chapter 2
The next morning Garnel woke up and looked around the room and he saw Doofle and clutched it tight. He was understandably scared. He quietly came out of the room. He started down the hall and heard talking. He followed the voices to the dining room. "Well look who decided to join us," Panthro said.
Garnel jumped and ran over to Lion-o and Liosia and hid behind them.
"Sorry kiddo I didn't mean to startle you," Panthro said.
Garnel looked at Panthro and managed to give shy smile.
"Come on sit down and join us," Cheetara said.
Garnel just stayed put trembling. "Come on out from behind Lion-o and Liosia we won't hurt you," Tygra said.
"Yes and have some breakfast," Wilykit said.
"Yeah come on, you don't have to hide," Wilykat said.
"It's okay Garnel you can sit in between Liosia and me if it makes you feel any better," Lion-o said.
"Will that make you feel better?' Liosia asked.
Garnel nodded and sat down in a the chair in between Lion-o and Liosia. Snarf came in with the food. "Oh boy waffles," Wilykit said.
"What are waffles?" Garnel asked.
"You'll see," Wilykat said.
"Yes and they're tasty," Wilykit said.
"Here you go," Snarf said placing one on Garnel's plate.
Garnel looked Snarf he didn't look scary, he looked nice. "You are going to have nice breakfast I hope you like it," Snarf said.
Garnel tried the waffle and smiled and finished it up.
"Now that is a happy child." Panthro said.
"Would you like to play Garnel?' Wilykit asked.
"Sure," Garnel said.
"Well how about we play tag?' Wilykat suggested.
"Good idea," Wilykit said.
"I never played tag before how do you play?' Garnel asked.
"One person is it and then once he touches or tags someone then they are it, and the game goes on." Wilykit explained.
They went outside and started to play. Everyone was having funny. Then Garnel tripped and held his scraped knee and started to cry. "Hey what's wrong?" Wilykit asked.
"I got a boo boo on my knee." Garnel said while sobbing.
"It's just little scraped knee, quit being a cry baby," Wilykat said.
Garnel started to cry harder.
Wilykat looked ashamed of himself. "That wasn't very nice," Wilykit said.
"Hey what's going on out here?" Cheetara asked. She saw Garnel crying and holding his knee. "Garnel are you alright?" she asked kneeling down.
"I got a boo boo on my knee and red warm liquid is coming out." Garnel said still crying.
"That's pretty bad scrape," Cheetara said.
"He's also upset because Wilykat also called him a cry baby," Wilykit said.
"Nobody likes tattletale," Wilykat said.
"Wilykit only told because she feels like you were being mean, and it's not nice to call someone cry baby because they are crying because they're hurt. Wilykat is right about the tattletale thing, but you had good reason tell, right?" Cheetara said.
"Yes I thought Garnel was feeling bad because Wilykat called him a mean name and Wilykat was being mean," Wilykit said.
"Sorry Garnel," Wilykat said. "I wasn't trying to be mean, I just wasn't thinking," he said.
"It's okay," Garnel said.
"Good now that is cleared up, let's take Garnel inside and take care of the scrape." Cheetara said picking Garnel.
"What happened?" Lion-o asked when he saw Cheetara carrying in Garnel.
"Garnel has a scraped knee," Cheetara said.
"Oh," Lion-o said.
"Poor little dear," Liosia said.
"I'll take look," Pumyra said. She cleaned up scrape, then used disinfectant Garnel drew in sharp breath when she did. Then Pumyra remove a few tiny pieces of rock and removed some dirt. The rinsed it off and dabbed it dry. Then she placed a bandage on it. "There you go, all done," she said.
"You were very brave about that," Lion-o said.
"I was scared," Garnel said.
"Garnel brave means doing what you have to do even though you are scared. You let Pumyra treat your knee so it can heal even though you were scared about it," Lion-o said.
"Oh," Garnel said.
At lunch time Garnel sat close to Lion-o. A couple of hours after lunch Tygra pulled Lion-o aside.
"Lion-o have you noticed that Garnel looks a lot like Grune," Tygra said.
"Yes I have noticed that but he seems nothing like him," Lion-o said.
"That maybe, but we don't know where he came from," Tygra said.
"True but he's cub and he doesn't act like a bad kid, he's just acting like a frightened child who just needs to be loved," Lion-o said.
"I can't argue with you there, but I would like to do a few tests, I just need a few hair samples to do so, all it's the least painful and stressful for Garnel. But I might have to take a couple of blood samples just in case for further testing okay?" Tygra said.
"Okay, just be careful when you do it, you know he's easily frightened." Lion-o said.
"I will," Tygra said.
"I'll bring him in," Lion-o said. He saw Garnel playing on the ground with Doofle. Liosia was smiling and Lion-o smiled too remembering when it was him playing with Doofle at that age. He came out of memory lane and cleared his throat.
That got Garnel's attention. "Is something wrong?" Garnel asked.
"No Garnel just come with us," Lion-o said.
"Okay, why?" Garnel asked.
"Tygra just wants to do some tests. He's going to take some hair and blood samples to study then you can go back to playing." Lion-o said.
"So it's nothing worry about," Liosia said.
"Okay," Garnel said.
They went into Tygra's lab. Tygra had everything all set up. "Okay now hold still it will be over before you know it." Tygra said.
Garnel was a bit nervous and saw Tygra was right it was over before he knew it.
Over the next couple of hours Tygra was running tests and studying Garnel's DNA. The other's knew why Garnel bore a strong resemblance to Grune the destroyer. Lion-o need sometime to sort out his thoughts while Tygra ran the tests.
Garnel came into his room and saw Lion-o on the bed. "Lion-o? Liosia?" Garnel asked.
"Oh hello Garnel is something wrong?" Lion-o asked.
"You okay?" Liosia asked.
"I don't know how to talk about it." Garnel asked.
"You can tell me I won't get mad," Lion-o said.
"Yes you can tell us," Liosia said.
"Okay I have these flashes of pictures sometimes while awake and this dream I had last night. I saw myself as this terrible cat I was doing these awful things. I notice when I look in the mirror I sometimes see myself as a cruel look cat with one saber tooth." Garnel said.
Lion-o and Liosia looked at Garnel shocked at what he just said.
To be continued.
