Terra

(again thanks to kitty for her help)

My heart is pounding, but I know I can’t stop. I know where I need to go, but I can’t get there on the road, people would flip. I should know that, it’s happened before, and I was warned by Janice it would happen. Poor Janice, it’s my fault she’s dead. I saw it through the window, the woman with the black hair came looking for me and she was in the way. She knew where I was, she wouldn’t tell, she was protecting me. She died for it.

I can feel the tears in my eyes, but can’t let them stop me, I have to get away, get somewhere safe, and that means finding, and relying on two people who don’t even know I exist. I hope everything I heard about them is right. I start to move faster, the thudding of my feet on the ground growing louder. Please let it be right.

After what feels like hours of running, I reach the fence. It is where I knew it should be. I can also hear the animals I was warned about. How would I get past them, they would love to have me for lunch.

“Follow the fence.” I mutter, and try to listen, to figure out which way would lead me to the road, and I start to run again, and hope I am right.

The first thing I remember is faces. Two looked at me like I was nothing, though I know now who they were, I oddly can’t remember details of the man’s. I remember every detail of the face of the woman, since I saw her more. Then there was Janice’s face. I learned every detail of hers. She took care of me, feeding me, cleaning, and teaching me to speak. He didn’t like that, her teaching me. I heard him yelling about her once. That was the first time I really knew how different I was from the people who worked around me. I was furious, she was the only person who ever treated me kindly, and I had to listen to how he treated her. He really didn’t treat anyone but the black haired woman differently, but that was because she was dangerous, even I could see that much.

I don’t know how, but she won out, probably told him I’d be useless if I couldn’t even read a street sign, don’t think he knew she was teaching me more then the basics. She’d probably have been killed a long time before that if he had. I don’t know what happened, not really, but somehow someone found out where the lab was, and they broke in. She was there then, the woman, Janice told me after. I was young, but not too young to understand what she had told me. She was mom, for all intents and purposes, and I did love her. I bore nothing but hate for the man who created me, and the ones I was created from, well, I wasn’t sure what to think, but I knew none of what happened was their fault. I always chose to reserve my opinion, I never knew them, no more then their names anyway.

That doesn’t matter at that point anyway. Janice, when the lab was being destroyed grabbed me, and somehow snuck me out of there. I really don’t remember how she did it, there are some memories that are mist in my mind, and that is one of them. Not sure whether or not it matters, since it happened, and we both got out.

We ended up in a rundown apartment building in downtown Kaitown. It wasn’t much, but it was clean, and more importantly anonymous. Nobody knew who we were, and so long as we didn’t bother anyone, nobody cared. Janice raised me, though I grew so fast I don’t know how she managed to keep me in clothes, nonetheless pay for food and housing. She managed somehow, and when I reached this age, I stopped growing.

I went out to grab some ice cream, that was when I saw them. I turned, walking into a shop to watch them as they passed. Thankfully, they weren’t taking much notice of anything but each other, and never saw me. So that was how I knew they were out there, though after that I was much more careful about where I went and when. I wasn’t ready, and I knew they had no idea I was around.

Tonight everything changed. I had gone to a pizza place to get dinner, and when I came back, I was on the fire escape, ready to climb in through the window when I saw her. She had her back to me, thankfully, but I saw everything she did. Over and over she asked where I was, promising she’d go easy on her if she told, but she refused. After I saw her cut off Janice’s fingers, I couldn’t take anymore. I ran.

”So now I sit here, hoping you understand, hoping you don’t hate me for what I am.”

I sit silently in these lavish surroundings watching you. I have never been anywhere so rich, so beautiful, and I am feeling so overwhelmed. I am trying not to show how terrified I am, of you, of him, of everything.

“Do you have a name?” You ask, and I nod.

“Terra.” I whisper, my arms wrapping around me. I see his eyes on me, and knowing what he came from, it only serves to make me more nervous, more scared. I don’t want pushed away, I have nowhere else to go, and I really don’t want them to hate me.

“We believe you.” I hear you say, and I exhale, slumping into the seat. “We will do what we can to help Terra, none of it is your fault, after all he’s put us through, we know that much.”

I look up at you, and I can see you smiling gently. Janice was right, and I am thankful. But all I know is blackness as my exhaustion claims me.

I awaken the next morning to find clothes sitting on top of the dresser. I dress, and head downstairs. Following the sound of voices, I find the kitchen, and a clone in there. He sits with a Xev clone. I knew what she was, at least who she was cloned from.

