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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 1952429" data-attributes="member: 10079">Part IIIChapter 120: Fifth Time's a CharmCarefully, Akan opened his eyes. His eyes scanned the small, makeshift hut around him. Two months on Endor and they’d given up living in ships. Making small, boring little huts was no trouble at all. They were only used for sleeping, anyway...even that was becoming rare. Thankfully, there was no sign of Shadow. Good. Akan sat up, slowly and as quietly as he could. Nothing creaked. Nothing moved except him. Once again, his eyes went over the circular, wood hut. Still no sign of Shadow. Almost worrying considering the circumstances. His head was spinning, though. Ugh. So he’d been sick for the last week. Apparently, Alraxian did get sick. It was one of those basic questions one never asked and got annoyed about until it occurred. Shadow had ordered him to sleep until it was gone. There were a few reasons for that, none of them having anything to do with concern for his well being. Jen had been the one who’d taken up that front. Even Titus had. Amazingly enough.    Another minute passed as Akan’s head stopped trying to turn in circles and collapse in on itself. Instead, it just became a pounding headache. That could be dealt with. Anyway, he back hurt. Legs ached. Everything ached from lying in bed so long. Alright, so it’d only been about six hours...but for some reason Akan just couldn’t sit still. Next step was getting to his feet. Last time, Shadow had already caught him at this point and threatened to tie him down by his tail. Somehow, he didn’t doubt she’d do it. With a deep breath, Akan got to his feet, hands still on the bed to assist in balance. He still hadn’t gotten a hang of the tail for balance concept, so old fashioned ways would have to do. Again, his head spun for a few minutes. But again, there was no sign of Shadow. Probably off going through some exercises for Jen. Good.     The next part was the hardest. Walking. He still felt dizzy slightly, and so the short walk to the hut’s doorless exit took much more effort than usual. Even Shadow would have been proud of his unconscious use of his tail for balance. It swished behind him a couple times as he wobbled to the exit of the hut. He reached out and managed to stabilize himself with a hand on the door. Good. Not fallen over yet. Now. Willpower. Just walk out...and...    “What do you think you’re doing?”    Akan didn’t have to look up from his feet to know the source of that voice. He also knew that if he looked up, the glare from Shadow’s eyes would likely burn a hole in his skull. That also wasn’t a rhetorical question. He was going to have to answer that somehow. Doing his best to look straight down and ignore the glare he could feel on the top of his head, which was actually making his ears feel warm, Akan said roughly, “Can’t just lay in bed all day.”    “This is the second time you’ve tried that,” Shadow said flatly, a hint of ice in her voice that was probably just as deadly as a lightsaber, “Why should I believe you this time, hm?”    Realizing how much his throat hurt, Akan wished he didn’t have to talk. Sure, there was the link but...right now, that would be dangerous. He could feel it. She was going to make him realize how sick he still was whether he liked it or not. Or believed it or not. It still didn’t make him believe it. So he had to come up with some reason that he was ‘okay’ now. Inhaling carefully and trying to ignore the raw feeling in his throat, Akan said as normally as he could, “I’m fine. I feel fine. Its just a little headache. I’ve had worse. Let me at least go for a walk.”    The way Shadow was glaring eventually forced Akan to look up. It didn’t even require the Force to make him do that. Even without the link it would have worked. Sheer force of annoyance drove that. When he looked up, he of course wished he’d just closed his eyes. Her silvery-purple eyes dug deep into his very essence and clawed at it a few times just for fun while she spoke in those same, slow tones that would unnerve a Rancor, “You said that last time. And yesterday. Now, getting sick on me once. Fine. Understandable. Twice? Still understandable because you were at least staying in bed. Three times? That was pushing it, but I’ve been feeling nice lately for some reason. But four times?! And after you insist that you’re just fine?! That its only a little headache? You’ve had worse! HA! You want me to risk a fifth time now? How stupid do you think I am?!”    Akan did his best to hold Shadow’s glare, not matching it but at least showing a little resistance to it. He held the gaze for longer than anyone, save Marix herself, could ever manage. Managing to hold back a cough(as Shadow would probably murder him for just that) Akan said simply, “I’m fine. Trust me. Just a walk, then I’ll come back. You don’t even have to follow me.”    