Spirit's Journey

CHAPTER 4- Spirit: Safe Haven

We ran through the wide-spaced trees, our strength returning and senses alert again. A day's worth of traveling was all I'd asked for, and now all of us knew that we more than deserved something to eat.

It was still pelting down rain though; the Sky-cat's usual bright pelt had turned grey.

The trees opened up into a wide space as we neared the smell of food. Now that we were closer, I could smell not only mouse but rabbit and rat as well. The odd smell of other animals was still on the wind, and I wished it was farther off.

Hope burned in my chest until we climbed up a hill, only to see a small human nest and a large, red den that had an odd pointy top. It looks huge, I thought.

I quickly scanned for any signs of life, but there was none at the moment- What I suspected to be the human's living quarters was dark and all closed up. The red den had weak light spilling onto the ground around it where gaps and holes gaped; but from it came no smell of humans. My spotted pelt rippled uneasily across my shoulders.

Fur prickled at the thought of going in there, but it would be better than standing out here in the rain and rising wind. It was a good distance from the the human's nest and hopefully we could make it through the night without any of them showing up.

I could tell that nobody had been here for a while because of the stale scents that the wind carried. There was no light coming from their home, and no humans about, so that reassured me a lot more to the point where I wondered about going inside and thought more about the description my mother had given me of these things and situations.

I believe Mother-cat had called the large red wooden dens a 'barn.'

I couldn't think of anything else she'd told me about them except that they were an excellent source of mice and she'd never been in one.

The word sounded strange on my tongue... "Barn." As I spoke it aloud, Hannah laughed.

Fallan was the first to respond, as usual, and point out any possible dangers that might affect her getting prey.

"That's a barn? Mother-cat said other animal's live in it. What if the prey in there is already being hunted?"

I immediately recalled that and felt wary in an instant. Why had I not remembered Mother-cat saying that?

"What if there's wolves in there?!" Her eyes glowed in the darkness, larger now that she was scared. There was a distant rumble of thunder that lifted my back-fur uneasily.

I stepped forward and calmed Fallan down by pushing my flank up against her soaked side, and for once my anger had faded to be replaced by concern for her.

She was shivering, and I was worried. The rain lashed around our ears and eyes, tugging my whiskers this way and that as I yowled above the wind.

"There's not going to be wolves so close to humans."

I was almost sure of this, because I trusted my wild instincts and those of all other wild animals. No cheetah, or lion, bear, or wolf wasn't nervous around humans.

There could still be dangerous animals inside, but if they'd wanted to harm us, they would have heard us and done so already.

I didn't tell Fallan this, though. Feeling like I was taking a risk at wanting to escape the horrible lashing rain, I flattened my round ears.

"If there's a safe place to sleep, it's here. Wolves definitely wouldn't come so close to a barn. It'll be okay, and we'll search it for safety when we get in."

Hannah shot a glance at me and Fallan, squinting through the rain. Clearly she was weary of seeing wolves again too, now that it had been brought up. But I knew that all of these cats trusted me to keep them safe, and so we all took a few steps closer to the den as a group.