the beggining

chapter 16

“can you climb?” I asked

“uh, yes” he responded a bit nervously

“good” I said, “then when I find a target you climb the nearest tree and stay out of the way. Got it?”

“I think so”

“then lets go” I shifted half way and began to walk. Thankfully Toby was smart enough to realize this was not the time to talk and obediently walked quietly at my side. But I soon realized that I preferred him talking to me than embracing the silence of the forest.

“do not speak out loud” I whispered stiffly “I can smell a cougar to our right, I’m going to go for it. You find a tree you’ll be able to climb high in and ill lead the cougar back to you so you can watch.”

“okay” he whispered back. I could sense worry spike in his emotions and I realized that it wasn’t from fear of what he’s about to watch, it was for my safety, he didn’t want me to get hurt.

‘don’t worry about me, I’m a good hunter’ I thought to him confidently, trying to ease his worry. It didn’t work.

We turned toward the scent and Toby began to look for a good climbing tree. Finding one almost immediately. I waited for him as he scampered up one side and found a perch with a good view of the ground. He looked down at me and our gazes met.

‘be safe’ he thought quietly. I pretended to not hear him and ran towards the cougar.

I found it easy enough. It was lying in the evening sun eating its fresh kill. I knew how to do this.

I changed human and began to walk by close enough for it to see me, it did and It stood up and began to hiss and growl at me i kept walking so I was close enough to it. Then looked up and squealed like a surprised human and ran away. It took the bait and chased after me. I darted behind a tree, phased then pushed off the ground intro the air and circled back to its kill. I began to poke and scratch at the carcass knowing that when the cougar came back and saw me it would fight. Then I’d lead it back to Toby’s tree

Movement caught the corner of my eye and fear bloomed like a deadly flower in my chest as I watched the slightly tan boy with shaggy brown run in the direction the cougar had gone, calling my name.

Toby’s POV

I was trying to be patient but I couldn’t help not worrying about her. She seemed confident, but when she felt my concern she became overconfident which scared me even more. I tried so hard to watch her the whole time that my eyes hurt from looking at things that weren’t there. I tried to have faith in her abilities but I couldn’t shake the feeling that this was a bad plan. My feelings haven’t been wrong before.

I was just starting to worry about how quiet it was when a sound sent a shockwave of fear through my heart. i heard her scream.

I practically jumped from branch to branch trying to get down as fast as possible. My feet hit the ground running in the same direction Sakina headed. I couldn’t control all of the awful images of her being malled by the cougar, finding her bloody and broken in the grass. Finding her dead.

I didn’t hear any more screaming as I came into a warmly lit area but I looked down as I ran and saw bloody pawprints headed to a darker part of the forest. I ran even faster in the same direction, desperate to save her.

Just as I was about halfway to the trees I saw something lower to the ground moving off to the side, stop, then come at me. I stopped running realizing this was the cougar she was supposed to be hunting. Its muzzle and toungue was bloody as it hissed and growled at me. It continued to stalk me.

‘you need to get it away from her’ was all I could think. I begand to make noises at the animal trying to keep its attention on me so it wouldn’t go back for her. I backed up and tried to lead it away from the direction it had come.

“come on then!” I shouted at the beast. As if it understood me, it leaped for me.

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hey guys! i ended up going pretty off track with this chapter and part of 17 too. not sure how its all gonna get back to the original storyline but ill figure it out. thanks soo much for reading! point out any mistakes you notice and let me know what you think!