"Nooooo." Aneeloo wailed.
"Shut up! It will hear you!"
"Oh, Albertson 1984 (est.) save us!" Aneeloo continued wailing.
Quien kicked Aneeloo in the stomach and he no longer wailed, instead he made strange chocking sounds.
One of the humans changed into an insect, the other went into a strange creature that looks sort of like a blue cow and a human then went into insect, but Sinline had never seen an insect like that before, he's seen flies, mosquitoes, bugs…
"It a Co-roach." Aneeloo said proudly, he seemed to lose part of his fear now that he knew what he was looking at, "I've seen one before in a book, and I've seen one before in life."
"It's coming near us." Sinline whispered, "What should we do?"
"I though you would have an answer for that." Quien whispered back.
"Let's run." Aneeloo hissed, "Look at that thing is so disgusting, I've never been so close to one before in my life."
"I thought you said you saw one before."
"What? Oh yeah, but then I was on a shelf and it was on the ground, besides it was dead."
"Let's talk to it." Quien suggested.
"What are you, out of your mind girl?" Aneeloo hissed, "Look at that thing in its mouth. Urgh. It will eat us."
"It will not eat us." Quien said stubbornly, "It used to be a human. And humans are dumb and they certainly don't eat Gars. Foxes and hawks do though."
"Then you go talk to it…Hey! Sinline!"
Sinline walked calmly out of his hiding place and stared at the Co-roach. He thought that someone had to go and talk to the thing, and he knew it would be neither of Aneeloo or Quien.
"Err." What should he say? "Hallo?"
"Oh that's jolly good way to-" Aneeloo was sneered for a few seconds, Sinline heard a thump and Aneeloo was making those strange chocking sounds again, Quien must have punched him in the gut.
The Co-roach's two long sticks wavered; it changed direction and walked in a quick irregular fashion towards Sinline.
Sinline backed away, then in a neutral voice he said, "Are you from the stars? The Thing told me strange things come from the stars."
What are you? A voice said sharply.
Aneeloo screamed from where he was hiding, "Albertson 1984 (est.) save me! What did I ever do to deserve such a-" More chocking sounds.
How many of you are there? A second voice.
"Three."
Tell them to step out. Again, the second voice.
Quien and Aneeloo edged towards Sinline after he signalled for them to do so slowly, then Thing talked. "As a matter of fact; currently there are approximately three hundred thousand of them."
What's that? The second voice hissed.
"Approximately three hundred thousand." Thing repeated patiently, obviously thinking that the humans were slow. Maybe they too, like Sinline, cannot imagine what a thousand was. Let alone three hundred thousand.
I heard that, The second voice said in annoyance, I said what is that thing?
"It's the Thing." Quien offered.
The what? First voice inquired.
"Thing." Sinline said. "Gars had been handing it over from tribesman to tribesman over the generations. We don't know what thing is. But we do know it is important."
What? Second voice spoke out.
"Actually, they do refer to me as 'The Thing', I am in reality not just a thing, I am what is left out of the Gar ship Zitron, these Gars have no idea what I am, but maybe you would comprehend; I am a computer. "
I comprehend. Voice number one said.
"Of course you do, you are an Anda-"
"A computer is a programmable electronic device that can store, retrieve and process data." Aneeloo said proudly, "I read that in a dictionary."
"What does that mean?" Sinline asked Aneeloo, he had problems understanding words like program and data.
"Got no clue."
"An Earth Gar is a being able to recite pointless pieces of information that is incomprehensible to its peanut sized brain." Then as an afterthought it said, and Sinline would have sworn it was smirking," Shameful isn't it?"
"Thing!" Sinline gasped.
"That was an accurate description, don't you agree?"
Umm, sorry to interrupt, but what are you doing here? Voice number two asked.
"What are we doing here?" Aneeloo snorted like the all arrogant Gar-tender's son he was, "What are you doing here, this is Gar territory."
Then what about all the humans? The first voice said in amusement.
"Pa, humans, they do nothing more than obey The Signs, and moo along like cow herds; they are nothing special." Aneeloo sneered.
