A Helping Hand

Chapter 15 - The Meet

As the sun slowly emerges through the trees, life begins to wake up, morning doves singing their nostalgic music. Jason just sits there listening to them, taking in the feeling of the past. The warm sun reaches over the trees and hits the many eyes of the sleeping members of Jason's family, Kaya walks out of the tent first, giving Jason a peck on the cheek, "Good morning honey." she says as she sits next to him on the fallen tree, laying her head on his shoulder. "Good morning fluffy," Jason says back as he kisses her. Both enjoy the morning as everyone slowly gets up, each getting their own respective breakfast out, mom's homemade muffins, while eating, Jason reminisces a memory of eating muffins before school. He remembers the smile on his mother's face while taking them out of the oven.

Everyone has eaten and is fully awake. "We should go out and explore, I remember seeing a river near here, I looked at satellite images before he headed out, to see if there is anything interesting," Jason says, everyone nods in agreement as they all gather their thing for another hike, leaving things behind not needed as they will be returning to the camp later. Jason and Kaya take the lead, with Kotori behind them and the others behind him, having the two wolves in front to listen to anything ahead. The family continued their hike, going more and more north, getting noticeably cooler even though it was close to noon during Summer.

"How long do you think we have been walking for Jason?" His brother asks him. He checks his watch, noticing it's nearing three. "About four hours." He replies, "We shouldn't be far from the river." Kotori mentions. The group continued walking for another thirty minutes, and then Kaya and Kotori's ears flickered. "We are near the river!" Kotori announces, as the group continues until they reach the somewhat large river, likely the same one they swam in around Jason's first few hunts. Jason then spoke up, "Let's take a rest here and refill our bottles." He says as everyone dumps their bags and sits down, Mom and Dad scarfed down some water, Justin kneeling by the river and refilling his bottle same with Kotori. Kotori then talks with Justin, "I think this river goes down toward our den, size checks out, I remember Jason, Kaya, and I swimming in it during a hunt." He says as Justin looks back at him, "I'm sure it was cold, as it is now even during summer." He replies back. "It was cold, about the same as this water here." He says as he takes a big hit of the bottle before refilling the drunken water, right as he stands up, his ear flickers. "I hear talking across the river..."

Meanwhile

"We met up with the river, keep along it and we might run into a deer or two," Wesa says to the group, to which they all nod. He nods as they all continue forward, everyone periodically taking swigs of their water bags. Few stumble into berry bushes and collect them as others notify Wesa of the find, they all stop and help gather the berries, while others keep watch. They are having more luck in gathering food, as they stumble across a few rabbits, catching them and storing them with the others in separate bags, they continue their hunt. "Can we take a rest? I'm getting exhausted." A grey bobcat says as other felines join in on the complaints as Wesa makes a stop. "Fine, get to the river and rest there." He says as everyone else sighs in relief. He ventures west away from the river as he sees some bushes to pick berries from, unbeknownst to him, his comrades are about to contact another tribe. 

By the river

Kotori jolts up quickly at the voices. He hears something along the lines of, "...get to the river and rest there..." Kotori immediately stays cautious and steps back to warn the others. 

"We have company across the river, everyone," Kotori says as he points toward the treeline across the river. As he says that, a group of feline anthros emerge and spot the group. Jason steps up to introduce themselves. 

"Hello! Are you guys doing alright?" Jason says as he notices how skinny they are. Putting his thoughts aside at the fact there are other species of anthros in the world.

Wesa is caught off-guard, on one side, the hairless one is speaking their language, and on another, he is worried about their well-being, granted he and the others are on the thin side due to not eating enough. He is worried about their motives but also wants their help, and he is torn on what to do. After some thought, he finally makes a decision. "We are in desperate need of help, and as much as it worries me, I will take any help we can get, I am Wesa, leader of the Cherokee Tribe, We are in a deep famine up north and are in search of good game to feed our tribe," Wesa admits, taking the rest of his group by surprise, they nod in agreement and agree with him saying they are indeed desperate.

Jason understands their problem and wants to help. "My name is Jason and this is my family, I can explain further if you want to talk about it, I am willing to help if you allow me." He says as he stands on the edge of the river, Kaya stands next to him and holds his arm as she is nervous. "Come across, we can discuss it around the fire, I see you guys have some kills, we can help prepare it so your group may rest and gain strength," Jason says as he steps into the flowing river, being cautious to not fall and be swept away. As Wesa steps in, he accidentally slips and falls into the river, worrying both groups, Jason quickly jumps in and grabs his arm before he goes any further, pulling him across and onto land, catching both their breaths, Kaya rushes back to her bag and grabs a towel and hands it to Jason, and as an act of kindness, gives it to Wesa, who is again surprised at his act of kindness, takes it and began to dry off. After drying off, he and Jason help guide the rest of Wesa's group across the river and they begin to cook what they have caught over the fire. Most of the group including Wesa is thankful for the kind gesture to Jason and his family, even after his story on how he met Kaya and her tribe, the conflict with the three wolves who wanted him gone, to the introduction of his family to her's, Wesa is understanding on his situation and is still happy to have some help.

As they are eating their catches, and talking, three other felines in Wesa's group are not too keen on having outside and unknown people help them. The three of them want to drive the wolves and Jason out of their territory and have the Cherokee take over it all and survive...

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I'm back! Sorry for the unannounced hiatus, I had this chapter in the works for so long but lost motivation to write it, partially because I had no idea where to take it further but with the help of TheLazyAlpha, I have a better idea of where to take it. As it is chapter 15, I want to announce that the end is near, this story is concluding soon! (another announcement will be made at the end so you'll know when). College is resuming soon and will be busy, but I want to try and finish this story before the end of college (like May) if not, the end of summer. Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and I hope to see ya in the next one!