#Diggle and Daggle

[burnwater13]

Grogu just couldn’t believe that Moff Gideon called him ‘it’. ‘It’! The nerve! Grogu was not an ‘it’. He was a person. No person was an ‘it’. 

Grogu understood why the Mandalorian wasn’t cussing him out over it. He had bigger problems. He was the one who had to figure out a way to keep Grogu from the nasty ex-Imperial War Lord. But Grogu was free to grumble, curse, and utter the occasional ‘Dank Farrik’ as he saw fit. He was glad about that.

Grogu was tired of having any meaning to Moff Gideon that wasn’t related to the expected state of being ‘the one who got away’. Like a fish that had taken the bait once but got away from the hook and wasn’t going to be fooled again. That happened all the time, according to Diggle and Daggle. 

Grogu smiled to himself as he thought about the two fish that fish. They were fun and educational and talked about important things: like bait, lures, line strength, and reeling speed. They knew everything any one every needed to know about fishing and they shared it with all the folks that watched their vid show. 

He loved watching their show. It always started out with the two on them on a small boat in the middle of a river, lake, stream, sea, or even the ocean that one time. They told you important stuff about the planet they were on, the fish or other critters they were after (not everything in the sea was a fish, but they could teach you how to catch almost anything), what kind of bait and lures to use, what time of day was best, and if you needed a special license or an insurance policy (some critters were huge and did a lot of damage when caught). They were very complete that way. 

Grogu also liked how the two of them always had a story about ‘the one that got away’. Always. Sometimes the line snapped or the hook didn’t set right or they just liked the critter too much to haul it into the boat. Sometimes neither one of them liked eating that sort of fish, or the fish or critter was endangered and they just wanted to show you a specimen. As Daggle said they’d be out of a job if there were no fish to fish. He was right of course. 

Diggle told jokes while the waited for a strike or had to grab a net to land the critter. Grogu’s favorite was why did the fish swim across the ocean? To get to the other side! The Mandalorian hadn’t found it funny but Grogu had fallen out of the floaty chair he was laughing so hard. Din had picked him up and put him right back in his chair and Grogu had continued to laugh. That’s how good the jokes were. 

One time, Grogu had woken up from a nap when they were on Tatooine and Din, Peli, and the pit droids were watching an episode. Peli was at the edge of her seat and the pit droids were shaking and chattering. They were making a commotion and Din ordered them to be quite. They dropped down into their ‘heads’ they were so afraid. 

Apparently the episode was all about the ancient critters that had once lived on the vast oceans of Tatooine. Ancient must of meant millions of years ago because Tatooine barely had water in its atmosphere anymore! According to that episode, critters large enough to make Krayt Dragons and Rancors seem small swam around that ocean, terrorizing any other critter that came their way. 

The story telling was so riveting that Peli had threatened to use the pit droids as bait if they didn’t quiet down. Din had apparently mimicked casting a line after she said that. Grogu didn’t blame them for being frightened. A critter as big or bigger than a Krayt dragon was a very big critter. Something like that wouldn’t even notice a pit droid bent into the shape of a hook, even if you had a bantha dangling off them. Of course he had no idea how you would hook a bantha on a pit droid without a lot of practice. The mind boggled at that as well. 

So when Grogu thought about Moff Gideon and his obnoxious pronouncement, he had to wonder if the Moff was one of those folks who went fishing but yelled a lot, sped around in the boat, didn’t care what bait he used and cursed at everyone else who got lucky enough to catch anything other than a cold in those conditions. It was the right level of arrogance and bullying. 

Diggle and Daggle said that people like that could only fish with a explosive charge and you didn’t want to be anywhere near them when they did that. Grogu had to agree. Moff Gideon though everyone owed him what he wanted and he’d just take it whenever he wanted it. Well, Grogu still wasn’t an ‘it’ and he was going to make sure that the Moff was the one who caught the charge and not the fish. He was pretty sure he could do that with the Force, like throwing the silver ball back to Din. Easy peasy.

[burnwater13]

Picture this: Grogu goes to the Gladiator 2 premiere and surprises his best pal Pedro by cosplaying as Marcus Acacius.

Nothing was more exciting than going to a premiere!

Grogu's dad, the Mandalorian just didn't understand it at all.

"So they play a vid and people watch. You do that for Diggle and Daggle everyday and no has to get dressed up for it." The cranky bounty hunter huffed.

Din Djarin was just being cranky because Grogu had insisted that he dress like a roman centurion and he didn't like having the broom bristles added to his helmet. He also claimed that he didn't have the knees for wearing a skirt.

Grogu's terse comment had been that if Ewan could wear a kilt, then Djarin could wear a Roman tunic. It wasn't Grogu's fault that they were short. Grogu thought it looked great in the deep, dusty red. Of course that Mythosaur head tattoo on the back of his calf wasn't very in period, but Grogu planned on telling people it was a kind of rhinoceros.

His own costume was based on the character his friend Pedro was playing. General Marcus Acacius. That white and gold job was fabulous and Grogu had to be his very best self to keep it clean. He just hoped that Pedro wasn't jealous about how good he looked in it. Even his dad had said 'Wow.'

Now they just needed to get to the premier on time. Grogu had already arranged with Paul to enter the theater through a back door so he could surprise Pedro. Grogu had been a little skeptical about that going to plan, but Paul had a point. Who was going to tell his dad 'No'?

Grogu's back up plan was pretty simple.

"These are not the Romans you are looking for" with a little wave of his hand and the Force would be with him. Easy Peasy!

This is the Way!

[burnwater13]

Concept art by Christian Alzmann. Image depicts Grogu sitting on Ossus and holding a frog in mid air using the Force, while Luke Skywalker (partially in frame) sits watching him. Image from The Book of Boba Fett, Season 1, Episode 6, From the Desert Comes a Stranger. Calendar by DateWorks.

“What are you looking at, buddy?” 

Grogu looked up when he heard Din Djarin speak to him. It had been a pretty rough few days. He was mad at his dad and his dad was mad at him. Or at least irritated. Either way. 

It had all started when the Mandalorian asked him to clean up his room. ‘For the thousandth time’ according to the bounty hunter’s cranky words. Grogu had replied that it had only been thirteen times since the day before, when they got back from a visit to Tatooine. Needless to say, the Mandalorian did not like the ‘back talk’. 

‘A good Mandalorian apprentice listens to their mentor, completes their tasks in a timely manner, and does not sass them. Maybe you should have stayed with Luke.’

Wow. Grogu could barely believe his ears when his dad said that, using those listening skills he was being accused on not having.  Not only was it hurtful, but it was ridiculous. Grogu was never going ‘stay with Luke’ because he didn’t really need to go to Jedi Sleep Away Camp to learn anything. He knew how to use the Force and Din Djarin knew that as well as anyone else. 

Grogu had stomped off to his room and slammed the door. His dad had yelled at him for that but Grogu pretended he couldn’t hear those words. Wasn’t that the purpose of the door? To provide for privacy? He had some private annoyances and irritations of his own to deal with and he chose to deal with them in his ‘too messy for a Mandalorian apprentice’ room. Uff. Dads!

Grogu hadn’t talked to his dad for the rest of the day as he slowly, methodically, and with exacting use of the Force, cleaned his room. Really, he didn’t clean it all. He organized it. All the art supplies went back into their drawers and cabinets. All the clothing was sorted, clean/dirty, placed in the appropriate receptacle (if dirty) or drawer (clean) and folded as necessary (clean only, dirty clothes didn’t need folding no matter what his dad said). 

After taking care of his armor, his study materials, his data comp, and his other miscellaneous toys and possessions, he had made his way to the main room, retrieved a rations pack and returned to his room, where he ate it by himself as he watched Diggle and Daggle’s Great Adventure with the sound turned so low only he would hear it. He didn’t want his dad barging into his room and complaining at him about being too noisy. That was the sort of thing the Mandalorian did and it always annoyed Grogu. 

He was grateful that Djarin hadn’t taken the door off the hinges again. The last time Grogu had slammed it, a total mistake because his hands were full and he’d used the Force, the bounty hunter had gotten the tools out and said he couldn’t have a door until he learned how to treat it appropriately. Grogu had apologized and explained what happened and his dad had reluctantly admitted to having a head ache and put the door right back up. 

Grogu promised himself that if the Mandalorian tried to take his door away this time that he would use the Force to stop that from happening. Let him get a little flavor of what it was like to have to negotiate with an actual Jedi. Then maybe he’d think twice about suggesting that Grogu go back to Ossus to pick up Luke’s training again. If he could do that with a door he could do that with the cabin, with the speeder bike, and with the N-1. 

Once the Diggle and Daggle vid was over, Grogu had gone to bed after washing his face, using the privy, washing his hands, and changing into his night clothes. He wasn’t going to let his dad grouse at him about wearing the same clothes all the time which was rich when it was coming from a guy who never took his helmet off and never cleaned his second layer. Eww.

