Evandria

[evandriafleur]

A Crown for a Bounty Part 4

Summary: The princess could sense the danger long before she could see it, and knew she was being watched; hunted.

It wasn’t long until she was confronted with a bounty puck, and the person carrying it.

The princess could feel the fire in her veins; feel the vibrations and the heat rush to her fingertips. But when she opened her eyes, there was nothing. The logs before her remained cold and bare.

 

“Try it again,” she heard him instruct behind her, as if she could do it simply on command.

 

“I’m tired,” she said facing him now, looking up as he loomed over top of her.

 

It was dark out now, and the princess had been trying to create fire for over an hour without much luck other than a small spark here and there, but nothing useable.

           

            “And what if an enemy attacks while you’re tired?” Mando pressed, still looking down at her, arms crossed.

           

            “Look,” she snapped, standing up to face him now. “It’s not easy, alright? It feels as though something is turned off inside me or something.”

 

            “Well, what turns you on?” he asked, walking around her now.

           

            “What?” The princess could feel her cheeks burn a deep red and she prayed he couldn’t see them properly in the dark. But he seemed unfazed as he circled back around to face her again.

 

            “What are your triggers? What’s going to turn the switch on inside you?” he elaborated.

 

            “I don’t know…” she sighed, thinking back to all the times the fire has actually worked, which seemed rare now. “When I’m pissed off, or scared I guess.”

 

            With one swift movement the Mandalorian walked behind her again and kicked the back of her knee, making her drop down to the ground with a hard thud.

 

“Ow, what the fuck?” she snarled, climbing back onto her feet before he pushed her over again. Not hard necessarily, but enough for her to lose her balance. She knew what he was trying to do, but she wanted him to stop. “I don’t need this, alright? Stop it.”

But he continued, each little movement she made to help herself up was quickly met with a push or a small slap. God, she thought to herself Am I this easy to push around? It wasn’t until he ended up stepping on her finger that she finally felt the anger. The familiar beating in her chest, the burning heat that rushed to her fingertips and the loud woosh that sounded as fire formed in both her hands. As this happened, it was as though strength returned to her and she was able to push him off of her, and hard. She watched as he stumbled backwards and landed on his butt beside her. They both stared at each other for a moment before he got up abruptly and lunged back at her.

The sudden movement from him ignited her flames again, and once again she was able to press her hands against him and successfully push him off, but this time it was only a small stumble.

The flames went out and he was quick to pin her down again, this time crushing her with his weight, her hands held above her head. “You’re crushing me,” she gasped beneath him. But he remained unmoving, looking down at her, almost expectantly. It was clear that he wanted to see how far he could push her. This, evidently pissed her off even more and the flames returned, making him release his tight grasp on her hands and she managed to push him off her – though it was a struggle.

They both laid there now, panting and the princess could feel the beads of sweat on her forehead with shame. She didn’t think it should be such a workout to survive. How did he make it look so easy? She looked over to him as he slowly sat up.

 

“Now make a fire,” he said simply, standing over top of her again.

 

            With a huff, the princess got up and walked over to the lifeless fire pit, where the child had been sitting the entire time watching them. She had almost forgotten about him and raised her eyebrow at him as she made her way over. “Wow, you weren’t even going to help me?”

            The child looked up at her and cooed which only made her smile. She could feel him come up behind her as she raised her hand over the logs and lit them successfully – seamlessly even – despite having sweaty palms.

 

“Good job, Princess.” Mando said, sitting down across from her, crossing his arms. “Not bad for your first try.’

 

She rolled her eyes at his backhanded comment and sat down on the log beside him. “Yeah, well all I need is to have you piss me off, I guess. And also,” she said turning to fully face him now. “You can call me by my actual name, you know. Not my title.”

But he only stared at her in silence and the princess slowly realized that not only did her father not tell him about her powers, but about her actual birth name either. She knew it wasn’t advertised, but she figured the people who birthed her would be open about that information.

 

“You don’t know it, do you?” she asked him.

 

“I don’t,” he admitted. “Sorry.”

 

“Because it doesn’t matter.” she said knowingly. “Only my title does.”

 

More silence as he said nothing and the princess let out a loud sigh before standing up and stretching. It shouldn’t have surprised her as much as it did, and to keep herself from thinking about it she wandered to the pile of dry branches they collected and started picking through it. The tingling returned in her fingertips, only this time it wasn’t anger. It was sadness. Before she could stop herself, a tear fall from her eye and landed on the wood pile in front of her as she continued to rifle through the pieces.

 

“Are you alright?”

 

She stopped sorting abruptly, not realizing he had been standing directly behind her. “I’m fine,” she said flatly, feeling mostly embarrassed. She quickly wiped the tear away and turned to face him, a forced grin on her face. “Let’s get dinner started.”

