Peace
C/by: Kenjaje
Chapter 6: Shivering
Angel grunted as her eyes began to open. At first, she thought she was on earth, waking up one morning as she'd always done. But the air smelled different; and the sun that came down on her was much cooler, being far away. Through her groggy memory, she recalled what happened before she landed in the brush of this dense forest. But, she had no way of knowing how long ago that was. The position of the sun in the sky wouldn't be accurate, it was a little farther away then earth's sun, making it seem to go across the sky that much faster.
She heard Lilo's breath somewhere beside her, as she lay on her back staring up at the sky, unable to move out of exhaustion. That was the only sound; no birds were around to chirp; no cicadas to buzz; no waves to crash against the shore; not even a gust of wind to rustle the leaves of the canopy overhead. Through boredom, Angel found the strength to sit up, and get her bearings.
"Lilo." She spoke quietly, trying to wake the little girl. She crawled on hands and knees over to her slumbering referred. "Lilo." She said again, shaking her companion awake.
"J...Jumba?" Angel shook Lilo again. "Angel..." Lilo said with dissapointment.
"Glad to see you too." Angel spoke sarcastically. "Are you alright? You're not hurt anywhere are you?"
"No...you?"
"I'm fine." Lilo tried to lift herself, obviously too soon, for she had great difficulty. "Need help?" Angel asked, holding out a paw. Lilo smiled, and attempted to grasp the helpful hand, but missed.
"Oh ok...you're the one on the left..." Lilo said hazily.
"You're sure you're ok?" Angel said with a laugh, as she took the initiative in grasping Lilo's hand to pull her up.
"I will be when the buzzing stops." She replied, making Angel laugh again. Lilo began to chuckle as well; a good laugh was something they both needed right now. "Where are we anyway? Where's the ship? I didn't see it go down..."
"The ship went down somewhere over that way." Angel said, pointing in the direction that would be west on earth (according to the sun). "As for where we are, I'm just as knowledgeable as you on that topic."
"We're not...stuck here forever...are we?" Lilo asked meekly.
"I don't know." Angel replied. "I really don't." A small moment of silence came across the two as Lilo gained her composure. Upon landing she slammed on her back, jostling her senses quite a bit, but not permanently. Lilo felt herself returning to normal.
"Let's go." She said, as soon as she only saw one Angel.
"Gaba?" Angel asked rhetorically.
"We're wasting our time here, we have to go to the ship, it's our only option." She spoke explanatorily, as if she had much experience in being marooned on an alien planet, and had it down to a routine procedure.
"I don't think you should be walking, you're not exactly in the best conditio-"
"I'm fine." She interrupted, taking a step forward. Obviously she was lying, her knees wobbled horribly as she tried to balance her coordination. Hazily, she took another step forward, losing all control. Angel ran to catch Lilo before she fell face-first on the ground.
"Lilo you're in no condition to walk a single step, let alone an entire trek. Besides, the sun is about to set, let's worry about shelter for now, and find the ship in the morning." Lilo didn't respond. Angel set her down to sit next to a shady rock.
"What can I do to help?" Lilo finally asked, just as Angel had turned around. Her eyes were weak and submissive to fatigue as she stared back at her furry companion. Her body weighed heavily, but she still didn't want to feel unusable.
"If I get attacked by an alien animal, then you can help me out. Otherwise, I don't want you to move any more then you have to."
"Fine." Lilo gave in.
"I'm going to get some fire wood, holler if anything comes into this area alive."
"You got it." Angel turned without a word into the forest, leaving Lilo to sit in the shade of the sun. "You sure know how to worry." She added lowly. Angel heard this as she wandered into the woods, and stopped for a couple of seconds.
"Why am I acting so worried?" She thought with amazement. She shook her head. "You're not worried." She consulted herself. "You're doing what Stitch would do." Still consulting herself, trying to justify the action, which she found amazingly strange for her character, she began to gather firewood. She retrieved a fair amount, keeping a half expectant ear out for Lilo's scream, practically predicting it every few seconds, though she didn't know why. The sky quickly grew purple as the sun went down, Angel's inner clock was struggling to comprehend the concept of the sun being a bit faster then on earth. When she returned to camp, Lilo was standing, stretching her legs.
"I'm feeling much better now." Angel set the firewood down, still not sure if Lilo was telling the truth, or just trying to not feel like a burden. Lilo still had a dizzy pace, but she could definitely walk without falling over. Angel rolled a large log that was near their little camp site and rolled it over to the center of the clearing, to provide a better place for them to sit. She then proceeded to gather rocks, making a fire ring. "You seem to know what you're doing." Lilo spoke positively. "Do you have to do this often when you're out on your own?" Angel stopped after she inserted the last rock of the fire ring, and looked up at Lilo.
"I...uh..." Angel lost her words. She couldn't decide whether Lilo was just using her common sense, or whether Lilo knew she actually lived like a nomad. Lilo smiled, half awake, and stood up off the log to get some of the wood. Angel didn't stop her, she seemed to be able to handle her coordination almost fully now. Together, the two managed to start a small fire.
"Guess we should have found something to eat." Lilo groaned, as her stomach viciously growled.
"I wouldn't trust anything on this planet anyway." Angel sighed, putting her hands against the warm fire. The night was drawing, and the planets temperature dropped very low. Lilo shivered. "Is it too cold for you?"
"A-a-a-a-"Was all she could manage to stutter. Angel quickly put another branch into the fire. Lilo seemed to relax a little as the fire blazed brightly. "T-th-thanks." Angel nodded.
