Hello everyone, here's your next chapter!
I hope you all like it, the end even surprised me and I was the one writing it. Enjoy :)
A breeze swooshed in, tugging at the women's clothes, sending small grains of sand in every direction. Brittany and Rachel quickly closed their eyes to protect themselves. However, the wind started to pick up exponentially. Rachel, fearing a sandstorm, ran back to Quinn's side and turned the unconscious woman's body into her own. She pressed her forehead against the blondes and tried to cover both of their faces with her arms so the sand wouldn't suffocate them. Brittany watched through squinted eyes at what Rachel was doing and did the same with Santana. The wind picked up and sand whipped into the woman like a thousand needles. Both humans prayed that the onslaught would end.
As if hearing their prayers, the wind came to a sudden stop. Rachel lifted her head; adrenaline pumping through her veins. Nothing looked different at all. Shouldn't there be sand? Rachel frowned at the thought. None of this made any sense; not that the past couple days have made much anyhow. Rachel looked down at her clothes and noticed there was no sand. Only her skin was red in areas where it had been pummeled by flying sand. Something wasn't right.
Rachel swallowed, trying to coat her dry throat. "Brittany? Are you alright?"
Brittany coughed in reply, "Yeah…yeah we're good. What was that?" she sat up slightly, setting Santana's head down gently.
"I think it was a sandstorm. When I was younger, I took a road trip with my dad's and we got stuck in one in New Mexico. But…..do you notice something odd?" Rachel asked.
Blue eyes scanned the area surrounding them, "Umm…no?"
"The sand Brittany….where's the sand?" Rachel insisted while waving her arms around frantically.
As the brunette pointed out, there was no sand around them. Just black rocks as it had been ten minutes ago. Brittany looked up into a clear blue sky, and then shaded her eyes from a large sun shining brightly. What caught her attention was a smaller circular planet near the sun. It was a deep royal blue. Brittany frowned, and looked down at where her palm rested on black rock. Naturally, the rock should be blistering hot from the sun; it wasn't.
"Rachel, I really don't think we're home anymore"
"Obviously we're not in Ohio anymore Brittany…"
"No, I meant like…Earth"
Rachel shook her head and took a deep breath. Ok, don't freak out, don't freak out. You're not on Earth….that's not surprising is it? Rachel didn't know what was going on anymore. She just needed to hold on for the ride.
Rachel cleared her throat, "That…is an interesting idea. Considering that we're still breathing and still alive…I'd say we're lucky then. Where ever Santana took us must be safe…right?"
Of course, Rachel had to say the wrong words. Something caught Brittany's eyes over Rachel's shoulder. She squinted trying to make out what she was seeing. Blue eyes widened, and she half thought she was seeing a mirage or was hallucinating. Out of nowhere, the sand that had just been striking their defenseless bodies materialized and was twisted around in a vortex slowly touching the earth. As it touched, a body could be seen slowly appearing. First two legs formed, then two more forearms. The animal, that's all Brittany could think of to describe it, was large. It almost looked like a tiger but at least three times as large. Each paw consisted of three appendages, each with at least a four inch long nail.
Rachel noticed Brittany's face go pale and turned her head to look behind her. She watched in horror as this new creature took form. The body was as thick as a log and it had a long agile tail. The beast had a broad chest and a box shaped skull, along with whiskers and large canines that extended well past the lower jaw. The coat of the animal was light sand brown, with random spots of white. When the animal was fully formed it opened it's mouth wide, roared and reared back on it's hind legs. The two petrified women felt the heat blast into their faces and smelled the hot stench of the animal's breath even though it was several hundred feet away.
Rachel clung to Quinn and looked down at her. She whispered harshly, "Quinn. Quinn you need to wake up! Damnit, wake up!" she shook the girl as tears threatened to fall.
Brittany leaned over and stopped her friend from shaking the comatose woman, fearing she'd only hurt her body more. "Rach! Stop, you could hurt her."
The animal dropped down sending the smaller rocks and pebbles into the air slightly before dropping. The beast lowered it's head to the ground and stalked towards them slowly.
Brittany looked around trying to find a place they could go, but there was nothing. Just a rolling landscape of pure black rock and a random bush or two. Brittany cursed and then grabbed onto her best friends hand squeezing it tightly.
Rachel met blue eyes and in an instant she was calm. Perhaps it was her body accepting her fate, or just knowing that she wasn't alone, either way her pulse slowed down. It was as if she could see everything clearly. She turned her hand and laced her fingers with her best friends and then leaned over and took Quinn's rough hand. She looked down at the blonde woman and smiled remembering how funny her warrior looked carrying a bunch of bags.
Brittany leaned over and laced her free hand with Santana and leaned down and placed a chaste kiss on her forehead. She smiled brightly remembering how gentle the woman was on the night they met.