The princess was quick to walk past him, not wanting him to see the dried tears on her cheeks. She crouched in front of the fire and began adding the sticks when she noticed him limping slightly. The princess stared for a second, wondering if she had done any damage when they fought earlier. But she never touched his leg, did she?

She let out a loud gasp as she remembered the other night. “Your leg,” she exclaimed. “Show me the wound.”

 

“No,” he said placing a hand on the spot. “It’s fine, really.’

 

But she stomped over to him and took his hand off his leg forcefully and lifted his pant leg to see that the wound, still open, was glistening and appeared to be infected. “Why didn’t you mention it?” she demanded, looking up at him. She felt as though she were lecturing a child.

 

“I had already sprayed it.” He said defensively.

 

She scoffed as she reached over and grabbed her bag, pulling out the first aid kit. “That stuff doesn’t always work.” She told him, opening the bag and pulling out the oils from the other night. “Especially for an infection.”

 

“Is that my first aid kit?” Mando asked, pointing to the box she had pulled out.

 

“Yes, you’re welcome.” she said, almost forgetting that she had stashed it away in her bag. “Now give me your leg.” The Princess said, pulling out a needle which got an obvious reaction from him as he pulled away.

 

“What’s that?”

 

She positioned his leg in front of her again. “Don’t be a baby,” she instructed him. “I’m going to disinfect you, then I’m going to sew you up.”

 

“And have you ever done this before?” he asked her.

 

It surprised the princess how freaked out he seemed. “I have,” she lied confidently, laying out her tools before her. It was the half truth – she’s been trained to do this, as part of her inevitable wifely duties, but she had never actually preformed anything before.

 

“I don’t like this,” he muttered under his breath.

 

The princess rolled her eyes at him again and stood up. “I’ll get you something for the nerves, alright?” and before he could protest, she rummaged through her bag some more and handed him a heavy bottle with dark liquid.

 

“Rum,” she said, handing him a small cup. “Swig it while I run and get more supplies.” The princess had seen some white lilies in the forest line behind them and have been meaning to collect them, for she knew white lilies were good for reducing inflammation. They were one of her favorites to collect, as they had so many different healing properties.

 

She managed to grab a good handful before coming back to the fire, Grogu now at their side cooing. “I’ll cook something in a minute, ok?” she told him, handing him a lily to play with.

 

The princess went back to her supplies and started crushing the lilies, mixing it into her healing oil before turning back to him. “Did you drink it?” she asked him.

 

“It burned,” he replied simply and she couldn’t help but laugh.

 

“Good. Feel calmer?”

 

He didn’t reply which she took as a good sign, meaning she was right and he didn’t want to admit it to her.

 

“Disinfecting it is the only part that will hurt, ok? After that it’s going to numb you and you won’t feel a thing.” she promised him. “Don’t watch me, though.”

 

He stared up at the sky with much hesitation, and she applied the drops to his open wound. Immediately, he cried out and instantly reached for her shoulder, squeezing it tightly. She winced as he pulled down on her but didn’t push him off.  

 

“I need more,” he stuttered.

 

She looked up at him, unsure what he meant until she saw him reaching for the bottle of rum beside them. “Careful, you’re going to make yourself sick.” She warned him, but he either didn’t hear her or didn’t care. He turned away from her, lifted his helmet just enough and took another swig before placing the bottle on the grass again.

 

She quickly looked back down at his wound when he turned back to her and she examined the wound, determining that she will definitely need to sew it up to prevent further infection. She poked at it and got no reaction from him and she knew that it was numb enough to work on. The princess could feel him watching her as she removed the needle from the kit and disinfected it.

 

“Don’t watch me,” she instructed again. “Talk to me about something.”

 

She watched briefly as the child had wandered off to chase a frog, lily in hand. She was glad he was distracted as she didn’t want to traumatize him more than she already had.

 

“What is your name?” he asked her as she began sewing the wound gently. She briefly looked up at him and saw that he was staring up at the sky as instructed and she continued working.

 

“What do you think my name is?” she asked back, not wanting to answer his question. Partially because she wanted to keep him distracted while she worked on him, and the other part was because she wasn’t sure if it was a good idea.

 

“Lily.”

 

Her eyes darted up to him before focusing on the pile of freshly picked lilies beside them and she let out a small snort in response. “Creative,” she replied. “I was hoping for something a little more original.”

 

“No,” he said, adjusting himself slightly. “They make me think of you. I noticed you collect them wherever you see them.”

 

At his response, the princess’ cheeks burned a deep red and she tried to focus on the sewing. “I didn’t think you noticed.”

 

“I noticed.”

 

She suspected the reason for this sudden confession was the amount of rum the Mandalorian had consumed minutes earlier, but she didn’t mind at all. She finally finished sewing, and the wound looked better, but she held onto his leg anyways, not wanting the conversation to end just yet.

 

“So what is your name?”

