For all the M.K. fans out there, this chapter is for you :)
as always I love it when u guys favorite and follow the story, but I love it better when you review!
M.K. walked through her front door and she was greeted by an ecstatic Ozzie, who put his paws on her knees and barked happily. She had just gotten back from a long day at school and was mentally exhausted, but being greeted by Ozzie always made her smile.
Ozzie started barking in confusion when he saw her friends, Angela, Corey, Jason, Reece, and Lisa, enter the house behind her. They had all decided to come by her house after school to hang out, and this was the first time they saw M.K.'s house.
"Oh is this your dog?" Angela, a blond hair, blue-eyed girl asked. She bent down to pet Ozzie. "He's soooooo cute!"
Ozzie just ran around in circles, sniffing everybody like crazy then trotted back into the living room.
"And a bit crazy," Corey commented, then went back to checking his messages on his phone.
"He's just got some bad eye sight, that's all," M.K. explained. "Let me get you guys some snacks. The living room's that way."
As she walked towards the kitchen, she looked around, and was relieved to see that her dad had put up his work in his study. Earlier in the day, she had texted him that her friends were coming over, and to hide all his life's research. The display cases of armor, weapons, the papers and sketch books, and everything else had all been locked away in her dad's upstairs office. His microscopes and video screens had stayed, but that was fine. She had told her friends that Bomba was an environmental scientist.
She came back to her friends with chips, popcorn, and sodas. Her friends had made themselves comfortable on couches, and had already switched on the TV.
"Nice house M.K.," Jason, an athletic, blond haired boy, said. He was cute, and the captain of the school's soccer team. He had actually been the first friend at school she had made.
"Thanks," she said a bit awkwardly, then noticed Reece staring at the food uncertainly. "Oh sorry Reece! I forgot that you're a vegetarian."
Despite her punk rock look, Reece was a caring and enthusiastic tree hugger. She was the president of the Go Eco club at school, and she blogged about 'earth-killing companies' in her free time. Reece smiled at M.K.
""It's alright, I'm not hungry anyway," she assured.
"More for us then!" Corey grinned and stuck a hand into the popcorn. Lisa, a brunette, Hispanic girl, took a chip as she flipped through the channels, and stopped at a Spanish commercial, advertising a line of makeup. Corey groaned in annoyance.
"Not all of us can speak Spanish," he said.
"I can speak French!" Angela announced proudly. Not that anyone had asked.
In the end, they found nothing good to watch on TV, and M.K. stuck in a DVD. Soon, they were chowing on snacks and watching Ocean Eleven.
They were in the middle of the movie, when the back door came crashing open, exciting Ozzie into a barking frenzy. Professor Bomba walked in, talking one hundred miles an hour. "M.K.! You won't believe this, the meadow is almost completely-" he stopped as soon as he saw the company in his living room.
"Oh...I'm sorry...I forgot that you were having friends over." he stuttered.
M.K. got up from the couch and walked to him, "That's okay Dad," then in a whisper. "What's going on with the meadow?"
"Aren't you going to introduce me to your friends?" Bomba asked distrctedly.
Jason, always the gentlemen, stepped up with a hand out in greeting. "Hello Professor Bomba, my name's Jason Hale. I've heard a lot about you."
Bomba shook the hand, a little caught off guard. Such wonderful manners from one so young! "Ah, nice to meet you too! M.K. has told me about you as well."
At that, M.K. looked down, nervously tucking her hair behind her ear. She quickly introduced the rest of her friends, feeling a bit anxious about what was going on in the forest.
"M.K. can I talk to you for a minute," Bomba asked his daughter.
She nodded and they went into the kitchen for privacy. She opened her mouth to ask about the meadow, but Bomba beat her to it. "The meadow has been attacked by those boogie things!" he blurted out.
"You mean the Boggans?" she asked fearfully. They hadn't seen a sign of them for a whole year.
"Yes those!" her dad said, then started pacing around the kitchen, talking to the floor as he explained things. "I got their around nine in the morning, and almost all the plant life were dead! Including the few flowered tick trefoil! Don't the Boggans know how endangered that flower is?!"
"Dad," she interrupted before he could go ranting about the few flower whatever. "What about the Jinn or the Leafmen? Were you able to talk to them?"
"The Jinn had ran off to different parts of the forest, and as for the Leafmen, they all said the same thing. The attack was unexpected and devastating, but they put them on the run, and not a single Leafmen or Jinn was killed," he smiled sheepishly. "So, an OK day, I guess."
