"Wake up, mandalorian." A deep, robotic voice called out. I jolted from my sleep and gasped lightly. Din still had his arm around my shoulder, though his other hand was aiming his blaster towards the source of the noise. He had tightened his grip on me at the prospect of a threat. Pulling me even closer to his side than before.
"This cannot wait until morning." The remains of Zero briefly sparked to life as it spoke.
"Do not be alarmed. I bypassed the droid's security protocols and accessed its vocabulator." My eyes drifted over to the lady who was holding a mic under her mouth. I raised my eyebrows slightly, feeling impressed by what she had done.
"What the hell are you doing?" Din asked.
He gestured towards Zero. "That droid is a killer."
"These eggs are the last brood of my life cycle. My husband has risked his life to carve out an existence for us on the only planet that is hospitable to our species. We fought too hard and suffered too much to resign ourselves to the extinction of our family line. I must demand that you hold true to the deal that you agreed to." The lady said through Zero.
"Look, Lady, the deal is off. We're lucky if we get off this frozen tomb with our lives." Din explained. I felt a resigned sadness for the lady and her eggs.
"I thought honoring one's word was a part of the Mandalorian code. I guess those are just stories for children." The lady said
Silence fell over the hull as Din considered her words. The child broke the silence by cooing quietly. Din turned his head towards him and looked at the child for a moment. He then sighed heavily and looked towards the lady's eggs. I knew then that Din was going to help her. What other choice did we have other than to try and fix this situation.
Din suddenly removed his arm from around my shoulder. I frowned slightly from the cold feeling that it left behind. I fought the urge to raise my hand and rub my shoulder from the absence.
Din grabbed his pauldron from the ground beside him and quickly fastened it back into place with skilled hands.
He then grabbed the child who was still snuggled under his cape and placed him on my lap. I wrapped my arms around the child as I watched him stand up.
He reached over the hull and grabbed a box of tools to start fixing the ship.
"This was not a part of the deal." Din said with an annoyed tinge to his voice. He then walked over to the hole and pulled aside the blanket, stepping out into the freezing cold air.
The cold draft hit my body and I shivered, instinctively curling into myself and the blanket that was around my shoulders. I had hardly had the chance to acknowledge the fact that I was awake by the time Din had left. I felt myself longing for his company even though he was just outside.
A tense silence fell over the hull now that he had left. I tried my best to ignore it and placed the child on the floor beside me. I wouldn't be able to fall back asleep knowing that Din was out there trying to fix the crest by himself.
I pushed myself up from the floor and stretched my muscles. Sleeping upright on the hard floor wasn't convenient.
I scanned the mess of the hull quickly in search of a specific crate, the one that contained most of my belongings. I spotted the familiar crate on the other side of the hull, it had been knocked over onto its side in the crash.
I stepped over fallen objects and crouched down beside the crate. I grabbed hold of the sides of the crate and pulled it upwards so it was facing the right way again.
The crate was almost frozen shut from the cold temperatures. I pried the lid open and rifled inside it until my hands landed on my long coat. I slid my arms into the soft material and shivered at how cold it was. I really hope that it will warm up with my body heat quickly.
The lady was watching me silently from beside her eggs. I glanced over at her hesitantly, thinking of what to say to her.
"I'm going outside to help him." I said in an awkward tone before I stepped over all the fallen objects again and headed towards the hole in the hull.
"Stay here kid." I said to the child as I bent down and gently tapped his head. The child cooed up at me in response.
I pushed the blanket aside and stepped out into the freezing cold air. The wind had calmed down since last night, but it was still unbearably cold.
The frozen fortress that surrounded us was large. several caves surrounded us, heading off in different directions. Snow and ice covered the entire space, massive icicles stuck out from the ground and hung from the ceiling.
I turned on my heels and backed away from the crest to take a look at the damage. It wasn't good. It was sparking in several places and had far too many holes and tears.
My eyes trailed away from the broken ship and up towards the ceiling of the cave. I felt a sense of fear when I saw just how far we had fallen, it could have been a lot worse than it was. There was a massive crack in the ceiling from where we had broken through.
