Taterskin & The Eco Defenders: Book 2, Chapter 8
Book 2 ("Tell It to Future Generations"), Chapter 8
CHAPTER 8
“Look! Up in the sky! Is it a Bird?” Ocero asked.
“No, it’s flying too high to be a Bird,” Alexis said.
“Is it a plane?” Terri inquired.
It was too soon to tell for sure. All we saw was a white streak hurtling toward us, high overhead.
“Is it a UFO?” the Bearded Dragon wondered.
“Yes, it is by definition an Unidentified Flying Object, Drako, as we haven’t identified it yet,” Stripes pointed out.
“It’s Albert!” I finally yelled. “It’s the Zephyr!”
I surprised everyone, including myself, at how enthused I was to see Albert again. We were old pals, sure, but all of us were enjoying the last days of our free time, so most of us wouldn’t have minded it if Albert and his pilot recruit, whoever it was, had been delayed another day or two, or even longer.
We could then see someone, or some thing, in the passenger seat. It was big and brown and kind of fluffy-looking.
“Oh my ears and whiskers! It’s Ooga!” Marmalade cried.
And so it was. Albert had gotten his first choice as pilot of the Androcles.
The Zephyr gradually came to a stop in midair and hovered directly above us. Then it descended, almost noiselessly, and touched down in the grass at the edge of our watering hole.
“Hey, everybody!” Ooga yelled, catapulting himself out of the seat and bounding over toward us. “I haven’t seen you in — “
“Six hundred and forty-two years,” Alexis finished his sentence.
“Wow! And it doesn’t seem like more than a couple of years. I’ll take your word for it, though, since it’s you, Alexis, the smartest animal on the planet.”
After the obligatory small talk, Albert walked back to his house for the evening after telling us to think over what we wanted to do (which tragic historical events we would want to ‘unwind’ and prevent from happening). He said that we would get together the following morning — there at the water hole — to talk it all over.
The African animals were intrigued by the scenery around Zenia and so we locals led them on a night march around the area, showing them the sights. We finally fell asleep in the woods sometime between sundown and the wee hours.
I still remember waking up that morning. Rovette and the pups and I were all huddled together on the forest floor. As a sunbeam, shining through the trees, penetrated my eyelids, I awoke. I then heard a noise so loud that I was surprised I had been sleeping through it. It sounded like a chainsaw. Was somebody felling one of our trees? I jumped up on my four feet to investigate. I followed the source of the sound, only to discover that it was Jowls and Ocero snoring. It was a regular snorefest! It was even synchronized or ... no, not synchronized ... syncopated? I don’t know, but as one was inhaling the other was exhaling, and vice versa.
Feeling a little perturbed that they had disturbed my slumbers that way, I barked as loud as I could right in their faces (they were lying face-t0-face, with Ocero’s horn practically in Jowls’ left nostril).
They snorted awake, staring at me in bleary-eyed confusion. Rory, Jubatus, Stripes and Marmalade then awoke, yawning and stretching. Gradually the rest stirred themselves and stood up.
Alexis was perched in a tree, and said, “What was that about, Taterskin? Are you calling reveille or something?”
“Sort of,” I replied. “The sun is up, and Albert will be arriving at the watering hole soon. We should all head on over there.”
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