 

Now it was the princess’ turn to remain silent. She could feel her heart racing, and she almost felt sick. Why did this seem so hard?

 

“My name is Din Djarin,” he offered suddenly, much to her surprise. “But you don’t have to tell me yours if you’re not ready.”

 

The princess suddenly felt a sudden rush of calm wash over her at the sound of his name and she cleared her throat.

 

“My name is Evandria.”

[evandriafleur]

A Crown for a Bounty Part 3

Summary: The princess could sense the danger long before she could see it, and knew she was being watched; hunted.

It wasn’t long until she was confronted with a bounty puck, and the person carrying it.

“Your leg is looking better, I think. Is it painful?”

It was the next morning, and the sun was slowly rising. For whatever reason, the princess had woken up earlier than normal, and she was surprised to see that the Mandalorian was awake already, examining the bandage she had put on the night before.

The Mandalorian never answered her. He never really seemed to. A man of few words. Instead, she crouched down and examined the bandage which was now covered in black.

“Black means the poison was sucked out,” she explained to him before standing up and grabbing her book. She flipped back to the page she was on before. “Does it hurt?” She asked again.

He only shrugged as he peeled off the soaking wet bandage, and it was then that the princess reached over and lightly touched it with her finger. He flinched immediately and cursed; confirming her suspicion that although the toxins were out, the wound wasn’t completely healed.

“Ok,” she said looking up at him. “We need to put more stuff on it,” and as she looked at the cut again said: “it’s pretty deep. There’s a chance we’ll need to sew it up actually.”

“There’s no chance of that,” he said curtly, pulling down his pant leg. The princess simply shrugged her shoulders and turned to pack up her blankets. It wasn’t her battle, if he didn’t need medicine then that was his choice.

She still didn’t know what the plan was exactly. After their conversation last night, they had both went to bed with more unanswered questions than answered ones. And when she asked the Mandalorian, he didn’t seem to have a response.

“Where to now, Mando?”

The poorly lit fire that they hand made (no thanks to her) crackled before them in an attempt to heat up some oatmeal.

“I need fuel,” he said simply, stirring at the pot infront of him.

“Right,” she said plopping down beside him. Grogu meanwhile hopped into the Mandalorian’s lap, watching him cook eagerly. “But then what?” She pressed.

No answer.

She watched as he filled each bowl with steaming food and she picked at it gently, not having much of an appetite.

Finally, after a few minutes he said: “I think we need to lay low a bit. Change our locations so we aren’t being watched.”

The princess munched on her oatmeal slowly, contemplating his plan. “You really aren’t taking be back home?”

“No,”

“But why?” It still didn’t make sense to her. He already told her that they increased her worth, so why wouldn’t he take her in? All because she stuck a bandage on him the night before? Was he really that easy to persuade?

“Because I’m not a monster.” He answered finally, repeating the words she told him last night.

He instructed her to stay inside the ship and lay low while he got fuel, taking Grogu with him. The princess laid down on the floor and stared at the ceiling, feeling impatient. How long did it take to fuel up?

She could hear him talking to the owner outside, their voices muffled but just loud enough for her to listen:

“Out on another hunt, Mando?”

“It’s confidential.” She heard him answer flatly.

“Ah, hunting the big one are ya? The princess? If anyone can find her it’s you. I hear they raised her to 1 million credits. It’s got everyone looking out for her. She’ll be found soon enough I bet.”

As if scared she will suddenly be heard, the princess held her breath and tucked herself lower to the ground, feeling her heart thump loudly in her chest. The rest of their conversation was harder to hear and she could feel her mind start to wander. She wondered why the sudden urgency to capture her. The arranged wedding wasn’t set for another few weeks, surely her father wasn’t that concerned about her.

Her thoughts were interrupted when the Mandalorian and Grogu returned to the ship, with a sharp clang behind them as the doors closed.

“Stay down there,” Mandalorian instructed her as he got into his seat. The princess didn’t plan on popping up anytime soon and she stayed completely still, watching the Mandalorian as he started up the ship, Grogu in his lap.

Soon they were off the planet and she let out a long sigh of relief, not realizing that she was still holding her breath this entire time.

She continued to lay on the floor until her back started to ache and she finally crawled up into the seat beside them.

“Didn’t people watch you handcuff me the other day in the markets? We weren’t discreet.” She quipped up after an hour silent, her mind still reeling.

The Mandalorian turned slowly to face her, taking his hands off of Grogu as he set him down. “Yes,”

“So wouldn’t it be reported to my father that you have me?”

“It was,” he said slowly. “But I told him you escaped me last night.”

“What?” This was the first she was hearing this, and she sat up so suddenly that Grogu, who was about to climb on her feet startled back a bit. “When did you tell him that?”

“Early this morning, before you were awake.” He explained.

“What did he say?” She was still in shock, and she knew her father couldn’t have been happy.

