3 | THE CHILD

"What kind of bullshit service is this?! You've got another person to hunt? While you still have me tied up here?" Celeste hissed at Mando as he landed at Arvala-7, certainly not the planet where Mando was supposed to turn Celeste in at. Mando pulled out some sort of tracking device that annoyingly beeped like a metal detector. It was a fob tracker, used by bounty hunters when they weren't given a puck.

Mando ignored her, as always. But, then Celeste began to thrash around in her seat and kick the dashboard in front of her. Mando whipped his head around and pointed his weapon at her, threateningly. "You stay here. I shouldn't take long." He instructed.

"Are you kidding me?" Celeste smacked her lips at him, in a distasteful manner.

"If I take you, you'll run." Mando stated, plainly.

"If you leave me here, I'll find a way to get out of these restraints and run anyway." Celeste quickly retorted.

Mando stood quietly for a moment, debating the choice he had to make in his mind. "Fine," he sighed, giving in, "but, if you run, just know... I won't mind shooting you down for a lesser payment of your dead body." Mando lied. It was quite easy for him to do so since the mask hid his self incriminating eyes. Mando knew Vikkal—the man that sent him after Celeste—wanted her alive and well. To him, he seemed to be like some precious and rare cargo he could not risk letting go.

Celeste gulped. Her body went cold. The tables had certainly turned now. No longer did she feel so safe and secure now that she knew he could kill her and still get paid. Mando walked over to her and released her bodily restraints, allowing her to stand up beside him. He marched out of his ship and she followed his shadow out into the desert planet. She attempted to pull her wrists apart, but they were still bound by cuffs that dug deep in her skin, slicing her wrists as she struggled more and more.

They took a few steps outside of the ship, then, Mando pulled out his rifle to scope out the area. He spotted a blurrg in the distance then turned his rifle in the other direction. Celeste continued to jangle with the cuff, distracting herself as Mando zoomed in on some blurrgs far off in the horizon. Suddenly, a blurrg came charging at the two out of nowhere. They didn't see it coming since Celeste was distracted by the painful cuffs and Mando was staring at a group of blurrgs far away. The blurrg stomped toward Mando first. It took hold of Mando's arm and flung him around like a rag doll. He punched and kicked at the beast while Celeste tried to stay as far away from the blurrg as she could to avoid getting hurt. She couldn't do anything due to her bound wrists and she didn't want to help the man who had just kidnapped her, either. Mando managed to stick it with a tranquilizer he had hidden in his belt, and it fell unconscious to the ground.

A local from the planet wandered over, while riding a blurrg himself, to see what all the commotion was about. "You are a bounty hunter." The local noted. Mando nodded.

The local looked over at Celeste who stood, unharmed, off to the side. "I will help you two. I have spoken." The local kicked at the blurrg to signal it to take him back to his home.

"What is your name?" Celeste called after him as he began to ride away on the blurrg.

"Kuiil." The man responded. Mando and Celeste hurried after him. They followed him all the way back to his vapor farm, where he held a few blurrgs in a pen. "Many have passed through. They seek the same one as you." Kuiil told Mando as they entered his home. Kuiil seemed to have already known what Mando was after. There seemed to be a lot of people after whatever it was.

"Did you help them?" Mando asked Kuiil.

"Yes. They died." Kuiil informed.

"Well, then I don't know if I want your help." Mando replied with a tinge of attitude. Celeste was impressed that he could show that much emotion. He had been so stoic with her.

"You do. I can show you to the encampment." Kuiil offered.

Celeste began to tune out the two as she walked around Kuiil's home and looked at his things. He was a simple vapor farmer. There wasn't much to it. Random and some domestic items were spread across the surfaces of his home. He seemed to live alone and the sight saddened Celeste a bit. Her analysis of the man's home was broken when Mando called her over to leave. "We're going to ride blurrgs." He told her as Kuiil led them outside to his pen of blurrgs.

Celeste didn't know how to ride a blurrg, as she had never done it before. Blurrgs were not native to her planet and she had only known about them from her travels to Arvala and studies. I suppose it's like riding anything else, right? She thought to herself.

