The Meteors

Chapter Eight - Dark Panther and Aldwyn

Thank you, Jaspcat360, for the idea!

I woke up and saw Dalton sleeping across the room. I quietly got out of bed and silently made my way out of the room to see wether the others have woken up yet.

I opened the bedroom door at the same time when Mary opened Paulina's bedroom door.

"Morning, Mary," I greeted her.

"Morning," she sighed. "Six more days. Six more days and the whole world is wiped out."

I nodded. "We better not waste time. Let's wake the others up."

Mary agreed and we proceed to wake the others. "Wake up!" we yelled together. We listened for a while and heard nothing. We both peeked in the bedrooms' doors. Both Paulina and Dalton were still asleep. I glanced at Mary and we both nodded.

We crept to stand beside each of the sibling's bed. "Wake up!" we yelled in unison, jolting both siblings awake. Dalton woke up like a wave of electricity just passed him and Paulina was no better. They immediately saw us and their faces turned from surprised to anger.

I took off running, knowing they would chase us. I glanced backward and saw Mary just inches behind me, and saw Dalton and Paulina both jumped out of bed.

We headed to the guest rooms downstairs. I somehow tripped on something while running full speed. I heard an "Ow!" and I myself yelled an "Ow!".

"Mark!" Mary yelled. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

I looked up and saw that I had tripped on Sandstorm. I gave her a smile, hoping not to anger her.

"Have you seen Dark Panther?" She asked anxiously.

I didn't expect that.

"What do you mean? He was with you last night, right?"

"Yeah, but I couldn't find him this morning. Oh, and Aldwyn, too. He's gone."

"What?" I was surprised.

"Maybe they're hunting or just exploring. It's a new place for them and Aldwyn's a wild cat. He's used to hunting," Dalton suggested.

"Yeah, maybe," Sandstorm replied, but I knew that Dalton hasn't convinced her.

"Let's wake the others up and have breakfast. I'm hungry!" Paulina said.

"Yeah, good idea."

We all headed to the guest rooms. I noticed that Sandstorm was still worried. She didn't talk at all and just looked blankly straight ahead. She must be hiding something.

Dalton's and Paulina's parents were already up. They were preparing breakfast in the kitchen. We woke everyone up and soon all ten people and a cat were sitting around the table eating breakfast.

Sandstorm kept glancing back and forth to the kitchen. I became slightly worried by her attitude. What if something was wrong? What if they had been kidnapped? No, who would even want to take two dirty-looking black cats?

"Sandstorm, what's wrong?" My Grandfather asked, jolting me out of my thoughts. He must have noticed too.

"Oh, nothing."

"And where are Dark Panther and Aldwyn?" Mary's father asked.

"I don't know. I couldn't find them this morning," Sandstorm admitted.

"What do you mean, you couldn't find them?" my mother asked, starting to panic.

"That's exactly what I meant. They're gone."

"Then we better search for them! Why didn't you tell us earlier?" the siblings' mother said.

"I'm sure they will be back soon. Maybe they're just going hunting," Dalton assured us.

Sandstorm shook her head. "No, I-I'm afraid they got kidnapped."

"What?" all of us shouted at once.

"I-I smelled a faint trace of a stranger's scent." She lifted her muzzle and sniffed the air. "No, strangers. There are about three of them."

"Why didn't you tell us before? We better start searching for them," Dalton said.

All of us nodded.

"Where did you cats slept yesterday?"

"In the kitchen. The scent led to the back door then I lost it. There are far too many flowers in the back garden."

We wasted no time. All of us were in the back garden in no time.

"You sure you can't smell anything?" Dalton asked.

Sandstorm openend her mouth to taste the air and shook her head.

"Nothing," she said sadly.

"Well, let's look for physical evidences, like footsteps or something like that," my grandfather suggested.

We began our search immediately. An hour later, we were gathered back in the kitchen with no luck. We've searched every inch of the garden and still found nothing.

Mary let out a sigh of frustration. "Where can they be?" she wondered aloud.

"Wait, Sandstorm, you should have seen the strangers. Where were you?" Mary's father asked.

"I... Uh... I went to Dalton's room," she stammered, then she added, "To see if I could sleep with him."

"You know that you wouldn't be able to open the door, right?" Dalton asked.

"Yeah. Maybe I could try to... knock with my head? Or... scratch the doors with my paws! Yeah, I could scratch the door and wake you up," she said rather uncertainly.

"And you know that scratching can damage the door, right? And I wouldn't be pleased to see that my door is badly damaged just because you want to sleep with me."

"I could scratch with my claws sheathed. That way, the door wouldn't be damaged."

"And why didn't I hear any scratching sound? You know my hearing isn't normal."

I looked at him quizzically. He noticed and quickly explained, "I have a gift of being able to hear small voices in my sleep, but when I'm awake, my hearing is normal. Yeah, I know it's strange."

"Then why didn't you wake up when we shouted at you this morning?" Mary piped up.

"I simply ignored it," he said nonchalantly. "Now, Sandstorm, why did I hear nothing last night?"

"I was going to see you when Mark ran into me," she replied.

"So, you're saying that you came to my room to see wether you could sleep with me or not at seven o'clock in the morning?" Dalton questioned suspisciously.

"Yeah, more or less." Her tail twitched nervously. "Anyway, I came back to the kitchen before I reached your room because I heard footsteps downstairs. They were gone when I came back. I followed the strangers' scents to the backyard but saw nothing."

Dalton narrowed his eyes, but said nothing. But we all knew what was in his mind: Sandstorm, you are lying.

Author's note: I'm really sorry I haven't updated in a long time. I really have no idea what to write. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I don't know when I will update again, but I promise I will update as soon as I can.

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Have a nice day!