Wing Shadow Stretched Over Water (Wing)

Brook turned just in time to see Wing reappearing from the little underbrush the mountain offered. "Where have you been?" Brook asked, almost frantic. "Stoneteller has been looking for us. He wants to know how we did on our first day out hunting…Where's your catch?"

Wing rolled her eyes. "Calm down Brook. Stop overreacting." She pushed back a scrawny branch on a nearby bush and displayed a small jackrabbit.

"That's all? Wing, that's not going to impress Stoneteller! Our first day as to-bes and he'll think we aren't good enough. What have you been doing all this time?"
Wing laughed. "Brook! Brook! You talk faster than you think! I told you not to worry. Follow me." She bounded ahead on a steep trail that Brook had never walked on before.

Being wary, Brook held back. Wing poked her head back around the bend. "Brook, you better hurry up or I'm going ahead without you!" She shouted in warning.

Brook bit her lip but ran up the rocky trail. The moon was intensifying every moment, and the sun was starting to disappear out of sight. "Wing, it's getting late, maybe we should head back-"

She was cut short as she lost her balance and her back paws slid off the narrow path, scattering pebbles down the stone-strewn hillside. She frantically tried to claw her way back onto the trail, but all she was doing was scarring the smooth rock. "Wing! Help!" Brook shouted, her voice sharp with fear.

Out of nowhere, it seemed, Wing shot back down the sheer descent and grabbed Brook's scruff in one quick motion. Leaning back to get leverage, she managed to heave her friend up.

Gasping, Brook scrambled up and looked back down cautiously. A gorge of sharp rocks lay at the bottom. If Wing hadn't been there…

"Come on!" Wing said, as if nothing had happened, and then hustled up the path so fast that Brook was forced to keep her pace at a sprint. After several minutes of leaping from rock-to-rock or climbing around bottomless gulches, Wing suddenly stopped. Her ears flicked forward and she hissed, "Be quiet, we're almost there!"

But Brook couldn't help herself. "Is this what you did all day? Hike instead of hunt? We have a tribe to feed, Wing!" She glanced over her shoulder and once more reminded herself that the sky had turned a violet blue and the moon was becoming even more visible. Stoneteller would not be pleased.

"Shut it, Brook!" Wing snapped. "It might run away."

"What might run away?" Brook breathed, temper boiling.

"That." Wing said, pointing with her dappled gray and white paw to huge wooly figure Brook hadn't noticed before in the growing gloom.

"What, what is it?" Brook asked, holding her breath.

A four-legged creature was standing on a smooth cut stone, its paws were hard and shining, its fur was ragged and glistening white, and the most strange of all, on its head was two curved spikes.

"I don't know." Wing said. "But whatever it is, it's amazing."

Brook silently agreed and then turned to leave, but Wing remained. "What are you doing? We're already in too much trouble, we can't stay."

"I know, I know." Wing glanced back at the strange beast. "But I want to get closer."

"Closer? Isn't this close enough?" Brook argued. "If anything, it's too close. Now let's get out of here."

"You go, I'll be right there." Wing tried to reassure.

"No," Brook said, "I'm not leaving you here. Besides, you're my only guide home."

"Fine, fine. I'm coming." Wing said, and regretfully dragged herself over.

"Pull yourself together, Wing. We have a long way to go before we get back to the cave." Brook scolded her friend.

"I know, it's just-" Wing jerked her head back. "Brook move!" She yowled. Brook looked back too and saw the strange beast hurtling towards them. Brook's eyes stretched wide just as Wing pounded into her and knocked them both sideways, off the trail, and onto a ledge seven tail-lengths below. Brook looked up wearily and saw the beast toss its head furiously and then return back to his rock.

Brook glanced up to Wing, who had landed awkwardly on top of her. "That's the second time you saved me." She said, her eyes blinking in gratitude.

"All in a day's work." Wing said, and laughed, her eyes twinkling.