Spirit's Journey

CHAPTER 15- Spirit: New Addition

We walked the rest of the day and then stretched out under the stars on one large nest, everyone touching pelts as they slept.

Surprisingly, I fell asleep almost instantly and slipped into a deep, yet disturbed sleep.

Yes, that night I had another dream.

The first thing my eyes registered as I blinked them open to see this new world was the blinding Great Paw on the light, tall grass.

It was everywhere, like before- Stretching around me as far as I could see, up to the top of my legs and brushing against my pelt. Everything was lit up with a light yellow color, it seemed.

This time I was able to look around me and see if I was alone, and nervously realized that like last time, I wasn't. The large black cheetah sat idly grooming himself a few dozen paw-steps away.

Staring proved not to make him react to me in any way, and I tried to break into a run and escape this confusing dream, but my legs did not move, and my attention was soon drawn away from that struggle anyways.

A light breeze picked up, tugging on my whiskers and causing me to look up suddenly.

A few faint, blurry and hard-to-see outlines appeared out of the distance, sprinting.

Gaining speed quickly, I realized that two of them on the right were my sisters, and they were accompanied by three cats and one dog.

Before my panic could arise, they'd reached me and the black cheetah. I blinked in disbelief as the dog and strange cats appeared in front of my muzzle.

How did they move that fast? This had to be a dream.

Naturally I tried to hiss or growl, but nothing came out, and they all stood in a line in front of me clear as day, tired-looking from that unbelievable distance they'd came in just a few seconds.

My sisters sat and began grooming themselves, Fallan panting heavily between licks and eventually just laying down in the grass, not far from the black cheetah and two small cats.

I turned my attention towards the dog right after, and realized how strange it looked compared to wolves. It's snout was thicker than a wolf's, with deep brown eyes and a lolling tongue. The brown dog's fur was short and brown. Suddenly the Great Paw's strong light caught it's grin, glinting on the sharp fangs.

There was a similarity, though. And that's probably why I was still nervous. Of course, mother had told me about dogs but I'd only seen very few, and they were never friendly.

The dog seemed happy, his ears flicked back excitedly. There was white around his muzzle, as I realized it was a male with long legs and floppy ears.

"Shadow..." A light, airy voice carried on the wind. I cocked my ears, wondering whether I could tell if that were a she or male cat.

All that greeted me was confusion. Why was this dog here with the three cats and my sisters? What were these other animals doing here, and with me, no less?

Hannah and Fallan laid down several paw steps away, having a conversation. Looking back behind me, I realized the black cheetah was gone now, but his scent lingered still. He must have slipped away while I was studying Shadow.

Midnight and last of all, another human-cat, were sitting down farthest than those I could see. The tall grass hid their figures a bit so I squinted to make them out.

Next to her was an orange tabby-and white male cat with bright yellow eyes that matched the tall grass. They seemed to pause their talking and purr, and then leaned forward to nuzzle each other quickly.