Kitty Katt 11: Alien Separation (23 page)

Interestingly, while all their eyes opened wide, there was no immediate bowing, gasping, or anything else going on. Time to take the plunge.

“And I'm just betting that whatever it is that they call you, what it translates to is ‘warrior.'”

T
HE FERRET NODDED
her head formally. “Shealla is said to know her people.”

Had to figure this was a test. “Shealla's a lot more interested in finding food and shelter for the people she's protecting. And help protecting them, and the others who are helping them, would also be nice.”

“Others?”

“From different regions of your world. The strautruch and the katyhoppers. Well, I call them katyhoppers. They look like giant brightly colored insects. And the strautruch look like giant brightly colored birds. The katyhoppers are from the Purple Land and the strautruch are from the Yellow one.”

Finally the ferret seemed impressed. “You travel with those? But they do not speak. We are not certain they think.”

“They don't speak your language or in your way, no. But they speak to us. And they definitely think. At your level.” Or higher. Kept that one to myself, and Christopher had learned long ago to let me roll and stay quiet.

“You claim you are Shealla, and that he is Binalla. Yet we see no proof.”

I shrugged. “I think I'll call you Fancy. And because I'm the Giver of Names, you'll be stuck with Fancy, unless you want to tell me a name you like better. Binalla flies on the wind.” I let go of Christopher's hand and he took the hint.

He zipped off. To the Lecanora, of course, it looked like he'd disappeared. This time there were some gasps, but not from Fancy. He was back shortly. “Shealla, night is falling.”

“Fancy, we need to leave you and return to those we're protecting.”

“Why have you come?” Fancy asked.

“To find warriors.” With that, I nodded to her, and started walking. Christopher came with me.

“How did you know they'd be here?” he asked me quietly.

“Just sort of knew. Based on what King Benny said about the natives here.”

“Really?”

“We can smell our own, Christopher, okay? Tell you more later.”

Fancy did a very ferrety thing and ran in front of us on all fours, then stood up on her hind legs. “Why do the Gods need warriors? Can the Gods not fight themselves?”

“Of course. But then the world will be ours, and not yours.”

She stared at me. “You mean to go against the king.”

“We do, because we fear he is not just. He has cast out many for speaking the truth. If he rules well, we will leave him be. But it does not appear that he rules well.”

“We have all seen the ships in the sky, all my people,” Fancy said. “But I would not allow any to say so.”

“Because you saw what happened to the others who did speak the truth.”

She nodded. “Do you truly travel with them?”

I put my hand out. “Come with us and find out.”

She stared at my hand. “And if this is a trap?”

“Bring your warriors with you. Link hands and hold mine.”

She made a chittering sound, and the others I'd seen already zipped over. None of them were wearing clothing or carrying weapons. Wondered where Rahmi and Rhee were. Hoped they were safe just like I hoped all the others we still hadn't found were safe. Maybe Rahmi and Rhee were with Jamie and Gower. That would be good for all of them.

Shoved the worry back down. Didn't have the luxury to wallow right now. Fancy's Ferrets linked hands, she put her paw into mine, and then Christopher kicked the hyperspeed up to eleven, and they got to go on Ms. Ferret's Wild Ride.

Of course, the ride didn't take long. We did a fast tour of the entire Iceland Spiral and were back with the others in less than a minute. Had to give it to Fancy's Ferrets—they didn't fall to their paws and start retching, though I was pretty sure a couple of them really wanted to.

The people we were rejoining were expecting me and Christopher to come back, of course. But they weren't expecting us to show up with twenty additional Lecanora. So there was a lot of gasping and jumping going on for a minute or so.

Looked at Fancy. “Note where we are. Why aren't your people in here?”

“It's a place of great danger,” she said. “None should ever enter these places.”

These places. Chuckie was, as always, right. “Why not? Who gave that decree?”

Fancy sniffed at me. “If you were truly Shealla, you would know.”

“Alcalla gave that order,” Chuckie said, stepping forward. “In other words, I gave that order. Thousands of years ago.” Figured I'd ask later if he'd guessed this was the right thing to say or had learned as much from one of the Lecanora while Christopher and I were gone.

