CH35 (114)
Kate started breathing thru her mouth to help kill some of the smell and stepped inside with her weapon ready.
"Oh Crap!" It was a man and a woman, or at least Kate thinks it is. They both have been ripped to shreds. "What a mess."
Kate did her best to step were there wasn't blood all over the floor, which wasn't easy. "Let's see if we can ID you two" Kate pulls out her phone and takes a few pictures and sends them to Lucy.
It was a simple little cottage. Bed, table with a couple of chairs, mini kitchen of sorts, sofa, two suitcases. Inside the cases Kate can find men's and women's clothes. The woman's had make-up and other things you would expect to find.
Kate's phone started vibrating. Kate stepped outside for some fresh air. "Hi Lucy."
"Yup that's our guy. Who's the girl with him? …. Yeah, got it. Run a back ground check on her, let's find out all we can on her. Her family is going to need to be notified. … Thanks. We're also going to need a team out here to clean up this mess.
There is only the one landing site that I can see. I'll need to move his shuttle first, after the power cell recharges enough to give them someplace to land. … Yeah, 6 hours should work fine. Thanks Lucy." And Kate hangs up.
Kate hears a noise and spins with her weapon at the ready. "Well aren't you cute." Kate lowers her arm. "You better still have your mommy and daddy, I don't know if I want to go thru that again. …. Speaking of which, where are your mommy and daddy?" Kate's eyes scan the area.
As if on cue what could be the mommy Sabertooth comes around the corner and stands next to the cub and growls at Kate. He or she was ready to charge and rip Kate to shreds.
Kate's arm comes back up. "Oh come on! …. I don't want to shoot you. Just go away and give me a chance to clean all this up. … This is your land and they shouldn't have been here in the first place." Kate is wondering if this is who ripped these two to pieces.
Then a second Sabertooth rounds the corner and joins the first one and growls at Kate.
"Seriously? … How about you pick up your baby and go. …. Please!" The first one however growls at Kate and looks ready to risk it.
The second one however has stopped and is sniffing the air, then turns to the first and growls.
This got the first one to twist and growl back. The second one however just stands its ground and watches the first move in and snatch up the cub and back away and disappear.
The second one however slowly advances towards Kate. "Oh come on, please."
The cat however slowly advances but is not showing any teeth. Well except for the two big ones. Really big ones.
It stops in front of Kate who has her arm pointed right at it and just looks at Kate. "Tigger?"
The Sabertooth now moves in and rubs the side of its face up against Kate. "Tigger." Kate coos at him and reaches down to scratch the side of his face just like Alexis used to do.
"Alexis is never going to believe me." This however gets Tigger to push a little harder.
"You know that name still, don't you. … Alexis will probably sneak out here to see you now." Kate chuckles.
"Please tell me you didn't do this Tigger." Please tell me you haven't acquired a taste for human blood and flesh. "But it's good to see you Tigger, Alexis is never going to believe me." Kate keeps scratching his face.
"I take it that was your mate and your baby." Kate asks him. But just gets rubbed by Tigger instead.
"Wait, why only one baby? I thought you would have a litter, not just one." Kate could swear she looked it up using Lucy long ago.
"ON NO! " Kate hugs him. "I'm so sorry Tigger." Kate kissed his fur and scratched even harder. "I would have ripped them to shreds too." Kate kisses his fur again.
"You better get going Tigger, I have work to do. I'll get this mess cleaned up and the little cottage gone and you can have your territory back." Kate gives him a few more scratches.
Then Kate gives him a little shove. "Go back to your family. … I'll say hi to Alexis for you."
Kate gets looked at just before Tigger bounds away and around the corner, out of sight. Then Kate's phone vibrates.
"I'm fine Lucy. It was just Tigger." Kate giggles. Of all the things to find out here. "Give me a few hours to let the power core charge and I'll fly it into town to pick up the cleaning crew." Kate ends the call before Lucy can respond.
