Fleem:
"Okay, do you understand anything of what I'm saying?" Fleem signed to a confused Kolka.
She opened her mouth as if to say something, but simply shrugged and shook her head. Fleem sighed and folded his arms, still gripping his blanket. "C'mon, how am I supposed to complain if that's all you give me?"
Kolka shrugged again.
Fleem shook his head and glanced idly around. He thought he'd caught a glimpse of Dr. Laker among the crowd after the rest of the village had come down, but he'd disappeared just as fast. That smallfoot probably could be in two places at once.
Kolka got his attention again, and pointed at his blanket with a questioning look. Fleem glared at her and pulled it tighter around himself. "No, don't touch that!"
She raised an eyebrow at his possessiveness. Fleem took a step back and almost fell off the rock he was standing on. He yelped, and Kolka steadied him with a hand on his back.
"Thanks." Fleem muttered. "But you still can't ask about the blanket!"
More growling got his attention. Migo along with Percy, Meechee and Gwangi had approached. They nodded at Fleem, but it was Kolka they had come to talk to. They were beckoning to her, towards something Fleem couldn't see. Kolka nodded and followed them away with a few last signs and growls at Fleem.
Fleem watched them warily, before realizing he was now alone. "Where are you going?" He called after the S.E.S. "Why are you leaving me here? Don't you know all the terrible things that can happen to a smallfoot?"
None of them heard him.
Fleem jumped off the rock, considering running after them, when he caught sight of Dallin nearby. The smallfoot-yeti had sat down on a rock of his own, and stared off into space.
Fleem cocked his head. Dallin seemed uncharacteristically glum. He was jumpy, to be sure, and nervous, particularly around Fleem. But he'd never seemed glum.
Fleem found himself heading in his direction.
"What are you doing?" Fleem folded his arms again once he stood in front of him. But Dallin still stared past, as if he hadn't noticed him.
"Are you dead?" Fleem said flatly. "Or just so lost in thought that you wouldn't notice a stampede of mammoths heading your way?"
Dallin didn't move. Fleem rolled his eyes and raised a hand to jab at his leg. "Down here, Shorty!"
Dallin blinked and finally looked down at Fleem. A sound that was still recognizable as a gasp came from him, and he jerked backwards so hard he fell off his rock.
Fleem rounded it to smirk down at Dallin's face. He growled as well as he could as a smallfoot. "Fear me, smallfoot!"
Dallin scrambled back, staring at Fleem with that same anxious look he always had. Fleem laughed. "Yeah that's right!"
Dallin growled a moan, rubbed his face with a hand, and pulled himself back up to sit on the rock.
Fleem shook his head. "Augh, what is your problem?"
He marched closer and plopped down in the snow, leaning against the other side of the rock. "You're a yeti. You don't get cold. You can jump far, and run fast. Your feet aren't the size of a yak's. What in the world could possibly make you this miserable? What are you missing so much about being a smallfoot?"
As if to prove his point, the chill wind picked up, making him shiver a little.
Fleem looked up to meet Dallin's eyes. "You've got it easy, smallfoot."
A familiar set of voices broke in before Dallin could try to respond. Fleem gasped. He didn't need to see them to know who they were."No, it's them! They've found me!"
He crawled through the snow behind the rock. But the bossy smallfeet from the Yak Shack didn't yell for 'Dallin'. They hadn't seen him.
Fleem looked at Dallin again. "Don't look at me! Keep them away from here, before they drag me away to do more chores!" He waved his hand, gesturing frantically for Dallin to turn around. Luckily, he understood.
Only once the voices had stopped did Fleem dare to move again. But the moment he started to crawl around the rock, he was shoved back by a hand bigger than his head. He swallowed his exclamation. One of the bossy smallfeet was walking up to Dallin!
Fleem bit his lip as he heard him call a "hello". Dallin growled back. "Have you seen a young man around here, with dark brown hair? He's gone missing, and we're trying to find him."
Fleem unconsciously ran his hand through his own hair. Was it possible he could disguise it with snow?
He imagined having the stuff caked over his head, and it gave him chills. No way.
Dallin growled again in confusion. Fleem forced himself not to groan. This was going to take a while. He tuned out the conversation.
A minute later, the world seemed to darken a bit. Fleem frowned and looked up at the clouds. These were darker than any cloud he had ever seen, even on top of the mountain.
If he was honest, they seemed rather ominous. He shuddered. As soon as possible, it would be nice to go inside.
"Dallin!" Fleem snapped back to the present situation. Someone else was coming, and Fleem's heart sank as he realized who it was.
