THIRTY-FOUR.
wounds can heal
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The unfriendly land of Nevarro was soon greeted by the landing of the Razor Crest. I stood up with a loud stomp, clearly upset with this whole 'plan to stop The Client' with Greef Karga. Mando turned off the ship's engines and turned around to face me.
"Don't be so angry," He sighed, towering over my figure. I rolled my eyes as he continued, "It won't get us anywhere. You're coming with us."
"Why?" I took a step closer to him, trying to intimidate him. "I'll just stay in the Razor Crest with the kid--"
"You're coming with us," He stated, staring into my eyes. My heart began to race, my face growing warmer. "And so is the kid."
I scoffed, pushing past him in an aggressive manner. Once Kuiil saw me jump down from the top level of the ship, he released the blurrgs. Shortly after this, Mando climbed down from the top floor.
"Carefully choose a blurrg and get on," Kuiil said to everyone. "However, someone will have to ride with another. We did not bring enough blurrgs for the all of us."
Before I could choose a blurrg, everyone had already taken them all. I noticed that Mando had chosen my favorite blurrg. He extended a hand out to me, offering to ride along with him. I paused for a moment, then shrugged past him and hopped onto Kuiil's blurrg. In the corner of my eye, I saw Mando roll his head as if he was somewhat annoyed by my choice. With a simple swipe of the arm, he moved the child's crib and it began to follow us.
Cara exclaimed, "Alright, let's go..!"
As the entrance of the ship opened up, we led our blurrgs out of the Razor Crest. One by one, we rode the blurrgs over to where Greef was waiting for us. Greef crossed his arms and began walking towards us; followed by his three fellow bounty hunters.
"Sorry for the remote rendezvous, Mando, but things have gotten complicated since you were last here." He announced, observing all of us. "It appears that introductions are in order. It seems we've both provided a security detail."
I looked closely at the bounty hunters that were behind Greef and saw that one was human, the other was Nikto, and the last one was a Trandoshan. I held onto Kuiil's waist, glaring at the hunters. I was a bit suspicious of them; I knew what they were here for.
"I recommend the shock trooper guards the ship. These lava fields are lousy with Jawas." Greef pointed at Cara.
"She's coming with me." Mando announced agitatedly. Greef rolled his eyes.
"But the town is now run by ex-Empire. If a rebel dropper is with us, they'll all get their hackles up--"
"She's coming." Mando snapped.
Surprised by his sudden outburst, I shifted my gaze onto him and noticed that his grasp on the blurrg's reins tightened significantly. Cara gave Greef an intimidating look in response.
"Fine.. fine. At least cover your tattoo -- no need to flaunt it." He hissed, placing his fists on the sides of his body. He turned to look at me with a stern look. "Good, I see that the girl is here. But! Where's the little one??"
We all looked in Mando's direction as he glanced at me, tapping something on his arm's controller. Just then, the metal crib went floating up to Greef. Slowly, the top opened up and revealed the child.
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."
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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.
"How many will there be?" Mando asked, looking into the camp fire.
"No more than four," Greef shrugged and stood up from sitting on the floor. "He travels with, at most, a Fire Team. Trust me."
He walked over to the four-legged beast and tore off a leg. Just then, I felt a sharp burst of pain rush through my body, telling me something was wrong. I hadn't felt like this since going into the New Republic prison ship.. why now? Mando looked over at me as I held my head, dropping the child's food on the floor.
Greef began to say cockily, "Nothing can go--"
As if on cue, a large winged beast attacked his arm mid-sentence, causing him to yell and collapse onto the floor.
Quickly, everyone grabbed their weapons and began shooting at the beast. It flew around, trying to attack us as we shot. Mando quickly ran over and stood next to the child's crib, protecting him.
That's when the beast grabbed one of the blurrgs. Kuiil's eyes widened, and he yelled in anger, "No! Let go of her! Drop her!"
But that's when more winged beasts came barging into the camp, attacking us. Mando closed the top of the crib to prevent the child from getting hurt by these beasts. The pain in my head slowly went away as I focused on shooting the beasts.
Unfortunately, the Trandoshan hunter and a blurrg were captured by the winged beasts. Suddenly, the beast came down and tried to capture another one of our blurrgs. Cara shot it down, but ended up shooting the blurrg during the process.. killing them both.
At that very moment, I let my guard down for one second.. one second. That's when a winged beast tried to attack me.
Out of instinct, I used the Force to push me away from its attack. Mando quickly stepped in front of me and activated his flamethrower, aiming it at the beast and driving it off. Luckily, no one else was harmed.. we were safe for the most part. I sighed in relief, wiping the sweat off my forehead.
"You okay?" Mando asked me.
"Yeah.."
Afterwards, Mando and I rushed over to the child's crib. Mando opened the crib's top, and the child stared up at us in confusion. I took a deep breath in as Mando seemed just as relieved as I was.
Just then, Greef groaned out in pain. Kuiil quickly ran to his side. Greef had deep cuts along his right arm, blood spilling out of his wound.
"He's hurt badly." Kuiil said. Greef groaned once again, trying to hold in the pain.
"I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine--"
"Hold still..!" Cara exclaimed, sitting down beside him. She observed his wounds as she took something out of her bag to stabilize the pain. She inserted the pen above the wound, causing Greef to yell out in pain. "They got you good."
Mando and I walked over, staring at Greef's wounds. Mando asked, "How bad?"
"Bad. The poison's spreading fast." Cara replied, taking out another medical pen. Everyone looked at one other, not knowing what to do.
I grimaced, looking down at my hands, 'The Force.. it was calling out to me. But why--'
"So this.. this is how it happens.." Greef stammered as he spoke. Cara rolled her eyes, taking out a medpac and placing it on his arm.
"Oh, don't be so dramatic," She said before turning to the rest of us. "I need another medpac! Got any other medpacs? Anyone?"
"I'm guessing that's a 'no'." Greef said, sighing. Cara got out a flashlight, shining it on his wound.
"It's still spreading; this isn't working." Cara barked frustratedly. That's when we all noticed that the child was hovering his hand over the wound. Cara growled, "Get this thing outta here--"
"Wait." I said, kneeling next to the child. He placed his tiny hands on the wound, closing his eyes.
Greef whined, "He's going to eat me..!"
"Oh, be quiet!" I snapped, frowning.
We all watched in silence as the child began to heal Greef's wounds. Surprisingly, he had removed most of the poison from his wound. But since he was still an amateur, he struggled to finish healing the rest of the remaining cuts
Everyone stared at Greef's arm.. amazed. I placed my own hand on the wound, on top of the child's. Greef looked up at me in confusion.
"What are you--"
"Shh!" Kuiil hushed him, watching the healing take place.
I closed my eyes and let the Force engulf my mind and body. The energy flowed through my head to my hand as I helped the child heal the wound within seconds. Soon, there were no more cuts or venom left inside of Greef's body.
Out of exhaustion, the kid fell back onto my lap. I carefully caught him within my arms and held him close. Everyone continued to stare at Greef's fully healed arm; left inside their own thoughts. Mando turned to me, tilting his head to the side.
I shook my head, placing my index finger on my lips. I looked down at the exhausted child in my arms. I couldn't help but compare him to my dear Master Yoda.. they were too much alike. I felt as if my grief and pain from losing my Master had disappeared. Now, I had this little guy. I sighed.
'.. I'll do everything in my power to protect you.'