A Cheetah with Different Spots

Chapter 7: Return to the Hunting Grounds

The dying golden sunlight shown and glittered through the savanna. The sunset was gentle this time as the rains had finally cooled down the harsh rays. The nearby valleys and forests seemed to have become flush with life once again, as if the storm had given a lifesaving breath to them. What had become dry and dead, was now fresh and alive.

Cheetor stared out of his window, excitement overflowing from his being. He quickly swapped over to beast mode and ran down the halls of the Axalon. The storm had lasted for nearly a week. Meaning all members of the maximals had been cooped up inside for all that time. Everyone had been feeling the imprisonment, whether they knew it or not, so a breeze of relief was now flowing through the ship.

Cheetor felt the most excited, as he usually was. Not only just the get outside, but he, Dinobot and Tigatron were planning to try and hunt again. This time though, there would a fourth one of them. Over the passing of the storm, Rhinox had successfully coached Chicory through transformation. Of course, just because she had done it, didn't mean it was an easy process. Due to the unfamiliar sensation of switching to beast mode, the newly forged femme practically had to be calm down from a panic attack during her first few attempts. But eventually she worked through it. With a full function beast mode now at her disposal Chicory could now join them on the outside. It would probably be something that would comfort her, in weird morbid way, as it would be something that she would probably be an expert in rather than everyone else knowing what they were doing in the Axalon while she was lost.

Actually, Chicory had been doing much better in the last few days. She had started to come out of her room a little more often, and the others started engaging with her. Optimus usually tried to get her to help them with small tasks, (of course he didn't really need the help but trying to make her feel more useful and less helpless made everyone a bit better). Dinobot tried to teach her combat, much to everyone's protest (he claimed that predacons would attack again they all needed to be ready), but after she had tripped for the 17th time in the first two breems of the first lesson, the raptor agreed it was best she learned to walk first. Airazor, and himself had started to get her into movies and games; turns out the King Cheetah was a helpless romantic, loving anything that had a Disney label.

But not everything with the crew and her were going well. Rattrap still refused to have anything to do with her. And after a while his paranoia wasn't entirely unwarranted, as Chicory did say (one of the rare occasions that she spoke outside of a private conversation) that the rat former did look delicious in the middle of breakfast. Tigatron wasn't having much luck with her either. Chicory still behaved coldly towards him, and seemed to lightly glare at him whenever they were in the same room. Strangely, the glaring intensified whenever they were refueling.

Cheetor halted in front of the lab and swapped back over to bot mode. Other than himself, it was Rhinox that the femme had taken a liking too. Chicory would always stay quiet, but that didn't stop Rhinox from talking to her. Sure, the larger maximal wasn't always the conversationalist but this was a special case. Chicory, still retained the natural curiosity of a feline, even though she didn't always show it. Rhinox, had picked up on this, and just started to talk with her, finding that the femme was a good study. Keeping her mind busy kept her calm.

Cheetor walked inside and found, them (well mostly Rhinox) organizing a number of tools. Chicory was sitting on the nearby countertop, her optics tracking every movement of Rhinox's servos. Her ear flick over the sound of young maximal's pedesteps, and then her helm turned to look at him.

"Hey," Cheetor greeted.

"Hi," Chircory whispered.

"Evening Cheetor," Rhinox greeted, "What brings you over?"