Welcome To Terra

Ch.7 Leader

"This place is absolutely gorgeous." Ash exclaimed as she jumped off Miko's shell.

It was now their seventh day on Terra. They had just come to a waterfall. Above them a cliff hung miles above them. Dean looked up with a hand blocking the sun from his eyes. "We won't be able to climb that." Others agreed.

"Then I guess we stay here for the time being." Leumas stated. "Ally can send Petal and Saline out to scout, and I'll send Flik." Ally nodded and then proceeded to follow what was asked.

Some people had already dismounted and were now stretching out. They had skipped lunch that day because they spotted the waterfall.

"Grant if you could take Squishy and Croaker to catch some fish that would be great." Leumas said.

Grant nodded. "Of course, Leader." Grant bowed his head. This has been happening a lot the last two days. People stopped calling him by his name and just referred to him as Leader now. Dean was called Second. While James was called Third.

He didn't like it at first but it started to grow on him. "Shade are they still following us?" Leumas asked. The wolf nodded. He then sighed. "I was hoping they would come and try make contact by now."

"And that we are." Called an unfamiliar voice from above.

Shade growled as it looked upwards. Next to him the centipede, now called Shred. Quickly encircled those he knew his Master cared for. People all over froze on the spot. And some even took battle stances.

"Stand down and put away your weapons. It seem our followers have finally caught up to us." Leumas said to his group. "Come on out then."

Two figures dropped down from the tree, a woman and a man. "Oh my God." Squealed Ash. "Cat people."

The man scowled at this. "We prefer to be called Beastkin."

Ash immediately covered her mouth. "I'm sorry." She got out.

"Sorry about my cousin." Leumas stepped out from being Shred and Shade. "My name is Leumas. I am the Leader of this Party. Might I ask your names?"

Many other just stood still and watched the encounter with curious gazes.

"Of course meow." The cat girl bowed. "I'm Mia. And this is my big brother Artimis."

"Mia I can introduce myself." He said exasperatedly placing a hand on the cat girl's head. "I am the Chief of my group. I am Artimis." He stated.
"Firstly I would like to thank you for the meals you've been leaving for us." He then bowed as well.

Leumas just smiled. "It's nothing, we had the means and extra food it was better to try and give it to you guys than waste it." He then stepped forward and outstretched his hand. "It's nice to finally meet you Artimis."

Artimis looked at his hand then took it shaking it twice then letting it go. "Indeed it's a pleasure. Are you also new to this world?"

Leumas looked over his group. Some had gone back to what they were doing. Others were still on guard. "We are. We came from an over populated world. What about you?."

The cat man's eyes widened slightly "Over populated you say, interesting. And no, we are war refugees given a second chance."

"War, really?" Dean asked.

Mia nodded slowly with a frown. "Our clan was decimated. We don't know if others got away or not." A tear slipped down her cheek. She quickly wiped it away.

"Ash, can you get our guests some water and some food." Leumas asked.

"Of course Leader." And she went off dragging James with her to help.

"I'll let you spare us the details, it must be hard to think about. So let's move onto why you've come to meet with us finally."

Artimis nodded his head. "Indeed let's."

"First of all, you're all welcome to join us, but it's conditional." Leumas stated as he leaned against Shred who had came up behind him and raised his head to be at shoulder level next o him.

"I assumed as much, but I would like to say we will not work for you." Artimis said standing firm.

"Oh don't misunderstand. I would never make you work for us." He raised his hands up. "It's nothing like that. I was going to say work with us. And maybe travel with us. You know instead of following from behind. You see we've been taking it slow, in hopes you guys would catch up to us."

"Really?" Mia asked. "You don't want us to work for you?"

Shaking his head Leumas just smiled. "Nope. I think it would be good to have more people.....hmmm" Leumas stopped his sentence. "Umm your not exactly people are you?"

Artimis smirked. "I assume you refer to yourselves as people. As a race we call ourselves the Beastkin. We actually look like you when we're first born but after our tenth year our beast features come in."

"That's so cool." Said Ash as her and James returned. "Here" she said handing over food and a drink to Mia, while James handed some over to Artimis. His eyes glued to the Beastkin in front of him as he stepped away to stand on the other side of Shred.

"Many thanks..."he paused waiting for a name.

"James." James said with a smile.

"Sorry, back to the point." Leumas cut in, looking at James then back to the two cat beastkin in front of him. " We want you to work with us not for us. If possible I was hoping for cohabitation between our races."

Artimis looked to his sister and the two shared a look. "If I'm being honest we were hoping for that too. We've seen you fight and to be honest we don't have many warriors in our party. The war and all." He stated.

"Thats why you've been following us isn't it? We've been clearing the monster out of our areas." Dean realize and voiced his thoughts.

Nodding Artimis spoke. "Thats exactly it. I can only do so much. We've already lost four of our Beastkin and I don't think I could handle loosing any more."

"Then it's settled." Leumas pushed up off Shred and raised his voice. "You, and the other Beastkin with you will join us."

"Mia go and collect the others. It's time we all got to know one another." And she nodded her head then turned and ran off into the woods.

Leumas agreed then turned to look at those who were listening. "Everybody. Prepare we are going to have more numbers soon. Please prepare some food it seems our new friends haven't had it as well as we've had it."

Some people cheered, others smiled, while the rest quickly went to prepare to recieve their newcomers.