Our Summer Vacation...

[warren_bearclaw]

Kristen looked at Tarry, then at Sean, who was in the process of landing.

He's right. Sean thought. Tarry's plan to hunker down here while Brian was out made more sense than trying to go back and get Brian's car without being spotted. He still thought it could be done... but this was smarter. Well, maybe except for one part, but they'd have to risk it....

<Sounds like a plan. Jo, Olivia? While we're at it, can you two fill me in on what happened today? I think I'm ready for the whole thing. But let's keep movin' while we're at it.>

As soon as Sean agreed to Tarry's plan, Kristen began growing fur and shifting her ears.

Sean demorphed, not nearly as nicely as Kristen had. He ended up with a horribly misshapen goose head with freakishly large human eyes, and giant webbed feet, right at the end before becoming totally human. He took only a few seconds before beginning his next morph. But... he hadn't tested out the lion yet.... "Okay, I'm going to morph lion. I haven't had a chance to try it yet, so I'm not sure what will happen. Y'all watch out, alright?" And with that, he focused on the lion he'd acquired last night (was it only last night?) at the zoo. The real lion had been rather docile then. He wondered what would happen now...

Brian's leg twitched, hanging in the air while he was carried.

[radgeek]

<<More morphing.>> Jo grumbled to Tarry as she landed.  She was slower than  Sean but was faster than she was back at the barn because she was worried about Brian.  She didn't let her skin show for long before covering her body with golden fur.

<<Ok I don't want to meet on of those,>> Olivia said gently holding Brian.
Miriam looked at the pool.  Only by being Sandresh's host could she hope to live.  But Sandresh loved Laurence and while that was good for now, she wouldn't share her husband with her.  She was grateful for her feelings now but after they....  What were they going to do?  Free him?  He would have to live in hiding just like Jo.  Just like Jo...

[Josh (J)]

Chad was glad that he hadn't begun to demorph, so now he could fly up without having to wait. However, before he began, he wondered if he should wait for Sean to finish with his morph. <Um, Tarry, if he morphs and doesn't have control, is there the possibility that he may want to attack any humans?> Resisting the urge to leave then, he decided to wait until Sean was done. Who knew what could happen?

[warren_bearclaw]

((Oh, it's my turn... >.<))

First had come the eyes... everything seemed to just fade. Like... it just wasn't important enough to deserve attention.  Then came the reconfiguring of the spinal system. His knees bent backwards, his spine stretched, his skull reformed. While golden fur began to slowly pop up across his body, Sean gained deadly claws, raw muscle, killing jaws...  The final touch was the mane. And with the addition of the protective wrapping of dense fur, came the instincts of the Hunter. The Lion was ... interested. Elephant. Bird. Jackal. ... Fun. Food. What the Lion saw was both entertaining and appetizing. The Elephant.. now there was a challenge. He wasn't sure if he could manage a whole elephant by himself. Maybe if it was already injured... And the birds... Well, that wouldn't do him much good. But.. there were a couple smaller predators. Like wild dogs, but different. The Lion wasn't too bothered by them. And there were only two of them... They were watching him. Not only the dogs, but the other creatures as well. They were saying things, but who cared what. How fast were these dogs? Would they work together? And what kind of strategy did one use for two strange dogs...? All the while, the Lion tried to correct the poor hiding place he'd suddenly found himself in. He crouched low, up against the bushes nearby, waiting. Then, he was decided. He scrunched up his leg muscles, ready to explode with unbelievable power, and...

<Um... Mr. Sean? Are you in there? Um, please don't try to eat me, okay? You're looking very hungry....> Kristen said, whimpering between pants.

<Oh.> Oh. Crud. He thought. That had been close. He'd been totally absorbed by the nonchalant mindset of the Lion. He was king, he was top-dog.. er, cat. With nothing to worry about, he had no flood of instinct nor impulse. The Lion was content, and so it was ready to play. <Yeah, I'm fine. I... just feel so strong. I feel like I could run for hours, or climb those trees so easily. In fact... > Sean bounded up into a rather tall pine tree, sticking to the trunk much like a housecat might when running from a dog. He found a better position and took up a spot with a good view. 