My breath stuttered in my throat as I exhaled heavily. I looked back down over to the ship in search of Din. Though I didn't see any sight of his familiar form.
"Din?" I called out hesitantly. My voice echoed slightly around the icy cave.
"Over here." I heard his camisole voice call to me from the other side of the ship.
A smile formed on my face at the sound of his voice. I walked around the broken razor crest towards him, the snow crunched under my boots in an almost satisfying way.
Once I was on the other side of the ship I saw his familiar form hunched down in the snow beside an open panel of the crest.
I walked over to stand behind him, placing my hand gently on his shoulder.
"Hey." I smiled gently
Din turned his head to me for a moment before he turned back to the ship. "Hey."
"Are you okay? I never got the chance to ask you." I said gently, realising that I didn't know if he got injured in the fall or not.
"Yeah, my head got rattled, but other than that I'm fine." He said.
Relief rushed through me at his admission. Feeling glad that he wasn't hurt. I don't think my heart could take it if he had been injured and I hadn't noticed. I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if I'm honest.
I crouched down at his side and looked over at the broken panel.
"Need any help?" I asked him
"Yeah, please. Can you work on the de-icing system?" Din asked me.
"Sure." I said with a small smile. I stood back up again and moved over to the correct section of the ship, setting to work. Hopefully we can get up and running before we freeze to death.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My focus on the ship part that I was repairing was pulled away when the child suddenly appeared. He was talking gibberish to us as he waddled over. I lowered the tool in my hand and looked over to him.
The child then began to point to the left of us, he looked eager to let us know what was going on.
"How 'bout you come over here, give me a hand? Make yourself useful." Din said to the kid as he waved his little arm. I couldn't help but smile at how fatherly he sounded.
The child sighed at his response and lowered his arm. I smiled gently at him.
"What's going on, buddy?" I said gently
He cooed gently and pointed in the same direction again before he turned and began to waddle away from us.
"Hey, kid." Din called after him.
I furrowed my brows and stood up from the cold, snow covered ground. I turned my head to look over my shoulder at Din. He had stood up as well, I could tell by his body language that he felt tense and concerned.
"I said hey! Where are you going? Come back here!" Din called out again. The two of us walked around the end of the ship in the direction that the kid went.
The child was standing in the snow staring at the icy cave wall. Din and I walked up to the child. The two of us crouched down on either side of him to see if we could see what was bothering him.
The child gurgled again and looked down at a small set of footprints that were leading away from the ship.
"When did she go?" Din asked the kid even though he couldn't properly respond.
The footprints were leading to a cold, dark cave. Why the lady had wanted to go in there was beyond me. I'm armed and have combat training and I still don't want to go in there. Who knows what could be hiding out on this planet.
Din picked the child up and stood up straight. I looked over at him as I straightened my legs and stood beside him.
"We're gonna have to go in there, aren't we?" I said with a sigh.
"Unfortunately." Din replied. I reluctantly nodded and the three of us began to walk through the snow towards the dark cave.
"Hey." I said with a small smile as we came closer to the cave entrance.
"What?" Din asked me. I knew he could hear the teasing tone in my voice.
"You're looking a little frosty over there, Djarin." I said with a laugh. If I'm being honest, I was only trying to distract myself from the possibility of unknown danger.
"Oh, we're on a last name basis now, are we?" Din said, the humor was thick in his voice.
I laughed along with him as we stood at the cave entrance. My laughing died down and I let out a small huff. Din glanced over at me before he nodded his head in the direction of the footprints.
"It'll be okay." Din said quietly. I nodded to him and stepped into the cave.
Luckily, it hadn't been as dark in here as I had expected. The light from outside was reflecting off of the ice, casting a calm blue light across the cave. If I wasn't so cold then maybe I could admire its beauty. But my toes were numb and my cheeks were frozen.
