I started to head back to my meadow as the others left the barn.
[Hey Tobias!] It was Rachel, in her bald eagle morph.
[Yeah?]
[Well, I was just going to ask, you wanna come over or something? You know, then when Jake calls about Eric, we can just head over there. It'll just be an hour or so.]
[Umm, sure, that'd be great.]
[Cool. My mom is at work and my sisters are both with friends, so we don't have to worry about them seeing me talking to a bird, or anything.] She laughed.
We flew over to Rachel's house and went through her open window. I landed on her desk, a regular spot for me now, and she landed on her bed and demorphed. I watched her dig through her dresser and pull on jeans and a shirt over her morphing outfit. Kinda made me laugh inside. I mean, back when I was human, the dork and bully magnet, I never would have guessed that I would be in a beautiful girl's room watching her put on clothes. I laughed again. Of course, I also wouldn't have guessed I would be a talking bird fighting evil alien slugs.
"Okay," she said. She opened her door and I flew above her, down the stairs. We went into her living room. I perched on the couch armrest and Rachel sat on a chair beside it, while she grabbed for the remote and turned on the T.V.
"So, what do you want to watch?" Rachel asked.
[Ha, like I know. Whatever you want.] Rachel shrugged and flipped through the channels. She stopped at a cartoon of some sort. There was a square yellow figure which had big long eyelashes and spoke in a squeaky boyish voice.
[Haha, Rachel, what the heck is this?]
"Oh. It's Spongebob Squarepants."
[Spongebob wha?]
"You mean you never heard of Spongebob? Wow, that's terrible." We watched Spongebob for a half hour. It was amusing. I was never allowed to watch much T.V. with my aunt or uncle, but when I could I enjoyed it. Just as the end credits started playing, the phone rang and Rachel got up to answer it.
"Hello? U-huh-Okay,great-Yeah, that works-I will Jake. Jeez-Allright. Bye."
Rachel came back in. "Well, Jake says everything is cool with Erek. He didn't tell him what was going on, just that you and I would be over there in a little bit to discuss something with him."
[Let's do it,] I said. Rachel's line. She laughed and took off her outer clothing as she morphed to eagle. We flew to Erek's house. Rachel demorphed, and I morphed, under the safety of a cluster of trees in his backyard. Both human, we walked to his front door. Before we even knocked, the door opened. There was Erek. "Hi. I was expecting you. About time you got here." He motioned with his hand for us to follow him and we walked inside. In his living room we took a seat on the couch while Erek sat diagonally from us on a large chair. The T.V. was on, but it was muted.
"So," Erek said, "Jake says you need to talk to me about something?" Rachel and I looked at each other. Then something occurred to me. "Well, I started, "Erek, your 'family', I mean, the Chee that play Mr. And Mrs. King, do you guys actually live up in the house for the most part, or do you live in that dog park thing down in your basement?" I just thought of that as we got here. If the house was nothing more than a disguise, and they all lived down in the dog park, then this place really didn't do me any good.
"Actually, yes, me and my 'parents' spend most of our time living in the house, sleeping in beds, and cooking meals. Although, sinse we don't need to eat, our holograms appear as though we are eating and the food is transported into dog treats, stored in the basement." Well. That was odd.
Rachel spoke. "But isn't your house like mega-protected or whatever? I mean it's not like you're worried about people looking inside your house and noticing that you never eat or anything."
"Oh, we don't to protect our cover. We simply enjoy the human experience. That is why I am enrolled in school and my 'dad' has a job. We don't need to act like humans physically, but we like to."
Okay. This was working out. Now for the hard part.
"So, yeah. What does this have to do with anything?" Erek asked.
How to word this? I looked to Rachel for support. She shrugged. Great. I turned back to Erek. "Um, well, the thing is," I started.
"Just tell him," Rachel whispered in my ear. Good old Rachel. Way to be subtle. Okay, here goes.
"Erek, me-and-Ax-found-this-thing-and-I-could-be-human-again-and well," I babbled in what seemed like one sentence. Woah. Did I just say that?
"Ohhh," Erek realized. "Need a place to stay, right?"
"Well, yeah." I felt my face get hot. Erek smiled. "I would love for you to come live with us, Tobias. Anything we can do to help."
Wow. Erek didn't even need to consider before he answered. I suddenly had a greater respect for the Chee, that they would take in somebody who needed it, without a question. "Thanks, Erek." I couldn't think of anything else to say.
"So when are you going to be ready?"
