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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 1950977" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 119: A Happy Beginning to a Dangerous EndTwo hours later, and both Jen and Shadow returned. Shadow was quiet, speaking in those short, abrupt tones that she’d been so good at for as long as any of them had known her. Jen, on the other hand, was open, happy, and couldn’t really keep her mouth shut. Apparently, she’d gotten a hold of a nice, and fairly new, ship. The model was one that Akan didn’t recognize, but considering how many types of ships there were in the galaxy, this wasn’t a surprise at all. But she said that all the details were done, and all that needed to be finished now was for her and Titus to go and get it. This got a quick, almost worried look from Akan, who was surprised to see it met by Titus. Jen picked up on this, and raised an eyebrow. Saying nothing about it, though, she decided it was something to talk with Titus about later. But that was what needed to be figured out now. Later.    Akan had to run into Loki to find Shadow, who’d collapsed onto her bed face down. If he hadn’t known any better(in other words, hadn’t had the link with her), Akan would have sworn she’d have died. But the slow breathing was just how she slept, apparently. Dragging her back out to the other two, they all stood in an awkward silence for a couple of minutes. Honestly, Akan wasn’t sure what to do anymore. He couldn’t look at Jen without seeing...those dreams. And Titus...um, Voort...the first Voort was still Voort...Titus. Whatever. Akan now understood why it was good for people to have one name. One. Not two. Though it seemed like that was a common thing among the four of them now. But Akan wasn’t the only one having trouble, as Shadow just plain wasn’t sure what should be done now. Well, overall, she knew...but this whole...marriage thing. It never made sense to her in the first place. Sure, she understood the concept of a mate, especially a single mate for life but...but...it was only on that intellectual level the same way as a human child understood that babies have to come from somewhere. The details were lost. In fact, most of the general picture was.    It was Voort...Titus who broke the silence, “Where are we going from here?”    We. That word wasn’t lost on any of them. No longer was there that antagonistic attitude of ‘you’ and ‘me’. Despite the earlier talk(which was, of course, almost lying even to call it a heated argument) between him and Titus, there was still an underlying problem. Akan had a feeling it was because of those dreams...everything seemed to come back to that. It was going to drive him crazy eventually. Shadow wasn’t one to forget this, and had a feeling it would occur sooner than later. That alone helped her finalize what needed to be done first. With a much more ‘normal’ tone of voice from Shadow, she said, “I’m not...ready to deal with other things yet. And Jen’s...training is more important.”    Titus nodded. It was true. She had a strong potential within her that Akan wasn’t the only one to have noticed, and all of them knew, despite how they might feel about it, that it was very dangerous for someone with her strength to never have any kind of simple training in control. Even Alraxians, who were strongly emotional creatures at heart, knew the necessity in controlling those emotions in individuals strong in the Force. Of course, Shadow’s seemingly lack of emotions was not normal among Alraxians. Akan didn’t mention this to the two humans, but hoped that it wouldn’t have any negative effect on Jen’s training. Something was going to go wrong...and Akan knew that he just had to find it out and stop it. There had to be a way.    [Will you stop that damned doom-saying?] Shadow’s voice interjected into his thoughts like a lightsaber through flesh. It was the kind of thing that Akan knew he had more thoughts, but they’d been literally cut off and fallen somewhere out of reach. Shadow mentally smiled at that. She was good at things like that, and proud of it.    None of them really found it odd when no more words were exchanged. Well, except for a simple yet very important detail of where they were actually going. This was brought up by Jen after already having said the ‘See you there’ when she realized that she had no idea where ‘there’ was. Even Shadow had stopped at that. Biting her lip, her mind raced through a thousand planets. There was one. It was a good one. Also had a nice little poetic justice to it...not that Shadow was any expert on that kind of thing, but the world was the closest she knew to Alraxia in the galaxy. Endor. Barely populated, well forested, and most of all, warm without the evil dry sand on the other ‘warm’ planets. Why did they all end up as deserts around this part of the galaxy, anyway?!    And then they’d parted ways. Akan had found himself trying to point out which ship was theirs upon leaving, but considering how many were coming and going from Coronet, it was near impossible. There were even a large number heading in the same general course as Endor. Major trade routes out that direction. It would be a two day hyperspace jump. How long it would be for the Voorts was unknown, but probably not too much different unless they had an amazing hyperdrive on that ship. During their trip, Akan was actually surprised to find himself busy. Well, made busy. Shadow spent most of the time teaching him about Loki’s controls, with Loki’s help of course. The ship was beyond excited to have a new pilot. Actually, Loki just seemed excited about any kind of contact at all.    The rest of the time had been spent between eating, sleeping, an a long, slightly worrying discussion. It had started with Shadow telling him about her...Marix’s brother. Somehow, it had devolved into the issue of Jen and had nearly come to blows. Or claws. Probably a little of both. Loki had, thankfully, put a few words in after Akan had made a fairly stupid comment about Shadow’s competence(even though he’d not meant it as she had taken it). That had just barely stopped Akan from getting claws to the face. She wouldn’t have killed him. And even though hurting him would cause her some pain, it would have been worth it. It seemed like Akan just wasn’t going to get over his worries no matter what she said or did. Jen was going to be trained. Shadow was going to do it. Shadow was not going to let anything go wrong. Akan could whine and complain all he wanted as long as that didn’t interfere.    Jen and Titus had three days in hyperspace. Three very nice, long, and above all private days. The ship that Jen had gotten was a new take on an older Duros model. It almost looked like a flying bird mixed with the more conventional style designs used among most personal transports. From a distance, many would likely think it was a Lambda shuttle. Inside, there were four main rooms. An open cabin, two quarters of equal size, and the cockpit. This didn’t count the small engine room and other access tubes littered around. It was a rather uneventful trip, consisting mostly of the two of them telling old stories. The war was avoided, but there were many more things to tell beyond just that. Titus mostly told Jen about the real Marix. Though it had only been a month that he’d known her, it was enough to learn a lot. Enough for both of the Voorts to agree that finding the real Marix was somehow important. Titus might have originally discarded this as something that Shadow needed to do herself, but when he noticed that even Jen felt something there...well, he just knew it was important. Something they all had to do. As that odd family Jen had described to him. That thought couldn’t get anything but a smile to him. Two human adults, and two Alraxian children.(Notes: This is the end of the second adventure. Next post, the start of my favorite of the adventures. Its also the longest, and could arguably be divided into about three different adventures. Hope you readers are all still enjoying this. If you've liked this stuff so far, you ain't seen nothing yet.)</blockquote>

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