Flame

Chapter Seventeen

“Dove?” Flame trotted into the clearing that had become the camp. “Dove? Oh, there you are.” Dove lay on her side, sunning herself. 

“What?”

“We need to keep moving. We can’t stay in the shadow of the Mountains. Newleaf is here, so I think we should keep moving.” Dove stood and shook off the leaves that covered her. 

“Lets go,”

Flame led the way into the forest, padding slowly so Dove could keep up. “Do you think we’ll every find a clan?” Dove asked.

“Of course. I wouldn’t have made you that promise otherwise.” 

After a while of walking, Dove spoke up.

“Listen to those birds. They sound so homely.”

“Mm, yes, I certainly prefer these birds instead of sea gulls!”

“Shh, look,” Dove gestured to an unsuspecting shrew that scuffled under a fallen maple leaf. She crept forward, her tail hovering over the ground. Haunches high, she inched her way to the maple leaf. The shrew popped up like a prairie dog, alerted to danger. Suddenly, Dove’s belly fur swished on the leaves and the shrew ran to safety. 

“Mousedung,” Dove spat. Flame was quick to console.

“Don’t worry about it, it was just a shrew. Your balance was perfect, though!”

“Yeah, but it got away, and that’s what counts,”

Flame felt waves of anger and frustration pulse from her pelt as they continued on. 

“That’s funny,” Flame commented.

“What?”

“Our experience in the Mountains. It all seems like a distant memory, a dream.”

“You are so right! The whole thing seems like we did it moons ago!”

Sunghigh was approaching, and Dove was beginning to tire. Flame suggested a stop, but Dove refused. Flame Trotted gaily ahead, waving his white tail mockingly. Dove smiled and slowly gave chase, always two tail-lengths away. Laughing, she pressed herself to go faster. Flame suddenly dropped from view. “That’s odd,” Dove breathed to herself. She cautiously slowed herself  as the ground dropped away in front of her. Peering over the edge, she saw Flame beckoning her. She lowered herself daintily into the miniature valley as Flame called, “Dove, come on! Lets follow this river! You always said you feel more comfortable following them!” Dove bent to get a drink from a pool centered in the middle, but Flame interrupted. “Oh, come on! You can do that any other time. Lets get moving before the sun sets!” Dove, to tired to argue, simply nodded and followed. The river’s two sides were completely different. One, the right side, was full of trees, bushes, and all other types of shrub; while the other had only grass and heather. Flame and Dove traveled on the latter. As the sun began to melt into the horizon, Flame noticed that Dove was beginning to falter. He spoke up. “Dove, we should stop for the night. It’ll be dark soon, and I don’t know what lives in this place, but I certainly don‘t want to meet them at night.”

“Okay,”

“How about over here?” Flame padded to a lone bush.

“It’ll do for tonight,” Dove dragged her tired limbs to the bush and lay down underneath it. Flame wrapped himself around her, making a tight, warm ball. The last thing Dove heard before she dropped off was the near sprinkling of rain.