Spirit's Journey

CHAPTER 37- Spirit: The New Guy

"We'll be out of this forest soon. I can smell it," Fallan said over the wind.

"What can you smell?" I stifled a laugh, and Midnight didn't bother to hide hers.

"She can smell the wind and stone of the mountains," Midnight said with a huge outburst of laughter as we walked. I laughed with her openly this time.

Fallan, of course, took it personally though.

"That's mean!" She said, and slunk off to tell Hannah. I didn't bother looking back to see her angry glare.

Well, it had been funny. Fallan had come over to me asking if we could stop to hunt, then said we wouldn't have opportunities to get as much prey as we did here. And she was right, it wouldn't be much longer before we were out of this forest. What awaited us after, I didn't know-Just that mountains weren't far off. I just didn't want to stop the pursuing of Cheetah Pride right now.

"I smell mouse," Midnight said.

"If it's close, go ahead." The little black cat stalked over to a gorse bush on tiny silent paws, darted forward and re-appeared with a mouse hanging from her jaws.

"Good catch," I mewed, and she nodded a thanks. The wind brought a cold chill, and from behind I heard Diamond mew in distress. Probably because it was making her eyes water and buffeting her fur. Poor thing didn't have her grown-cat pelt yet. Though she was getting older and bigger, the fluff wouldn't provide any shelter from the cold until a few more weeks passed by.

"You're getting bigger," I mused as Midnight approached, holding the plump mouse by the tail.

"I think I was aware of that," she mumbled around the mouse with a smile, and I laughed.

I took a few big gulps of the air as we all padded through the tall trees, and closed my mouth as an odd smell hit my scent glands. I looked down at Midnight, but realized she wouldn't have smelled it because of the prey in her jaws.

So I opened my mouth again, and raised my tail. Everyone stopped, staring at me or looking around confusingly.

"What's going on?" Hannah asked, and Diamond meowed the same thing above the stir of the trees that the wind was causing.

It smelled a bit like cat, to be honest. But it was weird; it smelt like something else too...

"It smells like a cat as well as human scents," I heard Blaze say, and he came up behind me. I moved a few steps away imediantly, and stood silently, observing the forest around us, skimming every tree, leaf and bush.

Why did it feel like something was coming?

Midnight dropped her prey and came to stand with me, only dropped into a crouch to be ready if something attacked.

"There doesn't seem to be anything here, but-" My words were cut off as we heard paw-steps pounding on the forest floor. I stiffened and tensed my muscles, ready to face whatever was coming head on.

Hannah, Storm and Blaze were up by my shoulders in the same stance, with Diamond and Fallan behind us, by the time an orange-and-white tomcat appeared from behind the expanse of trees and skidded to a stop in front of us, panting.

All I could do was stare confusingly. Eventually, I looked sideways at everyone, and Storm and Hannah were looking at me the same way. Blaze shrugged and turned around to attend to Diamond, who had been bumping into everyone's hind paws, trying to see what all the suspense was about.

"Aspen!" Midnight yowled, and hurled herself forward.

What? I meant to say out loud, but was sort of shocked for her to be jumping on this random tomcat.