The Truth about Griffin

Chapter 8

    

I got back to where the others were hiding as quickly as possible. The smoke and smell followed me, and by the time I was back both Griffin and Sharifa were uneasily standing. I could feel myself shaking with fear and I curled up behind Griffin's leg.

"There you are C-A-T." Griffin reached down and rubbed my back soothingly. "What happen to you?"

"Me-row." My fur still stood on end but Griffin's gentle rubbing helped to calm me down.

"What is that smell?" Sharifa was leaning into Griffin slightly, which I thought was strange seeing how, just moments before, she had been shy about even undressing in front of him.

"It's the house." Griffin spoke in a grim monotone. "They're burning it."

"What?!?" Sharifa made a move to run back to the house, but I could tell that Griffin had wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "Let go of me. We need to stop them."

"It's no use. You'll just get yourself killed."

"But..." Sharifa stopped struggling.

A sad silence fell on our small group. Suddenly, Sharifa started crying. She slouched down agaisnt the tree and sobbed. The stinking smoke felt like it was enveloping us. I sneezed. The stench was unbearable. Griffin sat down next to Sharifa and wrapped his arm around her, and rubbed her arm.  I hopped up onto her lap, and buried my nose into her hair. Here we were a posse of outcasts, hiding away in the forest while our home and the little posestions we had were burned to the ground. Even stouthearted Griffin was scared; though he didn't show it with as much emotion as we did. I could feel the tenseness in his arms and the I could her the strain in his vioce every time he spoke. And what could we do? Nothing, but sit there and wait.

     The time wore on until even the smoke had grown fainter. As a glimmer of hope was just starting to grow in my heart, shouting sounded in the distance.

     "They must have searched for our remains." Griffin stood up again.

     "They must've been dissapointed." Shula began to stand but Griffin pushed her back down.

     "You stay here with C-A-T. I'll go check it out."

     Griffin snuck away. I startd to follow, but decided Sharifa would appreciate my company more. She stroke my head absentmindedly as we waited. The waiting was unbearble. At first we were both absolutely still, then Sharifa began to fidget. She untied the makeshift bandage from around her knee, dabbing away the left over blood. I began to pace. My tail twitched in agitation and I found myself wandering further and further away from our hiding place.

     Then Sharifa stood up. "Jack should've been back by now. She started to head of in the same direction as Griffin had earlier. "We better go check on him. Come on C-A-T."

     I didn't think that it was a good idea. "Mmrow." When she didn't stop, I rolled my eyes and followed behind.