71

Chapter 95

"Shhhh!" Coal startles me when he stops suddenly, and I run into him from behind.
"Wha-?" He makes rapid cut-it-out movements by holding his hand erect and parallel to the ground and making short, sharp movements across his throat. "Shhhhh-shhh-shhh!"
I cross my arms and wait for him to calm down. Once we had decided to head back to the group, we had realized that perhaps spinning around in the middle of the forest wasn't such a great idea, only 'cause now we don't know the way back.
Coal's ears are erect and perked forward, his tail still behind him, not a muscle in his body twitching, his eyes staring straight forward again while he waits patiently for something to happen in the complete silence. Suddenly, I'm reminded bizarrely of a hunting dog pointing out its prey, and have to resist the urge to giggle. I do not giggle. Ever.
After almost a minute of this, I get bored and begin to fidget. I wind my tail around in my fingers, smoothing out the short brown cat hairs. I play with my hair, twisting it and braiding and unbraiding it and finally tying it up in a loose bun.
I'm still bored, after all that, though, and Coal hasn't even blinked. I'm afraid his wolf instincts or something will take over if I make a noise and he might kill me, so I resist the urge to suddenly shout 'BOO!'.
For a few seconds, anyways.
"BOO!" I jump at him, waving my arms wildly like a complete psycho. It's hilarious.
"Ah!" He starts, turning with wide, scared eyes, and before he realizes it's just me being annoying, he looses his balance and falls over backwards.
"Haha, you fell over." I snort with dry sarcasm. He groans in exasperation, rolling over and sprawling face down on the ground.
"Funny." His voice comes out all muffled and stuffed up because of his face plant, so it sounds more like "Fubby."
"Yes, it is very fubby." I agree, and he rolls over to frown up at me.
"What are you talking about?" He rubs his chin, raising an eyebrow.
"Exactly," I stop suddenly, turning abruptly towards the sound.
"Exactly wha-"
"Shut up!" I kneel swiftly and clamp my hand over his mouth, heightened senses straining to pick up the sound again.
"Mmmhmmmmmammmhhhmmm!" He complains into my hand, but I glare at him and he falls silent.
Seconds pass, which turn to minutes. I wait, we wait, erect and silent as statues frozen in time, fearing for their lives. The wind gusts stronger than before, and more constant now, like a storm is building. The forest is strangely quiet, though, like it's holding it's breath. The calm before the storm.
"There!" I yelp, leaping up when I hear it again. A light clinking sound, like the glass and ceramic armor of the Servants. And now it's louder than ever, as the wind blows even more fiercely. I look up, shielding my eyes from the wind and blowing dirt. Dark clouds have begun to gather, gray outlining a small blue and white eye.
"Wait here, I'll go check it out," Coal is suddenly on his feet, and he pushes me back. Before I can protest, he forges through the vines and brush and is gone, and I'm left all along in the middle of the woods, in the eye of the gathering storm.
Safe.
Which is another word for extreme danger.