perfume...

Her laugh warm...her apology kind as she touched his shoulder and there...

"Much apologies and good hunting, my friend..."

There he saw her eyes, blue as the sky of his lost home world...blue as it was on the days he laid in the fields if only to watch the clouds leave him behind just as she did as she skipped after her handmaids, the lot of them dancing in the streets...it was a festival...

The Anniversary of Padme Amidala's return home to be buried...

Then, it was back to the hunt...his target breaking into a noble party, hoping to lose Mando in the crowd... and might've, if not for one young lady tripping his target in the middle of the dancefloor, sending him flying through the crowd and out the glass doors to the balcony where Mando gave chase...

By the time their duel was over and Mando had his knee firmly dug into the man's back, his wrists cuffed, he would be greeted with applause...

For the young lady who'd helped him and the one who'd apologized were one in the same...wearing that same rich yellow and lilac frock, now with highland heather braided into her locks of winter blonde...

And there she stood clapping for him with such a grin on her face...

So much pride in him, in what he'd done...

As if she'd found a champion...

But he would never see her again... not for nearly ten years until a vision came to him...a nightmare or a dream...

And in this vision he would see her standing on a balcony...dressed in robes of rich yellow and gold, a sword hilt on her hip...but there beside her stood a man dressed in colors much the same...his skin coffee, eyes brown and hair black...

"You..." Litha blinked lethargically as she came out of the vision. Unconsciously, she couldn't stop herself from smiling, "...You changed your armor," she chuckled breathlessly then as she looked down at Mando who stared up at her.

"What did you-" he would be cut off as he stood up to back away from her.

"You had a dream before receiving my distress signal. It-...you couldn't believe it was me, but if I'd known it was you I-"

"It doesn't matter. I never-"

"But it does matter! You had a vision of you and me! It could-"

"It was a dream and I'm not your kind!" he snapped then and their back and forth was silenced, the girl's expression dropping, "I'm a Bounty Hunter. You're Royalty. Why would your Force Gods or whatever you Jedi worship ever bring us together for anything...?" he questioned curtly as she crossed her arms, putting on a faint scowl.

"Mando, I've three elder brothers and two older sisters. On top of that, I've three younger brothers as well," she declared, "Just because I was better in school and got chosen for the throne doesn't mean I'll be the head of my House!" she barked at him as he took a step back from her, "And for once in my life I have no plan, save an easy life in politics...one I don't even want, because I am so tired of hiding what I can really do!" she said before pulling her necklace from the inside of her shirt.

She then broke the chain and held it out to him, "This is a kyber crystal. Given to me by my Zabrak Master when I was a little girl. The same kind used to build lightsabers...and I wasn't wearing this in your vision, but I did carry a sword hilt! You saw me as a Jedi Knight, Mando! What if this is what I'm meant to do?! To follow you-"

"That is a very large WHAT IF!" he snapped then, again seeing her freeze for he'd wounded her a second time, "I am not gonna let you throw your life away based on a selfish dream-"

"I'm not throwing anything away and it isn't selfish if we want the same thing!" she corrected him sharply, but he wouldn't hear it.

"BUT WE DON'T, DO WE?!"

"YOU DON'T KNOW THAT!"

"DON'T I?!"

"NO, YOU DON'T!"

They would continue to argue until a blip came up on one of the HUD screens among the controls. This would grab both their attentions, "Sorgan," Mando said then, "A forest planet with no space ports, industrial sights or-"

"Guild?" Litha finished for him as a smug smirk crossed her face, "Seems like the perfect place to lay low, don't you think?" she insisted before heading to the ladder, "And lucky we found it. Almost as if by fate!" she laughed with pride as she began to climb down.

"I don't believe in fate! Or that Force crap!" Mando growled at her pride, "This conversation is not over," he declared with his own ego mounting as she only continued to climb.

"If it wasn't, then why did you accept the crystal?" she pointed out before descending the rest of the way.

Mando halted then, his anger abated for a moment as he looked down at his hand to find the violet crystal there...with its broken chain and a feeling about it that reminded him of a magnetism he couldn't explain...

As if the metal in his blood was drawn to it...