Work Text:
I had been wandering through the dusty planes of Tatooine for what felt like hours. My mouth was dry, sand crunched in my teeth, sticking to my hair and eyelashes. Tatoo I and Tatoo II, the twin suns were burning my skin relentlessly, making it feel raw and uncomfortable, sore to the touch.
While hunting down my latest bounty, I had run into some trouble with a group of Tusken raiders upon accidentally coming too close to one of their settlements. The bail bondsman on Carajam that had handed me the holopuck for my bounty had also specifically advised me to acquire a map of the Jundland Wastes that included all the Tusken territories to avoid the exact situation I was in right now. While I had followed his instruction and bought a map of one of the vendors near the Mos Espa Arena, for an unreasonably high price too - the greedy bastard-, it happened to not have this specific clan's homelands charted.
This discrepancy lead to me having lost control over my speeder after evading multiple spears that were being hurled at me.
Crashing into what felt like the only boulder within a one-klick radius, had me flung into the air like a ragdoll. The impact on the sand had me struggling for air and was sure to leave me with at least a bruised back, if not a few broken ribs.
I had only just managed to make a very graceless dive for one of my bag packs before stumbling as far away from my group of angry assailants as I could.
Only after running for quite some time and turning my head every few meters to make sure I was not still at risk of being impaled or shot, I stopped to evaluate my situation. Apart from my burning lungs and the pain that shot through my left shoulder whenever I moved, the situation did not seem to be that bad. All things considered.
I had managed to not let go of the holomap and the puck and the one bag pack I had hastily collected happened to hold part of my food supply, one bottle of water, two bacta packs, and some other miscellaneous items. While my purse with a couple of credits was still attached to my belt, I had unfortunately lost my blaster, leaving me defenseless against anything bigger than a womb rat.
Unless I would be unlucky enough to run into a krayt dragon, I would probably be able to make it to Mos Espa within half a day's march and be able to start the hunt anew with nothing but a really bad sunburn as a remnant of my humiliating first try.
Well… a sunburn and a considerably hurt ego.
Whatever.
I´d get over it and no one had to know.
By the time I decided to take a break from walking, the suns had already begun setting.
Maybe I could have enjoyed the way everything was tinged in orange and pink hues, the harshness of the dunes transformed into soft pastel-colored waves if it weren´t for my overbearing fatigue and aching body.
I slumped down on the warm ground and dug my hands into the sand. The air cooling down, combined with gusts of wind wafting over my face, provided a nice change to the unbearable heat of the past hours.
I let my head fall back and closed my eyes.
Maybe laying down entirely and taking a nice, long nap would be a good idea. Wanting to let the warmth beneath me lull me to sleep, I leaned back on my elbows, promptly hissing and letting my eyes fly open when a sharp pain shot through my shoulder.
I sat up with an annoyed groan. Should I be using one of my bacta packs? No. I decided to save them for a later time, in case I encounter a worse injury. You never knew.
While taking my water bottle and a pack of dried Banta meat from my bag, I let my gaze wander across the seemingly never-ending desert. I took a bite of the chewy meat. According to my map, I would arrive in Mos Espa in about three hours. At least if I continued walking at the same pace as before which, considering my blistered feet and heavy legs, would not be happening.
I glanced in the direction I knew Mos Espa to be, hoping to maybe already spot a silhouette of houses or anything of that sort. But all I could see was Sand, Sand, and even more Sand. I frowned.
Wait! Did I just see something gleaming in the last remnants of sun?
Maybe it was my imagination running wild.
Scrambling to my feet, I squinted at where I had seen the reflection.
Yeah, there was definitely something there.
Maybe it was an abandoned vehicle that could spare me from walking for who knows how long. The probability of having that much luck was pretty low but since it wasn't too far away it wouldn't hurt to just check it out. I grabbed one more piece of jerky from the pack, threw all my things back into my bag, and started walking towards the thing that had caught my eye.
After sliding down a particularly high dune, I could finally make out the outlines of whatever had caught the light earlier. Even though I couldn't quite recognize what exactly I was facing, due to the now dim lighting, I was able to realize that it was something distinctly not vehicle-shaped.
Crap. Well, It would have been too good to be true anyway.
Still, I was disappointed. Since I still had hope of maybe finding something that could be of use to me, I decided to inspect further.
I took a couple more steps.
Whatever it was that was laying a few meters away from me, was weirdly long and lumpy. And also suspiciously human-shaped.
Did I just stumble upon a random corpse in the middle of the desert?
Even though my current occupation as a bounty hunter would lead people to believe that I was used to dead bodies, this was only the second-ever hunting job I had taken on. So my experience with cadavers was limited, to say the least. While I wasn't scared or disgusted, the thought of having to deal with a dead…someone did not particularly agree with me. I thought about just ignoring the body but my curiosity wouldn´t let me.
I quickly bridged the last few meters and crouched next to, what was in fact a man. A very badly hurt one tough.
His face was unrecognizable.
Dried blood and sand encrusted his entire head and chest. Deep gashes dragged from the corner of his mouth into his hair, across his forehead, and his neck. His body was partially covered in a green metal armor but the exposed parts of his body looked just as bad as his face.
The sight made me squirm.
That must have been a very unpleasant death. Whatever had left the man in such a state really did a number on him.
I hesitantly squatted next to the body for a good minute. I was generally opposed to the thought of justifying grave robbery but there was a good chance that this man carried a blaster with him. And which dead man needed to defend himself? None. Me on the other hand? I was in desperate need of a weapon.
My hands hovered over his torso. Still contemplating, I dug my teeth into my lower lip.
"ah, damn it!" Whatever. I was sure he would understand my situation. If he were alive that is. "Sorry! don´t mind me just…". I slipped my hands under the chest plate, wanting to lift it off him, avoiding touching his mauled arms at all costs.
I immediately ripped my hands away.
He was still breathing.
Shallow and almost undetectably so, but the man was definitely still alive. How? He must have lost so much blood!
Carefully I got up and staggered backward.
Should I be helping him?
I could give him one of my bacta packs. Would it even do anything in such a bad state?
I took a few more steps away from the man.
Even if I gave him the medicine he´d still be stuck in the middle of a desert. It would probably be better if I just left him here.
I closed my eyes and went on towards Mos Espa.
He was basically dead anyway so I didn't need to feel bad. He probably didn't even feel any pain since he seemed to be unconscious.
A wave of guilt washed over me.
I stopped dead in my tracks, my hands balling into fists at my side.
"Fuck!" I yelled, "I´m too nice for this fucking world!"
I grimaced as I turned on my heels and retraced my way to the injured person.
" Listen here! If I don't catch the bounty because of you I'm gonna … I don't even know!" I told him, not getting any answer. I took off my bag pack to retrieve my two bacta packs.
"If I'm gonna carry you all the way to Mos Espa the armor will have to stay here!"