Spirit's Journey

CHAPTER 67- Midnight: Where It Gets Worse

Wind whipped my fur this way and that, screamingly loud as if the Sky-cat herself were wailing. It was hard to see the exact figures of the monsters in front of us but their lights cut through the darkness stronger than any beam I'd ever seen.

Spirit's eyes were wide, and beside her Storm looked grim. We were crouching behind a few shrubs beside the Death-path, which we had singled out for waiting on the constant stream of death-traps to slow down. Right now, it seemed as if there was one after the other. There were spaces in-between where one lone cat could easily cross, but we were trying to make it through as a group and get the terrifying scene over with all the faster.

The ground shook as they traveled by, whipping the wind even harder as two lines of their huge glinting metal bodies traveled in opposite ways.

My paws stung from standing all day- normally we would have made our rest stop for the night, or better yet, hunted. But Spirit was right in saying that making it across was the top priority right now.

I turned to Aspen and rubbed my cheek along his jaw, to which he returned the favor. His pelt was soaked and spiked, and we didn't try to speak over the howling rain. His warm yellow gaze offered me support without any words.

Thunder sounded overhead suddenly, much closer than before.

Was I making a mistake in advising Spirit to go along with crossing the death-path? Doubt caused a flash of heat to rush through my paws, despite all the wind and rain.

Raising my head, I couldn't see any stars but knew they were hidden behind the Skycat's mass of dark clouds. Rain immediantly flew into my eyes, making it impossible to see, so I looked down at the ground instead as Aspen curled his tail around me.

Please protect us. I don't know if what I'm doing is right, but there's no other way around...

I thought of Quri then, the spirit-cat who had come to me and Spirit in the dream. If the Sky-cat couldn't hear my prayer, I hoped that at least she could.

The ground was black beneath my paws now, the Great Spot's light nowhere to be found. The rain made the darkness worse, to where I felt a sense of calm as it wrapped around us. At least the death-trap's wouldn't be able to see and chase us tonight, unlike daytime when cats would be in full view and might be hunted down like prey. The sense of unknowing about them made my fur tingle- if they could trap and then kill cats, what did they do with them after that? Kill them or eat them? Aspen was very brave for actually going inside one- and lucky that it had let him out.

My paws vibrated as another monster swept past but in a heartbeat Aspen's fluffy pelt was beside mine, shielding my flank. The thin, straggly buses were providing little cover, and I felt a swell of affection for him but knew that if we were going to go across it needed to be soon. Dark was already upon us and I could barely see my paws- the stream of death-traps was growing slower, their harsh lights flashing by every minute or so.

"Has anyone actually ever crossed a death-path before?" I ask as I pull up next to Spirit with Aspen by my side. Every other cat is in ear-shot except Diamond, because she's resting underneath a bush with Fallan just a few tail-lengths away. They both laid down as soon as we stopped, as if they were exhausted; which, we all were. Even now my paws yearned for a rest- but not until after we'd crossed the path.

"Me, Fallan, and Hannah did only once when we were cubs, and we only saw one death-trap on it." Spirit spoke up, her head raised and blue eyes gleaming as she looked from one cat to another. Her eyes rested on me a bit longer than the rest, and I wondered how she was feeling (not for the first time) about sleeping beside Storm last night. It seemed so far away now, but I hoped the two cats kept growing close because they were destined to be together. I could see it not only in the way Storm looked at Spirit, but in the stars because Quri had told me so herself. The mysterious cheetah, I had first guessed, might have been Sky-cat... But now I wasn't so sure. The Sky-cat herself was once said to be a physical cheetah that walked on the ground, but could she appear in dreams?