“Not much, other than that he’s going to get someone else to look for you and that he knew this would happen.”

This surprised the princess even more. “Why does he figure I would escape you?”

Truth was, the fact she escaped the palace at all was pure luck. But if she had to choose between fight or flight, it’d be flight.

And up until then, she was a very behaved princess. Going to her lessons, learning to sew, to cook, to sing, to dance, everything that she was supposed to do to prepare herself for a royal union. It wasn’t until she met her fiancé and realized how much she didn’t want to get married and be part of Crescent House that she started rebelling.

“He says you’re dangerous,” Mandalorian replied, tilting his head slightly. “I think he’s scared of you.”

The princess scoffed loudly. “Scared? Of me? The man would beat me if I moved wrong. He’s the one that was scary.”

“Maybe that’s why he beat you.” Said Mando. “Because he was afraid of you.”

This thought never occurred to the princess and she sat for a moment dumbfounded before saying: “Well I’m not dangerous.”

“Didn’t you burn down the palace?”

She could feel her cheeks burn red and suddenly felt defensive. “No - well yes - but I didn’t mean to. I had no control.”

“No control?”

She realized what she said and pressed her lips together tightly, cursing herself in her head. She wanted him to believe that she could use it if she needed it, it made her feel more in charge. Now she blew it.

They sat in silence for another few minutes as she tried to figure out how to backtrack her statement but realized she couldn’t.

“I never learned how to control it,” she finally admitted to him. “I was never allowed to use it. I’m not sure why I was born with it, but my parents tried to contain it, I think. Very little people knew I had it and I tried my best to repress it but….sometimes it comes out. My father really never told you about it?”

The Mandalorian looked over to her now, and for the first time it felt like she was really speaking to him.

“He never told me. He probably wanted to keep it hidden. He just told me that you were dangerous and capable of destroying things.”

The princess slouched back in her chair, taking in this information with bitter resentment. “So if I’m so dangerous, why do you want to help me?”

“Because I don’t believe you’re dangerous at all.”

“You don’t?” The princess sat up straighter and pressed her hands together. “Why?”

“Because you had every opportunity to hurt me, or Grogu, and you haven’t. You’re a healer, not a destroyer.”

This brought a strange sense of comfort to her. “But I did destroy the palace.” She corrected him, almost as if trying to sway his opinion of her.

“You did,” he agreed, with a slight nod. “But I think it was justified.”

A smile tugged on her lips and she raised an eyebrow at him. “You do?”

“To be honest, I never liked your father. I’ve encountered him before and always thought he was a creep. I’ve seen the way he talked down to others and shoved people around who he thought was beneath him. It doesn’t surprise me at all that he’s hit you, or that he’s arranging an alliance with House Crescent.” And before the princess could ask he said: “I only took the job because I thought it would be easy money.”

“Well, sorry to disappoint you.” She said, a smile still plastered on her face. Truth was she felt elated and not the least bit sorry. It was nice knowing that she wasn’t the only one who wasn’t a fan of her father. As the ruler of Akiva, her father was surrounded by yes men and people who constantly praised him. She always wondered if there were people who could see right through him.

“You’re nothing like them. Your parents, I mean.” He said. “I thought you were going to be spoiled.”

“I can be,” she admitted truthfully. “I’m not always resourceful.”

“You’ll learn.”

The princess nodded in agreement. “I’ll learn,”

She leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes, feeling strangely comforted now. She found the Mandalorian easy to talk to. But then again, he was the only one she spoke to in over a month. Perhaps she was just deprived of good conversation. Either way, she was grateful.

“You said you can’t control your flames,” Mandalorian said once they landed on another isolated mountain.

“Regrettably,” the princess mumbled under her breath as she started to unpack her bag. But either the Mandalorian didn’t hear or didn’t care.

“You should learn to control it. Learn to fight with it.” But now it wad the princess who wasn’t listening, for as he said this, a small butterfly that was fluttering by seemed to suddenly stop in slow motion, and the princess watched in horror as it zoomed right into Grogu’s outstretched arms and into his mouth.

“What the fuck? What did he do?” She exclaimed, pointing to the child. The Mandalorian picked Grogu up and stuck his fingers in his mouth, but it was too late, the butterfly had been swallowed.

“Grogu, I told you not to eat those!” The Mandalorian snapped before setting him down again, clearly unfazed by what he just witnessed.

But the Princess was still bewildered: “What was that?”

“It’s the force,” the Mandalorian explained. “Like you, it’s something Grogu was born with. And like you, he had to learn how to use it.”

The princess stopped rummaging in her bag and let out a sigh. “I don’t think I can.”

She watched as the Mandalorian crouched down infront of her, now at her eye level. “If you want to survive, you’ll need to.”

[evandriafleur]

A Crown for a Bounty Part 2

Summary: The princess could sense the danger long before she could see it, and knew she was being watched; hunted.