"That is not an accurate description." Thing muttered lowly. But the co-roaches/humans did not hear it. "In fact, it is a lousy job."
Say what?! The second voice said.
The first voice laughed and said, I'll say.
Ax! The second voice yelped.
I couldn't help myself Marco. My apologies.
That's very humble of you Ax.
"We told you who we are, now you tell us who are you." Sinline said.
We are Andalites. The second voice snapped.
"No one of you is a human. I do know the difference. Only one of you is Andalite."
Silence.
Tell you what. Will you come with us?
"Where?"
Somewhere we could talk. In private.
"This is not private?"
Creeeeeekkkk!
Another two humans entered. They started to strip their clothes but stopped, one of them bent down and stared at Sinline and his friends.
Its hand stretched forward.
"Arrrrgh!" Aneeloo screamed. "Ruuuuuuuun!"
No! The first voice shouted, They are our friends.
"Albertson 1984 (est.) hel-"
"Will you shut up about him!" Quien raged, "Look he doesn't exist."
"No!" Aneeloo moaned, "Albertson 1984 (est.) forgive the outsider, she didn't mean to offend you and I-ARRGHHHHHHHH!!!"
The outstretched hand grabbed him and Sinline, since he was standing next to Aneeloo; the next few moments were terrifying; the hand lifted both of them in the air and stopped a few inches away from a human's face.
"Albertson 1984 (est.) please don't let this human eat me. Oh, please. Please. I'll do anything, anything at all I-"
The human –this one had blue eyes and extremely long 'blond' hair- narrowed its eyes at the blabbering Gar, no doubt it did not understand what he was saying.
Sinlne blinked his eyes at it. The human moved its lips in an extremely slow fashion and jerked its head –slowly of course- at the human standing next to it, this human rushed –as rushed as a human ever is- closer to its hand.
"Oh, good. Now we're entertainment?" Sinline muttered, he had a bad feeling about this.
The new human had brown skin, black hair and dark eyes, it made a stupid frown and reached out for us. One of it's huge sausage like fingers reached down to touch Sinline, but Sinline –always the good hunter equipped with excellent Gar senses- rolled out of the way and stabbed the finger with his newly made spear –he had to get rid of his old wooden one became Thing advised him that 'metal' was a better material for a weapon.
It then said something about DCFR -Diamond Crystal Focused Ray- it said would be a million times more effective but a bit out of date with the rest of Garkind.
Sinline didn't quite understand why, the rest of Gar kind –living in The Mall- had no weapons at all.
Maybe electricity was a weapon Sinline thought; he'd remember to ask Dorsam the engineering Gar from Radio shack.
In any case, as unfortunate as it was; in his burrow Sinline hadn't known about metal, it was certainly heavier than wood but could be made to be extremely sharper. He hadn't had the chance to try it out. Now he had. And he did. He was extremely pleased with the result.
The human mooed loudly. And its bleeding finger retreated into its mouth.
"Pah! Human!" Aneeloo yelled, "Get it Sinline!"
"What do you mean 'Get it'?" Sinline demanded, "It has us!"
"Of course, it does, bu-aaaaahhhhhhh!" Aneeloo squealed right in the middle of his word.
At some unknown signal, the human's hand closed squeezing Sinline and Aneeloo close together, then the hand with its finger like cage, descended in a somewhat fast manner. The floor jumped back into view. Sinline launched himself out followed by a dizzy hobbling whimpering Aneeloo.
"Thing?" Sinline called. "Are you there?"
"Why is it hard for you to understand that I can never be 'gone'?"
"Quien." Sinline snapped, "Grab Thing and let's hurry out of here!"
"That will be unnecessary, we are not in any real danger."
Quein looked hesitant.
"Do it!" Sinline hissed. He had made up his mind, the stupid humans may prove themselves violent.
Wait up! Second voice cried, Hey, my friend didn't mean that. She was just curious.
"Humans are capable of being curious?" Quien asked, she looked surprised. "Gosh, a cow can't do that can't it?"
We're not cows. Voice number two said in exasperation. Then it muttered, Man I almost wish Rachel would stomp you.