"Soon, probably," Rachel said. "Within the next few days." Wow. That was soon.
"Sure, no problem."
"Okay, well, I think we better get going, huh?" Rachel stood up. I did the same. "Thanks again, Erek. Really." He smiled. Rachel closed her eyes and started morphing. Eagle. Me, I demorphed. Erek opened the door for us and we flew outside.
[So, Tobias,] Rachel said. [When do you wanna, you know, use this thing?]
[I don't know.] I'm sure that explained a lot.
[Well why don't we stop over at Marco's? Jake's over there, we could talk about it with him.]
[Uh, sure. I guess.] We turned and went for Marco's house. We saw them sitting in his room playing video games.
[JAKE!] Rachel shouted. I saw Jake fall completely off the bed and smack into the T.V. Marco mumbled something to him and Jake looked annoyed. Marco shook his head and opened the window for us and we flew in to land on his bed.
"So, any reason you two decided to show up and cause Jake to block my view, thus disabling me from GETTING TO LEVEL TWELVE?!?!" Marco screeched.
[Yes.] Rachel responded. [Jake, when do you think Tobias should use this thing?]
"Oh. So Bird-boy's life is more important than my getting to level twelve?"
"I'm not even going to answer that." Jake turned to us. "Well, I think it would be a good idea to do it with all of us there, you know, to oversee it and make sure everything works out and everything."
"Well," Marco said still looking grumpy, "Tomorrow's Sunday, we'd have the whole day, or we could do it any day after school that works out for everyone."
[Um, let's do it tomorrow.] I decided.
"Okay, then, say, around three?" Jake said.
Rachel and I said our goodbyes and flew away. She flew back to her house, and I to my meadow. As I perched in my tree, my mind went back to the last time I had nearly stayed as a human. I had thought that I had been offered a home by my so called 'long lost cousin.' I remembered how excited I was. I was looking forward so much to doing simple things like sleeping in a bed, not killing my own meals, being able to perform simple gestures like putting my arm around someone. I had been so ready to trap myself, until, it turned out I didn't have a cousin at all, and that kind of destroyed any hope I had about being human.
And then it hit me. Why I was so skeptical about this "Hidden Device". I was afraid it wasn't going to work. Last time, I had been so hurt and broken when I found out that I couldn't become human again. This time, I'm afraid to allow myself to get excited for the fear of it not working, and reexperiencing that hurt again.
I laughed. What is there to worry about? Ax seems very confident that it'll work. And when it does, I can be human. Human! No more sleeping in a tree! Or killing rabbits and mice for food. And Rachel, I can be with Rachel for more than just two hours. I can be with her forever.
[I am a human being!] I shouted to no one.
Tonight....the last time I will kill my supper.
Tonight....the last time I will sleep in a tree.
And tomorrow....tomorrow I will be a human, with hands and feet and, Rachel.
I made it through the night. I had killed a mouse for dinner and, feeling content, drifted off to sleep on my perch. I was awoken just as the sun was coming up by a loud screech.
[Ahhh!!!] I jumped. A large bird landed next to me, an eagle.
[Oh, Rachel, it's you.] I sighed.
[Who did you expect, Big Bird?]
I didn't respond to that. [So, what's up?]
[I don't know. I was just thinking, you know, today's the big day. I was wondering if you, you know, needed to talk or anything.]
What should I say? [Um, well, I guess I don't know what to say.]
[Ah. That's cool.] We sat in silence for a moment. [Tobias?] I looked at her. [When you are, you know, human, do you want to go see a movie or something?]
Rachel? Asking me on a date? I could have jumped. But I didn't. I don't know if I can jump. [Yeah. Yeah, that would be great, Rachel.]
[Cool. Say, do you wanna go flying? It's supposed to be a nice day.]
I could already feel it getting warm as everything got brighter. Great for thermals. Well, as it is my last day as a hawk, I couldn't think of any other way I would like to spend it.
Rachel and I spent the day flying together. I could tell she enjoyed it just as much as I did. We flew and flew, the world was ours. Rachel of course needed to stop every couple of hours, to demorph and remorph. It seemed like two seconds and two millenias at the same time, when it was almost three. We headed towards the barn.
Muahaha. Yes, im leaving you with another cliffie. I'm SO SORRY! But I felt I needed to think about the upcoming scene a little more, and I thought all you reading this needed to have another update. So, id like to give a quick thank you to the reviewers, thank you so much! I love getting them, so don't hesitate to review. And yeah I sound like an idiot now. Well, I don't have any more to say so yeah PINEAPPLES!