It wasn’t long until she was confronted with a bounty puck, and the person carrying it.

The princess walked over to the slumped over mandalorian and kicked him gently. He was out cold.

“Hmm, that bite is pretty bad.” She said, examining his leg. She looked over at the child who was now climbing over top of him, banging on the mando’s helmet.

“Listen Grogu,” the princess said bending down to his level. “Did he capture you, too? If he did….now is our chance to escape. We can run away together.”

But the child didn’t seem to like this idea. He looked up at the princess with his wide eyes and she realized they were filled with tears.

“Da,” Grogu said between the babbles. And the princess blinked, looking over to the mandalorian.

“Da?” She repeated. “Is that dad? Is he your dad?” She thought back to how happy the child was to sit on the Mandalorian’s lap in the spaceship, and how concerned Mandalorian seemed when Grogu had almost drowned.

Grogu continued to babble and whimper, knocking on the Mandalorian’s helmet.

The princess let out a long sigh. “You want me to help him, don’t you?”

Grogu whimpered and the princess placed her fingers on the bridge of her nose. “I’m too soft for this,” she muttered to herself.

“Fine,” she said finally, throwing a glance at Grogu. “I’ll help. But I’m doing this for you, not for him. And once I patch him up I’m making my escape, right?”

The child continued to babble as the princess made her way onto her ship to retrieve her backpack. On her way back out she saw a first aid kit pinned to the wall.

Handy.

She grabbed it and made her way back over to them, the Mandalorian still out cold.

The princess rummaged through her bag and pulled out Darendell Oil and a type of syrup medicine called Revershell. It was stuff she had stolen from the hospital wing of her palace before she left. With it, she stole a book of injuries and how to heal them.

She flipped through the book and confirmed that the creature that attacked was called a Noctus Crow, and that Darendell Oil should work to suck the poison out if acted upon quickly.

The princess cracked open the seemingly brand new first aid kit and grabbed a long bandage wrap, something that she also had in her bag but figured she’s better off using his.

She read the directions in the book carefully as she disinfected the Mandalorian’s wound and carefully patched him up. The cut on his leg sizzled loudly as she placed the oil inside and she automatically winced for him, surprised that he never made any movement.

“That’s gotta hurt,” she told Grogu as he sat watching intently.

Finally she was done and she stood back, examining her work.

“The book says the bite can be so painful that it puts the body in a deep sleep. I think he’ll he fine now. The medicine I gave him will draw out the toxins ok?”

Grogu looked up at the princess, wide eyed and gurgled some more.

The princess clenched her fist as she looked up at the sky and realized the sun was going down. “You don’t want to be alone, do you?” She asked him.

He cooed some more as she adjusted the fire.

“Fine,” she told him. “I need to dry off anyways. But after that I’m leaving ok?”

——————————————————————

When the Mandalorian woke up, it was dark outside and the only thing visible was the brightly lit fire set beside him with the smell of something cooking.

There was a woman with long blonde hair, in her underwear, standing over a pot which was simmering over the open flame.

“Don’t eat that yet,” she said softly to the child beside her. “It’s too hot.”

It was then that the Mandalorian remembered where he was and who he was with and he sat up quickly, much to the surprise of the blonde woman and the little child who let out a gasp.

The child ran over happily to the Mandalorian who was awake and the princess dropped her spoon in surprise with a small gasp. She didn’t expect him to get up so soon. She really expected him to be out for a full 24 hours like the book had told her, but it appeared to be wrong.

“What happened?” She heard him mumble as he stood up off the ground. “Did you poison me?”

The princess rolled her eyes at the accusation and pointed to his leg. “Yes I did. I poisoned you, and then I patched you up and decided to stick around to make soup.”

It was then that he seemed to realize that he had a bandage wrapped around his leg securely.

When he didn’t speak, she spoke again. “You were bit by that thing. A Noctus Crow. Has disgusting teeth and it infected you. Leave that on for the rest of the night & you should be fine.”

As she said this she cursed under her breath, knowing full well that the reasons for her rambling wasn’t because she wanted to talk to the Mandalorian particularly, but was due to the bottle of wine she had consumed an hour earlier. This was when she had decided that everything in sight that belonged to the Mandalorian had now belonged to her. It didn’t matter if she was a thief because she was going to be leaving anyways.

The Mandalorian was quiet as Grogu babbled on, climbing onto him and pulling at his sleeve.

“He was very worried about you,” she finally added. “He’s your kid?”

More silence, and the princess continued stirring the soup over the stove until

“Why did you patch me up?”

The princess paused and thought about it for a moment. Truth was, she didn’t know.

“Because I’m not a monster.” She finally said, filling up a bowl with the hearty soup that was now ready. She walked over and passed it over to him. “Grogu, yours should be cooler now.” She said gesturing to the one she had put aside on a nearby rock.

