Chapter 5
The banging sounds continue as you put your pillow over your ears to try and dampen the noise.
Suddenly, the mysterious noise stops, and you hear a large splash right out your window. You sit up as you hear some one shout "MAN OVERBOARD! MAN OVERBOARD! GET THE LIFESAVER! PULL HIM OUT OFTHERE!" You quickly get out of bed, throw on your shirt and burst out into the hall and rocket up the stairs.
"What happened?" You ask Eric.
"Oh, Mike just had some of the Keidran milk and got in a fight with Evals. None of them got hurt. It was more of a playful fight, but Mike can hit pretty hard. Thats when Keith butted in and tried to stop them, and thats when Mike fell over. Don't worry, he's ok. If you want to talk to him, Evals and Natani are comforting him over there."
"Ok, thanks." You say, as you start walking towards the bundled-up-and-shivering-let-me-fight-you Mike.
"He needs to go and get some dry clothes on." Evals says to you. "He wont let either of us take him down to his room. Maybe you can."
"I'll certainly try. C'mon, Mike. Lets go get you some dry clothes, and then you can sleep this off."
"Fine." He says, standing up quickly, almost falling over, but you catch him. "Lets go before you hurt yourself." You say as you half-carry bundled-up-and-shivering-let-me-fight-you Mike down the stairs and to his room, where he half falls through the door and stumbles around a bit until he finds some dry clothes. He pushes you out of the room, grumbling, and closes the door.
You stand there for a few minutes while Mike attempts at getting dressed. The door opens suddenly and Mike says, barely audible "Can, can you get me some wa-water." And he stands there with his eyes almost completely closed, almost like he's about to fall asleep.
"Sure... I'll be right back." You hurry off to the kitchen and quickly pour a large glass of water for zombie Mike.
You rush back over to his room, where you find him laying in the bed.
"Just-just set it on the table. I'll get it later." He says, rubbing his head.
"Ok. Good night, Mike." You say, as you back out the door. You poke your head back in when you hear Mike say "Night, Dan-Daniel." as he rolls over. You close the door and go back to your room.
When you finish your slow walk back to your room, you open the door and rub your eyes as you look around. You look at the floor and see that Flora has left her clothes in a heap. You sigh as you pick them up. "Flora, you're starting to become an armful." You say to yourself as you once again make a trip down the hall towards Trace's room. When you get there, you knock on the door and open it, but neither him nor Flora are in there. Disappointed, you start walking towards the kitchen to set the clothes on the table, when you hear giggling coming from the closet across from Floras room. You freeze there, with your hand on the handle, asking yourself weather you should open it or not.
You say to yourself, 'Screw it. Whats the worst that could happen?' and slowly turn the handle and peek in. You stumble backwards at the sight of Trace and Flora in very... intimate positions, but luckily they were preoccupied and didn't see you peek in. You go into Flora's room and set the clothes down on the bed, careful not to touch anything, in fear of what dirty deeds might have happened there.
As you walk back to your room for the third, and hopefully, final time tonight, you remember what Eric said about talking to Kat. You're thinking about that when you make a turn down the wrong hall and end up walking past Kat's room. As you pass by, you hear quiet sobbing coming from in the room. You stop, and put your ear up to the door.
*sniff* "Why does Eric have to do this to me? First he tries to control me, then he throws me across the room and on the floor." Kat lets out a big sigh and continues to sob. You knock on the door. "Go away!" She snaps. "Kat, its me. Do you need anything?"
"Oh. Sorry. I d-don't." *sniff*
"Are you sure? Is everything fine?"
"I... I don't want to talk right now. I need to get some sleep..."
"Oh, Good night, then."
"Good night, Daniel."
You're about to turn away, but you hear her sigh loudly again. "Hey, Kat?" "What..." "I... I love you, and... you know I'll always be there for you when you need me." "Aww, I love you too. I'll talk to you tomorrow, ok?"
"Ok, bye, Kat."
