Spirit's Journey

CHAPTER 44- Spirit: Avenging Storm

Me and Midnight lifted our heads in alarm as scent markers filled our nostrils, the very ones of the tan female mountain cat from yesterday. Clearly the rabbit had crossed over into her territory, and Storm had pursued. Which meant he could be in trouble.

"We should hurry just in case," Midnight mewed, taking off at a faster pace. The scent of rabbit trail was followed by Storm's stronger, muskier scent.

As we padded faster over and around the endless rock, we came to an outcropping of it that would've blocked whatever was on the other side. Storm's scent, along with two other cat's, we're now very strong and as we stepped forward we could hear cats yowling and growling as if in combat.

Me and Midnight looked at each other for one moment, and jumped from atop a rock over the out-cropping. Midnight jumped first, with me close on her heels, balancing on the side of the ledge momentarily. I jumped down to see a small clearing enfold in front of me.

The outcropping had been part of a kind of round structure of rock, that was enfolding a small clearing. The clearing had no signs of life except for a small, dying bush on the far side of it and the three cats wrestling in the center.

Midnight didn't hesitate in stepping forward, but I held back for a moment to realize what was happening.

In front of me, Storm was being pinned on the ground by a tan mountain cat very similar to the female we'd seen from earlier, and even she was here too.

Except the female kept raking her claws along Storm's underbelly. As she drew back her claws, I could see that thick black fur was getting stuck in-between them.

Why weren't they letting Storm fight, instead of doing this? It puzzled me and made my hackles rise-What a wrong thing to do! The Sky-cat would punish them, right after me and Midnight saved Storm.

Midnight had already started attacking the female's tendons, raking her claws over her thick, tan legs. She stopped scratching Storm and backed up immediately, hissing just as much as Midnight snarled and spat.

I hurled forward, almost sickened at their process of making a cat pay for passing into their territory. Cats weren't ruthless like this- like dogs, or wolves. So why?

The she-cat looked nervous for a moment, and I saw her glance down at her claws for a split second before her gaze raised, full of anger.

She can't use her claws because they're full of fur, I thought. And if course she didn't have time to pluck it out before we were going to free and then avenge Storm.

"You'll pay for that," Midnight said, and I guessed briefly she was talking about what the cats had been doing to Storm because I hadn't seen the mountain-cat land a blow on her.

As I pounced, my claws met flesh and I landed two deeper scratches through thick-pelted tan fur, causing the male to become angry and turn around, hissing angrily.

Well, they seem hostile, I thought, but didn't have time to wonder what the big deal was if Storm had simply made a mistake of passing through their territory.

Storm was released as the tom spun around, and immediately jumped up to attack Mister Not-so-nice's hind-quarters.

I landed one more blow on the tom's head and backed out of reach as he tried to land a counter one.

Storm jumped on the male from behind, biting and scratching fiercely. Knowing he would be able to help himself, I turned to help Midnight, only to see a horrid sight from behind.

All I could see was the female mountain-cats back-side as she lifted a huge paw, the size of Storm's and twice the size of Midnight herself- full of Storm's fur- and the she-cat brought it down right on Midnight's head.