AN: So- my internet company decided to disconnect me. Of course, they say they didn't- but not being able to get online for two weeks says otherwise . Anyways, I didn't forget about you guys. Also, as a side note, I think this will be the last Animorphs fanfic I'll be writing, unless I get inspired later on. We'll see.
Thank you to everyone who reviewed/favored and have started to follow me ^^ I feel so loved xD
To chapter 10!
Chapter 10
"Tomalk!" a gruff voice said behind me.
"Uh- Ax? I think we found life." I said, wincing as the sharp spear head pressed farther into my neck.
"Tomalk! Arckdem yim!" the voice shouted again.
"We're friends." Jake's voice said calmly behind him. "Marco, Ax, raise your arms."
We did, my nose pressing against Ax's arm. "I surrender! Don't hurt me." I said, getting another jab in the neck.
"Dorin inal!"
"Stand up, slowly." Ax said, slowly rising to his feet.
"What?" I demanded.
"The translator chip has kicked in. Stand up."
I did, slowly, the spear head following me.
"Stremina!"
"Turn around." Ax translated, and I did. Slowly.
My mouth fell open in shock, and it took everything I had to not start laughing, even with the weapon pointed in my face.
"They're cats!" I let slip out, the one in front of me jabbing the spear closer to my face.
"Be quiet." Ax hissed, very cat-like himself.
The 'cat' in front of me had to be a little over six feet tall standing on two legs. Other than that, it looked exactly like a cat, pointed ears, whiskers, fur and tail. My guy was like a backwards tiger, black fur with large, thick orange stripes, markings over his face like a tabby cats.
There's just three of them. I think. I'm sorry, they were hiding in the bushes I couldn't see them. Tobias apologized and I watched him circle by overheard. I watched Jake give a small nod, his eyes fixed on the all white 'bi-cat' in front of him, the one holding Ax was gray with light brown patches across the fur.
"Arckdem yim!" My 'bi-cat' demanded again, his slitted red eyes narrowing at me.
"Ordinem!" Ax piped up, all three cats turning to him. "Ordinem, alkein unirna."
His cat looked to mine, lowering his spear walking up to Ax and sniffing him over. He seemed satisfied and nodded, the other two lowered their weapons, letting out mews in what I assumed was curiosity.
"What did you tell them?" I asked, and the tiger guy started sniffing my hair.
"That we were friends from a distant world." Ax said, shrugging, as his cat tried to take his glasses, growling lightly when Ax stopped him.
"They're really curious." Jake said, jumping as his cat licked his cheek. "Okay, that was gross."
"Should I scratch behind their ears? Anyone got catnip- hey! Don't do that!" I jumped back as my cat got a little 'too' friendly.
"Now what?" Jake asked.
"Terra's out." I said firmly, as tiger got bored with me and started looking at my clothes and things I brought with me, picking at me here and there. "They seem intelligent enough."
"Agreed." Ax said. "Though if they're friendly, it wouldn't hurt to learn some things if we can. We're also trying to make allies, as well as find things we may not have on Earth like medicines. Humans are not being as- restricted, as the Andalite's are."
"Well, go ahead Mr. Translator." I said, gesturing at him.
"Uh- shintme alerakim?" Ax asked, looking towards his cat. His ears flicked and turned to tiger who seemed to be the leader. Tiger nodded, picking up his spear and headed off towards the woods, gesturing for us to follow.
We trailed after him- them, through the forest. They tried talking to us, with only Ax able to respond.
Wow! Guys, there's like- a village just in the next clearing! These cat guys are everywhere.
Laughter, singing, and meowing reached our ears as we followed a small path, the trees thinning out.
The- buildings, were just large mounds make out of hardened dirt, the trees around us created a canopy above the small village, hiding it from sight from Tobias, filtering the light down in a light green shade. Young children were running about, adults going about their chores. We were lead through the village, some of the bi-cats stopping and looking at us in wonder as we passed.
Tiger said something to Ax who nodded. "They are taking us to their pride leader."
"Pride?" I snickered and Ax shrugged.
"Closest word in english."
The village slowly congregating around us, their eyes watching in fascination, adults holding back their children in case of danger.
Tiger disappeared into the largest mud dwelling, Jake's white cat gesturing for us to follow before going in after him.
Inside it was almost totaly dark, the only light coming through the open door. The ground under our feet was squishy, like walking on mud, but dry.
A large gray 'cat' with very fluffy fur and white markings sprawled out on his side lazily. Bits of what I assumed was food, meat possibly, was laying around him. Five other 'cat's', these ones female, sat around him, running their claws and tongue through his fur grooming him. The females didn't even bat an eye at us, as the gray cats bright green eyes roamed over to us.
