Spirit's Journey

CHAPTER 9- Midnight: Standing Up

I padded slowly through the forest, taking my time while trying to catch a whiff of any traces of prey.

Excitement surged through my paws as squirrel hit my nostrils, coming from the direction of the barn.

Hopefully I'll be able to catch it today, I thought. Me and that squirrel had been at it for almost a week now, and it always found some way to escape my grasp. Lucky for me, though, it came back to the same tree every morning.

My stomach growled loudly in distress as I stretched my legs into a run, thinking on asking one of the pet cats for something to eat, once again.

There wasn't very much hope there, since I was most often rejected and chased away. And since I didn't know how to hunt myself, it was hard to find something to eat.

Most days I fell asleep tired and hungry.

Only one of the kittens was kind enough to help me out with the rare gift of food- but I guessed he was still asleep this early in the morning.

I licked my lips as a small brown pelt came into view in the distance, moving around on the ground and searching for seeds. It was under the apple tree, a few yards from the barn.

I kept low, because I didn't want the animal to see me- as well as Princess, the owner's lovely little white pet.

Though the humans had been away for a while, she was still fat as a mouse in the middle of Warm-Paws.

My lip curled as I thought of her greedy gaze, keeping the whole barn to herself and her snooty little bunch of kittens.

Why did she even stay there? Sure, it was sheltered and all, but she could always go through the little flap of the house and stay inside there, where all of the pet food was.

It wasn't like she hunted any of the countless mice, rats and other rodents in the barn, anyways. The old man that owned the farm used to come out early every morning and feed her and her family a feast that was to die for:

Soft-slop.

It was high-priced cat food that I was pretty sure was delicious, or so I figured because she would so often plunge her nose into it like she was starving.

She wasn't. Though the farmer had been gone a couple days, nobody that stayed around that barn was hungry. If you took one look at her; fat body, short legs and well-groomed fur, you could see she was as pampered as a rose and far from being hungry.

Trust me... I was the one who was starving.

Not that I was complaining... Though looking back at my puny, ungroomed pelt and stringy legs, I felt more pitiful than ever.

Please let me catch this Skycat, I thought, knowing not to get my hopes up but remembering to always give the hunt my best effort.

I didn't know how to hunt. I mean, a basic mouse was even pretty much too challenging for me, and that was saying a lot... But perhaps that was because nobody had ever been there long enough to teach me. Not that I needed anybody's help.

Wiggling my haunches, I prepared to pounce. This was as close as I dared to get, because I really didn't want to lose this catch. I hadn't eaten anything yesterday and I was starving.

Pushing off with my hind legs, I sprang into the air. The squirrel had it's back to me, thankfully, but soon saw me coming at the sudden noise. Plus, my pounce had been way off.

I landed a few paw-steps away, angry at myself for miss-judging the distance.

"No!" I yowled as it turned-tail and ran up the tree. Great, Midnight. Now look what you've done, I growled to myself under my breath I'm disappointment.