As some of you may recall, I began adding the first few chapters of my fanfic on this site about 1 and a half years ago. Unfortunately I cannot edit the posts in that thread because I have lost that login information.
Also, those chapters have been re-written. Basically, I'm starting over again.
The fic starts where #54 finishes, around 2 years after the war on Earth ended.
Enjoy! It's a big 'un!
PROLOGUE!
Ellimist.
That’s what they call me.
I am powerful, yet I am not invincible like some will have you believe. I can reverse time to any point I want, destroy or create with the click of a finger.
However, I am not the only one with such power.
There is one more, perhaps just as powerful as I am. They call him ‘The One’.
He has taken one single Blade ship filled with yeerks, and with it destroyed an Andalite ship, killing most of the crew.
But these aren’t normal yeerks. They have the ability to morph.
Earth has sent one ship to investigate the disappearance of one an Andalite Prince, Aximilli-Esgarrouth-Isthill. He has been assimilated by The One, thus taking the attention of the Animorphs, or what’s left of them, towards a near impossible battle.
Not impossible. Near impossible.
I have watched these Animorphs fight against all the odds so many times, but they have gone to the battle hideously outnumbered. There is only Jake, Marco and Tobias, accompanied by a small crew. This will not be enough. Not by a long shot. They would be defeated and all they have worked for will be lost.
There is one hope though.
I cannot interfere with the outcome of the battle, but there are those who can. Who, you may ask. Who could be trusted enough to make this decision that will turn the outcome of the battle on its head?
I cannot just ask them to decide for certain victory, of course. Nothing is certain. They would have to decide themselves what to do.
I would need to test them. Test their mental strength, their mind, and their spirit. I need to know that they will make the right decision. The entire universe depends on this battle. It must end in our favour.
But who could I place this massive responsibility on? Who could handle such pressure?
Who could make the right decision in the end?
Will they endure the choice, or will they succumb to madness?
Or be crushed…
Post Merged: February 02, 2011, 08:55:05 AM
CHAPTER 1
My name is Toby Hamee.
I am a Hork-Bajir living on a planet called Earth, staring up at the distant stars.
My friends are up there.
Friends, you ask? The Animorphs - or at least what is left of them. They are in a battle from which they may not return. The feeling of guilt had been clawing its way through me ever since they left, gnawing on the fact that I was stuck down her chewing on an old piece of bark, whilst they fought for theirs and many other people‘s lives.
Then again, if I were up there risking my life I would feel just as guilty for not being here with my friends and family. They needed me for their own protection. Protection not from war, disease or invasion, but from a heated political climate that debated on how and where we lived on our new home.
I tried to blank out the guilt and stared into deep space, feeling the soft heat of the nearby fire tan my side. I looked to my left and I saw trees. A lake covered in the shadow of the night. Dim torches from a distance traced the cities neighbouring our home, and they looked like the stars, flickering with foreign glows reflected in the water beneath.
I turned my head right to see my friends and family. They were sitting around the fire warming themselves, telling stories and anything else they would do to entertain themselves. They showed no fear, but they knew nothing about what cursed me with guilt. I never told them, my mother aside.
I thought it would be better if they did not know. Instead, I preferred for them to play and sleep, blissfully unaware with no worry but for daily life. They needed the break, and so did I.
You see, I am what they call a seer. I am a not like the others, for I can see things that they cannot. I was born to help them - a guide, if you will. They looked up to me and I did what I could for them.
My great-grandfather was also a seer. Dak Hamee, a Hork-Bajir brave enough to guide an entire army into impossible battles. He did it with pride, doing all he could to save them. They gave the yeerks a battle right to the end.
We were doomed. There was not a free Hork-Bajir for years, decades, until the Animorphs, a group of six young individuals saved us, hiding and protecting two escaped Hork-Bajir. Those two escapees, my mother and father, helped revive us into the thriving population we have today.
