Spirit's Journey

CHAPTER 33- Spirit: You Win, He Stays

What's taking her so long? I wondered once again, and nervously pawed at my squirrel, too on edge to eat.

Hannah still hadn't showed, even after everyone had started eating, and I couldn't swallow down the worry that had been building gradually in my throat.

What if she'd gotten caught by wolves? Or hurt herself hunting somehow? Or even ran off... I shook my pelt, dismissing the thought. Hannah wouldn't run off; I knew the she-cheetah wouldn't abandon us after we'd come so far.

Diamond had tried to follow Hannah's scent several time, and I practically had to hold her back by the tail to keep her from wandering into the leaves and getting lost.

"She'll be here soon," I wondered, and hoped it was true. I wanted to eat, but the nervousness in my stomach wouldn't hold anything down.

Sure, me and Hannah had been in a sort of brawl the past few days, not speaking to each other, but that didn't mean I'd abandoned her.

I was about to stand up and go look for the pretty cheetah when she appeared in between some trees at a distance, carrying prey in her jaws.

It wasn't until she was a couple tail-lengths away that I noticed there was another cheetah by her side, and I had to blink my eyes to make sure what I was seeing was really there.

A dark tan male cheetah with blotchy spots and a thick tail was approaching, close by Hannah's side. His amber eyes, like Fallan's, swept over everyone and landed on me. I wondered where she'd found this cat and why she was bringing him to me now.

"This is Blaze," she meowed when they approached; he was only slightly shorter than me and looked up with a toothy smile. His long, fluffy tail swept the ground.

"Hel-"

"Why is he here," I meowed to Hannah, slightly annoyed and wondering what could've been on her mind when she'd decided she wanted to invite this stranger here.

I absent-mindedly noticed Midnight approach and stand at my side. The tom acknowledged her with a quick, suprised glance.

"I hurt my leg while hunting," she meowed.

"He helped me, and caught the rabbit that escaped. He said it's for us," she meowed, seeming confident.

"So that gives you a right to bring him here?" I meowed, looking down at her head as it lowered slightly. She glanced sideways uncertainly, obviously less confident now at the thought of starting an argument in front of this tom.

"He wanted to meet everyone, and maybe join the pride."

"No," I meowed instantly. We had no need for any other members; there was already enough that I had to find from my dreams, of different species.

"Spirit," Midnight meowed, and I looked down at her in suprise. She beckoned to me with her tail, and we stepped off to the right.

"Hannah, you can eat. As for the tom, he can stand by until further notice."

Midnight sat down a few tail-lengths away, out of ear-shot of everyone. I noticed Fallan and Storm staring bewilderedly between me and Midnight, and Hannah and the stranger. Diamond had run over to Hannah, and I guessed she was introducing her to him now.

"I've seen him in one of my dreams," she meowed, and I perked my ears both with interest and confusion.

"But I don't remember him in any of mine..?" I said, wondering why the tom had never made an appearance.

"He was in the second one we shared, and I saw him alone under a tinted light. I'm not sure what it meant, or why you didn't see it, but I'm sure," she meowed, and I believed the kit because of her serious tone.