Yes, Grogu knew that the Mandalorian did actually take his helmet off once in a while. He shaved. He cleaned his teeth. He cut his hair. But who knew if Djarin was good or bad at those things? Were their spots that he always missed? Did he forget about the soap behind his ears? Were his bangs uneven? The answer was probably yes in all cases, but without sharing his face with Grogu there was just no way to know. 

The next day they both continued to give each other the silent treatment. The Mandalorian spent the day fussy with the N-1, cleaning his weapons, polishing his armor (when didn’t he polish that stuff?) and the like. Grogu, for his part, made his own meals. Studied his lesson materials. Completed his quizzes, watched more Diggle and Daggle, and went to bed early. It was a very uncomfortable but productive day. 

Finally, the next morning Grogu decided to go through his vid album. R2-D2 had made it for him for Grogu’s naming day (it had been a year since Ahsoka Tano had told the Mandalorian his name). It included all sorts of vids that had been collected from the old Razor Crest, from the Mandalorian’s sensors, and other sources. Apparently, R2 had a drone it liked to use to make sure things were going okay for Grogu when he and Luke were wondering all over Ossus. R2 must have known what a handful Luke was. 

‘Not easy to train. Listen the boy does not.’ 

Grogu laughed as he heard his old master’s voice describing his best friend Ian. That description fit Luke pretty well too. For example, the vid he was looking at showed Grogu lifting a frog with the Force. He had been trying to show Luke how it was important to be gentle and fine tuned. You don’t just haul a whole pond’s worth of frogs into the air with the Force. That was uncivilized. The very next vid would show Luke just hauling up all those frogs as if Grogu hadn’t said anything at all. 

Now that his dad was there, looking over his shoulder, Grogu realized that Luke was probably just distracted by a bunch of other things and couldn’t focus and that he needed to be a better master if he expected Luke to be a better student. 

“Love you, dad.”

It was the only reply to Djarin’s question that made sense to Grogu.

“Love you too, buddy. Love you too.”

[burnwater13]

Concept art by Christian Alzmann. Scene from The Mandalorian, Season 2, Episode 1, The Marshal. Din Djarin and Tuskens are riding Bathas on Tatooine.

Grogu sighed as he remembered riding the banthas that hot day they went to find the Krayt dragon with the Tuskens and the marshal. The ride was long, and to be honest, kind of boring. Grogu wished he had thought to bring something to do with him. He missed having a datapad. He always had one at the Jedi Temple. But without one he couldn’t pass the time watching his favorite vid series: Diggle and Daggle, the Fish that fish.

Diggle and Daggle had helped Grogu through a lot of boring times. He’d first watched the show about ‘The Fish that fish’ when Peli was watching over him. Apparently the pit droids liked to watch it and Peli would play it for them as a special treat for work well done. Not getting destroyed by the Mandalorian for almost working on the Razor Crest was determined to be a ‘job well done’. 

And that’s how it started. His obsession with fishing. Well, with a vid show about fishing. He’d liked fishing before he’d ever met the pit droids, Peli, or the Mandalorian. What he didn’t like was not knowing very much about fish. Diggle and Daggle fixed that for him. 

Want to know how many types of Yob fish there are? Diggle and Daggle covered that in episode 293. Think you should know more about the bulbous fish of Coruscant? Episode 19. Curious about the luminous fish of Naboo? Episode 42. Since Grogu was interested, curious and wanted to increase his knowledge about all fish, Diggle and Daggle were his first and best resource for everything fish related. How could they not be?

For a long time his dad didn’t understand it. He would try to watch Diggle and Daggle, but Din Djarin just didn’t get what Grogu loved about the show. Why would fish teach you how to catch other fish? The very first time Grogu tried to explain it, the Mandalorian said it was not the Way. Grogu began to giggle. He explained to his dad that fish eat fish.

“I know that buddy.”

Yes, he knew it, but did he really know it? Grogu had never seen his dad voluntarily eat fish. Oh sure, maybe he’d get tricked into eating a gorg on a stick if it was coated, deep fried and reeking of hot spice. But gorgs were technically not fish. And when Grogu managed to catch a scale fish on a trip they made to Naboo, there was no way to get his dad to eat even the tiniest bit of it. 

“I don’t eat raw fish, Grogu.”

Grogu trotted over the campfire and used the Force to hold the filet of scale fish over it until it was cooked. Then he brought it back to his dad. His dad thanked Grogu nicely for doing that, but all he actually did with the fish was cut it up and push it around his plate and then the Mandalorian told Grogu it was time to sleep. Later that night, when Grogu needed to use the privy, he found the fish in the trash bin. Now that really annoyed him. He would have been happy to eat it, once he scraped the hot sauce off it. 

Then they went to Corellia on a bounty run and stopped in a great little diner not far from the starport. They had noddles with Coco Claw fish bites and Grogu noticed that all the fish bites were still left in the bowl when the Mandalorian slowly ate the noddles (one at a time! Uff, that had taken so much time) and drank the broth. That time Grogu had finished the fish bites and immediately regretted it. He had forgotten for an instant that his dad ate everything smothered in hot spices or sauces, in this case both. Uff. Thank goodness for the sweet juice concentrate the Iktotchi server had given. 

Then Greef Karga invited them to a celebration on Nevarro which included a formal dinner. Grogu had loved it. The pomp. The fashion. The celebrities. Of course his dad was one of the celebrities and so was he. It had been great until the Opee Sea Killer was presented to his dad on a platter. To Grogu’s amazement the Mandalorian had looked at the giant sea critter, shook his head, leapt out of his chair and dashed out of the room. Everyone in the room fell quiet and the high magistrate sent IG-11-M, who was there as a curtesy, to go check on the bounty hunter. 

Grogu was glad that IG had taken on that task because he couldn’t imagine what could possibly be wrong, but he was pretty sure that he’d ask his dad a question that would make things worse, instead of better. A droid, especially IG, was far more capable of being plainly factual and impartial, than Grogu. 

It turned out that when the Opee Sea Killer was prepared no one checked it’s mouth to see what was in it. When the platter was set down, a bunch of Opee Sea Killer eggs blooped out of the mouth and his dad just couldn’t handle Grogu reaching out and taking a scoop of them. Grogu was surprised that his dad was bothered by it because the Mandalorian was so happy to eat ration packs. 

Finally, they were on Cantonica. Some guy jumped bail and they caught him at the aquarium there. In the water. Grogu had explained to his dad how to deal with each and every critter and that helped them catch the guy, who was a Mon Calamari. Later his dad asked him how he knew so much about all those fish and sea creatures. Grogu had giggled and said, “Diggle and Daggle”. 

After that, Din bought Grogu a specialized datapad and got him the whole back catalog of Diggle and Daggle vids. His dad had finally got the picture, quite literally. Grogu wasn’t just watching a show. He was learning. Not just about fish but about planets, people, and methods to catch things that really didn’t want to be caught. To the Mandalorian’s surprise Grogu had been learning to be a bounty hunter the whole time they knew one another. Or maybe his dad was just surprised that learning those lessons could be so much fun and really tasty. Yum.

[burnwater13]

Luke Skywalker using his hand to access Grogu's memories of Coruscant and his time at the Jedi Temple. Image from The Book of Boba Fett, Season 1, Episode 6, From the Desert Comes a Stranger. Calendar by DateWorks.

Grogu really needed to talk to his padawan about boundaries. Sure, you could help him to his feet if he fell on his butt during a training session. That was okay. Resting your hand on his head to extract memories of the worst time in his life? Nope. He did not consent to that. That wasn’t cool and, honestly, it was borderline Darkside behavior. He’d really have to talk to Luke about doing stuff like that. It was not the way.

It wasn’t just that those memories were sad and scary and unforgettable. Grogu would have felt the same way about someone touching his head to get at his recipe for frog stew. He was an autonomous person and he deserved to be treated like one. Then, to have a padawan do this sort of thing, well, at the Jedi Temple, the Masters would not have been expected to put up with this sort of thing. 

‘Dare you to do this to Master Yoda, do I,’ Grogu thought crossly.

Then Grogu sighed deeply. He missed Master Yoda, even though it had never been easy being such a visible reference to the Jedi Grand Master. ‘Do the magic hand thing’ had been the least of his worries when encountering people who realized that he could work with the Force. The people at the temple expected him to be a duplicate of the 900 year old master. They thought he could do all the same things as Master Yoda, or, for the older knights and masters, Master Yaddle. 

But he wasn’t either of them. He was himself. He liked plants. He liked flutter-bys.  He liked exploring. He liked eating. He liked floating. He liked Ian. He liked Diggle and Daggle, the Fish that fish. Masters Yoda and Yaddle liked some of those things too, but not all of them. 

