𝐑𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒 ── ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴀɴᴅᴀʟᴏʀɪᴀɴ ✓

3.4

Greef carefully marched up to the child and extended out his arms. Out of instinct, Mando and I slowly placed our hands on our blasters.. ready to shoot him if he did anything to the child.

"So.. this little bogwing is what all the fuss was about," Greef mumbled aloud, picking up the kid. The child stared up at the man with his big eyes. "What a precious little creature..! I can see why you didn't want to harm a hair on its wrinkled little head."

He gently placed the child back down inside the crib. I sighed in relief, pulling my hand away from my blaster as Mando did the same thing. Greef looked at me before saying, "Well, I'm glad this matter will be put to rest once and for all."

Almost immediately, Mando pressed something on his controller and brought the crib back. It stood safely in between Kuiil and Mando's blurrgs as the crib's lid slowly closed over the child's head.

Greef furrowed his eyebrows in a concentrating manner then announced, "The sun drops fast in Nevarro. We can walk for a spell, camp out at the riverbank, then make our way into town at first light."

🔹️🔹️🔹️

Like what was predicted, the sun had dropped pretty fast. It was a very long trip, but it wasn't too bad. The air was tense, and everyone stayed silent for most of the way there; no talking.. just walking.

Finally, after what had felt like an eternity, we all decided to camp out for the night. We set up a camp and got the blurrgs comfortable for the night. We then began grilling up a four-legged beast over a large camp fire for food.

Everyone, except for me and Mando, started eating, staring at one another in silence. The only noise that could be heard was the crackling of fire. I sat in between Mando and the child, and Kuiil sat on the other side of the child's crib to protect him from any harm.

Mando would occasionally glance at me, but he would immediately look the other way and talk to Cara when I shifted my gaze onto him.

Every few seconds, I'd rip apart a piece of meat from a bone and feed it to the child. He would gratefully eat the food and chew it carefully.

Greef pointed at the kid and stated, "I guess the little bugger's a carnivore. Never seen anything like it. They were ready to pay King's ransom for that thing -- must be some kind of highfalutin menagerie."

"Let's go over the plan again." Mando said, quickly changing the subject. Greef thought for a second, then shrugged.

"We both enter the common house, we show the Client the baits, we join him at the table, and.. you kill him."

"Tell me about his reinforcements." Mando demanded as I fed the child another tiny piece of meat.

Greef raised an eyebrow, hesitating to answer. He then shook his head, "They're all ex-Empire. As soon as they lose their paycheck, poof, they'll all scatter."

"And what if they don't?" Mando asked. Greef looked slightly taken aback as he furrowed his eyebrows.

".. They will."

I turned my attention onto Greef with a suspicious look on my face. "That's.. not good enough. You should be--"

"If, for arguments sake, a few of them don't realize that I'm their best path to alternative employment and they elect to react impulsively, then these fine three Guild Hunters, along with that battle-hard shock trooper, will cut down anyone who bucks." He sat up, glaring at me.