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: 2121676" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 179: Without a ShadowWhen Shadow didn’t return that night, Akan’s general anger started to turn into worry. Her absence the next morning only made it worse. On top of that, was their link. It must have been a time honoured pastime of the Alraxians to mess with links, as Shadow just felt...wrong. Or very un-Shadow, at least. Distant and odd and barely even there in the first place. In fact, every so often, he couldn’t help wondering if the link was actually with two completely different people and fading in and out between them.    It didn’t help that everyone avoided his questions about her. Even if he did manage to draw anyone in, they always spoke swiftly and in the past tense. That did nothing but get Akan angry again, but not so much so to have an outburst like before. The guards were watching him now...not like they watched Shadow, but definitely keeping an eye on him just in case.    At least Tobias was oblivious to any tensions. For the first time in his life, he had other Alraxians his own age to play with. But that wasn’t enough for him, of course. His favorite toy, Akan, was becoming difficult to play with at times. On one such occasion, Alyx watched the little Alraxian trying to get Akan to play. Seeing the effort fail was oddly depressing. He still felt ashamed at Akan’s words two days earlier. But there wasn’t anything he could do! At least, nothing he could do without getting into some serious trouble.    But Alyx knew where his twin was. He also knew how to get to her. He knew, and no matter how much he wanted to help Akan...he just couldn’t. Feeling miserable, he’d wandered off to try the only other thing he could think of. He tried to contact Kyren. Kyren would be able to fix all this...but the communication’s man had said that Kyren couldn’t be reached. Apparently, there had been a skirmish over another of the border planets and Kyren may or may not have been involved.    His mother had found out about the inquires and, yes, it had gotten him into trouble. After a lecture, Alyx gave up and went off to find something else to do. Something that he didn’t have to worry about so much. There was a reason Marix was his twin...she was supposed to deal with these kind of things.    Out in one of the large gardens, Tobias had gotten Akan to play. Sort of. Sort of because it was more an ambush than a ‘play’ situation. Tobias, along with four of his friends, had latched on. The four little Alraxians attached to his legs and Tobias on Akan’s shoulder, all of them straining and ‘grrr’ing as they tried to pull the much larger Akan down. It had to be because he’d refused to play so long! They’d gotten smart and brought more than usual and now—    “AH!” Akan yelped as, somehow, one of the children managed to get his weight to shift in just the right way. With a thud, his vision went blurry and he fell back to the grass below, five little Alraxians suddenly scampering over him and making a myriad of different noises that all amounted to something close to victory. But Akan wasn’t out yet. With a menacing laugh, he reached up and grabbed on of the children by the scruff of the neck.    From off on the other side of the garden, Cole watched the young man and the little Alraxians. He couldn’t help a smile at watching them. The boy might be a bit...well, delinquent, but he would be a good father. Hopefully the father that Cole had always wished he’d been for Marix. But there hadn’t been a choice, and wishing didn’t do anyone any good.    The boy cared for her, that much was obvious. Cole couldn’t help but wonder how that had come about. They had said she would be devoid of emotions and anything like that would be impossible...but then again, they hadn’t figured she’d be leaving to a larger part of the galaxy and getting involved in who knew what. What would they say now? Not only returning, but with a Jedi. And not just a Jedi, but an Alraxian Jedi. Already, the word was spreading fast, and there was going to be no slowing it.    But they were wrong, then. They were wrong because Akan did care. Cole could see it without any trouble at all. The reasons that many over the Network were considering him to be so delinquent or a bit...off were simply because he cared more than any of them did. More than Cole did, and he was her father. Looking up, he watched as a small Kanyak came in to land not far off.     So this was it, then. The boy probably didn’t even know how much rested on his shoulders. He probably didn’t have any idea of the significance of being a Jedi, either. Marix didn’t know. She couldn’t. She’d probably have thought twice about bringing him with her if she knew. Not that he’d be killed, but it was going to complicate things eventually. And there was something else. Something that had been bothering Cole since the moment Akan had joined the Clan.    Seeing the young man as a Human had triggered it. Something in his appearance that was familiar...distantly familiar. And now it was starting to bug Cole even more. So he made a decision. Perhaps his mate had noticed the same thing. If she hadn’t, that was fine and Cole could just pass up the feeling to being old...but if she did notice it. If she’d been thinking the same thing...then it would have to be looked into. No matter how crazy it was. No matter how much of a coincidence it could be. No matter how much of a long shot it was, Cole still couldn’t shake the feeling that Akan’s face was familiar in an odd way.</blockquote>

Verification