"Hintra? Ostrangra?" He boomed, looking at tiger (or rather Hintra). He responded back, the larger cat looking even more curious. He lumbered to his feet, shaking his fur, stepping towards us. Hintra pointed to Ax, saying something else.
The gray cat flicked his ear, leaning in closer, sniffing Ax over, giving his cheek a quick lick before stepping back, a deep laugh burst from his lips, as he seemed to greet Ax who replied back.
"He says his name is Sontar, leaded of this pride." Ax said to us. He introduced himself, Jake and I and the cats looked at us even more curiously.
"Marco?" Hintra said slowly, blinking his red eyes at me.
"Yeah. I'm Marco." I said, smiling pointing at myself.
Hintra smiled, pointing his own finger to his chest. "Hintra!"
The white cat moved to Jake, pointing to his chest as well. "Corkina!"
Ax must of explained that Jake and I couldn't understand them, because they stopped talking so much, using gestures instead. The cats moved about us, picking at our clothes, waiting for us to respond to them, repeating back the words happily, before moving onto something else. When they finally satisfied their curiosity, Sontar growled out something and Hintra and Corkina left us, their tails flicking behind them excitedly.
Sontar babbled away to Ax, waiting patiently for him to translate for us. "He- wants us to eat with him."
"I thought you said to not eat or drink anything?" I said, as Sontar gestured for us to sit, which we did.
"I did, and we really should not." Ax said biting his lip. "But I think we'll insult him if we say 'no'."
"What about Marco and I?" Jake asked. "Tell him I'm the- pride leader, and I need to eat first. If there's something wrong with the food, I can just go morph."
"Unless it takes more than a few minutes." I muttered. Ax finally nodded. "I suppose that's all we can do." and relayed the message to Sontar, who sized Jake up, before giving out a resounding laugh again, chatting back to Ax who snickered lightly.
"What?" I asked.
"He said he already knew that. You and I are too- well, weak looking to be pride leaders." Ax snickered.
"Great, I'm getting insulted by a cat." I grumbled and Ax laughed again.
Hintra and Corkina came back, carrying a wooden bowel for each of us. Sontar was given his first, then Jake, Ax and then me. I stared down at the green slime-like substance. I looked over at Jake who looked a little green.
Sontar took a great gulp, licking his lips with a large pur, staring at Jake expectantly.
"You first, oh Pride Leader." I grinned at him, and grimaced before quickly moving the bowel to his lips and taking a great gulp.
He gagged, hiding it behind his hand as he swallowed, his eyes watering up. Sontra gave out a deep laugh turning to Ax and I. We looked to Jake who nodded, still looking a bit sick.
"Bottoms up." I groaned, tapping my bowel to Ax's, and pressed the bowel to my lips. It was really, really gross. It was like swallowing jello-that had not yet solidified, and tasted like- a mix between grass, with a hint of mint and dandelion steams. And yes, I know what they taste like, Jake dared me to try one when we were ten. The liquid slid down my throat slowly, no matter how many times I tried to swallow it faster, the taste overwhelming.
"That was awesome!" I chocked, as the mouthful slid to my stomach.
I heard Ax gag beside me as he covered his mouth.
"I's not so bad now." Jake said, his voice sounding a little slurred. "I feel very warm."
"You sound drugged Jake." I giggled, as I wiggled my fingers in front of me, suddenly feeling very warmth and comfortable. "I could go to sleep, right now, seriously."
"I too, feel very relaxed." Ax said lazily, stretching his arms above himself. Sontar watched us, before laughing in delight, saying something to Ax who replied with a goofy grin on his face. Sontar only laughing harder.
"I think, we might have made a mistake." I said, but I didn't feel like. I felt so good! All I needed was a nice comfy place to lay down, have a nap. Or maybe I should go outside-
Sontar took another drink from his bowel, gesturing to Jake who followed again, gagging a lot less this time.
"Shouldn't do that!" I sang to him, and he grinned at me.
"Damage has already been done!" He sang back, and we fell into peels of laughter. Ax shrugged, taking another drink from his bowel, gagging just as bad, making Sontar laugh again.
The laughter and singing starting again from outside, putting me into an even better mood. I looked around the dwelling again, feeling fascinated despite there was nothing to look at.
One of the females moved over to Ax, running her hands through his long hair, starting to play with it, twisting strands into braids as she purred, Ax's eyes slowly slipped closed.
"Hey! That looks like fun!" I exclaimed, shifting to Ax, playing with his hair too. The female giggled at me, as another female moved over to Jake, frowning at his short hair.
"Imnda?" She asked, her voice like chimes in the wind.
