Chanur's Arrival
Chapter 6
I turned to face the sorce of the sound. Most hunters hesitate to attack
from the front. If there was only the one, I'd be better off to see it
coming. My vision continued to narrow down, even as I fought it off. My
hunter paused, then the cover moved again. I could almost hearthe gears
turning in its mind. Enough is enough! I spoke up. "You can come out now. I
made you nearly a kilometer back." A small triangular hear poked out of the
cover. Say!....that mightbe...
"OhmyGodIcan'tbeleiveyouheardmewheredidIgowrongIswearIwasn'trealyhuntingyou..
Yep. That's Ayanna. "andthenyousaidIthoughtyouheardmebutI
couldn'ttellforsure.:::GASP::: IthoughIwasgettingbetteratthisstuffdid
youhearwhatKahnsaidhe'ddotoyouif...." I wonder if they make seditives for
cheetas? Maybe something in the med-kit. She fell in beside me as I started back to my camp. "Andthenhesaidyoucouldn'tbetrustedandIsaidofcourseyoucould..."
Maybe I can hit her with a tranq. dart. (Later) Longest thirty minute walk
in my life. I "Um-humed" and "Go-Oned" when she paused for breathe. Seemed to
keep her happy. Had a evil thought, instead of a tranq. dart, hit her with
caffine. That'd drive the Thundercats (and the rest of us) off the planet in a
hurry. Suddenly the cheeta screamed and darted foreward. Huh? Oh, hey!The
trap worked! Maybe this isn't such a bad day after all. "Get him out of this
thing!" What? "Hey, It's just a pest..." The vermin was turned away from me and
the fur had already gone pale. "That's not vermin, that's Snarf! He's a
Thundercat!" Screamed Ayanna. Crap! I ran to him, sliding the last few meters on my knees.The wire had circled right under his chin, just like it was
supposed to. The harder the snarf struggled, the tighter the wire became.
I feared the worst. "Ayanna, get over here! Get your claws under the wire.
I'll get acutter from camp." The cheeta raced over and dug in. "Pull back here,"
I pointed. "Keep the wire off his windpipe!" I dashed intocamp, grabed the A.P.
and the wire cutters, snarling as I turned my ankle again. I returned, with the
hope it wasn't too late. The snarf was starting to gasp for air again. "Watch
yourself," I warned Ayanna, slipping the cutters under the wire. "This is going
to pop off hard." "Hurry Chanur." She moaned. "He dosn't look good!" That's
an understatement. The wire nearly exploded off the snarf's neck. He rolled over, drawing in a huge whooping breath. Good, 'cause there was no way I was giving it mouth-to-mouth.... "Let the snarf go!" I spun, instinctivly placing myself between the snarf and the voice. The A.P. was out before I'd even thought about it.
Two figures stood by the edge of the trees, fifteen meters away. One held a
large sword, the other a whip, both pointed at me. "Drop the gun." The younger
of the two commanded. Yeah, right. "Drop the sword, cat!" I said, sneering on
the final word. "You fire that thing, I'll shoot. Mine," I gestured ever
so slightly with the A.P. " will kill anything within fifty meters. You ready to die?" The tiger and the lion exchanged a bemused glance. "We," The tiger said. "do it all the time. The question is are you ready to die?" Just what the hell did he mean by that? We stared at each other for at least a minute. "Looks like we have a stand-off." The lion remarked. Nice job Chanur. How do you get out of this one?
***************************************
Ayanna nosed me in the small of the back, nearly ending the stand-off right there.
"Write them out!"
She whispered. "What?" "Write them out! You control the story so you can
get rid of them." "What the hell are you talking about??" "You don't
know...Oh nevermind. Hang on." She closed her eyes and focused. Suddenly my
mind....shifted. It was the most horrific experance in my life. I had no control over my thoughts. Then I heard as clearly as if someone had spoken to me.
"Kamanchee looked down saw the trouble our hero was in, and called apon his
satilite." Ayanna? A loud humming filled the air. The tiger glared at the
lion. "Not again." WHAM!!!!! Two pillars of light slammed out of the sky,
vaporising the two Thundercats. The concussion blew my small group head
overheals, ladind ten meters away. As I rolled to a stop I heard another voice
in my head. "Oh. good! A Lion-o and a Tygra! That's good for fifty points plus
the RD bonus. I Like this game so far." I picked myself up off the dirt. A
pair of smoldering pits were all that remained. "What the hell was that??"
Ayanna shook herself off, swearing about Ringo Star knock-offs. She checked the
snarf. "Poor guy's out cold. Must be the stress." "Ayanna. what was that?"
"That was Kamanchee. We call him Kam for short." I stared at the pits. "What
a way to die." I remarked. "They're not dead." "What??" She sighed. "Pick
up the snarf and let's go to your place. It looks like I've got some explaining
to do."
