Chapter 2: Friend or Foe?
Today started out really early. Of course, I was more than happy to hear Master calling to us, no matter the time. I looked around as my butt slid down the wooden stake with a squeal of joy. We were somewhere different today. The trees and plants looked alike, but this place was not quite the same. To my left a tall grey wall. To my right, a tall white wall with holes. Why had Master brought us here? This place doesn't look so special. We walked in circles a few times, looking at one wall, then the other. I stopped suddenly in my tracks, smelling something sweet in the air. I quickly whipped my head around to see where it was coming from. It was some form of strange grass. My little arms reached down to pluck a piece of the sweet grass from the ground. This is most definitely where the smell was coming from. I want it, whatever it is! I began plucking faster, my senses overwhelmed with joy. It was making me thirsty, no, hungry, no, both! What was this strange sensation and what hold did it have over my body?
Up from the ground plopped a big ball of dark, yellow goo. What are you yellow goo? I reached my hand out to touch it, but the goo only jiggled in reply. Seeing that it was harmless I bent down to take a drink. Delicious! So many flavors all at once! Salty, sweet, bitter, and even a little spicy. I couldn't stop myself until all of the goo was gone. Then I started to feel strange, my stomach gurgled and my hands felt funny. Then a strange popping nose, followed by my leaf falling from my head. Oh no, oh no, my beautiful leaf! What would master think of me now? I reached down for my leaf and held it close as I frantically searched for Master. He wasn't to be seen. I felt sick, the pigment of my skin then began to fade away. Master is gone, my leaf is gone. Frightened, I plopped down on the ground, clutching my leaf.
After sitting there for what felt like days, I saw something small heading this way. It was a few of my brothers, they were carrying something really strange. Had they killed something without my help? Had master not known I was gone? Did he just go off without me? I wanted to get up and join them, but I was too ashamed of my leaf falling off. Before I could frump too much longer, though, I heard my master calling me from a distance. A special whistle he use to gather us up, there was no mistaking it. I quickly sprang up and dusted myself off. Maybe if I'm lucky master wont noticed. Fat chance. As soon as I approached him he stopped dead in his tracks and walked over to me. Don't look, Master, I'm hideous! An instinctive reaction was to hide myself behind my leaf, I knew it wasn't there, but I tried anyway. Something different caught my attention though. A….Flower? I couldn't believe my little eyes. My leaf didn't die, it just made way for a flower! Silly me, worrying for nothing…
I was able to keep up with Master a lot easier now. My new flower made it so that I ran faster that all of my brothers. Not to mention I looked better too. I knew they were all jealous, you could see it in their eyes. My singing was cut short by something really large snoring in the distance. It looked like what my brothers were carrying back earlier. Only this time it was huge. The creature was round, really round, kind of fat actually. The front of it was tan, and the back of it was red with white spots. It had two eyes that stuck out of its head, a big mouth with a couple of teeth that stuck out, and… and… I don't think it has feet. We began to sneak around it along one of the walls. It was probably smart not to wake it up.
I thought wrong, and as soon as we were behind the creature we stopped. Master whistled for us to spring into battle, and my brothers began to charge. I was afraid of the beast, but I was forcibly pulled alongside my brothers. As soon as we began to attack, it woke up. I grabbed onto its back as it was getting up and held on for dear life. My new flower whipped around quickly, before landing on the backside of the creature. I hit it in one of the many white spots. Before I was able to attack again, I was shook free, landing softly on one of my brothers. Who then quickly pushed me aside to get back into battle. No sooner than he did, the creature grabbed him with his large mouth. I rose to my feet as fast as I could, reaching for his little red hand, but it was no use. Before I could even get close to him, the creature took one large bite, then another. I heard him cry out once, then silence as the creature fell to its knees in defeat. My brothers swarmed around their new kill and began to pick it up, as if nothing had even happened.
