Hunting has not been good lately. I haven't gotten a kill since that Smells-Good helped me take down two warm ones. My mate hasn't been getting kills either. Every time we come home, our bellies make loud noises like quiet-calls. The few warm ones that we've seen have been traveling in packs, and there have been no other cold ones to help us hunt. Even the Small-Stupids were scarce. It's as if all of my hunting grounds were empty.
I sit on top of a tree, waiting. I call out, and my call comes back. Nothing. Not even Small-Stupids walking around. I call out again. It comes back. Still nothing. I can't smell anything, other than me, my mate and my hunting grounds.
Movement! I heard it! I call out, and my call is answered with a call. Only my mate. I recognize her high call. Rivals have low calls. She must be out hunting still. It should be sun-up, but I can't feel the sun. I hear loud noises far away. They almost sound like loud-stick noises.
The noises happen again! So close and loud that I fall out of the tree, surprised. I smell a fire-smell, and the tree next to mine smells hot, like a booming loud-stick. Loud-sticks in the sky? I hope not.
I hear the noise again, but quieter and farther away. Then, something wet falls on my claw. I sniff it. Smells like water. I lick it off. Again it happens, on my hood. Again. And again. More and more, faster and faster until water is falling from the sky everywhere!
My reaction is to see how it can help me. Can I drink it, instead of the water I find in warm one dens? Not easily. I run around trying to catch it in my mouth. I'm not good at drinking sky-water, I figure.
Without noticing, I side-step a tree. Wait, what? I didn't call, or even quiet-call. How could I have known it was there? Then I realize, the sky-water is making noise! The noise is coming back to me like my calls do! I put this to use right away. I jump up into the tree that I was in earlier, and find a branch to sit in without having to make any noise. Wonderful! The tree is wet, so staying in the tree is tricky, but I manage.
My luck never stops! A lone warm one is running past my tree! It, slides, falls on its face, and scrambles back up onto its feet and rushes into a warm one den, not even a long-jump away.
I drop out of the tree without a sound. I stay close to the ground, and slowly crawl toward the den. I find where the warm one got in, but there is a wall instead of an opening. How do warm ones do that? First there is a wall, then a hole, and then a wall again. Very strange.
I catch myself losing focus again. I think too much. I slash at the wall until there is a hole big enough for me to slip through. I hope the warm one didn't hear me. I sniff around for it. It isn't far, just a few walls away. The sky-water is still helping, but I can't hear it as well as I could seems unfocused in shape. I crawl into where I smelled the warm one. It hears me.
It spins around, surprised. I get ready to pounce, but the warm one is quicker. It grabs its loud-stick and points it at me. There is a very loud noise. Pain tears through my shoulder. I give out a pained call, surprising the warm one so much that it falls backwards. I pounce.
I claw at it and claw at it until it stops making moving and making noise. I don't eat, yet. I need to take this kill back to my den, for my mate. She would do the same for me. I take some of the smaller pieces and put them in the pouches in my fur. I stuff bigger chunks inside my fur. I am heavier, but not so heavy that I can't jump. I crawl outside. The sky-water has stopped, to my disappointment, and the sun is out. I can smell warm ones starting to come out of their dens.
I jump back to my den as fast as I could, to find my mate sleeping. I give her a push, and she wakes up. I take out my kill, and we eat in silence. There is not much to eat, since I had to carry it back, but it is enough to make our bellies quiet. I can smell my mate's gratitude. She notices the wound in my shoulder, and nuzzles it. I push her away. She is to help me stay strong and full, not to nurture me. I will leave the wound alone.
I have been hit by loud-sticks before. I have the holes in my fur and flesh to prove it. It only hurts when you get the wound. After that, you don't feel it. New skin will grow over it eventually. For now, I am left with soreness in my shoulder and food in my belly. I am tired from the hunt, but I won't sleep yet. I lay back in my bed, picking bits of bone out of my teeth. My mate crawls up to me and nestles herself into my side. Very touchy, this one. All of my other mates only touched me when we played together. The feeling of touching in comfort is strange to me.
I feel her sleeping, so I decide to sleep as well. After having my first good meal in several sun-ups-and-downs, I am content. I let the sun shine on my face as I slowly drift asleep.
Author's Note
Hello again, my darlings. It may seem a little soon to be publishing a second chapter, but I was bored and anxious. So here it is. I hope you liked it. Be aware now, I most likely won't publish new chapters with any sort of regularity. Read and Review!