Fancy finally looked like she believed. “Are the Gods truly here with us, Musgraff?”

“Yes, Corzine.” King Benny stepped forward. “They have saved us from the Horrors. A gigantic herd of them. All of us, from the highest to the lowest,” he indicated a somewhat nearby bosthoon.

Fancy eyed me. “What are the other Gods?”

“You know, King Benny here—that's what I call him, instead of Clan Leader Musgraff, by the way—he didn't need to cheat to pass the God Test.”

Her lips quirked. “But then you did not have to pass the test yourselves.”

The katyhoppers and strautruch joined us. They sized up Fancy's Ferrets. They felt they could take them. I wasn't so sure.

“This is Saffron, Pinky, and Turkey.” Each waved their antennae when named. “They're katyhoppers. All given new God Names by me. These others are strautruch.” Crap, hadn't actually had time to learn their names. Well, when in doubt and all that. “Their Shealla names are Tyler, Perry, Whitford, Hamilton, and Kramer.” The strautruch nodded their heads. The katyhoppers shared that the Big Birds were cool with getting named after my favorite band in the universe.

While Chuckie and the flyboys practically killed themselves controlling their Inner Hyenas, Jeff walked over, carrying a bosthoon in each hand. “Not sure what else you want as proof, but I have to say, yet again, that what I want is for these people to be safely housed, fed, and moved.” He put the bosthoon down. “I'm tired of all the standing around discussing things that we'll handle later. Right now, King Benny's situation is the most important thing and I want it handled, or the rest of the Gods are going to have a discussion with me they're not going to enjoy.”

Fancy bowed to him. “You are truly Leoalla.” She turned to me and Christopher. “Forgive me, Shealla and Binalla, for not believing.”

I shrugged. “You questioned. There's never a problem with questioning authority, even the Gods' authority. The problems are blind obedience or stubborn resistance in the face of the obvious.”

“Shealla is wise and speaks the truth. We can provide what our cousins will need for the night's survival. And we can offer the same to the Gods, if you so desire.”

“We're with all of you, we so desire. Unless providing for us will cause your own people hardship, and then we'll do without.”

“Speak for yourself,” Randy muttered. “The Winalla are starving.”

Fancy heard this and she laughed. “Never would we refuse to feed fellow warriors.”

“Oh, yeah, my God Gang, look at Fancy's Ferrets as this planet's Amazon Fighting Force and act accordingly.”

“Fancy's Ferrets?” Joe asked.

“It's Shealla Kitty,” Chuckie said. “What did you expect?”

“We wear that name with pride,” one of the Ferrets said. “Because we do follow Fancy Corzine into battle.”

“See? They're one with the Shealla Naming Plan. The rest of you could take a lesson.” Saw that Jeff was ready to pop a vessel. “But enough of that. Let's get our refugee clan fed and bedded and then we can discuss strategies.”

W
E HAD TO FIND
a trail that ran close to the cavern and follow it about a mile, per Fancy, to reach the nearest entrance to her people's homes.

We hurried, because the snakipedes apparently had no issues with cold and, sadly, we'd been shown they weren't strictly nocturnal, either—they were 24/7, or whatever this planet's equivalent was, killers. Apparently they were also willing and able to slither as much as fly, meaning they could get into Fancy's Ferrets' homes if they weren't careful. But hurrying and hyperspeed weren't the same thing.

However, everyone moved quickly and with purpose, which was a refreshing change. Had to admit they were probably moving well not because we'd told them to but, on top of fear of this world's most terrifying predator, it was dark by the time we'd left the cavern and extremely cold. Plus it got darker and colder every minute, even for those with heavy fur coats and those who lived in nests high up on top of mountains. Even the bosthoon, once again loaded up with the young and the old and/or infirm, were hurrying. Well, for them.

The snakipedes really reminded me of sharks, and more than that. They sort of screamed “created monster,” especially since they seemingly had no issues with temperature or elevation changes. They also seemed to have no issues with day or night and no natural enemies, and yet they hadn't overtaken the planet. Which again, sort of said Made In A Lab.