The child happily walked over to it and ate it in a hurry.

The princess sat on the nearest log and continued to comb out her tangled hair which was almost dry. It was times like this she thought about chopping it off. As she thought of this she reached over to feel her dress which was hanging by the branch above her. Still damp. Drying off in her underwear seemed to be the only option for now.

She watched as the Mandalorian stayed unmoving.

“You’re not going to eat?”

“I can’t take my helmet off.”

“Why?”

“It’s against my creed. I can’t take my helmet off infront of other people.”

The princess ate her soup in silence; what a strange rule to follow. She wanted to ask him a million questions about it but stubbornly refused.

Silently, he got up from his seat and disappeared behind the ship. It wasn’t until half an hour later that he returned, when the princess and Grogu had finished dinner and she had finished setting up her bed by the fire. She noticed the Mandalorian’s bowl was empty.

“You can leave,” he said once she had crawled into her sleeping bag.

“Actually I’m comfortable here, thanks.” She mumbled into her pillow, thinking he’d rather her be chained up to a tree or something instead? He can think again. She deserved to sleep by the fire. After all she made it, and if it wasn’t for her -

“No. I mean you’re free to go.”

His words interrupted her thoughts with a halt and she suddenly rolled over to face him. “What?”

“You can go.” He repeated, and she realized he wasn’t meeting her gaze, but staring into the fire again.

“Why?” She pressed. She couldn’t explain why, but she felt so angry.

“You didn’t have to take care of us. But you did.” He said finally. “But if I were you, I’d stay out here in the woods. Everyone is looking for you now, more urgently than before. They increased your worth.”

The princess sat silently as the information sunk in. She knew it was true. But she also knew she would barely be able to survive on her own in the woods. And if she was captured again…she knew that the new bounty hunter may not spare her life.

“No,” she said finally after a long pause. “I should go back home…I don’t see that I have any other choice.” It was the honest truth and she knew it. There was no way in hell she would be able to really survive on her own, not when everyone was after her.

The Mandalorian stared at her for a long while before responding. “Why?”

“What other choice do I have? I barely lasted a month out there when you found me.”

“You were hard to find.” He said.

The princess looked up at him and blinked. “I was?”

She felt as though he regretted even mentioning it, for he never said anything after that.

She felt intrigued and somehow proud. She was hard to find? By a bounty hunter?

But then again, she did lay pretty low. If not in the woods, then in the streets, covered in mud and dust to disguise herself as a beggar.

They both sat in silence, and for a while all the princess could hear were the gentle snores of Grogu who had drifted off a while ago beside them.

“Why don’t you want to get married?” Came a voice so soft that the princess almost didn’t realize it came from the mandalorian.

Without answering, she stood up slowly to reveal a giant scar on the left side of her leg which lead all the way up to her lower bum.

“This,” she said finally, gesturing to the red marking. “Is from the man who paid you to capture me.”

Very gently, the mandalorian reached over slowly and the princess watched steadily as he brushed his fingers across her scar. “He would beat me if I didn’t listen. Leather whip. Not fun. Seeing as my fiancé is the same as my father, I know I’m in for more than this.” She finally said in barely a whisper.

They both didn’t speak for a long time, and the princess was very aware of the cool fingertips that laid firmly on her lower leg, yet the Mandalorian didn’t dare reach up any further.

This was the effects of the wine again; the princess knew as she stood completely still instead of slapping him away.

Why did he suddenly seem so interesting to her? Why did -

Suddenly a pop and a spark from her hands made both of them jumped back.

“Fuck,” she said snapping her fingers to put the flames out. “Sorry. I don’t know why it does that sometimes.” She could feel her face turning red as she waved the flames off. Such awful timing - but why did they appear at all? Was it the fact that her heart was beating faster than normal?

“What is that?” Mandalorian finally asked her, gesturing to her smoking fingers.

“Um, not sure really.” She muttered, sitting back down on the log beside him. “Born with it. Never got to the bottom of it.”

“So when your father told me you had burned down a quarter of the palace before you left - ?”

A sharp inhale came from her lips and she couldn’t help but let out a laugh. “Yeah…that might’ve happened.”

Of course the Mandalorian would know about that, but she was surprised her father never told him the details. The way that her rage took over and she burned down half the building and anyone who got in her way.

“He never elaborated?” She asked him.

“Why didn’t you use fire on me?” He asked instead.

Very good question, she thought to herself. With an answer far too simple: she couldn’t control it. There were times she was desperate for it. Needed it more than anything but the flames never came.

But she couldn’t tell him this information. It was too risky. She needed him to believe that she had complete control. Maybe make him believe that she had the upper hand.

“You weren’t worth the flames,” she said finally. And in that moment, she hoped he wouldn’t be able to see through her lies, and maybe the blush that crept up onto her cheeks weren’t visible in the dark.

