Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2054237" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 158: The JaiShadow had slept for many long hours. Akan found himself just sitting there the whole time, somehow ignoring the desperate need for food. But then again, it wasn’t hard to sit there and think. His mind was still reeling from what had happened. What had gone wrong. There wasn’t any such thing as coincidence in the galaxy. Akan had learned that even before his introduction to the Force. Everything happened for a reason. Be it destiny, the will of the Force, or just simply the way things worked, it didn’t matter.    It didn’t matter because no matter how Aan looked at it, Voort was still dead. For so long, Akan had wanted that. And now he regretted all of it, easily realizing how childish he had been. Voort had been right. They were so very much alike. But what did that matter now? It changed nothing. If he could have only stayed there on Nar Shaddaa to at least look on Voort’s body one last time. To pay final respects, as it were. Make amends and hope that, somehow, Titus Voort had not died in darkness. The man’s last words were what brought that to Akan’s mind. ‘Find her’. But now they were gone from that horrible moon. Light-years away on the other side of the galaxy and still traveling farther. Shadow was right, though. They couldn’t just let Halpak run off.    His thoughts had trailed off when the grip on his hand had loosened. Akan glanced down and noticed Shadow had actually let go of his hand. Through the link, he could feel she was very asleep. And his hunger grew again. Very carefully, he got up from the bed and wandered through the ship to find the small galley. As he got the substances that somehow qualified as ‘food’ and even while he ate it at a furious rate, Akan made sure to keep a good focus on the link. Just so she knew he was still there. So he knew she was. Just the two of them, now. Somehow, that didn’t feel right.    Akan’s ear twitched at an odd sound. It was echoing into the room only faintly. It continued for a few minutes with Akan trying to ignore it and continue eating. Finally, curiosity overcame the slowly fading hunger and Akan stalked off to follow the it. He passed through two different rooms in the ship, one that was likely a lounge and then a small cargo hold of sorts. Then, off to the side in the cargo hold, he found another short corridor. At the end of it was a door which was muffling the sound.    A loud, constant noise that almost sounded like some kind of dying animal. Slowly, Akan walked to the door and leaned the side of his head against it to listen better. Of course, that only worked for humans, as Alraxian ear position made the whole process of leaning against a wall odd...especially when the ears had a habit of folding back. But none the less, it confirmed that the source of the very loud, and very annoying sound was behind the door. Carefully, Akan pressed the switch to open the door.    It slid open with a soft hiss, revealing a small quarters. There was a desk on one well, a table near the other, and a large bed in the center. And on that bed, was a small, black furred and blue striped Alraxian child, wailing at the top of his lungs. The door opening seemed to quadruple the volume at which the child was wailing at, and Akan reached up to cover his ears to find it as another odd thing to attempt as an Alraxian.    Finding it wasn’t working anyway, he yelled as loud as he could, “Alright! Shut up! I hear you!!”    The wailing stopped suddenly. For a moment, he could only see a bundled up ball of fur, but as the short silence gave way the sniffling and whimpering, two large eyes appeared. They were a bright green, offsetting the darker colours of the fur in a very odd way. Slowly, a head rose up and the small child sat up from his lying position to perch on the edge of the bed in an extremely feline way. Tears could be seen on his eyes still, and he sniffled a couple of times before going silent again. Just watching Akan with those two big eyes in a very curious way, obviously trying to figure out what the rest of his plan had been after someone answered his wailing. Since no conclusion was reached, the child simply watching Akan.    Feeling slightly unnerved by the young Alraxian’s look, Akan had to stop himself from leaving and hiding. It wasn’t that he was worried at all, but something in the child’s eyes...almost expecting something that Akan didn’t understand. Instead, he took a careful step closer to the bed, quietly asking, “Why were you yelling?”    After a long blink and flick of his stubby tail, the small Alraxian tilted his head. Akan could see the child working through a series of thoughts. Finally, the little child spoke in a way that Akan could tell he was still learning Basic, “All alone.”    “I have a feeling that’s because you tried to maul Shadow,” grumbled Akan, trying not to roll his eyes in the process. For some reason, this comment went completely over the child’s head. Instead of saying something else, the little child’s ears rose up noticeably and he leaned forward over the bed towards Akan.    Another few seconds passed where the child seemed to be analyzing Akan. Then, just after nearly falling off the bed for leaning too far, the child mumbled, “...’m hungry...”    At this, Akan let out a sight and threw his hands into the air. He couldn’t help but glare up at the ceiling before cursing the universe. He was not here to take care of some child! In fact, Akan was likely the most unqualified person in the galaxy for such a job. Next to Shadow, of course, but that wasn’t the point right now. Without another word, and not even thinking that it might not be the best thing to do, Akan quickly escaped that room and found his way back to the galley and his still half-full plate of food. He was still hungry.    Of course, he didn’t miss the soft pattering of footsteps behind him as he walked, but Akan did do his best to pretend it was not happening. A moment after Akan sat back own at the single table, the child hopped up, too. But not into a chair, onto the table itself. Slowly, the small Alraxian padded across the table on all fours to Akan’s plate. Completely ignoring Akan, the child leaned in and sniffed the food before pawing at it a couple of times and then finally attempting to eat some of it. Sighing, Akan reached down to get his own food.    His hand was met with a growl. Not vicious at all, and about as dangerous sounding as a protocol droid. It actually got a grin on Akan’s face, and he leaned down a little to be at eye level with the child who had gone back to eating the small piece of meat. Finally, Akan gave in and asked the inevitable question, “So what’s your name, little guy?”    The child finished his meat and then padded closer to Akan before sitting straight again. For a moment, his two big, green eyes stared into Akan’s curiously. Then, he said in a strangely happy voice, “I Tobias...” then, he slowly tilted his head to the side and leaned in a little closer to Akan, “Who you?”    “I Akan,” the older Alraxian mimicked the child’s voice almost perfectly and idly reached over to poke Tobias very gently on the nose, “You’re not so bad, you know.”    Slowly, the child leaned in closer, then gently poke Akan’s nose with a small hand, “Why I be bad?”    A sound behind Akan got both of their attention. Shadow wearily stepped into the room, still looking half asleep. In a second, Tobias’ happy mood was gone and he growled again, though this time it was at least slightly more dangerous. Shadow’s eyes widened just as the small child pounced over Akan, claws extended and diving straight for her face.</blockquote>

Verification