Oh no. Not now.
"Hey, Dallin!" Fleem heard Dr. Laker's running footsteps in the snow. "Could you spare a minute?"
"Huh? Me?" The bossy smallfoot sounded confused.
"No. Dallin. Right there." Dr. Laker blabbed.
Fleem closed his eyes. Of all the times and places Dr. Laker had to show up….did he have any notion of secrecy at all?
"That's a yeti." The bossy smallfoot said slowly.
"That's right. I'm trying to fix that." Fleem heard one of the smallfoot's devices make a weird noise. "Excuse me, please. Where is Fleem, Dallin?"
Fleem shrank back against the rock.
"Dr. Laker?" Said the bossy smallfoot. "Dallin Ridge isn't here. He didn't show up for work a few days ago, and we haven't seen him since."
There was silence for a very very long moment.
"Of course, of course. But I've sort of taken to calling this yeti Dallin. He looks like Dallin Ridge, wouldn't you say? Look at him! The resemblance is uncanny!"
Another pause. "I suppose." The bossy smallfoot finally said. "I didn't know you knew Dallin."
"Yep. Quite a decent guy. Will you excuse me? I need to talk with Dallin Two for a bit. It's very important."
"Oh. Right. Sure. But let me know if you see Dallin One anywhere, would you?"
Dr. Laker hummed and Fleem heard him fiddling with his device again.
He peeked around the rock and sagged in relief as he saw the bossy smallfoot jogging away to disappear into the Yak Shack.
Immediately, Dr. Laker's head snapped around. "Fleem! What are you doing back there?"
Fleem reluctantly crawled out of his hiding place and stood up. "Nothing."
This time, Dallin was smirking at him.
Obviously he'd had his own troubles with those smallfeet.
Fleem rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, laugh it out."
He brushed off his coat. "I thought you were about to give us away."
Dr. Laker grimaced and oddly, his furless face reddened. "I'm sorry. I'll be more careful next time."
Fleem snorted.
Dallin growled and pointed at Dr. Laker's two devices in his hands. Fleem backed up a step. "What are you doing with those?"
Dr. Laker tapped something on it. "I remembered too late that it hasn't yet scanned Dallin. It needs both of you in the system before we can test it."
Fleem shook his head. "Just keep it away from me."
Dr. Laker looked at him with a hint of mischief in his eyes. "Or we could take a big risk and…."
"No!" Fleem cut him off. "Don't try anything!"
Dr. Laker touched something else on the device, and a loud beeping noise emitted from it.
Fleem yelped, turned and ran full sprint in the direction the S.E.S had gone. "Keep it away! Help! Meechee!"
He ran between groups of yetis and smallfeet, and into the village, shouting at the top of his tiny lungs, "Crazy smallfoot! Someone help!"
He was out of breath when he stopped and realized where he was. Or wasn't. Great. Now he was lost again.
Dallin:
Dallin stared after Fleem. He didn't recall ever being able to run that fast when he was in that body.
Dr. Laker held up the device, and Dallin heard it power up again, presumably to scan him as it had scanned Fleem.
Dr. Laker nodded in satisfaction and gave him a thumbs up. Dallin returned it and stood up.
"Thanks, Doctor. You keep up the good work. But I'd better go find Fleem now."
Leaving Dr. Laker behind, he jogged off in the direction Fleem had gone.
"Meechee?" He called, catching sight of the S.E.S and Thorp up ahead. They turned to him as he approached. "Did any of you see Fleem run this way?"
They shook their heads, minus Percy on Migo's shoulder. "Did you lose him?" Kolka asked.
Dallin smiled sheepishly. "In my defense, I think Dr. Laker threatened to test the device on him."
Percy tapped Migo's shoulder, and asked through signs what was going on. Migo spoke softly while he signed back.
"The device is ready to test?" Meechee looked hopeful.
"I'm not sure. Dr. Laker scanned me with it, but I don't know what that means for us. It would be a lot easier if I could ask him myself."
Meechee nodded sympathetically.
"Okay, guys." Migo said. "We're gonna go find Fleem. Percy says he knows a couple of places we can look. We'll be back in a sec!"
Migo jogged off into the city with Percy on his shoulder.
A rumble came from the sky. Dallin frowned as he glanced at the clouds. "Whoa. Looks like this'll be quite a storm."
"Mmhmm." hummed Gwangi. "We should probably go soon. It'll be harder to climb back up the mountain if it starts snowing."
Dallin glanced around at the other yetis and humans. Many were looking up worried. "I hope the city will be alright."
