.
.
Chapter 10
~X~
"When one chooses to walk the way of the Mandalore, you are both hunter and prey."
~The Armorer~
It didn't take Din long to realize that Ravana was not only brave and resourceful, but extremely headstrong as well. When she figured out that it was his room she'd been occupying, the first thing she did was insist he take it back.
"You need your privacy," she reasoned, when he had attempted to argue. "I won't deprive you of the only place you can take off your helmet and get comfortable."
"I'll take the cockpit," he told her. "I can lock the door and sleep there."
"In your captain's chair? How comfortable would that be? And don't say you've done it before, because we're not talking about what might have been necessary in the past, but your comfort now," she reasoned, cutting him off from even attempting to speak over her words. "I should be the one to sleep in the cockpit."
"You can't climb the ladder with your arm still in the bone-knitter," he reasoned, pointing at the device still clamped around her busted limb. "And there's no other bunk down here for you to use besides mine, unless you count the kid's, and I doubt you would be comfortable crammed inside his little cubical."
"What about here?" Ravana suggested, pointing to what appeared to be a long and narrow room near the back.
"That's where I house prisoners," Din stated with a firm shake of his head.
"Do you have any prisoners now?" Ravana asked, gesturing around the room as if looking for some. "And I thought you just froze your bounties so you wouldn't have to deal with them trying to escape. Why not let me use the room until you actually do have one?"
"That room only locks from the outside, you wouldn't be able to get out," he continued to argue.
"And this is something that can't easily be fixed?" was her next logical question.
Din just stood there staring at her, wondering why he couldn't seem to win an argument with this woman. Everything she said made perfect sense, but he'd already made up his mind to occupy the cockpit and let her have his bunk. Now he no longer had any reasons to object, for she'd shot down each and every one.
"Fine," he grumbled, heading over to where he kept his tools and spare parts, making quick work of the door issue by adding a locking mechanism on the inside. "Happy now?" He asked once his work was complete.
"I'm not unhappy," she smiled, walking inside and turning around as she surveyed her new chambers. "But…I'll need a bed."
"Of course you will," Din said with a sigh. Yes…she was very headstrong indeed.
.
.
The next day Din chose somewhere he felt might be suitable to acquire the needed supplies, setting down in one of the spaceports equipped with what they needed. Cortan was a small inhabited moon in the Corellia system, civilized enough to offer a few conveniences, but far enough away to offer anonymity. The water, and other essentials for the ship would be handled by the pit crew, but he would have to venture out into the market to find Ravana some clothes.
"And don't forget some real food," she insisted, handing him a small list of items she felt they needed.
"I'll see what they have," he reluctantly agreed, not used to being told what to do…by anyone.
Thus, he found himself walking between stalls in an open market, searching for something that might suit Ravana's needs. He had never shopped for ladies garments before, and as he passed different booths, he was completely at a loss of what to choose. Stopping at a table that looked somewhat tidy, he held up a shirt, surveying the quality of the garment carefully.
"Looking for something for the missus?" came the thick accent of the proprietor of the booth. "Won't find better goods than mine."
Din was not certain he spoke the truth, yet he wasn't about to openly call the Mythrol shop keeper a liar either. For all he knew, this was the height of fashion in this system.
"I need a full set of clothes for a woman about this high," here he held up his hand, indicating where the top of Ravana's head met his chin. "On the slim side."
"No problem, friend," the blue skinned alien grinned. "Only the best for your woman, no?"
Din wanted to say no. Not because he didn't want the best but instead wishing to correct him about Ravana being his woman. Still, the less information he gave out the better, so he kept his mouth shut. Soon the items were wrapped and paid for and he moved on to where food was being bartered and sold. He had just found a few of the items on the list he'd been given when he got a strange feeling…one he'd often had before.
He was being watched.
Casually he scanned the area, doing his best to appear interested in the goods on display, and not the assortment of characters hanging around the stalls. Most looked harmless enough, with people shopping, bartering, and a few he actually saw stealing, but only one stuck out like a sore thumb. He was dressed wrong, looked out of place, and staring directly at his quarry instead of trying to blend in.
