Hi,
As promised, here is Shasta's picture
when he was a pup. I'll also be putting
in some Papiamento, Aruba's local language.
The words in Italic are the translations.
P.S. in my previous chapter, I made a mistake.
You supposed to say "koonookoo." Sorry!
Have fun reading!
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CHAPTER 8 ~ TAXI
It was warm! I was sweating immediately. The sun stood up high in the sky and blazed its heat upon the tiny island. There were a few puffy clouds in the sky-blue sky, but not enough to hide the sun. I stared at the immense sky, it stretched from horizon to horizon and was as bluer then my eyes used to be. It was the lightest blue I had ever seen. It looked so peaceful.
In front of Reina Beatrix Airport, was a drive-in with a special lane for taxi's. I looked around for the bright yellow cars, but saw none to my surprise. This was a weird airport. It had no taxi's. Where were the taxi's?
Zeb towed us to a car in the taxi lane. A man was waiting outside the car. I guessed it was a friend of his.
'Bon dia, senor. Bo kier un taxi? Hello sir. Would you like a taxi?' he asked us when he saw us coming.
'Si, danki. Yes, thank you.' Zeb answered him in the same language. It took him a while to make us believe that it really was a cab. In the mean-time, the guy loaded our bagage into the trunk and got into the driver's seat to wait for us. When Zeb had finally convinded us that it was a real taxi, we got into the back and Zeb got into the passenger seat.
'Where?' the man asked in English with a heavy accent.
'Marriot Hotel.' Zeb simply answered.
The car shot forward and the man drove through the tiny roads pretty quick, avoiding most stoplights. I stared out the window, marveling at the island's raw, but soft beauty. The trees looked wild and carressing at the same time with the way their leaves waved in the light breeze. I nudged Shasta, who was squeezed in the middle and pointed at the nature. He noticed it too now and stared with me. I noticed the trees stood pretty far apart.
'Zeb, why are the trees so far apart?' I asked him.
He shrugged and asked the driver who answered in his heavy-accented-English.
'The trees stand far from each other because we no have much water in ground here. Feet of tree grow very wide around tree. Feet meant to catch lot of awa ora awa ta yobe.'
Zeb translated the two words in the last sentence for us. 'Awa means water and ora awa ta yobe is when it rains.'
Then it was silent fopr a while, we passed the government and Zeb asked a question about the current politics. The man immediately answered him in his best English.
'Our parlamento is done hopi malo. We just finished voting for e partidonan about a luna ago. Pero the resultado isn't very good. You see, we had this grupo bieu that dominated in the government for ocho years, the MEP. Then this ano, the partido AVP a gana. But they promised a lot of cos and they aren't realizing them. So, a lot of hende changed their mind.'
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[A/N] Here is a small translation.
Parlamento = Government
Hopi Malo = Real Bad
Partidonan = Groups
Luna = Month
Pero = But
Resultado = Result
Grupo Bieu = Old Group
Ocho = Eight
Ano = Year
Partido = Group
A Gana = Won
Cos = Things/Stuff
Hende = People
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By then, he parked outside the Marriot Hotel lobby. We all got out, he fetched our bagage from the trunk and Zeb paid him. Then we walked insidethe hotel. We checked in at the front-desk. Two rooms were reserved for us! As we stepped into the elevator and headed up to the fifth floor. When we reached the fifth floor, we got out and walked to 2 facing rooms. Zeb explained.
'One room is for me. The other is for you. It is supposed to give you girls some privacy.'
'Wait,' Shasta interjected. 'Where do I sleep?'
'We sleep in the same room, Shasta. A girls room and a guys room. Don't worry, everybody has his own bed. But there are a few rules though, so listen carefully. Rule number 1: Never tell people what you are or where you live or where you work. Rule number 2: Always listen to me. Rule number 3: You are forced to sleep in your bed as your Kafshe. Ok, any questions about the rules?'
'What, in the Lord's name, is Kafshe supposed to mean?' Alexis asked him.
'I didn't tell you?' Zeb asked surprised. 'I thought I did. Anyway, your Kafshe is your tatoo animal. Any other questions?'
'How are we supposed to transform?' I asked.
'Simple,' he answered and pulled something out of his pocket. It were three pills. They looked like chocolate and delicious.
'You each take one of these,' he explained. 'They'll help the transformation process so it becomes less painful and quicker. You have to take them now, before you eat anything. Then you quickly have to shower and decide wich bed you want, because you transform as soon as the pill is taken in by your blood. Here you go.'
And with that he handed each one of us a pill. Now that I saw them up close, they all looked different. Mine was claw-like, Alexis' one was more like a puffy tail and Shasta's looked like a snowflake. I put in in my mouth and gulped it down my throat quickly when I tasted it. It tasted like raw meat and in this body, that smelled and tasted like poison.
Zeb nodded to us, a clear sign to go. But I still had one question.
'How long until the pill is taken up into our blood?' I asked Zeb.
He shrugged. 'About fifteen minutes.' he answered me nonchalantly.
Fifteen minutes only! I turned around and raced to open our door. It refused for I slid the card out to fast for it to be able to read it. Another 2 minutes passed until I had finally opened it. Shasta was already in the shower, I heard the water running. I threw the door open, dumped my bag on my bed and turned on the shower after I took my clothes off. The hot water streamed over my skin, relaxing me a it.
Then Alexis banged on the locked door. 'Hurry up! I want to shower too!' I turned the water off and grabbed a towel. After I dried myself, I put the towel around me, unlocked the door, walked outside and sat down on one of the two chairs. For some reason, I didn't dress. I wondered why as Alexis showered. When she appeared in the doorway again, I knew. If I changed, my clothes wuold fall off, so what's the reason in dressing if in less then five minutes my clothes will be too small for me.
Alexis sat down in the other chair and looked at me.
'Wich bed do you want?' she asked me.
'I don't care. The right one.'
'Fine, I'll take the left one.'
It was silent as together we waited. Alexis was first. I saw that she started shaking a few seconds before I did. The world blurred for a few minutes, but then everything became crystal-clear. I trotted to the right bed and jumped onto it lightly. The bed didn't make any sound as I nestled in for the night. I looked at Alexis and saw her curling up on the other bed, between the pillows like me.
I got up, jumped onto her bed without making a noise, hugged the small silver fox good-night carefully with my really big paw, jumped back onto y own bed and nestled in again. The pillows were soft, warm and fluffy. I felt tired and before I knew it, I drifted off into sleep.