“Umm…hi…” Standing in the doorway, my nervousness is obvious.

“Oh, hi there. You’re new, haven’t seen you before.” The Xev stood and walked over to me. “I’m HibiscusXev, that’s BladeKai.”

She pulled me to a chair. “Umm, I’m Terra. I just got here last night.”

Blade nodded, and stood. “I am the chef here, are you hungry? Perhaps I can make something for you.”

“Thanks, but I think if you have some fruit, or oatmeal, that’ll be enough for me.”

“Sure, there’s plenty of fruit in the pantry, and I can have some oatmeal made in a few.”

“Thank you.” I got up and went to get some of the fruit, choosing a couple apples before heading outside. I marveled at the size of the property the night before, when I was running along it, but it was even more amazing in the daylight.

I wasn’t alone long though, and the door opening, along with the familiar smell let me know who was there.

Arania stood behind Terra, watching her quietly for a long moment. “Good morning.” She said finally.

“Hi” Terra finished her apple, tossing the core into the fertilizer pile nearby.

“Think you’re up to going somewhere, I think you might want to meet someone. You would have a lot in common with her.”

"If you want me to, I am sure I can manage.” Terra smiled, and stood up. “Let’s go then.”

Arania drove in silence, the roads familiar, so her thoughts turned to the girl next to her. She wasn’t sure what to make of it, but one look at her and she had to believe her. She had his eyes and mostly his hair. Her coloring though, well, it was obvious who gave her that. There was no mistaking where her blue skin had come from.

She sighed softly to herself as she pulled into Kitty’s drive, parking the car.

“We’re here.” She got out and walked up to the porch, knocking on the door loudly, but not rudely.

“We’re out back.” She could hear someone calling from around the house, and she headed through the back fence, letting Terra through first, then following, making sure it was closed behind her.

Kitty sat on a picnic table with Fera, while Sim and Katya sat on the other side of the same table. The younger children were tussling and playing in a patch of grass right in front of them. Ari crossed over and stood leaning against a tree.

“Hi Kit…Fera..” Nodding to Sim and Katya before looking back to Kitty. “Meet our daughter, Terra.”

Kitty stared at her friend, then looked at Terra, and finally back to Arania again. "Huh?" The cat was more than slightly confused.

"Now there's a surprise you never see coming," Nosferatu added, and his wife, along with Katya, nodded in agreement.

“No kidding.” Ari answered with a slight smile and shrug. “I didn’t even know she was around till last night. She’s only a couple months old.”

This drew even more surprised stares, and looks at Terra. She blushed, looking at the ground. She was getting nervous, her foot digging at the ground and grass beneath her.

“She was…made….like the clones..” Ari nodded slightly at Fera and Sim, going to sit on the table with them. Nobody noticed the silent approach of a certain “Stealth Cat”. “She’s alive though. Part me, part Mus, part something else.”

Before anyone could ask what else, Kierlin had gotten up beside Terra. His sniffing had finally gotten her attention, and at the sight of the big cat, her eyes grew wide, and she shrieked, which trailed into a noise that grabbed everyone’s attention, including the non-humanoid residents of the ranch. The stallion Ziyadah heard it, and raced to the edge of his pen closest to the noise, ears back peering towards them.

Kitty and Ari both jumped up when they heard it, kitty grabbing for Kierlin, Ari going to Terra. She stood there, front legs in the air, hooves flashing in the light, her back ones struggling to keep her balance. Terra’s hands held the remains of the shorts she had been wearing.

“Terra…shh…it’s all right…Kierlin won’t hurt you.” Ari pulled her back down onto her legs gently. “Kierlin, you shouldn’t sneak up on people who don’t know you.”

Terra took some shaky breaths and settled, her haunches shining blue against her black fur. “Kierlin? He’s..huge..”

Kierlin was back by the tables, looking at the strange thing in front of him. He wasn’t sure if he should be offended or flattered by what she said. She was weird, she looked like a person, but like a horse too.

Ziyadah, seeing the cause of the noise, and what made her scream was just the cat, snorted, shaking his mane, almost rolling his eyes at them before turning his back and wandering back into his paddock.

“That was what I was about to tell you, she can shift, but like this, not completely. They added in horse DNA, or something. It was the Master….when he took me last time.”

Kitty nodded, and settled back onto the table with Fera.

“I figured she and Tigre might get along, and at the least she could show her the ropes.”

Terra settled into her bed that night still in shock, but no longer quite so scared. She had friends, and maybe a family now. Maybe things weren’t as bad as they could have been.