By this time the beast was only 100 feet away from the four women. It stopped in it's tracks and examined the group. They could hear the air rushing out of it's nostril in large puffs. The muscles on it's shoulders twitched anxiously and it's claws scratched into the hard surface leaving marks. And then the animal lowered it's body, and collapsed onto the rock watching the women with intelligent amber eyes.
Rachel was scared to move. She was scared to break the silence in case the animal was startled and decided to have an afternoon snack. Rachel's snuck a look over to Brittany out of the corner of her eye. Incredibly, the blonde had untangled her hand from Santana's and was moving it around. Blue eyes watched as amber eyes watched her movement intently but made no motion to move any closer.
Brittany let go of Rachel's hand and stood up slowly, testing the waters. Still, the animal kept it's head down on it's paws. It's ears flattened on it's head and it's tail wagged.
"Brittany, what are you doing?" Rachel hissed quietly.
Brittany waved her off. She didn't know what possessed her to do it, but she took a step forward. The animal twitched it's ear but still remained prone. Brittany took another step, becoming more confident. The animal sat up quickly, but remained seated. The animal panted and licked it's smaller front teeth between it's canines.
Brittany paused and spoke quietly, "Easy there…..it's ok…I don't mean any harm…" the large cat cocked it's head.
Rachel's draw dropped, Are you kidding me? She's talking to it likes it's a puppy!
"That's right, now you don't want to hurt us do you?" Brittany asked with a raised eyebrow to the creature.
The animal pawed at the ground and Rachel watched in astonishment as the massive animal shook it's head and flipped it's tail playfully.
Brittany smiled brightly, "See! Look at that Rach. It's not going to hurt us."
"Since when did you become the Monster Whisperer?" Rachel drawled lazily keeping her eyes on the beast. She wasn't as trusting as her friend was.
"I'm not, I just wanted to be a vet before I chose to work on humans instead. Body language speaks louder than words," The blonde shrugged and looked at the animal pensively.
"Great, we aren't going to die. But we need to get Santana and Quinn some help and in the middle of wherever the hell we are….how are we to do that? Or are we going to ask the animal?" Rachel asked sarcastically as she stood up.
Brittany shrugged, "Why not?" she turned her eyes back to intelligent amber, "Do you know where help is?"
The large feline got up on its four legs and purred loudly. It's ears perked up and it clawed the hard rock.
Brittany laughed at Rachel's shocked expression, "There you have it. I don't know about you but we don't have any better choice than to follow the animal."
Rachel frowned and looked down at Quinn. She still hadn't woken up it was well over a half hour since the fall, and that scared Rachel to death. Fuck. Rachel looked at the animal her friend seemed to have formed a bond with and spoke directly to it. "We'll follow you."
The cat dipped his head as if agreeing with the women.
Rachel leaned down and tried to pick up Quinn, but was struggling with all the dead weight. She was so focused on trying to situate the blonde, that she didn't notice the animal had softly padded over towards and rubbed it's side against her waist. Rachel screamed and dropped the warrior. Quickly, the animal managed to duck it's own body under the falling woman so that she was laying over it's back. Rachel clutched her chest.
"Rach it's ok. It just wants to help you…" Brittany stated quickly watching the scene play out. She had seen the animal approach Rachel, but knew it wouldn't do anything. Or at least she hoped but she'd never tell her friend that.
Rachel carefully placed her hand on the side of the large animal. The fur was surprisingly soft and fine. She could feel the animal's midsection vibrate as it purred. Rachel moved the blonde's legs over the animal so had she been sitting, she'd be straddling it. She couldn't do much about the wings unfortunately. The animal moved its body to look at the two women expectantly.
Brittany lifted one of Santana's arms over her shoulder, and Rachel rushed to her friend's side to take the other arm. The animal turned and started walking in a seemingly random directly at a slow pace.
Rachel and Brittany, with the Latina between them, slowly moved to follow the beast. After a couple minutes Rachel huffed from the strain and spoke in short spurts.
"So…what…do you think….it is? Boy or girl?"
Brittany who was doing only fairing slightly better than her smaller companion replied "I'm not sure….boy?" The animal growled low in it's throat and looked back at the two humans.
Rachel giggled, "Girl….totally a girl. I think we should name her Nala…get it?" she looked over at her friend.
Brittany laughed, "Seriously? After what we've been through over the last hour you want to think of The Lion King?"
Rachel pouted, "…all you had to say was you didn't like it…"
"Hey, what do you think about Nala?" Brittany spoke up to their guide.
The animal purred loudly causing the women to chuckle. Neither woman really questioned why exactly they were talking to a strange animal in a strange world. By now they had learned to just roll with the punches.
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