A Hunter's Pride

Chapter 15: the mistake

"Hello, jedi."

You flinched at the voice before you slowly turned around. Nothing. Frowning, you watched the light of the street disappear as darkness surrounded you. Suddenly, a feeling of incredible cold and emptiness washed over your body and you winced, even though you didn't know why. Shivers ran down your spine as you noticed the feeling seemed familiar, as did the creepy voice.

"Who's there?" You yelled into the darkness, sounding way more confident than you felt.

Laughter was the response, this time from behind you. Immediately, you pulled your blaster and pointed it in the general direction from where you suspected the voice to come, but again, there was nothing. Fog began to creep around your feet and panic started to rise in you as something inside your head snapped. You had already been in this situation. If you could only remember when.

"Boo." A husky voice next to your ear whispered and you spun around, throwing a punch at whoever stood there, but the mysterious person caught your fist with ease.

"Now now, what a warm welcome." The man grinned and tilted his head, his dark hood falling off in the progress and your eyes widened in shock.

"No." You shook your head in disbelief. "That's impossible. You can't be here. We delivered you to the Empire hours ago!"

"Oh, did you?" The grin on Thei'ra's face grew wider and wider and you watched in horror as his skin seemed to peel itself, until a creature you had never seen before stood only inches away from you, his hot, smelly breath brushing your face.

Its mouth was wide open, saliva dropped off its teeth as it stared at you with wide, bloody eyes. Unable to move, you watched in horror as the creature became taller and taller, before it suddenly moved its head in incredible speed and buried its teeth deep into your shoulder.

You couldn't help but scream. Thousands of hot needles burned their way through your skin, deep into your flesh. The pain was unbearable, you had never felt anything like this before. Shivering and trembling, you somehow managed to raise your blaster and pull the trigger. The shot hit the creature in the shoulder and it let go of you with a hiss of pain.

Holding your burning shoulder, you stumbled backwards, dropping the blaster in the progress. Without hesitation, you turned on your heel, chasing down the dark alley. Only one thought on your mind. You had to get out of there. And fast. But with every step you took, the pain in your shoulder grew stronger, spread through your arm and chest. That moment you realised. In one smooth movement, you ripped off your jacket and threw it to the ground, revealing a greenish shimmering bite wound. Poison. In shock your eyes wandered down your arm, realising it must've already spread far through your body. You didn't dare to imagine what would happen if it reached your heart.

With a short scream of pain, you stumbled out of the alley into a crowded street. Relief spread in your stomach and was replaced by despair the same moment. If Thei'ra, or the man who pretended to be Thei'ra, was really a shape shifter as you assumed, you couldn't trust anybody. You could already feel the poison reach out to your heart, your breath slowing down. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion.

And maybe this was the reason why you spotted the green Mandalorian helmet in the crowd. You wanted to run to him. You wanted to yell his name, to make him notice you somehow, but your throat was hoarse, your legs numb. Again a feeling of despair washed over you as you realised there was nothing you could do anymore. The feeling mixed with fear. Fear of dying. You didn't want to die. You couldn't die. Not yet. Not after what you found out. You had to make things right.

In a final act of despair, you took a step forward, but your legs couldn't hold the weight of your body any longer. They gave in and you fell. The same moment, the Mandalorian's head twitched and his visor met your gaze for a heartbeat. Then, you hit the ground. You just couldn't feel it. You could feel nothing. Not even pain. You knew you should feel pain, but there was nothing. Just the timing I'm your ears. Your sight becoming blurry.

But then, there was something. Something warm on your shoulder. You couldn't make out what it was, nor why you could feel it after the rest of your body was numb, but it was there. And it set off a spark in you. You wouldn't die. Not yet, at least, not like this. Your confidence grew and grew and suddenly, as it reached its highest point, it was all gone. Everything was gone. You felt nothing anymore. Just tiredness. You brain told you not to sleep, if you'd sleep you'd die for sure, but you were so tired. So incredibly tired. Your eyes closed. You didn't realise they had been open the whole time. Your body relaxed and you drifted off into darkness.

Your mouth was dry. Dry like the desert of Tatooine. That was the first thing you noticed as you woke up. The second was a numb pain in your shoulder. The third a strange pressure on your hand. With a little cough, you tried to open your eyes, but they felt too heavy. Next, you tried to move, but your body wouldn't work. Frustrated, you decided waiting was your only option, so that's what you did.

You didn't know how much time had passed, but despite your hurting throat and shoulder and lungs and body in general, it was incredibly boring. You hated waiting. Sure, as a bounty hunter patience was one of the most important things, but that didn't mean you liked it.

Remembering the pressure on your hand, curiosity came over you. For some reason you wanted to find out what exactly it was. The reason was pure boredom. Trying to move your fingers, you could feel them twitch, but before you could only get the slightest idea of what caused the pressure, it disappeared, only to reappear, but this time on the left half of your face. Again, you tried to open your eyes and again, it didn't work. Now, more pressure appeared on your other half of the face. The next moment, something warm brushed your ear.

"Sleep mesh'la. You're not recovered yet."

'Sleep.' You thought, being too tired to process any information. 'What a nice word.'

The next moment, you drifted off into darkness again.