Promise

By: Kenjaje

Chapter 6: Tree Cache

Stitch sat silently on his mattress, his back leaning against Lilo's bed. The sun had just risen, and was shining in front of Stitch on the far wall of Lilo's room. The birds outside the window were now starting to buzz with chirps and squawks. Stitch began to think peacefully about how the world around them seemed to come to life while they-he and Lilo-were still just waking up.

Stitch's thoughts switched after a moment of admiring the quietness of the scenery, he held the red pendant in his hand by its chain, and lifted it up to gleam against the rising light. The red reflection on his face was dull, just barely turning his blue fur to an almost pinkish color where the redness passed over his face. He sighed, and lowered Lilo's pendant back down to his lap.

All night long, while he got Lilo her pendant, and even now, his mind would touch upon the subject of his desire. It tugged at his heart, urging him to think, wonder, and hope about what happened to her during the explosion. Stitch replayed that moment in time in his mind very vividly. He imagined the running steps of Jumba and the other's fleeing the hangar while the doors shut. He remembered the silence, and the sheer atmosphere that he shared with Lilo for a few seconds, where at that moment he could reflect on everything he had done to stop Achie-baba Kino, and realize just what a shock he had given Lilo. Lastly, Stitch recalled the remaining three seconds before the flare erupted; he hoisted his body up, and quickly looked to where Angel's body was. After only seeing small scrapings of blood covering the area, and her presence absent, he instinctively did what he felt was right for Lilo at the moment. He jumped upon her, and curled around her, buffering the flames from her with his own body, keeping her alive. There was a sharp sound, almost like a large void was rapidly opening, followed quickly by the distinct sound of an eruption, and immediately after, the flare and embers began licking his back painfully.

"Stitch?" Stitch jumped at the sudden break of silence in Lilo's room. His heart slowly returned to normal, for a long time it had been beating like a maniac. "Are...you ok?" Lilo asked, sitting up under the covers of her bed.

"E-eh." He replied, still wheezing inside. He hadn't realized he had dozed off while thinking, and had ended up dreaming the whole thing over again. Taking a second to calm himself down, he stood up to his feet and turned around, jump up on the bed and sat next to Lilo. "Stitch has something to show Lilo." He said, with a grin.

"What is it?" She asked, looking him over, his hands behind his back. Stitch twirled the pendant behind him so that it would face Lilo as he presented it to her, but his plan was cut short as Lilo jumped up, wrapping her arms around him, and pried the accessory from his grasp. In the process, she had knocked Stitch off the bed, he landed on his back, hard, and a bit dazed.

"Pendant." He said with an achy groan as he lifted himself up and back onto the bed. Lilo looked at what Stitch had given her-or rather what she took-and held it in her hands as if it was the most valuable thing on earth. "Lilo gave Stitch one, now Stitch return favor." He said conclusively. Lilo tried to stop a tear from forming in her eyes.

"It's red. What does red stand for again?" She asked herself, trying to remember the list at the store.

"Determination, and ambition." Stitch chimed. Lilo glanced one more time at her pendant, which looked very similar to Stitch's, and then put it around her neck. "Mabtata?" He asked; his hands clasped together. Lilo's dam gave way, and a torrent of tears fell across her cheeks. She said nothing for a moment, but looked at Stitch, then embraced him tightly.

"That's so sweet." Was all she managed to say. Stitch returned the embrace, after a moment they both let go, and Lilo returned back to normal. "Wait a minute..." Lilo began to wonder, and came to a realization. "When did you get this?" She inquired.

"Daguta, Stitch went to market, took pendant."

"You stole it?" Lilo's eyes shot open.

"Naga, Stitch pay!" He said, holding his hands up in an innocence gesture. Lilo crossed her arms and glared at Stitch for a minute or two, deciding whether what he had done was a good thing, or a bad thing.

"Well," She slowly let her stance down, "I suppose if you payed...then it's ok." She smiled. Stitch let out a sigh he'd been holding, and relaxed his ears. "I'm going to go downstairs, you look bloodshot, take a nap for a few minutes ok?"

"Ok." Stitch said, accepting her advice. Stitch entered the room again after Lilo was done getting dressed, and watched as she left the scene, leaving the door closed behind her. Stitch walked lazily over his mattress, wondering when they'll fix the tower, and slumped down face-first into the mass of linen. He waited for a long time and didn't move. Though he wanted to just slip under the covers to be more comfortable, his arms and legs just didn't want to move yet. Finally, after minutes of aggravation and building up will power, he nestled under the sheets and onto the pillow, where he closed his eyes facing the door. "It's so strange..." He told himself, before falling asleep. "Lilo taking the pendant, me falling on my back, Lilo hugging me...this whole situation turned out differently then from what happened the first time..." He tried to ponder this anomaly further, but the weight of exhaustion took its toll, and quickly he dreamt of everything that happened, during the time of Achie-baba Kino.

Lilo lightly trotted down the stairs to see who else was awake. Unfortunately, no one was at the moment. The Kitchen clock blinked twelve. Lilo looked outside the window, and saw dark black clouds not far off in the distance. "It must've stormed last night." She assumed, walking to the clock to reset it. She then went to the table, and sat down, not knowing exactly what to do.

"Do I eat first and then wake up Stitch, or do I wait to wake up Stitch then eat?" She eventually came to the decision that she'd make breakfast for them both. There was a cook book in the hospital that she had actually been bored enough to read, and scrambled eggs did look easy, plus she'd seen Pleakley do it a dozen or so times, and she was familiar with the stove and supplies.

