6 | THEIR SANCTUARY

Mando looked apprehensive as he flew off into space as far as he could to be sure no one was after them. Celeste noticed and wanted to make sure he wouldn't have any second thoughts about saving them, especially not about saving the kid. "You did the right thing, for him." Celeste looked over at the baby that was playing with a ball Mando had unscrewed from his lever on the dash.

"Thank you for saving me. I know you've risked a lot by freeing me. And I know you didn't have to do it, either." She reluctantly thanked him. Although she felt obliged to do so, she also knew he was the reason she had been captured in the first place. So, it was his fault, but he was also her savior. She knew she didn't mean much to him and she knew he didn't have to save her. But, he did anyway. And now bounties were going to be placed on her and, inevitably, Mando was going to have to protect her until bounties would stop being placed on her.

"You would've done the same if it were me." Mando told her.

Celeste raised her brows at him. "Brave of you to think so."

"Does that mean you wouldn't?" Mando chuckled.

"I guess we will never know." Celeste shrugged, smiling. That was enough to tell Mando the true answer—no, she wouldn't have. He was her enemy up until that point, and she had no sympathy toward him until then. She would have never saved him after he had captured her and especially after he turned her in to Vikkal.

An image of a planet appeared on Mando's screen and it distracted the two from their lighthearted conversation. "Sorgan. Looks like there's no star port, no industrial centers, no population density. Real backwater skug hole. Which means it's perfect for us." Mando read out the info of the planet that his ship had pulled up.

"Nobody's gonna find us here." Celeste added.

* * *

Not too long later, the ship landed and Mando was readying himself to leave and find lodging for them. "You stay here with the kid." Mando told her.

"No way, I'm going with you." Celeste jumped up to her feet and began to trot over to the door. Mando placed a hand on her chest and stopped her from proceeding.

"I'll be right back. I won't be long." Mando explained to her.

Celeste looked down at his gloved hand then back up at his mask. "You know you're wasting time. I am going to follow you anyway, because that's just how I am." Celeste brushed past him and stepped outside. She took a deep breath of fresh air and her eyes scanned the greenery. The planet was beautiful. It had lots of green and blue hues all around. The environment almost seemed untouched by any being.

Mando and the baby followed her out, then the three began their walk into the nearest town. They found a small pub to sit down for a meal at. They took a seat at a table and Mando instinctively began analyzing the people around them. "You know staring is quiet rude." Celeste notified Mando as his head obviously turned to look at a certain woman in soldier-like gear in the pub.

"How would they know I'm staring. My face is covered by my helmet." Mando snarked.

Celeste rolled her eyes, and a waitress came over to take their order. "Welcome, travelers. Can I interest you in anything?" Her smile was warming and reflected her welcoming words.

"Bone broth for me and the little one, please." Celeste smiled kindly at the woman.

"Oh, well, you're in luck. I just took down a grinjer, so there's plenty." The waitress informed them. "Can I interest you in a porringer of broth as well?" She turned to Mando.

Mando shook his head at her. "Just for those two," Mando looked over at the woman he was peering at earlier, "that one over there. When did she arrive?"

The waitress shrugged. "I don't know. I've seen her here for the last week or so."

"What's her business here?" Mando was practically interrogating the woman.

"Business? Oh, well, there's not much business in Sorgan, so I can't say—" Mando tossed over a heap of credits toward her, and she was impressed by the large sum of money— "she doesn't strike me as a log runner. Well, thank you, sir. I will get that broth to you as soon as possible, and I will throw in a flagon of spotchka just for good measure. I will be right back with that." The kind woman gratefully took the money.

Once the woman left, Mando noticed the woman he was asking about was now gone. Mando instantly stood up, Celeste grabbed his arm and pulled him toward her so he wouldn't go off hunting for this girl. "Relax. You got a boner for her or something?" Celeste whispered frantically at him since people were starting to take notice of him and his brilliant armor.

"She could be a threat." Mando muttered to Celeste.

"I doubt it. Don't go making a scene when we've finally found a nice place to stay." Celeste gritted her teeth as she struggled to hold him back as he began to walk away from the table.

"I can't take that chance. I have to go check her out." Mando declared and marched out of the pub.

The waitress quickly came back with the bone broth, leaving Celeste and the baby to enjoy it. But, then, Celeste started hearing punches being thrown outside. She hurried out to see what was going on and the baby followed quickly behind her. Once she rounded the corner of the building she saw the girl and Mando pointing their blasters at each other.