Our people, after the war, were moved to an area on the outer rim of Yellowstone, and we continued to expand our numbers. We liked it here. The area was vast, the trees plentiful, and it was easy to adapt to our surroundings. It has become the perfect environment. We have everything we need.
Unfortunately, I was not always here to marvel at my new home. My self-proclaimed duty to protect had earned me a place in politics. The House of Representatives, to be precise. I could spend weeks away, sometimes even months attending large gatherings that could only be described as tedious. Barely a year into politics, and I had grown a disliking of it. Not a day would go by when a camera or a bill was shoved before my snout. However, I tended to stay neutral on issues that did not involve my people. It was not my place to comment on the rights of the humans, hence why I was only a non-voting member of the House.
I longed for the day it would end, but responsibility was all that mattered to me nowadays.
Once again I stared up at the bright stars. I was laying a few metres from the group, by an old dead tree that had fallen in high winds. I would usually spend time on my own to think and observe, but tonight I did not feel like it. It only reminded me of my friends who had risked everything for me and my people. I wanted to be happy, to feel that there was nothing to worry about.
I got up and slowly waddled over to the camp where my friends and family were sat. Some were talking and laughing amongst themselves, while others were sleeping out of reach of the dim fire light, heads held on their chests as they snored quietly. It was getting late.
The circle was formed just in front of a large cave carved out of a rock surface, big enough for an entire family to live in. The fire was set a few metres away from the entrance on a large pile of fallen leaves and uneaten bark.
At daytime, you could look along the rocks and notice it was dotted with more. Whenever conditions would take a turn for the worse, we would shelter in the caves until we could move out again. In good conditions, we could either sleep up in the trees or, as some were doing now, sleep around the campfire we set every night.
There were many stories to tell since the war ended, with the vast majority of our population having experienced life as a controller. Those that had a yeerk slug slither into their head and wrap itself around their brain, taking over all senses, controlling every move and sound they made, as they screamed and begged in the back of their own mind. We were hearing another such story tonight.
I found a gap in the circle next to my mother, and squeezed myself in.
Mother is roughly the same height as me, though she had a smaller tail and smaller, darker blades on her arms and legs. Beside her sat my little brother, shorter than both of us by a few inches perhaps, not yet fully grown. He was born not long before our father died. I feel that it had affected him. He seemed incomplete.
I made myself comfortable and let my legs rest out in front of me, using my tail for balance. My mother turned to face me and gave a shrewd look - I must have seemed unhappy.
“Toby Hamee sad”
She always knew if I had a problem. Then again, she was my mother. I faced her and forced a smile. “I am fine, just… tired”
“Toby scared of battle.”
She was the only other Hork-Bajir here who knew about the Animorphs leaving. I had told her last night in our cave while it was raining. I couldn’t sleep.
My smile faded. I gazed into her worried eyes and she stared back. “Something will go wrong."
She shuffled closer. “They come back. Jake fine. Marco fine. Tobias fine. All fine.” She gave me that motherly smile which gave me so much comfort. “Toby worry too much.”
She would be right. Perhaps I really was just worrying too much. “Thank you Mother.”
“Ket always here for Toby.”
My Mother had been my guide ever since I first opened my eyes. Even as a seer I had to look up to someone.
A new voice arose behind us, distorted slightly by the roaring flame. “Toby?”
I turned to look over my shoulder. In the light of the flames I could just make out Cassie’s silhouette.
I got up and walked over to her. “Hello Cassie.”
“Hi Toby, how are things?”
I forced on a smile, “I am fine. And how are you, Cassie?”
She grinned, baring her white human teeth, “I'm great! Ronnie's taking me to dinner tonight. Le restaurant Vieux Paris.”
“That sound wonderful. I hope it you enjoy it.”
“We have to treat a wolf we found before we go though. It’s been a busy day.”
Cassie has always been into animal care. She rescues them from around the local area and takes them to her own animal clinic for rehabilitation. Saving and releasing injured animals always puts her in a good mood.
“I hope I’m not distracting you from anything…” She looked embarrassed.