He didn’t seem to have a response to that. Instead he said: “I won’t let you go back to him,” he said, gesturing to her leg.

The princess looked down at it before looking back up at him. “I don’t think we have much of a choice.”

[evandriafleur]

A Crown for a Bounty

Summary: The princess could sense the danger long before she could see it, and knew she was being watched; hunted.

It wasn’t long until she was confronted with a bounty puck, and the person carrying it.

The princess could sense the danger long before she could see it.

She knew she was being watched. Hunted.

It was the busiest day in the market, too. And she was just starting to believe she was finally safe. After being on the run for over a month and laying low undercover in the streets, she heard her name less and less in the news. It felt as though her disappearance was suddenly forgotten.

But the princess knew deep down that she was wrong; after all the wedding arranged for her was just now weeks away. There’s no chance that her father would have forgotten about her and the deal made by the royal House of Crescent.

Even in the bustling crowd, she saw the tall dark figure step towards her; his armour reflecting in the sun and as quickly as she saw him he was facing her with a bounty puck.

Name: Princess of Akiva

Description: Blonde hair, green eyes, 162.53 cm, 58.06kg. Age 20

Fuck

She immediately noticed the lacking information of her real name. Probably because it didn’t matter; not to her father anyways. What mattered was her title, and how much she was worth but before the princess could read that information further the dark armour spoke:

“I can bring you in warm, or I can bring you in cold.”

But before she could comprehend what she was doing; she bolted to the left, ducking under the stall behind them before fleeing out through the back. She felt the graze of his grasp on her arm before somehow slipping out from him once again. It was the adrenaline telling her what to do and where to go, because she had no other plan. She could feel her legs moving faster, and her fingertips began to tingle with heat. Could she really fight him off?

But her question was quickly answered when she was tackled to the ground, the tingling in her fingers disappeared quickly. Why did her energy betray her when she needed it most?

She could feel him crushing her as she tried to wriggle beneath him but she knew it was no use. It was over.

“I’m no use to them cold,” she spat at him, though spitting on his armour seemed to do nothing useful.

“Then you’d better stop struggling and come with me.”

It wasn’t as if she had a choice now, and with the curious crowd watching from the market, the Mandalorian cuffed the princess into a tight hold. She knew it was over.

Soon after she was pushed onto a ship, big dark and sleek and was sat down securely to the front with him, seatbelt and all. The princess noticed at the corner of her eye that the mandalorian had brought her backpack. What a considerate bounty hunter, she thought to herself bitterly. He must want to rummage through it later for early payment. Though she barely had any credits on her.

They sat in silence as they took off, and the princess replayed in her head what she could have done differently to stay hidden. There was no chance of her escaping her father now, not that she’s been caught. They’ll be onto her, and within a few weeks she will be a bride,

She knew it would be a long ride before they would make it to her planet, so the princess closed her eyes in her seat, hoping to let sleep take over.

“Grogu, go back to your cot.”

The princess’ eyes flew open at the sudden voice of the mandalorian and was more than surprised to see a small green blob with big black eyes staring right at her.

“What is that?” She mattered to sputter, but Mandalorian ignored her.

“Grogu, now.”

The small creature seemed to utter a sigh before slowly making its way to the back of the ship.

“Is he a pet? He’s really cute.” To the princess it reminded her of a stuffed animal she had as a child and wondered what species it was.

“He’s not of your concern,” came Mandalorian’s reply.

This now brought a sigh out of the princess. She knew she was a prisoner, but for one fleeting moment wanted to forget the hell she was returning to. Unfortunately for her, Mandalorian was quiet, and the cute little creature didn’t come out for another two hours,

The princess observed quietly, watched as the small green blob plopped onto mandalorian’s lap and happily cooed up at him. He didn’t seem phased at all, though he never said anything else to the creature. The princess wondered if the mandalorian was embarrassed to be seen with him while he had a bounty.

It wasn’t before long, after having a small nap, that the princess woke up to the sounds of them landing. Surely they couldn’t be home yet? She knew it takes longer than that.

But when she opened her eyes, she didn’t recognize the planet. As if knowing she was going to ask, the Mandalorian spoke first.

“We need fuel. Stay here on the ship.”

Of course, where else would she go? She looked down at her shackles and wondered if it was possible to break free from them. She could feel her fingertips burning again, but nothing ever came. She let out another long deep sigh and slouched lazily in the chair.

“What’s your name? Do you talk?”

The small green creature only looked up at her out of curiosity but never spoke. She tried again.

“Is it Grogu? I heard him call you that earlier. Is he your owner?”

She was only met with silence however, the small creature took a seat on the armrest of her chair and continued to coo. The princess smiled down at him and tried to speak to him again, but was interrupted by a large clang that came from across the ship as the Mandalorian stopped heavily inside.