While my brothers carried the dead thing back to our ship, I followed close behind my master as he went the other direction. The large creature seemed to be protecting another strange object that belonged to my master. This one was nothing like the other. It had a round base, and two long round objects on top of it. It didn't quite move like the other thing did, and it wasn't very shiny either. The way master looked at it though, I knew he needed this as well. Without even being asked I walked over and stuck my little hands underneath of it. This one was a lot lighter than the other one was, but I still couldn't carry it by myself. It was the same size as the other, roughly the same shape, shouldn't it be just as heavy? Or maybe I was getting stronger?
The Calvary had arrived! Master must have plucked twenty more, no, thirty! It was like a red wave followed behind him as he approached. There was probably about sixty of us now. Well… minus one of course. I will never forget the look in his eye when the monster took him away from me. I was broken away from my thoughts as my brothers swarmed around the not-so shiny, lifting it with ease. With the amount of us, the space around the not-so shiny was crampted, and I got my foot stepped on a couple times. I decided to back away and let them carry it, I don't like being stepped on. My master had found something else to do anyway. My brothers that also decided to sit that one out had begun to smack down a wall. Are we really strong enough to break a wall? I trotted over towards them and joined in. By the time I was able to even help, my brothers had the wall down.
On the other side of the wall I was faced with my fear, another fat red monster. This one was accompanied by two smaller ones. They all looked exactly the same, just different sizes. While the large one continued to sleep, the smaller ones decided to take us all on. We took them out no problem though. A couple quick smacks with our leaves, well, their leaves and my flower. My brothers were fired up and ready to take on the larger one. I turned to see what my master was planning, but he wasn't there. Master, why do you keep leaving me? Are you going back to get the others? I don't want any more of my brothers to get hurt. I fell backwards onto my butt and could feel my skin starting to become pale. I always felt this way when master wasn't around. Like I couldn't do anything on my own, even though I knew I could.
I jumped up ready to go when I saw my master running back towards us. This time I was ready for the creature. I knew what it was capable of, what tricks it had. It wasn't fooling me this time. Before Master could even give the signal, we were off. All, now around eighty, of my brothers charged in behind me. We swarmed the creature's feet, attacking its underbelly and face when the chances arose. It was no match for us this time, and not a single one of my brothers got hurt. We all cheered for a moment, before my brothers got back to work and carried the fat dead thing off. I turned back and walked over towards my master. He was staring at something off into the corner, it looked familiar.
Out of the ground popped a plump yellow flower pod. It looks just like mine! When the wooden sticks landed firmly on the ground, a single, leafed seed spat out from the top. The seed looked exactly like mine, only yellow, to match the ship. Was this seed, like me? Was this creature like me? Are we brothers? A million questions raced around in my head as Master went over to pluck it. He tugged at the stem for a moment, the yellow looked a lot tougher to pull from the ground then we were. As soon as it was plucked, the yellow caught his footing and dusted himself off. We stared at each other for a moment, wondering what each other was thinking. The yellow was an exact copy of me, only yellow. But other than color, there was another large difference between us. The yellow didn't have a nose, but large ears instead. Are you friend yellow? Brother perhaps? I walked over to him cautiously. We eyes each other up and down once more, as Master eyed our encounter. Probably waiting to see if we were friends, or enemies. I don't even think that we ourselves knew the answer to that. Without even a moments extra thought on the subject, the yellow had accepted me, and I him. Master seemed to be pleased.
Master told the yellow to chop down a flower, and some of us to carry another shiny to his ship. This shiny was really small, and the square on top spun around in a circle. When he picked the yellow up to throw him at another flower, he flew higher that we usually did. I think his ears made him more aerodynamic than us. Do we have special skills like the yellow? Master pulled us away from the new yellow and walked around where we had already been. Following the trail of stubby footprints, we ended up right back at our ships. Master called to my brothers that brought the shiny to his ship, and then told us to go back into ours. It wasn't dark yet, did master not want to be with us? Was this new yellow really more interesting? I watched master hurry back around the corner before I entered my ship for the night. He did not come back to get us before it got dark…
I didn't spend a lot of time reading over this to check for errors, so if there are any I'm sorry. As always, please review! How can i get better if you don't tell me what you think?
