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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 4012914" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 558: Of Tree BranchesAs Tobias watched the two Yuuzhan Vong warriors walk past him, he couldn’t help but wonder if he was being cowardly by hiding in a tree. He had managed to use his considerable lead to take time and look for Master Ral, but found no sign of his Master. In fact, Tobias had realized that he was lost. And before he could figure out what to do next, through the heavy sound of the constant rain, Tobias’ ears detected something else...foosteps. Heavy footsteps.    And so Tobias had made a quick decision: he scaled the nearest tree, finding a branch high enough up to be out of plain sight. The two Vong were being careful, so much so that they actually stopped right under him. Tobias’ mind was filled with panic. They were tracking him. He had no idea how to hide his tracks, and hadn’t even thought about it until now...staring down at the Vong.    As carefully and quietly as he could, Tobias shifted his position from kneeling oddly to lying flat on the branch. It was in hopes that he could conceal himself better in case they looked upwards, and also so he could watch them more carefully himself. That, and it was nice to have the rain on his back rather than directly on his face. But while the two Vong did carefully walk around the tree, they didn’t seem to take notice of the claw marks that Tobias had left in his swift ascent. If they saw them at all, they likely assumed they were simply the marks of some local animal. It wasn’t as if claw marks on trees were that uncommon on a world as untamed as Yavin IV was.    [Dwel so oran e’sai, Enarin. Lan nomayi suc.]    The voice in his head nearly caused Tobias to fall out of the tree and right onto one of the Vong. Thankfully, he just twitched slightly and managed to dig his claws in to hold himself in place. When he recovered, Tobias realized what had just been said: the Knight he’d contacted earlier was in the system. The problem, however, was that the Yavin system was significantly blockaded.    Trying to lock onto the distant presence through a tiny thread of the Alraxian Network that he could feel, Tobias replied in Alraxian. [Can you safely run the blockade?]    [Most of the ships on the outer reaches of the system are large and likely slow.] the Knight responded immediately, still ‘speaking’ in Alraxian. [If I am to break through we will have to move quickly. My Kanyak, Horus, informs me that the difficult part will be stopping long enough to get you on board. The rest, he assures me, he can handle.]    Tobias immediately recognized a handful of problems and decided most all of them boiled down to one important thing. [How long will it take you to reach me?]    A short pause, then. [It is hard to say. It lis likely there are many smaller ships aboard the larger ones that could make the approach more dangerous. Horus believes that even with extra resistance, we can get to you within fifteen minutes. Are you currently in danger?]    [Not currently...] Tobias wanted to make some sarcastic comment about being above the danger, but it just didn’t seem like the time. He sure as hell didn’t have Jyren’s terrible sense of when to make a joke. For some reason, that was depressing. But that wasn’t important. What was important, however, was... [But I have been separated from my Master and we cannot leave without him.]    Another pause, this one a bit longer. Tobias could imagine the Knight and his Kanyak arguing over what to do. [We have been spotted, it seems. If we do not come for you now, I do not believe we will be able to reach you at all.]    That was a question. It wasn’t stated like a question, but the Knights were always like that with him for some reason. They must not have been sure of him in some form. He was young still, could he really give them orders that weren’t tainted by inexperience? It wasn’t as much their own safety they likely worried about, but his. If his mother was anyone but the Empress, they likely wouldn’t even listen at all. But coupling that with the fact that she was Marix and the Knights seemed to always end up accepting that she’d likely taught him a great deal about taking care of himself...which she had.    And so, remembering some of those things he’d been taught, Tobias answered the unspoken question. [Make your approach and keep me updated.]    No response came beyond a strong feeling of determination. That was how the Knights always accepted their orders. What were the point of words when no language ever had words that could truly represent some ideas? Especially for beings like Alraxians that were very strongly rooted in their emotions and feelings. Better to show the feeling than to try and fumble for a word that wouldn’t even truly grasp it.    Thankfully, by that point, the two Vong had moved on. Tobias was looking down at grass, dirt, mud, and tree roots. But they wouldn’t be far. It was going to be dangerous to come down but he didn’t have much of a choice. Tobias had actually secured them a way off of Yavin IV, but Master Ral had no idea.    Attempting to reach out with the Force proved useless as the abundant natural life of the moon blotted out the specific details he had felt earlier. Tobias just couldn’t manage the focus to reach that level of clarity again...not yet. He was too caught up in the fact that he had roughly fifteen minutes to find Master Ral and then figure out how to reach a Kanyak that couldn’t possibly land in this part of the thick jungle.    Okay. Focus. There was a limited amount of time now and Tobias couldn’t waste any of that being childish. If he didn’t find Master Ral in fifteen minutes...well...that Knight wasn’t going to leave without Tobias. Not after he’d come as far as he was going to have to. Which meant Tobias needed to move fast and figure out how to find Master Ral.    First things first. He needed to get back to the shelter. The problem was, he was still a bit turned around.    What would Jyren have done?    He’d likely drop to the ground, activate his lightsaber, and run into a group of Vong head first before magically finding Master Ral while running away.    No, Tobias couldn’t rely on luck like that. He just wasn’t that impulsive.    Alright. Fine.    What would Marix have done?    Backtrack. Run through her memories, figure out exactly where she had stepped and follow that backwards until she reached the exact point she’d started. There wouldn’t be visual reference, just her own very careful identification of her surroundings at all times.    Tobias wasn’t nearly that aware of his surroundings all of the time, but it was a place to start. He’d have to be quick, which meant he wouldn’t give himself time to rethink things. Maybe, just maybe, he wouldn’t second guess himself and Tobias would just go with his instincts. Both Marix and Jyren had always agreed on that one thing...trusting his instincts, because they were rarely wrong.    As quietly as he could manage considering the length of the drop, Tobias shifted his position and swung down from the tree branch. He hit the ground in a wonderful pool of mud which splashed around him, then immediately started at a sprint back the way he’d come.</blockquote>

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