THE MANDALORIAN: CHAPTERS 9-16

CHAPTER 11: THE WEAPON

Din woke with a start. A bacta infusion hung above him, and there a warm spot was shoved up into his armpit that was snoring.

Then he heard a louder snore next to him. Paz.

He turned his head and saw Paz still floating in his bacta tank but the facemask he wore was somehow not filtering the roaring snore coming from him.

Then he heard a third snore to his left. Cara.

He lifted his head and saw she had taken the other couch in the room and was covered with a blanket. When he put his head back down he felt the warm spot shift, and looked down to see large sleepy black eyes on him.

"Shhhhh," Din whispered.

Tarre blinked, and then gave him a quiet chirp that he took to mean, Good morning.

Din could not resist running a finger over his forehead wrinkles and Tarre vibrated with a trill almost like a purr.

"We did it Kid," Din whispered. "We are gonna have to talk about you coming on missions though."

Tarre immediately stopped purring and his brow wrinkles came down until his nose crinkled at the bridge.

Din chuckled, "Ok, fine, we'll talk later."

They both looked over when suddenly Cara shifted on her couch.

Din quickly sat up and gasped when he put his one bare foot on the floor. His boot and shin armor were off for the port access to his bacta infusion. The infusion was not done, but he wanted to avoid disturbing Cara and Paz. He turned back to Tarre to put him on the floor but found Tarre was hopping down with no effort, and had already started towards Cara.

"No! Stop!" Din hissed.

Tarre turned back to Din, as Din frantically waved with both hands for Tarre to go out with him. Tarre lifted both ears and a tiny smirk brushed his lips, then he turned back to Cara crouched down and sprang up with a giant hop and landed on Cara's back.

Cara bolted straight up and Din groaned. Tarre laughed uncontrollably at the new trick he had learned while playing with his friends on Mandalore. Cara was disoriented after initially thinking she was under attack but Tarre's laughter disarmed her immediately.

"You little womp rat!" She giggled and flapped his big ears with her fingers. She then looked up at Din who was standing there holding his bacta bag and boot in his hand.

"Um, sorry — I tried to get him to leave quietly," Din said awkwardly.

Cara smirked, "Something tells me that he's calling the shots these days." She looked down at Tarre, "You are, aren't you?"

To her surprise, Tarre just raised his eyebrows and then with a huge hop he covered the distance to the door and then toddled quickly out. They watched him go in stunned silence leaving them to face each other. And Din suspected that was Tarre's intent.

"I'm gonna go — find him some food —" Din said, but then he realized Cara had also spoken.

"I'm gonna go find a ration bar —" but she stopped mid-sentence for the same reason he did. Cara sighed searching for another excuse to leave, but then realized she had some information Din needed to hear.

"Actually, there's something weird I found during my ops that I wanted to run by you before I head back to Nevarro. Greef called twice last night while you and Paz were getting treated. He's anxious for my return."

Din nodded, and followed her out into the hall. She stopped just outside the door to Paz' room in the hospital on Mandalore. The halls were old but clean and well kept.