They liked speaking Gal Basic and Grogu was not a fan. He much preferred ‘conversing’ through the Force or using the sign language of the Sand People of Tatooine. He really wished he’d known all about that when he was a youngling. It would have made things so much easier. He and Ian did have a kind of sign language, but it was pretty simple and was typically used when Ian couldn’t just say ‘Grab the cookies for us’ out loud because too many knights or masters were nearby. 

Master Yaddle had endless patience. Master Yoda… not quite as much. Grogu didn’t really understand the concept of patience until he met the Mandalorian. Then it really took hold. It was just waiting around until the situation changed and presented a better set of outcomes. It made sense for a bounty hunter to develop that sense of time and events. Clearly the other Mandalorians Grogu had met on his travels with the big guy hadn’t learned it at all. 

Which brought him back to his own padawan. Luke. That young man had no patience. He wanted everything to just do what he wanted it to do and a lot of times that’s just what happened because Luke used the Force to change the situation. Like climbing the plants to get a better view of Ossus.

Normally you had to take your time climbing bamboo. They had a stand of the stuff in the Arboretum at the Jedi Temple. Grogu had listened to many lectures from the Jedi who tended the plants. Take climbing them slow and easy. Respect the plant and how it’s structure is set up. Don’t push. Don’t pull. Be one with the Force. The plant can support you if you don’t damage it. Blah, blah, blah.

Luke did not take well to those lectures, even though Grogu had delivered them verbatim. Nope. He just galloped up those wands of plant matter like they were made of durasteel. If some of them buckled, or broke, he just jumped to another wand and continued. He didn’t even try to heal the damage. Impatient and kind of thoughtless.  Grogu wondered if Master Yoda had found him to be hard to train as well.

Probably not. Master Yoda had trained so many Jedi. He’d known thousands of younglings over his long life. He’d trained their masters and their masters’ masters. He’d know just how to handle Luke. Dank Farrik! Master Yoda wasn’t there! Grogu was. He’d have to figure out how to help his padawan. 

“Use the Force.”

Huh? Who said that? Maser Kenobi? He was always saying stuff like that to the younglings. A pile of datacards had gone flying because someone (not Grogu) had climbed the stack to retrieve their tunic belt (Grogu had no idea how Ian managed to hide it up there to begin with) and if Master Kenobi wondered by, he’d sigh, look at them all scurrying around to collect the cards and then say, ‘Use the Force’.

It did help get the work done quicker and the librarians complained less. Apparently the Force knew what order they belonged in, even when the affected younglings didn’t. Master Kenobi had a point. Grogu could use the Force to guide Luke during his training sessions and they’d have fewer issues with boundaries and autonomy. 

As Grogu watched the training drone pop and sizzle on the ground after using the Force to address Luke’s lack of patience, he agreed with his old friend. Using the Force had been the right solution to that problem, even if it felt like a short cut. Luke would have to slow down and take his time and maybe he’d realize that his master really did  know how to handle his padawan’s hi-jinx. This really was the Way.

Image 1 Luke has his hand on Grogu's head. The caption reads: Let me help you remember.

Image 2 Luke is speaking to Grogu (out of frame). The caption reads: Get back up. Always get back up.

Both images from The Book of Boba Fett, Season 1, Episode 6, From the Desert Comes a Stranger.

[burnwater13]

Concept art by Anton Grandert depicting Boba Fett in the Firespray looking down into the Great Pit of Carkoon at the sarlacc. Image from The Book of Boba Fett, Season 1, Episode 4, The Gathering Storm.

Din Djarin didn't know why Grogu wanted the Grand Encyclopedia of the Galaxy (pocket edition) or the Visual Guide to Tatooine’s Flora and Fauna. There were some questions he’d learned not to ask. Don’t ask about the process for training Jedi younglings unless you wanted to know the name of every Jedi Master going back for the last thousand years or so. Don’t ask if he’s had enough to eat. Grogu has never had enough to eat in his entire lifetime. Don’t ask if he wants to visit Peli Motto or Boba Fett. Of course he does. 

The Mandalorian was just grateful that his son wanted to learn something and that Grogu didn’t need him to do more than authorize his access to the information on his datapad. So far Grogu only had two collections of information that he was devoted to: the complete works of Diggle and Daggle, the Fish that fish, and anything and everything about critters. 

For a while the critter obsession was focused on large critters like the lesser krayt dragon, the mamacore, rancors in varieties, and anything at all published about mythosaurs, then Grogu started in on smaller critters like the scurriers found everywhere on Tatooine and the clothes eaters they ran into on a trip Hoth. Those things had been an absolute menace and Djarin had to replace his first and second layer after that trip and obtain a new set of coveralls for Grogu.

Grogu had said he'd been needing new coveralls because the old ones were getting tight around the thorax and the bottoms were all torn from all the walking he’d done with Luke on Ossus. Djarin had been happy to get Grogu something new, but the problem was that even the new stuff looked old and used and worn. Of course his old armor had gotten pretty scruffy looking before he met Grogu. It started out as second hand to begin with and the work a bounty hunter does, no matter how often they clean, polish, and repair the components, never look better than that first day. 

Maybe he should to talk to Fennec or Fett, as long as they were on Tatooine. Fennec’s suit always looked good and Fett hadn’t spared any credits getting his amor and the second layer sorted out and looking new. Or maybe, when they went home to Nevarro, he could take to Karga. The High Magistrate must have had access to some of the best cloth makers in the Outer Rim given how his next set of robes always looked better than the last set. Maybe he'd used that beskar plate he'd earned for Grogu's bounty and had gone to Krownest to get his finery? 

It wasn’t a bad idea to visit Krownest, or maybe Ordo, or Mandalore for that matter. Once the Imps had been driven off the planet, many of the artisans and craftspeople of Mandalorian heritage had begun to return to the planet. Surely, someone there would have access to the special cloth used for second layers. Then the Mandalorian could have a custom set of coveralls made up for Grogu and they would have to worry less about finding something durable enough on Nevarro or Tatooine. 

Of course the Jedi must have had a source for the material used in Grogu's coveralls. Djarin supposed that he could ask his son about that, but then he risked being lectured at length about the fine details of the procurement process that was in place when Grogu was a youngling on Coruscant. That could take hours and as much as the bounty hunter wanted to invest in new clothes for his son, he didn't actually want to spend quite that much time on it. 

He walked by Grogu as his son was quietly sketching and referring back to his datapad. The sketch was of the sarlacc pit with dimensions and cross-sections of the pit and bits and pieces of the sarlacc itself. Huh. Where did Grogu get that information from? 

Then it occurred to the Mandalorian that Grogu had asked for those reference books for a reason and that they might just help him with his problem. He continued to the palace lounge and took a seat and called up the Grand Encyclopedia of the Galaxy. He really didn’t think that the Flora and Fauna of Tatooine was going to help much. 

After a glance at the index and the glossary, Djarin began to try various searches to see if he could find the information he was looking  for in a reasonable amount of time. The search term ‘youngling coveralls' produced nothing meaningful. He was pointed to the definition of a youngling and that the ages varied from planet to planet and had changed after certain galactic events. It also included a species by species reference, but since he had no idea what species Grogu actually was that chart, as massive as it was, didn’t help him at all. 

Then he tried a search for children’s layers. That was a huge disappointment as he had no need to see the various anatomical charts showing skin, sub-cutaneous fat, muscle tissues, etc. He’d been injured enough times and in enough locations to have a fine appreciation for that already. 

Finally he entered the search term ‘Tailors to the Jedi Temple of Coruscant’ and hit pay dirt! Talea and Family claimed have to been the tailors for the Jedi and for the Emperor. Weird. You'd think that they’d leave that last bit off given what happened to the Emperor. The Mandalorian shook his head, but continued to review the entry about the business and where they were located (upper level, within walking distance of the Emperor’s palace) and if they were still in business (open four days a week, closed on Taungsday). Hmmm.

You never knew what you were going to learn if you just made the effort. The Mandalorian laughed at himself. He'd been doing that his whole career. You didn't find bounties by just bumping into them at a tavern and buying them a drink. You had to do your homework and be open to learning. He was glad that he was still able to learn from Grogu. Now he just had to figure out how to order a coverall from across the galaxy and have it delivered before they left for Nevarro again. Easy peasy, as Grogu would say, right?

[burnwater13]

Concept art by Christian Alzmann of Boba Fett trying to crawl out of the sand next to the Sarlacc pit on Tatooine. The burnt out frame of the sail barge is in the background. Image from The Book of Boba Fett, Season 1, Episode 1, Stranger in a Strange Land

Grogu still couldn’t believe that Luke didn’t help Boba Fett out of the Sarlacc pit. That just wasn’t what a Jedi was supposed to do. You didn’t have to vanquish everyone you met just because you could. You were supposed to be civilized. That was written down in large letters in the Jedi handbook.

