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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2507831" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 268: Almost NormalSlowly, the daylight faded and the Alraxian star set below the horizon. As day turned to night, the remainder of the refugees from the Capital arrived at Alraxia and were given a place to stay within the protection of the Palace. There were whispers and rumors that spread throughout all of the people in the Palace about the Tam’day’u and the other changes that were coming. But somehow, things seemed to be returning to a state of normality...or at least, as close as things could ever come back to what the people considered ‘normal’.    Shadow looked out the small window next to the bed in her...their room. It was one of those few pieces of normal left. The room was unchanged, even after so many years of being away from it. And still, after such a long day with so many things that would never return to how they had been before, the room was the same. Part of her was at least slightly surprised that there had been no fuss about she and Jyren being moved to another room. She was Empress now, after all. And her mother had one of the most elaborate rooms in the entire Palace, if not the entire Empire. But, thankfully, there seemed to be more important things to do than moving the new Empress to a new room when there would probably be a long argument involved about it.    Through the window, she could see the lights across the section of the Palace she could see slowly going off. Good. If people could sleep, then that was definitely a good sign. Distantly, Shadow wondered if she would be able to. The rational part of her immediately answered that...yes, she would be able to sleep. Considering that the night before she had slept possibly an hour tops, she would definitely sleep.    But had it really only been a day? Or did that even matter? She could still very clearly remember the night ‘before’...back on the Capital with Jyren. It had been an amazing night. But then...then the chaos of the invasion afterwards. And then everything went blurry. Yes, there were short naps here and there during the entire day, but she hadn’t actually slept for...for...for however long it had been. Maybe it was only one day. One long, long day...    “You alright?” Jyren asked as he stepped out of the small washroom running a hand through his hair and tilting his head to see if there was anything particularly interesting that she was looking at outside the window.    Shadow glanced to him for a moment before looking back outside, “As much as I can be right now..” she trailed off, then quietly asked, “How long has it been?”    There was a short pause as Jyren used the link to figure out just what she meant. When he’d figured it out, it then took another moment for him to stop and really make sense of the blur of time. Then, finally, he had a rough answer, “Nearly...three days now.”    “Three days?!” Shadow didn’t bother to hide her surprise at that.    Jyren nodded slowly, “Close to it...you were...you were gone for a while. And we slept a good while back on the Capital before we got off the planet.”    She could find no worthwhile response to that, and simply nodded. Neither of them said anything for a few minutes as they simply enjoyed being able to be there together without having to worry about being killed. It was...calming. Amazingly calming, considering everything. As Jyren leaned over to carefully bring an arm around her, he picked up on a thought that darted through the link. That got a slight sigh out of him, and he said quietly to one of her ears, “We’re not done, are we?”    Shadow, still somewhat tense about the whole...Jyren...thing, very slowly returned the gesture and leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder. Somewhat annoyed he had caught onto that thought, she shook her head, “We’re done today, Jyren. And...hopefully, for at least another week.”    “Its better than nothing,” he said after a moment. But, he knew as well as she did, that it wasn’t over, and there was still at least one loose end left to tie up away from the Alraxian Empire.    She nodded, and opened her mouth to voice her agreement, but stopped when she heard a sound. It was quiet...almost inaudible. Shadow’s ear that wasn’t currently against Jyren’s shoulder swivelled around to attempt to make sense of the noise she was sure she was definitely not imagining. She focused on the sound for a moment. Soft...near the door...near the floor, actually...almost like...like scratching. Constant. It kept...    “Oh gods,” she mumbled without even realizing she’d said anything. Jyren glanced down at her for a moment before picking up on the sound and then immediately knowing what it was.    Where she grumbled, he grinned and nudged her, “I’m going to let him in.”    It wasn’t surprising to hear Shadow sigh dramatically. She pulled away from him and looked up with that flat, slightly angry expression on her face. Of course, she didn’t say anything, as Shadow knew that her mouth would betray her and she’d say something nice. Jyren caught this and his grin only grew. This time, he nudged her over to the washroom, “Changing in there will at least buy you a few minutes.”    As he headed over to the door, Shadow quickly escaped into the adjoining washroom. The door closed just as Jyren opened the main one. It irised open to reveal Tobias, sitting there on the floor in the hallway and feebly pawing at the door. He didn’t look all that much better, but the fact that he was back in normal clothes and not stuck in a medical bed was extremely good to see.    At seeing Jyren, Tobias’ eyes lit up. Jyren expected the child to pounce and climb up onto his shoulder as usual, but Tobias proved that he was still not completely better. He padded in and hugged Jyren’s leg tightly, purring loudly the entire time.    “Hey, little guy,” Jyren said quietly as he reached down to pick Toby up. Tobias simply purred and clung to Jyren when he stopped moving. He then realized that the child was at least partially asleep...that expression was one that was far too easy to identify on anyone. When Toby didn’t say anything, Jyren asked, “You snuck out of the nursery, didn’t you?”    There was a slow nod from Tobias, another obvious sign he wasn’t completely awake. He’d have at least attempted some kind of lie if he was awake. Jyren smiled and idly scratched Toby’s ear, “Its good to see you again, little guy.”    “‘s good t’ see ‘ou, too...” sounded a muffled voice from Jyren’s shoulder.    Jyren moved across the room and sat back on the bed, yawning and glancing off to the close door where he knew Shadow was hiding behind. To Toby, he asked, “You feeling better?”    “Uh-huh,” the same voice replied, though now Tobias was crawling around to sit the pillow and rest his head on Jyren’s shoulder...or at least, he was trying to. Jyren was then completely lost as to what to say, and so he did the best thing he could think of: be quiet and try not to wake Tobias up anymore.And then the door opened. Jyren noticed Toby’s ears twitch around immediately, and he glanced over to see Shadow peeking out as if something was going to attack her. Toby didn’t move...and so Shadow took two steps out before stopping again.    Still, Toby didn’t move. Shadow let out a deep breath and then carefully tip-toed over to the bed. She got halfway under the blankets before the inevitable occurred. Jyren felt the ‘weight’ on his shoulder disappear and glanced over to see a Tobias-shaped(and coloured) object had suddenly latched onto Shadow’s arm and was purring extremely louldy.    Shadow groaned, but the sound was hard to hear under Toby’s purring. She flopped back onto the bed with a sigh and glared up at the ceiling. Jyren grinned. [Back to normal.]    [Shut up and go to sleep.]</blockquote>

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