(Later) I set Snarf out next to the fire pit. Ayanna glanced
wistfully at the carcus hanging from the tree. I cut it down and tossed it to
her."Join me?" She asked. "No. I'm not hungry tonight." "Suit yourself." She
tore into it like she hadn't eaten all day. I lay back to watch the stars come
out. The sky here was brillant with them compared to Aurrun. A belch interrupted my thoughts. "Sorry."Said the cheeta. "Do you mind," She gestured with a femur. " if I work on this while we talk?" "No, go right ahead." "Thanks." She bit down, crushing the kneecap. "So what do you know about here?"
"Just what Robear-Bert has told me." "Huh. He tell you about the great plan to get rid of the Thundercats?" I blanched. "You know about that?" She laughed
brightly. "Trust me, every newbe gets button-holed by those two. Some actualy
try to follow through with the plan. Drive the Thundercats off Third earth...ha!
Ask Fianna about it, that dog's got some great stories." I mulled it over.
"Okay...what happened back there?" She chewed on the bone for a minute. "You
realy don't know?" I nodded. "Who's your author?" "My what?" "Your author."
She said, speaking as if to a slow child. "The one who made you. The one who
makes things right for you." "I still don't understand." She sighed. "Let's
start at the beginning. Here, no one dies." I looked at her in shock. "What
are you talking about? Those two back there..." "Are back at Cat's Lair,
plotting their revenge as we speak. Pumyra's treating them for 3rd. degree burns on 100% of their bodies.They're in massive pain, but they're alive. The only thing that can happen one of us is they 'leave'." "Leave?" "As in scatt,
vamoose, bug out. Even that may not do it. We've still got people running around here who's authors have left. Slinkey or Cheeezy for example." "I've never met them."
"You will. All the authors read each others work. They know eveything
that goes on in here, and because they know, we know." "Everything?" "You
might want to avoid Thundaria Tiger for a while. She's still pissed. We know
because we're only a part of their imagination."Ayanna spoke softly. "And so
are you." "No! That can't be right!" I exclamed. "I remember my family.
I remember Aurrun! No one controls me! Ayanna looked me dead in the eyes.
"What did you have forbreakfast this morning?" She asked. "I...I...don't
remember." "That's right you don't remember. You don't remember because
your author, Chris, didn't write about it! You remember events in the
past because Chris either wrote about them or designed them into
your background." She paused. "Look, it's not so bad around here. You'll pick up more as others write you into their stories or, God forbid, their riffs." She walked over to the fire and nosed the comatosesnarf onto her back. "I'll take snarf to the lair. Stay here, let Tygra and Lion-o cool off a bit. Think about what I've said." She called over her shoulder as she dissapeared into the
night.
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She can't be right. I'm real! I know my family, my place here.(She's been here
longer then you.) Everybody dies only once!(What did they mean, we do it all the time.)
I live by what I see!(Where did those beams come from?) I'm not losing my mind!!!(Where did those voices come from???) I'M NOT GOING INSANE!!!!! She brought something out of her mind to save us, right? I'll prove her wrong, I can't do that, If I was one of them I could havesomething come from my mind. I'll prove I'm real (How?) I know! Start thinking about my mother, she's been dead ten years there's no way this could happen, I'll start thinking about her and when nothing happens I'll know Ayanna's wrong! Now remember her, Chanur, remember how she held you when your sisters wanted to fight, remember how she sat with you in Kohan's hall, how she...
"Nakur?" It asked.
I turned, screamed, and fainted dead away.
I woke up with a cool cloth on my head, A shadowy figure crossed in
front of the fire.
(end it)
It can't be...no...she's dead! I can't
(Endit endit)
"You're up Nakur. Good, I was starting to get worried."
"No..you're dead! You can't be here!"
(enditenditendIT)
"I've always been here for you, Nakur. You know that."
"Nooo!!!" I grabed the A.P. abd ran from the fire. This can't be right,
she's dead, I saw her die, she's dead, dead, DEAD!
(end it end it END IT)
"Nakur, come back! I've always loved you!"
Run, get away, this isn't right I'm back on Aurrun with Py and Hilfy. No
don't stop if she finds me.....faster faster fasterfaster..
(END IT ENDIT ENDIT!! END IT!!!!)
Run, damn it, run! I can't OHMYGODS A DEAD END she'srightbehindme.....
"Nakur!!!"
The gun! I pointed it at the figure.
"NAKUR, NO!"
I can't ohmygods Ican'tican'tICAN'T!!!:::::SOB::::: onewayout Put the
gun under my chin
"I always loved you, Mother."
"NO!!!!!!!"
(ENDIT!!!! ENDIT!!!! EN..........)