GALDANA || the mandalorian

PART FORTY-FOUR

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The wind was battering against the Mandalorian's armor. There was snow, too; falling down from the clouds to play melodies on his beskar. He kept having to wipe his gloves across his visor in order to see the road ahead of him, his boots digging into the slush.

"Stay in the ship," Mando had told Cara, Bo-Katan, Fennec, Koska, and Boba Fett. They complied unhappily, busying themselves with questioning Moff Gideon. It was a lost cause, as Gideon would nothing except grin at them, blood staining his teeth. He looked wolfish, almost, like a predator lying in wait.

Unlike Fwega, they had actually complied in staying with the ship, Cara appeased by Mando sharing a comm with her as he walked out into cold air. He felt the temperature drop as he walked, the first flakes of snow turning into a thick sheet.

The marketplace was ahead of him.

Mando fought through the icy wind to the first stall, wiping snow off burberries. The next stall sold old, dated watches, each with different numbers around the face. Another cart proclaimed they could "tell the past, experience the future!", but it was empty. Mando hoped that an empty future wasn't his fate.

He felt Fwega's emotions grow stronger, then weaker again, as she fought the poison. His dirty boots chipped away at the snowdrifts, the cold starting to set in, travelling through his body to the white bone.

"Flowers?" He asked a figure. It pointed in the direction he was going, then retreated to the warm interior of the building behind the stall. Mando marched on.

"Are there any flowers here?" He called out to the other figures. They pointed down to a red stall. Red against white; blood against snow. Mando approached it.

"I need a white flower to dull a poison. Can you help me?" He rasped, his modulated voice swallowed by the bitter wind.

The woman, decked out in a large winter cloak, nodded. "Here, sir. The White Orchidna is what you're looking for." She set a large flower into Mando's hand. "Place each petal on the tongue until it turns the color of the poison, then replace it until it remains white."

He thanked her and handed her a few credits, but she shook her head. "To aid in saving a life is enough. I wish you luck." Her blue eyes crinkled as she smiled, and she returned to her hut.

Mando could see the dark building where Fwega's emotions felt strongest and he trudged forward, the flower tucked carefully into the same side pocket as the child's small orb. The Galdonian bead around his neck clinked against his chestplate and he tucked it back into his shirt.

He forced his frozen body to move faster until he was through the ornate gold door of the building.

Mando stood in the foyer, catching his breath. He felt something shift on his back but he ignored it, thinking it was just the snow falling off his shoulders. He ascended the stairs to the door above, breathing in deeply. He could feel Fwega's soul-crushing fear crashing down on her in waves.

He pried open the door, stepping into the main room.

Fwega laid on the bed in a fetal position, her body shaking. Her eyes were open wide, unseeing, as she fought demons in her half-awake half-asleep stupor. A woman brushed her hand across Fwega's cheeks, which were hollow and pale. Her hair hadn't been washed in days and it fell around her head in a greasy halo, the strands slightly indented where the beads once were.

The woman leaned over her, stroking her hair and whispering to her in calming tones.

Mando's anger rippled through the room and he lunged forward, ripping the darksaber from his belt and igniting it. The woman lit her own blade and it was a battle of black versus blue, Mando's attacks growing more and more sloppy as he felt Fwega's pain and fear heighten. He needed to protect Fwega, he needed to kill whoever had hurt her-