"Quien, that's not the time." Aneeloo hissed at the younger Gar. He looked at Sinline, "What do we do?"
Sinline had to think quickly. Should he trust them? Were they dangerous? Thing thought that they were not in any danger, but past experience had proved that even Thing could be wrong, Sinline remembered when he had to hatch a plan to export all of the Mallers to a new Mall (The Mall), the old one (The Shop, and at the time they were called Shoppers) became "Out of order" and was going to be "Demolished" at a certain date.
So, even though he had moved a hundred and eighty Gars by actually commandeering a lorry (it took over thirty of Dorsam's engineers and all of the other Gars to pull brakes and manage the gears and the Gar-tender and Sinline along with Dorsam and an engineer waving instructions through red flags to control all this. Steering the wheel was hardest, but it was managed –humans can't drive by the way, they're always going in wrong directions. Poor things, but even on roads there are these arrows and The Signs that they obey. However wrongly.)
Of course, the Gars were terrified of the sky, and never once glanced up at it, when the finally reached The Mall they were extremely happy, and Sinline (However loony he is) became a bit more respected.
Sinline decided to trust these strangers, he firmly believed that if he adopted the run-away-from-anything-new and oh-it-looks-so-terrible, he's be like all the other Gars.
It was disturbing too; the Mall Gars would never come out in the open because they were terrified of it, and why terrified? Because it was new and unfamiliar, something they didn't understand.
The step to understanding is to trust.
But you can't trust a fox once you see one a few yards away from your burrow. The only trust from a fox was that he'd make room for you in its stomach.
This was another disturbing thought, but Sinline shrugged it off. It is a time for him to act boldly.
"Quien?" Sinline said in what he hopped was a strong voice, "Pick up Thing and get ready to follow these strange humans. Aneeloo? You're coming with us, we'll take Bobo too."
Excuse me?
"We will hold on to Bobo; Aneeloo's rat. This way you can carry us to… to wherever it is you wish to take us." Sinline thought about what he said then decided to add for good measure. "I hope you do not intend to harm us. I am putting my trust forward."
Er. What's your name?
"My name is Sinline."
Sinline, we do not intend to harm you, and we will not have to harm you if you listen to what we say. Carefully.
Sinline glared at the Gar-tender's son who was edging away. Once he caught Sinline's glare he froze, hunched his shoulders and with a sigh headed over to Bobo and grabbed on to her restraint.
Trained rats are a sign of wealth in Gar society, not many have them, and even fewer are purebreds. Bobo was a pure breed; her coat was a flawless sandy brown. Aneeloo would have known much more about the types of breeds.
Quien marched over and held on Bobo next to Aneeloo. Sinline grabbed thing and also held on to Bobo. The rat looked surprised at the amount of attention but did not squirm; Aneeloo was whispering something in Bobo's ears.
"You may take us." Sinline said, then he held on to his breath as he watched the blond haired human grab the co-roaches and place them in her pocket.
The darker one grabbed the Sinline, Quien, Aneeloo, Bobo and Thing carefully in two hands. Then it plucked them into it's pocket..
Sinline was plunged into darkness.
A darkness that was very cramped and uncomfortable.
A darkness that became hotter by the second.
A darkness that became nosier as Quein mistakenly kicked Bobo.
Bobo 'epped!' once then fell silent. Aneeloo grumbled about something and Quien hissed something at Aneeloo. Thing remained silent. Sinline climbed to the lip of the pocket and peaked out.
Above and beside him was the dark skinned human. He could see the lips and the bottom of the nose, nothing else but the dark curls that bobbed as it giant stepped out of The Mall and into the daylight.
Sinline felt Aneeloo scrambling up beside him, "A bad choice of fabrics. This creature didn't buy these cloths from The Mall. Hmm, Sinline? Are human eyes faulty with colour?"
There came a defiant but muffled "No" from Thing.
