Spirit's Journey

CHAPTER 38- Spirit: Wait and See

"Humans," Hannah said with a spit, and raised her hackles.

"Which means trouble," advised Storm, to which we all nodded as we stared.

We had all come to a stop in front of an expanse of small, red-stoned nests, out of reach of any danger of being seen.

The 'mountains' were exactly how Chris had described; huge and white on top, and stretching as far as your eyes could see on both sides. I briefly wondered how we would ever get around such a huge expanse, if we couldn't even see the sides.

Did it even come to an end?

The nests had smoke coming out of them (I wondered why?) and many objects scattered about the grass near them, of which a few humans were sitting on.

All of it was so weird. And made my stomach churn. Thankfully, though, there was no black paths around, though I could see some of the beasts crouched on the dirt with small rocks.

I swallowed and ducked along with everyone else (except Chris) as a human appeared from it's home, carrying something shiny in it's paws over to an oddly-shaped black thing.

Night was falling already, as Midnight and me were both aware because we looked at each other then.

"Where do we sleep?" We both said at the same time, right as we heard a dog bark in the distance.

"And when and what do we get to eat?" Fallan said, as usual always the first to think about food. She looked away as nobody answered, probably dissapointed but no one cared.

I sat down then, ready to plot out what was going to happen with Midnight.

"Hold on," said Chris then, and me and Midnight were the only ones to turn and look at him, taking the tone of his voice seriosuly.

The tom's white muzzle was turned slightly upwards, his ears perked.

"What's going on?" Midnight asked and stepped torwards him, just as we heard the barking in the distance start up again.

"Dogs!" Hannah yowled and picked up Diamond in her mouth, kicking up dirt and racing away towards a lone tree closer to the human nests.

"Hannah, no!" I yelled after her, fearing that she would be seen by the humans and they would fetch a death-stick that my mother had spoken of.

"Run!" Fallan yelled back to us and I turned my head, fluffing my fur out in alarm as I realized everyone but me, Storm, Midnight and Chris had taken off.

"We can fight it off," Storm said, just as two dogs appeared in the distance, their loud barking and howls filling my ears.

I saw Chris opened his mouth and say something, but didn't hear as I scooped up Midnight in my mouth and ran.

Everything blurred around me, and it was too late that I realized I wasn't running towards the tree- I was running towards the open hills, where the dogs would catch me eventually (if they kept running).

The barking grew louder, and I didn't need to look back to realize one of them was advancing on me; I could feel the hot breath on my tail.

The creature let out an exited bark and jumped, causing itself to fall sideways onto the ground due to over-exitement.

"Stop!" Aspen yowled, and it was then I realized he was beside me, running and panting and looking very tired while-so.

His belly swung about, but I didn't have time to wonder how he could gorge himself on food that humans provided.

I slowed but didn't stop, wondering if this was a trap. But then, why wouldn't he have sped up instead of slowing down with me?

"They won't hurt you. Trust me," he said between pants and turned to face the dog with an arched back.