Legacy (Book 1)

Chapter 17: Danger in Safety

Chapter 17: Danger in Safety

All day the cats trekked, hampered by Rainstone's slow pace and her rests that kept becoming longer and more frequent. Rainstone felt exhausted, her rounded belly mixing with her new limp made the journey almost intolerable.

At least there's no snow to slip on, she thought, trying to feel optimistic like the three littermates chatting just ahead of her. The hard gray snow was cold bare beneath her paws, Dusty said the snow just blew right off in the relentless up and down drafts that were constantly buffeting their fur.

Sun-high came and went, the last familiar mountain ridge disappeared behind them, unfamiliar and dangerous spiky points and sheer cliffs took its place. The thin, crumbly trail that was pressed against a stone face on one side, and a steep black drop on the other was all Rainstone could concentrate on.

Dusty padded just behind her, keeping one eye on the sky for any preying birds and one on Rainstone, watching her shambling steps with a sharp eye. Rainstone tried to ignore that, as well as the fact that one slip could leave her tumbling over the edge to her doom.

Just focus on one step after another, she told herself, keeping her eyes fixed on the ground right in front of her, her ears pricked for any sound of danger. But she could still feel the drop, watching, waiting, silently willing her to trip right into its waiting depths.

Rainstone fought of her exhaustion with her quiet concentration, releasing a sigh of relief as they at last padded out of the narrow passage and down onto a long-stretched valley filled with snow.

"Just past here is the final slope," Crystal mewed encouragingly. Rainstone looked up at the sky. The weak warmth of the sun had disappeared as the light fell behind the crags in front of them. The shadows lengthening and the last whispery strands of orange and red lay, fading, on the sky.

Rainstone pushed her exhaustion away, she'd make it past here and to safety tonight. All the cats picked up the pace, trotting smoothly across the large valley, everyone anxious to finish the journey and rest and eat.

But the sun had long left its last mark on the sky, the glittering stars and round moon appearing in the sky. The silver light soothed Rainstone, it almost felt like she was in one of her dreams, no looming mountains around her, just the crystal specked sky and the ground spreading away at her paws, keeping her stuck down to it.

The cats gave a final heave as they padded up over the last ridge, every cat was bone weary and the soft breeze ruffled their whiskers. The soft silver light on the snow gave Rainstone a tired, dreamy feeling. Dusty gave her sharp nudges every once in a while to keep her going, but by the time she'd half slipped and walked down the last, long, steep slope, she could hardly tell what they were in.

She got a hazy vision of an older silver she-cat with white splotches when they stopped, then she was nudged into a den full of warmth and fell asleep almost instantly. Not registering anything but the relief in her paws.

...

Rainstone jerked her head up as something thudded on the ground in front of her. The scent of mouse, muskier and plumper then in the mountains. She nodded a hasty thanks at Stretch as he left, her fur prickling at the reminder she couldn't take care of herself, then wolfed down the food.

She sat, stroking her whiskers clean with her working front paw, leaning sloppily on the other, trying to keep her balance square on it so that it wouldn't roll out.

She saw she was in an earthen den with a tangle of moss and lichen hanging as a curtain over the rock that surrounded the den. Several moss nests and the fresh scents told her this was the den every cat shared. The way the strong golden light slanted told her it must have been past sun-high.