EMPIRE, 𝐃. 𝐃𝐉𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐍.

- FIVE.

     AMELIA AND MANDO WERE WALKING THROUGH the middle of a small canyon about an hour after collecting the asset. They'd left the droid back inside the building with the rest of their destruction and disappeared from the area. Now, Amelia walked next to Mando, who was walking next to the child.

     The pain in Amelia's shoulder had died down significantly, however, without treatment it was at risk of being infected. So Amelia walked with her left hand over the wound, hoping to try and protect it from as much bacteria as possible.

     As they continued to walk, Mando broke the silence that had been hanging over them for a while. "How's your shoulder?" He asked Amelia.

     "It's fine," She replied, before adding, "It hurts less." Mando nodded in response, and suddenly it was quiet again.

     The child was watching the tiny creatures around them skitter by with fascination and Amelia smiled at it. Mando suddenly stopped and reached out his arm to stop Amelia, too.

     "What is it—?"

     "Quiet."

     Amelia shut her mouth and listened, but could only hear the whistling of the wind. She could feel her heart hammering in her chest. Something was here, she trusted Mando on that, but the unseen danger made her panic. She could see Mando looking around out of the corner of her eye and her hand moved from her shoulder to her blaster, as did his.

     Suddenly, a mercenary jumped down on them from above, and without thinking Amelia fired her blaster. She missed,  and as the mercenary landed she could hear the familiar beeping of a tracking fob. Mando pushed the child backward to safety, and Amelia planted herself at the child's side, guarding it while Mando fought the mercenary.

     More and more joined the fray and Amelia, unable to fight with her injury, raised her blaster and shot it again. This time she made contact, and the mercenary fell to the ground. They were one less enemy for Mando to deal with. As the last one standing, the final mercenary began to sprint toward Amelia and the child. Firing her blaster one last time, it impacted with nothing as the mercenary disintegrated in front of her.

     She was met with Mando holding a weapon, she she tilted her head at him, furrowing her eyebrows. "What the hell did that thing do?" She asked, returning her blaster to her holster and her hand to her shoulder.

     "Killed an enemy," Mando responded, matter-of-factly. Amelia rolled her eyes at him, before both heard a beeping sound. The duo's eyes ran across the ground below them until their sights settled upon what they'd been looking for. A tracking fob.

     "There was more than the droid and us on commission," Amelia murmured, looking back at the child that was cooing at them.

     Mando nodded at her. Amelia's breath shook slightly as she exhaled, a million different thoughts making their way through her mind. Surely, she thought, a child couldn't be of so much importance that hundreds of bounty hunters were carrying fobs for it. Right?

     She pushed the thoughts away. She and Mando had the child now, and that was what mattered. The mission. But looking back at the kid as the trio continued on their way, the heat beating down on them, Amelia couldn't help but feel pity for it. It was only young, after all.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

The three of them spent the day travelling on foot, and when night fell they found an open area to camp out. Amelia and Mando were both seated next to each other, and she and the child were watching Mando grunt in pain as he cauterized a wound.