[radgeek]

<While its neat that you can do that,> Olivia says.  <We should be going somewhere?>

[donut]

<Away from the barn, we will keep moving until Brian regains consciousness.  Then we will split into two groups.  The first group will consist of Brian and Olivia.  They will move to Brian's vehicle and leave the area.  The second group will consist of Sean, Josephina, Kristen, Chad, and myself.  We will move out of the area and then go to a predetermined location to meet Brian and Olivia.  Sean, I do not know the local area.  You would be better able to determine a suitable location for us to link up with them.>

Tarry knew he had overlooked the fact that they had not practiced their morphs. He was angry with himself.  He had learned through the years that one of his biggest weaknesses was that he would overlook minor details, some of which would turn out to be important.  This time one of them could have been injured.  He was also angry with the others.  They had not practiced their morphs or prepared before coming.  Calm down, they are not warriors yet. Tarry took a breath to calm himself.  He realized just how much they were going to have do to get ready.  Warriors spend years as arisths training before being granted the first warrior rank and being allowed in combat.  Sean and the others would have weeks or less before they would have to fight.

[warren_bearclaw]

...That's what I thought of... Sean thought to himself. Maybe he wouldn't have assigned the same people to the same positions... but that was just about exactly what he'd planned. But, whatever. He could handle taking pointers from the parrot. The parrot who, by the way, had actual combat experience. <I'd like to think my place would still be safe. The only Yeerk that would know where I live is now dead, from what I understand. But maybe we shouldn't risk it.> He ran through a list of places they could meet up. The mall was out. So was the park... too close to the Zoo. They were so far south of Houston though... <I've got an idea. Brazos Bend State Park. It's only a few minutes northwest from here. I think we'd be pretty safe heading out there and crashing in one of the empty campsites or something like that. It definitely isn't a permanent solution, but it's better than nothing.> After listening to what he'd just said, he continued: < Well... relatively safe. I don't think they'll be waiting for us there at the least....>

Brian's ear twitched. Weird blotches of color floated past him in the darkness behind his eyelids. A disgruntled confusion settled over him. Where am I? What am I? Why...

<I've been there with my family before.> Kristen piped in. <It was a lot of fun. We went swimming, and did some hiking, and had barbecue, and... that barbecue was really good. So much meaty goodness.... Oh. Um.. Sorry. This dog brain is sort of getting to me. It's really attracted to the barbecue memory. Well, anyways, there's a lot of untouched forest we could hide in. At least for today...> Kristen was worried about her family. She thought it might still be safe to go back. She had hardly any connection with the others before the port. And as far as she knew, they were pretty confident that there were no records of them being at the port. Maybe her family was safe....

[Unknown User]

   Illmant and crew had been walking for a few minutes, hands practically a part of the dracons in their pockets. Illmant and the others ran towards the burning barn, the huge structure completely engulfed in flames. "Spread out and search for any of our people."
   After a few minutes of looking around, the crew found Kildor, rather close to the flames. The yeerk security force members dragged the intelligence officer out of harms way. Illmant recognized him from the compound and was nervous just being around a member of the intelligence core. They had a dark reputation and worked directly for the council.
  "Sir," one of his men shouted, Illmant's head snapped in that direction, "I believe that he had been stunned." The man hand his fingers on Kildor's Carotid Artery.
  "Well," Illmant said, "get something to wake his host."
  One of the security force members injected kildor's host in the arm with a solution and the yeerk within immediatly opened his hosts eyes. "The sub-visser has been killed. It was the work of tratiors and Andalite rogues."
  Illmant paused for a moment in his thinking, Kildor was a little too forth coming with information, at least for an intlligence officer. Or What he had imagined an intelligence officer as being like.
  "Which way did they go?" Someone asked, Illmant shot a glare in the man's direction and then repeated the question.
  "I don't know," Kildor said truthfully.