"I guess we'll have to stay up all night, this air is going to freeze you to death if our fire isn't kept alive."
"I-I'm not shivering because of the cold." Lilo said.
"Don't do this again, I don't mind watching out for you, it's not that big of a-"
"I-it's not t-that." Lilo interrupted impatiently. "It's d-d-different." Angel threw another branch in the fire, Lilo relaxed a little more.
"What's different?" She asked curiously.
"Y-you wouldn't believe me, you'd p-probably think I was crazy."
"What are you talking about? Tell me." She looked directly into Lilo's shaking eyes. "Why are you shivering, if it's not the cold then what is it? Are you scared or something?"
"No," Lilo began, as Angel tossed another branch into the fire, "I-I'm shivering because of S-Stitch."
"...What do you mean?" Angel crossed her face oddly, making no sense of what Lilo was talking about.
"Angel...Stitch g-gave in to the robots l-last night. Now...I f-feel like s-something bad is happening to him. He-he's starting to forget about us."
"...Where am I...?"
"He seems to be under their control."
"Who am I...?"
"He also seems like he's dead..."
"Am I...dead?"
"You fool, he's supposed to be like that. He's just waiting for his master to give him an order."
"Awaiting...orders...? Master...? Am I a pet...?"
"Well, what do we do now?"
"Master...tell me what to do...awaiting orders..."
"It's simple, I give him a command, and he does it, intelligently I might add."
"So then you're my master...?"
"What do you mean intelligently?"
"Why can't I speak...? Why can't I move...? Something...something is holding me...restraining me...but I'm just standing...nothing's around me..."
"Well, I mean that he follows my orders, without the robotic flaws. He is like a slave, a very obedient slave."
"...Why can't I see my master...?"
"Open you're eyes, 626."
"...I can see...but I don't see my master...unless...she's not my master anymore..."
"Weather on this planet is illogical." Angel grunted with disgust. Lilo merely stared into the fire as the rain and hail outside poured and pounded down around their little cave inside rock. The hailstorm came almost spontaneously; only a thunderclap was their warning. Rain then poured, freezing the two lonely girls even more. They soon found that this planet bits quick and hard, as hail began to pelt them. They were forced to flee with what firewood they could-wet or dry-and sprint for nearly five minutes, until Lilo spotted the cave in the rock formation that they took shelter in at present.
"Are you feeling ok?" Angel asked, the reflection of their small fire dully illuminated Lilo's dour expression. She seemed in a trance; the fire reflected off of her eyes as she stared fixated at its brightness; her lips ajar. "Lilo?" Another thunderclap sounded off outside.
"Huh?" She quickly asked, coming out of catatonia.
"I asked if you're feeling ok. Are you still..." Angel lost the words; she didn't exactly know how to describe Lilo's shivering and babbling other then just a delusion. "Uh...you know what I mean..." She gave up, she didn't want to hurt Lilo's feelings in any way.
"I...guess not..." She spoke, unsure of what Angel was referring to. Yet still, she smiled and said: "I'm sorry, I really don't mean to be so expressionless. I'm just tired that's all." Although, Angel could tell that her voice was intimating sadness; despite her now gleeful mood swing. "I just...never stayed up this late..." She yawned, which wasn't a false gesture.
"You can go to sleep; there's no point in both of us staying up." Angel said.
"But I don't want you to be bored..." Lilo retorted.
"Go to sleep." Angel almost demanded. Lilo looked back at the fire, and smiled again.
"You know..." She spoke, with a low tone. Angel blinked her eyes, not expecting Lilo to say something like she was about to say. "You've changed a lot, since Achie-baba Kino. At first...I thought you'd gone back to being evil again...but I didn't want to say that to Stitch-I couldn't. He probably would have accused me of being jealous...or something." Angel looked at Lilo, oblivious to why Lilo was saying this.
"And then, I saw you-or at least, I thought it was you-you were putting a note inside a tree, at the meadow outside. Then lots of things that I didn't expect happened: Stitch started acting funny, like he knew something bad was going to happen, and that 625 from the future came, and threw him off the spire. Then Chroney sucked 625 away, and nothing made sense until Stitch told me the whole story; after you left." Angel recalled that moment; nearly two weeks ago, her stomach began to feel queasy with embarrassment. "I have a feeling though, that you had something to do with how the future was changed." Angel lost the embarrassment, not understanding what Lilo was talking about.
"And now it's this. Trapped in a cave," Lilo looked outside, the hail, rain and thunder still erupted outside, "with only each other. I don't know what I was thinking, assuming you were evil. I don't know what changed you, but I'm sure glad I was wrong." Lilo continued to look at the fire, only blinking. Angel stared at it as well, silently, her face blushing slightly, though almost unnoticeably by her fur. "You're acting like him a lot, you know. You were a lot harder then the other experiments, but in the end, you turned out good." Again she paused, but only for a moment. "I can't stay awake any longer...I'm sorry, but I think I will fall asleep." And with that she curled up into a fetal position, hugging her knees against her stomach. Her dress was uncomfortably cold and damp, but still, weariness overcame her, and she was asleep within a minute.
Angel sat alone in the silence; listening to Lilo's breathing, and reflecting on what she'd said. The storm outside began to let up, and Angel laid on her back, deep in thought. Thinking about what Lilo had said, her cheeks returning to their normal tint.
"Are you intending to torture me, Lilo?" She thought angrily toward herself; tears forming in her eyes. "I want to say you're right... but everything you're thinking is a lie. If I told you the truth...you'd hate me..." Angel turned over, facing away from Lilo, crying herself to sleep.