Getting out their own cook book just in case, she set out finding a pot, eggs, and the other materials. Being too short, she also had to get a chair for her to stand on. It took a second or two for her to figure out which knob went with which stove, but once she did she set it and placed the pot. Taking a slab of butter and tossing it in, she followed the instructions and let it simmer and melt, while she moved it around to make sure it got all the parts of the pot. She then grabbed four eggs, and preceded to cracking them, however she broke the first egg, and the third egg slipped out before it went into the pot.

After finally successfully cracking and placing four eggs into the pot she cleaned up the counter and scrambled the eggs, though not very gracefully, and she couldn't get the hang of it. They didn't fluff like the picture in the book, in fact nothing was coming up at all, they just stayed as egg juice in the pot.

"What're you doing?" Pleakley asked, rubbing his eye as he came into the kitchen.

"I'm trying to make scrambled eggs for Stitch and me, but..." She trailed looking at the pot, the eggs started to fluff but a slight smell of charring wafted in the air. Pleakley yawned wide. "Can you help?" She asked slightly frustrated.

"I'll finish them, you go upstairs and wake up Stitch, and they'll be done by the time you get back." He said, taking the handle of the stirrer and moving the chair aside.

"Thanks, be right back." She said. Pleakley looked off into space for a second and then realized where he was; fully awake he looked down at the spoon in his hand. A look of 'what did I get myself into' came over his face.

Lilo ran up the stairs and into her room. Stitch lay sprawled half over his mattress, drooling horribly. Lilo crept over to him, her body burned with a sinister feeling as she prepared to surprise her victim. Her hands slowly moved close to his ribs, where he was most sensitive, she breathed in heavily, and just before she was about to attack, a large thud came from outside her wall.

Receding her initiative she drew her look toward the wall where the sound had come from, the outside wall. For a while she sat and stared, waiting for something to happen again, her mind half wanted to go outside, and half wanted to stay in. It could be a prowler, or someone after them. Lilo remembered Jumba saying that Achie-baba Kino was able to change size, and was very stealthy when it came to surprising victims. According to Jumba that's how he and Pleakley were both kidnapped.

A few minutes passed, and nothing was heard. Lilo returned to looking at Stitch, the thrill of surprising him with a tickle-torture now gone. Drolly she lifted her hand to shake him awake, when the loud thud sounded again. Lilo, now agitated, lifted off her knees and walked to the window.

She saw nothing from the pane. Seizing the bottom, she lifted the window up and shot her head outside, glancing quickly to the left, right, up, and down. Nothing. She glanced ahead again. Nothing. With a small grunt of annoyance she left the window slightly ajar and went back to trying to wake up Stitch. However now she eyed the window, and as soon as the noise sounded again she was ready.

As predicted by her, the thud came loudest of all, right behind her bed. She leapt up with surprising speed to the window, taking only one step to reach her destination, opened it swiftly and jerked her head outside. Her actions were quick enough to see a dark blur run toward some shrubbery off in the distance. Lilo left the window to try and wake Stitch. Shaking him vigorously, she called his name three or four times before she gave up. He was out cold, and not waking up any time soon.

The only thing she thought to do was to go outside and figure out what that was all on her own. Now taking a stride to get to the window, she pulled herself up and over the wall, and shut the window slightly. Lilo did not look around; she went directly where she saw the black figure go. In the shrubbery she saw nothing; the figure had already fled. However, Lilo was determined to figure out who, or what, that was. She thoroughly searched the ground, and found several footprints leading back into the vegetation.

She glanced back at the house, wondering if she should try one last time to wake Stitch up, but decided not to. Looking ahead, she ran the trail of footprints and broken branches. The trail lead far down into the area, Lilo had hardly been in these woods at all. Eventually it led her to a large meadow, full of dead leaves. It was low; lower then the rest of the area, a basin where all the flooded brush and bramble went.

The trail ended where the leaves began, Lilo was discouraged. She looked around, trying to see if she could find any other trace of the trail. In the meadow, she came across a small section that looked as though someone had been there for a long time. She stood and looked around again, this time at the hills around the small basin. A moment after searching, she found her target. The figure was standing at the top of a very steep hill to her left; upon the hill was a very big tree, one of the few trees that was in that meadow at all.

She ran toward the hill, trying to see whom the figure was. It appeared to be an experiment, but she couldn't tell which one. The experiment quickly tugged at its hand, and moved closer to the tree. As Lilo neared, it moved away from the tree, saw her coming, and ran quickly down the other side of the hill. Lilo finally reached the top and stared down from her point. The land seemed to continue on forever, and dipped down from where her hill was. She could see everything, except the experiment.

Lilo was exhausted; she walked over to the tree and sat down on its roots, and stared up at the sky. The clouds off in the distance started to get dark and puffy, a storm would possibly form later that afternoon. Lilo hugged her knees, and tried to see if she could figure out what experiment she saw.

"I want to say it was Angel, but it didn't look like her..." She pondered, "But who else would want to get Stitch's attention? Or was it getting my attention?" The thought crossed her mind that maybe that was Angel trying to tell her something. Lilo stood up and looked at the tree. "Whoever it was...they did something with this tree..." Lilo placed a hand on the tree, and looked it over. She didn't see anything out of the ordinary, no weird colors or shapes. She walked off to the side to see if she was where the experiment was, and realized she was on the wrong side of the tree. On the other side, however, examination wasn't necessary. In plain sight was a knot carved into the tree, a large hole the size of her hand. Lilo looked inside of it. Her face beamed immediately, for a second she stared at the contents inside the tree, and then took her eyes off of the knot.

"I have to tell Stitch!" She exclaimed aloud, taking off for the house. "This'll cheer him up, I know it will. Even though he hasn't said anything, deep inside, the question of Angel is on his mind. He'll be glad to know that she's alive."