Crimson is Our Favorite Color

The Summoning (3)

Slowly he leaned forward, fingers eager to touch the sleek coat. Yet hesitant, was his assumption was wrong? But the wild cat was also leaning forward, and unless he was reading the feline's face wrong, she was scared, or at least nervous. Tentatively the tips of his fingers brushed the fur on her head, and for one moment everything changed.

The exhaustion and fever was gone, replaced with a feeling of limitless power, and confidence. His eye sight seemed to sharpen, taking in the droplets of water from the waterfall, as if in slow motion, he scanned the river, there on the opposite bank, was a yellow stone. His mother's! He felt like he wanted to spring, to leap, to pounce. Never in his life had he experienced something so invigorating.

Then in a flash, as quick as it had come, it was gone. Yet he could still feel that last tendrils of power and strength residing in his body.

He looked into the wildcat's eyes, and a name formed in his mind... Wilco.

Wilco let out a roar that could have shaken a mountain. Birds took flight, and leaves fell to the ground. The grass seemed to ripple with the intensity of the sound. But somehow instead of filling Gransfen with fear, as it had during the fight with the bear, it filled him with a wild joy that sustained his entire body. Surprising even himself, he let out a roar of his own. He felt changed, new. No longer would he stand by and watch as the Crimson Raiders tear down everything his village had worked so hard to achieve.

He stood up, the tiredness that had engulfed him only minutes before, now only a faint echo. With one powerful leap he cleared the entire river and retrieved his mothers stone. Only then did he see what it had caught on. Even with his momentarily focused, cat-like eyesight Gransfen hadn't seen the corps, until too late. He screamed, all courage and bravery forgotten. It was almost completely submerged in mud, hence that lack of visibility, only a rotting hand was above the clotten dirt.

Gransfen backed away. But then with a twist in his stomach, he realized that, whoever this was ,might be his best chance at survival. He started to dig, Wilco hesitantly remaining a few paces back, as the mud was wet. After a few minutes he had dug the body out completely. It looked like it was not too old, and whoever this had been, had drowned. For the first time since entering this forest he felt lucky.

He removed the person's clothing and fastened it on himself, too desperate to be choosy about wearing a dead person's clothing. He gently pushed the body back into the river and watched as it gently floated down the stream.

The next few hours he spent with Wilco. Getting to know her, she was strong, protective, and stubborn. And when she was around it was as if he were whole for the first time in his life.

Hope you are having fun!