[Hey Tobias!] It was Rachel, in her bald eagle morph.
[Yeah?]
[Well, I was just going to ask, you wanna come over or something? You know, then when Jake calls about Eric, we can just head over there. It'll just be an hour or so.]
[Umm, sure, that'd be great.]
[Cool. My mom is at work and my sisters are both with friends, so we don't have to worry about them seeing me talking to a bird, or anything.] She laughed.
We flew over to Rachel's house and went through her open window. I landed on her desk, a regular spot for me now, and she landed on her bed and demorphed. I watched her dig through her dresser and pull on jeans and a shirt over her morphing outfit. Kinda made me laugh inside. I mean, back when I was human, the dork and bully magnet, I never would have guessed that I would be in a beautiful girl's room watching her put on clothes. I laughed again. Of course, I also wouldn't have guessed I would be a talking bird fighting evil alien slugs.
"Okay," she said. She opened her door and I flew above her, down the stairs. We went into her living room. I perched on the couch armrest and Rachel sat on a chair beside it, while she grabbed for the remote and turned on the T.V.
"So, what do you want to watch?" Rachel asked.
[Ha, like I know. Whatever you want.] Rachel shrugged and flipped through the channels. She stopped at a cartoon of some sort. There was a square yellow figure which had big long eyelashes and spoke in a squeaky boyish voice.
[Haha, Rachel, what the heck is this?]
"Oh. It's Spongebob Squarepants."
[Spongebob wha?]
"You mean you never heard of Spongebob? Wow, that's terrible." We watched Spongebob for a half hour. It was amusing. I was never allowed to watch much T.V. with my aunt or uncle, but when I could I enjoyed it. Just as the end credits started playing, the phone rang and Rachel got up to answer it.
"Hello? U-huh-Okay,great-Yeah, that works-I will Jake. Jeez-Allright. Bye."
Rachel came back in. "Well, Jake says everything is cool with Erek. He didn't tell him what was going on, just that you and I would be over there in a little bit to discuss something with him."
[Let's do it,] I said. Rachel's line. She laughed and took off her outer clothing as she morphed to eagle. We flew to Erek's house. Rachel demorphed, and I morphed, under the safety of a cluster of trees in his backyard. Both human, we walked to his front door. Before we even knocked, the door opened. There was Erek. "Hi. I was expecting you. About time you got here." He motioned with his hand for us to follow him and we walked inside. In his living room we took a seat on the couch while Erek sat diagonally from us on a large chair. The T.V. was on, but it was muted.
"So," Erek said, "Jake says you need to talk to me about something?" Rachel and I looked at each other. Then something occurred to me. "Well, I started, "Erek, your 'family', I mean, the Chee that play Mr. And Mrs. King, do you guys actually live up in the house for the most part, or do you live in that dog park thing down in your basement?" I just thought of that as we got here. If the house was nothing more than a disguise, and they all lived down in the dog park, then this place really didn't do me any good.
"Actually, yes, me and my 'parents' spend most of our time living in the house, sleeping in beds, and cooking meals. Although, sinse we don't need to eat, our holograms appear as though we are eating and the food is transported into dog treats, stored in the basement." Well. That was odd.
Rachel spoke. "But isn't your house like mega-protected or whatever? I mean it's not like you're worried about people looking inside your house and noticing that you never eat or anything."
"Oh, we don't to protect our cover. We simply enjoy the human experience. That is why I am enrolled in school and my 'dad' has a job. We don't need to act like humans physically, but we like to."
Okay. This was working out. Now for the hard part.
"So, yeah. What does this have to do with anything?" Erek asked.
How to word this? I looked to Rachel for support. She shrugged. Great. I turned back to Erek. "Um, well, the thing is," I started.
"Just tell him," Rachel whispered in my ear. Good old Rachel. Way to be subtle. Okay, here goes.
"Erek, me-and-Ax-found-this-thing-and-I-could-be-human-again-and well," I babbled in what seemed like one sentence. Woah. Did I just say that?
"Ohhh," Erek realized. "Need a place to stay, right?"
"Well, yeah." I felt my face get hot. Erek smiled. "I would love for you to come live with us, Tobias. Anything we can do to help."
Wow. Erek didn't even need to consider before he answered. I suddenly had a greater respect for the Chee, that they would take in somebody who needed it, without a question. "Thanks, Erek." I couldn't think of anything else to say.
"So when are you going to be ready?"
"Soon, probably," Rachel said. "Within the next few days." Wow. That was soon.