"You said snowstorms are fairly common down here. But just in case, we'll make sure everyone gets inside before we leave." Meechee reassured him.
Kolka and Gwangi nodded in agreement.
Glancing around, her eyes brightened as she caught sight of someone. "Daddy!" She ran to meet the Stonekeeper as he came in sight. He smiled and the two started talking quietly.
"Found him!" Percy and Migo emerged from the bright city, with Fleem on his other shoulder. Fleem refused to meet anyone's eyes, as if he were embarrassed. "He didn't go that far. But he did get a little lost..."
He broke off as he noticed the clouds. Dallin thought he saw them darken right before his eyes.
"That looks bad." Migo muttered.
"Really bad." Thorp agreed. "You think the smallfeet will get snowed in again?"
"Probably." Dallin said absently as he looked back at Meechee and the Stonekeeper, still whispering together. What were they saying?
Meechee and her father both looked a little worried. They looked up, then nodded to each other in agreement, and the Stonekeeper stepped forward. "Everyone, listen here!"
The murmur of background chatter stopped, and silence filled the void.
"We're going to go home early, to wait out this storm. We must hurry, before it starts to snow. But first, everyone make sure the smallfeet are safe in their homes. Quickly now!" The Stonekeeper gestured towards the city, spurring all yetis into action.
Luckily, it hadn't been hard to convince everyone to go inside.
A few had been reluctant, but they saw the clouds, and knew it was in their best interest.
Migo had dropped Percy and Fleem off at Percy's apartment, where Brenda had been waiting.
Percy had worriedly inquired after the yetis, knowing exactly what kind of trip it was to get to the mountain. "We'll be fine." Migo had said with a smile. "It's not snowing yet, and we'll move fast."
Fleem had shaken his head at them as if he thought they were crazy to try.
Maybe they were.
Now that they were actually climbing the mountain, Dallin was a little worried himself. It was snowing now, and it seemed to be getting worse by the second.
Dallin closed his eyes against the wind as Gwangi adjusted his grip on him and made another jump, grunting as he grabbed more rock.
"It's getting hard to see!" Migo had to shout to be heard.
Other yetis from the village yelled to each other from above and below, but Dallin couldn't see them through the torrent of snow.
Meechee cried out from somewhere above. "Meechee!" Gwangi called, along with Kolka, Migo and Thorp. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine! I just slipped!" Dallin sighed in relief at the sound of her voice.
"The wind is getting stronger!" yelled Thorp.
Gwangi yelped as his own grip wavered. "Dallin, hold on to me! I need to use both hands!" He let go suddenly, fully exposing Dallin to the wind. Dallin gasped and quickly struggled to blindly turn himself around so he could cling to Gwangi's back. "Careful!"
It felt like they were in the middle of a tornado. Dallin couldn't open his eyes without them watering. His borrowed fur kept out the cold, but he could feel wet snow seeping into it. If Gwangi weren't there, he'd probably blow away.
"This isn't a normal snowstorm!" He shouted. "This is way worse!"
"You think the smallfoot village is alright?" Kolka answered.
Gwangi flattened himself to the mountain, with Dallin clinging to him like a lifeline. "At least everyone is inside! Hopefully they'll be able to stay warm until this passes!"
"I don't know!" said Migo. "I think Percy told me he was having heat issues with his house! He may not have been prepared for this!"
"So, you want to hurry and go check on the village!?" Meechee sounded closer than before.
A clamor of shouts could be heard from all sides from the yetis. "What? The smallfeet need help? Are you sure?"
"They're inside! They're okay, aren't they?"
"What if their houses get buried?"
"Fleem's in there too!" Kolka reminded them. "Maybe we should at least make sure they'll be okay until this blizzard passes!"
"You want to climb back down in this?" Another voice chimed in. "Are you crazy?"
Dallin felt Gwangi stiffen. "We're not crazy!"
He reached back to grab Dallin from his back and get him back under his arm. "Let's go! Now!"
He let go of the mountain with alarming suddenness, dropping backwards into the torrent, holding Dallin tightly.
Dallin screamed as he fell off the mountain for the second time that day.
Many more screams joined the chorus, and Dallin recognized the S.E.S's among them. As the wind howled around them, he half expected to fly away and never touch ground again.
But he did, with a grunt and a gasp. Gwangi pulled him out of the way as somewhere through the storm, it started raining yetis.
"Let's hurry!" called Meechee. "Follow my voice! Come on!"
Dallin squinted his teary eyes open and saw Gwangi's faint silhouette walking away. He hurried to follow, preparing himself to see the worst.