Spirit's Journey

CHAPTER 14- Spirit- Long Night

"Fallan!"

The little cheetah had been out for hours now, and I dreaded the fact that it was nearing dawn.

Two hours and it would be daylight, and for a long time everyone had been up except Diamond, panicking and trying to wake up Fallan.

We'd tried everything. Water would not wake her, nudging her would not wake her, pushing her, yelling her name, even biting her would not wake the cheetah up.

She was breathing, actually snoring, as if asleep. But Fallan didn't sleep through everything.

I was incrediblly worried. When was she going to wake up?

What if the never woke up?

I couldn't bring myself to say that, no matter how long she stayed asleep.

I would just keep trying to wake the cheetah up, with Hannah and Midnight helping. Something had to work, and soon, before my nerves got more edgy.

"Was it my fault? Did I do something?" Midnight had asked the question over and over even when I replied "no," every single time. Actually, it'd started to get annoying so I sent her over to our nest to lay down.

Hannah, thankfully, was quiet. An hour away from dawn now, our heads both drooped as we slowly nudged Fallan with our paws. My eyes kept closing on me... But I couldn't go to sleep until Fallan was awake.

This was my fault, and I had to fix this problem.

"Fallan," I bent my head closer to the ground and closed my eyes. "If you can hear me... I'm sorry." My words seemed to have no effect, and I instantly felt misguided for thinking that it would work.

I laid down beside the cheetah but kept my eyes open, determined to stay awake. Hannah laid down on the other side of her and fell asleep after stretched a leg out for her head to rest on.

Reaching out a paw, I shook Fallan's shoulder roughly. If Hannah couldn't stay awake, I wouldn't be able to much longer.

"Please wake up," I whispered in her ear. She didn't move, so I sighed in defeat.

Poor Fallan... Maybe she was just really sick, and I hadn't noticed it. That could explain the random aggressiveness, couldn't it? Or maybe she'd been tired and that's why she hadn't really tried to hunt. The stress could've gotten to her from our earlier squabbles, and she must've been jealous of Midnight's attention from training. I felt my whiskers brush the ground in exhaustion as Sky began to lighten.

Suddenly a pay pushed up against my side. Fallan was stretching, her legs extended and her neck arched back.

She was awake!

I sucked in a breath of air, glad that she was okay, and got to my feet excitedly to looked down at her.

She seemed to be okay, with regular breathing and clear eyes that began blinking the fuzzy softness of sleep away.

By okay I also meant she didn't look insane like she had earlier.

Fallan pulled herself into a sitting position, her flanks bulging as she did. I felt the impulse to think that she'd caught plenty of prey in the forest and eaten it earlier, before her return.

"Fallan?" I spoke.

Licking her ruffled forehead, I helped her to her nest where Diamond had crawled to and laid right upon the middle.

Hannah was still passed out in the middle of the clearing, and hadn't budged even when I moved Fallan up and away from her. Upon being picked up, her tail wrapped tightly around her calico body in protest of the air moving around her.