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burnwater_13The Passenger
Part 4: On Our Way
As told to BurnWater13 by Grogu
Thank you to Jon Favreau for writing the episode this telling is based on. Oya Manda!
Grogu loved flying places with Din. The Razor Crest was a very interesting vessel. If you needed someone to be cold there was a carbonite processing chamber. If you needed a weapon, well Din had a whole cabinet full of them. The privy wasn’t the best, but then what privy was?
The other thing that Grogu found interesting about the Razor Crest was that the cockpit was one level up from the main cargo deck. You had to use a ladder to get up there. Which also meant that you had to use a ladder to get down from there. There was no line of sight from the pilot’s seat where Din was to the cargo area where the Frog Lady’s container was. And that container interested Grogu very much.
Grogu could hear Din talking to the Frog Lady. He wasn’t sure why he bothered. The Frog Lady couldn’t speak Gal basic and the Mandalorian didn’t know any Frog. But Grogu listened for his dad’s voice none the less. He liked hearing him speak as long as he wasn’t scolding Grogu for well … being Grogu.
Grogu peaked out from behind one of beams of the ship. He could see the container of eggs from there. The eggs were fascinating, floating in the glowing blue liquid. Grogu began to ask himself why anyone would leave the container just sitting there. It was precious cargo. He hoped that Din didn’t hear him talking to himself as he slowly walked over to the container.
The container was so much bigger than him. It was amazing! He could sense the eggs calling to him. He was so excited at that he opened his mouth to yell ‘hurray’ and then thought better of it and closed it again. Grogu knew he had to remain calm. He didn’t want Din or the Frog lady coming down here to check on him. He couldn’t resist the eggs and pressed his nose and hands against the container’s wall to see and smell and sense the eggs better. Much better.
Did he just hear something? Grogu looked back over his shoulder. No. Nothing. Good. He was glad that no one had noticed him leave the bunk space he shared with Din. Grogu was safe. Din was busy flying the ship and the Frog lady didn’t know how much Grogu wanted to eat those eggs or at least touch them.
He turned back to the container. Maybe he could help the Frog lady figure out which were the best ones to fertilize. Frogs laid a lot of spawn, but Grogu knew not all of them could be fertilized. They wouldn’t all turn into Frog People. If they did there would be Frog people everywhere and there most definitely were not Frog people everywhere.
He wondered, as he stared back toward the bridge where Din and the Frog lady were, if they would even notice a missing egg. Just one egg. That’s all he needed. Or wanted. That would be okay? Right?
He turned back to their jar and touched it. The eggs began to float closer to him. Why wouldn’t they? Grogu was open to the Force. He could feel the connection between himself and the eggs.
But then Grogu heard the doors to the cockpit open and shut. He had to move fast if he wanted one of the eggs. And he did want an egg. He hopped up on another support beam section and quickly unlatched the lid to the container and grabbed an egg from the blue fluid. He almost dropped it because he hadn’t realized it was going to be so warm. But he focused on this task and had the egg. Success!
Then calamity! Din was on this deck and looking for him!
“Kid?” Grogu heard Din call his nickname. Din called him a lot of nicknames because he just didn’t understand yet that Grogu’s name was Grogu.
Grogu decided that he had to hide the egg. But where? He didn’t really have pockets and he definitely didn’t have a little brown sack to carry things in the way Din carried him around. There was nothing left for it. He would have to hide the egg in his mouth!
As he watched Din run over to him he held the egg up to his mouth.
“No, no, no!” Din didn’t understand. Grogu had a plan.
He popped the egg into his mouth.
Grogu could sense Din wasn’t happy with him and when Din reached the container, he flipped the lid shut and picked up Grogu.
Now in general Grogu very much liked spending quality time with his dad. Mandalorian foundlings were taught many things by their adoptive parents. But Grogu really did not care for being scolded. Din just did not understand how Grogu was really helping everyone out sometimes. This was one of those times.
“That is not food. Don’t do that again.”
Grogu tried very hard to appear to understand the lesson and that he would never deliberately disobey his dad. But then his body betrayed him and he burped out loud as his dad gave him that short lecture.
He had just swallowed a whole egg. Of course he had to burp. Who wouldn’t? Well Din wouldn’t because first he wouldn’t eat something like that and then he’d take tiny bites so no one would see his face. How could you burp under those circumstances?
Din had a quick response to that. “Nap time.”
He carried Grogu over to their bunk space and set Grogu gently into the tiny hammock he had made out of cargo netting. Grogu liked it. It kept him close to Din. He liked that too. Now his meal might settle a bit better and next time he wouldn’t burp.