Had an easy guess for who'd created them, too, since LaRue had a Z'porrah power cube and apparently those puppies took you anywhere you could visualize. Meaning she could be routinely leaving Earth and going to the far reaches of space, then returning with more things to use to destroy us.

Needed to determine the range on the power cubes the moment I could convince one of the Poofs to snag one back from Algar, or when I had time to badger Algar in person. Presumed neither were going to happen right now.

As it got darker around us, though, something interesting happened—the snow began to glow. A soft glow, similar to glow-in-the-dark toys, only whitish as opposed to greenish and mixed with black light, so that whites glowed whiter and other colors looked more fluorescent. If you looked down, it was easy to see the ground. If you looked up, the glow went about twelve or fifteen feet above the snowline and then tapered off. Planet Colorful was even pretty at night.

The trail we were following sloped upward on a very gradual incline, meaning we were heading away from the All Seeing Mountain and toward the rim of the continent. If I was correctly remembering Christopher's geography lesson from earlier, at any rate.

We Gods went last, with the katyhoppers and strautruch doing Line Monitor duty. You didn't have to tell me twice that there were little kids and young animals along who didn't necessarily understand or follow the rules, and the katyhoppers and Big Birds both felt they could spot and grab any potential deserters quickly.

The chochos and ocellars—who didn't seem overly bothered by the cold, or at least not yet—were also helping with this form of herding, in no small part because I'd asked Ginger and Wilbur to ensure we didn't have another baby of either of their species wander off to cause problems, and they'd made sure the rest of their pack and pride had gotten the message.

Bruno, like the rest of us, was cold, and I put him in my purse with what looked like all the Poofs of our group here already snuggled in there. “Keep Bruno warm, too,” I whispered to all of them. Soft mewls indicated that this was an acceptable request.

So, while we walked at the back and I carted all the animals we'd brought with us to this planet, the Earthlings discussed our situation. The three couples cuddled close together for warmth, the others cuddled close to the couples for the same reason. We were a chummy clutch of cold people.

“I think I can make the power orb essentially create a gate between the other power orbs,” Serene said. “The issue is determining where they are with enough accuracy for us to do the calculations.”

“I have another idea that doesn't involve one or all of us potentially ending up inside a rock or blown up,” Christopher said. “Let's leave the Lecanora here with their relatives, link hands, and just act like the A-Cs and humans able to handle hyperspeed that we are and run wherever we need to go next.”

“The katyhoppers are tasked with helping us, and they want to do so,” I reminded him.

“And they can all handle hyperspeed. I'm all for Saffron, Pinky, and Turkey coming along. Besides, it's just three of them.” Christopher shook his head. “We need to move, and move fast, we all know it. But we've slowed to a crawl because we have a large group of refugees we're trying to take with us. For no good reason I can see.”

“The strautruch are also supposed to help us,” Jerry said. “They fly fast, and I'm sure they can probably handle the hyperspeed.”

“They aren't going to turn tail and go home,” Randy added. “Like your katyhoppers, they're excited to be a part of all of this.”

“We're responsible for these people,” Jeff said with more patience than I'd have expected. “We destroyed their homes.”

“Protecting them,” Joe pointed out.

“Protection they might not have needed if it wasn't for us,” Hughes countered.

Chuckie shook his head. “Frankly, I think the snakipede herd or flock or whatever they call them was headed for King Benny's caravan. From what Jeff said, the Lecanora would have been on the far side of the Bronze Land if they hadn't been coming to meet us. Meaning the snakipedes smelled them and went after a large food source.”

“Meaning we're responsible,” Jeff said. “I realize we want to find everyone else, my daughter included, in case anyone's forgotten. I realize we want to solve the problems and fix whatever's going on around here. But while I agree that the katyhoppers are probably the top of the sentience pyramid here, the Lecanora are by far the most populous race on this planet and their so-called king is therefore considered to rule this entire continent. Or, as they think of it, world. And if we want to actually effect positive change, then we cannot leave these people, who are already shoved down to the bottom of their society, in worse circumstances than when we found them.”