What a rookie, Din thought to himself. Had he ever been that green? He would probably be dead by now if he had.
Paying for the items he held in his hand, he stuffed them in his bag and turned to stroll down the way, stopping now and then to inspect an item before slowly moving on. He could watch the hunter following him, using any reflective surface to keep an eye on him easily enough. Yet, once he'd stepped around a corner, Din halted his casual pace and ducked inside a doorway, prepared to take out whomever was following him.
He didn't have to wait long, and the moment the man was in his sights, the Mandalorian leapt out, slamming the butt of his incinerator rifle into his face, watching the hunter go down like a sack of grain. Din was prepared to give him a second blow, but he'd simply laid there, out cold and no longer a threat.
"Yep, a rookie," he muttered to himself as he bent down, fishing through the man's pockets looking for any sign of who might have hired him. Din couldn't find bounty puck, but the hunter did have a tracking fob. Oddly, when he picked it up, it wasn't flashing, which told him that he was not the main target. It was probably set for the kid's chain code, and this fellow was hoping he would lead him right to the child. Well that was not going to happen.
Closing his fist, Din crushed the device and dropped the broken pieces over the hunter's prone body, leaving the idiot there for someone to stumble upon later. Next time he saw Greef Karga he would need to give him a piece of his mind, or a punch in the gut. His former employer had promised to do all he could to call in the tracking fobs linked to him and the kid. Still, with Moff Gideon out there, this fellow might not have been hired through the Guild.
Din quickly turned and headed for the ship, wanting to put as much distance as possible between him and this planet. Din had hoped that Gideon wouldn't have located them this fast, but there was no telling how much power he still possessed in the galaxy, or how many underworld friends he might have working for him. Keeping on the move seemed their best chance for safety, and that's exactly what Din planned to do.
.
.
Ravana had been spending a nice afternoon with Zax and the kid, the three of them playing hide and seek in the hold of the ship, when the bay door suddenly engaged. Stopping what they were doing, they watched as Din came racing up the platform, tossing a bag of goods at her feet as he passed.
"Strap in, we're taking off," he announced, heading for the cockpit without another word.
Ravana didn't waste time asking questions, scooping up the kid, she hurried to a nearby bench and sat down, wrapping her arms through the straps anchored to the wall and holding on to the String-bean tightly. It didn't take long before they were airborne, heading out into space once more.
Since her arm was still in the bone-knitter, she couldn't climb the ladder very easily, so Ravana was forced to wait for the Mandalorian to come back down. In the meantime, she opened the bag he'd brought back and began to inspect the items he'd purchased. She was excited to see a variety of food within, but it was the clothes that really had her grinning.
Inside she found a pair of pants, a shirt, a vest, and some soft, but sturdy boots. She would have liked some new undergarments as well, but Ravana supposed that would have been too intimate a purchase for even the most hardened bounty hunter. She actually giggled a little, trying to picture him buying such things. Still, what he had brought back should fit her, if not a little loosely, but after being forced to wear only a long shirt for the past two days, Ravana was not about to complain.
She had just finished dressing in her new little room, when the Mandalorian came climbing down the ladder. He stopped and gave her the once over, nodding his head in approval – most likely at his choices than how she actually looked wearing them.
"Why the quick take off?" was Ravana's first question. "Was something wrong?"
"I spotted a hunter tracking me," he revealed, looking over to where the kid and the zaktan sat, watching them curiously. "Or more specifically, tracking him."
"The String-bean?" Ravana gasped, fighting back the urge to go to the little green creature and holding him protectively. "Are you sure?"
"He had a tracking fob…and it wasn't coded to me," he revealed. "We have to be more careful about where we land and how much we expose ourselves."
"I could go out and do any buying, if needed," she offered. "Or at least I can now that you got me some clothes. Thanks for them, by the way. You did a good job picking the size."
Mando only nodded, his helmet dipping down in a motion that Ravana had seen many times over the past several days. He did not accept compliments easily, nor did he like to take credit for something nice he may have done.