I shuffled myself so that my backside rested on a flatter surface. It is harder for me to see in the dark, which meant that it was harder to find a relatively comfortable spot. “Distracting me?”
“Well you were sitting with Ket.”
Ket was looking back at us. It appeared that she was eager to speak to Cassie, but she stayed sat down and decided not to interrupt. “We were just talking.”
Cassie hesitated and lowered her head. “I guess you’re worried too.”
“Yes, I am”
She looked into my eyes and I looked back into hers as well as the fire light would allow.
“I’m sure everything will be fine. They will be back in a few days. I just feel a little guilty for not being with them.”
“You have things to do here. The clinic needs you. Ronnie needs you”
“I know.” She moved to a log on the ground and sat down on it, holding up her head with her palms. “I guess since the end of the war, we all kind of… fell apart”
She was right. After the war, the Animorphs went their separate ways, with Jake and Tobias coming off seemingly the worst. Jake fell into depression. His brother had died, as had his cousin Rachel. Tobias had not forgiven Jake for Rachel’s death, and everyone thought he had disappeared, though he had recently started coming to see my people again. He talked to me and the other Hork-Bajir often.
I knew what Cassie feared. She feared not just for the outcome of any battle the Animorphs faced, but for the relationships held between them. They may break up again when they return. This thought upset Cassie deeply.
“Everything will be just fine. You will see.” I knew this may not turn out true, and I felt agitated for putting in my own false hope, but I wanted to make her feel better. "While they are gone, you have Ronnie.”
“Thanks Toby. I guess a meal tonight with Ronnie will make me feel better. It will take my mind off of it.”
“How is Ronnie?” I asked, trying to bring up a more light-hearted conversation.
“He seems nervous. I think tonight’s going to be a very special dinner.” She grinned.
I joined. “You think…?”
She nodded like she knew.
“He’s going to propose?”
“I can feel it.”
I had learned a lot from Cassie recently. She often took me out into the dense human habitat to show me how they lived and their unusual culture. Humans were amazing, but strange. Very strange.
I was once told that I was ‘The Devil’, which was surprising considering I was sitting in the Whitehouse at the time, surrounded by the political leaders of the country. I was even threatened with a lawsuit after someone tripped over my stray tail by the Washington Monument.
Our most recent visit though was to a building called a church. It was terribly boring. I had to sit quietly in a hidden corner so to attract as little attention as possible, and I swore I could have ripped my own head off. I was interested for maybe the first quarter of an hour, but it was irritating sitting in a cold tight corner, trying hard to make out echoing words spoken at the other side of the room. I decided to leave towards the end, but the crowd was not expecting a two-metre Hork-Bajir to stumble out of a corner in the middle of a service. I apologised and left rather embarrassed.
Cassie later explained to me the purpose of the gatherings. Sometimes weddings would take place there and a couple would become husband and wife. From what I have heard, human marriage is far more complex than Hork-Bajir marriage. I knew a lot more about these weddings now.
I noted that I was drifting from reality, and quickly came back to the conversation “And would you accept?”
She grinned. It was enough of an answer. Her eyes traced over the group huddled around the fire. “How’s the little guy?”
I knew where she was looking. At the far end of the group sat a female holding a small Hork-Bajir in her arms. She had given birth a few hours earlier, and Cassie had helped deliver the newborn. He sat curled up and asleep in his mother’s arms.
“He is fine, though he still does not have a name. The parents are exhausted after today. Too tired for such a decision.” I turned to face her. “Thank you for helping.”
“It’s no problem Toby, really. I love to help you guys, and I have time for things like that now since we hired new staff for the clinic.”
“Is that why you have spent so much time with us recently?”
“Yeah. Since we’ve hired so many I’ve been able to do different things. In fact, how about tomorrow I take you out to see a parade? There’s one starting tomorrow, around midday in the city. My treat.”
“That is very nice of you. I would love to go” I grinned in the fire light. “But… what is a parade?”
