ʙᴏᴜɴᴛʏ || ᴅɪɴ ᴅᴊᴀʀɪɴ

IV

The Jawas board their crawler and lead you to where the egg would be. They point you in the direction of a cave.

You stop a few feet in front of it and stare in.

"Stay here. I'll be back." mando says walking forward

"I'm not allowed to follow you?"

"Someone has to stay with the child."

"And why don't you?" you cross your arms

"I.. figured."

"Go. If you don't come out soon I'm going on after you."

He nods and heads into the cave. You take the child out of the capsule and sit on the ground, holding him in your lap.

"Why is he like this?" you let him play with your finger "Acting like he's in charge. I'm capable of taking care of myself."

You sigh and the child coos looking up at you. You smile to yourself under the helmet, but it slowly fades, as your head fills with thoughts.

"We're gonna have to give you away. I cant do that.. you're just a child."

He reaches his tiny hand out and touches the bottom of your helmet. You hesitate, but begin to move your hands towards the edges, getting ready to remove it. Just before you do, a bright red flash is seen from the cave.

You quickly stand, placing the child back into his capsule and grab your blasters. You were in such a rush you forgot to lock your helmet back on. But that didn't matter at the moment.

Mando comes running out of the cave. "Watch out!" he warns as you see the mudhorn chasing him

He tries shooting it but it has no effect. The mudhorn simply charges and knocks him into the mud. You quickly shoot at it's face, but yet again it does nothing. Figures.

As mando gets up, you try and climb onto the mudhorn. Maybe you could connect with it like the blurrg? Boy were you wrong.

"The hell are you doing?" mando sagged as you fall onto the ground

The air gets knocked out of your chest for a moment. You lay there, staring up at the sky, slowly taking in deep breaths. You hear Mando grunt again, so you pull yourself up. You look to see him laying on the ground and the mudhorn charging at him again.

"Hey! Over here!" you yell at it hoping to cause a distraction

It charges at you knocking you off your feet again. You wince in pain. There wasn't much of a chance you were getting up now. You lift your head, in hopes Mando had taken it out. But you were mistaken.

The mudhorn began to rise in the air, struggling. You squint and see the child, eyes closed and arm extended. Once the mudhorn is dropped, Mando stabs it and you can finally rest.

You helmet was partially sliding up from being hit, but you didn't care. You were distracted by the air blowing across your chin. You hear footsteps slowly approach and you sigh.

"Your helmet." he turns, looking away

"Oh." you sit up, panting "Don't worry about it." you lock your helmet back on

"Don't worry?" he tilts his head

"It's fine."

You get up and stand in front of him. You stare into his visor. You wanted to know more about him. Why was he 'the best bounty hunter' Greef new? Distracted by your thoughts, you forgot about the child.

"The child." you say realizing what you had forgotten.

You both rush over to the capsule to see the child passed out. You see his chest moving, so you know he's alright. You let out a sigh of relief as Mando closes the capsule. You turn to him once again.

"You alright? You look pretty beat up." you reach out and touch his chest piece.

"Yeah I'm fine." he pays his chest, but winces.

"Ok listen. I'm gonna get the egg. You stay here. When I get back, we'll head out and get you fixed up back at the ship." you push him onto the ground, to sit.

"Be quick."

"Aw are you worried about me?" you laugh to yourself as you walk into the cave.

You turn on your lights and look around. Make it smells in here. You finally come up to the egg. It seems to be covered in fur? You pick it up and bring it back out.

You see Mando laying against a rock, clearly out of energy. You sigh and help him up.

"Let's go."

-

When you reach the Jawas and Kuiil, you notice they were beginning to load back into their crawler to leave.

"Wait!" you yell out

You see Kuiil turn around and wave to you.

"There you are!" he says

"The egg." you hand it over to t he Jawas.

The begin to chant about the egg then slice it open. You watch as they stick their hands into it and eat whatever was inside. You gag and Mando shakes his head.

"I'm surprised you waited." Mando says to Kuiil

"I'm surprised you took so long." Kuiil shrugs

"I'm surprised they're eating that thing." you turn away, gaging once again.

Mando laughs at your comment, and you smile to yourself. So he is a living thing. This was the first time you heard him laugh. Even if it wasn't a whole belly laugh, it was something.

The Jawas finish eating their egg after a bit of painfully watching them devour it.

"We would like our parts back now." you say eating your hand on your hip

The Jawas nod and agree. heading back into their crawler. They help load everything onto the sled carrier hooked up to the blurrg.

Both you and Mando walked this time.

"Explain it to me again. I still don't. understand what happened." Kuiil says

"Neither do I."

"He lifted the mudhorn." you laugh and shake your head

-

While you continue your journey back to the bones of the razor crest, you admire the sunset. It was beautiful.

"The sunset is beautiful." you say breaking the long silence

"It is. Not every planet has one. I like to take my time to appreciate it." Kuiil nods