Grogu thought that now was a good time to try and communicate with Din. He looked at the Mandalorian and tried to convey to him that he appreciated all his help, but he, Grogu wasn’t helpless. He might be a child but he could do a lot of things and feed himself those eggs was definitely high on his list of things he was happy he could do. He wished Din understood that.
Grogu watched Din duck under his tiny hammock and lay down on the bunk below and then hit the button to close the door. Grogu knew that his dad wanted to sleep and he, like any soldier, like any good bounty hunter, knew that free time could always be used, should always be used, in part for sleep. You never knew when you next chance to get a good kip in would come. Grogu agreed with that sentiment most days.
Grogu had no idea how much time had passed when an alarm started piercing the quiet of the ship. Red lights were on. Something was happening. Grogu watched silently as the Mandalorian was out of his bunk in a second as the door slid up and out of the way.
Grogu noticed that Din had left the bunk space door open, leaving Grogu by himself. Grogu could hear voices dimly but had no idea what they were talking about.
He wanted to go explore again and began to carefully climb out of the hammock. Grogu was just getting ready to drop to the deck when suddenly the Razor Crest made a sharp ‘downward’ turn. He was pushed back up against the webbing of the hammock.
The artificial gravity system on the ship could compensate for some changes but not all of them. Grogu waited for a minute and then started the process again.
When he hit the deck he just had to hang on to the superstructure. They were bouncing around for some reason and while Grogu normally loved bouncing, this time it wasn’t very fun. He had to work not to get hit by stuff that hadn’t been properly stowed and he was very concerned about the container of eggs. Could they really survive this type of movement?
Grogu can hear the Frog Lady yelling. But about what? He couldn’t tell. First he couldn’t hear her very well and second he didn’t speak Frog. For all he knew she was yelling at Din to do it again. Grogu hoped she wasn’t yelling that. What about her poor eggs? Was she thinking about them?
Grogu felt the bump of the hard landing, mostly with his head. Ouch. That hurt. Good thing that he knew how to heal with the Force. But his first concern was still for the container of eggs. It had been bouncing around the cargo hold as was a bunch of other stuff.
For a moment it felt like everything had stopped and that made Grogu happy. He could go check on the eggs, but before he got even one more step, the Razor Crest shifted and suddenly dropped again. Hitting hard again. Ouch! His head.
When he opened his eyes this time, Grogu noticed that everything in the cargo hold had been tossed around, including the precious egg container. He also noticed that it was cold. Very cold.
While Grogu wore a nice warm covering, the egg container didn’t. He knew he needed to fix that. Someone had to protect the eggs and he couldn’t do that by putting them all in his mouth. They wouldn’t fit.
So he carefully made his way across the cargo deck. It was not easy going.There was a lot more stuff here than he remembered and then it occurred to him that some of the stuff was from the ship itself. That landing had been very hard.
When he reached the container he noticed that the sides of it were frosting over due to the cold. He grabbed a bit of canvas tarp and tugged it over the container and then crawled under the tarp to check on the eggs.
Grogu realized that the best way to check on the eggs was to open the container. That way he could examine each one and make sure any egg that had suffered catastrophic damage was addressed. By eating it. Better for the Frog lady to avoid the disappointment too.
As he was eating one such egg he heard the sounds of Din Djarin dropping down onto the cargo deck.
“Damn it.” Yes, that was his dad and not the Frog lady.
“Where are you?”
Grogu was about to respond when he heard the Frog lady say something in Frog.
“Hang on, I’m looking for your eggs!”, Din replied.
Grogu popped another bad egg in his mouth and held another in his other hand. Suddenly the tarp was lifted and his dad was looking down on him.
“Hey! No! I told you not to do that.”
Not to do what? Save a mother the agony of having offspring that would never arrive? Grogu didn’t remember that being part of their very one sided conversation.
But when Din had something in his mind it was there. Grogu didn’t fight his father lifting him up after he closed the egg container. What was the point?
They both heard the Frog lady croaking at them again.
“Found them!”, was all Din said. It was true. He’d found them.
Grogu quickly ate the egg in his hand while Din looked at him. Grogu knew his dad didn’t understand what he was doing but like any other Mandalorian foundling Grogu was going to do what he had to do and suffer the consequences gladly.
“How many did you eat?”, Din asked to Grogu’s deep pitying look.
How should he know? He was busy providing a service to their passenger. He didn’t keep track.
So he explained it all to Din in the only way he knew. Grogu burped. A deep, well fed, resounding burp. It felt good to do good. The eggs needed to disposed of and he needed to eat and … the eggs were… delicious. A job well done. As long as they all didn’t freeze to death on this ice ball Din had crashed the Razor Crest on.
