One Endless Night - A Mandalorian Fanfic

Chapter 17

Hello All! I'm sorry for the delay in putting out this update. Things have been a little crazy lately. I hope you are all safe and well.

Happy Reading!

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It took Mando longer than he wanted to catch the Dewback. Distances were always hard to judge in the desert. It was mid morning by the time he returned to the spot where he had left them. He pulled up the dewback and jumped down. There was a body laying crumpled on the ground. His throat constricted as he pulled his blaster. Had Toro gotten the drop on Yara and killed her to take full credit for the hunt?

Mando approached the body and was almost light headed with relief when he saw it was Fennec and not Yara laying dead in the sand. He kicked over the body and frowned when he saw she had been shot in the chest. The shot wasn't precise enough to have been Yara. In their time together he had yet to see Yara shoot someone and not land it perfectly in their heart or between their eyes. This was sloppier. Fennec also wasn't wearing the binders Mando had put on her when they caught her. Which meant Toro.

He swung around and lifted his hand to activate the thermal imager on his viewer. He looked around, but there was no other evidence of what had happened. He could see the residual heat from where someone small, Yara, had laid in the sand, presumably to rest. A pair of large male bootprints approached the spot and a deeper set moved away. For them to be deeper meant more weight. Toro carrying her maybe. There wasn't a sign of a scuffle in the sand. So whatever happened, had happened fast.

Mando tightened his jaw. Yara wouldn't have left him easily, not without a fight. He believed that. He wasn't sure why he was so sure of her loyalty so quickly, but she hadn't given him any reason to doubt her. He knew for a fact she wouldn't have chosen to go off with the obnoxious hotshot. She had disliked Toro even more than he had.

Mando ran back to the Dewback and climbed up into the saddle. He kicked it forward as fast as it would go back towards Mos Eisley. The Dewback wasn't as fast as the blurgs he had ridden recently and it took all kriffing day to cross the Dune Sea. He had nothing to do but obsess over what might have happened out there when he had left her alone. Yara was smart and capable and with her gift she should have seen anything coming.

It was his fault. He should have trusted his instincts, and at least brought her with him to get the Dewback. Although it wouldn't have made sense to force her to endure the exhausting journey at least she would have been safe. He had given his word she would be safe with him and he had not upheld his oath. It made him sick to his stomach. He had worked with partners before and had things go bad, sometimes there was no avoiding it, but he had never experienced this kind of fear. It didn't make sense. All he knew was that when he found Yara he wasn't going to let her out of his sight again.

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Yara blinked awake in confusion. Her temples were pounding and when her eyes fluttered open she saw metal grating beneath her cheek. She was laying on the deck in the cargo bay of the Crest. She frowned as she tried to piece together what happened.

A gentle coo sounded to her right and she bolted upright. Toro had attacked her out in the desert. How was the kid here? Her hands were still bound together and it threw her balance off as she tried to sit up. The kid chirped at her again. "Hey kiddo," she said in a low voice. "You okay?"

The child moved towards her, cuddling it's small body against hers. Yara lifted her bound wrists so he could sit on her lap in the shelter of her arms. The mechanic, Peli, was sitting quietly a few feet away. Her eyes met Yara's and she could tell that Toro must have already threatened Peli into behaving because Peli wasn't restrained. That was good, it meant they had a chance.