Kate pulled out her laser knife and started cutting the cottage to pieces. Throwing the wood into a pile and throwing the rocks into another pile. It left the dead bodies exposed.
Kate walked over to the shuttle and checked the power core. It was only up to 38%, however it was enough to get to town on. So Kate pulled up the stakes and stuffed the tarp in the back and flew the shuttle to town.
She flew back in a larger shuttle with a team to pick up the dead bodies and clean the area to take it back to the way it was.
The team flew back while Kate went to her rope lines and went up the cliff to get to her quad and then back to her shuttle.
Once Kate cleared the trees and could see her shuttle, she found another shuttle sitting next to it. Then watched Alexis come running out. "Lucy said you found Tigger."
Kate started laughing. "Hop on." Kate flicks her head meaning for Alexis to get on behind her, and Alexis wastes no time in running back into her shuttle and drives her own quad out the back, pausing long enough to close the ramp up.
"Have you got a harness and rope?" Kate asks or this was going to be a wasted trip. Alexis however pats the bag strapped on behind her.
Back at the site Kate had used last time. "Have you repelled down a cliff face before?" It's not as easy as it looks.
"I used to climb up and down fake rock walls at home sometimes." Alexis was at least used to a harness.
"Ok, let's get you suited up." Kate grabbed the wench cable and the remote.
"Ok pumpkin, you do what I do. I want you to watch me close. We're going to do this side by side. Ready?" Kate starts and watches Alexis all the way down.
"The cottage was this way, we can start there. If not we'll have to go downstream for a little while." Since that was the way they went when they left.
They found nothing at the cottage area. The crew and the blood were gone, just the piles of wood and stone remained.
They made their way downstream past their ropes, when they saw them in the distance lounging on a sand bar. "Careful, let him find out on his own that you're here. His mate isn't as friendly as he is. Plus she is going to protect her cub." Kate cautions.
Kate let's Alexis walk in front of her but charges her weapon just in case.
It only took a couple of steps before they were spotted. Both stood and growled, protecting their cub.
Alexis froze. "Tigger?" Alexis asked softly.
One waited while the other picked up the cub and walked downstream, while the other slowly approached, growling all the way.
Alexis was thinking about turning and running, but remembered Kate was armed and would stun Tigger or whoever it was.
It wasn't until Tigger caught scent of Alexis that he instantly softened and rubbed up against Alexis. "Tigger." Alexis coos at him and starts scratching and hugging him with an occasional kiss to his fur.
Alexis took her backpack off and pulled out some fresh meat that she had brought with her and placed it all on the sandbar.
Tigger left it and went back to rubbing up against Alexis.
It was half an hour later when Kate convinced Alexis it was time to go home. They still had to go up the cliff, take the quads back to the shuttles and fly home.
So a teary eyed Alexis finally hugged and petted Tigger one last time before going with Kate back home. "He's fine pumpkin, he has a family."
"You really think they killed his babies?" Alexis had to ask.
"Unfortunately I think they did. I'm betting one or both of them caught them in the act and made them pay the price." Kate was pretty sure that was how it went down.
"Are you going to put him down?" Alexis had fears he needed to be killed now that he was a human killer.
"No I don't think so. They were protecting theirs, just like we would. So long as they stay here they should be fine.
You need to stay away from here pumpkin. He needs to live his life and not be involved with humans." Kate warns her, knowing it will not be easy for her.
"I know mom. Doesn't make it easier." Alexis sniffles and blinks back the tears.
"You got to see him and know he's doing great, even if he did run across a pair of idiots." Kate put her arm around her.
"Ok, let's get you hooked up and up top. Detach and throw it back down." Kate tells her.
They were both flying for home in no time. Alexis hugged Kate on the landing pad after putting the quads away. "Thanks mom." Alexis knew she didn't have to do that.