"She's asking where all your fur is." Ax said lazily, his eyes still closed as the female and I continued to play with his hair.
"Oh. I could always morph something with hair. Maybe the tiger. Hintra might like that." Jake said slowly, as the female behind him started to purr, running her hands over his hair.
I looked to the female sitting behind Ax and pointed to myself. "Marco."
She smiled, showing off her canines and pointed a finger to herself. "Sainta."
Ax raised his hand. "Ax."
Sainta smiled, placing her hand on top of Ax's head. "Ax." she looked at me. "Marco."
"Very good." I said, smiling at her, and hers widened.
The girl playing with Jake's hair stabbed him on the shoulder with her claw making look at her as she scowled. "Kima!" she said sharply.
"I think she feels left out." Ax giggled.
"I'm Jake." he said to her.
"I'm Jake?" she said back slowly, poking him again.
"Uh. No." He shook his head. "Jake."
She smiled, nodding. "Jake!" she said finally, pushing his head forwards so she could play with his hair.
We sat around in a comfortable silence, broken only by Kima and Sainta's purring.
Absently, I took another drink from the bowel, shuddering at the taste, but the slime went down better this time. The warmth and peacefulness spreading out farther.
"I want to go outside!" Jake exclaimed suddenly, and I nodded in agreement, Ax relaying out message to Sontar, who laughed in delight, nodding to him.
"Let us go Marco!" Ax said happily, grabbing my hand and pulling me to my feet and back outside in the nice, warm sunlight.
"Oh, it's so nice out here." I exclaimed, spreading my arms out, spinning in a circle, loosing my balance and falling to the ground. Ax doubled over, laughing at me Hintra and Corkina (who followed us out), laughed too.
I laid there on the ground, looking up at the dark blue sky, my hands under my head.
"Come on Marco!" Ax demanded, grabbing in the front of my shirt. "Let's go look around."
"Alright, alright." I grumbled, getting back to my feet. He grabbed my hand again, pulling me through the village, stopping to chat to a few of the cats standing about who were looking curiously at us.
The whole village congregated around us, a few of the children coming over, rubbing their furred cheeks against our legs, purring loudly, mewing up at us.
"I love this place!" Jake said. "I haven't felt this good in years!"
There you guys are. What happened?
"Tobias!" I shouted, making a few cats hiss in surprise.
Yes Marco. It's me. He said slowly. Are you three alright.
"Oh fine. Never better." I said out loud, spinning around in circles trying to catch sight of the bird.
Right. And your acting like a ballerina because-?
"Lighten up bird-boy!" I laughed, grabbing Ax around the waist, spinning him in circles with me, impulsively rubbing my cheek against his. He laughed, rubbing his cheek on mine as well.
"Oh, look at this!" Jake exclaimed, moving over to the edge of the clearing, were a bunch of plants, like cat-tails, with purple heads on the, were growing. He turned to us, a silly grin on his face, spread out his arms and fell straight back into the bushes disappearing in a puff of purple pollen.
A few of the children laughed in delight, bounding over, their tails swishing happily as they pounced him, a grunt coming from no where.
You're acting like a bunch of- cats. Tobias laughed. I blew a raspberry towards the sky, spraying Ax in spite, and Tobias laughed harder. Whatever you're on, I want some!
"Green slime! Good for bad moods! Hey, we should take this stuff back and give it to people with depression!" I said in delight, Ax laughing as I continued to spin him.
"Marco! I am getting dizzy!" He shouted at me, and I let go, he stumbled back a few steps before falling to the ground, a couple of kids pouncing on him as soon as he hit.
"This is so nice." Jake said, coming up beside me, his hair dyed purple.
"I wonder if its that stuff we drank?" I wondered, watching Ax struggle under about five cubs. "Hopefully it's not addictive."
"We'll worry about that later. Too late now." Jake said, slapping my back.
I have a feeling O'Neill wouldn't like this. Tobias said. On the upside, I found some food. Well, a kind of rodent anyways. Quiet tasty too.
"I wish he would stop talking." I said to Jake who snickered.
I heard that.
"Are you going to help me!" Ax shouted at Jake and I. Laughing, we helped Ax, picking the kids up and they ran off, finding some other game.
I helped Ax to his feet, his glasses crooked and covered in dust. "Well that was fun." he remarked, wiping the glasses on my shirt since his was dirty.
"Your hair's all messy." I laughed, patting it down. He smiled at me, his eyes dancing.
We relaxed in the purple cat-tails, warmth by the sun and the sweet smell of the plants, Ax rested his head on my chest, a few cubs curling around Jake and we slowly, we drifted into sleep.