“You’ll see when we get there.” She got up onto her feet. “Anyway, I think I should check up on the newborn. Talk to Jer, perhaps. I’m sure she will have a few things to say about her new baby.“ Cassie began to walk away, and then swivelled to face me. “You look tired. Maybe you should rest for a bit.”
“Yes. I think I will go to my tree.”
She walked away from me and over to the camp, and she sat down next to Jer who looked lazily at her, gleaming in the light. She was happy, and what was there to stop that? She was free. Her baby was free. We were all free.
I watched as the little Hork-Bajir opened a large eye, slowly and curiously. He soon decided to crawl away, perhaps spotting some food nearby. He lost his balance and fell back onto Cassie’s lap, who cushioned his fall and lifted him into her arms. He smiled and quickly made himself comfortable, falling back to sleep.
I watched them sitting there. Peaceful. It is what we had always wanted, but deep down inside I knew things were not all right. Not yet, anyway. I craned my neck upwards to look up at the night sky, watching the owls fly past, the occasional aeroplane and the flickering stars.
My eyelids began to droop and I let out a big yawn. An hour or so passed before I walked over to my own tree, a few dozen metres away from the fire. The green leaves seemed to shine in brilliant shades of gold, rustling in the gentle night breeze. Fluttering, distant laughter wove into the wind to form an atmospheric, almost dreamy and ambient sound.
I climbed slowly up the side of the tree and pulled myself onto a large branch strong enough to hold my weight, let my limbs droop over the side and rested my snout on the smooth bark. I closed my tired eyes and let the noises take me away.
CHAPTER 2
I woke to the sound of birds.
Scratching the sleep from my eyes, I lifted my head and looked around the park. The fire that had burned through the night had shrunk to ashes, and there was no one around to be seen. I stretched my muscles while keeping hold of the small branch before wrapping my claws around it to slowly drop to the ground. I walked sleepily over to my families cave and peered inside. Nobody was in.
Rubbing the back of my neck, I tried to think where they could be. Maybe I had just overslept and the group had already gone off to harvest new bark. My tail shook off a stray leaf or two before I walked up to the nearest collection of trees at the near-side of the camp where the sun shone brightest. The group often went this way to find food so I sniffed around trying to catch their scent.
There was a branch low to the ground that looked to have recently been trodden on, so I investigated.
Yes! They had come this way.
I jumped up further into the tree and began making my way through the dark, following the scent of the others.
This is what I enjoyed most in the mornings - swinging through the trees. Sometimes I would travel for hours, simply for the fun of moving at high speeds over and under the miles of branches. Often I would get lost, but it did not matter, it just meant that I could have more fun aimlessly flying between the trees. It made me happy at the worst of times.
A Hork-Bajir learns to travel through trees at a very early age, usually after around 1 or 2 months. My father used to say that I was especially quick to learn. We learned by watching our mothers, clutching tight to her belly as she glided swiftly through the trees. Then, our parents would let us roam at their sides until we were confident enough to travel unsupervised. Of course, the parents would watch us, but from a significant distance. It was all about confidence.
After a few minutes of searching and sniffing, I could sense them clearly, and I knew that they were close. They would be nearby and already started with the day’s work. I could not tell how long they had been here. It could have been minutes, or it could have been hours. Either way, they would wonder where I had been, and I started to feel the usual guilt that came with sleeping-in during the harvesting hours. It was the norm that I was always first to wake up and they would never expect a seer such as myself to be late. Sometimes I wondered whether their expectations were too high.
The trees suddenly disappeared as I came to a clearance. I slowed down, jumped onto a low branch and began looking into the large open area. It was surrounded by a circle of beautiful trees and filled with lush green grass, a lovely little collection of wildlife and colourful plants. Just as expected, the group was here and hard at work.
There were two Hork-Bajir to each tree. One would strip off bark from near the top of the tree and pass it down to the second, who in turn took bark from lower down using their leg blades, and would place all of the bark by the bottom of the tree with their tail. Some Hork-Bajir collected the bark from the tree bases and placed it in the centre of the clearing.
