CHAPTER TWO: Cat got your tongue?

Rick didn't think anyone could sweat so much.

He did sweat in bed sometimes. But he had never sweat so much. He was literally drenched. Half-asleep, he had thrown his covers away ages ago, but he was still sweating.

Suddenly he had a startling realization: people sweat when they feel hot. But Rick was definitely feeling cold.

He opened his eyes, but instead of the roof of his house, he saw a canopy of leaves. Rain pelted his face. He tried to keep his eyes open, but the rain was falling too heavily. How was it raining inside the house? He sat up groggily and wiped his eyes.

BOOOOOOOOOOOMM!

There was a huge noise and a sudden flash of green light. Rick had just opened his eyes again when he was blinded and had to clamp them shut. Was he going to see anything tonight?

Rick shielded his eyes from the rain with his hand and looked around. He seemed to be in a forest. It was raining heavily, and he saw flashes of lightning and heard the rumble of thunder. He was sitting in a small crater under a tree. Rick was stunned. He was definitely not dreaming. Dreams couldn't feel so real, and he was definitely soaked. He could clearly hear the thunder. How had he gotten here?

A sudden thought struck him; he gave a shout, "JOANNE!"

"Yeah…" he heard his sister's sleepy voice. He crawled out of the crater and saw his sister sitting in a similar crater under another tree, rubbing her eyes. He was wide awake now. He jumped into the crater and shook her awake, "You okay?"

Joanne nodded. Relieved, Rick surveyed his surroundings. There were only trees as far as he could see. The sky was a dark and wicked grey. The rain made it difficult to see anything else.

"Where are we?" asked Joanne.

"No idea."

Both of them were really cold now. They looked around for any sign of shelter. One tree had particularly thick branches and big leaves. They made their way to it and climbed onto a low patch of branches, where it was relatively dry. They hugged each other for warmth and watched the rain. A million questions were buzzing in Rick's head, when Joanne pointed towards the sky and said in an unnaturally scared voice, "R-Rick, what's that?"

Rick looked towards where she was pointing and nearly fell out of the tree. A thin gap between two clouds was glowing green. As they watched, a streak of green lightning sped from the gap and hit the ground with an almighty BOOM! The green glow disappeared.

Rick had never been so scared in his life since he had been threatened to be thrown into the garbage unless he handed his lunch over by a gang of bullies. And he hadn't even been very scared then, since the headmaster happened to be flying a kite on the roof at that moment. But there was no one here. He was in an unknown place and had just seen something that looked like it belonged to a science-fiction movie. He had no idea what to do.

"D-don't worry," said Joanne, her teeth chattering. "We'll figure it out in the morning."

Rick nodded and closed his eyes.

They snuggled together and fell asleep.

The sky was a beautiful blue dotted with small white clouds when they woke up. The sun shone brightly, and from its position Rick guessed it must be about 8 o'clock. The trees were lush green. The rain had stopped and little drops dripped from the leaves. With the clear sky, Rick could see green mountains around. A few had snow covered peaks. There was no sign of any civilization.

Joanne was still asleep. Leaning her against the tree, Rick climbed to the top of the tree, which turned out to be quite tall. He had a very good view from here, but it wasn't much use. He couldn't see much else.

Suddenly, a movement near a mountain caught his eye. He stared at the mountain, but whatever he had seen had disappeared behind the mountain. He kept staring at it, when something small and red emerged from behind the mountain. A hot air balloon! Rick was overjoyed to see a sign of living beings. Maybe if they got to the mountain…

"Morning!" shouted Joanne as she climbed to the top of the tree, causing Rick to jump violently.

"DO. NOT. DO. THAT. AGAIN!" Rick scolded, his heart pumping. "I could have fallen!"

"Yeah. Sorry," she said as she perched beside him. "So, where are we? How did we get here? What's happening?"

Rick would have loved to answer, but the same questions were swimming around in his own head. He opened his mouth to say this when he heard a shout, "Help! Anyone?"

Rick and Joanne looked at each other, eyebrows raised. But that sounded like… how could this be?

A figure came into view in a small clearing in the forest. The man looked like he was in his late twenties, wearing purple shorts and an orange t-shirt. It was definitely him.

Rick and Joanne shinnied down the tree and ran to him crying, "Freddy! What are you doing here?"

Freddy looked just as puzzled to see Rick and Joanne as they were to see him. "What'r you guys doing here?

"Um… that's what I just asked you."

"I don't know! I just woke up in a crater like thing, drenched. What is this place?"

Rick had a sudden idea. He glanced at their tree, and pointed in a seemingly random direction, "Did you happen to… ah… spawn over there?"

Freddy looked in the direction Rick was pointing. He screwed his face up, "Um… hard to tell… Let's take a look and see if we can find that crater, eh?"

Joanne looked at Rick, puzzled, "What have you got?"

"Just follow me…"

Rick led them in the direction, when Freddy exclaimed, "Look! Over there!"

He pointed over to their right, where a crater identical to Rick's and Joanne's was visible.

Rick nodded grimly. He looked at the sky, "Did you see it too?"

"What?"

Joanne suddenly caught on, "It was here, wasn't it? The green lightning."

If that was possible, Freddy looked even more puzzled, "Are you guys gonna spill the beans? I don't like being the ignorant one."

Rick told him about the strange lightning they had seen the last night, and asked him if he had seen it too.

Before Freddy could reply, Rick clamped his hand over his mouth, and motioned towards a thicket of bushes.

Two miniature red dots were visible through the plumage. Joanne looked scared out of her wits. Rick didn't feel much better. The hairs on his arms and on the back of his neck stood on end. Freddy grabbed a big fat stick and pointed it uncertainly towards the bushes.

That was when Rick heard a faint noise, like a rattlesnake, coming from the direction. Just in time, he saw something black moving on top of the dots. Rick couldn't believe it. It wasn't possible. But his sense of reasoning left him and instinct took over as he screamed, "DOWN!"

The three of them hit the dirt just as something black whistled over their heads. They all looked back and saw the black spike-like things embed themselves in the trunks of various trees, some falling onto the ground.

Joanne had gone chalk-white. "B-b-but th-th-that's…"

An ear-splitting roar cut her short and caused the ground to tremble. A big black-furred figure leapt out of the bushes, its eyes leaving red laser-like trails. It was about twelve feet long, with arms with razor-ended wings attached to them, and wickedly sharp claws. Its head looked like a slightly elongated cat's head. Its long tail curved on top, bristling with spikes.

The Nargacuga did a slight jump in place, placing one hand and leg forward, its tail pointing at the three of them, ready to pounce.