Silence. That disturbing silence that was so quiet that made Akan wonder if Shadow was actually screaming at him through the link. Well, she was...in her own way. The silent screaming that unnerved people so much worked much better, especially in Alraxian. His not understanding it just made it even more worrying somehow. And then, Shadow even surprised Akan, “Fine. Last chance. You screw this up and I will break both your legs and make sure you can’t morph back for a very long time.”    Akan nodded. The nod actually made him dizzy again, but he did a good job in hiding that fact. Without missing a beat, Akan started a slow and determined walk. Shadow was right next to him, not actually saying anything and watching him closely. He made it thirty paces. Or, as Shadow counted it, four trees. After that, Akan suddenly found the everything too much, realized what was about to happen and...    “DAMMIT AKAN!!” Shadow screamed a second after he’d gotten sick on her again. He’d collapsed to the ground, groaning and curling up in that position most children did when sick. She glared down at him a long moment before cleaning herself off as best was possible. Any other time, Shadow would have kicked him. Hard. But she didn’t. Rage had gone far beyond that point, and was now into the seething cold stages of simple anger. Reaching down, Shadow grabbed Akan’s right ankle and started dragging him back to the hut. She half considered taking a detour and dragging him through the river that ran near here, but decided against it for the moment.    She only made it halfway to the hut before Jen wandered past. Seeing the situation, she raised an eyebrow and said, “You let him get up again, didn’t you?”    Shadow just gave her a flat look, nodding and not saying anything. That’s about the time that Jen noticed something else. Her features got all screwed up, and she asked, “What is that smell?”    “He was sick,” Shadow grumbled, wrinkling her nose, “On me. Again.”    “Oh...” Jen managed a sympathetic look. Without another word, she assisted in dragging the still groaning Akan back to bed, glaring at him like an annoyed nanny, then walking out with Shadow. Once they were back outside, Jen looked to Shadow and asked, “Anymore training for today?”    “I’d planned on it,” Shadow mumbled, starting a walk towards the river, “But now I’m going to go have a bath. Actually, come with me. You can sit at the river’s edge and work on those levitation exercises again.”    Jen sighed. Those were the ones she couldn’t get a hang of. As they walked off, she looked towards her ship, the Alderaan II, and wondered if Titus was awake yet. It had been a long night, with him teaching her the basics about lightsaber construction. That was the one thing no one really had a problem with him teaching her. It didn’t involved much use of the Force, and wouldn’t endanger her. That was the idea. Of course, only Titus seemed to notice how easily she took to the martial teaching she’d been given.* * * *Titus was awake. He’d actually been awake for about an hour. For a little while he’d watched the trees from the main viewport, remembering the planet from oh so many years ago. He’d been here during that battle, with the second Death Star and the Emperor above. He was not, however, one of the Imperials to surrender at the end of the battle. Instead, he and a small group had hid in the forest until the Rebels had left, taken a small shuttle, and gotten out. So many had died on this planet, Rebel and Imperial alike. It was depressing to think about, so he’d found something else to do. For some reason, he’d been drawn to checking out the latest news in the galaxy. Through some boring reports about planetary disputes and Imperial skirmishes, he found something of interest.    Actually, interest wasn’t the correct word. It was something of worry. For a long time, Titus had expected something like this, but now to have it confirmed was even worse. There was a bounty on his head. An official New Republic bounty. Five hundred thousand credits. There was also a bounty on the other three, each at two hundred thousand. All but his were alive. Titus’ was listed as ‘whatever is most convenient’. A nice way of saying ‘We’ll kill him if you don’t have the time’. He sighed. At least their location was listed as ‘Unknown’. Or at least, it was until you looked closer and it listed possible locations such as ‘Corellia and Coruscant’. There was no mention of Endor, but a few other Outer Rim systems were listed that weren’t too far off. That was unnerving.    Leaning back in the chair, Titus eyed the screen. Only he had a picture. That was one good thing, at least. After closing his eyes, he decided it probably wasn’t anything to worry about. There was nothing to indicate they were on Endor. In fact, there was only one real connection back to one of those listed worlds...Corellia. They’d bought the ship there. Jen had used her name. It wasn’t something they’d thought about at the time. But was there anything to track them to this place? No, they’d checked the ship over. No tracking devices or anything like that. No nothing. It was a dead end. Mentally, Titus rephrased that. It should be a dead end. But for some reason, things like this had a way of going pear shaped at just the wrong time.</blockquote>

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