We would strip enough bark to last the day to make sure that we did not run the area dry. We even made sure we planted seeds when the opportunity arose. This was an efficient process.
The group looked organised and it was pleasing to see. At this rate they should have been finished in minutes. They did not really require my assistance.
I could have gone back to the camp to sleep. I was still tired. They would not mind if I took a little nap back in my tree.
I grappled the nearest branch and prepared to leap back into the mass of trees, just as a face poked around the side of the pine I was sat on. He eyed me over and crawled up close, clamping himself onto the trunk.
“Hello Toby Hamee!”
“Hello Bek.”
He hesitated for a while, as if figuring something out. A big grin appeared on his face. “Toby late. Toby sleep.” He began to laugh.
Bek was a good friend of mine. We had known each other since we were little, both cooped up within a hidden valley before the war ended. I was slightly older than him, perhaps by a couple of months. Nevertheless, he would enjoy teasing me whenever he got the chance. I guess he is, as a human would say, ‘cute’, though I was not interested in him such a way.
He realised that I had overslept and must have found it rather funny. He jumped onto the branch I was standing on and moved next to me. “Toby never late.”
“I was tired and I have not been sleeping well. Not lately anyway.” I looked over the grassland, and I quickly noticed the number of Hork-Bajir there. The trees were crawling with them. “Bek, how many are here?”
He paused to absorb the question, and then he followed my gaze. He pointed downwards towards our group who was busy collecting bark from the trees below. “Us.” Then he looked around the area and narrowed his eyes. After a few seconds of silence he turned to me and grinned. “Lots.”
Well, I guess I was not expecting much more of an answer.
“Lots and lots.” He continued. “Group from that way.” He pointed over to the trees at the other end of the opening. “And that way.” He pointed in another direction. “Gather. Big feast.”
There was more than just our group here. From what I saw, there were at least four separate groups harvesting the trees, and with the amount of bark we were collecting, it was easy to see how busy it would be at the campfire tonight.
The Hork-Bajir had been split into groups spreading over an area of Yellowstone Park. Each group moved to its own harvesting area, yet stayed within about a kilometre of each other. This way, trees weren’t over-stripped, but we stayed close enough together to communicate without problems. Today though, the groups had decided to harvest together, and whenever groups harvested together, they feasted together as well.
“And this feast is at our camp?” I asked.
He nodded.
“Will you be joining us?”
He thought about it, then shook his head.
“No? Where will you be?”
“In tree.”
I felt slightly disappointed, for I always enjoyed his company.
“Toby want play? Swing?” He grabbed a branch up above with one strong arm.
“No, thank you. I need to rest.” Then I smirked playfully. “You still have a lot of work to do.”
He laughed, and in a flash, he shot back down the trunk and disappeared below.
I sat down on the branch and gazed up into the colourful morning sky. I leaned my back against the trunk of the tree and let my tail drop and sway below me. I just wanted to relax. Maybe I would skip the feast tonight, just crawl up my tree and get a good night’s sleep. No one would mind.
I felt myself starting to drift off into sleep, but just as the last thoughts escaped my head, something tugged on my tail. I lifted it up onto the branch and held it against my chest. I didn’t want to be disturbed.
“Toby Hamee?”
The voice caused me to jump and almost fall from the tree. I looked left and right but saw no one. “Hello?”
A face - an unknown face - was peering down at me from above. He was young, perhaps a year old. He jumped down and landed clumsily on the branch just in front of me.
I tried to put on a polite face, but frankly I was not in the mood. I must have looked terribly agitated.
He was holding a large chunk of bark in both his hands, and he turned to face me, using his tail to balance his self on the struggling branch. “Hello Toby Hamee!”
I did not recognise him. He would have been from a neighbouring group. However, he certainly recognised me. He was ecstatic, bouncing playfully on the end of the branch.
“Hello.” I said back to him.
