- 936
- #1
"I'm going to find Trouble."
That's what she had said to her brother, Wind Chaser, when she realized that their kin, Trouble hadn't returned from his most recent excursion. He was often slipping away into the shadows with the intent to re-emerge and scare one of their group with a wild cry or an excellent impression of a predator's howl. He was a known trickster with a habit of coming and going. However, it had been much longer than Breeze Walker had last seen him and with every look over her shoulder as they got further and further away, a feeling of discomfort and suspicion grew next to her heart.
Eventually, she had approached her brother, Wind Chaser, the oldest of the four siblings their parents had. She confided her worries to him about Trouble's disappearance, and made her assurances that she could take care of herself. She'd retrace the group's steps until she picked up Trouble's trail; Breeze Walker had always been a keen tracker and this would not be the first time she'd went off from the group to reclaim cats who had wandered too far from the group. She pressed her nose to Wind Chaser's forehead, told him that she and Trouble would return to the group and went on her way.
It was three days travel from when she had last seen her split-pelted kin, but without needing to wait for the paws of elders to join her, Breeze Walker was able to make it in two days. She stood in front of a decrepit Twoleg monster, its innards a mess of stale plush material, weatherworn by the changing seasons. She could still smell the faded stench of the monster that it carried when it used to roar with life, though it must have been seasons since it had died in these ruins. Her nose was clouded with the scent and she headed away from the monster and deeper into the wilderness.
She was passing a fallen tree when her ears perked up and she rushed to the tree's side, where a tuft of white, feline fur speckled with red blood clung to a ragged patch of the tree. Alarm coursed through her - some cat had been injured here, that was certain. Pressing her nose against the clump of fur, she inhaled her kin's scent and pulled away quickly. Trouble had been here and he'd been hurt - he may still yet be hurt somewhere! She inhaled again, trying to memorize the scent of her kin and erase the faded monster stench from earlier.
She only looked up from the tree when a shadow passed over her. It was a sunny day out, but if rain was approaching then she would need to prioritize finding her kin even faster, lest the rain wash away his scent from this place. Craning her head back, she had meant to look up at the sky for clouds, but instead she only saw the face of a growling badger glowering down at her. She had just enough time to throw herself to the side before its teeth snapped down into the air where she had been mere seconds ago.
Leaping to her paws, she faced off against the badger, snarling at it. She hadn't dealt with badgers too frequently in her time with the group and she was suddenly wishing that she hadn't been the only one who had left to find Trouble. She had to smile, though, because she realized that in a sense, trouble had found her. She couldn't let it find her family group, though. She would distract the badger, try to lead it elsewhere, away from the direction of her kin who traveled slowly, but surely, further away from her.
"Follow me, you fat fuzz brain!" She shouted at the badger and took at swipe at it, before jumping away and watching it lumber after her. She proceeded to jump backwards, glancing over her shoulder and back to the badger as she led it away. Alas, one of leaps backwards saw her tumbling backwards in a clumsy way, wrenching fur and skin apart. Her enemy lunged at her and she ducked away; she'd always been a better defensive fighter than a cat who was good at attacking others. Still, the massive claws grazed through one of her ears and one came away a bloody mess. It started to go downhill from there. Breeze Walker just managed to dodge attacks, but it was getting harder as she began to sustain more and more injuries. Eventually, she was forced to climb a tree and she watched with weary eyes as the badger paceda around the base of the tree.
At last, as the light began to fade from the sky, the badger got up and lumbered off. Breeze Walker waited until the moon had risen high into the sky, before she half-fell, half-climbed from the tree. She had to get away from this area, out of the badger's territory. She had to return to the group, where her wounds could be treated. She would go out again to find her kin, but right now, she needed to get to safety. As it stood, she only got a few tail lengths away from the tree she'd been hiding in, before she collapsed, breathless. Okay, sure, sure this was fine. She'd rest her eyes for a brief moment and have more strength in her once she woke. She let her eyes fall closed and loosed a shuddering sigh, before she let herself drift into what she had thought would merely be a light doze. @NatiStorm