* * *

After dozens of tries, Mando kept getting kicked off of the blurrg. It certainly did not like Mando and anytime he'd get near, it'd already behind to buck. "Perhaps if you took off your helmet." Kuiil suggested.

"I don't have time for this. You have a landspeeder or a speeder bike that I could hire?" Mando seemed irritated with trying to ride the damn thing.

"You are a Mandalorian! Your ancestors rode the great Mythosaur. Surely you can ride this young foal." Kuiil incited Mando.

Celeste approached the other blurrg, that awaited for her to ride it, and placed her hand on its head. She hoped that action would make it more docile toward her so that she could mount it. The blurrg closed its eyes, trustingly, then Celeste hopped on the creature without an issue. "That one must be kinder." Mando huffed.

He used the same tactic on his own blurrg, then it worked. He was riding on the creature in no time. The three rode away off into the hazardous landscape toward the encampment Mando's next bounty was located. Mando kept a close eye on Celeste anytime she seemed to stray a little too far from him on the way to his next prey. Upon arrival to the location, Mando took a peek at the encampment. Kuiil and Mando chatted back and forth for a bit while Celeste dismounted her blurrg. Mando thanked Kuiil for the guidance then, he rode away. Mando creeped up to the edge of a cliff that overlooked the encampment where the quarry was located. He scouted out the area below. "Oh no, bounty droid." Celeste heard Mando groan.

"What? You don't like droids?" Celeste snickered at him from afar. Mando shot her a look, and despite his helmet, Celeste could sense he sent her an annoyed look.

Mando sprang to his feet and approached Celeste. "What is it?" She furrowed her brows together as the man marched over to her.

"For precaution." Mando informed her as he simultaneously whipped out some rope and restrained her to the same post the blurrgs were tied to. Celeste rolled her eyes in a disgruntling manner. "Never thought I'd be one with the animals." She spat at him. Mando ignored her comments. He wasn't quite used to having to listen to his quarries bicker at him since he'd usually just freeze them in carbonite.

Mando scurried off to do his job down at the encampment to secure the next quarry. Celeste stood at her post for a good few minutes before she began to hear blasters shooting from the encampment. Curiosity possessed her and she quickly used her teeth to undo the knot in the rope that tied her to the post. As she hurried over to the edge of the cliff to take a peek at the scene, she pulled out a hair pin from her head to attempt to unlock the cuffs that had made her wrists bleed. She jangled with the lock for a bit until it finally clicked free. She diverted her attention to overlook the battle between Mando and the bounty droid with the Nikto guards. Celeste recognized the guards of the encampment as Nikto because of their green complexion. She had an encounter or two with their kind in past when she was Jabba the Hut's arm candy for a while.

Once the shooting finally stopped, Celeste descended into the encampment and followed Mando and the droid into the fortified building. Once Celeste entered the building after Mando and the droid, she only saw the end of Mando and the bounty hunter droid's interaction as she witnessed Mando shooting the IG-11 bounty hunter droid. The droid collapsed to the ground with a fresh hole bored in his head. Celeste noticed Mando stood before a small cradle. Celeste began to take a step forward to see what this new quarry was, but, Mando heard Celeste's footsteps and shot his head around with his gun pointed at her. She threw her arms up in surrender. "What are you doing here?" Mando hissed at her.

This time, Celeste was the one that ignored Mando. She continued to near the cradle—as she had a gut feeling that Mando wasn't planning on killing her anymore—and spotted the little baby. Her heart warmed at the sight. It was a little green thing with large ears. Mando was in awe of it, too. Celeste instantly felt this force of this connection to the child. She instantly gravitated toward it like it was her own. Although she knew it wasn't truly her baby, something about him made her feel like they belonged together. Like they were alike somehow. Mando put down his blaster and stared down at the baby just as Celeste did. They were both so in shock that such a little thing could cause so much ruckus. Mando stuck out his gloved finger for the child to grab and it did so, making Mando's heart melt. It cooed and it's large, shiny eyes gleamed as it looked up at Celeste's humanly face.