Akiko of the Cats

Chapter 1

  Akiko took a deep slow breath and tried to ignore the itch of the sweat trickling down her back. The jackalope had noticed her but so far it hadn't moved. After hours of fruitless hunting, she was determined not to spook this prey and spoil the glaring's chances of a good end to the day. She carefully shifted her weight over a few inches and froze when one of the jack's long, delicate ears twitched in her direction. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Rumble creeping over the ridge, her body crouched low to the ground. Rum's dun-coloured fur blended in nearly perfectly with the tans and browns of the surrounding desert.

{stay put}

came the raspy mental command. Akiko stifled the urge to giggle. Rumble tended to forget that Akiko wasn't a kit anymore, but Akiko decided now was not the time to make a fuss about it. She sent back a meek

{yes ma'am}

and held her position. To her left she sensed movement and saw the shadow that was Nyx under the brush. He turned gleaming golden eyes in her direction before returning his focus to the jackalope in front of them. Akiko could feel the eagerness of the rest of the glaring as they waited in their positions beyond the ridge. It had been a lean week so far, and they all anticipated the satisfaction of a successful hunt.

  Jackalopes were dumb creatures but they were also communal. Rumble based her strategy on the hope that this ones den was nearby, and the tracks they had found leading here seemed to support that hope. She planned to flush it out into the open with Nyx's help, and have the rest of the glaring corral it back along that path. As long as they didn't scare it so badly that it fled in a blind terror, they ought to be able to follow it straight back to the frail safety of its den. Nyx would stay with Akiko at the entrance of the den, while Rumble would lead the others to find and secure the bolt holes of the den. Once Rumble signaled those burrows were secured, it would be up to Akiko to squirm her way through the front tunnel and flush the entire den out their back doors, where the glaring would be waiting to snap them up. Akiko didn't really like being the one to crawl down the hole, but even though she was tall for a girl, she was far more slender and flexible than the cats, so she was the only one who could reasonably fit. At least until she had her next growth spurt.

{girl. girl-cub!}

A hiss sounded nearby. Akiko snapped her attention back to the present and realized Nyx was trying to get her attention.

{we are ready girl}

Akiko braced herself to push off the ground.

{GO!}

  She launched herself through the brush towards the jackalope as Nyx came in silently from the left. Rumble pounced from the ridge and yowled to signal the rest of the glaring. As the jack bounded over the far edge of the ridge, the cats of the glaring swarmed in from all directions in a carefully choreographed maneuver. To Akiko it looked as beautiful as she imagined a dance must be....a dance of deadly intent. She focused on not being distracted by the cats and kept her eyes fixed on the jack bounding far ahead. She saw the jack was veering south from the tracks they had found earlier and sent a terse message.

{Rum, tighten the right flank. turn it north!}

  Seconds later the right-flanking cats pushed in closer and the jack responded by angling left, straight towards a mound that was a likely spot for the den to be. Without notice, it disappeared from the desert scrub. Nyx rushed to the spot and abruptly sat down.

{found hole}

  He started washing his paws while he waited for Akiko to catch up. She plopped down next to the hole and tried to catch her breath. Rumble and the others ran a swift search grid to find the escape tunnels and quicker than Akiko would have liked came the call.

{all secure. go in}.

  Akiko stood up and tossed off her rucksack. She quickly stripped down to her leggings and undershirt, leaving her vest and utility belt piled neatly on top of the sack. Carefully she lit a small lantern to push in front of her in the tunnel. They had a few battery-powered torches back at the compound but those were strictly for emergencies only. The last time Akiko had seen those used was when old man Tucker's boy had gotten lost in the ancient mine shafts away west. She'd only been a toddler at the time, too young to help, but she remembered the feeling of awe at the power of those electric lights, so much brighter than anything else they used in the compound. She took a deep breath and squelched the regret that she couldn't have one of those torches. She did perfectly fine with what she had at hand, better than most even.

  With a quick look at Nyx, Akiko confirmed that the rest of the glaring were in place. She dropped to her stomach and set the lantern as far into the tunnel as she could reach, then started wriggling into the tunnel. Every few feet she stopped and pushed the lantern further in until she reached a bend that she couldn't get around. Up ahead she could hear rustling in what sounded like a much bigger space. She had found the main room of the den. She wedged herself in so no jackalopes could escape past her and sent out a tendril of thought.

{rum}

{?}

{i have found the main room of the den. are you ready?}

She waited tensely for a response and it came quickly.

{flush!}

  She took another deep breath and then yelled at the top of her lungs for as long as she could. Gasping, she listened to the mad scramble in the hollow beyond her. Slowly the sounds faded down the farther tunnels. A few minutes later, she felt one of the other cats at the back of her mind. Sasha maybe, though it was hard to tell.

{come. is safe. hunt done.}

  Akiko carefully started wriggling her way backwards along the tunnel, trying not to ruck her shirt up around her ears. She emerged from the tunnel, blinking at the bright sun, and brushed the worst of the dirt from her hair and clothes. Sasha came bounding over with Akiko's vest and belt and dropped them at her feet. Akiko bent down and proffered her hand, palm down, to Sasha, who sniffed it and then head-butted it with a soft *mrrwll*. Akiko obliged with a few scritches behind Sasha's ears. "Thank you Sasha-cat," she said quietly. Around them, the other cats of the glaring were piling their catches. Akiko counted over a dozen jacks and looked over at Rumble.

{Rum, you hunted well today. thank you.}

{as did you girl. the furless ones will eat well?}

{yes. thanks to you and the glaring, the compound will have enough for the rest of this moon cycle.}

{do not forget we who hunt with you}

{you are my family. i do not forget}

  Rumble huffed and paced off without a glance back. Akiko had to stifle the urge to giggle again. Rumble might be queen of her own glaring now, but Akiko remembered when she was just a kit she'd found wounded and huddled at the back of a cave. They had both chosen the same cave to shelter in during one of the rare violent desert thunderstorms that would blow up once or twice a season. After the storm cleared, Akiko brought Rumble back to the compound and nursed her back to health.