"At least we were able to restock the ship's supplies and get a bit of non-ration food before we were forced to leave," he told her. "We'll need to make what I got last until our next stop."
"I'm sure it'll be fine," Ravana guaranteed him. "We'll make do, and if not, we always have the military rations to fall back on."
"This might postpone any plans you have for returning to Pessue," Mando informed her.
"It's not like anything there is in need of my immediate attention," she said with a sigh. "Rebuilding won't be easy and will require money I don't exactly have. A bit more time out here among the stars won't hurt anything." She then picked up the bag of supplies he'd got at the market. "But for now, how about some real food for a change?" And off she went, anxious to see what she could make with what he'd brought back.
.
.
Two more days passed, with Ravana settling in and Din worrying about what he could do for the woman who'd initially helped them. He had a few credits saved up, but hardly enough for her to rebuild her destroyed home. He would need to find work, and fast. Before taking her on, he'd purposefully avoided high-risk jobs, worrying over the safety of the kid while he was off-ship. But now, with her to watch over him, Din could find a job that paid enough to get Ravana back on her feet, and maybe tide him and the kid over for a while as well. And he knew just the place to find such work.
Cantonica.
.
.
"So, what's this place like?" Ravana asked, having made her way up to the cockpit for the first time since the bone-knitter was removed. She claimed it still ached a bit, which was expected, but she was able to move and use it just fine. The kid was sitting happily on her lap, watching the stars go by and eyeing the buttons that were thankfully out of his reach…for now. "I've never heard of Cantonica before."
"It's mostly a dessert planet, with an artificial ocean," Din explained, turning the chair around so that he could look at her directly. "We'll be heading for its capital city, Canto Bight. The place is best known for its racetrack and casino."
"Is that wise? Going somewhere so populated?" she inquired, taking a bite of the fruit in her hand, something he'd picked up while on the previous planet.
"Let's just say it's not exactly a place one necessarily worries about the law," he explained. "It's where the rich and powerful go to play, and they don't like anyone looking over their shoulder any more than we do. I can find work there, from those who pay well and don't ask a lot of questions."
"So…dangerous work?" Ravana surmised. "And not legal, I take it."
"Exactly," Din nodded.
"Do we need the money that badly?" she asked with a worried look on her face, breaking off a piece of the fruit and feeding it to the kid. "I mean, couldn't we find something less risky?"
"Less risky also means less pay," he pointed out. "The kind of job I can find here means I won't have to work again for a while, giving me time and the resources to look for the kid's home planet."
"We could sell something…or I could help," Ravana offered. "I mean, I'm not afraid of getting my hands dirty, and with both of us bringing in money maybe you could choose safer work."
"I'm a bounty hunter, safe is not exactly in the job description," Din huffed, turning back around in his chair and facing the controls. "Besides, what work could you do? Take a job as a cook? Do sewing? And the only thing you have worth selling is your body, and I don't think that's something you'd be willing to do…nor would I allow it."
Din was rather surprised when he felt something strike the back of his helmet, his honed reflexes causing him to spin around and almost reach for his blaster. However, what he found was a very angry Ravana glaring at him, and from the missing piece of fruit in her hand, he had a pretty good idea of what had just struck him. This had apparently been entertaining for the kid, who was now clapping his little hands and squealing with excitement, thinking this was a fun new game…one Din didn't find amusing at all.
"I can't believe you just said that!" Ravana fumed.
"It was intended as a compliment," Din stated in his defense, having meant that she was good looking enough that she could actually make decent money in that profession.
"If you think that was a compliment, then you really need to work on your people skills," she grumbled, reaching down and picking up the half-eaten fruit she'd chucked at him. "Or is cultivating manners far too difficult from inside a tin-can?"
"You know, striking a Mandalorian is not the wisest thing to do," Din informed her, wiping off the residue from the back of his helmet.