The kid took a loud sip of his soup that he brought with him and caused both the girl and Mando to snap their heads over at Celeste, who had a worried expression crossing her face, and the kid, unbothered and sipping his soup. "You want some soup?" Mando asked the girl— named Cara Dune— and thus stopped their fighting.

They all walked back into the pub and took a seat. Celeste quietly drank her soup as the two conversed about things she had no clue about. Something about her protecting politicians. "Look, I knew you were Guild. I figured you had a fob on me. That's why I came at you so hard." Cara explained.

"Yeah, that's what I figured." Mando sniffed.

"Well, this has been a real treat, but unless you wanna go another round, one of us is gonna have to move on, and I was here first." Cara stood up and left the table without another word.

Mando looked over at Celeste. "Well, looks like this planet's taken."

* * *

Later on that night, Mando was repairing his ship so that they could take off at daybreak. Celeste stood there holding a lantern so he could see what he was doing in the midst of the darkness. "I wish I could help. I really feel useless around you. If I could be like Cara, I'd be way less of a burden." Celeste laughed.

"Don't talk about yourself like that." Mando groaned.

"It's true, though."

"But it's not." Mando walked right up to her face. "You aren't a burden to me, if you were, I would have left you back there with Vikkal. I couldn't take care of the kid alone. I'm just not built that way to care for something so small and innocent."

Celeste felt small as he towered over her. She hadn't realized until he had came so close to her. She could feel his warmth in the cool night and suddenly felt like she wanted to embrace him. For his kind words and for all of the things he had done to keep her safe. She cleared her throat and took a step back to pull herself out of those thoughts. "I think you should get back to tinkering." She pointed the light back where he was working. He returned to fine tuning the ship for a few more minutes until Celeste spotted two rugged looking men approaching them with a lantern.

"Mando." Celeste whispered as her wide and worried eyes remained glued on the incoming strangers. Mando hummed in response without looking in her direction. "Mando, there are people coming this way." She whispered over to him and he instantly whipped around. He retracted his blaster and held it close in case of any trouble. When the strangers came closer he realized they were just poor locals and he relaxed a bit.

Celeste stood behind Mando as he communicated with the locals. She had been on her toes, worried that Vikkal had sent more bounty hunters her way to steal her back. "Is there something I can help you with?" Mando asked the locals.

"Uh, yeah. Raiders. We have money." One of them spoke as the other held out a pouch of cash.

"So, you think I'm some kind of mercenary?" Mando inquired.

"You are a Mandalorian, right?" One of them asked.

"Or at least wearing Mandalorian armor. That's Mandalorian armor, right?" The other questioned.

"It is. How much money do you have?" Mando queried.

"Everything we have, sir. Our whole harvest was stolen. We're krill farmers. We brew spotchka. Our whole village chipped in." The man held out the small pouch of money.

"It's not enough." Mando answered.

"Are you sure? You don't even know what the job is?" The man seemed let down.

"I know it's not enough. Good luck." Mando replied.

"This is everything we have. We'll give you more after the next harvest. Took us a whole day to get here. Now we have to ride back with no protection to the middle of nowhere." The other sighed.

Mando's interest peaked. "Where do you live?"

"On a farm. Weren't you listening?"

"In the middle of nowhere?"

"Yes."

"You have lodging?"

"Absolutely."

Mando looked back at Celeste for approval. She nodded, knowing it'd be a safe place to hide out for a while. "Good. Come up and help." Mando waved the two over to help take their things over to the farm.

They quickly packed up and on the way, Mando found Cara to recruit her help to accomplish the mission of defeating the raiders. She accepted on the terms that she was allowed to quarter in the remote farm as well.

The ride to the farm took an entire day, just as the two farmers told them. They all rested on the way, and when they were awake they ate or enjoyed the passing scenery. At night, they took shifts staying awake to make sure no one came by and stole their things or, worse, tried to kill them. When it was Mando's turn, he woke up to the sight of Celeste's arm draped over his chest. She clearly felt safe feeling him there and he didn't dare move her arm.

Just as Cara was about to fall asleep since she had just traded off shifts with Mando, she gave him a word of advice. "She doesn't know it yet, but she loves you. The way she trusts you with her life... that's just one way she's showing it. You can see it in her eyes. That's the bounty you received that you weren't expecting." She told him right before she dozed off. It left him to thinking the entire night.