Blank65 and Oedipal Kat: wait and seeee....
CASSIE'S CRAZY CONTRIBUTION CONTINUING THE COLLECTION OF CHRONICLES
{Okay, that was unexpected,} Marco whispered.
He was referring to the situation we were in. Guide, the Iskoort who had guided us through this world in the past, had a gun aimed straight at Ax, who was in Andalite form. The rest of us were birds.
Actually, the gun wasn't that big of a problem. The surprising thing was the fact that Guide had a gun. And was aiming it straight at Ax.
{Ax,} Jake said tersely.
In a flash, Ax's tail had zoomed by and the gun was knocked onto the floor, away from the hands of Guide.
Before Guide could utter a word, Ax's tail was by his throat. {Why did you threaten me with a gun?} Ax asked calmly.
{I...I am sorry. I did not mean to.}
{Do not lie to me,} Ax sneered.
{I will not. I remember the power that Andalites have.}
For a moment I was confused. Than I remembered. Last time we had come here, Jake had fed Guide some lie about Andalites being able to tell if someone was lying, and if the person was lying, they could make their head explode.
I struggled to not laugh.
Jake must have been telling Ax something in private thought-speak, because for a moment Ax was quiet. Than he said, {I see that you speak the truth. Now, tell me why you were carrying a gun. And what has become of all the residents of this land?}
Guide sensed that danger was gone, at least for now, and he stood up. {These are dangerous times. It is necessary to be careful. All who venture out must protect themselves.}
{Where has everyone else gone?}
{Captured. Or killed. By...by them.}
{Them? Who's them?} Marco asked privately.
{I don't trust this guy!} Rachel sneered.
(He said he wouldn't lie,} Tobias reminded all of us.
{Prince Jake? Should I continue to speak to him?}
{Yeah, Ax, keep going. Let's see if we can get some more information out of him.} All this was private thought-speak so Guide couldn't hear us.
Usually I'm pretty good at figuring out people's motives. But after studying Guide, I was feeling a little bit confused. I mean, it would have been understandable if he had been a little surprised to see us, but there was a big difference between being surprised and drawing out a gun.
I must have been lost in my thoughts, because I was surprised when Jake said, {Okay, everyone, follow him. Ax, how much time do we have left in morph?}
{90 of your minutes.}
{Ax. We've mysteriously appeared in the world of crazy aliens who have mysteriously disappeared, and the only one of these aliens that we have come across has tried to shoot you with a gun, and this is the same guy who we are now following back to his home. Do you think that the situation is weird enough for you to not do the whole "our minutes, your minutes," thing?} Marco, of course.
I smiled to myself. When he put it that way, things did seem a little bizarre.
{What I wanna know is how you got that all out in one breath,} Rachel said conversationally.
{Well, technically, it's thought-speak, so it wasn't one breath.) Jake commented off-handedly.
Poor Jake. This must be a little bit harder for him. After all, it was here that he had almost single-handedly defeated Crayak. And Crayak had hated him ever since.
Than I remembered my family. My parents. How would they react when they discovered that their only daughter had suddenly disappeared from the mall? I felt a sudden spurt of guilt, causing my parents to worry. Than again, it wasn't like I had done it on purpose.
It was amazing. After all that had happened in the last half hour, I still could feel regular emotions like guilt.
We flew through the air, following the figure of the Iskoort on the ground below us. The air felt...different. It sounded strange, but the air, like the land, seemed eerily void of all life...like it was dead or something. It was an eerie, unsettling feeling.
{We are here,} Guide announced.
{Um...where?} We were at a little clearing. There was nothing other than a big rock.
Guide pushed the rock aside. And we saw a hole in the ground.
{You've got to be kidding me,} Marco moaned.
{Should we demorph? Is it safe?} Rachel wondered aloud.
{It should be. I mean, he's seen us in our natural forms, before. It won't change anything to demorph now.}
He was right. We started to demorph, while Guide waited patiently, apparently still fascinated by the morphing.