“Toby sleep?” He asked as he started to calm down. Maybe he was slowly getting the hint that I did not want to be disturbed.
I steadily got up onto my feet and moved up to him. “No, I was not sleeping. Do you want help?”
“Sha find bark.” He handed me the large chunk he was holding. “New bark.”
So this was why he was so excited.
“Good bark? Good to eat?” He questioned.
I took the bark and began inspecting it. I rubbed my fingers across the rough surface, then with the underside of my hand, rubbed the smooth interior. I lifted it up to my snout and sniffed at it, licked it. It tasted fine. There was no apparent abnormality.
“Where did you find this bark?” I asked him.
“Big tree. By river. That way.” He pointed.
I handed him back the bark and gave him a friendly face. “This is good bark. It will taste nice.”
“Thank you Toby Hamee.” He moved his attention to the slab of bark and inspected it himself. Then, he used an elbow blade to swiftly slice the bark in half, and held a piece up to me. “Tree have lots. Toby Hamee have some.”
“Thank you, Sha.” I gently bowed my head forward and our blades met.
This was a normal thing to do when I met another Hork-Bajir for the first time. Sometimes, it is just a way to show love to another. Walking around here through the trees, you would often see partners doing this on the ground below. In such a case, it is a clear sign to leave them alone... In this case however, it was to show friendship.
We held there for a second, and then we drew our heads back. With a child’s smile, he was gone.
I looked at the bark once again, and I quickly came to the conclusion that I never seen this species before. Maybe the child had found an undiscovered area of the park. I lifted it to my nostrils and gave it another sniff, before closing my jaws around the soft edge. I held it in my mouth without biting, figuring the taste. It was easy on my tongue, and the taste…
The taste!
I had never experienced bark like this before, not even on the Hork-Bajir home world. I bit into it…
My eyes went wide in shock, and my jaw almost dropped. I almost dropped my food. Thankfully I avoided such a disaster.
I held the bark in my mouth for as long as I could before I instinctively swallowed. I even tasted it as the large chunks slithered down my throat, and I stood there in the tree, almost bawling in the pleasure.
I wanted more, and my stomach rumbled in agreement. I grabbed onto a branch up above and swung myself up into the trees, following the direction in which Sha went.
I began to follow what I thought was his scent. It led me away from home and around the far side of the harvesting area, going into a place I had never been to before.
Decreasing my speed, I watched the background zoom past me, and I took in the smells and the sounds that flowed through my senses. This place was not too different from where I lived, but the trees were foreign. Maybe this was where the bark had come from…
I stopped and glanced around the area. I was surrounded by unusual trees, ones that I hardly recognised. I felt the smell of new bark massage my nostrils.
My stomach wanted food, and I could not disobey it.
The tree I was stood on was fresh and unmarked. No Hork-Bajir were around to care for these, so they were grown long and rough. I shuffled over to the trunk of the tree to fetch a little snack.
A noise. To my left.
I turned to blink at the surrounding flora, and saw nothing but what I knew was already there.
Trees. A bush. Bark.
A tree wavered. I narrowed my gaze and waited to see if anything would appear behind the trunk.
It was another Hork-Bajir. A male.
He crept from behind the trunk and casually leant against an over-hanging branch, holding a large chunk of bark. He was only a few yards from where I stood, camouflaged against the trees. Looking closer, I saw clearly what he held. It was the new bark I was after. He opened his mouth to begin to eat, but froze as he noticed me. After a brief search with his eyes, his jaw closed, and he dropped the bark.
I did not know him, but I crawled over, using my arms to support myself over the unkempt branches. I came to a stop about a metre from him, and noticed that he was roughly my age. His skin was a darker green all over and he had piercing red eyes which shone as if luminous in the light of the shone. His blades were well kept, and he owned a large, rather noticeable scar running down from the top of his belly and curving down over his front, ending beside his tail.
He looked to me, then down at his bark, thinking. Then he reached over, offering the whole chunk of the bark to me.
How could I refuse?
