Sarah watched the blue sky as she heard the soldiers replying in synchronicity, "Yes Sir!" Before she heard them marching away as if they were one person.
Wamma and Odu-Bathax watched the training regiment. The blue Danian scratched his head, a little embarrassed, "They are better at this than us."
"More work if I was a human," the paunchy bug commented, glad he was a Danian. He had many tricks to avoid work, while it didn't seem to be the case with the humans. He looked around and everyone was either working or training.
Tom joined her, "Hi Sarah. Up already?"
"Yeah," she sighed and turned around, "You know your mother was a little angry when you visited Aval'par again right?"
"I already had that mouthful yesterday," he chuckled as he scratched the back of his head.
"And then you went and trained to shoot again," she crossed her arms and gazed to the side.
"With dad. I used to hunt with him," the boy melancholically replied. He watched the regiment training, "There is nothing else to do here."
"Yeah. It's more boring than at school," Sarah put her hand on her forehead.
"It's not boring to do nothing. It's a perfect time to rest," the big red Danian chuckled as he scratched his belly.
Odu-Bathax grabbed the arm of Wamma and ordered, "We won't let those humans beat us at training. You come with me!"
"W-what? Nooooooo!" The poor Danian was dragged away as he left marks on the ground.
The two watched them and chuckled.
Tom suggested, "Let's try to find something after Kaz and Peyton are up."
"Agreed."
The two were together and hoped they might take a little bit before they were up. They just watched the training silently, with Wamma feeling down as he followed Odu-Bathax and ran with everything he could. They gazed at each other quietly.
"Hi there!" Someone told them.
Chapter 116: What to do?
Kaz and Peyton joined their friends outside of their room. Their parents and grandparents weren't with them.
"Morning dude!" Peyton cheerfully declared.
"Morning you two," Kaz told them with a small smirk on his face.
The two avoided looking at each other. Tom had a feeling his friends might tease him on that later.
"Morning," Tom and Sarah replied.
The black-haired boy let out a small smile, "Did you sleep well?"
"As good as I can," Kaz replied. He crossed his arms, "But Rothar is still trying to be a creep with mom."
"I know," the teenage girl replied. She couldn't understand why the Underworlder might have a crush on her.
"And what were you talking about you two?" Peyton asked curiously. He had a bit of a grin on his face, as he understood what went on between his two friends.
Sarah wouldn't let them openly talk about it and quickly said, "Weeeell about the fact that there is nothing to do," she wasn't lying and it was something they would talk to them about.
"Odu-Bathax and Wamma found something to do," he pointed at the two Danians.
"More like, Odu-Bathax dragged him to do something," the girl added.
"Why me?" The red Danian complained as he ran faster, with Odu-Bathax behind him.
"Move it soldier!"
Kaz pointed at the ground, "I can see you meant literally," they looked at the claw marks on the ground.
The portly boy chuckled as he observed the mark the poor Danian left behind.
"And watching them training isn't something we have in mind," Sarah pointed out to them. She crossed her arms.
"Maybe we can find something… not where it's not going there," he pointed out at a part of the base they had no access to.
They were lucky they could enter the command room when the attack occurred. They were with the creatures. Also, Tom's father might have said something and they weren't aware.
They began to wander around the base, trying to find something to occupy themselves. They didn't want to focus on everything they left behind at the farm.
Peyton did comment about losing his guitar there. He wanted to show a bit of what he could do. It would also occupy his mind.
They continued on and stopped when they saw the tanks and the other heavy artillery.
"I don't think we'll find anything we can do buddies," Peyton sighed.
"And I don't want to know what our parents might say on our back, or my brother," Sarah muttered.
Their parents were getting close, sharing their escape from the assault of the M'arrillians and actually meeting each other. In fact, they were talking a little too openly about their children.
"Yeah. I don't want all of you to hear all of my embarrassing secrets," Kaz scratched the back of his head nervously.
"You heard mine," Tom grumbled with a small smile on his face.
"It was very interesting to hear," Gathup appeared near them.
"G-Gathup bro. What are you doing here?" The large boy asked a little nervously.
"Just following you, just in case. Ario is around too. For your safety of course," the Mipedian replied as he lightly pulled his mane.
"Stalkers," the girl whispered.
"We are not Sarah. We can never be sure if a M'arrillian is around. They could be watching us, undetected. We will not underestimate them," Ario replied as he appeared at the other side.
Gathup asked, "And you said you have nothing to do right now? Right?"
"Yeah. We don't have any books to read, games or other things. We left everything behind to come here," Tom admitted.
"You ask your parents if they have anything?" Ario asked as he crossed his arms. He suggested it with little interest.
"No. They are surely telling embarrassing stories about us," Sarah replied.
