Spirit's Journey

CHAPTER 47- Spirit: Odd Prey

"I'll bet if we follow it we'll find it," said Storm with a determined glance at me and then the ground in front of us.

"Of course we'll find it; the question is whether we'll be able to catch it."

Midnight turned towards me with a flick of her tail, twitching her whiskers forward eagerly. I looked up at the Great Paw, shining it's highest on the Skycat's back. Puffs of white covered almost all of her up above, and shadows would cast and un-cast when they passed over the 'Paw.

We had time to give the trail a try, since everyone else would probably still be out hunting as well. The only one who had stayed to kitten-sit Diamond was Fallan, just this once because it'd been yesterday evening when prey was last caught. Everyone was hungry and Fallan practically wailed like a baby bird for food, even more-so than Diamond herself.

"I wish I knew what it was. The smell is so weird!" Aspen mewed, to which we all agreed.

"It smells like some of the creatures from the barn," commented Midnight, and Aspen nodded.

Storm had first picked up the scent almost as soon as we set out, planning to split into groups of two; that was, until we realized this might be the only sighting of prey we'd have all day.

With jaws parted, we followed the trail around and to the base of a mountain, where rocks were precariously strewn everywhere, along with a sheer drop down to where more stone sat. A small trickle of water came from one of the cracks along the wall, farther off.

Aspen bounded over to it quickly, to bend down and then lap up the precious drops of water. His small bell tinkled as he did.

Just as I thought it, Midnight spoke aloud:

"I wish Diamond was here for this. It's so hard to find clean water these days," she commented while sniffing the surface before taking a drink. I plaintively agreed in my mind, because usually the water we'd been drinking out of was from puddles on the ground left by rain and tasted stale or dirty.

"I can see it!" Aspen said excitedly, and way too loud as I lifted my head and caught sight of a white creature with stubby legs and two sticks poking out of its head. I couldn't pull my eyes away for a moment, because of the weirdness in the way it looked, as the creature bent it's head down to take a drink just a paw-full of cheetah-length's away.

"Aspen, not so loud! And we should all get down," Midnight exclaimed, clearly just as exited as Aspen was and more than ready to try and catch such a plump creature. I didn't blame her, because what luck we'd had! The thing was downwind, and also couldn't see us because we were behind stone.

"So how are we going to do this?" Storm said in a low voice, while I worked out a plan in my mind. The animal's scent trail was filling my nostrils, and I could already imagine the feeling of finally getting a few real mouthfuls of food.

"We need someone to scare it, right into our claws."

"Aspen can do that," Midnight said, and Storm opened his mouth to speak right after her, voicing my exact thoughts while my claws itched to just catch the creature.

"The rest of us can just take up positions right here, and as soon as it comes around the rocks, we can either jump down on it or it will run into our claws!" Midnight's tail waved enthusiastically. I twitched my whiskers in agreement, thinking of how we might all have the chance to have full bellies for once.

As Storm and I jumped on opposite sides of Midnight, on rocks higher up than her, I confirmed that there was no real way this plan could fail; unless the white thing turned and tried to fight Aspen back.

Making a circle around and going a wide girth like we'd told him, Aspen slunk silently around the rocks while keeping his bell tucked close to his neck. Once the tabby cat was behind the animal, he crouched.