{Are you any more interested now in selling your ability to change shapes?} It looked like Guide hadn't lost his interest in making money. Maybe some things never changed.
"Um... are we supposed to go down there or something?" Marco asked, now mostly human. He pointed towards the hole.
{Yes.} With that, Guide jumped in.
We all stared for a moment in the direction of the hole.
"After you," Marco said.
"God, you're such a baby." Rachel rolled her eyes and lowered herself into the hole. Tobias dove into it after her, followed by a nervous Ax and a wary Marco. Now it was my turn.
I slowly climbed down into it, and immediately was engulfed in darkness. I saw a faint outline of Jake as he scrambled down, and then Guide was pushing the rock back on top of the whole and everything was completely, totally, dark.
{Follow me.} We heard Guide's seemingly disembodied voice.
"How are we supposed to follow you if we can't see you?" Came Marco's shrill reply.
{Oh yes, I forgot that you might not be able to see as well as the Iskoort can.} A second later, a light flickered on, and I could dimly see everyone. Rachel, hands on hips, slightly annoyed expression on her face. Tobias, perched on her shoulder, his fierce eyes revealing nothing. Ax, his Andalite claustrophobia apparently kicking in as he stood, looking apprehensive. Marco, examining everything around us. Jake, a small frown on his face as he studied Guide. And me.
We were in a tunnel. A long, dark, tunnel. I took a deep breath, and felt a warm hand clasp over mine. I looked over to see Jake's supportive face looking back at me. I smiled at him, glad that he was there, but also glad that it was dark enough for Marco not to notice our attached hands.
{Follow me,} Guide repeated as he started walking. Jake and I fell behind everyone else.
"What do you think of all this?" Jake asked me quietly.
"I don't know," I replied truthfully. "But I wish we knew why this was all happening."
"Me too," He admitted. I tightened my grasp on his hand. We walked along silently.
Finally, we heard Guide's thought-speak voice. {We are here.}
I looked up and saw... light. After the dimness of the tunnel, the light startled me. I blinked, looked around again, and my mouth fell open.
"No way."
CASSIE'S CRAZY CONTRIBUTION CONTINUING THE COLLECTION OF CHRONICLES
{Okay, that was unexpected,} Marco whispered.
He was referring to the situation we were in. Guide, the Iskoort who had guided us through this world in the past, had a gun aimed straight at Ax, who was in Andalite form. The rest of us were birds.
Actually, the gun wasn't that big of a problem. The surprising thing was the fact that Guide had a gun. And was aiming it straight at Ax.
{Ax,} Jake said tersely.
In a flash, Ax's tail had zoomed by and the gun was knocked onto the floor, away from the hands of Guide.
Before Guide could utter a word, Ax's tail was by his throat. {Why did you threaten me with a gun?} Ax asked calmly.
{I...I am sorry. I did not mean to.}
{Do not lie to me,} Ax sneered.
{I will not. I remember the power that Andalites have.}
For a moment I was confused. Than I remembered. Last time we had come here, Jake had fed Guide some lie about Andalites being able to tell if someone was lying, and if the person was lying, they could make their head explode.
I struggled to not laugh.
Jake must have been telling Ax something in private thought-speak, because for a moment Ax was quiet. Than he said, {I see that you speak the truth. Now, tell me why you were carrying a gun. And what has become of all the residents of this land?}
Guide sensed that danger was gone, at least for now, and he stood up. {These are dangerous times. It is necessary to be careful. All who venture out must protect themselves.}
{Where has everyone else gone?}
{Captured. Or killed. By...by them.}
{Them? Who's them?} Marco asked privately.
{I don't trust this guy!} Rachel sneered.
(He said he wouldn't lie,} Tobias reminded all of us.
{Prince Jake? Should I continue to speak to him?}
{Yeah, Ax, keep going. Let's see if we can get some more information out of him.} All this was private thought-speak so Guide couldn't hear us.
Usually I'm pretty good at figuring out people's motives. But after studying Guide, I was feeling a little bit confused. I mean, it would have been understandable if he had been a little surprised to see us, but there was a big difference between being surprised and drawing out a gun.
