Jake

Everything stung. My heart stung and my cheek stung too. Who knew that Terra could slap so hard. But most of all I felt bad. Kala hadn't deserved those words.

Tap! Tap! Tap!

~Jake. If you would be so kind as to open your window.~

I sat up straight on my bed. "Kala."

~Who else? I say again, will you please open your window. The wind is ruffling my feathers.~

I walked over to the window and saw a spotted owl perched on the branch outside my window. Hurriedly I opened the door and felt her flutter in. She landed and perched on my beds frame.

"Uh... Hey... I didn't... I'm so-"

~Apology accepted.~

"R-really." I frowned, she couldn't have forgiven me that easily. "You sure."

Her large eyes stared at me, and I shifted, slightly uncomfortable. ~Yes. You spoke out of pain. The loss of a loved one, you aren't the first one to speak that way to me. Just the first to be slapped for it.~

"Really?" I rubbed my cheek. "Who else said those kind of things to you?"

~None other than the one who slapped you.~

I shifted once again. "Really? It doesn't seem that way."

She shrugged, which was actually quite funny to see. I didn't even know owls could shrug. ~Lets just say it is an honest response to finding a loved one being controlled.~

I froze. "You mean..."

~Her father.~

I frowned and went and slumped on my bed. "She seemed so... care free."

~Huh.~ She tilted her head. ~She tries to do that for me. She likes it when I smile, or... so she says.~

That's when something that Terra said donned in my mind. "What did she mean?"

~Excuse me?~

"What did she mean, no ones faced as much pain as you have?"

If the owls anatomy allowed their eyes to widen I'm sure they would have. As it were her feather did puff out a little. ~That. She. Oh please say she didn't.~ She sighed and preened her wings. ~Terra... She's what you'd call, a bit closed-minded on these things. I am not the one who has felt the most pain. She just thinks that since I'm the one she knows with a lot of pain, she expects that I would have the most pain. Darn it this is difficult to explain!~

I fell back while sliding my arms under me head. "Take your time."

She sighed at this. ~Maybe this will help.~ She fluttered to my bedroom floor and demorphed. She turned and gestured to her lower back, the part that resembled a deer or a horse. ~Take a look.~

I frowned at that. She wanted me to check her out. I looked at her lower body and froze. What?

"What are those!?" I exclaimed/questioned. I frowned when I remembered something, something that Cassie had showed me.

Flashback

It had been a small horse, tiny, even though Cassie had said it was almost full grown. It had been starved that was for sure, and there were... faint lines on its back?

"What are those?" I had asked her.

She frowned, melancholy corrupting her features. "Those are whipping lines." She reached over towards the small filly, but she flinched back from the outstretched hand. "The poor things been abused."

End

"Kala... have you been... abused?"

She flinched and her fourteen delicate fingers wrung them selves in intricate 'knots' in front of her. ~Yes I have. Not by my family, no. But by other Andalites. Warriors. Who thought it was fun to beat around a vecol.~

I frowned, I didn't understand. Whats a vecol?

~A vecol is someone who is not whole...or is slightly deformed. But as you see I'm not a vecol for a pysical defect.~ She trembled slightly. ~It is because of who my parents are, more correctly my father.~

I opened my mouth to ask another question, but I saw the pain flashing in her violet eyes and understood to not ask anymore questions.

~Jake. Do you... wish to know how I knew that your brother is a controller?~

I nodded stiffly. It would be nice.

~Alright. Come to this house.~ After handing me a slip of paper with an adress on it, she continued to relay some instructions. ~Make sure to bring everyone else.~

She turned and began to walk towards the window. She turned towards me one more time. ~And Jake, be careful with using the phone.~ And with that, she morphed and flew into the night. Leaving me crumpling the peice of paper in my hand.


TaDa! This isn't my favorite chapter I've written. Kala's life is sad. And to make more sense of what Kala said about Terra. Terra's more immature, and almost thinks the universe revolves around the her and the people she knows, meaning that Kala is the one she knows with the most pain. But obviously Kala doesn't believe that, and to verfy her markings, she was whipped by tail-blades. Just by the tail part not the blade part. Hmm... anyone wonder who Kalas father is?

Disclaimer:Me no owny