This is the way!
Part 4: On Our Way
As told to BurnWater13 by Grogu
Thank you to Jon Favreau for writing the episode this telling is based on. Oya Manda!
Grogu loved flying places with Din. The Razor Crest was a very interesting vessel. If you needed someone to be cold there was a carbonite processing chamber. If you needed a weapon, well Din had a whole cabinet full of them. The privy wasn’t the best, but then what privy was?
The other thing that Grogu found interesting about the Razor Crest was that the cockpit was one level up from the main cargo deck. You had to use a ladder to get up there. Which also meant that you had to use a ladder to get down from there. There was no line of sight from the pilot’s seat where Din was to the cargo area where the Frog Lady’s container was. And that container interested Grogu very much.
Grogu could hear Din talking to the Frog Lady. He wasn’t sure why he bothered. The Frog Lady couldn’t speak Gal basic and the Mandalorian didn’t know any Frog. But Grogu listened for his dad’s voice none the less. He liked hearing him speak as long as he wasn’t scolding Grogu for well … being Grogu.
Grogu peaked out from behind one of beams of the ship. He could see the container of eggs from there. The eggs were fascinating, floating in the glowing blue liquid. Grogu began to ask himself why anyone would leave the container just sitting there. It was precious cargo. He hoped that Din didn’t hear him talking to himself as he slowly walked over to the container.
The container was so much bigger than him. It was amazing! He could sense the eggs calling to him. He was so excited at that he opened his mouth to yell ‘hurray’ and then thought better of it and closed it again. Grogu knew he had to remain calm. He didn’t want Din or the Frog lady coming down here to check on him. He couldn’t resist the eggs and pressed his nose and hands against the container’s wall to see and smell and sense the eggs better. Much better.
Did he just hear something? Grogu looked back over his shoulder. No. Nothing. Good. He was glad that no one had noticed him leave the bunk space he shared with Din. Grogu was safe. Din was busy flying the ship and the Frog lady didn’t know how much Grogu wanted to eat those eggs or at least touch them.
He turned back to the container. Maybe he could help the Frog lady figure out which were the best ones to fertilize. Frogs laid a lot of spawn, but Grogu knew not all of them could be fertilized. They wouldn’t all turn into Frog People. If they did there would be Frog people everywhere and there most definitely were not Frog people everywhere.
He wondered, as he stared back toward the bridge where Din and the Frog lady were, if they would even notice a missing egg. Just one egg. That’s all he needed. Or wanted. That would be okay? Right?
He turned back to their jar and touched it. The eggs began to float closer to him. Why wouldn’t they? Grogu was open to the Force. He could feel the connection between himself and the eggs.
But then Grogu heard the doors to the cockpit open and shut. He had to move fast if he wanted one of the eggs. And he did want an egg. He hopped up on another support beam section and quickly unlatched the lid to the container and grabbed an egg from the blue fluid. He almost dropped it because he hadn’t realized it was going to be so warm. But he focused on this task and had the egg. Success!
Then calamity! Din was on this deck and looking for him!
“Kid?” Grogu heard Din call his nickname. Din called him a lot of nicknames because he just didn’t understand yet that Grogu’s name was Grogu.
Grogu decided that he had to hide the egg. But where? He didn’t really have pockets and he definitely didn’t have a little brown sack to carry things in the way Din carried him around. There was nothing left for it. He would have to hide the egg in his mouth!
As he watched Din run over to him he held the egg up to his mouth.
“No, no, no!” Din didn’t understand. Grogu had a plan.
He popped the egg into his mouth.
Grogu could sense Din wasn’t happy with him and when Din reached the container, he flipped the lid shut and picked up Grogu.
Now in general Grogu very much liked spending quality time with his dad. Mandalorian foundlings were taught many things by their adoptive parents. But Grogu really did not care for being scolded. Din just did not understand how Grogu was really helping everyone out sometimes. This was one of those times.
“That is not food. Don’t do that again.”
Grogu tried very hard to appear to understand the lesson and that he would never deliberately disobey his dad. But then his body betrayed him and he burped out loud as his dad gave him that short lecture.
He had just swallowed a whole egg. Of course he had to burp. Who wouldn’t? Well Din wouldn’t because first he wouldn’t eat something like that and then he’d take tiny bites so no one would see his face. How could you burp under those circumstances?
Din had a quick response to that. “Nap time.”
He carried Grogu over to their bunk space and set Grogu gently into the tiny hammock he had made out of cargo netting. Grogu liked it. It kept him close to Din. He liked that too. Now his meal might settle a bit better and next time he wouldn’t burp.
