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When Mando slowed down, he placed Hebe on the floor next to the child's pod, standing dominantly on her left foot. "I thought you were dead," the Ugnaught said without turning around. The two obviously knew each other so Hebe decided to listen and not zone out for once. She gently grabbed and placed the child on the ground, noticing that Mando didn't respond, she turned to see the figure higher up assessing her and the child. He soon got down and watched as the child loudly chased after a small frog.
"This was what was causing all the fuss?" he asked.
"Looks can be deceiving," Hebe let herself ease onto the floor, the Ugnaught squinted at her curiously as he noticed that she wasn't cuffed, nor hostile even for a bounty. "Why are you being hunted, child?" he looked to her level.
"Irrelevant," she muttered back.
"I think it's a child," Mando cut in, before turning to Hebe, whose hand was scrunching up some sand beneath her. "How old are you?" She looked to him incredulously.
"Do I look fifty?" she asked, well aware he was mixing up her age for the childs. She was 31 in human years. "Looks can be deceiving," he shot back, she pursed her lips.
"Touché," she could feel the smugness radiating off of his shoulders. He turned back to the Ugnaught who was looking strangely between the two. They were acting oddly friendly for a captor and captive. "My ship has been destroyed I'm trapped here."
"Stripped, not destroyed. The Jawas steal the don't destroy," the Ugnaught replied as he waddled over to the Mandalorian, handing his something to help fix his buzzing armour while Hebe played with the child, shaking his little hand playfully while managing to keep a neutral face. Mando had taken notice of this and his lips twitched up underneath his helmet, although he hadn't seen her smile at all she seemed happy.
"Stolen or destroyed, makes no difference to me. They're protected by the crawling fortress. There's no way to recover the parts." He replied.
"You can trade," the Ugnaught approached the doubtful Mandalorian.
"With Jawas? Are you out of your mind?" doubt was also inscribed into Hebe's features.
"I will take you to them. I have spoken," he dismissed them both. They all turned in sync at hearing the child squeal happily as he guzzles a frog down into his tiny mouth, "Hey. Spit that out," Mando commanded in a somewhat fatherly like voice, like telling off their young child. Both Hebe and the Ugnaught noticed. Once the frog had disappeared down the kid's throat, Hebe's nose scrunched up in distress. "Gross."
Soon enough, the Mandalorian and his bounties were sitting quietly in a hovering cart that didn't touch the ground. The cart jolted slightly every now and then due to the fact that the Ugnaught they had met earlier, Kuiil, was leading them across a stretch of land on a Blurrg. It was pretty much pitch black and cold as it rained, other than the small light that Kuiil held and the one on the back of the cart behind them.
Hebe only fell to sleep twice for a few minutes each time. Only when the sun had fully risen did the Jawa's fortress come into view. A few of them turned to face the trio and Kuiil greeted them in their language. Upon seeing the familiar face, or should I say helmet of Mando they pulled out a weapon each as they drew closer. "They really don't like you for some reason," Hebe snorted at Kuiil's remark.
"Yeah I wonder," she snickered. Mando tilted his head at her. "Well, I did disintegrate a few of them."
"You need to drop your rifle," Kuiil replied after a few moments.
"I'm a Mandalorian, weapons are part of my religion," Hebe sighed.
"Don't bring religion into this, do you want to receive your reward or be stuck here?" she asked, staring at him until he eventually dropped the rifle. He found it odd that his bounty would egg him on about the reward on them. "Fine."
'Why is she always right?' he asked himself and Hebe smirked as she heard his thoughts. They hopped off and Kuiil turned to Mando. "And the blaster." He begrudgingly dropped his blaster into the cart. "Stay here-" he was going to say but one of the Jawas latched onto Hebe's leg and gently pulled her down, a few circled her as her lip twitched, however, as soon as one had grabbed the hem of her skirt she quickly kicked harshly in the face with her good leg, making them scamper away. She tutted and she then noticed that Mando had been staring at her, after staring back at his visor he turned away and she hopped back onto the cart and watched and listened patiently as Mando and Kuiil sat down.
She huffed out a laugh when they compared Mando's attempt to speak Jawa to a Wookiee's. He'd glanced over at her as they mocked him. Her smirk dropped when he used his flame thrower on them, luckily the one that was speaking to him ducked just in time. One of the Jawas pointed towards the child and Hebe, the already angry Mandalorian whipped his head around just to see Hebe slap their hands away from the curious child.
"Get away from them!" once they had run away they all gathered and Hebe could hear a few of them repeat the word 'egg'.
"Egg?" she asked herself out loud and glanced at the child. He was staring up at her with her huge eyes.
"The egg? What egg?" Mando repeated. They had happily led them all onto their fortress when Mando finally agreed to retrieve this 'egg' they were so excited about. Mando and Hebe had to hunch over due to the low ceilings and sat awkwardly in the small chairs the whole way, Mando had his head a few times while going over a bump. Of course Hebe ducked her head to laugh while the Jawas openly chortled. Just when their backs had started to ache, the Jawas ushered them out. Kuiil was going to stay behind on the ship, Hebe was too until Mando tugged on her arm. "Ow." She slapped his hand away when he'd accidentally brushed over her knife wound. He quickly let go and led the pod and her through the desert and rock.
It took around a mile until they reached a cave that sunk into a hill of rock, the darkness looked like it could swallow you whole. Mando didn't hesitate to walk to it. He stopped and stared at it for a minute, assessing the situation while Hebe stood back with slightly wide eyes. The hole was freaking her out, it reminded her deeply of when she had been lying down in her escape pod. Gazing helplessly into the black empty atmosphere with little small stars littering her vision it made her feel something. Insignificant and scared, why would bounty hunters be after her if she was so small and insignificant? That's how she ended up being picked up by those bounty hunters, who kept her on the nearest desert planet.
Although she doesn't know how the child got captured...