“There’s not really a Jedi handbook, is there, kid?”

Fennec always asked those cool, incisive questions.

He shook his head ‘no’. There should have been one, but Master Yoda hadn’t gotten around to publishing it. Grogu had heard that it existed in a draft form somewhere in the temple’s library, but he had never looked for it himself. 

“I didn’t think so. Listen, that Armorer lady told you and your dad over there, that Mandalorians are both hunter and prey. Well, that goes double for Mandalorians that are bounty hunters kid. Fett knew what he was getting into when he agreed to help the Empire. We all did. I think we just expected them to last a bit longer and not trip on their own hem. But they did and Fett and I both got the short stick. But you know, we’ve done okay and holding grudges doesn’t make a profit.”

Grogu had no idea what Fennec meant by that specifically but he agreed with the general nature of her statement. What was in the past, was in the past.  Luke couldn’t change what he did anymore than Boba Fett could have. They just had to live the lives they had today. As if that were as easy to do as it was to say.

“Grogu, Fennec is right. Sometimes a bounty hunter will pick up a bounty puck for a person who shouldn’t be collected at all. But we have a job and we do it. The guild is supposed to vet these jobs before anyone takes the puck.”

Grogu walked right over to his dad and gave his booted foot a pinch. It didn’t hurt the Mandalorian at all, but it did convey Grogu’s general annoyance at his dad. 

“Come on, kid. I’m just being honest. Maybe Luke’s friend shouldn’t have been brought in, but alls well that ends well, right?”

Grogu wondered if the Mandalorian had any idea what it was like to be frozen in carbonite. It was easy to say you could bring someone in cold if you were never brought in cold yourself. Grogu wasn’t a fan of being cold. He could tolerate it but he didn’t like it. Not even with extra armor pieces and a warmer coverall. Uff.

“Did Luke tell you what happened to his friend, what’s his name?” Fennec was suddenly right next to him and he really didn’t know how she managed to do it. 

“Han something. Grogu mentioned him right after he came back from Ossus. Apparently he’s another hero of the Rebellion. There sure seems to be a lot of them around these parts.”

Din Djarin leaned over and picked Grogu up and showed him the screen of the data comp. The Mandalorian had cued up an episode of Diggle and Daggle, the Fish that fish, to distract Grogu from grousing about Luke. Grogu agreed with the output, but didn’t agree that he needed to be distracted. Fennec was the person who had told him the story. 

“Solo. Han Solo. He was on my list too. It doesn’t pay to get mixed up with the Hutts. They hold grudges and they still found a way to collect a profit. If the rumors are true, Solo was one of the people who managed to help destroy that first mobile space station the Empire used to destroy Alderaan. That was a mess. Any how, the guy owed Jabba big time. If I hadn’t been busy with other things I might have gone after him too. Not as good a bounty as the one they put on you kid, but still substantial.”

Grogu looked over at Fennec and she had that look in her eye. It was just a glint and turned to look at his dad, who seemed to be thinking exactly the same thing. Some bounties never really expired. If Boba Fett still had the puck for Solo they could collect it. If… they could find him. Grogu was sorry he’d even asked Fennec to tell him how Daimyo Fett’s armor had gotten lost in the first place. 

He supposed he could contact Luke and warn him… or he could tell the Daimyo that they should let the past stay in the past. Of course the Daimyo had recently told him the story of going back to the Sarlacc pit and ending that critter once and for all. Grogu supposed, as a Daimyo, Fett didn’t have to care about profit and could hold all the grudges he wanted.

Maybe he could talk his dad out of it… but Fennec was still standing there with a glint in her eye. Dank Farrik! Grogu would just have to go find this Han Solo guy and see if he could save him from two of Galaxy’s best bounty hunters. It was the least he could do to preserve the honor of the Jedi (even if they didn’t have a handbook). 

[burnwater13]

Concept Art by Ryan Church of the Mandalorian flying the N-1 starfighter on Tatooine. Image from The Book of Boba Fett, Season 1, Episode 5, Return of The Mandalorian. Calendar by DateWorks.

Well, Grogu's gambit to trick his dad, uh, er… convince his dad, that they should go to Coruscant hadn’t worked. Now he was in the N-1 with his dad and they were on their way to Mandalore, while Zeb was in the comfy, spacious, fit out with a privy and a preserver, Razor Crest, heading to the Core worlds without him. Dank Farrik!

It just wasn’t fair. Zeb needed a Jedi. Grogu was a Jedi. Zeb needed him. But his dad said ‘No. Zeb can ask Luke for help. He’s a Jedi.’ Uff! Luke was Grogu’s padawan! He’d never been to Coruscant! He had no idea what was in the ruins of the Jedi Temple. What if he fell into a Sith hole? What then? He had two lightsabers. Who was going to fight him? No one. That’s who. This was work Grogu needed to take up. 

“Buddy, you are my apprentice. Not Luke’s. That’s a choice you made. A Mandalorian keeps his word and you are a Mandalorian now. Not a Jedi.”

Wow. When his dad wanted to turn on the guilt Din Djarin was really good at it. Grogu had reluctantly agreed and told Zeb that maybe he should go to Ossus and find Luke and get his help. He was only a padawan and still had a lot to learn, but Zeb was a cautious fellow. They’d be fine. Right?

Grogu just had to hope that was true. He wasn’t going to Coruscant. He was going to Mandalore. He had no idea why they were going. It’s not like they had anything like a fully functional government in place and needed Grogu, or rather his dad, to become the planet’s marshal or anything like that. It was probably something simple like Bo-Katan forgetting how to be polite to people she didn’t agree with on critical topics like which color to paint the privies in the public arena. 

Fine. If he had to go to Mandalore then he needed to pack carefully. The Mandalorians he’d met the last couple of visits had been very boring. They wouldn’t play fun games. They had no curiosity about the places that were currently considered ‘off limits’. Some of them even questioned whether he and his dad were ‘real’ Mandalorians, like that was a thing. 

To that end he collected his armor. He didn’t wear it all the time on Nevarro because he didn’t need to. Between his dad, Greef Karga, and IG-11M, anyone who came looking for Grogu had to be polite or they would find themselves very cold. Then he made sure he had the silver knob off the flight control stick from the old Razor Crest. He gathered his art supplies, his data comp, his collection of 'Diggle and Daggle, The Fish that fish’ vids, and a comprehensive collection of snacks and beverages. And a change of clothes. He hated it when the coverall he was wearing got all sweaty and covered with dirt when he wasn’t actually having fun.

When he brought all that to the N-1 his dad gave him a cross look. You know the one. He puts his left hand on his hip and tilts his head and taps his toe like he’s just about a second away from delivering a scathing lecture on the benefits of polishing beskar armor daily. Grogu shrugged and picked the pack up with the Force and tried to position it in the N-1’s cockpit. 

“Grogu, you’ve brought too much stuff. It won’t fit. Come on. Let’s go through it and see what’s taking up so much room.” 

Before Grogu could protest or even whisk the pack away using the Force, the Mandalorian had taken it and dumped its contents all over the ground near the N-1. Dank Farrik!

Grogu began to race around, collecting the things he cared about the most, while his dad began to lecture him about how a Mandalorian apprentice needed to pack only the essentials. They traveled light. They had to be strategic. They couldn’t waste time or effort like this. Blah, blah, blah. Grogu had heard it all before. 

The robes Daimyo Fett had given him were set aside. The third set of regular coveralls were set aside. More than half the snacks and drinks he’d collected were set aside. Grogu was about to protest when his dad grabbed the silver knob, but fell silent when Djarin tucked that into his own pocket.

“Listen, Grogu. I know you don’t always enjoy the trips to Mandalore. I don’t either. But I am a Mandalorian and I am trying to teach you to be one as well. So please, put your armor on. That way you’ll be able to keep the data comp, the art supplies, and your Diggle and Daggle collection. Trust me, I don’t want you to be bored during the trip. I promise you.”

Wow. Now he’d done it. No guilt. Just facts. Grogu felt bad anyway. His dad wasn’t being mean. He was being thoughtful. He understood that Grogu only had so much to do when he was there and it mostly had nothing to do with exploring, taming a wild mythosaur or becoming Mand’alor, the things Grogu had told him sounded pretty cool, all things considered. Grogu nodded, sorted the snacks by size, rather than flavor, put another coverall on the ‘stays at home’ pile and smiled at his dad.

“That’s my boy. Don’t worry. We won’t be there very long. Apparently they want my opinion on a security issue. We’ll be back here in time for the annual harvest festival and fair. I’m sure everyone will want to watch you win the frog eating contest again.”

Grogu laughed. Who would want to miss that? No one. That’s who.

