Adrift [A Mandalorian Fanfiction]

The Return

By the time they reached the hut, it was sunset. Another day had come and gone on Alvara-7. The Mandalorian and Kuiil were talking inside while Doc tended to the drowsy blurrgs that had just arrived. She checked their vital signs and made sure they had plenty to eat and drink when they awoke. The way Nala had been pacing around the outside of the hut filled her with unease.

"Maker, Nala, you gotta pace like that all the time?" Doc asked the hound. She was only met with a silent glare and a faint whimper. Doc came up and gave her a small scratch behind the ear, the leftover electricity prickling her skin. "I trust Kuiil. Besides, if the Mandalorian wanted us dead then he would have made his move by now."

Nala sighed into the scratch and laid down once again at the entrance of the hut, eyes ever on the horizon. Doc pulled a battery out from a side pocket and gave it to her to chew on. She reached for the hut's curtain. She hesitated before she entered the hut, curious as to what they were discussing inside. She reached inside and took out another pill, crunching it between her teeth.

"The blurrg? You can keep them both," the modulated voice of the Mandalorian said. It was so close to being human but just ever so slightly. . . off. Doc had always supposed that was the Mandalorian way – to appear as something other than human while you were in the armor. Either way, it was unsettling.

"I don't know how to ride blurrg," he said, uncertainty in his voice. Kuiil was having none of it.

"I have spoken," he demanded. Doc pushed away the cloth at the entrance and ducked into the hut. She could feel the intense stare of beskar on her as she sat down next to Kuiil and picked up a mug of tea he had left out for her. Kuiil gave them both a nod of acknowledgment before mumbling about how he needed to reset one of the vapor rods before nightfall.

They sat in silence for a moment, eyes meeting visor, the other daring the other to break the quiet.

"Thank you again," he began. "For bringing me into your home."

"Not my home," she said, tearing a piece of bread in half and taking a bite. "I'm just a temporary guest. Like you."

More silence. The grinding of Doc's teeth against the outside of the loaf filled the hut. If he was uncomfortable, he did not show any indication.

"So," she said. "What brings a bounty hunter out to this little part of the galaxy?"

"Bounties."

"Ah. You know, you've got pretty lousy conversation skills," Doc said, taking another sip of tea.

"I say what I want to say," he countered, tilting his head slightly as if he were challenging her.

Doc lifted her eyebrow and extended her hand. "People call me Doc."

"Doc," he said with a nod and a shake of her hand. He made no move to introduce himself as one person or another. He was calm, seemingly relaxed. As Doc ate her food, she made small notes of his character. He didn't volunteer much information about himself other than that he was out here to collect a bounty. He cleaned his blaster as she ate, never once looking up to see her eyeing him.

His armor was not completely beskar. She was certain his helmet and shoulder pieces were, but the rest had so many scrapes and chipped paint that it couldn't possibly be the metal she had come to know as virtually indestructible.

Nala came in and rested at Doc's feet as she ate. The Mandalorian looked up from his work, visor eyeing the creature. He didn't even have to ask the question for it to linger in the air.

"She's a dolcher hound," Doc explained, scratching the spot behind Nala's ear she knew she loved. "They're native to my homeworld."

"Which is?"