The orange Mipedian chuckled, "They did. Your brother is enjoying every second of it and-" he stopped when the soldiers passed as they jogged. He was surprised to see Odu-Bathax following them with Wamma whining behind as he had to follow them. He pointed his claws at them, "W-what's going on?"
"I didn't sleep that well," Ario grumbled as he scratched his head.
"It's real," the Danian player replied. She raised her hand, "Odu-Bathax felt like he was falling behind or something. He didn't want to let the soldiers show they were better than him. He was someone who trained the soldiers," she remembered.
"It is a little stupid to feel threatened like that," the green Mipedian sighed. He gazed at them, "I cannot help you with your problem. I don't know what your tribe likes. This is the Cothica after all. We don't have anything better than you already have."
"This is not the Cothica," the four teenagers replied at the same time.
"Whatever you are pretending," Ario grumbled. He knew it was the Cothica. It wouldn't make sense to be anything else. Especially with everything they discovered and from the Messenger of the Cothica, who was thankfully out of the M'arrillians' reach. Extremely far away from what he understood.
The other Mipedian let out a small smirk. He didn't push that subject, "Anyway, you still have a problem about what you could do. We need to train soon. We are never sure when we can fight against the M'arrillians. We won't and can't wait forever."
Ario nodded, "You can train too, since you have nothing to do," he left after his suggestion.
The four teenagers gazed at each other.
"Let's put that as our last resort list," Peyton suggested.
"Agreed," the other three replied.
They went on their quest to find some kind of distraction. After an hour, they had their shoulders down on the ground.
"I guess we are at our last resort," Tom commented.
"Not yet," Kaz replied. He didn't want to just train to pass the time.
"Too bad they don't have any interesting books. I'm not interested in reading about all the laws," Sarah sighed.
"And we already finished the 'I spy with my little eye game'," Peyton sighed.
"Agitos still didn't get that game," the boy commented as he adjusted his glasses.
They turned back and saw Agitos still trying to understand what that game even was.
"Why am I focused on that?" The blue lizard wondered after a while.
"I think the spy part really unnerved him. They are nervous about a spy too," Sarah sighed.
"Anyway, we need to find something," Kaz said when he gazed at his best friend, who was open to the training part.
"Maybe you can show us some of your moves you learned at the ballet camp," the girl let out a small innocent smile.
"Not a chance. It has been a long time anyway," Tom replied as he gave her an annoying glance.
Peyton lightly snickered while Kaz remained neutral. The orange-haired boy knew this for a long time. Long enough that the funny part was completely gone.
Kaz sighed, "Guess we can play some of our childhood games," he crossed his arms, "But I feel too old for it," he hummed to himself as he thought back. There was something inching in his mind, but his friends didn't notice it.
"The light game, tag, or anything like that. I feel too old for them too," Sarah admitted.
"Did you two play that together?" Peyton curiously asked, "I remember I played that at school. I was often the unlucky guy," he chuckled while scratching the back of his neck.
"And almost no one managed to get me when they went after me," the girl had a small smile when she thought back, "I was too fast for them."
"Not really. I was more into sports when I was younger. I practiced baseball with dad when he was home," Tom remembered.
"Me too. Since Tom wanted to play that. Wasn't that good," Kaz sighed.
"Charlie Brown bad?" Peyton asked.
"Nope," he replied. He grumbled about why he was compared in baseball with that cartoon character, "I just couldn't hit the ball."
"He did throw it hard when someone said something nasty about his father," Tom remembered.
The boy frowned. He didn't want to think back on that.
"And he broke the wood baseball bat," the black-haired boy let out a small smile.
"He can be really tough like an Underworlder when they push him hard enough," Sarah concluded.
"No wonder Chaor likes you Kaz," the large boy gently pushed the back of his friend.
"M-maybe. Never said anything about that. Anyway, I don't mind training a little too now," Kaz sighed. He scratched the back of his head, "Never sure when we might need to escape or help in any way. Just… thinking back to when they attacked your grandparents farm…we might need to be ready to run for our lives."
The others were quiet. They sighed.
"Right. We won't find anything anyway," Sarah grumbled. She had to admit, "We were only delaying the inevitable."
"I don't want to sit and do nothing. Not good for me bro!" Peyton replied.
"Maybe it will help when we can return to Perim. One day," Tom said with a small smile. That smile spread to his friends.
That smile slowly disappeared as they wondered if it was possible. The possibility of never returning to Perim went to their minds. They gazed down. The future was highly uncertain. There were no answers on what would come next.
"Anyway, no more bad mood time!" Peyton decided.
The others agreed. They had no reply to that anyway. The conversation was over and they went to find Tom's father to help them in their training.
AC: This is the end of this chapter. It is a bit shorter, but I have nothing else to complete.
Next: Advance Preparation.
The repair of the portal is advancing in Chaotic. Despite that, there was a bit of apprehension from what was happening on Earth and with that new elemental tribe.