[burnwater13]

Grogu wasn’t sure what the heck the Mandalorian was up to. Sure he was glad to done with the Imps and their stupid tests. And he wasn’t all that fond of Nevarro, even though he’d only been there a short while and hadn’t really gotten to know the place. But shouldn’t a smart bounty hunter have worked out a better exit strategy? 

He asked his dad about that on a rainy afternoon when neither of them had anything better to do or talk about. Grogu had watched all the episodes of Diggle and Daggle, the Fish that fish that he could without getting hungry. The Mandalorian had polished his armor until it was too bright for him even and began to clean their tiny cabin just for the sake of stirring up some dust so could polish it again to a slightly duller sheen. 

Grogu had colored as long as he could without his fingers tasting like marker. Plus Din Djarin has started to complain about the smell. Of the markers that is. Grogu had already been directed to take two different showers because he managed to get cover in finger paints already and then the leftovers from the night before smelled better in your stomach than on your coveralls. It had been a dull and frustrating day. 

That’s when he asked his dad about the time he’d taken him back from the Imps. His dad misunderstood him at first and said all that trouble with Greef was water under the bridge now. Grogu asked ‘what bridge’ because he’d never noticed a lot of water on Nevarro. It was like Tatooine with lava flows. 

His dad explained that it was just a saying. Grogu said it could be much of a saying if he didn’t understand it. Something there got lost in translation because the Mandalorian had replied that you never really understood what motivated people to do the things they did. Grogu guessed he meant Greef Karga, but took he opportunity to bring up the lack of exit strategy. 

“Kid, when you’re facing thirty bounty hunters who all have fobs go off at the same time for you, let me know what your exit strategy is okay?”

Wow, his dad was grumpy. He’d just asked a simple question. And he reminded his dad that he had been there too. The Mandalorian hadn’t let him get a word in edgewise or he would have offered up alternatives. 

“Oh? What kind of alternatives did you come up with?” 

Still crabby.

Grogu began to explain how Din could have grabbed one of the cloaks that always seemed to be lying around and used that to hide their identity. He could have pretended to be an old lady just bringing a bundle of stuff to the market. 

His dad snorted at that suggestion. A loud snort. The kind that sounded like you were blowing your nose. Grogu hoped his dad would have to clean the inside of helmet now. 

“Buddy, what little old ladies did you ever see anywhere near the Bounty Hunters Guild on Nevarro?” 

Now his dad was just laughing at him. 

Grogu explained, in fairly short and plain terms, that was exactly his point. Those old ladies were there but no one ever noticed them, especially Mandalorian Bounty Hunters who thought that everyone who was dangerous looked just like them.

“When was the last time you met a dangerous old lady?” His dad scoffed. Scoffed!

Grogu started out his retort with something like ‘listen you whipper snapper’ because he’d heard Master Drallig use that phrase with his friend Ian once when Ian was saying maybe the battle master was too old to learn new tricks while they were doing lightsaber practice. Then he proceeded to tell his dad about the scariest thing that had happened at the Jedi Temple before the purge occurred. And it was all because an old lady got mad at the Jedi for trampling her garden on Takodana. 

His dad was not having any of it. 

“Grogu, that’s a great story. It is. But what person is going to travel all the way from Takodana to Coruscant to scold a bunch of Jedi about stepping on her flowers? And even if it did happen, what was your exit strategy?”

Grogu explained that he just hid in the library and waited for all the trouble to die down. When he finally came out, there were at least ten Jedi waiting to go to their clinic and be healed. The temple was a mess. White flower petals were everywhere and none of the masters wanted to talk about what happened. He only knew the details because Ian had told him. 

“Isn’t it just possible that your pal Ian was not being completely honest?” The Mandalorian asked.

Grogu didn’t have a chance to reply because right at that moment there was a loud knock at the door. His dad stood up and walked over and opened the door.

“Can I help you?” He could hear his dad ask whoever it was. 

Grogu was already hiding behind the door that went to his bedroom.

“I’m looking for Grogu of the Jedi. I’ve come all the way from Takodana and I have a bone to pick with that young man about how he trampled my Sith Bells! You know those flowers don’t grow on trees!” The old lady’s voice carried throughout the cabin despite the noise of the pouring rain.

Grogu hoped his dad was up to dealing with a Raz Kanata on his own. Maz’s sister had a temper. He, meanwhile, had already implemented his exit strategy and was on his way to Nevarro City to see if IG-11 could help them. Wish him luck!

[burnwater13]

“The kid’s coming with me.”

Grogu remembered his dad saying that. It was a statement of fact and of bravado. Greef Karga was the head of the bounty hunters guild an Nevarro and he intended on using every asset under his control to do the Client’s bidding.  It had been a pretty risky statement, all things considered. 

That is, until the other Mandalorians came out of the covert to help them out. Grogu had been surprised and gratified to see that happen. He knew they weren’t doing that for him. Not directly. They were helping Din Djarin out because he was one of them. It seemed to be part of their Creed. 

Also part of their Creed was saying ‘The kid’s coming with me’ when Din wanted to shop for armor polish, when he wanted to wash the N-1 because even a spec of dirt required a wash, wax, and polish, and when he wanted to pick up rations at the Bounty Hunters-R-Us near Nevarro, same sector, one system trailing. Grogu did not get the same warm fuzzy feeling then. It’s not that he didn’t like going places with his dad. He did! He loved it! Really.

He just wanted Din Djarin to reach out a little and find other places to take him and, let’s be clear about this, the school on Nevarro did not count, even with the cookies and the lessons on how to be a smuggler. Nope. Grogu wanted to go places like named ‘Frogs R-Us’ where you could find everything you might possibly need to start up a colony of frogs and had hundreds if not thousands of species to choose from so you could avoid the smart ones and only raise the tasty ones. 

Or the ‘Everything but Chocolate’, a candy shop that has every imaginable kind and flavor of sweets, but none of them taste like chocolate. It’s not that chocolate wasn’t tasty. It was that Grogu didn’t like chocolate. At all. Ever. So an ideal candy shop would have an environment that actively prevented the Mandalorian, who had a real sweet tooth for chocolate, from only buying chocolate flavored sweets. Then maybe, just maybe, Grogu would be able to score a little tin of sweet berry lozenges. 

Or how about taking Grogu to the next Diggle and Daggle film festival, ‘Fishing for the Fish who fish’? Grogu knew the Mandalorian liked watching their vids. It was hard not to. They were both fun loving and cheerful, traveled the galaxy to bring you knowledge about fishing conditions literally everywhere (don’t bother with the lava eels of Mustafar, too big and too hot), and knew everything about lures, bait, rods, reels, creels, and well everything that had to do with fishing, including preparing them for meals. Watching them was pure joy and inspiration and Grogu thought the Mandalorian could use some more of that in his life. Grogu sure could. 

Or how about taking Grogu to Concordia so he could meet the Mandos who helped train Din Djarin? That could be pretty interesting, if they were still there. Grogu could show them all the stuff that he’d learned from his Mandalorian. Grogu was sure that they would be proud of Din Djarin. They’d like his shiny armor. They’d laugh about the Darksaber together. Maybe they’d even teach him a new song or something like that. That was a lot better than shopping for the perfect armor polish, although, come to think of it, these were probably the people who had taught the Mandalorian to be so fussy over that stuff to begin with… 

Okay, so they didn’t need to go to Concordia. What about Aq Vetina? Grogu knew it might be hard for his dad to go back to his home planet. He might miss everyone even more if he did that, but Grogu really wanted to see what it was like. Was it green and lush? Was it a dry, dusty desert? Was the town still there or had the separatists destroyed it completely? And if they had, did anyone go back and rebuild it? 

If the ‘kid’ was going to go some place with his dad, he didn’t just want to go places that meant something to the Jedi or the Imps, or even other Mandos. He wanted to go some place that was meaning for to his dad. He wanted to build a new memory there that they could both enjoy. After all, Din Djarin had been doing that since he met Grogu on Arvala-7, although they hadn’t made a trip to Coruscant yet.

Okay. Maybe that was the place the Mandalorian needed to take the ‘kid’. Coruscant. They could visit the Jedi temple, what little remained of it. See the life tree.Visit the library because no one would dare pinch his cheeks with a Mandalorian in full armor by his side. Spit in the Emperor’s throne room. Yes, Grogu was pretty bitter about how that went down, but nothing like a little water to start washing away the dirt and stains of the past. Then they could plant a seed in the old arboretum and hope something good would grow there that they could visit from time to time. 

Then one day Grogu would tell his dad, “The kid’s coming with me. Do you want to join us?” 

[burnwater13]

Grogu wondered how Ahsoka Tano had managed to remain hidden for so many years. Just the color of her robes, drab, not quite black, but not brown, would have given her away on Coruscant. Only Jedi wore such forgettable clothing there. But other than that, she was a very striking person and she commanded a lot of attention just by standing still. When Grogu stood still for too long in any one place he risked being kicked because he was so small people didn’t even look for him.