"Bye, Daniel."
After that, you wait around a little bit and don't hear her cry anymore. So, with a smile on your face, you continue to walk back to your room, and finally get some sleep, with no drunk Floras, sopping wet Mikes, sex crazed kitties or sad Kats.
You awake the next morning to find your door open, and the smells of bacon and pancakes wafting through the door. You do your usual morning routine, and head out to the table and notice its just you, Keith, and Eric that are up right now. As you sit down, Natani wanders into the dining room, still brushing her hair, half asleep. "Mornin-" "GOOD MORNING, NATANI!" Eric almost screams as he interrupts her.
"Gods, Eric! I don't need a bigger headache." She complains. "Had a little bit too much to drink last night?" He chuckles. "No. Its Trace and Flora." She starts rubbing her head. "They were up really late having a little too much fun." Just then, Trace walks in, his hair a mess, and sits down at the table staring blankly at the wall across from him. Trace leans back, and stretches while yawning, and in the middle of this... "GOOD MORNING TRACE!" Eric shouts, scaring you and Natani, and making Trace fall backwards in his chair.
Still on the floor, Trace says "Morning, Eric..." "Didya have fun last night?" "I guess so. Why?"
"Natani says you and Flora kept him up and gave him a headache." "Hehehe. Ok. Sorry, Nat." Says Trace as Flora walks in. "Whats with all the yelling..." She says, rubbing her eyes. "Eric... Don't." Trace says, now seated again. "Morning, Flora." Eric says. "Morning" She says as she sits down next to Trace, as usual, with no pants on. "Don't do what?" Flora asks, and before Trace protests, "THIS!" Eric shouts, once again, surprising everyone, and making Flora fall over, but Trace catches her.
Trace glares at Eric. Eric laughs. Evals brings out a giant tray of pancakes and butter, and Mike brings out a huge plate of bacon and syrup. "Everyone's here, so lets eat!" Eric says as they start passing around the plates of food. Evals comes back in with a pitcher of orange juice and some cups and passes them around. "Thanks, Evals. Send our thanks to Mike, too." Keith says. "You're all welcome, and I will." Evals says as he looks around the table, then heads back into the kitchen where him and Mike will eat.
A few hours, and a few chubby Keidran later, everyone is lazing about the boat.
After a short nap, you're awakened by Eric. "Have you talked to Kat yet?" He says, half in the door.
"Oh, Hi Eric." You say as you're stretching. "I haven't yet. I'll go talk to her now if you'd like."
"Yes, that would be good. I got to go and wake up Mike and Evals so they can take a turn at navigating."
"Ok. See ya." You say, attempting at sitting up. Only after your 4th try, do you manage to heave yourself up and off the bed. As you lumber down the halls, you start to think back to what Kat was talking about. Eric threw her across the room? Naw, he wouldn't do that. Would he?
As you're getting closer, you start to smell what could be flowers. 'No, no no. That's not right.' you say to yourself. 'We're on a boat. There's no flowers here.' When you get to Kat's door, you realize that its coming from within the depths of the domain that Eric fears to enter.
You try to turn the handle, but it doesn't move. You knock on the door and hear frantic rustling, on what sounds like, a bed. You hear a small yelp as something hits the floor. More scrambling. Something falls against the door. Gasping for breath, Kat says "Who is it?" Back against the wall on the other side of the hall, a little scared the door was going to burst down, you say "Its me, Kat. What was all that noise?" You step forward as the door gets unlocked. It flies open and you get pulled into a world of darkness. Click. The door is locked again.
"Uhh.." You say, your voice shaky. "Kat? Where are-" "I'm right here." She interrupts, sounding very close. There is a sudden bright light as a lantern is lit at your side. You stumble backwards at the sudden burst of light.
"H-hey K-kat." You say, up against the wall. "I've been waiting to talk to you all day about what happened." She says, slowly walking forward. You're still up against the wall, dazed. "Come sit down and relax. I know about you getting scared, and you need to relax, and I need to tell someone about what happened, and you're the only one I can trust."