[Josh (J)]

Chad took off into the air, flapping as hard as he could to gain  altitude, and then soared in the sky, keeping watch. There was nothing of much interest...except for some mice scampering on the ground. Come to think of it, he was hungry, as he hadn't eaten yet. Maybe he should go after one of them. It wouldn't take that much time--Snap out of it! Mice? Really?Perhaps if he concentrated on the amazing sight of the bird of prey, he wouldn't worry about eating rodents. He had learned about it in zoology, but this beat reading about it!

He started to pay attention to the thought speak going on around him. A 'camping' trip? <Uhm, guys, I hate to impose on you, but I think that I can't go. After all, I'm kinda grounded. And if I don't come back, I'll be really grounded.> He made another wide turn. <Just something for you remember.>

[radgeek]

Jo, for the first time, had the thought that not having family obligations might be an advantage.  <<Be grateful,>> Jo said to Chad, <<that she'll just ground you.  My stepmother would just infest me give the chance.>>

[Unknown User]

The Bug fighter had taken only around a minute to reach the forest, Illmant had called it when the injured Kildor had been found. It hadn't been hard, he'd simply used his comunicator to relay the message, but now the hunt would soon be on again. Illmant watched as Kildor was loaded aboard.
--------
The hork-bajir that emerged from the bug fighter had been very gentle with him as he lifted Kildor onto the stretcher. It was incrediby unusual to have a bug fighter preform a medical evacuation, but given his closeness to sub-visser 2 and the fact that he was part of the intelligence service that was answerable directly to the council of thirteen, an execption had been made. Kildor could only hope that the pitiful humans and their wretched parrot would escape. The rest of his plan counted on it.

[warren_bearclaw]

Kristen wanted to agree with Chad. <I think the two of us might be safe. Maybe it would be good for a couple of us to still be a part of society. Then we could still buy stuff we needed.> Sure, she was biased when she said that. Her parents meant a lot to her. She had a more-than-decent relationship with them, and she couldn't imagine putting them through the turmoil of losing their only daughter, without even the faintest idea of where she was.

What was safe? What was right? It seemed like a major risk sending the kids home to their families. Was their something he'd missed? Was there some way they'd been figured out? It really wasn't helping that he didn't understand what all had happened today. Privately, he sought Tarry's advice... <<Tarry, is this even remotely safe? She's right, it would be good if they could go home. But.. can they? Has anything happened today that makes you think we've all been compromised?>> He yawned. He wasn't sure why... he just did. < I think that you both should at least see where we're going to be. That way you know where to look for us. Let's - >

<...I cant feel my leg...> Brian murmured. He still hung limply from Olivia's trunk, though he wasn't aware of that yet.

[radgeek]

<Brian!>
<Demorph,> Jo said quickly.  <You've been shot.>

[donut]

<Olivia, set Brian down.  Chad, Brian is waking up. We are stopping here.  Scan the immediate area for anyone who could come across us, then return here and demorph.>

<When Chad returns we will gather around, demorph, and go over what we are doing next.  Kristen and Josefina will stay in dog morph to let us know if anyone is approaching.  Brian, demorph.  You are injured and approaching the morhping time limit.>

<<I do not know if anyone has been compromised.  I am not familiar enough with human society to understand interactions, and I was not with most of the group this day.  You must be cautious when returning to your scoops if you choose to do so, but I do not believe we are in danger yet.  The only yeerk I know of who knows you appears to be helping us.  I do not believe he would want us dead yet.  However, we must retrieve the vehicle we came in. I believe the markings on the rear of human vehicles are identifying features.  We cannot leave it for the yeerks to find.  We must also all stay together until we have disseminated what has happened today and discussed what we are doing next.  It is too dangerous to do that here, so we must do that at the location you have chosen.  It would be wise for you to determine an alternate location in case the first one proves unsuitable.>>

Tarry was confused by what Chad said.  Humans cannot fly.  They are always grounded.  He would have to ask about this when he had a chance.

[warren_bearclaw]

<Whoa, whoa, whoa...> Brain said rather casually. <What's all the yappin' about? Dang, I'm beat. Gimme a moment, alright?> He started twisting, which just made his torso and hind quarters start rotating. He couldn't get out of Olivia's trunk. Maybe he could, if he put up more of a fight, but... he was a little woozy.