"Yeah? Well insulting a lady is pretty high on the stupid-list as well," she grumbled, looking at the food in her hand rather forlornly. When the kid reached for it, eager for another bite, she pulled it away. "No, String-bean. Not until I wash it." She then stood up and headed for the cockpit door. "Besides with a foul mouth like that, one never knows what germs might be living on that helmet of his." At that she left, leaving Din staring after her in shock.
Yes, definitely headstrong. And with pretty good aim too, it would seem.
.
.
The minute the Razor Crest touched down; Din went out scouting. It didn't take long to get wind that a high ranking Rodian in the Black Sun syndicate was looking for someone to do a less than savory job. It was not something he would normally take on, not only because working for the Black Sun brought with it far too much exposure, but also due to the past history the underworld organization once had with the Death Watch…something that had ended badly all around. However, the offered payment for this one job was just too good to pass up. Unfortunately, Din would be required to meet with the client at the casino he ran, and that meant more exposure than the Mandalorian cared for. If he was going to get in, get the job, and then leave unhindered, it would require some sort of credibility. Something Din was short on these days.
.
.
"So, what kind of credibility are you in need of?" Ravana asked, looking at him from across the table in the mess area with a confused expression on her face. "Some fake ID, or an alias?"
"Something that won't automatically label me as a bounty hunter or mercenary for hire," he explained. "Otherwise, the second I walk into a place like that, I'll immediately be tagged as one."
"I guess that's the price you pay for wearing your beskar. You're not exactly easy to miss," she mused, sitting down and leaning back in her chair to think.
Din chuckled silently to himself when he saw the kid try and mimic her actions, leaning back in his own seat as well, studying her movements.
"What if you were a bodyguard?" Ravana suggested. "Mandalorians would make excellent guards, right?"
"I suppose," he agreed, his tone saying he wasn't sure he liked where she was going with this.
"Then how about I go in, and you accompany me as my personal guard?" she offered. "You wouldn't be seen as a bounty hunter then."
"Out of the question," Din stated, shaking his head. "Bringing you into this was never the plan. Besides, who would watch the kid?"
"Zax," she offered, gesturing to the sleeping zaktan curled up between her and the child. "He can keep the String-bean occupied and in line for one evening. We go in, I help you make contact with the client, you get the job and then we're back to the Razor Crest before you know it. Simple."
"Nothing is ever simple," he argued. "Far too much could go wrong, and I won't risk it."
"Then what do you suggest?" Ravana demanded, crossing her arms over her chest. "Because that's the best idea I can come up with. How about you?"
.
.
Din refused to consider her idea for the next two hours, but her continued insistence that she be allowed to help finally won out. If it had been anyone else, he would have agreed from the get-go, but he'd already endangered her life enough, and he hated to continue doing so. Still, Ravana had a point. A Mandalorian acting as a personal guard would be less likely to attract attention than a bounty hunter entering the casino alone. Yet, before they could set the plan in motion, Din needed to acquire one more thing.
.
.
"A dress?" Ravana asked with a look of disgust, holding up the fancy gown he'd just purchased for her somewhere in the city. "I've never worn a dress since I was a little girl…unless you count that shirt of yours, which I don't, by the way."
"Then it's high time you did," Din insisted. "If you want to pass as a woman with enough credits to merit a bodyguard, you must dress the part."
"I'll look stupid!" she grumbled, holding the frock up to her as she contemplated his words.
"You'll look like a woman," he corrected. "And hopefully one of wealth and breeding."
"How am I supposed to fight or run wearing this?" was her next question.
"You shouldn't need to fight, or run, if things go as planned," Din insisted. "And if they don't, then that's where I come in. I'll be your bodyguard after all. But in order for anything to happen, you'll have to wear the dress."
Ravana moaned and griped for a bit longer, but in the end, she acquiesced, stomping into her small room slamming the door shut behind her.
While she changed, Din took stock of his weapons. Knowing he would be required to leave his blaster and rifle at the door, he made sure he had several blades and other items hidden beneath his armor. When Ravana emerged from her room, he turned to look at her…and nearly dropped the concussion grenade he'd been holding.