He supposed it was like his dad said while they were waiting in line to buy some fire snacks (a spicy Mandalorian pastry), that if you look like what people expect to see they ignore you. Grogu guessed that was why people never ignored his dad. Most folks never expected to see a Mandalorian in armor standing in front of them tapping their foot impatiently because they knew that fire stacks only took a few minutes to prepare and if the proprietor hadn’t been chatting with the pretty Twi’lek they could have made many more of the desserts and not run out just as Din Djarin reached the front of the line. 

Grogu wished that’s how things worked for him. Usually he had to go get his dad, from wherever he was, and explain what he wanted and then explain it again because the Mandalorian was stubborn and always took Grogu’s first attempt at communication with him to be just Grogu acting ‘cute’. When Din Djarin finally worked out that Grogu wanted something, then they had to go through the whole process of determining whether or not what Grogu wanted was actually good for Grogu, within the Mandalorian Creed, affordable (ha, armor polish was always affordable for the bounty hunter) and available wherever they were or wherever they were going. It was a lot. 

Even when he was at the Jedi Temple as a youngling he had to get help from other younglings to be noticed. His friend Ian helped him the most, but there was also a girl in their group who would help him from time to time. Cordy was almost as sassy as Ian. Despite that, she was also a person Grogu called ‘friend’ because he couldn’t think of any other word to describe a person who came to your defense but still never let you forget that they did it. 

Once, when they were all playing a game of ‘Who am I?’, Cordy was the only one who guessed that  when Grogu walked around the room with his shoulders back and his head tilted slightly to one side and sighing deeply, that he pretending to be one of the Jedi Masters. But instead of just calling out the name, like everyone else did, she said, ‘Aren’t you a little short to Jedi Master Windu?’ 

Of course Grogu was a little short to play any of them. You had to use your imagination and think and apply what you knew about other people and then draw a conclusion based on your data. Cordy was very good at that part, but why she had to notice the differences when proving to everyone that she also noticed everything else as well confused him. 

There was the time at the library when he wanted to check out a couple of data cards of a vid program called “Diggle and Daggle, the Fish that fish, present tips and tricks on fishing on Kamino. Grogu had never heard of Kamino, but he loved Diggle and Daggle and never wanted to miss a vid. 

The only problem Grogu was having was that the Jedi who was working at the circulations desk didn’t notice him standing in front of it. He had tried to move farther back to improve the angle of sight, but that didn’t help. He tried getting closer, but that also failed because the desk was covered with returned data cards. He tried being loud but that didn’t work either. 

He was about to give up when Cordy walked over to the desk and then walked around it and tapped the Jedi who was there to help on their leg… by kicking them. While that had definitely produced a result, Grogu wasn’t sure it was the result everyone wanted, because in her defense, when the head librarian asked who had caused the ruckus, Cordy had replied that it was the Jedi at the circulation desk, because how could he miss someone as completely noticeable as Grogu? 

When the head librarian noted that Grogu was small and wore a tan coverall that blended in to his surroundings, Cordy had snorted.

“Sure, he might look just like a scruffy nerf-herder, but then he also looks just like Master Yoda. You notice him, don’t you?” 

The librarian had no comment to that and just sent them on their way. Grogu was happy because the Diggle and Daggle vids had been in that stack of data cards that covered the desktop, so he got what he wanted. He also appreciated Cordy’s help even though it came with the comment about being scruffy. His hair had recently been trimmed and it just wouldn’t lay flat at all. 

He asked her if there was anything he could help her with, but she said not just yet. That had been kind of an ominous comment so he asked her when she would need his help. 

“You’ll know when I need help because I’ll be saying ‘Grogu! Help me! You’re my only hope’. If I’m not sayin’ that, I’m fine. But watch out for that nerf herder you hang around with. He’s gonna need someone to save his butt one day and it’s either going to be me or you doing the saving.”

Grogu wanted to laugh at that, but Cordy was right. Ian was going to need saving by someone. Probably from a garbage chute knowing Ian. She was also right that it would probably be her or Grogu doing that saving. He guessed that Ian was just fated to have that sort of life. A reminder that the Force was mysterious.

He wondered where Cordy and Ian were now. No doubt bound together in some sort of mischief. He had no doubt that Cordy and Ian survived, just as he and Ahsoka Tano had for all those years. They had probably set up a shop on Coruscant called Jedi-R-Us. Hiding in plain sight was a skill that some people were born with.  Like Grogu.

[burnwater13]

Grogu didn’t know why anyone went to watch other people fight. That seemed pretty ‘uncouth’ to him. Of course, he wasn’t quite sure what uncouth meant either. He tried asking his dad but Din Djarin just shrugged at him. That shrug either meant that the bounty hunter didn’t know or he didn’t care. Well, that was frustrating. Why couldn’t he just explain?

Sure there were plenty of times that Grogu hadn’t explained things to people, including to the Mandalorian. Sometimes he just shrugged. Other times he pretended that he hadn’t heard the question. Still other times he just opened his eyes wider, dropped his ears down and tried to feel as sad as he looked. 

That last one worked pretty well on Peli Motto. The first one worked well with Fennec Shand, and he could always count on Greef Karga falling for the middle one. None of them worked on his dad. That was frustrating as well. 

Din Djarin would just stand there, looming over Grogu, one hand on his hip, his head tilted, and his other hand at the ready for finger shaking.

“Kid, Buddy, Grogu,” he would say, depending on when it happened, “you better come clean now. I’m a bounty hunter. I know how to extract information from people with a lot more to hide than you.”

Grogu was under the impression that the only interrogation technique the Mandalorian used was the offer to bring people in warm, or bring them in cold. The cold ones never said anything and everyone ended up cold. Some technique. Harrumph. 

But then Grogu would reflect that he really liked the tall human, even if he was looming over him on purpose, and he would come clean. He’d chirp, coo, and whistle his whole story. Sometimes it only took a minute. Other times, well, let’s just say Grogu had heard the phrase, ‘Make it a short story, I don’t have time for novel’ more than once. 

It still annoyed Grogu that he didn’t have any good way to do that to the Mandalorian. He was too small to loom. He was too sweet to shake his fingers at the bounty hunter. And the one time he’d tried the hand on the hip thing with the head tilt he almost fell over because he managed, somehow, to step on his own ear. Ouch.

He asked various people he knew how to handle it and their advice was all over the place. 

The Armorer had said, “He is a Mandalorian first, Din Grogu. He must follow the Creed. Learn the Creed and he will have to abide by it. There are many loopholes in it that a clever boy like you can take advantage of.” 

Uff, that was like being told by Greef Karga that he should consult with the teaching droid. It would at least know the meaning of ‘uncouth’. He wanted a more direct solution. 

Fennec told him that he should just use the Force and take his dad’s sidearm and ask him his question. Nope. Nope. Nope. He was not going to get his vid watching privileges suspended again. It took forever to catch up with all the Diggle and Daggle episodes he’d missed that week.

Boba Fett had overheard Fennec’s advice and drew Grogu aside once she completed her disappearing act. 

“Grogu, he’s your dad. Just tell him you thought as his father, he’d want to help you understand the galaxy better. Then tell him it doesn’t matter, you will just as the Daimyo. Remember shake your head and sigh a little. That sort of thing worked with my dad every time.” The Daimyo advised with a sort of sad smile. 

Grogu liked that advice best. The Daimyo was the only who mentioned how it had worked with their dad, so that gave him a lot more credibility and Grogu remembered hearing stories about Jango Fett at the Jedi Temple. He seemed like a pretty hard character. Just like his dad. 

Din Djarin came down to the throne room to pick him up and bring him back to Mos Eisley and Grogu hoped he’d find a time to follow the Daimyo’s advice before he forgot it. 

“Did you have a good visit?” Din Djarin asked them both.

“Yes. We did. He had a lot of questions for me. It was a real pleasure to have the young one here today.” Boba Fett smiled far more brightly than he had before Din Djarin had arrived.

“Good. I’ll be seeing you soon. Give Fennec my regards,” the Mandalorian had replied. 

Then Din brought Grogu back to their speeder bike. Grogu asked what he’d been doing, while Grogu was with the Daimyo. The Mandalorian shrugged at him. 

Great! He could test the Daimyo’s advice now! 

Grogu chirped and coo’d at his dad, shook his head, sighed deeply and then began to walk back toward the palace.

Din just walked over and picked him up. 

“Buddy, that won’t work on me. It never worked on my dad either. I just thought I would spare you this, but if you want to hear all about my trip to the armor polish factory, then fine. Did you know they make thirteen different kinds of polish in that one factory?”

Dank Farrik! His dad was right. There were somethings it was better not to know.

