Redstars Broken Trust

Chapter 7

Red blinked, temporarily blinded by the disorienting sunlight that beamed heavily down into her eyes. She shook the frost pricking at her skin, threatening to chill her to the bone, from her coat. Gaining consciousness gradually, she turned and nudged both of her sisters awake.

"Hmmmmmmmm..." Talon groaned the sound through a closed mouth and rolled onto her other side, eyes closed. Red flicked her tail impatiently and nudged her sister more roughly this time. Talon just let a faint sounding snore escape from her nose. Eyes still closed. Red growled and unsheathed her claws, prodding Talon with the sharpened tips in her flank. Still nothing. Red would've at least expected a retaliation. Nothing. She let out a rather dangerous, low-rumbling growl and jabbed Talon right in the gut with her set of unsheathed claws. Talon jerked sideways and jolted upward, slashing out and connecting with Red's nose. Red hitched her breath, stifling a yowl that desperately wanted to escape from her lips. Instead, she said in a sarcastic manner, "You sleep like a bear, but fight like a clawless mouse,"

Talon grunted at that remark, and met Red with her fluorescent yellow eyes.
"You should've saved that for a real fight, that was only a brief reaction."

Then she trailed off down the hill, her tail snaking over the ground as she went. Frost had sat and watched the entire time, speechless at that point. Red glared at her with a snakelike saturated yet piercing yellow eyes, warning her sister to keep her mouth shut. Frost obeyed, and looked down at her paws, making it obvious that she was pretending to have dirt on them, lifting one up at a time and washing them clean. Red stared down from the monolithic hill she perched on, over the Hilly, uneven horizon. She wanted to get on a move, find something instead of sitting here like cowards for the rest of their lives. She sniffed, a cold must've caught her. She wriggled her haunches, and still felt the same stealth and energy she'd had countless days before. Something out of the ordinary made her snap her head to the left, and she scanned below her to find a moving object. It was moving towards her. Towards her sisters. Towards their makeshift camp. In reaction and responsibility of protecting what was hers, she jolted to her paws and skidded down the steep slope, paws grazing the mixture of rock and sand. She pushed off with her still processing muscular legs while unsheathing her ample, thick coated needle-sharp hooked claws. She locked her gaze on her predator and saw it look up, terror filling its eyes as it stood, petrified. She plunged right into the animal, barreling well out of reach of the slope, her claws digging into her opponents flanks. They soared through the air in a free-for-all style, Red balled up against her squirming and flailing enemy. She estimated the time of their flight, guessing they could hit ground any moment, which was right. Just a few seconds later she felt her enemy jolt beneath her as it braced the fall, Red slamming against its body. She heard a screech of agonizing pain and lifted herself off the body to see a shecat withering on the ground. She was much smaller than Red and had a more fragile structure, which made Red guess that she lived in the moorland. She breathed in heavy breaths, which hitched as she watched the shecat still, the wailing stopping abruptly. She still breathed, and Reds shoulders sagged with relief. She took cautious steps forward, sniffing at the stranger. As Red was observing the cat, she heard footsteps drumming the ground, distant but gradually growing louder. Two shadows danced along a hillside and Frost and Talon appeared in sight, Talon racing ahead of Frost. She halted when she was next to Red, panting before speaking up.

"Are you okay? I came back up the hill and you weren't there, then I heard a wail, and I thought it was y-" she stopped when she turned her head, her eyes almost popping from her sockets. "What... Did you do?" it came out steady, the last word exaggerated. She stood, mesmerized, staring at the paralyzed shecat.