Slightly more relaxed, you walk over to the bed and sit down next to a sad Kat. "Why don't you start from the beginning, and I'll discuss it with Eric later." You say to her as you put your arm around her shoulder for comfort. "Yeah, sure. Its just going to be hard for me to say what happened, since he's never done anything like that before, at least *sniff* to me." "Its ok, Kat. Just take your time. We have all the time in the world." She rests her head on your shoulder. "Right now, I just want to relax."
Later that night::
*sigh* "So you told him?"
"I-I had to. He would have told Eric that he though that I was a female, and we both know what would happen if he went through with that."
"But what if he tells someone?"
"Relax. I-I told him not to. He's a good boy, he most likely won't." Says Natani.
Keith complains "I have a feeling he might. Why did you tell him in the first place?"
"Well, he was staring at me during the party, and I could just tell he was judging me. I just had to. So I walked over to him and, I told him. It didn't seem that he was going to tell anyone from the way he looked. I trust him."
"*sigh* If you say so, but if he tells anyone, its your fault. Now how about we drop this subject and get something to eat." Keith says as he gets up from the table. He walks into the kitchen and Natani follows him, nervously.
Kieth looks around in the pantry as Natani is standing behind him. "Um, Keith?" She says. "Yeah?" Says Keith, still intent on finding a midnight snack. "Um, I have something to tell you..." "What is it?" He says, standing up to face Natani. "I..." She takes a step closer. "Wh-what is it?" He says nervously. "I, I can't take it anymore!" She says as she lunges herself onto Keith, knocking them both onto the floor.
"Natani! What are you-!" Keith tries to say, but gets cut off mid-sentence by Natani's sneak-attack of a kiss. Mike walks into the kitchen, right at that moment, carrying the tray that has the pitcher and wine bottles on it. It crashes against the floor, spilling wine and milk. Natani and Keith look up at Mike like he was Death himself. "Uh... She-I mean, he tripped and fell on.. me..." Keith tries to say. "Oh gods I was right!" Mike shouts as he runs off down the hall.
"Oh gods we've done it now!" Natani says as she gets up and stumbles away from Keith, who is still on the floor, dazed. "What do you mean 'we'? It was all you. Lets just get to bed before someone else decides to show up." "G-good idea." Says Natani as she helps up Keith. As they turn the corner at the end of the hall, Mike and Evals come running in to the kitchen through the other side. They catch a small look at Keith and Natani holding hands as they turn the corner.
"See I told you! I'm not crazy! They have a thing for each other!" Mike explains to Evals, who's looking around the room and sees the tray in the door. "What happened here?" He says as he's walking towards the broken bottles and spilled milk. "Oh, um. I got a little startled and I dropped the tray when I turned around to get you." Says Mike, looking embarrassed.
"Ok." Says Evals. "We'd better get this cleaned up before Eric wakes up." "I'll grab a towel and a bag." Mike says as he rummages around in the kitchen cabinets, trying to locate an empty sack, while Evals start to pick up the tray and the glass pieces.
"Hey, Mike!" Eric shouts from his room. "Y-yes, Eric?" Says Mike, frantically looking at Evals. "What was all that noise?" "Oh, what do I say! What do I say!" He whispers to Evals. "Tell him you dropped the empty wine bottles." He whispers back. "Ok. Some of the empty bottles slipped out of my hands as I walked in to the kitchen." He says back to Eric. There is a moment of silence before Eric replies "Ok, but just be sure you pick up all the glass shards. I don't want anyone to get hurt. Especially..." He trails off, remembering what had happened between him and Kat the day before.
THATS ALL FOR NOW. NO MORE TILL JANUARY! OH, BY THE WAY, HAPPY HOWLIDAYS TO ALL YALL FURRYS OUT THERE AND A MERRY NEW YEAR TO ALL YOU GRAMMARS NAZIS!