"Well?" she grumbled, apparently still rather put out over having to dress that way, thus not at all noticing how he seemed to be frozen in place.
She looked…beautiful. The long flowing skirt swept the floor gracefully, where the off the shoulder lace top clung in all the right places. She had quickly coiled her hair up in a fashionable style, making Din confident that she could easily pass for a lady of noble birth, just as he'd once imagined. The gown's vibrant shade of green highlighted Ravana's emerald eyes, rivaling even the gems of the Katella mines.
This suddenly reminded the Mandalorian of something he'd long forgotten. Turning, he began to dig through a trunk in the back of the hold, knowing it had to be in there someplace. When he found what he was looking for at last, he held it out for her inspection.
"Are those real?" she gasped, eyeing the green, jewel-studded necklace in shock.
"No, but they're good enough to fool even the trained eye…if they don't look too closely," Din assured her, handing the item over and indicating that she put it on. "I picked it up during a job a while back, not even sure why I kept them, to be honest."
"Now how do I look?" she asked, once the necklace was in place. "And if you say like a woman, I'll kick you so hard it'll dent your beskar."
"You look…the part," was the only reply Din could think to give, knowing that he would now have to truly act as her bodyguard. For he was certain that every male who laid eyes on her that night would instantly desire her. Maybe the plan wasn't such a good idea after all.
The kid had climbed down off his chair and waddled over to where Ravana stood, fisting his little hands in the hem of her dress and giving it several tugs as he squealed in delight. Reaching down with a wide smile, she picked him up and gave him a cuddle.
"Do you like the new me, String-bean?" she laughed, finding the way he was grabbing at her dress amusing. "Do I look like your mommy now or something? All dressed in green?"
"Just don't let him drool all over you," Din warned, wanting nothing more than to get the whole thing over with so she could go back to wearing her normal clothes. Seeing her like this was distracting, and that was the last thing he needed to be just before a job. Going into the casino would require he be on full alert and having to pretend to be her bodyguard was not going to be easy. For that meant paying an extra amount of attention to Ravana's body, something Din was not ready for. Not at all.
"Now, you stay here and play with Zax," Ravana instructed, calling her zaktan to her side as she set the kid in his little cubical. She then lifted the white mutt up in with him, the two looking at her with their big dark eyes. "Be good, don't leave the ship, and try not to make any trouble. All right?"
"You're wasting your breath," Din mumbled, knowing that the kid was prone to doing whatever he liked, regardless of a direct order.
"You hush," Ravana scolded, caressing the child's ear with a smile. "I know you'll be a good boy. You both will, right?" The kid only cooed, but Zax gave a yip that sounded a lot like agreement. "There, you see. They'll be perfectly behaved."
"We'll see," the Mandalorian huffed, hitting the button that sealed them in. "But I'm putting the ship on lockdown just in case and setting the auto pilot to send the Razor Crest to Navarro if we fail to come back at a reasonable time."
"Wise," Ravana nodded.
"So…are you ready?" he asked, strapping his incinerator rifle across his back.
"As ready as I'll ever be," she answered back, with far more enthusiasm than Din thought she should have.
Shaking his head, he let out a sigh, already having a sinking feeling that this was going to be a huge mistake.
Oh boy, all dressed up and someplace to go! Wonder what kind of trouble they can find together this time?!
And uh-oh, looks like Din is finding Ravana more and more attractive. Too bad he has the manners of a goat and can't give a compliment to save his life. That man is amazing...wears a helmet 24/7 and STILL manages to get his foot lodged securely in his mouth. ha ha
Tune in on Friday and find out what they discover at the casino.
Guest Reviews:
Phantom Guest: Mando was a 'decent' boy. ha ha. He's still a Bounty Hunter of questionable morals. And yes, he is rather obsessed with long hair, so it will be a bit of a struggle for him. Thankfully, he's pretty good at controling his actions...it's his thoughts that will get him in trouble. Oh, and as you can see...his mouth. That man will need professional help if he ever wishes to woo a lady. ha ha. Thanks for the review!