[burnwater13]

Grogu wished life would slow down a little. He felt like he was always rushing from one place to another. He and his dad had so much work to do. He had so many new things to learn and practice and practice and practice. When was he going to have time to just watch Diggle and Daggle or read a tale of adventure and heroics or just watch the clouds go by? Not any time soon according to his dad, the Mandalorian.

Din Djarin had told him that bounty hunters had to deal with a lot of boredom and the cure for that was keeping busy when you weren’t on a job. That might have made sense if they hadn’t been busy chasing people all over the galaxy non-stop since they got their little cabin on Nevarro. Grogu had hardly been able to name all the frogs in the pond by the time his dad was saying, “Pack your stuff up buddy, we have to go to Naboo.”

Naboo? What was at Naboo? Probably some former Imp who was hiding there and trying to stay out of the hands of the New Republic. Naboo wasn’t quite in the Outer Rim, but enough stuff had happened there that certain Imps seemed to like to hide there. Probably because they had been from Naboo to begin with…

Grogu thought it was silly to essentially go home and wait to be caught by the New Republic or a bounty hunter, but then he supposed if you went home you’d know that place better than any other place and that would make hiding easier. Of course, people would know you there and they’d be able to tell the marshals where you were. Unless they liked you. But who liked the former Imps? Probably just their families. 

Grogu sighed at that thought. If you went home you would put your family at risk. But if you didn’t go home you’d miss them and have a harder time hiding from the consequences of your actions. 

Grogu had a hard time empathizing with his hypothetical ex-Imp. Technically the clones had destroyed his home on Coruscant and pretty much killed everyone he’d known for the majority of his life, but that was the beginning of the Imperial dictatorship. The few Jedi who survived with him were at constant risk because they had to hide and there was no home or family that they could return to. They had nothing but consequences to deal with but that wasn’t due to  their actions. Nope. They dealt with the consequences of the Emperor’s actions. The Emperor who was a lying sack of Sith. 

Oops. There he was wishing his life would slow down a bit so he could just enjoy smelling a flower or chasing a frog for more than a few seconds and he was spinning himself up because they were going to Sheev Palpatine’s home planet. That’s right. The person who had made so many people miserable had grown up on a perfectly nice planet. 

According to Grogu’s research, Naboo had magnificent cities, beautiful rolling green hills, oceans, mountains, all manner of creatures, including yob shrimp, and seven species of scalefish.  Grogu wondered how anyone could see all that stuff and think, “Nope. Not worth it. Destroy it all.” But he could never understand the greed of the Sith.

It took a while to get there from Nevarro and Grogu had thought that this might have been the time when boredom ruled and bounty hunters were grateful to have busy times coming up, but no. Not the way his dad taught bounty hunting. When Grogu wasn’t looking up and reading the entire history and background of politics, culture, economics, and whatnot of Naboo, he was running scenarios with his dad on how to flush a target out of virtually any kind of building, dwelling, cave, or tree stand. He was evaluating building plans, studying the geology of cave structures and learning how to operate underwater transports via simulation. That last part had been fun until Din told him there was no good reason to do so many loop-d-loops. 

When they finally reached Naboo it was all a big let down. The person they were sent after wasn’t an ex-Imp at all. They were just a person who was playing the role of General Durpin for the annual re-enactment of the Battle for the Naboo History Museum. Grogu hadn’t even known that they did a re-enactment of that battle. 

“I guess that means we need to update our data on Naboo. We should get a start on that. Who knows when we’ll have to come back here after an actual ex-Imp.”

Grogu grumbled at that. He was tired of loading and updating datasets. He just wanted to just take a minute to appreciate a beautiful planet for a change.

“Sorry, buddy. I forget sometimes that you still need time to meditate.”

His dad did seem sorry, so Grogu wasn’t going to correct him. He didn’t want to meditate either. He just wanted to sit around and do nothing. 

“Excuse me, sir? Is this your Naboo N-1 starfighter? We have some outstanding maintenance tickets on it.” One of the starport officials was speaking to Din as they next to the ship.

“Uh, just give me a minute. I’ll have the information you need.” 

His dad scooped him up and before Grogu knew it they were in the ship and off of Naboo. Grogu wondered what all that was about.

“How about we go to Tatooine and visit with Peli and Boba? I’m sure you could get some time there to meditate.”

Grogu nodded his head and coo’d his agreement to his dad. He was happy to go to Tatooine and just do nothing, uh, er, meditate. Yeah. He’d be meditating the whole time he and Peli played sabacc. Ha. 

[burnwater13]

The Mods encircling Krrsantan in Boba's Palace. Image from The Book of Boba Fett, Season 1, Episode 3, The Streets of Mos Espa. Calendar from DataWorks.

Grogu wished he had more friends. It got lonely when his dad went off to do things without him. That didn't happen often, but when it did, it stunk. Sure, he had Peli, Fennec, Greef Karga, IG-11-M, Axe Woves, and a few others, but they were problematic. 

Oh, they weren’t bad people. They were just real adults. They’d been adults doing adult things for a long time. They had mostly forgotten how to have fun, how to dress cool, how to just sit around and do nothing, but with each other. Adults always seemed to want to accomplish something, like nice, clean polished armor. People who weren’t quite adults yet, well, they weren’t quite as fussy about stuff like that.

That’s why he wanted to spend more time getting to know the Mods. They were like Fennec and not like her at the same time. They had all needed some sort of repair performed to their bodies, but because they hadn’t known Grogu at the time, he hadn’t used the Force to heal them, so they were healed in a different way. Their modifications covered a pretty broad range of differences and rather than hide them or cover them up, they seemed to make it obvious to others that they existed. The bright colors of their equipment, the fashion forward clothing, and the slightly sassy attitudes helped too. 

They seemed not to mind those differences and Grogu could understand that. They could do the things they needed to do, as far as he could tell, and it seemed to have set them on a different path than a lot of the other young people on Tatooine. They wanted more out of life and were willing to do a lot to get that. He had been impressed with how well they worked with the Daimyo and even though Fennec teased them about their color sense, Grogu could tell that she was also impressed with their willingness to do hard work to make life better in Mos Espa and on Tatooine in general. They seemed like ideal people to have as friends.

“No scooters.”

Huh? Was he saying any of that stuff out loud?

“Grogu, I know you like those young people. I like them too. But just because you want more friends and think that they could fit the bill, I will not be getting you a speeder scooter like the ones they ride.”

Grogu didn’t know if should laugh or cry. The one time he was just thinking about people he liked and didn’t have an ulterior motive for knowing them better, his dad goes running off on a wild Taun Taun chase of supposition and assumptions. He just shook his head at his dad and sighed.

“You’re trying to tell me that this is the time you’re just being sincere, kid? I’d like to believe you, I would. But you know their considered a gang and to be a member you’d need a speeder scooter and I just don’t like the idea of you being on one of those things. They aren’t safe.”

What?! Aren’t safe? Nothing was really safe on Tatooine! How could the guy who got flipped off their speeder bike more than once, eaten by a Krayt dragon, and almost eaten by a rancor complain at him about what was safe or not safe? That just didn’t make any sense.

“Buddy, I know you have a lot of skills and you can heal people, but who can heal you? If something happened to you after everything we’ve been through, I need a modification to remove my heart because it would be broken.”

What! Since when was his dad that sappy? Grogu loved his dad, but he did draw a line at emotional manipulation like that. Especially when it was the Mandalorian doing that to him! What the heck was going on?

“Grogu. Buddy. Wake up. You were having a dream. Drash is here to see you. She said you promised to hold a Diggle and Daggle vid marathon for her and the rest of the Mods.”

What! 

Dank Farrik! He’s forgotten all about that. Well, at least she was there and she could help him with the box of data cards that the vids were stored on. Skad said that he had a reader and projector they could use. One of the other Mods was going to make them all snacks.

“Be careful on the scooter. Call me when you want to be picked up. I love you, buddy.”

“Love you.”

Grogu knew that his dad needed to hear that. It wasn’t easy to watch your kids grow up and go off with a gang of like minded young people to change their view of life, the universe and everything, but it was worthy.

[burnwater13]

“Grogu! Time to eat!” The Mandalorian called out for his son to join him. 

Din Djarin brought two dishes to the small table in the main room of the cabin. Generally, they used it for everything but eating. He used it as a work bench for weapons' maintenance, while Grogu sat there to watch vids (usually Diggle and Daggle) while sipping on a cup of soup. Today he wanted to have some father and son time and thought that they could eat together for a change.

He went back to the small cooking station to grab his container of  hot spices because Mandalorian food wasn't Mandalorian if it didn't set your mouth on fire. When he returned to the table he expected to see Grogu in his seat. But, Grogu wasn’t there.

Dank farrik!

It was too early in the day for games. Grogu knew that. 

Din walked over to the door and looked outside and Grogu was right there. Sitting on the porch. Sketching. 

“Hey, buddy, time to eat. Just put a rock on the papers to keep them from blowing away.” 

