"Are you coming back, then?"
"Who knows? I might return in this backwater skug hole if I even remember you."
Days turn into weeks, weeks bleed into months – and the Mandalorian's freighter and the man himself are yet to make a reappearance. Reiel, by nature, is a patient teen. She knows the value of waiting even if it means getting stuck in the village for far longer than she wishes. But sometimes – ever since that fateful encounter – waiting becomes too hard when you have been given a not-promise that one isn't obligated to fulfill, something that you hope against hope will be... well... fulfilled. "Who knows? I might return in this backwater skug hole if I even remember you."
She wonders what the Mandalorian is doing. Is he out there in his ship, flying through the vast expanse of space with the stars as his company? Or is he planetside, showing his targets their bounty pucks? Reiel wonders how many wanted criminals has he already frozen in carbonite. The memory of him freezing the unconscious Twi'lek is still fresh in her mind, as if it only happened yesterday.
For the fifth time this week, Reiel finds herself trudging back to the clearing in the forest where she's found the bounty hunter's ship. The tracks he left behind, of course, have already been erased by the joint efforts of nature, weather, and time. But if she tries enough to remember the way the ship's landing gears dug on the mossy ground and how the ramp disturbed the soil when lowered, Reiel can almost fool herself into believing that the Mandalorian hasn't been gone for months.
She sits on a fallen log, staring at the open space before her. While the Mandalorian hasn't promised her anything, Reiel wishes that he remembers her so he may return. He's her only ticket out of this planet, the one who can fulfill her dreams of seeing the stars up close and travelling to new places. The eighteen year-old girl is grateful for the village that raised her after her parents' untimely deaths, but there's only so much the people here can offer her in terms of learning and adventure. Reiel wants to make her way into the Galaxy, and staying in the farming village will never let her actualize that lifelong dream.
Reiel thinks back on the night she met the Mandalorian. He has been gruff and, admittedly, intimidating, easily towering over her. She has always been on the smaller side, the girls her age in the village already looking like dainty ladies while she remains as scrawny as always. Reiel doesn't mind it much, however, and she won't if it isn't for the fact that her height and build never fail to deter her from making it past combat training. Seemingly forever stuck in weapons training, the village elder (who has also been her caretaker) has decided to stick her with teaching duties, helping the village scholars with the children's primary education and the like.
It has been three years since the elder died and yet here Reiel still is, stuck with teaching ankle biters how to read and write.
Anyway, back to the Mandalorian, she tells herself. While Testa – the only Wookie in the farming village – towers over the bounty hunter, Reiel can still claim that she has never seen anyone more intimidating than the Mandalorian. Sure, Testa may be a foot taller than him, but the bounty hunter has been practically armed to the teeth the first time she met him. Even the armor and the helmet he has been wearing have been pretty cool and scary to look at. She's pestered the village hunters about anything they know of Mandalorians, and their answers have brought many sleepless nights for Reiel. She doesn't know if the hunters have been exaggerating with their descriptions, but looking back to how she freely spoke and sassed a person equivalent to a living killing machine makes Reiel reevaluate her life choices and how she should properly (and politely) approach the Mandalorian if he ever returns in this planet.
If he does return, that is.
With an impatient sigh, Reiel looks up at the cloudy skies, dark brown eyes searching for any signs of the Mandalorian's light freighter breaking through the atmosphere.
She may have not known him more personally given the brief time they talked that night, but Reiel won't deny that she kinda misses the bounty hunter. He may have been scary and rather serious, but he's been nice enough to overlook her trespassing on his ship and even chatting with her (although she's done most of the talking).
She misses him.
Oh, dear.
Reiel can only hope and pray to any higher power who might listen that the Mandalorian returns for her as not-promised.