"You know, if I die down here, I'm coming back as a ghost and I'm going to haunt Peli." I joked
"That's not gonna happen. And why Peli? Are you going to abandon me when you're a ghost?" Din asked me.
"Because she gave us this job, but I guess I'd rather hang out with you. You're not getting rid of me that easily." I said with a smile. Din chuckled and shook his head at my jesting.
Din paused for a moment as he analyzed the footprints ahead. He pressed the side of his helmet so he could see any heat signatures.
"Do you see anything?" I asked him
"She's up ahead." Din replied. I nodded in response and we continued walking.
The two of us turned a corner that led into a much wider space. There seemed to be another dark cave that had a much larger opening up ahead, and I definitely didn't like the look of it.
In the center of the large cave there was a pool of water that had steam rising from it. The water was a stunning clear blue that almost blended in with the snow.
Laying in the steaming water, was our guest. Her tank was sitting beside the pool with the lid open. It looked to be empty.
"There you are." Din said in annoyance. He walked quickly over to the pool and I walked after him.
"You can't leave the ship. It's not safe out here." Din told her as he approached the pool. He crouched down at the edge and placed the child down on the ground.
I lent down beside the child and looked at the lady in the pool. She had taken her clothes off and I felt slightly awkward that Din and I had to be here. But she wasn't safe.
"Let's gather these up." Din said as he crouched down beside me. He stuck his hands into the pool and gently cupped his hands around one of the eggs.
I eyed the child cautiously before I stuck my hands in the warm pool and gently took hold of one of the eggs. I sighed when my hands entered the water. It was so warm in there. my frozen fingers began to sting from the sudden change in temperature which wasn't the most pleasant.
I pulled the egg out of the water and reached across Din to place the egg inside the tank. Din was quickly scooping up eggs and placing them in the tank, he was clearly very eager to get out of here, and I don't blame him. I really don't like having my back to that large cave entrance.
"I know it's warm. But night's coming fast. And I can't protect you out here." Din explained to the lady who was trying to keep her eggs in the pool.
From the corner of my eye, I saw the child reaching for one of the eggs. I quickly grabbed hold of it and pulled it out of the water. The child looked at me in annoyance as I took the egg out of his grasp. I lent across Din again and placed the egg inside the tank.
The lady seemed to have accepted that we had to leave this area and began to pass eggs over to Din.
I went to grab another egg when Din's hand shot across my body. He pointed a stern finger at the child who was trying to get another egg.
"No. No!" He told him off.
I took two of the eggs that had been in front of the child and stood up so I could walk around Din and place them in the tank.
I lent over Dins shoulder and took another egg from the lady, gently placing the egg in the tank. There weren't many left in the pool now, I counted about 3. I lent over Din's shoulder again and took hold of one of the eggs, carefully placing it in the tank.
I lent back and looked over at where the child was, well...we're the child should have been. My eyes widened as I scanned the area for the child. I spotted him a few feet away standing over an oval shaped object.
Suddenly, the oval shaped objects began to shake and open. Revealing white spider-like creatures. I tensed up at the sight of them, I've never been a fan of insects.
I slowly lowered my hand down to rest on Din's pauldron. "Din." I said with fear in my voice.
"What?" He asked me, he turned his head to look at me, feeling concerned by my tone of voice. But I kept my eyes trained on the child as he turned and began to waddle quickly back towards us. He cooed worriedly as more of the eggs hatched into spiders.
Din stepped forward and stood in front of me slightly. I hadn't even realised that he had stood up. The child ran towards Din and he quickly scooped him up into his arms.
I watched in horror as the spiders crawled along the ground. I felt frozen to the spot as fear ran through my nervous system and tightened my chest.
Suddenly, a low growl echoed through the cold cave. My heart dropped in my chest as fear made my blood run cold. Larger spiders moved quickly from the large dark entrance that I had felt uneasy about. And just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, a massive spider crawled from within the cave.
It growled loudly as it fully stepped out of the darkness. I was completely frozen by fear even though my mind was screaming at me to run. I couldn't move and the massive spider was headed straight for me.