I must have been lost in my thoughts, because I was surprised when Jake said, {Okay, everyone, follow him. Ax, how much time do we have left in morph?}
{90 of your minutes.}
{Ax. We've mysteriously appeared in the world of crazy aliens who have mysteriously disappeared, and the only one of these aliens that we have come across has tried to shoot you with a gun, and this is the same guy who we are now following back to his home. Do you think that the situation is weird enough for you to not do the whole "our minutes, your minutes," thing?} Marco, of course.
I smiled to myself. When he put it that way, things did seem a little bizarre.
{What I wanna know is how you got that all out in one breath,} Rachel said conversationally.
{Well, technically, it's thought-speak, so it wasn't one breath.) Jake commented off-handedly.
Poor Jake. This must be a little bit harder for him. After all, it was here that he had almost single-handedly defeated Crayak. And Crayak had hated him ever since.
Than I remembered my family. My parents. How would they react when they discovered that their only daughter had suddenly disappeared from the mall? I felt a sudden spurt of guilt, causing my parents to worry. Than again, it wasn't like I had done it on purpose.
It was amazing. After all that had happened in the last half hour, I still could feel regular emotions like guilt.
We flew through the air, following the figure of the Iskoort on the ground below us. The air felt...different. It sounded strange, but the air, like the land, seemed eerily void of all life...like it was dead or something. It was an eerie, unsettling feeling.
{We are here,} Guide announced.
{Um...where?} We were at a little clearing. There was nothing other than a big rock.
Guide pushed the rock aside. And we saw a hole in the ground.
{You've got to be kidding me,} Marco moaned.
{Should we demorph? Is it safe?} Rachel wondered aloud.
{It should be. I mean, he's seen us in our natural forms, before. It won't change anything to demorph now.}
He was right. We started to demorph, while Guide waited patiently, apparently still fascinated by the morphing.
{Are you any more interested now in selling your ability to change shapes?} It looked like Guide hadn't lost his interest in making money. Maybe some things never changed.
"Um... are we supposed to go down there or something?" Marco asked, now mostly human. He pointed towards the hole.
{Yes.} With that, Guide jumped in.
We all stared for a moment in the direction of the hole.
"After you," Marco said.
"God, you're such a baby." Rachel rolled her eyes and lowered herself into the hole. Tobias dove into it after her, followed by a nervous Ax and a wary Marco. Now it was my turn.
I slowly climbed down into it, and immediately was engulfed in darkness. I saw a faint outline of Jake as he scrambled down, and then Guide was pushing the rock back on top of the whole and everything was completely, totally, dark.
{Follow me.} We heard Guide's seemingly disembodied voice.
"How are we supposed to follow you if we can't see you?" Came Marco's shrill reply.
{Oh yes, I forgot that you might not be able to see as well as the Iskoort can.} A second later, a light flickered on, and I could dimly see everyone. Rachel, hands on hips, slightly annoyed expression on her face. Tobias, perched on her shoulder, his fierce eyes revealing nothing. Ax, his Andalite claustrophobia apparently kicking in as he stood, looking apprehensive. Marco, examining everything around us. Jake, a small frown on his face as he studied Guide. And me.
We were in a tunnel. A long, dark, tunnel. I took a deep breath, and felt a warm hand clasp over mine. I looked over to see Jake's supportive face looking back at me. I smiled at him, glad that he was there, but also glad that it was dark enough for Marco not to notice our attached hands.
{Follow me,} Guide repeated as he started walking. Jake and I fell behind everyone else.
"What do you think of all this?" Jake asked me quietly.
"I don't know," I replied truthfully. "But I wish we knew why this was all happening."
"Me too," He admitted. I tightened my grasp on his hand. We walked along silently.
Finally, we heard Guide's thought-speak voice. {We are here.}
I looked up and saw... light. After the dimness of the tunnel, the light startled me. I blinked, looked around again, and my mouth fell open.
"No way."