Please note, I will no longer be updating this. I wrote this quite a few years ago, and it doesn't reflect my skills as a writer and is too deeply flawed to correct. I'm sorry for anyone who enjoyed this, but it's time to move on to newer, better th...
"Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation." ~Khalil Gibran, poet
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*Ahem*, Verity coughed, trying to get the attention of her sister. They had been traveling for an entire day now, and were far from their den. Towering pines loomed above their head, littering the ground with soft pine needles. A light drizzle softly fell on their heads, and the earth smelled fresh and clean. Birds sang a delightful melody in the trees above.
"What?" Purefia asked, very annoyed. She had always known Verity to be a talkative cat, but after they left the den, she had discovered this fully. Purefia had discovered that the "who can be the quietest for the longest" game didn't work early into their journey, and she was completely out of ideas to shut her up.
"Guess whaaaat," Verity crooned, leaning in close to her sister. She had an expectant look on her face.
"What?" Purefia sighed.
"We're on our own now!" Verity yelled. Right in Purefia's ear, no less. Purefia grimaced and covered her ear with her paw.
"Well duh," Purefia sighed. "You don't have to tell me. I have this wonderful thing called a brain, weird concept to imagine, I know," she gasped sarcastically.
"Well, yeah, but now we can practice our powers without almost getting caught like every other time we tried to practice them, and, yeah," Verity chattered, speaking as fast as hummingbird's heart beats.
Purefia scrunched up her face. "Whoa, slow down. I know that we can practice our powers," she said.
Verity let an excited squeal. In her excitement, she started to let off a soft golden glow. Purefia couldn't help but giggle at her comical sister.
Verity looked at her glowing fur. "Well, come on, you try!" she insisted. "Skyalen and Clawrex won't catch you this time!"
Purefia was determined to outdo her sister. She started at the ground and a small, delicate flower started to push out of the ground. It opened up it's soft blue petals. Purefia smiled, pleased with her work.
"No fair, how come you can do all this cool stuff and I can only glow?" Verity pouted. "Glowing is stupid..."
Purefia sighed. "Well maybe if you tried concentrating more, it would work. Concentration is key," she explained. Verity lowered her head and sulked. At least she was quiet. The two eventually came to a glade. Dewey grass embraced the sunlight from the opening in the trees. Swallows swooped overhead.
Purefia could make out small strings of conversation from the swallows. She had learned that most animals could communicate with each other. She came across an old raccoon a while back, who had explained that there was an unspoken rule that of you could speak with another animal, you could not kill it. If you came across and nonspeaking animal, it was fair game. She wondered why her parents hadn't told her this.
Verity lifted up her head. "Hey, I'm hungry, let's try hunting!" she proposed, jumping up and down. Her tail splattered water into Purefia's face, making her growl softly.
Purefia nodded. "Sure. We have to come up with a strategy, so how about y-"
"No! We should split up, we'll catch twice as much food!" Verity interrupted. She looked very annoyed.
Purefia closed her eyes and sighed. "That's a bad idea, we've only just left the den, and we have to stick together," she explained. When she opened her eyes, Verity was gone. "Verity? Verity? " she yelled. Purefia only had time to see Verity's golden tail swish behind a tree.
"Fine! This is a bad idea but whatever! I'll meet you here at sunhigh, you coonface!" she yelled into the sky. She angrily stomped off in the opposite direction of her sister.
~~○~~
Purefia padded softly through the pines. The rich birdsong had died down to sparse whistling. To her right was the edge of the pines, and beyond that was a forest of birches with tall, fluffy bushes.
Earlier, Purefia had pounced on a wood thrush, but it screamed at her to have mercy, so had grumbled an apology and released it. She got a few pecks on the head and that was that.
Purefia had spied a mouse nibbling at some roots, so she slunk behind a tree and started inching closer. When she was in range, she leaped and landed gracefully on it. She pinned it down.
"YOU'D BETTER NOT BE ABLE TO TALK. IF YOU CAN, SAY SOMETHING NOW AND LET ME STARVE," she yelled. The mouse blinked and shivered with fear. Purefia took this as a sign that it couldn't talk and swiftly snapped it's neck.
She picked the mouse up in her mouth and started following her scent trail pack to the glade. Suddenly, she head a rustling coming from a bush in the birches. The sun was setting at this point, so the light was coming from right behind the bush.
She lowered herself to the ground and started inching closer. "Who's there?" she yelled. She instantly regretted it, what if this creature was dangerous? She silently berated herself as she flattened herself to the ground.
All of a sudden, a figure leaped out of the bushes. The light obscured it's features so all she could see was a black figure. It looked like a large cat with a bushy tail, pointy ears and... wings? Two wings seemed to sprout from it's back as it stalked closer to Purefia. Purefia was frozen with fear.
Suddenly, the wings seemed to jump off of the creature's back. It was an enormous black bird, a raven. It swooped onto Purefia and slashed her with it's claws. Purefia could feel blood welling up under it's cold talons. "Get her, Mal!" the raven yelled in a high-pitched voice.
The cat-like creature pinned Purefia down. It was a fox, now that Purefia could see it better. It had a slash of dark fur under it's piercing yellow left eye. "We'll teach you, Claw scum!" Mal growled. Purefia felt her heart sink. This could be the end.
