The last changer

4: I thought dogs were nice!

I waited about five minutes after Avia left before stripping down. I hung my clothes on the tree, constantly peeking over my shoulder at every sound. The only thing there was trees, birds, and Tar Tar with his back towards me. Geez, that cat was sort of creepy.

I stepped into the crevice, and yelped a little when the water touched me. It was ice cold. My breath stayed in my lungs, refusing to move.

I quickly washed all the dirt off my skin and the grease out of my hair, then briskly dried off and got dressed. I was shivering despite the warm sun.

To get warm faster, I started a little fire by the edge of the clearing. Tar Tar decided to come near to me and sit, but he always stayed a few feet away. Whenever I reached out to stroke his silky pelt, he ran away. "Well, good, because I didn't really want to pet you either!"

Within an hour, I was warm and bored, poking at the dying embers of the flame absently. My legs had fallen asleep, and my butt was numb from the ground, so I decided to clear out the fire and look for Avia.

I stomped it out, then started calling for her in the woods, with Tar Tar a few feet behind me. "Avia! Avy!"

No response.

"Can you scent her?" I asked Tar Tar.

He didn't respond either.

I followed the cat into the woods, occasionally needing to run to keep up with him. Every now and then, he would cast a weird chirping noise into the woods, and listen intently as it echoed on the trees. He was a strange animal, even for a cat. But he was very well kept, as well. His coat was really silky, and looked like a silver marbled tabby's. Whenever he cast his head back to peek at me, I could see a flicker of amber on his eyes, outlined with black.

Tar Tar stopped, listened intently, then turned sharply to the right. I shrugged, then followed the cat. He must know where Avia is, right?

He walked in the same direction, then climbed up a tree and perched on it's branch. He peeked his round head out of the leaves, and looked at me impatiently. Did he want me to go up there?

His tail twitched, waiting for me to do something. Should I follow him up the tree, or just wait?

I decided that climbing up a tree to satisfy a cat was stupid, so I sat down on a small rock. What on Earth was Tar Tar doing?

He waited in the tree for about ten minutes, then leaped down and began running into the woods. I got up quickly and started sprinting after him, weaving between trees and bushes.

He slowed down and entered a clearing. Avia was there, kneeling down next to a small fire with a stick in her hands. The stick went straight through a large, silver, steaming fish cooking over the embers.

She looked at me, then gave a small smile. As usual, she didn't have her shoes on.

I sat next to her by the fire. "Where'd you get that fish?! It's huge!"

"I caught it in the river. From the same water you bathed in. And now I'm gonna eat it." She mocked.

I didn't say anything. The scent of cooked meat and fish filled the trees, making my stomach growl.

"Wait, but how did you catch it? You don't have a fishing pole, or a net or anything."

She flipped the stick in her hands, revealing a cooked underside of the fish. "I have my ways."

Avia waited for the other side to cook, then pulled off a piece. She threw it up into the air, and Tar Tar caught it with his teeth.

She then pulled the fish in half, and offered the tail to me. It's spine was sticking out of the meat, but it looked pretty well cooked.