2"Just keep going Kicho!" Taisa allowed herself a small laugh as she glanced back at her friend who shot her a glare with way too much sincerity behind it, "how much further is this hide-out boy?"
Yumi looked back at the two cat-like creatures with a look that said much of his lack of trust in them, "just over this next rise." he said sharply as he pulled his young sister ahead of him. The little girl looked up at him with a pout but he refused to allow her to walk with her newfound 'friends'. For the 20th time since they started their trek into the dense forest of the island he checked that his arrows were freely available in their quiver.
Taisa spent most of the trip watching the young boys movements. She was impressed by the way he was able to handle himself under such strange circumstances. The way that he, despite his age, was able to defend not only himself but also his younger sister against an adversary they have never seen before! He had obviously lived in the jungles of this island for his entire life, he moved like he was familiar with every tree root, every bush, every rise and fall in the layout of the land was burned into his memory for al eternity. He knew the forest like the back of his hand as he turned endlessly around tree after tree, following a path that only he could see.
"You've been watching the boy since we began this idiotic trek through the forest!" Kicho hissed quietly in their native Felaran language, "Do you suspect that he is leading us into some kind of trap? If you do then perhaps we should just take care of him now and save ourselves the trouble later! We can handle ourselves without any help from a midget human!"
"Calm down! Alright?" Taisa hissed back, all too aware of Yumi's watchful eyes glaring at them from the corner of his eyes attempting to listen to their conversation, "there is just something about this one, he's smarter than those other idiots! Just bear with t, like it or not we don't have a way off of this island at the moment! Or would you prefer to swim?" Kicho just rolled her eyes and let out a frustrated sigh as her long tail whipped round behind her.
"It's just on the other side of this." the boy said giving them a distrustful glance as he once again stopped his sister from hanging back to walk with the two strange creatures. He clambered over a rock face with all the ease of a native squirrel and watched them struggling to push the escape pod over the rocks above them. When they managed to get to the top the boy was looking around in the bushes around another rock face that seemed to just grow out of the ground.
"What now?" Kicho asked, her voice full of frustration.
"This island is volcanic, it was all produced when a volcano rose up from the waves. It's still active but hasn't erupted for many years. This cave used to be a vent for any escaping lava, the mountainside was split when the pressure got too high." Yumi explained as he pulled some branches back out of the way to reveal the cave, "It goes in a few meters before it turns to the right and opens up into a larger chamber, big enough to house a few people. We have used it before during the storm season, its safe enough."
After putting the escape pod down with a metallic thud Taisa pushed past the bushes and overhanging tree branches which concealed the entrance to the cave. Her eyes, automatically adjusting themselves to the darkness of the cave, could pick up every crack and crevice in the walls of the cave. The minerals embedded in the volcanic rock shone back at her as they glinted with even the smallest amount of light. Just as the boy had said, the cave turned to the right a little way in, opening up to a good sized natural cavern. What little light had been let in reflected in a glistening array of blues and greens and silvers from a rippling pool of water fed from a natural spring.
Kicho waited outside as Taisa checked the cave. With her keen ears she listened to everything going on in the forest around them. The monkey screaming in protest about having his territory disturbed, the soft purr of a sleeping wild cat in its den, the inane chatter of every type of bird imaginable and the hushed whisperers of the two humans who had discovered them in their escape pod.
"But why not?" the girl complained as she tugged on her brothers sleeve.
"Because! We don't know anything about them! We don't even know what they are!"
"So if you don't know about something then its evil?" Kicho interrupted the pair as she pulled herself up into the lower branches of a tree, "maybe if you asked then you would find that we are not what you believe us to be."
Before the boy could answer Taisa forced her way out of the cave.
"Not bad, it will work as a good shelter until we can work out what we are going to do. Thank you Yumi, we greatly appreciate your help."
"Humph!" Kicho exclaimed as she jumped down from the tree and went to inspect the cave herself, "why should we show him such respect when he still condemns us just because he does not know us!"
"I'm not afwaid of you!" the young girl said as she ran towards Taisa and latched onto her leg in a strong hug, "why are you afwaid Yumi? They not been doing anything wong. They just trying to get away from those scary people in the big boawts!"
"I know but-"
"You wont even listen to them! Why not ask them what they doing here?" she began to cry and released her grip on Taisa's leg to rub the tears from her eyes.
"Hey, come on kid, you need to be brave. You want to show your brother how big and brave you are don't you?" Taisa said as she ruffled the girl's hair.
"Uh-huh."
"Well then, stop crying." she said as she turned back towards the girls brother, "any questions that you have we will answer. We have no hostilities against you or anyone else on this planet, our landing here was an accident."
"Well, I do have some questions." Yumi said as he hung his bow across his back and used his small knife to cut down branches in order to cover up the pod just incase the military did a search of the island.
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"Yes, this cave will be sufficient until we can get off this damn island! I hate islands," Kicho grumbled as she cleared out fallen leaves and other forms of detritus out of the smoke funnel at the back of the cave. This feature had obviously been man-made; a neat circular shaft carved into the rock and reaching out into the open on the mountainside. The air inside the cave suddenly became lighter as the hot smoke from the fire they had set flowed out of the cave thru the smoke funnel.
"Ok Kicho just let it go for now, there's not a lot we can do about our current situation at the moment." Taisa said for the tenth time already. She knew that the spark of hostility had left her companion's eyes but Kicho's temper was not something to be taken lightly, and that always ran higher if she had to do anything remotely like facing one of the few fears she tried to cover up. Salt water was one of them. The fact that she was practically trapped on a small island unnerved her, no matter where she went she could always smell the salty scent of the ocean. The only other living being that new of this fear was Taisa, and she knew that Kicho always did her best to hide it but whenever she was near the deep oceans her nerves were constantly frayed. "I know how you feel, trust me, but please just try to stay in control. Heh, you don't want these human kits to think that Felarans aren't the most fearless species in all the galaxy, do you?"
"Ppffft! Of course not! What do you think I am some stupid, spineless Kitsune?" Kicho spat back.
"Haha! Now whoever could have accused you of that?" Taisa laughed, more than a little relieved than the tension behind her friend's eyes had lifted.
"What's so funny?" Yumi's voice echoed loudly from the entrance of the cave, immediately after, he walked calmly into the main chamber of the cave carrying behind him the game bird he had caught back at his village's farm. He threw the bird at Kicho who caught it effortlessly and with a glare, turned to prepare it for cooking over the fire.
"You said you would answer my question, I want those answers now," he all but demanded. Kicho span round and aimed an almost deadly glare at the boy but her inevitable refusal to tell him anything was silenced at she herself received a glare from Taisa.
"Very well, Kicho, you sort out that bird, don't worry about it. Please, just trust me."
"I do trust you," Kicho said as she turned back to the bird, "I'm just not sure about HIM!" she grumbled to herself as she angrily yanked out a handful of feathers.
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(no offence to any Kitsune lovers….the Felarans are basically cats and the Kitsunes are a race of Foxes, the two don't get on…get it?)