"Then they must have severe brain disorder. Can't this creature see that its jeans are at least four inches too short? And the colour coordination! Urgh. Sinline, do you think I could take this human to the Gar-tender, my father, later on? It is doing an appalling job of looking after itself and its clothes. What did it wash this fabric with? If it thinks its worthy of meeting Albertson 1984 (est.) in the afterlife then its got to do at least some thinking-"
Aneeloo stopped talking right in the middle of his sentence.
"In Albertson 1984 (est.) name, WHAT is THAT?"
Sinline winced. "You don't have to shout Aneeloo, I can hear you quiet well, what you are looking at is the sky."
Aneeloo started to whimper. "No. No. No. Where are they taking us? Where are they taking us? Where are they-" He broke off crying pitifully, "Albertson 1984 (est.) Hellllllllllp meee. Hellp me-"
"It's just the sky." Quien jumped up to see what was wrong, "Jeez. I thought you wanted to see the sky, remember? We talked about it?"
"Oh, no. Oh, no. That was hours ago. No, that was another lifetime. I wouldn't say something as crazy as that. Are you-" He looked up and started to gasp again. "Oh. No. The sky. It's just the sky. It-OHH NOOOO!"
Aneeloo dove back inside. And screamed all over again.
Unfortunately this caused Bobo to go crazy too. She started to claw and kick her way out of the pocket. The human stopped walking.
In Bobo's rush to get out, she dislodged Sinline, Aneeloo, and Quien from the pocket's lip.
They went tumbling over in the air.
"Arrrrrrghhhhhhhhh!" Quien screamed.
"Ahhhhhhhhhh!" Sinline shouted in horror.
"Albertson 1984 (est.) I plead -AARRRRGHHHHH!" Aneeloo spiralled down with Bobo.
Bobo was running down the leg of the human. Quien and Aneeloo managed to grab her.
Sinline wasn't so lucky.
He crashed downwards. Bumped into the human's leg, was roughly slammed into Bobo and then he bounced painfully off the shoe (thankfully soft and old) and on to the ground.
The human was looking down at them.
Sinline looked up in a daze.
And then looked down at his leg. It was twisted in a very, very wrong angle. He felt sick.
He looked up and almost died in shock.
He was sitting not a few inches away of one very big, very mean looking rat. This rat was no Bobo.
Its nose twitched at the air. It smiled an evil smile and leapt at Sinline.
Sinline hadn't had the time to get out his spear. But the time it took the rat to lunge gave him, Aneeloo and Quein enough time to scream.
It also gave enough time for a hawk to soar down and grab Sinline from the ground.
Sinline looked down at the horrified diminishing faces of his friends. The rat had took off. Bobo was staring fixedly upwards.
The humans were so very suddenly so small. Gar size almost.
He looked at the monstrous talons and the overhead beak and screamed in terror.
Stop moving! You'll slip!
But Sinline wasn't thinking. Well, he was, but he wasn't thinking about the hawk anymore.
He was thinking about the long, long way he had to go down.
Sinline almost laughed. Evaded three deaths only to face a fourth totally and entirely his fault. The trip down the human leg hadn't killed him.
The rat hadn't killed him.
The hawk hadn't killed him.
He was going to kill himself.
He looked up and saw that the hawk was no longer so large, small in fact. He looked down and he saw that the trees and humans were no longer Gar sized.
He caught a face of a brown haired human with a pale complexion. He also had caught the horrified look.
But he no longer saw anything. As he hit the ground roughly, his dying thought was; "Is there really an Albertson 1984 (est.)?"
That may have been Sinline's wonder, but he should have wondered why the ground had cliffs and mountains made entirely of flesh.
He also should have wondered why the ground was suddenly chest-level with a human.
That thought may have kept him from fainting.
But that wasn't what he thought.
He was thinking of his home in the burrow; a far away simple place that involved no dazzling heights and had plenty of limits.
He was also thinking about his department in The Mall. A new home with even more limits and confinements.
If only he knew.
Waking up would mean the end of Gar life in confined limits.
It would mean a quest to find home.
A Gar's real home.
*
* *
Unfortunately, that
is another story; if you want me to continue (which I don't know if I should)
please tell me. If I don't continue then assume that Sinline had died. But
what kind of end is that to this kind of story?