Riley & Spots ll book 1 - COMPLETED

Follow your Own Path

                              "RILEY?!!!!" Nora cried. She touched her nose the ground until she found my scent. Nora sprinted through the woods like a deer, until..."Gotcha!!!" she screamed. "GAHHHHH!!! NORA?! You scared me half to death!" I yelped. "You darted away like the speed of light?! What ya expect?" Nora told. She turned away from me and whispered trying to choke back a laugh "Also, it was hilarious." . I spinned around to meet her eyes. "Anyways, I NEED to start packing!!" My body was springing with excitement! My realization was so huge it felt like I was having a heart attack! 

                                 "Come on, come on!!! Night is gonna come soon!!" I pleaded and once again bounded off. "Ugh, not this again." Nora whined sprinting after me. 

                                           Back at Stream's den, Spots and Stream were eating (late) dinner. "So....what do you want for dinner?" Stream questioned Spots. "Maybe rilecoon." Spots replied. Right when he said that he noticed it was wrong. "Ahhh, I mean raccoon." he hesitated. Stream let out a long and loud sigh. 

                                     "Look..Spots, if you really care that much about her, you should go find her." Stream told him. "What do you mean? W-will you come with me?" Spots asked. Stream chuckled slightly and looking down at his body. "No, I'm already way to old to come explore anything else, but...I promise.." Stream said. "I'll always be with you." The two toms stared into each-others eyes. "Thank you, Stream." Spots pressed his nose to the old cat's side in gratitude.

                                 Later that afternoon, Spots was ready to go and stood with Stream at the edge where the plain and forest met. The sun was setting on the side of the plain when on the other side the forest was black with the moon slowly starting to rise. "Stream, I'd like to say I'm sorry..." Spots told the old tom. "What for kiddo?" he replied with confusion in his eyes.

                            "When Riley and I first came here, I doubted your kindness. I...didn't buy it..." Spots began to say. "But now, I see that you really are as kind as you seem and, I'm sorry.." He hung his head in regret. Stream didn't say anything so Spots continued. "I just can't get myself to trust anyone lately. I didn't even trust Riley herself when we first met, just until a couple days went by I started getting used to her." 

                             Stream looked at him and smiled to himself. "Spots, it's not your fault. I wouldn't even trust myself if I'd just met me. We all feel like we're strangers to each-other, but if we get to know each-other and see how amazing our abilities and disabilties of each-other are, we can change that. It's just how the world works." Stream replied. "And I'll miss you too."

                          Eventually,  the toms both said good-bye to each-other and Spots was left on his own in the woods. His mind hurt with all his thoughts whirling through his mind and his limbs could barely move anymore. Suddenly, something caught his eye. It was a burrow build at the bottom of a tree. He walked over to the burrow and sniffed around. He could smell it was once the home of a fox, just like him, but the fox never returned there for years.                                              

I'll just sleep here for the night. I'll keep moving in the morning. It won't hurt if I take a quick nap.

                                Spots thought to himself. He settled himself down on an old pile of nettle and                                                                  quickly fell fast in deep sleep. 

                                   

                                 Spots felt dizzy and fainted. He felt like he was sleeping, but he wasn't. All of a sudden a hiss noise ran through his head and he saw...a shadow and the same black hole mist. "Come to me...or I will destroy both of you." the shadow hissed. He tried to escape it, but he couldn't. Whenever he tried to the shadow striked his heart with a heavy dark feeling. Spots yelped at the terrible agony. "I-I'm not afraid of you." He said trying to defend himself. "Your feelings are weak. Your locking yourself up." the creature hissed. 

                                    "What do you- AHHH!" the shriek of pain interrupted Spots' sentence. Once the creature was about to finish him of, his memories about Riley and him striked through him like a dart giving him enough strength to give one bite. "This is for you, Riley." he whispered himself. Spots bite the shadow with the last of his strength. "gah...don't you think this is over.  Sooner or later, I will strike again." it fizzed. 

                                        Before anything else could happen, Spots fainted and awoke the sound of birds chirping and deer clip-clopping through the forest.  

                                                   He tried opening his eyes, but failed, so he just laid there, listening. He heard bears strolling to their den to begin their hibernation, raccoons tip-toeing by, squirrels racing around the woods to prepare for winter, and the wind rustling the leaves, twirling them like tiny tornadoes. Spots sighed at the graceful sounds of nature. 

                                   "Um..hello?" a voice questioned above him.  Spots immediately opened his eyes, looking flushed at a deer about his age above him. "Oh...sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you." the deer told flushing. "No,no..It's okay. I was gonna wake up anyways." he replied. "What's your name?", "My name is Jacob. Yours?" Jacob asked. "Spots?" The deer looked a bit puzzled. "Spots? That's a interesting name." he told. 

                        Spots flushed a bit more. "Or you could call me Lucas. Spots is more of a nickname." Spots (or "Lucas") replied. "No, no..I like Spots..it's cool." Jacob gave him a warm smile. Spots reflected the smile back. 

                           "All alone?" he asked. "No, I'm just going to visit Willow Waterfall? Wanna come?" Jacob invited. Spots memories came back of him asking Riley to come with him there. "Um...sure." he replied.

                         Jacob gave that same special smile and they wandered of together. "So, do you like to run?" Jacob asked. "Uh, DUH!!" Spots smirked. "Race ya!" Jacob yelled sprinting of. "Oh it is on!" Spots raced after him with all his strength. He got to admit Jacob was really quick, but not as quick as him. He zoomed past him running toward the waterfall. 

                             Jacob panted after him out of breath. "Your really fast," he panted. "Thanks, when you've been running away your whole life, you get used to it." Spots replied. "What do you mean?" Jacob lifted his head to face Spots. 

                      "Well, I guess..the truth is, my parents died 12 years ago, so,that gave me a ton of time by myself until I met a she-wolf." he explained feeling his heart sink a bit. "A she-wolf you say?" Jacob replied smirking. "Oh, stop!..she's just a friend." Spots was blushing so hard he felt like he would explode. 

                         "Hey Jacob!" a wolf that strangely looked sort of like Miniku interrupted. "H-hi Nora." he replied blushing trying to hide the embarrassment. "Nora and Jacob sitting in a tree-" Spots whispered to Jacob. "Oh shut up." Jacob shot him a look. Nora came over to the two and chatted a bit with Jacob.

                              "Cool. Anyways, who's your friend?" she asked him. "Nora meet Spots. Spots this is Nora.", "Wait, Spots?!" Nora exclaimed looking now into his eyes. "Uh...or Lucas, doesn't matter." Spots flushed thinking there might be a problem. Nora started to hesitate. "Do you perhaps know a wolf named Riley?" she questioned. Spots immediately came into focus of the topic. "Is she the she-wolf you were talking bout'?" Jacob asked. Spots stared into both of their eyes. "How do you know about her?! Where is she? Is she okay? Did she mention me?" Spots questioned immediately started to ask questions.

                                  Nora and Jacob started looking at each-other with a look Spots couldn't quite make out. "She just left to go somewhere." Nora told him. "No!" Spots whined. Nora tried to stop herself and cleared her throat. "Anyway, I don't exactly know where she's going, but I found a fresh trail of her paw prints all covered with her scent. I can go with you to find her." Nora said. "I will too." Jacob added. Spots felt relived. "Thanks you guys. That helps." Spots told them. "While your here, you can sleep at my den and we can all meet up tomorrow to go." Nora said.