4 | THE BEAST

"Why do you have to carry it? It has a cradle that follows me wherever I go." Mando questioned Celeste as she hadn't let go of the child since he captured it. It was so innocent and pure, she couldn't help it. She had never seen something so pure in her life. Celeste looked down at the baby and it made little baby noises at her. It's head was pressed against her chest and she held it very protectively. "Um," Celeste had to come up with a quick excuse, "because if something comes for it, I'm quick enough to run away."

"You're not fast. At all." Mando shook his head at her.

"I was faster than all the other bounty hunters that came after me." Celeste scoffed as she caressed the child's head. The baby kept its cheek pressed to her chest and its eyes stared up at her like she was his savior.

"You weren't faster than me." Celeste could practically feel the annoying little smirk he probably had on under his mask.

* * *

Later on that night, Mando set up camp so that he could repair his armor and weapons that were destroyed when he charged into the encampment to capture the baby. While Mando was repairing his armor, Celeste was walking around looking for insects on the ground. "What are you doing?" Mando inquired. He was still skeptical of her running away, but, now that he saw how glued she was to the child, he knew she wasn't going anywhere without that baby. So, as long as he kept the child by his side, he didn't have to worry about her running off.

"The child is hungry. I saw him chase after a fly earlier. I think he likes bugs." Celeste found a juicy little bug on the ground and picked it up.

"How do you know he's hungry?" Mando asked, curious to know how to care for something that couldn't communicate to them.

"I just do." She responded, curtly. She held the squirming bug up to the baby and it instantly opened its little mouth. She placed the bug inside and the baby ate it without hesitation.

Celeste took a seat on the rock next to Mando as he patched himself up. She saw that he had a cut he was struggling to cauterize. Mando saw her gazing at the wound and expected her to offer to help. But, instead, she just glanced at it and looked away. Mando looked at her, astonished she didn't offer any help. "What? Don't expect me to get all sentimental on you now, Mando. I'm still your prisoner. You're still going to turn me into that asshole for some cash." Celeste snapped at him. Mando understood. He was still her enemy. Just because he saw her getting soft for the child, didn't mean she was his friend. Mando returned to closing up his wound without exchanging another word.

Out of nowhere, the baby crawled out of its cradle and waddled up to Mando. He raised his hand to nearly touch the wound, but, Mando quickly picked him up and put him back in his safe cradle. Celeste took notice of his action, but quickly pushed the thought aside.

* * *

The next day, the trio finally made it back to Mando's ship. But, unfortunately for Mando, the ship was being stripped down to nothing by Jawas upon their arrival. Mando quickly pulled out his rifle and pointed it toward the crowd of Jawas that were stealing parts from Mando's ship. He shot at a few of them, sending them into a frenzy as they ran back to their vehicle with all the stolen parts in hand. They drove away in their Sandcrawler as quick as they could and Mando raced after it. He jumped onto the side of the Sandcrawler and attempted to climb aboard. Celeste stayed behind with the baby by the stripped ship. "Jawas really are the scum of the planet." Celeste spoke as she watched Mando try to fight them and hijack their Sandcrawler. Mando eventually got shoved off the vehicle and fell a great height to the ground. He fell unconscious and Celeste hurried over to make sure he wasn't dead since he was her only ticket out of that nearly deserted planet.

She pressed her ear to his chest and heard him breathe normally. She sighed out in relief. She looked over at his mask and was tempted to pull it off to see what he looked like since he had not once removed his armor nor helmet. But, she resisted the urge and simply began to head toward Kuiil's vapor farm with the baby by her side to ask for help for Mando.

* * *

Kuiil was kind enough to help Celeste by coming along with medical supplies. When they arrived back at the broke down ship, Mando was already awake and hurrying around the ship in a frantic manner. He had thought Celeste had took off with the baby. "You're awake." Celeste called for his attention.  Mando was relieved to see her and the child returning. He hurried over to the three. The sun was beginning to set and Kuiil knew it'd be safer for them to turn in at his home before proceeding with any other action. "Come on, we will sort this all out back at the farm." Kuiil told.

Mando nodded and headed with them back to the farm. "My ship has been destroyed. I'm trapped here." Mando told Kuiil as the four walked back to the vapor farm.

"Jawas steal. They don't destroy." Kuiil informed Mando.

"It's makes no difference to me. The Jawas are protected by their crawling fortresses. There's no way I can recover the parts." Mando sighed.

"You can trade." Kuiil proposed.

"With Jawas? Are you out of your mind?" Mando scoffed.

