Spirit's Journey

CHAPTER 17- Spirit: Nightly Rain

By the time we'd arrived a light drizzle had began falling through the darkness of the cool night. Diamond, so ecstatic about this new thing, jumped off my back to play in the rain and squealed as drops hit her nose.

Hannah, stuck up her tail, scooped the kit up and began smoothing down the kit's wet fur, forbidding her to play.

As she tried to squirm away, she calmed down the kit by the offers of food.

"It's okay, honey. We're about to eat and go to bed."

She looked up at Hannah with a pouty face, clearly energized from her nap and not ready to eat and settle down for sleep.

Meanwhile, I had plopped down in a circle with everyone else around the prey, starving from preserving the food all day. Watching Diamond and all the energy she had, I was full of envy.

Luckily, it was a sizeable heap of prey that would feed everyone, so I told Midnight to pick her piece, and she grabbed her fish with her eyes lowered.

"Everyone else choose evenly," I meowed especially to Fallan, who I knew if I let her would have taken half the prey for herself to eat.

She stuck out her tongue, took a fish and the other mouse, and laid down to eat looking dissatisfied. I felt like it was rather fair for her to have two pieces instead of three.

Oh well; the cheetah needed to learn that if she pulled her weight more, she'd get more because there would be more to eat for everyone. She hadn't even caught a single thing all day, and I personally thought that a mouse and small fish suited her just fine.

Thank the Sky-cat she'd been acting like herself again, though. The other night's ordeal made me fur stand on end, a how Fallan's rage had consumed her and caused her to faint.

Me and Hannah split the rest of the prey, and both gave Diamond portions of our fish while I ponded if Fallan might ever explode on me again.

When the kitten leaned down to bite into it, she looked up with large eyes and red lips from the fish blood. Then the diamond cat tore into her food, eating ravenously.

Me and Hannah looked at each other and bit into our prey. So, Diamond had a special tooth for fish, huh?

By the time everyone was done eating, we were all pretty much soaked through with the rain, and I looked up at the Skycat's dark pelt, wishing it might cease.

"Everyone," I announced. "Spread out, just in this area, and look for bedding material! Me and Midnight are going to hunt for prey for in the morning."

The area had flat, mud-churned ground and was surrounded by trees that would provide shelter along the edges.

I decided me and Midnight might as well have another talk about what we were going to do tomorrow, and get some prey so everyone would be up and ready to eat then go. After all, we definitely needed to make up the distance we'd lost from fishing.

Midnight's purple eyes seemed to glow through the rain and darkness, standing out among the barely-visible trees behind her.

"Let's go," I mewed as Hannah and Fallan spread out to get bedding, Diamond close by Hannah's side.

"What have you been thinking?" I asked as I picked up the speed to a run in the forest, everything a dark blur around us.

Midnight was silent as we both darted between dark branches and undergrowth, scenting the air for prey as we went.

When I picked up the rabbit trail I'd smelled earlier, I came to a stop and the black kitten slowed with me, slightly panting.

"I think we shouldn't have gone this far," she meowed between pants, her skinny sides heaving from the run.