Nobody had answered my question over which team was going after which goal. Perhaps they were in too much of a hurry?
I took a 50:50 chance and followed Torrence-bird out the door, hoping she was part of the Andalite-rescue team. I realized quickly that as cats couldn't fly, I'd probably lose her when she took off, but I came up with a plan around that - Scent. I memorized Kasey's dog's scent and followed it in the direction Torrence was heading.
Soon woodlands grew denser around me. I saw a clump of bushes that were large enough and dense enough to hide my human form and decided now would be a good time to change morphs. Making sure I had a bead on which direction the others were travelling, I nosed my way into the heart of the bushes I'd found and started demorphing.
The elastic band around my neck got tighter again as I got larger, but I knew it wouldn't get tight enough to stop me breathing because I'd put it on while I was human, after all. As I demorphed I contemplated which new morph to choose; Bird? - No, they already had birds, and besides that I didn't like to distance myself from any action. This left one of my Big-Cat morphs, but which one? If it was going to get darker, my Black-Panther/Leopard morph would be ideally camoflaged; If I went for straight-power, I'd be going Puma; But no, the smart compromise for this situation was Clouded-Leopard: It was smaller and less conspicuous than the other two, yet just as deadly if it got the element of surprise. I wished I'd had time to get a Jaguar morph; They OWNED the jungle, and a little woodland like this? Would've been the ideal morph for both stealth AND power...
Through all that thinking, I almost surprised myself that my demorph was complete. I looked down at my nearly-useless legs splayed out behind me, unable to support my weight. I started pushing myself up with my arms, but the bushes attacked me as I did so, so I stopped pushing. Before I started another morph, I took the elastic-band off my neck and buried my alarm-fob in a couple inches of dirt right there at the heart of these bushes with my bare hands and a bit of stick. I left the end of the elastic band poking out slightly so I could find it again later, but no human in their right mind would crawl into this bush and get all scratched up.
As I concentrated on my favourite morph thusfar, its large beautiful patterns faded onto my skin and fur started pushing them out. Enormous incisors grew in, then outside my mouth as their length became too much to keep enclosed. Thankfully the rest of my jaw followed suit and I soon became a person who was almost entirely human but with a CL's head and markings. That thought would have made me smile, except my smiling-muscles had already been replaced by their CL equivalents which were designed to bare its impressive teeth. My legs grew in strength and I brought my rear up just in time for the large tail to SPROOT from it. With a blink, it was as if someone had just switched a load of lights on - The bushes lit up around me and I could see every single branch whereas my human eyesight had blurred them together in the low-light.
As the morph completed, and the CL's mind surfaced, I marked this bush as my territory almost without thinking about it: Meh, at least it'll be easy to find my keyfob again, I thought to myself as I nosed my way back out of the bush and stretched, digging my powerful claws into the nearest tree-trunk. Rememberring the scent I'd memorized, I took a breath in through my nose: Wow, so many interesting smells! - But I reigned in the animal's curiosity and concentrated, zeroing in on the fresh scent of Kasey's dog.
I followed the dogs easily, but didn't completely catch up with them - I didn't wanna frighten them, after all. Every now and then I'd spot them through the trees as we moved.
<I hope you're the rescue team for the Andalite, else I'm in completely the wrong morph.> I called ahead to them, <I had to remorph, so I'm a little way behind you guys. Don't wait up though, I can track you easily and it might be a good idea for me to keep the element of surprise if you're ambushed or something. - Not that you will be, but just in case. You know?>
I 'hear' an unfamiliar female thoughtspeak 'voice' talking about scents, then mentioning "Jethsa's ship". Well, it looks like that answers THAT question then, I muse. I hear a bark echo off tree trunks and one of the dogs suddenly bounds forward, accelerating after a new scent. Following suit, I increase my own velocity to keep them all in visual range, and figuring if I can see them they can probably hear my thoughtspeak. Soon enough, I pick up on a strange scent that makes the CL mind hesitate - Was it a threat? Hmm, maybe... But perhaps this was what that dog was following.
I felt a light breeze coming from ahead; At least we were downwind of the enemy, if that was what this scent came from, or indeed our prey... Ahh! Yes, CL-brain: Prey! - Follow the strange scent to your meal... - Don't eat the doggies though! I thought at my instinctual side, wary that I was also following friends.
It was good that we were downwind, as it meant if there were any enemies ahead of us with a good sense of smell they were still at a disadvantage. It also made tracking the dogs a piece-of-cake.
To make conversation while tracking, I asked:
<So who are these new people, anyway?>