"Sure, no problem."
"Okay, well, I think we better get going, huh?" Rachel stood up. I did the same. "Thanks again, Erek. Really." He smiled. Rachel closed her eyes and started morphing. Eagle. Me, I demorphed. Erek opened the door for us and we flew outside.
[So, Tobias,] Rachel said. [When do you wanna, you know, use this thing?]
[I don't know.] I'm sure that explained a lot.
[Well why don't we stop over at Marco's? Jake's over there, we could talk about it with him.]
[Uh, sure. I guess.] We turned and went for Marco's house. We saw them sitting in his room playing video games.
[JAKE!] Rachel shouted. I saw Jake fall completely off the bed and smack into the T.V. Marco mumbled something to him and Jake looked annoyed. Marco shook his head and opened the window for us and we flew in to land on his bed.
"So, any reason you two decided to show up and cause Jake to block my view, thus disabling me from GETTING TO LEVEL TWELVE?!?!" Marco screeched.
[Yes.] Rachel responded. [Jake, when do you think Tobias should use this thing?]
"Oh. So Bird-boy's life is more important than my getting to level twelve?"
"I'm not even going to answer that." Jake turned to us. "Well, I think it would be a good idea to do it with all of us there, you know, to oversee it and make sure everything works out and everything."
"Well," Marco said still looking grumpy, "Tomorrow's Sunday, we'd have the whole day, or we could do it any day after school that works out for everyone."
[Um, let's do it tomorrow.] I decided.
"Okay, then, say, around three?" Jake said.
Rachel and I said our goodbyes and flew away. She flew back to her house, and I to my meadow. As I perched in my tree, my mind went back to the last time I had nearly stayed as a human. I had thought that I had been offered a home by my so called 'long lost cousin.' I remembered how excited I was. I was looking forward so much to doing simple things like sleeping in a bed, not killing my own meals, being able to perform simple gestures like putting my arm around someone. I had been so ready to trap myself, until, it turned out I didn't have a cousin at all, and that kind of destroyed any hope I had about being human.
And then it hit me. Why I was so skeptical about this "Hidden Device". I was afraid it wasn't going to work. Last time, I had been so hurt and broken when I found out that I couldn't become human again. This time, I'm afraid to allow myself to get excited for the fear of it not working, and reexperiencing that hurt again.
I laughed. What is there to worry about? Ax seems very confident that it'll work. And when it does, I can be human. Human! No more sleeping in a tree! Or killing rabbits and mice for food. And Rachel, I can be with Rachel for more than just two hours. I can be with her forever.
[I am a human being!] I shouted to no one.
Tonight....the last time I will kill my supper.
Tonight....the last time I will sleep in a tree.
And tomorrow....tomorrow I will be a human, with hands and feet and, Rachel.
I made it through the night. I had killed a mouse for dinner and, feeling content, drifted off to sleep on my perch. I was awoken just as the sun was coming up by a loud screech.
[Ahhh!!!] I jumped. A large bird landed next to me, an eagle.
[Oh, Rachel, it's you.] I sighed.
[Who did you expect, Big Bird?]
I didn't respond to that. [So, what's up?]
[I don't know. I was just thinking, you know, today's the big day. I was wondering if you, you know, needed to talk or anything.]
What should I say? [Um, well, I guess I don't know what to say.]
[Ah. That's cool.] We sat in silence for a moment. [Tobias?] I looked at her. [When you are, you know, human, do you want to go see a movie or something?]
Rachel? Asking me on a date? I could have jumped. But I didn't. I don't know if I can jump. [Yeah. Yeah, that would be great, Rachel.]
[Cool. Say, do you wanna go flying? It's supposed to be a nice day.]
I could already feel it getting warm as everything got brighter. Great for thermals. Well, as it is my last day as a hawk, I couldn't think of any other way I would like to spend it.
Rachel and I spent the day flying together. I could tell she enjoyed it just as much as I did. We flew and flew, the world was ours. Rachel of course needed to stop every couple of hours, to demorph and remorph. It seemed like two seconds and two millenias at the same time, when it was almost three. We headed towards the barn.
Muahaha. Yes, im leaving you with another cliffie. I'm SO SORRY! But I felt I needed to think about the upcoming scene a little more, and I thought all you reading this needed to have another update. So, id like to give a quick thank you to the reviewers, thank you so much! I love getting them, so don't hesitate to review. And yeah I sound like an idiot now. Well, I don't have any more to say so yeah PINEAPPLES!