She breathed a sigh of relief. If nobody was hurt, than meant Nod was okay. And Ronin, she reminded herself.
"Yet the damage..." her father said, thinking aloud. "It's so messy and uncoordinated. Almost like when I lose my iPod in my office..."
Then he seem to snap out of it, and looked at his watch, "Oh jeez, look at the time! I'm going to be late for work!" He scrambled out of the kitchen, grabbing various kits and manila files, that were bursting at the seams with papers. Her father had gotten a job at an environmental research facility, and had taken the undesired evening shift. That way, he could explore the forest in the daytime.
At the door, he grabbed his briefcase and put on his coat, even though it was the middle of March, "Bye sweetheart, love you!" and he rushed out the door.
A few seconds later, he opened the door again, "Oh what am I doing? It's springtime!" He took off his coat, hung it on a hook, then was out the door again. "I'll get us some dinner on the way home!" he promised.
M.K. kept the door open, just in case her dad forgot something else, but he hopped into the car and was off. She quickly closed the door before Ozzie could get wind that the it was open. At the moment, an alarm went off by the video monitors. Something was tipping off the sensors. She was about to go over, but then hesitated.
Her friends were still watching the movie, but should she risk taking this call with them in the house? Nod only called her in the evening, so it must be really important if he was calling this early. Maybe he wanted to talk about the raid. She quickly checked the hall. Nobody there. She ran over and answered the call.
To her surprise, it wasn't Nod at the camera, but a girl with green skin and hair. Her eyes were big and a mystic meld of green and gold. She wore Leafmen armor, but had an exoskeleton on her arms and legs. She waved and smiled at M.K. as if they were old friends.
"Hi! You must be M.K.!" she bubbled. "It's nice to finally meet you!"
"Um...hi. How do you know my name?"
"Well everybody in the forest knows your name!" she said. "Your the human that saved the forest after all. My name's Lex by the way."
"Your the first one to ever call me a human," M.K. observed.
"Well that's what you are, isn't it?" Lex gave her winning smile. "I mean 'stomper' makes you sound too much like a monster. Anyway, I'm a friend of Nod's. He sent me with a message."
The grasshopper girl filled her in on the attack and Nod's 'condition'. She hushed her voice when she got to the part about the rose sprout, and something about a king that Ronin mentioned, but didn't explain.
"We've been sworn to secrecy," Lex explained. "But Nod wanted you to know, cause he can't leave Moonhaven. My friend, Thryn is guarding him."
Thryn? Is that a girl's name or a guy's name? M.K. thought. Before she could ask, she heard footsteps on the floor. She panicked, and said to Lex, "Gotta go," and switched off the link, just before Jason walked in.
"M.K. is everything okay?" he asked.
"Everything's fine...just skyping my cousin," she lied.
He gave her a dazzling smile, "If that's all then. Are you going to watch this movie with us? The heist is about to happen."
She got up and followed him to the living room, where the others sat, sucked in to the movie, unaware that she had ever left. M.K. tried to relax and enjoy the rest of the movie, and the company of her friends, but her mind was on the Leafmen and Nod. Mostly Nod.
It was all very mysterious, this rose attaching itself to him. Almost as if it had chosen him for something. She remembered her dad musing about lost iPods, and describing the Boggan raid. Like they were looking for something. When Dad loses anything, he goes in a craze looking for it, throwing stuff around in attempt to find it. Generally, making a mess.
Gunshots jerked her out of thoughts, but they were just from the movie, and she relaxed. She couldn't think, and she suddenly wanted to be left alone, but she couldn't shove her friends out the door. Then she wouldn't have any friends.
Just play it cool, she thought. When they leave, then you can think.
Lex was left standing there, feeling a little awkward. She knew that M.K. had to turn off the chat because someone was coming. Someone who probably didn't know of the Jinn existence and probably shouldn't. Lex still felt as if she had said something wrong, though. M.K. had switched off, right after Lex had told her that Nod was being guarded by a girl.
Forget it,she told herself. She didn't say whether Thryn was a girl or a boy anyway. With that, she mounted her waiting hummingbird, and took off for Moonhaven.
Lex was unaware that somebody was listening in on her conversation. A brutish, gypsy moth was standing on a branch below, hidden by leaves. He flew off, trying to make sense of the words he heard. He wasn't the smartest, more brawn than brains. He left the thinking to his boss. This conversation he overheard was apparently top secret, and that just made it more valuable. They could make some money off of selling information.
After all, it wasn't just fixed racing that Bufo indulged in.
teehee i bet you liked that ending! ;)
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