“Change of plans,” he muttered, seemingly to Grogu and not herself. “We’ll need to camp out here tonight, there won’t be the right amount of fuel until tomorrow.”

“Camp? Here?” The princess was perplexed. Where even were they?

“Not here, further out, I need to keep you away from civilization.” He replied swiftly. The princess let out a scoff.

“I’m a runaway bride, not a criminal,” she jabbed at him. But he didn’t reply, and instead took them out of town on top of some nearby mountains.

Once examining the area, the Mandalorian lead the Princess and the small creature outside to the Misty Forest.

It reminded the princess of her first location when she escaped a month ago. She had learned to get comfortable in the woods, and part of her regretted ever leaving them for civilization.

“Stay here,” he told her as he swept the area before settling down to build a fire.

As much as she hated to admit it, the princess really had nowhere to go. Her feet were free, but she knew she wouldn’t survive the wilderness with cuffs on. Not ideally, anyways.

She sat on a log opposite to him and watched him struggle to light a fire. Smoke turned into nothing, and she couldn’t help but feel smug, though he didn’t seem to notice.

“I need to find some dry sticks,” he said standing up.

No shit

But the princess stayed silent and shivered as he sauntered out to some trees and she continued to stare at the smoke seeping from the pit. The little one stayed behind and started wandering towards the lake.

She watched him closely, unsure if the little thing could swim. She waited a few minutes before deciding that him being close to the lake probably wasn’t a good idea. Just as she was about to get up to see him, a giant black bird creature flew from a tree onto Grogu. The princess yelped just as loudly as the bird screeched and she watched in horror as this black monster lunged Grogu into the water.

The princess wheeled around to see that the mandalorian was still too far away, and in that moment she knew she had to move fast. She ran as fast as her legs could carry her, felt her stomach turn into knots and her fingers tingle. The blood pumping through her veins began to burn, and suddenly -

A flash of fire, a clang, and a scream from the princess and she was free from the cuffs. The burning in her fingertips turned into real fire, and finally set her free completely.

The commotion seemed to startle the bird enough that it dropped Grogu completely and flew over head. The princess could hear the mandalorian in the distance yelling but she had no time to think as she lunged into the water to save the creature.

She thanked her lucky stars that the water wasn’t deep, knowing she couldn’t swim. But it seemed that the adrenaline kept her going as she grabbed onto the baby and turned to face the shore, wondering where the mandalorian was.

But she quickly saw that he was occupied, as the bird creature, which was bigger than she realized, was attacking him. Pecking and screeching hard as he fought it before the Mandalorian finally shot at it and it slumped over. The bird was twice the size of the Mandalorian, and felt comparable to a small ship.

The princess was quick to slosh onto the shore, put baby Grogu on her lap and smack him on the back as hard as she could.

The Mandalorian finally made his way towards them when Grogu coughed out the water, and when she could hear him starting to finally breathe air, she let him go and sighed with relief.

The child ran to the Mandalorian in a hurry and he scooped him up into a tight embrace.

“Grogu!” He yelled, looking him over.

“He’s fine,” she panted, continuing the trek up to shore. “I think all the water is out.”

She walked by them as the Mandalorian examined him further and she plopped herself down infront of the fire pit, feeling soaked. She closed her eyes and clenched her fist, begging with herself, pleading - then finally, the tingle in her fingertips returned and the fire in her veins were lit. She threw her hands onto the logs infront of her and watched as the flames left her hands and settled into the wood.

A fire was soon ablaze and she stared at it proudly. It must be the adrenaline still coursing through her, the Princess thought, as sometimes it seemed impossible to let the fire out of her. Much to her annoyance.

She could see the Mandalorian, holding Grogu in his arms slowly approach her at the corner of her eye and she felt a pit in her stomach, remembering that she was now out of the handcuffs and she was still a prisoner.

“What did you do,” he said so low that she almost didn’t hear him.

“You can re-cuff me,” she assured him bitterly, not wanting him to tackle her again. Really, she didn’t mean to burn the cuffs off her wrists, it just happened so suddenly.

But to her surprise, he stayed silent and she could feel him watching her.

“You saved him,” he finally said, and the princess and startled enough to realize that he wasn’t lecturing her about the fire at all, but he was talking about Grogu.

“Well, yeah.” She replied curtly. She watched as he slowly made himself around her and sat down, shivering child in hand.

The fire cast its light into them and she watched as the child soon calmed down.

Feeling cold and wet herself, the princess stood up and started to remove her cape and boots. She could feel the Mandalorian watching her, but she continued on, not caring about him but only wanting to be out of the soaking wet clothes.

She was waiting for him to react, jump up and cuff her again. But it never came. As she looked over to him she noticed the gash on his leg.

“Did that thing get you?”

It seemed that before he could react, he had slumped over.

Part 2 posted later!

[evandriafleur]

Din & Lily 🖤