Grogu thought that now was a good time to try and communicate with Din. He looked at the Mandalorian and tried to convey to him that he appreciated all his help, but he, Grogu wasn’t helpless. He might be a child but he could do a lot of things and feed himself those eggs was definitely high on his list of things he was happy he could do. He wished Din understood that.
Grogu watched Din duck under his tiny hammock and lay down on the bunk below and then hit the button to close the door. Grogu knew that his dad wanted to sleep and he, like any soldier, like any good bounty hunter, knew that free time could always be used, should always be used, in part for sleep. You never knew when you next chance to get a good kip in would come. Grogu agreed with that sentiment most days.
Grogu had no idea how much time had passed when an alarm started piercing the quiet of the ship. Red lights were on. Something was happening. Grogu watched silently as the Mandalorian was out of his bunk in a second as the door slid up and out of the way.
Grogu noticed that Din had left the bunk space door open, leaving Grogu by himself. Grogu could hear voices dimly but had no idea what they were talking about.
He wanted to go explore again and began to carefully climb out of the hammock. Grogu was just getting ready to drop to the deck when suddenly the Razor Crest made a sharp ‘downward’ turn. He was pushed back up against the webbing of the hammock.
The artificial gravity system on the ship could compensate for some changes but not all of them. Grogu waited for a minute and then started the process again.
When he hit the deck he just had to hang on to the superstructure. They were bouncing around for some reason and while Grogu normally loved bouncing, this time it wasn’t very fun. He had to work not to get hit by stuff that hadn’t been properly stowed and he was very concerned about the container of eggs. Could they really survive this type of movement?
Grogu can hear the Frog Lady yelling. But about what? He couldn’t tell. First he couldn’t hear her very well and second he didn’t speak Frog. For all he knew she was yelling at Din to do it again. Grogu hoped she wasn’t yelling that. What about her poor eggs? Was she thinking about them?
Grogu felt the bump of the hard landing, mostly with his head. Ouch. That hurt. Good thing that he knew how to heal with the Force. But his first concern was still for the container of eggs. It had been bouncing around the cargo hold as was a bunch of other stuff.
For a moment it felt like everything had stopped and that made Grogu happy. He could go check on the eggs, but before he got even one more step, the Razor Crest shifted and suddenly dropped again. Hitting hard again. Ouch! His head.
When he opened his eyes this time, Grogu noticed that everything in the cargo hold had been tossed around, including the precious egg container. He also noticed that it was cold. Very cold.
While Grogu wore a nice warm covering, the egg container didn’t. He knew he needed to fix that. Someone had to protect the eggs and he couldn’t do that by putting them all in his mouth. They wouldn’t fit.
So he carefully made his way across the cargo deck. It was not easy going.There was a lot more stuff here than he remembered and then it occurred to him that some of the stuff was from the ship itself. That landing had been very hard.
When he reached the container he noticed that the sides of it were frosting over due to the cold. He grabbed a bit of canvas tarp and tugged it over the container and then crawled under the tarp to check on the eggs.
Grogu realized that the best way to check on the eggs was to open the container. That way he could examine each one and make sure any egg that had suffered catastrophic damage was addressed. By eating it. Better for the Frog lady to avoid the disappointment too.
As he was eating one such egg he heard the sounds of Din Djarin dropping down onto the cargo deck.
“Damn it.” Yes, that was his dad and not the Frog lady.
“Where are you?”
Grogu was about to respond when he heard the Frog lady say something in Frog.
“Hang on, I’m looking for your eggs!”, Din replied.
Grogu popped another bad egg in his mouth and held another in his other hand. Suddenly the tarp was lifted and his dad was looking down on him.
“Hey! No! I told you not to do that.”
Not to do what? Save a mother the agony of having offspring that would never arrive? Grogu didn’t remember that being part of their very one sided conversation.
But when Din had something in his mind it was there. Grogu didn’t fight his father lifting him up after he closed the egg container. What was the point?
They both heard the Frog lady croaking at them again.
“Found them!”, was all Din said. It was true. He’d found them.
Grogu quickly ate the egg in his hand while Din looked at him. Grogu knew his dad didn’t understand what he was doing but like any other Mandalorian foundling Grogu was going to do what he had to do and suffer the consequences gladly.
“How many did you eat?”, Din asked to Grogu’s deep pitying look.
How should he know? He was busy providing a service to their passenger. He didn’t keep track.
So he explained it all to Din in the only way he knew. Grogu burped. A deep, well fed, resounding burp. It felt good to do good. The eggs needed to disposed of and he needed to eat and … the eggs were… delicious. A job well done. As long as they all didn’t freeze to death on this ice ball Din had crashed the Razor Crest on.
This is the way!