We all stared at him for a few long moments. “Wow,” I said finally. “You've spent a lot longer in D.C. than I realized.”

Jeff rolled his eyes. “It's not a political speech. It's reality.”

“I told you, he's the only politician I trust,” Chuckie said with a sigh. “Jeff, believe me, I understand your position. And I agree with it. But we still have ten people to find, including Jamie, as you said. Most of them are humans, meaning they have none of the advantages that the A-Cs and Kitty have. For all we know, they aren't having nearly as good a time on this planet as we are. And I don't mean that facetiously. All four groups here landed either with friendly natives or in a place where they were left alone and able to find shelter. There's no guarantee that's what's happened for the others.”

“You know, I want to know how you knew Fancy would find us when you and I went out,” Christopher said to me. “I know that's why you wanted to leave the cavern. And it could be relevant to the issue.”

“It is but only sort of. We all landed near friendly natives, as Chuckie said. But the girls didn't, at least as far as they knew.”

“Correct,” Lorraine said. “We didn't find any living soul. We saw the cavern and headed for it.”

“So you landed in view of it?” I asked.

Claudia nodded. “It was far away but we could see it, so that's where we went. We figured we'd find people or animals or something. People we'd talk to, animals we'd deal with.”

“You said this aloud, right?”

“Yes,” Lorraine said. “We were speaking to each other. Oh, and duh.”

“Just checking. And you ran to the cavern at hyperspeed, right?”

“Of course,” Serene replied. “It was cold, Kitty. We wanted to get inside before we froze. You know, like right now.”

“Right. Only, I'd bet you had to land and make sure each other were okay, look for the rest of us, things like that. In addition to making the plan to run for the cavern, right?” All three Dazzler heads nodded. “Right, then. See, it's cold here, as you've all so astutely pointed out, Christopher took me all over this area and I never saw one home or anything that could be construed as a home, and that means that the natives are likely to be burrowers. Meaning that their homes are underground. They have gorgeous fur, and it blends in beautifully with a snowy landscape. I assumed that whoever lived here spent some time watching the girls.”

“Why didn't they help them like the katyhoppers helped us?” Christopher asked.

“Because the girls are really efficient and I'd imagine they weren't scared all that much.”

“We weren't,” Lorraine confirmed. “We were pissed, but not scared. By the way, since I'm sure you're going to care, we're headed roughly toward where we landed.” She pointed at some tracks to our right that I could only see because of the pretty glow and the fact that I had enhanced A-C vision now. “Those are ours.”

“And we're definitely going in the same direction we came from,” Claudia added.

This surprised me not at all. The girls
had
landed near help. They just hadn't needed it.

“But you knew they were all female,” Christopher said. “Fancy's Ferrets, I mean.” Knew he'd read my mind. Didn't mention it aloud.

“Yeah. Because males tend to come check on females. But female warriors tend to see if the females are other warriors first. The girls showed that they were, and then they entered a place where Fancy's people have been told for generations not to go because it's dangerous. Meaning they were either dead or brave. They didn't die, and they didn't run away. Meaning brave.”

“We used snow for water, too,” Claudia said. “In case that was impressive or something.”

“It would confirm your resourcefulness and intelligence, so yes. Warriors tend to not be impressed by Gods that don't fight. I'm sure Fancy's people assumed you were the Muses, but they'd have been a lot more excited if the Winalla had landed here.”

“Maybe excited in the wrong way, if they're like Rahmi and Rhee,” Walker said with a laugh. He shook his head and the smile disappeared. “You know who I'm the most worried about? Them. They don't have a lot of experience and their first reactions are to fight, and to fight men. That could go badly here.”

In some ways I agreed with Walker. It was curious that the princesses hadn't been placed in this land. They would have had an instant affinity with Fancy's Ferrets. But as I said all the time, I didn't get to make the plans, I just had to foil the bad ones or make sure the good ones worked.

“Yeah, good point,” Christopher said.

“Really?” Jeff asked with extreme politeness. “What point is that?”