Spirit's Journey

CHAPTER 65- Spirit: Talk of Human Places

Me, Hannah and Fallan ran through the forest with the trees blurring around us. We had been doing this about ten minutes now, to try and see if I was still the fastest. Fallan was about a tail-length behind, puffing and kicking up dirt in a clumsy run. Secretly I knew she could be using less energy if she just lengthened her stride and let her paws skim over the grass, instead of pushing them down so hard.

"My legs are longer," Hannah growled. "I'm going to win this time!"

I laughed and then abruptly stopped as Hannah pulled ahead of me, her sleek tail flicking over my face.

No way I'm letting you win!

Hannah's pace faltered as I ran harder and bounded ahead of the lithe cheetah, zigzagging around trees and avoiding brambles. The Sky-cat appeared up ahead, a bright blue expanse dotted with clouds through the thickness of trees.

"Hey! We're gonna be out of the-" Fallan's mew was cut off abruptly as she slammed head-first into a tree, bouncing backwards head over tail. I couldn't help myself and started laughing, stopping all the way this time as a fresh breeze flowed though my whiskers.

Hannah's mrrowr of amusement rolled from deep in her belly just like mine, but she still slowed to make sure that Fallan was okay. Still not to be outdone, I ran the last few cat-lengths and bursted from the trees to see a steep valley rolling downwards.

Stones jutted from the ground as I viewed the landscape happily, still thinking about my victory.

"Yeah, she's still the fastest." Hannah walked up out of breath, letting an unstable Fallan lean on her shoulder. I felt a twinge of guilt for focusing on winning rather than Fallan's hilarious foot-fall.

"When we get to Cheetah Pride I'll outrun her," Hannah said sneakily as if I couldn't hear, then finally looked at the landscape.

"Woah! This is a steep hill," Hannah advised as I fought to catch my breath, too. Soon my breathing was back to normal and I turned questioningly to Hannah as she gasped.

"Spirit," the pretty light-colored cheetah whispered. I was taken aback by her sudden surprise and flicked an ear. It almost seemed as if she were scared or nervous of something, so obviously I was going to question her. It was probably something minor, like she had scraped her paw of Fallan had a bump on her head- it wouldn't have been surprising.

"What?" I gazed lazily at the ground sloping down before our paws, the hills dotted with Warm-Paws flowers that caught the light of the Great Paw and seemed to dazzle the grass to a lighter color. Thank the Sky-cat that things were beginning to really uncurl and open up to her light. The horizon was hazy, probably from the heat of day.

"Look over in the distance..."

"Like, very far."

Fallan's mew sounded scared too so I let my gaze flick up and squinted into the distance where a shortage of shrubs, bushes and grass seemed to falter. There was no more trees and the grass was un-natrually short, it seemed; even this far off something was odd about the way it didn't wave and grow tall around the flowery and pebbly areas.

And even more odd was that there was a long, thick line of yellowish stalks sticking from the ground that would clearly provide a rough walk for us. They were stiff and stout looking but short and unmistakable all the same. There the ground turned into a dark brown color and held no grass shoots at all around it; just dirt. What kind of plants were those? The fur lifted on my neck.

"Look at the black path, right there in front of you! It looks like a really small snake just between the sharp yellow grasses," Hannah hissed impatiently.