Spirit's Journey

CHAPTER 39- Midnight: Purple Night

"We're going to go for a walk or something, and I'll talk to him about it then," I advised Spirit under her weary gaze. Her blazing blue eyes were half-closed, and I could tell the cheetah was un-doubtedly tired.

"Get some sleep if you wish, it might be a while before we get back."

The blue-eyed cheetah blinked and opened her eyes more, straightening up.

"I'll just wait for you guys."

With a wave of my tail I turned and padded silently out of the barn and into the cool night air. I'd decided I was going to wait for him outside, since everyone in the barn was asleep besides Spirit and the two cats that lived there, who I guessed liked to sleep all during the daytime. It was well after dark now, and I wondered if my old friend was going to show up at all.

I almost knew that he wouldn't ditch me, though, but as the Great Spot climbed higher in the sky I reconsidered.

Sitting in the shadows of the barn, I looked around, curling my tail over my paws and breathing in the clean scents of the crisp, clear and cloudless night. It was quiet, a faint whisper of wind the only thing that could be heard, and I was then thankful that the human nests were a good ways away from our hideout.

There was a single tree farther off in the distance, the one Hannah and the others had taken refuge in when the dogs had showed. It could just barely be seen, outlined by the Great Spot's light.

I was reminded of the old barn I'd lived near then, and recalled how Aspen had been the only cat out of dozens to sympathize me. He'd used to bring me small mice that he'd caught as a kitten. Aspen, since he'd had no use for them, gladly offered and then returned back inside the barn to eat his soft-slop.

The only thing he had not done was stick around for very long while-so to make conversation, because his mother would not have approved and it likely would have gotten him in my world as an outsider, too.

But he had helped, and for that I would always thank him for.

"It's a nice night," I heard someone say and tensed, sliding out my claws and standing up.

But as Aspen appeared from the shadows, I sighed and sat back down, realizing I still wasn't completely used to hearing the tom's voice again.

"Is is," I meowed and looked up at him before he stepped into the shadows that were swallowing me. No doubt he'd have to have smelled me out; he would not have been able to see me in the shadows.

The tom's face and chest was more broad than mine, so I could tell he was almost grown, like myself. His calm yellow eyes were warm and welcoming as he came to sit beside me, the thing around his neck jingling a little as he sat. No doubt he was taller than me, and always would be. I felt small now, how I did around everyone I was ever with except Diamond.

"Sorry it took awhile, my owners lock it up and night and I had to squeeze out of a window," Aspen replied with a shy glance, leaning closer for a second then back away, swishing his tail as if he were slightly nervous.

Window? I thought, wondering what the word meant but not caring enough to ask. Who knew what kind of weird human thing that was; probably what humans used to come in and out of their nests.

"Shall we go for a walk?" He asked, and I got up, relieved. I'd begun to feel a bit awkward just sitting here, but I slowed almost to a stop as he went in the direction of the human houses.

"Why are we going over there?" I asked, bewildered. Wouldn't he want to take a walk in the hills, go rabbit-chasing or something?

"I'd like to show you my world," he meowed, and I looked back uncertainly. Spirit would definitely not approve.