" accord "
The four of them had been riding along the sand dunes for hours by the time Cobb Vanth drew them to a halt. Din jumped off his bike and aimed his amban riffle toward the noises that echoed in the valley. Lana did the same, hiding behind her bike drawing both her blasters. The growling grew closer, Lana powered up his pistols.
Slowly, a creature covered in spikes walked out from behind one of the rock structures. It snarled at the group showing them all its massive teeth which lined its jaw. More and more appeared. Din slowly dropped his weapon; Lana searched her brain to see if she remembered anything about the creatures from her reading back on Sorgan.
From the side of her, Din roared through his helmet. Lana's jaw dropped as his voice echoed through the canyon. He began walking up to the creatures. "What the hell you doin'?" He asks Din.
Din gestures him to stand down, Lana drops her blasters at Dins word. As Din continues to walk up to them, he continues speaking in Tusken, attempting to gain their trust. Eventually one of the armored and spiked creatures runs up to Din, the creature went from an intimidating one, to a man's best friend. Just as Din had gained the creatures trust, a few Tusken raiders stepped out.
Din stood to communicate with them. Cobb Vanth was on call, his riffle at the ready. "Hey, partner, wanna tell me what's going?"
Din turns to face him, they want to kill the krayt dragon, too."
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The raiders brought them to one of their camps to rest for the night. The group sat around a fire that night. Lana watched as the suns set over Tatooine and Din continued to communicate with the Tuskens. Lana sat on one of the makeshift chairs, with Din sat on the ground between her legs with the child in his lap. Cobb Vanth sat to the right of her, trying to understand the conversation in front of him.
One of the raiders had cracked open a fruit, offering it to Cobb Vanth. He gave him a disgusted look, before leaning down to Din. "What am I supposed to do with this?"
"You drink it." Din answers.
"It stinks."
"Do you want their help?"
"Not if I have to drink this."
One of the Tuskens grows outraged by his refusal. Din translates for him. "He says your people steal their water and now you insult them by not drinking it. They know about Mos Pelgo, they know how many sand people you killed."
Cobb Vanth raises his voice, "They raided our village. I defended the town."
"Lower your voice." Lana states.
"I knew this was a bad idea."
"You're agitating them." Lana speaks again, trying to calm him.
Cobb Vanth throws the offering into the flames. One of the Tuskens rises from his seat, so does Cobb Vanth. "These monsters can't be reasoned with. Sit back down before I put a hole through ya! I'm not going to say it- "
Vanth is cut off by a streak of flames shot out from the sitting Din. He speaks to the sand people, "What are you telling them?"
"Same thing I'm telling you. If we fight amongst ourselves, the monster will kill us all." The raider and Vanth take their spots again after blowing off steam. "Now, how do we kill it?"
Lana returns her hands back onto the spot between Din's neck and his shoulder blades. He sinks into her touch after separating the sparring two.
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The group and a few Tuskens watch over one of the edges as another Tusken walks toward the abandoned sarclacc pit with a bantha in tow. "They say it lives in there. They say it sleeps." Lana looks to the giant cave, all though its so large and so much light is piercing into it, it seems to swallow it all up.
Din takes a look through the binocs, "It lives in an abandoned sarlacc pit."
"Lived on Tatooine my whole life. There's no such thing as an abandoned sarlacc pit." Vanth speaks up.
"There is if you eat the sarlacc."
Lana's brows raise, she felt fear swell in her stomach. "They're laying out a bantha to protect the settlement. They've studied its digestion cycle for generations. They feed the dragon to make it sleep longer. Watch, the dragon will appear."
Lana puts her hand in front of the child, he holds onto her finger as the Tusken yells into the pit. Lana peers to Din, he moves his hand from the surface in front of him to place over her hand without letting the others see. Lana smiles, his little gestures went such a long way.
The child whimpers as they watch for it to appear. The growl is hear all through the valley, and the raider is seen sprinting away from the bantha. Lana watches as the dragon completely disregards the bantha and takes the raider with it.
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A day later, the four set out back to Mos Pelgo to bring in the reinforcements. Inside the cantina the people of the village sat waiting on the Marshals announcement. "This here, is a Mandalorian." He says first. The people look not amused and ready to get out of this meeting. Din gives a slight cough before he goes on.
Vanth looks back to the two behind him, "And his partner." Lana rolls her eyes at Din. "You know what that means?"
The same man that they met at the bar two days prior speaks up. "We've heard the stories of the Mandalorians."
"Then you know how good they are at killing. I wouldn't put it past her either. Now, these two have a problem. I got a suit o' salvaged armor and the Mandalorian creed says its his to take."
The people groan in the crowd, "But, I've got a problem, too. A krayt dragon has been peeling off our pack animals, and sometimes taking our mining haul with it. It's just a matter of time before it grows tired of banthas and goes after you townsfolk, or even, so help us, the school."
Again, a groan falls over the room. "As much as I've grown fond of the armor, I'm even more fond of this town. The Mandalorian and his partner are willing to help us slay the levithan in exchange for returning the armor to its ancestral owners."
The same man from the bar speaks up again, "Well that settles it."
Vanth begins to speak once more, "There's more. We can't take on the krayt alone. And the Sand People are willing to help."
This time, the crowd grows angry with his words. Some of them stand up and start shouting to the Marshal. "They raid our mines!" One shouts, "They're monsters!" says another.
"I've seen the size of that thing; it will swallow your entire town when the fancy hits it. You're lucky Mos Pelgo isn't a sand field already. You have the opportunity now with us to take it down." Lana says above the shouting voices. She steps up to where Vanth is, Din follows.
