The sunlight warms my skin gently as I regain consciousness. The humidity coats my skin in a clammy film. My eyes open slowly, trying to avoid direct sunlight contact.

my head hurts

I have no idea where I am. My eyes move around to observe my surroundings. It looks like I'm in a tent? I don't remember a thing. The door to the tent is openly slightly, swaying in the breeze. Out the door I see a large body of water. It's pink.

I'm on Teth

My memory is returning ever so vaguely. I remember the pink water, the pink sand, the lush forests. I sit up slightly, removing the thin blanket from my body. It's quite hot today.

I need water

I fully sit up, and whoa, the world is spinning. My vision goes blurry and dark for a second but dissipates quickly. My eyes blink several times, as if that would help. I roll onto my knees and crawl out the small tent.

I look left and right. This beach is so gorgeous: something you could only dream of. The sunlight burns my eyes, but I can't look away from my environment. I get to my feet and take a more thorough survey of the area.

Mando isn't here

I turn and walk toward the ship which is thankfully in the shade up by the tree line. It really isn't that hot out, but the damn humidity makes it feel so much worse. I'm already sweating.

I peer into the forest. The amount of shiny greenery in this forest is astounding. I didn't appreciate it enough yesterday. It's like a painting you'd find in some rich Empire General's mansion. Breathtaking. 

I hear rustling to the left. I jerk my head in that direction and remember the river that's over there. Memories of my trip to the river flash through my mind and my cheeks go red with embarrassment. 

And then, I spot him.

My tall shiny-headed companion is deep in the woods... hitting a tree? I rub my eyes to get a better look. Mando is all the way out there punching a tree. What the hell is he doing?

Then, he's turning and sprinting to a different tree a couple dozen feet away from him. He punches that one fifteen times, then turns and sprints to the first tree. Oh, he's training. He repeats his routine many times without stopping to take a breath once. 

After maybe twelve more rounds of it, he finally stops to take a break. He puts his hands on his knees and hunches over to catch his breath. He takes a few seconds, then stands all the way up, facing me. When his eyes fall on me, it looks like he jumps a little. His body goes rigid before he realizes it's just me.

Payback for him watching me in the woods at him when I was training.

"You're up," he calls to me from several dozen meters away. I nod my head to acknowledge him. He takes the opportunity to start his walk back to our little camp. He's wearing the same thing he was wearing yesterday: just his brown under-armor clothes and his helmet. No body armor on.

I turn my attention back to the ship to find something to drink. My tongue is so dry it feels like sandpaper coated in flour and set on the sun to bake for nine years. I climb up onto the ship and rummage through everything to find any canteen with any liquid in it.

"Here," Mando, now next to the ship, says. I turn around to look at him. He's holding a full canteen of water out for me to grab.

"Thanks," I say as I take it from him. I feel like I've been stranded on Tatooine for a year. I drink the water like a feral animal. I have never tasted more crisp, refreshing water in my life.

"Ready to train?" Mando asks. He seems very chill and laid-back today. It's a nice change from the typical moody and irritable Mandalorian I'm used to. 

"Train?" I ask as I gasp for air in between gulps of water.

"We said yesterday we'd train today," he reminds me. I have no recollection of what he's talking about. The heavy chugs of prow probably wasn't the best idea.

"Oh, I must've forgotten," I say nonchalantly. Mando just looks at me. He twiddles his fingers together without moving his gaze from me.

"Are you hungover?" he asks me. He sounds amused, as if this is the funniest thing he's ever witnessed.

I shoot him a look, "There's a good chance I am, so what?" I try to sound playful rather than upset. "What, you're not?"

He shakes his head. One of the last things I remember is watching him chug the rest of the bottle of prow. There's no way.

"Bullshit," I say with a devious smile. I toss the canteen back at him and turn toward the ship once again. "Do we have anything to eat that isn't dried," I ask as I continue rummaging through our belongings, trying to change the topic.

"Do you remember anything from last night?" he asks me. He sounds more serious now.

What did happened last night?

"Not really, why?" I ask, now more concerned. I turn to face him. He's twiddling his fingers on the canteen now. 

"Oh, nothing really," he turns and starts walking toward the shore. He has piqued my curiosity. 

Is he hiding something from me? I remember talking about our pasts. I told him about my family, and he told me about being hit on by girls all the time at bars and stuff. I remember the bird we ate. I remember him telling me he's not a virgin. But that's about it.

He obviously doesn't want to continue the conversation. Maybe he's embarrassed that I know he's not a virgin, even though I'm not sure why you'd be embarrassed by that.

"I picked some nuts and fruits from the forest this morning," he holds up a small bag full of fresh food. "I think these are areca nuts. And these are camba fruit I think," he informs me as he pulls each from his little bag.

*

The sun is at its highest point in the sky now, and I'm sat on the shore with my legs in the water eating some nuts. So far, today has been really peaceful. The weather has been hot, but tame. No catastrophic problems or issues. Just a laid-back day.

The water in front of me washes up on shore rhythmically, lulling me deeper into a relaxed state. The sound of the light breeze paired with the small waves splashing on the sand around me is one of the best sounds I've ever heard. I almost feel like I'm meditating.