Din turned to reenter the cabin when Grogu chirped a response to him. Uff. The Mandalorian grumbled. He turned back to Grogu.

“Okay, buddy, five minutes. You know you don’t like the pog soup cold.” 

Instead of going back into the cabin, Din stood there and watched what Grogu was doing. He liked that his son was happy to sketch and color. It was quiet work, most of the time, and it kept Grogu occupied when Din had more pressing work to attend to, like polishing his armor. Beskar was strong and durable but it didn’t clean itself or keep its circuits connected on its own. 

He noticed when Grogu looked up at him and frowned and Din began to laugh. Grogu hated being watched while he did work that he thought was important. Whether he was color…sketching, practicing map reading, practicing his Force skills, or doing something else that required focus and patience, if the Mandalorian looked over his shoulder, which was hard not to do, Grogu would look up at him and frown. It was just a routine now. 

“Buddy, what are you color... sketching? Can I take a look?” Din asked, dropping down to one knee to get a better look at the pictures Grogu wasn’t currently working on.

 It looked like Grogu was sketching the various critters he’d met during their adventures. It was hard not to smile at that. The sketches covered the smallest to the largest critters, with the Krayt dragon being the last one completed. 

He turned a little to see what Grogu was working on at that moment and saw a number of Tuskens with their massiffs walking through the canyons of Tatooine. Din Djarin was impressed. The amount of detail, the number of figures, and how they were arranged, made the Mandalorian bounty hunter chuckle. How had Grogu remembered all that without vids or scans? He had no idea. The bounty hunter didn’t remember what he had for breakfast that morning.

Grogu chirped at him and Din turned to meet his son’s gaze. Grogu was smiling broadly and began to explain in detail where and when the actions depicted took place. 

“I know buddy. I was there too. Massiffs are good critters.” Din commented.

Grogu coo’d at him. 

“What do I think their names were? I don’t know. I don’t think any of us asked the Tuskens about that.”

Grogu huffed at his dad and coo’d again.

“Oh, sorry. What would I name a massiff if we had one as a pet? Huh. I don’t know. What name would you use?” 

Din thought he knew where this was leading. 

Grogu had been wanting a massiff as a pet for a long time. Essentially for as long a time as when they first met them on Tatooine. It was a nice idea but Grogu was supposed to go back to his kind and it didn’t make sense to get him a critter only to have no one to share it with once Grogu was with his people. 

After they were back together, well, the N-1 starfighter was barely big enough for Grogu to sit on his lap. A massiff wouldn’t be able to tolerate being confined like that and he didn’t think he and Grogu would find that pleasant either. 

Grogu began to rattle off names and the Mandalorian held up his hand to get him to slow down. 

“Buddy, how about we make a list and then let our friends help us decide?”

Grogu nodded his head and smiled so broadly that Din could see all of his teeth. That’s when the Mandalorian noticed that Grogu must have been snacking on frogs while he was out there coloring. No wonder he wasn’t hungry for pog soup. 

[burnwater13]

Ahsoka Tano jumping across the rooftops of Calodan, on the planet Corvus, with the Mandalorian, Din Djarin in hot pursuit. Concept art by Brian Matyas, from The Mandalorian, Season 2, Episode 5, The Jedi. Calendar from DataWorks. Caption reads: A Mandalorian and a Jedi? They'll never see it coming - The Mandalorian.

Why would anyone be surprised at seeing a Mandalorian and Jedi working together? Grogu had been working with Din Djarin for quite a while and people seemed to think it was pretty normal. Then again people may not realize that Grogu was a Jedi youngling. He was still wearing a coverall and not the formal wear expected of most Jedi youngling back when he was living in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. 

Considering how long ago the Temple fell, Grogu would be surprised if anyone could recognize a Jedi without an identification card. They had been few and far between before the catastrophe. After it… well… Grogu had been pretty sure that he had been one of the few to survive. And even if you had survived the attack, you had to survive being found, identified and neutralized by the Inquisitors. 

Having seen more Inquisitors than he liked to admit to, Grogu was pretty sure that for a long time he was only Jedi. Then Bo-Katan Kryze sent them to Corvus to find Ahsoka Tano. Grogu could have sworn that Ahsoka had also perished during the turmoil after the Clones turned on the Jedi. Otherwise, why hadn’t she come looking for him? Hmmm.

Well, putting that aside for the moment, it was clear that at least one Mandalorian had been on good terms with at least one Jedi. Otherwise, why would Bo-Katan have any idea where anyone could find a Jedi? And why did Bo-Katan know where Ahsoka Tano could be found? Grogu thought that Mandalorians considered Jedi to be their enemy. That clearly wasn’t true. What else was an exaggeration? Grogu hated to use the term lie?

Maybe Mandalorians and Jedi were the human-mostly human equivalent to Diggle and Daggle, the Fish that fish… Diggle and Daggle were different species of fish and technically, Diggle’s species had been known to have a long standing territorial issue with Daggle’s species. They didn’t fight galaxy spanning wars or hold long term grudges or things like that. The bigger fish simply ate the smaller fish. 

Diggle and Daggle had covered how they had resolved their differences in an episode called ‘One fish, Two fish, No fish, Empty Dish’. They had met in a pond on some pretty green planet, probably Takodana, and began to chase each other around the water, each trying to eat the other. Daggle had a scar on his rear dorsal fin, whereas Diggle had a scar over his port eye socket. 

They had just about exhausted each other when they suddenly felt the presence of a much, much bigger fish. Not just bigger, huge. It was headed right for them and they panicked and hugged each other. The first time that had ever happened without them trying to bite, pinch or otherwise hurt anyone. 

They realized in that split second of peril that they didn’t have to fight. They could be friends. They could help each other and just get away from the huge fish. Fortunately for them, they were a split second too late coming to that realization and the big fish caught them! 

Why fortunately? Because the big fish wasn’t a fish at all. It turned out that a person had caught them. And not just any person. A magic person. At least as magic as a person seemed to fish. That person brought them back to their castle/home and put them in a huge tank and gave them something that tasted great. It was food of course. Fish food. In the tank they didn’t have to fight for food. They just ate. And got bigger. And bigger. And bigger. 

Fortunately for them (again) the tank they were kept in got bigger and bigger too. Which was great. For a while. But without other fish to chase they really didn’t have anything better to do than eat and talk to each other. And they only knew one thing. Everything about fish and catching fish. That’s all they talked about. 

One day, the magic person came by one afternoon and began to talk to them and, much to their shock and amazement, they understood the person. 

“You two look bored. I can’t abide bored fish. What do you need to lead a good life?”

Diggle looked at Daggle and Daggle looked right back at him and they both turned at the exact same time and looked at their benefactor and said ‘Fish’. 

“Fish? You are fish.”

The two fish shook their heads and fins and tried to do convey what they meant, but to no avail. 

Then the magic person muttered something to themselves and trotted off to a huge set of a drawers and opened and closed a bunch of them until they yelled out ‘Exactly where I left you!’. The two fish found that funny considering how frantic and complete the search of the drawers had been. 

It didn’t matter. The magic person came back and reached into the tank and placed, somehow, two strange looking black objects on their heads. Suddenly they felt different. They didn’t really know why they felt different but they did.

“Okay. Now. Tell me what do you need to lead a good life?”

“Fishing!”, said Diggle.

“Fish!”, said Daggle.

“Ah, you two want to go fishing? Well, we can do that. Now why do you fish want to fish?”

That had been a great question. Diggle and Daggle had explained to their benefactor that they were bored and needed something to do or they were afraid that they would go back to fighting with each other and they didn’t want to do that because they were friends. 

“Excellent. Now, let me find you a droid to help. There are not so many new fish here, on Takodana, but you could travel around the galaxy and find out all about the fish everywhere and send me reports on how your adventure is working out for you…”

“Yippee!”, burbled Diggle.

“Huzzah!”, bubbled Daggle.

So two fish who had started out as sworn enemies had not only become friends with each other, they had spent years teaching people all across the galaxy about fish and planets and friendship. It was great. 

Maybe if the Mandalorians and the Jedi had had someone wise to guide them they would have been able to do the same thing… or maybe they had met that person and now they were on that better path? 

Grogu could only hope so. He didn’t like to think that in the future he’d be fighting with himself and his dad every time they didn’t agree with each other about something. First they would look pretty silly and second, Din Djarin didn’t stand a chance. Grogu knew all of the Mandalorian’s weaknesses, including the sad pout and the cooing giggle. They laid him out every time. 

It wasn’t about being a Jedi. It was about being his child, which another wise person had said and Grogu was going to take complete advantage of that, magic or not.

Din Djarin speaking with Ahsoka Tano outside Calodan, in the burnt out forrest of Corvus. Image from The Mandalorian, Season 2, Episode 5, The Jedi. Caption reads: They'll never see it coming - Din Djarin.