I shifted in my sleep, slowly regaining consciousness. For a moment, I completely forgot where I was. My bed beneath me was oddly soft and curved around me, it was smooth and warm too, almost like skin… I snapped my eyes open and yelped in shock as I lay face to face with a pair of glasses bigger than me attacked to a giant head. The eyes of this creature snapped open and bore down on me with deep chocolate eyes. I tripped backwards in my haste to get up and ended up falling flat on my back in the dirt, I caught my breath and allowed myself a laugh.
"You okay? What's wrong?" Dib asked, scanning the area for danger.
Wow that head was massive from this height, "Nothing, I just… you know… forgot." I blushed.
He nodded and rubbed the sleep from his eyes before pushing himself into sitting position. I found my feet and brushed the dust from me, behind me Lydia yawned and waved at us cheerfully.
"Morning, sleep okay?" she asked, stretching out her back.
"More or less, hey, where's the robot and Zim?" Dib said suddenly, eyes darting.
She pointed up to the mound, "Still keeping watch, GIR must have joined him at some point. I'll go get them, we've got to hurry if we want to catch BJ in time."
She brushed herself down and made her way up the hill to where Zim had been keeping watch for the night. However, she didn't even make it half way before a faint cry could be heard just on the other side. We froze, it was getting ever louder, and closer. There was a burst of smoke in the air as some sort of object came crashing down towards us. There was a deafening thud and a series of yells and shrieks. The object made a series of painful looking somersaults before coming to a stop a few meters away from us.
"Zim?" Dib asked anxiously, mouth agape.
A very battered, and dusty, Zim scrambled to his feet. The object he had been riding on was GIR, who was now half buried in the dirt and sand. He jumped up and spat mouthful after mouthful of sand out and grinned.
"I made a friend! We're playing tag, he's it!" he giggled.
Zims red eyes were bulging, he was shaking and trying to speak but nothing audible was coming out. Lydia raced back to join us and gave Zim a harsh slap across the face. For a moment, he froze and looked at her as if he was going to strangle her, but a low rumble from the group interrupted him. He pointed back to the mound.
"Demon lizard! Demon lizard!" he cried, backing away.
"What, did you find a mirror out there, space-boy?" Dib sneered, rolling his eyes.
"Demon lizard?" I asked, there was another earthquake, "GIR, what did your friend look like?"
There was an almighty screech and the ground shook violently, sending me flying off my feet. The mound seemed to be vibrating, the sand pouring away in retreat. Lydia swallowed hard and started backing away. A burst of sand exploded into the air as a creature rose from beneath. It could have easily been taller than mine, Zims, Dibs and Lydia's houses altogether! It was snake-like, with purple-black and white rings around its slithering body, behind its blue lips were rows upon rows of yellow razor teeth.
Dib gulped at the sheer size of the thing, "Well I feel small…"
I glared at him out of the corner of my eyes, "How'd you think I feel?"
GIR waved manically, "There he is! I named him Mr. Waffle!"
Zim tackled GIR to the ground, covering his mouth with his gloved hand. I instinctively backed away until I was flat against Dibs boot. Slowly, he scooped me up and held me protectively to his chest. Lydia clenched her fists and whispered slowly and carefully, her eyes locked on the creature.
"Everyone keep quiet, and do not make any sudden moves. Just slowly turn around, and walk away. One little step at a time, okay?"
We all nodded and started walking in the opposite direction towards the town. The creature glared in our direction, trying to determine if we were worth the trouble or not. Zim carefully picked up GIR, keeping his hand over the robots mouth, and followed us, a cold sweat beading at the back of his neck. Beneath me, I could feel Dibs palms getting sweaty and shivering, my heart was pounding against my ribs. Please let us get out of here alive, I prayed while trying to control my breathing. We were doing really well, but looking back, it wouldn't be us if something didn't go wrong. GIR managed to wriggle free of his masters grip and jump onto the ground. He turned and started waving madly at the creature.
"MR. WAFFLE! Over here!" he cried, getting the creatures attention, "You're it remember?"
The thing snarled and dived head first into the sand and buried its way towards us. The ground shook beneath us as we started running for our lives. Dib held onto me tightly as he sprinted. I felt myself leaning further into his chest, trying to summon any feeling of security. His heart was pounding against my cheek, making my ear ring.
Out of no where, the creatures head burst out of the ground beneath us. Screams echoed from all directions under the explosion of dirt and sand. I felt myself flying through the air as I was thrown out of Dibs grasp. I hit the ground hard and tumbled over onto my back, my head colliding with the ground hard, making my vision blur. I could just make out Zim being thrown to the side.
He shielded his face with his arms, "Take the Dib, take the Dib!"