"Let's go download the pictures of him into Lucy for the others to see." Kate offers having used her phone to take a few pictures while Alexis hugged and petted Tigger.
Kate was taking the card out of her phone and plugging it into the monitor. "Whatcha doing mom?" Emily asks watching her older sister and her mother doing something.
"Just downloaded some pictures." Kate tells her. Then starts counting softly. 3 -2 –
"You got to pet a Sabertooth Tiger!" Emily's mouth falls to the floor, staring at Alexis. Impressed with her older sister yet again.
Emily runs down the hall to the entertainment room. "DAD, dad, you need to see this." And is back moments later dragging Rick behind her.
"Ok what am I supposed to see." Rick looks up at the monitor as Lucy does a slide show of the pictures. "YOU FOUND TIGGER!?"
Kate and Alexis are forced to recount their encounter with Tigger, including his mate and his cub. Plus Alexis took him some fresh meat like her and Rick used to do when he was little.
"You three have plans for this evening?" Kate asks the girls. Getting two of them to shake their heads.
"Old fashioned BBQ on the beach?" Alexis offers.
"We'll need a salad or two, maybe some baked beans and something to drink." Kate offers.
"I'll make the drinks." Alexis offers.
"You two are going to help me with the salads, that leaves you to get the steaks. Husband of mine." Kate was grinning.
Rick gets up to go get the steaks ready, and leans down to whisper in Kate's ear. "Getting the man of the house to do the BBQ is sexist." And kisses Kate's cheek and heads for the kitchen.
"If we did it we'd burn it and you know it." Kate counters to his retreating back. Getting Rick to twist his head and grin back at her.
The food was gone and everyone was sitting around the fire, stuffed and groaning about eating too much.
"Anyone have room for smores?" Kate asks, praying for a yes.
"You're not fooling any of us mom." Alexis points out and glares at her.
"It's a campfire." Kate pleads her case, getting everyone to stare at her. "Ok fine. … But I love chocolate." Kate moans.
"I'll go get the fixins." Alexis gets up and walks for the house.
"Thank you pumpkin." Kate calls to her retreating form.
Everyone is nibbling on their smores watching their mom/wife slowly melt into her chair and only moan for the next half hour.
"At least I know what to do if I ever come home with a bad grade." Alexis points out.
Kate however heard that. "You're going to need a lot more than a chocolate bar young lady." Kate counters.
"Two chocolate bars?" Alexis offers, getting Rick to start laughing.
"You know there is one thing I miss about Earth." Rick offers since everyone was quiet again.
Getting everyone to look at him, with a "What?" look.
"Fireworks." Rick tells them.
"Oh I miss those!" Alexis moans. "We were trapped at home and didn't get the chance to go across to Canada to get the good stuff like last time." Alexis moans again.
"Stupid hurricane." Rick points out pissed they missed out.
"Fireworks?" Kate didn't get it.
"Oh it's great mom. … They have these artillery shells that get launched up into the night sky and explode in bursts of color. … You can even get shells that burst in double or even triple bursts.
Dad and I would group some of the tubes together and then use a propane torch to light more than one tube at the same time.
And you could buy these boxes that had multipile tubes already bundled together. We would group those together too and light three at the same time.
IT WAS GREAT!" Alexis loved watching the large display that they could create themselves.
"I can't think of anything I brought back that would have fireworks in them." Alexis scrunched her face as if that would help her remember.
"WAIT, Disneyland documentary or Wonderful World of Color maybe. … I need my pad." And Alexis runs for the house.
Using Lucy, Alexis had found "The Walt Disney World Wishes Fireworks show."
"I don't remember this at Disneyland." Kate comments.
"Probably because we left before it got dark. Emily and Kali were tired." Alexis answers Kate's question.
"Well these two are older now and can stay up later, right." Kate ruffles their hair and kisses them. Watching them both nod their heads. "We'll make it back to Tellus someday." Kate had liked Disneyland too.