Meditating has always been difficult for me. I can feel the force, but I've never been able to meditate to connect with it more. I can never seem to quiet my mind long enough to get anywhere with it. I'm always distracted by outside sounds-

kshhhhmmmmmmm

Behind me, a metallic hum erupts from the quiet atmosphere I was previously in. I turn around to see Mando, fully decked out in all of his armor standing near the tree line... holding a lightsaber?

"Whoa, what's that?" I call over to him. I've never seen a saber like that before. It somehow glows both black and white. And it's not a tube-shape. It's more like a blade. It's like a saber, but not quite the same. Where did he get that from?

Mando doesn't say a word. He's rigid, staring directly at me. 

"Mando?" I call again, now with a more concerned tone to my voice. 

He takes one step toward me. My expression drops to somewhere between confusion, concern, and maybe some fright. He's never looked at me like I'm the bounty before. 

He takes another step forward. Now I'm up on my feet as the wind picks up slightly, blowing my hair around messily. I can feel my blood pressure rising. He's scary.

"What are you doing? You're scaring me," I bark in his direction. He takes another step forward. Then, another, and another. Now he's stalking toward me with a scary new weapon in his hand. My feet shuffle backward, struggling to keep myself upright. I turn and run to the ship to grab my own weapon. 

I rummage in my bag and pull out my lightsaber. When I turn back around to face him, he's within spitting distance from me, charging in my direction.

I turn and sprint in the opposite direction, "Mando, stop! What are you doing?" I shout at him. He does not stop. He's definitely faster than me, too. He's gaining on me as I sprint away.

When I hear him only a few steps behind me, I turn, light my saber, and swing. He lifts his arm to block my saber. 

"STOP!" I scream as loud as I can. I don't have any armor on. I don't even have any shoes on. My heart is pounding at about a billion beats per second, pumping the adrenaline through my veins rapidly.

Is he attacking me?

Then, he lifts his saber in preparation to strike at me. My eyes go wide, not believing what I'm seeing. His black-and-white saber strikes down directly above my head. If I didn't block it, I'd be dead. 

This is really happening. This isn't a joke anymore. I need to actually fight.

My saber whips in front of me from right to left, slashing at Mando. It clinks off his armor with a spark. My focus narrows, pushing all the thoughts of confusion out of my mind, allowing me to anticipate his next move. Mando may be a fast runner, but he's slow with each saber strike, almost like he struggles to swing it at me. 

Am I dreaming? This cannot be happening right now.

I dodge all of his vertical strikes and block most of his horizontal swings at me. My body is going into auto-pilot, making sure that blade doesn't touch my skin. In between Mando's slow attacks, I go on the offensive, trying to catch him off guard. I just want to disarm him from that saber.

I strike closer and closer to the hilt of his saber with each of my own attacks. My hope is that if I swing hard enough and close enough to the hilt, I can get him to drop it accidentally. He looks like he's struggling to grasp it tightly, so I'm hoping that can be used against him. 

We go back and forth over a span of what feels like hours. Realistically, it's probably closer to a few minutes. Mando looks like he's beginning to tire with his saber. Now is my chance. I strike harder and harder each time. Mando lets out a louder grunt each time I hit his saber.

Get the saber away from him. But don't hurt him.

I load my final strike with every ounce of strength I can muster. For extra measure, I let out a scream as well. My glowing yellow saber hits at the exact spot I wanted it to, just above the hilt of Mando's. Mando grunts as his saber leaves his hands and deactivates as it flies to my left and lands in the sand. 

I hold my saber to his neck ready to slice if I need to. I struggle to catch my breath, same as Mando. Our chests both heave to take in as much oxygen as possible. 

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" I say in a calmly aggressive tone. I stare directly into his helmet visor, hoping I'm making eye contact with him. He doesn't move, doesn't speak, doesn't even acknowledge my question. He's still as a statue. 

"TALK to me, Mando," I yell in his face, "You come out of the woods suddenly wearing all of your armor and whip out a weapon I've never even seen before? AND THEN ATTACK ME WITH IT?" I'm at least half a foot shorter than him, so this must look funny from an outside point of view. He towers over me, yet I have a saber held to his throat and I'm screaming up at the man covered head to toe in metal. 

He shifts his stance slightly, careful not to touch the saber about an inch from his neck. He clears his throat, "You- uh, you're better at the saber than I am."

I deactivate my saber, scoff at him, push him as hard as I can, and turn to storm back to our camp. He catches himself from the push and turns to watch me walk away.

"Fucking unbelievable," I say under my breath as I stomp away.

"It's good practice," he starts, "good way to train." He leans down to pick up the saber in the sand.

I stop in my tracks and turn to face him again, "That's what this is about? Training?"

He nods his head, looking dejected and remorseful in his body language.

"You thought attacking me with a weapon I didn't even know you had was a good idea? I don't even have shoes on," I remind him. "You didn't think to have a normal training session? Or to have me put on armor first? What if I didn't block? What if I couldn't find my saber?"

"That could happen for real someday." I glare at him, but he continues, "Always have to be on your toes."

I scoff again and continue my walk back to the camp.

What the fuck just happened.