"I will take you to them. We must travel overnight to make it there by day. I have spoken." Kuiil told Mando and Celeste as they finally reached his farm. Celeste placed the child on the ground to roam for a bit once they arrived. The baby instantly chased after a little frog. Celeste snatched it up for him and handed it to him. The baby instantly put it in his mouth and swallowed it while it was alive.

Celeste cringed. "Yuck." She told the baby. The baby giggled and let out a small burp.

The four quickly assembled themselves for travel to the Jawa fortress. Kuiil rode a blurrg and it pulled a wagon that Mando, Celeste and the baby were seated on. On the long trip, Celeste and the baby fell asleep for a short while. Mando stood guard with his rifle out, ready to defend the rest of the group from any attackers. Celeste held the baby close to her as he was wrapped up in her arms while they slept. She never let it go throughout the night as she had grown quite attached to it.

It wasn't that the baby did anything in particular to make her become so fond of it. It was just because it was the only wholeheartedly good being she had seen in her entire existence. And she had some kind of instinct to protect it at all costs. At least while she was still Mando's prisoner since she knew that, soon, she'd be separated from the child once Mando exchanged her for the promised bounty.

* * *

At daybreak, they finally arrived at the place where the Sandcrawler was parked. The Jawas shrieked once they saw the strangers arrive. They held out their weapons and pointed it at Mando. "They really don't like you for some reason." Kuiil muttered to Mando.

"Well, I did disintegrate a few of them." Mando told.

"You need to drop your rifle." Kuiil told Mando as he realized the Jawas weren't relaxing at his presence.

"I'm a Mandalorian. Weapons are part of my religion." Mando refused.

"Then you're not getting your parts back." Kuiil told. Mando sighed, irritated and put his rifle down. He then jumped off of the wagon. Celeste placed the baby in the cradle and watched from afar as Mando negotiated with the Jawas. Once the negotiations were done, Mando walked over to Celeste. "Come on,  we're taking a ride with the Jawas. They want me to retrieve some egg." He informed Celeste.

Celeste nodded and followed him inside. The ride was quick, but very uncomfortable as the Sandcrawler was built for the extremely short Jawas. Both Mando and Celeste had to hunch over and sit in a contorted manner for some minutes before they arrived at their destination. Kuiil stayed behind while Mando pulled along Celeste and the baby. The three had to walk a small distance before reaching the cave where Mando had to steal an egg from.

Celeste and the baby watched as Mando descended into the cave. And only a few moments later, she heard his blaster go off. Almost instantly after a few blaster shots went off, Mando was launched out of the cave. Whatever was inside was now pissed as it let out an inhuman roar. Mando laid in the mud, groaning after he landed with a loud thump. Celeste took a few steps back, bracing herself for the beast to come charging out of the cave.

Celeste's prediction was correct. The beast with one horn came stomping out of the cave. It was enormous. It charged at Mando and knocked him a few more feet upon impact. The creature turned and caught sight of Celeste and the baby. Without much thought, the beast came running at the two. Celeste gasped and shoved the cradle out of the way. She jumped out of the path of the creature before it could hit her. This only pissed it more off. It turned back around to attack Mando. Mando tried to hit it with all of the gadgets he had on his person. Fire, grappling hooks and all. But none of it seemed to work.

The beast charged at Mando one last time at Mando and Mando looked like he was running out of will to fight the creature. Mando exhaustively pulled out his last usable weapon, since he had exhausted all of his other gadgets already to try and stop it, which was a knife. Hope seemed to be lost and Mando was just ready to accept the impact of the creature. But, the creature was stopped in his tracks. It seemed to struggle as it wanted to continue to charge at Mando. The beast was lifted off of the ground by some kind of invisible force. Celeste and Mando looked over to the baby and saw it had its hand raised and his eyes closed. He looked like he was using every drop of energy in his body to hold back the beast. Mando used those few seconds of an advantage to stab the creature in the throat and killed it. The baby let out a small like exhausted breath, then fell unconscious in his cradle.

Celeste was in disbelief at what she had just saw. So was Mando. She caressed the baby's sleeping face as Mando went into the cave to retrieve the egg. The entire trip back to the Sandcrawler, Mando and Celeste didn't say a word. They already kind of made an unspoken agreement to not tell anyone what had just happened.

When they returned to the Sandcrawler, Mando handed over the egg to the Jawas and the Jawas returned nearly all the parts of Mando's ship.

* * *

In no time, Mando and Kuiil repaired the ship. Celeste stayed by the baby and watched it while it slept. It still hadn't awakened since it stopped the horned beast from killing Mando. Within a few days time, Mando was taking off on his ship with the baby and Celeste on board.