Primatia

Chapter 6: The Lost Cub

"Oh my God! We have to save her!" Nicole exclaimed before rushing towards the animal.

"Nicole, wait! Don't go out on your own!" Derek said before running after her.

"Right behind ya!" said Galen, pulling out his faithful slingshot.

Sliding across the ground, Nicole reached the creature in distress and grabbed hold of it. Pulling with all her might, she freed it from the mud. Lying on her back and holding it up. "Gotcha!"

But then a Falconfly dived down with its lance-like limbs out to kill her and the creature. She rolled out of the way, and Derek ran in to swing and cut off the lower half of the abdomen. The wasp shrieked in pain as it flew around before falling and dying.

"We've gotta go, Nicole!" Derek held out his hand, and she grabbed it. He pulled her up as the eleven remaining Falconflies were about to attack. Before they could, Galen hit them with stones.

"Take that, buzz brains! Go sting someone you own size!" Galen exclaimed.

"Stop pissing them off and run!" Derek shouted as the two humans ran past Galen and into the forest.

"Galen out! Peace!" Galen said, jumping backwards into the bushes and following after his friends.

Derek and Nicole kept running until they were deep in the forest, far away from the Falconflies. Once they stopped, Derek let go of Nicole's hand, dropped his spear, and leaned forward to put his hands on his knees. He panted heavily for a moment as Nicole looked at him. "Dude, are you okay?"

"Yeah...Yeah..." Derek panted with wide eyes, trying to catch his breathing for a moment. "I'm just...I really hate wasps!"

"Wait..." Nicole stared at him for a moment before giggling and then laughing. "You're scared of wasps, aren't you? Dude, I've seen you kill, like, a ton of dangerous animals in this world, and you're telling me you're scared of a little wasp."

"Hey! I'm not scared!" Derek yelled at her with an embarrassed blush that covered most of his face. "I...I just don't like them, and there was nothing little about those things" he said, looking away and crossing his arms.

"Well, at least we saved this little fella," Nicole said with a smile as she took a look at the creature. This made her let out a high pitched scream that startled Derek and made him look at the animal, which turned out to be a cross between a cat and a pig.

At that moment, Galen arrived immediately after hearing Nicole's scream. "What's wrong? Are you stung? Quick, Derek!" He picked up Derek's spear off the ground and raised it up. "We'll have to amputate!"

Derek grabbed the spear and lifted it up. Pulling Sprig up with it before he let it go. "Chill, Galen. Everyone's fine," he said.

"He's right, nothing's wrong. But look, this animal looks exactly like my cat Athena from back home," Nicole said, taking out her phone and showing the two boys a photo of her cat. And the resemblance was strong to the black cat with white stripes along its torso and a white chest.

The animal meowed before purring.

"Huh. Now that I see it, they do look alike," Derek said, rubbing his chin.

"I love my cat more than anything in the world," Nicole said, putting her phone away. "She was irreplaceable. But now I found a replacement. Let's take her home with us!"