2. H O L Y W A R : Peacekeepers

CHAPTER II

"Hey! Wake up, DK! Wake up!"

D'kala let out an annoyed groan and waved away Kia's hands. "What? What is it?" he mumbled.

"We're here, you idiot!" Kia yelled in D'kala's hypersensitive ear. "We've landed in Safe Haven!"

D'kala opened his eyes slowly, momentarily blinded by the sunlight streaming through the windows.

"C'mon, kids, I ain't got all day!"

D'kala rose from his seat quickly at the sound of Snake's annoyed voice coming from outside the plane. "What time is it?" he asked Kia.

"By Standard Time or Pacific?" Kia asked in reply.

"Pacific...?"

"Seven A.M.," Kia answered. "I'm surprised we even fell asleep on the plane, considering it was nine in the morning by our usual time." She grabbed D'kala's hand and began dragging him down the aisle. "Come on! The welcome wagon's waitin' for us!"

"Hold on! Let me get my bags!" D'kala protested.

Unable to restrain her impatience, Kia spun around and dragged D'kala's luggage out of the overhead container, causing it to fall into his arms.

D'kala caught the bags with a grunt. "Thank you," he forced out before dropping them to the ground and taking them by the handles. He hurried after Kia, who had already sprinted out onto the boarding ramp.

Kia had frozen in place at the ramp, staring (and grinning) in awe at what was waiting for them outside the plane.

As D'kala stumbled over to her side, the first thing he noticed was the brisk chill that swept over him as he exited the plane. It was 10 degrees Celsius at most—a temperature far lower than anything he'd ever experienced. Then he followed Kia's gaze... and his eyes widened. "Oh..."

"SURPRISE!" called the assorted group of animals/Shifters/chimeras/who-knows-what-else before breaking out into applause and cheers.

Kia put her hands over her heart. "Aw, thanks, you guys! Although, it's not much of a surprise, since I saw you out the window..."

D'kala shook his head in disbelief as Kia rambled on about how happy she was to be there. "This is incredible," he whispered.

One of the creatures, a slim-but-massive cheetah the size of at least two cheetahs, padded forward and sat on his haunches before the newcomers. "D'kala N'chaba and Kia Sosoto?" he asked in a refined-yet-casual accent.

"That's us!" Kia confirmed, gesturing to herself with a thumb.

"Excellent." The cheetah bowed his head and said, "I am Zechariah, Vice Principal of Zoo Phoenix Academy. Allow me to be the first to officially welcome you to Safe Haven."

"Thank you, Mr. Zechariah," D'kala replied, humbly dipping his head as well. "We're honoured to be here."

"It's an honour to have you." Zechariah smiled and gestured to one of the others standing there with his prehensile tail. "This is Carrie, our creature studies teacher and animal controller. She tends to the non-sentient members of our society and educates the youth on the species within the haven."

The tall, lizard-like humanoid spat off to the side and leaned forward, one hand on her hip and the other extended to either Kia or D'kala (they couldn't tell; it was kind of in the middle). "Pleasure to meetchya both," she drawled with a sharp-toothed grin.

"You gotta show me how to do that," Kia stated in reference to the travel distance of the saliva Carrie had just launched, shaking her hand with gusto.