Hunted - ON HOLD

Hunted - Chapter Three

Sup guys! Here is the third chapter of Hunted. Please vote, comment, and enjoy! Also, I will follow through with anyone's request that I read their story, just ask!

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Chapter Three

     Angie woke up to birdcalls and monkey screeches. She groaned, putting her arms over her eyes, and turned over. She felt something rough and wet slide over her arm.

     “Ewwwww!!!” she squeaked as her eyes flew open to see a tiger gazing at her in amusement (the tiger was Keeto by the way). Gasping, she tried to get up, but she had gotten so tangled up blankets that she couldn't even sit up. A look of terrified shock crossed her face for a brief moment, then disappeared. Memories of last night flooded back. She then stopped trying to get up and visibly relaxed, blushing sheepishly.

     “Oh, sorry Keeto. I forgot where I was.”

     “That's alright Angie. I had to get you up though. We need to move.” Keeto replied apologetically.

     “Ok, but next time, could you please wake me up by talking to me instead of licking me? Since I am used to voices, I won't be so shocked into wakefulness,” She paused for a second, then asked, “Why do we have to move?”

     Angie turned when she heard Kogee speak from behind her, “We need to move because it's not safe to stay in one spot for too long. The poachers can track very well.” He was standing at the edge of the clearing.

     “I see,” Angie said as she struggled to get free of her blankets. She finally succeeded in doing so and stuffed them into her sack. She gave a cheerful smile at Keeto, who was still lying down, and at Kogee, “Okey dokey. I'm all set, lets go.”

     “Right, first stop, our home.” Keeto said as she stood.

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     It had been several hours since she and the two tigers had started walking to the tigers' home. Just thinking about getting to see where a tiger actually lived gave her the tingles. Would it be a cave? Or would it be the ruins of an ancient temple?

     “Hey Keeto, Where do you live?” Angie asked.

     “We want it to be a surprise. It's not too far from here, so you won't have to wait very long,” Keeto replied.

     “Ok,” Angie sighed. Her legs were starting to hurt from walking at their brisk pace.

     Half an hour later, Kogee and Keeto stopped. Kogee turned to her, “We're going to have to go single file now. You're also going to have to crawl. A tunnel is the only safe(?) way into our home,” he explained.

     “That's fine. Um, are there any snakes or bugs?” Angie asked uncertainly.

     “I can't say for sure, but since you are going to be behind one of us, you wont have to worry about anything.”

     “Alright.”

     Kogee walked forward and seemed to disappear into the ground. Angie walked tentatively forward and saw the hole. It was hidden so that you had to be right next to it to even notice it. She gulped, noticing how dark it was. She got onto her hands and knees, and crawled into the hole. She had crawled about eight feet into the cave when she bumped into something hard and furry.

     “Ahhhhhh!” Angie recoiled very quickly and scrambled out of the tunnel as fast as she could. She emerged to face a surprised Keeto.

     “What's wro-” Keeto started to say, then got cut off by deep, throaty, booming laughter from the hole.

     “Ha ha! You should have seen the look on her face Keeto!” chuckled Kogee as he stuck his head out of the dark tunnel.

     Keeto shook her head with a sigh, “I apologize on my brother's behalf for his immature idiocy and for his scaring you.”

     Kogee glared at Keeto, “I am not an idiot!”

     Angie leaned over to Keeto and said in a loud whisper, “Did you notice he didn't protest that he wasn't immature?” Keeto laughed and both she and Angie glanced at Kogee, who was pouting.

     “I was just having a little fun,” he said with a hurt look on his face.

     “Its ok Kogee. Just please don't do it again.” said Angie, “Now lets go, I am so excited to see where you live.” She looked at Keeto for instruction.

     Keeto nodded her head at Kogee, “You go first, then Angie, then me.”

     All three entered the cave. It was so dark she couldn't see the hand she waved experimentally in front of her face. Every noise seemed too loud in comparison to the swallowing blackness of the tunnel. She began to feel slightly claustrophobic, beads of nervous sweat materialized on her forehead. Her palms were damp and trembling slightly.

     Kogee's voice suddenly called back to her, “The tunnel ends right up ahead, so watch your head.”

     “Good,” Angie felt herself relax. Strange, she thought, I didn’t know I was even tense.

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     When Angie stepped out of the tunnel, she stopped and gaped in awe. They had arrived in an old cavern with huge double doors at the far end of the cavern and carvings and pictures on the walls. The pictures were of people going about their daily lives, banquets, gods, kings, wars, and prophesies.  It looked like no one had been there for thousands of years. As Angie gazed about the room, she saw a scene where many men with guns were shooting and chasing fleeing tigers. In another picture there was a girl, who looked remarkably like her, flanked by two tigers. However, there were also dead tigers surrounding the threesome. The next drawing showed a huge man in shining clothes pointing at the girl. The large man had pictures coming out of his mouth, showing the girl with two tigers leading to the girl among many tigers and the hunters fleeing in the distance.

     Keeto came up to her, “We wanted to show you this, it was a prophecy made by the long dead native tribes who once lived here. The man who saw this prophecy in a vision said a young girl with the name of Angelica would save our kind from extinction.”

     “Uh, okay, what do I do?”

     “We were thinking that you could first observe the hunters to see what we would be dealing with and later go on from there,” Kogee suggested.

     “Okay, so spying first. Got it,” Angelica nodded her head in agreement, then yawned.

          “It’s getting late, we need to get to our home,” Keeto announced. She turned and padded toward the far side of the room, obviously expecting them to follow.

          Angie glanced at Kogee, he shrugged, and then they both started after Keeto.