He takes a deep breath under his helmet, "I know these people. They are brutal. But so is the Dune sea. They've survived for thousands of years in these sands and they know the krayt dragon better than anyone here. They are raiders, it's true. But they also keep their word."
"We've struck a deal. If we are willing to leave them the carcass, they will stand by our side in battle and vow never to raise a blaster against this town until one of you breaks the peace." Lana takes a deep breath looking around the room, trying to see if they will take the deal. Their faces which were once filled with disgust seem to have gone back to pondering the idea of it. "What do you say?"
"We'll do it."
"Alright. I want everyone to start loading up the explosives from the armory, the Tuskens will be arriving soon." Vanth ends the meeting.
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The traps were set. Thousands of pounds of explosives were buried underground for the krayt dragon to roll over and be killed. The raiders and the people from the village of Mos Pelgo stood shoulder to shoulder with giant crossbows armed with large spears to injure the creature. Din, Vanth, and Lana stood on the edge of everyone, overlooking their plan.
A group of three Sand People walked to the edge of the sleeping dragons pit. The three began to screech, attempting to wake the sleeping beast. Their calls were cut off by the waking growls.
"Run!" Lana says to herself biting the inside of her cheek. Just as the raiders reached the others, the krayt dragon did too. Lana put her hands on her hips, gripping her belt.
One of the raiders fired their crossbow, earning a growl from the dragon. Then another, then another, then another. All of their shots didn't phase the beast, it kept moving along to the group standing before it.
Din lifted his scope to his face, watching through it as it retreated to the pit once again.
"Dank farrik, it's going back in."
Lana watched as the raiders tried to keep it from moving back by holding onto the ropes attached to the spears which were impaled in its face, but their attempts failed as some were pulled out and others were pulled along with it.
"It's retreating." Lana says to the two.
"I'm going to hit it." Cobb Vanth says looking down at the detonator. "No wait! We only have got one shot. We've gotta get it out." The group in front of them began firing and throwing anything they could at it, it grew angrier and they were able to coax it out slighting. "Now?"
"Not yet." Lana shakes her head, looking intently at the creature, "It's gotta come out further we need to hit his stomach."
The creature inched forward, growling and roaring as they attacked it more. Once it met the line of villagers and sand people, they began to retreat back, Din saw the opportunity and took it. "Now!"
As they watched from afar, they heard the deep growls as the explosives detonated under it. Sand exploded all over creating a giant cloud in its wake. The creature dove back under the sand. "I don't think it's dead."
"Me either." Din replies to Vanth. Just as Din finishes his sentence, the creature emerged, this time from the top of the mountain in front of them. As it growled it spit out some substance and covered some of the villagers in it.
"It's picking us off like womprats." Cobb Vanth says before running to his speeder and grabbing his rifle. "Let's get after it!" He exclaims. Din grabs his amban riffle and the stood look at each other. Din looks to Lana, Cobb Vanth initiates his jetpack and jets away. "Stay out of its path, I'll be back."
She runs to the other villagers and sand people, drawing both her blasters. She watches Din and Vanth both dodge the creatures massive bite. They both land, not so graciously to rejoin the group. The group has all their barrels aimed at the mountain. They all do a complete 180 when they hear the screeches from behind them.
"There he is." Din clutches his riffle, looking to the bantha sitting in the middle of the open sand covered in explosives. "I've got an idea. Get its attention." Din yells.
"What're you going to do?" Lana asks, keeping her aim on the creature. Cobb Vanth shoots a missile from his back, annoying the creature to turn to them. "I got his attention! Now what?"
"You still have that detonator?" Din asks, but it was more of a demand. "What're you thinking? What's the plan?" Lana asks. "Take care of the child. I'll be back, I love you." He says the last part of his sentence quieter than the rest. Before he can finish it, he grabs Lana by the waist and throws her into Cobb Vanth. "What're you gonna do?" He quickly asks. "I don't know but wish me luck. Hold on!" Lana grasps Cobb Vanth and Mando hits one of the packs on his back and sets them flying from the path of the creature.
Vanth and Lana land just outside the empty field of sand, rolling to a stop. Lana spits sand out of her mouth, still shook up from the landing. She rolls over to search for Din.
"Where is he?" Lana looks at where he once stood. "Din Djarin..." She whispers to herself. She stands from where they were thrown, peering over to Vanth who's on one knee, throwing off his helmet while panting. The ground began to rumble around them, Lana lifted her blasters once again. The rock and sand beneath her feet began to crack and growl. Finally, Lana let out a breath as the creature appeared again, this time with Din flying out of its gaping mouth.
Din detonates the explosives which the creature swallowed, finally defeating it. He slides to a landing to be in front of Lana. He was covered in the creature's stomach acid or something else disgusting. Lana laughs, running up to him. "I'd hug you if you weren't covered in its stomach acids." She chuckles. Din lets out an airy laughs shaking his head.
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Din and Lana are back at their bikes, Lana leaning on her seat with the child cooing next to her. She gives it a couple pets of his soft ears, earning a bright smile from him. Din notices the Marshal walking toward them. "Sorry, I didn't have time to explain."
"No need." He drops the armor onto his seat.
"This was well earned."
"It was our pleasure." Din shakes his hand; the Marshal looks to Lana and she stretches her arm out. "Thanks for the ride Marshal."
"I hope our paths cross again." He says to the two of them.
"As do I." Din speaks up.
"Oh, and you tell your people I wasn't the one that broke that." The Marshal gives the two one last grin.
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I'm a simp for Din and Cobb Vanth