Chapter four

Nikkei

"She's been gone too long," I said.

"Nick, think about it," Jeff asked, having joined us with Allison and Shelly. "Her and her dad have a lot to talk about."

We stood near the clearing where Ax had his scoop, though he wasn't there. It was just me, Jeff, Allison, Shelly, Al, and Tobias, who was in human form.

"She's been gone for five hours!"

"And since when do you call her 'Nick?'" Shelly asked, eyebrow raised.

"I always have," Jeff said innocently.

"Sure. Right."

"Hey, Tobias, what day is it?" I asked.

"You don't know?" He asked, eyebrow raised.

"No. We don't."

"It's December 22nd."

"Three days until Christmas…" Allison muttered.

"And I'm sure that to Stephanie's dad, this would be an extremely good Christmas present."

"Are you suggesting she may not come back?"

"Possibly. I'm sure she'd find a way to leave. But let's get serious. Nikkei, you're very good at finding people, if I remember correctly. You find Stephanie, we'll head off to tell the others." Tobias began to demorph. The rest of us morphed our various bird forms.

I took off in the direction where Stephanie had been, searching the ground for something, some sign of, well, anything. Signs of a struggle, footprints, bits of clothing caught on branches, anything.

Nothing. Not even a footprint. Not even a footprint from when Stephanie's dad had came, no sunken land from where Bobby had sat.

I circled back, stewing in thought. How is that physically possible? The ground was damp, pressure of any kind would make an indentation. There had to be something.

>Argh… April would know what to do…> I muttered.

"AH! Let me go!" I heard from below me.

>What?> I dove, entering a 'stoop.' Following the sound, I came across…

>STEPHANIE!> I called.

"Nikkei! Help me!"

"HUSH!" a second voice commanded. "You'll draw the controller's attention."

>"What?"> Our voices said in unison.

Hahaha... the plot thickens. THANX MUCHLY TO JANIKA FOR THE GREAT NEW TITLE!

Janika: Thanx for the title! hands chocolate bar

Traycon3: Thanx anyway. I'm glad you like the story.