Chapter 4
From within the moon-walk, the girls watched as the figure of Katie
made her way into Justin's party, looking for the girls.
"How did she know?!" Martha whined.
"She must have sensed it," Kristin said.
"And she knew of the star called Tamahome," Hotohori said.
"Please," Caitlin said, "Don't say that name. I don't want to here
that name."
"What, Tamahome?"
Nakago coughed, sitting up. "Why does that name bother me so much?
Don't say it again. I'm warning you."
Hotohori smiled, ready to say it again in order to tease the general,
when a kid poked his head through the door of the moon walk. His eyes
widened when he saw Nakago awake, and ran away screaming.
"Oh, that's going to bring attention," Caitlin said.
"What are we going to do?!" Martha complained.
They sat in the moon-walk, saying nothing for a few minutes. In the
distance, they heard Andrew's strangled howl again. They waited,
listening. And then, they heard it. Tubas. Getting closer.
"First Katie, and now those two?!" Kristin cried, breaking the
silence.
Tension filled the moon-walk as the five all braced themselves for
what was about to come. They watched out the windows to see that everyone
had stopped moving, and were all wondering where the sound of music was
coming from. Someone announced that a marching band was coming.
The tubas got louder, and louder, and louder. Suddenly, they were
just outside the house on the other side. They were coming up the drive
way, through the garage. and now, streams of tuba players marched out into
the lawn, and people ran away with fright as the tuba players bombarded
them with Phil's theme song. The moon-walk kept the five quite hidden from
the tuba chaos.
The tubas ganged up on the people of the party, and circled around
them so they couldn't escape. Kristin could see her friends Justin and
Kevin fall to their knees, with their hands over their ears. The tubas
played louder and louder, and squeezed the circle closer and closer. Then,
they suddenly stopped, as from the garage, three figures appeared.
Andrew stepped out first, sending a signal with his lighter to the
tubas to stop. Behind him came Phil, and then, a wolf with a scar over his
left eye.
"Ashitare," Nakago said under his breath.
"Ashitare?!" the girls cried silently, watching as the three figures
approached the frightened people surrounded by tuba players.
"Alright," Andrew bellowed. "Hand over the priestesses and no one
will get hurt!"
"What are you talking about, Andrew?" Justin said. "You're ruining
my party!"
"This is no time for a party," Andrew said. "I must find those
priestesses. The time has come to complete the Wolfdom. Now tell me,
where are they?!"
Ashitare put his nose in the air, and started sniffing around.
"Ah!" Caitlin breathed. "The cheez-its! Hide them, quick!"
Nakago grabbed the cheez its, turned around and swallowed them down.
The girls restrained themselves not to laugh as he turned around with
full cheeks. He growled at them for stiffening giggles.
They watched Ashitare sniffing the ground, trying to pick up on a
scent. Phil stood behind Andrew, as his friend cried loudly, "Where are
they? I won't let you go until I find those girls!"
"Make us," Kevin said bravely.
The tubas began to play at once, at a very high volume, Phil's theme
song. Everyone fell to the ground, shoving their fingers in their ears to
drown out the sound, but it was far too loud. People were dying, and
Ashitare was getting closer and closer to the moon-walk, when suddenly, the
sound waves of the tubas were broken by some sort of sound.
"Chiriko?" Kristin breathed under her breath.
But, that wasn't a little flute sound that they heard as the tuba's
song diminished, and Andrew looked up in terrified surprise.
"What's this?!" he cried out.
Then, all could hear it. It was a KA KA KA coming from the nearby
woods. Everyone froze.
"Tomo," Nakago attempted to say, but couldn't through the cheez its
jammed in his mouth.
Everyone stared at the woods a few yards away from the house. Andrew
watched the woods, then, started backing away. "It's coming closer," he
said.
He grabbed Phil's arm and dragged him away from the party, towards
the garage door.
Ashitare was barely a foot from the door of the moon-walk, when
Andrew got his attention, and they made their way to the garage door. But,
before completely going out, Andrew turned around and yelled, "I'm not
through with you! I'll see to it that I get those priestesses if it's the
last thing I do!!"
Suddenly, vines poked up from the ground and strangled the tuba
players. Phil cried out in disgust, "My tubas!" as Andrew dragged him away
through the door and to his car, with Ashitare as their feet.
From the moon-walk, the five watched as the tubas fell to the ground.
The vines faded, and the KA KA KA sound was made again. It faded into the
distance, as everyone slowly got to their senses.
"We have to get to the woods," Kristin decided. "We just gotta make
it to those woods."
