Sweet Dreams-The Mandalorian

Five

Sixteen years ago:

Cressida is walking down a long, dark corridor. She is flanked on either side of by two stormtroopers, their blasters held up in their hands, in case they should run into any problems.

Cressida can feel her anxiety growing with each step she takes, leading her farther into the station.

What am I doing? She thinks. A few, faint memories come to mind, causing her eyes to water.

A beautiful woman, with long, black hair and deep brown, sparkling eyes.

A smile. A whisper. A tender touch. A deep, joyful laugh.

Cressida has to force the images away before she completely comes undone by them.

They reach a door. One of the stormtroopers raps sharply on it and it slides open.

The other stormtrooper, roughly nudges Cressida with the end of his blaster, impatient.

Cressida inside the room. A dark cloaked figure standing a few feet away, abruptly turns.

A shiver goes down her spine as the figure steps closer. They raise a dark gloved hand, touching Cressida.

She flinches slightly as the fingers slowly graze her cheek. She can feel the churning of her stomach and fears she'll be sick.

"This is the one?" The figure is gazing coldly into Cressida's eyes. She tries to convey defiance to this figure.

"Yes," one of the stormtroopers replies.
The figure steps back.

"Yes," they say after a few minutes. "She'll do quite nicely."

.......

Din warily looks around, as Cressida continues forward. He still hasn't spotted any Ewoks (Not that he's complaining), but he can almost sense their presence.

Just up ahead, a small dark figure emerges from the thick brush and Cressida releases Din's hand, squealing with excitement as she rushes towards the small figure.

"Wicket!" She cries, dropping to her knees and reaching out for the Ewok standing there.

The Ewok spouts off a long sentence in an unrecognizable language, that Din knows is of the Ewoks. He wonders if Cressida can understand.

"It's good to see you as well, old friend," Cressida says, smiling and gently taking one of Wicket's hands and squeezing warmly.

"This is a new friend I made," Cressida adds, turning towards Din.

"He's a Mandalorian and has rescued me." Din nods at the Ewok, who spouts off another long sentence.

"Yes, he is quite brave." Cressida releases Wicket's hand and straightens up.

"We need somewhere to hide for a few days. Might we stay here?" Wicket nods and gestures for Cressida and Din to follow him.

"Can you understand him?" Din asks, low to Cressida. She nods.

"I can. Although I can't quite speak their language. But we still seem to understand each other quite well."

Wicket stops at the bottom of a tree and gestures for Din and Cressida to climb up.

"You have got to be kidding me." Din stares at Cressida, watching as she grabs ahold of a rope swing and slowly begins to climb up.

"You don't have to come. You can stay down here."