AN: Thanks to EmoPirateLuv, Faerie Seer, and tamersten for reviewing. Enjoy the rest of the story!
Before I got squished, I closed my eyes. Call me a coward, but I didn't want to see the end. Only...the end didn't come. "No smashing human, Slag." I heard Grimlock inform someone in a no-nonsense tone of voice. What kind of name was Slag? Granted, Grimlock and Swoop were strange names, but Slag? Really?
The first thing I noticed when I opened my eyes was there was more than just Slag that was new to the party here. A long-necked dino and a stegosaurus were here as well. "Ooh, Human!" The bigger of the two newbies stuck his head down where I was. His head was bigger than my entire body, I couldn't help but notice. "Gah!" "Don't scare Kendra, Sludge." Swoop chirped. Sludge (where did they get these names, for heaven's sake?) grunted, a little sadly I thought, but moved his head a little further away from me.
"Meet Sludge, Snarl and Slag." Swoop introduced me, pointing at the corresponding Dinobot with each name said. My attacker was Slag, Sludge I knew, and that left the Stegosaurus Snarl by default. Each of the Dinobots responded differently to this human in their midst. Slag left, growling what I was sure were swear words under his breath, Snarl didn't seem to care at all, just shrugging before following Slag, leaving Sludge with the only positive reaction to me.
I sat down. Well, it was more like I fell down flat on my butt, my legs finally giving out from underneath me. Too much had happened today, and now that the danger was over, I was exhausted. "Kendra, what wrong?" The flier put his eye close to me, looking more than a little worried. "I just...need...a...nap..." A yawn, I was gone.
Grimlock wasn't sure why he had saved the human. It wasn't the fact that the Autobots would take it as another sign that Dinobots were untrustworthy monsters. It would be most likely that the incident would have never made it to any of them, since Swoop had brought the human in without authorization.
It happened almost automatically. He stopped Slag from squishing it without even thinking about it. Why? He didn't know. Maybe it was the fact that would have crushed Swoop to see that happen to the human...
He shook his helm, growling as he did so. He didn't want to think about the human right now. Of course, that's when he tripped over Sludge's tail on the floor. Normally Grimlock would have avoided it with ease, but he had been trying not to think of the human. The Dinobot leader turned to unleash his pending rage on the Brontosaurus, only to get interrupted by said Dinobot. "Shhh." What?
Sludge gestured with his head to his right side, from where he was leaned up against the wall. It took a few seconds to register a sleeping human laying there. Not any human, Swoop's human. Even as he watched, the human shifted, groaning in its sleep. There was something almost cute about it. Cute? What was he doing, applying that word to the human?
Just seeing it made him feel tired. Grunting, Grimlock made his way to his berth, nudging Sludge's tail closer to the human, out of his path.
"Wake up!" I jolted out of my dreamless sleep. "What the..!" "Kendra awake now." That was Swoop, sounding way too pleased. "Sure I am." I lifted my head, finding myself next to Sludge. "Sludge, why am I next to you?" "Kendra tired." He offered, with a sorta shrug. "Ok...thanks?" The dinosaur swelled up in pride. "Sludge very good at protecting."
My stomach rumbled. "What that noise mean?" "It means I'm hungry, Swoop." I explained. "Swoop go find human food." "No, no!" This was the pencil incident all over again. "I can find it. If you show me where it is?" Thankfully Swoop seemed happy with that idea. "Sure. It that way."
With the help of those incredibly vague directions, I made my way inside the rest of the base. It took a while but I found a place that appeared to be for humans. Without meeting any Autobots along the way. Gathering a few granola bars and some fruit, I discovered, to my delight, a phone! A cell phone, sitting there right in the open on the table. I picked it up, surprised to find my hands shaking. The number gets dialed and I held the phone to my ear, hearing it ring.
"Hello?" I nearly cried. It's my little brother. Alec. "It's Kendra." "Kendra! Where did you go? Mom came home and was crying- What happened?" "What happened was that- " Beep. The phone turned off, the battery dead. I cursed, smashing it back down on the table. I left carrying my scavenged food, heart heavy. How was I going to get home?
Spike frowned. Something was wrong here... "Carly, I thought that the phone was charged?" "Maybe half-way." He shrugged, picking it up and putting it into his pocket. He reached over for...where had that bag of Cheese Nips gone?
"Cheese Nips?" "Yep, it's particularly a food group. Like ice-cream. Or chocolate." Here I was, trying to explain junk food to an alien. "Ice-cream?" "For crying out loud…you know what chocolate is, right?" Sludge rumbled. "Carly eat chocolate." Carly? Sounded like a human name. I made a mental note to myself to see if I could find any other humans here. "Has anyone taught you anything about humans?" "Enough."
I sensed some sort of soreness behind that one word. Apparently when Autobots had handed out pop culture info, these guys had missed out on most of it. "Ice-cream is cold, sweet stuff that people eat." "Is it like ice?" Swoop's unexpected question took me off guard. "I guess so. It has ice in it. That's why it's called ice-cream, after all." I decided to insert something I'd been wondering about. "How did you guys find out about human stuff?" "Internet." "Really? That's cool."
I wasn't really surprised. They were like super computers, after all. "Draw more picture?" It seems that word of my talent had gone around the Dinobots, for Sludge to be asking me. "Hold on big guy. I'm still eating." I shook the Cheese Nip bag for emphasis. A few minutes later, the bag was empty. I groaned. Now I would have to show my skills to a really big dinosaur.
I drew a quick sketch of Sludge and showed it to my subject. He was quiet, moving a little closer to see better. "Teach Sludge how to draw?"