Captive | The Mandalorian

CHAPTER 1: The Hunter and the Hunted

With every tired, leg-aching step that Aspen took through the crowded footpaths of Mos Eisley, she kicked dust up into the air that subsequently clouded around her boots; the dry sand so thick that it sometimes obscured her feet altogether when mixed with the constant haze in the air left by the copious amount of foot traffic.

If it weren't for the bandana tied around her face, both for protection from the sand and for protection from prying eyes, Aspen was sure she would have breathed in enough dust to create her own miniature desert in her lungs. The barren, desert wasteland that covered every inch of the planet was just one of the many reasons why she despised Tatooine, but she didn't have much of a choice. For the time being, the planet solely occupied by criminals, smugglers, and rogues was the only place she felt even remotely safe.

It wasn't the fact that Aspen trusted her fellow convicts not to turn her in on a dime if given the opportunity, because they absolutely would, and probably for a lot less than the price on her head was worth. Aspen hadn't always been on the run, however; in fact, she used to be a bounty hunter herself—but that felt like a lifetime ago. Thanks to her previous career choice, she had learned a thing or two about thinking like a quarry, and thus, she knew what to do and what not to do when avoiding capture.

One of the many tricks she picked up was that if Mos Eisley was good for anything, it was finding somewhere to lay low without anyone asking questions. 

Weaving in between the many nameless faces in the street, Aspen headed somewhat in the direction of the small, unassuming backroom that she was currently staying in; the backroom she was, without a doubt, being grotesquely overcharged for. She never took a straight path to her desired destination—always making a few unnecessary turns and even doubling back a few times to make sure she wasn't being tailed—and she never visited the same establishment two days in a row.

After returning to the building in which she was staying, Aspen checked over her shoulder once more for good measure before slipping through the back door and into the relative darkness of the room where she had drawn all of the curtains.

Ripping the bandana from off of her face, she forced a few coughs to dislodge the dust coating her windpipe. As soon as her eyes adjusted to the darkness, which was a drastic change from the blinding, blistering sun that was always baring down on Tatooine, Aspen noticed that something was off. Despite the fact that she didn't have many personal belongings to begin with, she could tell that her room had been riffled through. 

The sheets on the cot on the floor were slightly wrinkled, her bag in the corner was left ever-so-slightly unzipped, and the blade she had left on the rotting wooden desk had been moved. It probably wouldn't have been noticeable to any normal citizen, but to Aspen's trained eye, the room practically screamed to her that there had been an intruder; and not just any intruder, either. The handiwork was a little too sloppy for any professional who was actually trying to hide their tracks, but it was also too subtle for a true amateur. Whoever had been snooping in her things was a professional who didn't care if they left some evidence behind; in fact, they probably did it on purpose so that Aspen would know she was being tracked. It was a warning sign, a heads-up that her time was limited. 

This was the work of a confident bounty hunter. 

Aspen just shrugged it off. This wasn't the first time she'd run into an overly-cocky bounty hunter looking to make a name for themself by taking out a former member of the guild, and quite frankly, she doubted it would be the last.

Pulling back the black-out curtain a fraction of an inch, she double-checked to make sure no one had followed her back before locking the door and settling in for the night. Despite the fact that she remained unconcerned about her unwelcomed visitor, she knew it was probably time to find a new planet to occupy for a little while. So, in the morning, she would take a trip down to the spaceport and see if anyone would be willing to give her a ride if she greased their palms a little.