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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2143240" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 187: WhyShadow idly hummed to herself as she strolled down the corridors of the palace to find Akan. Kyren was off getting food and would probably be waiting on the two of them to return. At least, Shadow said they’d be back, and she planned to be, but she couldn’t judge what Akan would do. It was...odd. The link just wasn’t there. It should have been, because she’d stopped doing the things she’d done around Faban, but it didn’t come back.    Reaching her room(it was definitely still her’s), the door irised open and she slowly stepped in, looking around for Akan. He was on the bed, and quickly sat up upon the door opening. Akan looked slightly panicked, as if he’d been expecting someone else, and he sighed with relief when the door shut and he saw no one with her. And for some reason, Shadow just stood there.    It was at least five minutes of the two of them staring at each other blankly, not moving at all, before Akan mumbled a stupid question that had no relevance whatsoever, “Have you ah...um...seen Toby since you got back?”    Shadow managed to look confused for a second before shaking her head. There was a question on the tip of her tongue, but it was just as pointless as the one Akan had asked. Instead, a sudden thought that she’d kept back for a while rose up. In a second, she was grinning, but not that worrying grin that Akan was so used to...and that in itself was worrying.    And then, without any warning, Shadow pounced him, laughing and grinning before finally pinning him down, “I did it! Can you believe it?! Free! HA! Now there won’t be any problems! I can do whatever, now! Maybe even start a fam—“    She suddenly cut herself off, not even completely sure why. Akan stared up at her somewhat confused, and again a long silence hung in the air. Eventually, Akan started to notice how uncomfortable it was(not to say a thing about the odd way that Shadow was holding him down), and attempted another somewhat pathetic attempt at conversation, “So...that means we can um...get Ket and Nine now?”    Shadow’s blank expression faded into a sullen one and she slumped slightly, “I don’t know. I will have to...speak with my mother. She is still the one who will decide what we do...and...and...”    “...and?” Akan tilted his head a little as she tried to look away, despite the fact that she was directly over him.    “And nothing,” Shadow finished quickly, a little too quickly and the both of them noticed it. Quickly, a smile developed on her face, something Akan was still getting used to seeing, “But we’ll deal with that when we get there. Now we don’t have to worry about being watched all the time...of course, we will be, but not in that way. So I can show you around the planet!”    She added a short purr at the end of it, which somehow jolted Akan back into the reality of just how close she was. Why that was making him so nervous, he had no idea. But, quickly, he nodded and suggested, “Maybe you should go track down Toby? The little guy would probably like seeing you.”    After raising an eyebrow, Shadow shrugged and hopped off of him to her feet, “Fine, but you’re dealing with the brat.”    Pivoting on one foot, Shadow turned and headed out of the room towards where she figured the little Toby would be. All the while, she couldn’t help plotting what to do with him. Maybe feed him to a Dragon. Nah...that would be cruel...maybe just come really close to feeding him to a Dragon. She grinned. Perfect.    It only took a couple of minutes to walk to the right place, and the door opened up to reveal about fifteen little Alraxians playing in a very large room. Some were playing little games involving grring at each other and pouncing, others had some small blocks that would sprout legs and crawl across the room sometimes, and others were just pawing at the walls and trying to climb up from the look of it. Off to the left was a large, open window where the keepers likely were watching from.Upon Shadow’s entrance, all of the children stopped and stared up at her with big, curious eyes. Suddenly, from in the middle of one of the larger groups, a familiar voice cried out, “SHADY!!”    Tobias pounced over two of the other children, climbing over another and falling on his face. That didn’t seem to deter him, though, as he quickly got back to his feet and bounded over to he, purring loudly. When he got close, Toby pounced up at her, and Shadow only caught him out of reflex. A second later, all the other children were at her feet, purring and giggling at something.    She raised an eyebrow, but looked down to Toby in her arms, “Come on, lets get out of here.”    “But we not allowed go anywhere,” Toby announced in the drone like voice of a child repeating a rule that he never intended to follow.    Stepping back out into the hallway anyway, Shadow shrugged and said, “Yes, well, you’re allowed now.”    “Why?” was the quick response just as the door behind them shut again.    “Because Akan told me to come and get you,” Shadow said flatly.    At Akan’s name, the little child’s eyes lit up and he smiled, but he only said, “Why?”    “I don’t know,” Shadow grumbled, “He’s an idiot.”    “Why?”    This time, Shadow gave the child a sideways glance, noting that he had a neutral expression on his face. Somewhat annoyed, she answered anyway, “He was probably born that way.”    “Why?”    “Because he asked too many questions as a little child!” Shadow yelled as they turned a corner towards her room again.    Of course, the response from Toby was, “Why?”    “Because!” she snapped as they finally reached the door.    It irised open to reveal Akan standing there looking somewhat nervous. Though when he saw the two of them, he smiled. And, of course, Toby looked up to Shadow and asked simply, “Why?”    “GAH!” she growled and suddenly through Tobias at Akan, “Take the little brat!”    In mid air, the child spun around and clung to Akan, who caught him without trouble. Grinning now, Akan looked down to Tobias, “Why do I get the feeling you’re asking for trouble?”    Tobias looked up to Akan and purred before looking straight over to Shadow, “Why?”    “That’s it!” Shadow yelled, stomping her way over to the two of them, “I’m feeding you to the Dragons! I don’t care what anyone says, you’ll probably taste good, anyway!”    She reached out and grabbing Tobias’s waist, doing her best to wrench him away from Akan. Akan held on for some foolish reason, but at the same time, Tobias’ claws dug into Akan’s chest as he wailed, “Why! Why! Why! Why!”    Somehow, Akan and Tobias managed to save the child from Shadow, and on some random idea, Akan ran past her, laughing as Tobias yelled, “Why!” over and over again.    They charged down the hallway towards where Akan remembered the nearest exit to the outside was. Behind them, Shadow chased as fast as she could, screaming about revenge and pushing anyone that happened to get in the way off to the side. Surprisingly, these Alraxians only grinned, obviously happy to see their Enai’la happy, even if she was screaming about feeding the child to Dragons.    It settled many worries, and word would soon spread quickly. That was one less worry. At least, for most of them. At least one Alraxian that they pushed by just growled in annoyance, but Kato was annoyed easily...especially considering the circumstances of what rushed right passed her.((Late because of a server problem last night. Things slowed down when I was about to post it and instead of waiting it out I went to bed. Forgive me! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />))</blockquote>

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