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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2541343" data-attributes="member: 10079">Part IVChapter 273: Back AgainStep left...right...back...eyes on her. Focus. Think. Ignore the link. Ignore the Force. Focus. Watch her movements...careful...careful...tail twitched left. From the left, then? No! Too obvious! Right, then! No! Again, too obvious! Then...where...foot!    Jyren immediately took a half step back, his hands moving up to catch Shadow’s foot as it lashed out as his chest. He actually succeeded, grabbing her ankle and throwing her back as quickly as he could. Shadow stumbled back a few steps before regaining her footing. A smile appeared on her face, “Good. Looks like this is actually getting through you skull, finally.”    It was another four day hyperspace jump to get from the Alraxian Empire to the rest of the galaxy, and they were making the best of it. Sure, the first day had only consisted of arguments stemming from Jyren’s blatant refusal to use a lightsaber or, the part that really annoyed Shadow, the Force. He’d gone from spooked on the whole incident with Ket to stubborn determination to not come anywhere near any of it again. It was stupid, in her opinion. But after the first day, she’d given up arguing it. He had, thankfully, given into allowing her to teach him better hand-to-hand techniques than he’d learned with the New Republic.    Shadow taught him what she had learned as a Tam’day’u...well, mostly. They used the Force. Jyren, as usual, was making things difficult by not doing so. But now, finally, it all looked to be sinking in. His movements were more natural and much less forced, and he had finally gotten the hang of paying attention to every detail of his opponent...not just allowing the Force to do all the work. That, at least, was a good thing.     Deciding to give him another quick test, Shadow did not speak up and help him with what he’d done wrong, and instead moved forward quickly. She feinted left, then as she moved to his other side, swept a foot out to send him to the ground. Jyren actually jumped over the swipe at his feet, and even brought up an arm to block her punch aimed at his stomach.. He did not, however, keep the same defenses up when his feet hit the deck, and Shadow landed a strong kick to his left side which sent Jyren to the deck hard.    From Jyren, there was a loud groan. From the other side of the large ‘hangar’, there was a higher pitched whimper, a sigh, then, “That’s no fair!”    Shadow sighed and looked over her shoulder to where Tobias was sitting up on top of the nose of Jyren’s X-Wing. The little Alraxian was perched up there on the sensor cone and watching intently, though he had been, of course, cheering for Jyren the entire time. Rolling her eyes, Shadow looked back to Jyren as he got to his feet, “I still can’t believe you convinced me to bring the brat along.”    Jyren grinned as he rubbed his side, “You’re just complaining because he’s on my side.”    Shadow glared at Jyren for a long moment before glancing back to Toby. The child caught her nodding to them, smiled broadly before hopping down to the deck a good meter below, and then padding over to the two of them, purring the whole time. There was something about this that was distinctly worrying to Jyren...and not just because Shadow was blocking the link to hide something. He could tell there was something going on here, and had a good idea the two of them were conspiring about something behind his...errr, in front of his face.    When Shadow looked back to Jyren, he caught that devilishly evil grin was back on her face. It had never worried him before, but for once, it did. And then a second later, a growl from Tobias turned into a, “Pounce!”    And then, of course, Jyren was pounced. Toby jumped a half meter up and immediately latched onto Jyren’s leg, and then suddenly Shadow pounced too. In a blur, Jyren hit the deck again, but harder and with two others forcing him down. Between the two, they pinned him and laughed.    “Traitor!” Jyren yelled out, shaking his leg where Toby was attached to.    Tobias laughed and just gripped harder, which meant claws. Shadow grinned and kissed Jyren’s cheek, “He’s on my side,” she then looked down to Toby, “And why is that?”    “Cause Jyren never makes food,” Tobias stated in a very well trained voice.    Any response was cut off by a mental clearing of a throat...or at least something similar. Naturally, they all looked up. When he decided he had their attention, Loki said. [We will be exiting hyperspace in five minutes. If you two would like a little more time alone I can fly in myself...]    “We’re coming, Loki,” Shadow growled, as she got up off of Jyren and then helped him up. Tobias didn’t let go, but it didn’t provide much of a hindrance as they headed for the cockpit. Their break was over. Back to work now. Back to the rest of the galaxy and back to Nar Shaddaa. ((New Story Hour is up and has one update so far! Link in my sig.))</blockquote>

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