I crawled up to him, taking the bark in my claws.
“Thank you…” I did not know his name.
“My name Tal Ganat.”
I stood and tried to regain my confidence. “My name is Toby Hamee.”
His eyes widened, and he looked over me once again. “Toby Hamee.” He finally said in agreement. “You are different.”
I must have heard this a thousand times by now. “Yes. I suppose I am.” The words came out sounding unusually meek.
He pointed to the chunk of bark that he had given me. “Gift. For Toby Hamee.”
"Where did you get this bark?” I asked, rubbing my claws against the soft surface.
“Tree by river.” He rubbed his belly. “Good bark. Tasty.”
I nodded in agreement. “Are you from around here, Tal?”
“Tal live near. At edge of trees.” He spread his arms to indicate the area around us.
“I have never seen you before. At least not from what I remember.”
“Tal know Toby.” He replied. “Toby know Tal brother.”
“I do?”
I thought about this, but it was not long before he interrupted.
“Tal always want to meet Toby Hamee.”
I was rather flattered. “Why would you want to meet me?”
“Toby save Hork-Bajir.”
I looked away in embarrassment. I rarely got this sort of attention.
The Sun was high in the sky by now. Its beams shone past the leaves and into my eyes. I covered them with my arm and moved over to the shade of Tal’s tree to stand beside him.
“It is bright out today.” I told him.
“Yes. Humans loud when Sun is bright.”
I paused. He had reminded me of Cassie.
“Tal, I have to go now.” I turned and got ready to jump away.
He quickly reacted and grabbed my arm. “Why Toby go? Not stay with Tal?"
“I cannot stay. I need to find someone.”
He stood up straight from the branch, looking perked. “Tal come too?”
I looked him in the eyes.
They appeared strange as they shot into me. There was something there, something I had never seen before. Something powerful. I could not even begin to describe it.
“Well…” I managed to say.
Perhaps taking him would not be so bad. No Hork-Bajir has been taken directly into the centre of the human habitat known as the city.Maybe after hearing where I and Cassie were going, he would want to stay home. Either way, he could not be allowed to come with us.
Why was I not saying no?
“OK.” I continued. “You can follow, but you must stay with me.”
He grinned. “Where we go?”
“Away from the park. Somewhere you have never been before.”
He did not answer. I was already swinging back towards home before he could voice his confusion. I heard him swinging behind me as we flew through the trees, the bark lodged in my jaw to give me full mobility.
We raced back to my camp and jumped from the trees onto the open grassland. Tal decided to look around at the scenery and introduce himself to my group, while I looked around for Cassie.
She was not here. I squinted to look at the human clock barely visible in the distance. It was a tall building on the edge of the human habitat which I used to tell the time.
Five-to-One!
Maybe she had left without me. She may have thought that I did not want to go.
“Did you see a human here?” I asked a male, Temef, who happened to be walking by.
He seemed bemused by my question. After making my question clearer, he pointed over to a small, paved concrete path surrounded by a large fence where a group of humans stood holding cameras. They were tourists.
“No, not those humans. A human who came here. To our camp.” I asked.
He thought for a moment. “Cassie come.”
“She did? Where is she now?”
“She go. Wait for Toby. You go to Cassie. Go to…” He was stuck in thought, trying to remember the name of Cassie’s Animal Rehabilitation Centre. That was where she would wait for me.
I smiled to him. “Thank you. The building is called Cassie’s Animal Rehabilitation Centre.”
He walked off, repeating the words to himself. Unnecessary to say that he was getting the words wrong, but I could help him with it when I got back.
He wandered off with the rest of the group to spend the day in the trees, just as Tal walked up beside me.
“We go now?”
“Yes Tal.” I glanced over to the large, white building that stood not far from the park. The Rehabilitation Centre. “We are going there.”
“Why go there?”
“Because that is where my friend is. We are going to see her, and she will take us on a little tour.”
He ****ed his head. “Human friend?”
“Yes. A Human friend.”
