Unmasked Love | The Mandalorian

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"I don't mean to ask again, but do you even know where you're going?"

"Yes! I know where I'm going, Mae," Greef snaps at me, his eyes frantically flicking down each tunnel we crossed as we walked down the path. I hold my hands up in surrender and continue to follow him anyway, quickly walking through the many tunnels. We finally come to an opening and I feel a sudden immense heat burn my bare skin. "See, I told you I knew where I was going. This is the lava river." 

"The ferry droid looks like it's fried through," Mando says, looking at the sad-looking droid in the corner of the unmoving ferry. I let out a small hum and take the slightest step away from the burning orange river. 

"I don't really do boats," I mutter, but no one hears me. Well, if they did hear me, they didn't make a note to comment on what I had said. 

"We can just push the boat out and get it to start floating downstream. Come on, we can do this," Greef says, gesturing to the metal boat in front of us. 

"You know, that thing looks pretty old and rickety," I say, hoping my concerned tone would make them think twice about the plan they were about to go through with. 

"You got a better idea?" Greef asks, looking back at me. I sigh and shake my head, cursing myself for not having anything to counter them with. 

They start pushing against the boat's thin wall, but it doesn't even seem to budge. A glimmer of hope shines in my heart, but Cara quickly smashes all of that. She lets out an exasperated sigh and shakes her head, shrugging the rifle right off of her shoulder. 

"You guys mind getting out of the way?" Cara says, aiming the muzzle of her rifle at the edge of the boat. My eyes widen and I take a step closer to Mando as she started shooting. The boat soon unlodges and comes loose, making me swallow nervously. 

"Alright, it's not like I don't want us to get out of here, but are we really going to do this? I mean, it's a metal boat in fucking molten lava-" I start, shaking my head while taking a small step back. I hear another blaster shot that hadn't come from any of our blasters, making me freeze and tense up. 

"Yeah, we don't really have time for negotiation right now," Mando says, wrapping one arm around my waist and picking me up. I yelp as he steps onto the boat with me in his arms, then setting me down on one of the ferry seats. I glare at him as he holds his hand up, signifying that he was sorry.

I take a deep breath and hold it, feeling the heat radiate around us. I open my mouth to say something, but the ferry droid starts moving and cracking away from the hardened lava. It beeps a few times, making a small smile spread over my face. 

"I don't suppose anybody here speaks droid?" Mando says, his gaze looking from the ferry droid to the IG-unit who was standing right next to me. The two droids communicating would be the obvious option, but I never really liked taking the obvious option. 

"We need to go downriver. To the lava flats," I answer, nodding my head while looking up at the droid. Everyone looks at me and perks a brow. "Are we really going to question the droid-lover and mechanic about understanding what a droid said?"

"Right," they all mutter under their breath, looking back towards the droid. The ferry droid starts rowing, the metal oar working through the hot lava. I hold onto the edges of the seat that I was sitting on, not really liking the fact that we were pretty much in a thin metal bowl on molten fucking lava. 

"That's it. We're free!" Greef shouts, pointing towards the end of the tunnel. I look over to see a radiating light, signifying the end of the tunnel. 

"No. No, we're not. They're flanking the mouth of the tunnel. It looks like an entire platoon. They must know we're coming," Mando says, obviously scanning the area with his built-in visor. I clench my jaw and shake my head. If we keep going on like this, they're going to be able to shoot us right out of the boat and we won't even stand a chance.