I tried to push myself up, but I was so dizzy that I ended up falling pitifully back to the ground again. My eyes travelled upwards, watching the creature towering above me. It narrowed its beady eyes on me and quickly noted that I was the weakest and easiest to get. This was it, this was the end. Fear turned to ice in my veins, keeping me in place. It opened its jaws and shot at me with lightning speed. I clenched my eyes shut and curled in on myself, bracing for its fangs to rip me to shreds.
Something collided with me, enclosing me in darkness. I muffled a scream, waiting for its teeth to sink in, but they never same. With great hesitation, I cracked my eyes open, but I couldn't see anything, it was all black. Was I dead? Was it keeping me in its mouth for later? Wherever I was, it was bumpy. I was being tossed around in my tight claustrophobic prison, my head clashing against the roof and my knees buckling against the bottom. I could faintly hear panting and screamed from outside. Where was I? If I was inside it's mouth, wouldn't it be damp? This seemed more like, leather…
There was a final jolt of movement that sent me tumbling head over heels. Then, everything was silent. I daren't move. Suddenly, a crack of light appeared in my prison. It grew until I saw that I was inside a large cave of some sort, hidden from the outside. I sighed with relief to see Dib slumped in the corner, hand over his pounding heart and Lydia with GIR giggling on her shoulders, gasping for air. But then I noticed something else. I was on leather, leather gloves, I looked up and saw a large pair of maroon eyed glaring at me. I smiled.
"Zim? You saved me?"
A hint of a smirk twitched at the corner of his mouth, but he quickly composed himself and returned with a scowl. He looked up at Dib with a look that could only be described as unimpressed and gripped me around the middle. He held me out to Dib, who held out his cupped hands to take me.
"If the Dib isn't more careful with his new pet then he will not have her for long." Zim declared, starting to turn away.
Pet? The cheek! If I was my normal size I would have stormed right up to him given him a deserved smack on the back of the head, but considering the circumstances, I settled with poking my tongue out at him childishly.
"Zim!" Dib called after him, his voice was strained and sounded like it was causing him pain, but he looked genuine, "Thanks."
Zim turned to narrow his eyes at him questioningly, "It was not your existence that the amazing, yet merciful, Zim preserved!"
"I know but… thanks."
The two stared at each other for a moment, sharing a split second of understanding. Zim nodded and returned to his pace by the mouth of the cave. Me and Lydia exchanged glances of triumph, any moment we could get those two to get along were like pay-days for us. Rare and well deserved.
"Where is that thing now?" I asked, looking at Lydia.
"The sandworm? We managed to ditch it before hiding in here." She answered.
"Wait, that was a sandworm?" Dib cried, jaw dropping.
She nodded, "I told you they were Neitherworld creatures."
"Yeah, you also said that they were 'nothing to worry about', remember?" I used my fingers for air quotes.
She blushed, "Uh, sorry, my mistake."
GIR sniffled and rubbed his eyes, "I'll miss you, Mr. Waffle…"
I had to laugh, or else I may have just snarled, "Can we make it to the town from here?"
"Yes, it's only two minutes or so, but we should wait until we're sure that the sandworms gone first."
We all nodded in agreement. I slide down to the ground and stretched myself out after being curved and bounced around so much in such a short space of time. My back clucked in three places, allowing a rush of relief wash through me. I noticed Zim glaring out into the open and chose to go and join him. He pretended to ignore me as I scrambled up onto his knees which were brought up close to his chin. I leaned over and gave him a gentle poke in the cheek.
"Thank you, Zim, I mean it." I said, clearing my throat.
He arched his brow, "Don't read anything into it, Amy-beast, you hold many secrets and are still an asset to Zim. I won't be so generous next time."
Although his voice was quiet and serious, a twitch at the corner of his mouth gave him away. I nodded with the pretence of understanding.
"So there's going to be a 'next time' when you save me then?" I asked smugly, he glared at me so I continued, "I mean, unless you don't think you could?"
He scoffed, "Oh you underestimate me, tiny-human, Zim could save you into the thousands without fail!"
Snap went my trap, "Awe, thanks Zimmers, I didn't know you cared about me so much!"
He opened his mouth to say something but paused as it sunk in what I had just gotten him so say.
"Point to Amy-cakes!" GIR sang.
By the time Zim had narrowed his eyes and shot out a claw to grab at me, I had already escaped and was giving him a mock salute, making my way back further into the cave. GIR held out a finger to give me a high-five and sniggered to himself. We all tried to wait a little longer to guarantee our safety, however, Zim was getting jittery just sitting around doing nothing, so within ten minutes, we were back out in the open. GIR draped over Lydia's shoulders and I tucked into the crook of Dibs neck. True to her word, it wasn't that long until we made our way into the town. There were spooks and spirits everywhere. It was strange being in a place that made Zim look actually human for once. We were led up to a large and misshapen building that Lydia explained was the court hall. If BJ was here, then we were going to find him soon. I could feel it.