"Are you bat-shit crazy?" Kaleua growled, releasing Aleu out from under her claws. Aleu stood back onto her feet and she watched the strange man ride away with his dogs in his sled. Just like she had seen a million times before, however this time unfortunately was a little different. She looked down at the snow, and saw red. Her neck stung and she could feel the wind breeze through the puncture holes.
"No, I'm not." She answered, trying to maintain her composure almost unsuccessfully. Her fur was starting to stain red, it was now that she also noticed a small scratch on her nose as well.
"What did you think was going to happen, he was going to toss you some damn doggie treats?" Kaleua continued on her rant. She was pacing and circling back and forth making a mess of paw prints in the snow. Aleu glared, deciding to hold back the snarl deep within her and opting to not feed in to Kaleua's rage like before, she started to head back to the trail. She knew the sun would come out soon, but she still wanted to see what was over on the other side of the mountain, and her patience was wearing thin.
"Hey hybrid, you want to inform me on what you think you're doing?" Kaleua shouted from the trees. Aleu was one more insult away from leaving her behind all together. She made it back onto the sled trail and began to follow it. She knew it was the quickest way up, and she also knew that if she wanted to refrain from taking any unnecessary aggression out, the trail would keep Kaleua far enough away from her until she calmed down.
Kaleua was enraged at this girls actions. She put both of them in danger. Humans were not to be trusted. You couldn't read their intensions, you couldn't defend yourself from their long range attacks. They could kill you before you could smell them. Kaleua would never trust humans, and she could barely tolerate the dogs.
Aleu was still trotting away. She didn't want to go too fast because she would catch up to the dogs, but she still wanted to get up to the mountain before daybreak. She assumed this strange man was going fishing. It was the only reason he would be up this early. This made it clear to her that there must be another trail down to lower ground where there would be water. If she saw that, then she would speed up and trust her instincts.
She could hear Kaleua behind her. Her footsteps were loud in the snow and she sounded like she was farther back.
"Perhaps she's having some trouble getting through the untouched snow and carving a path through trees?" Aleu thought. She pictured Kaleua in her head tripping over deadfall and going face first into the snow. This settled her back down. She would make use of her care free pace and Kaleua could be stuck in her ways. For now, Aleu liked the feeling of being at least a little smarter.
It wasn't a short time after that they did indeed come across and spilt in the path. Aleu saw that one side went left, and cut across Kaleua's path, and another clearly went to higher ground.
"Just as I thought." Aleu said and she perked her head up from sniffing the snow on the detour.
"What?" Kaleua said a little out of breath and slightly agitated.
"He went that way down to a water source, you can see and smell his tracks." Aleu said proudly. Looks like her knowledge about humans had served her right again. "I'm going to take this trail up to the top. We can make up ground, now that I know which direction he went." Aleu stated.
Kaleua hesitated. She didn't want to have to step foot on the trail, but in order to continue she would have to. It was blocking her make-shift 'nature path' to the top of the mountain. She looked down at her paws, she could almost see how tired they were. Her fur was soaking wet up to her knees from walking in the wet snow and she knew that as they went higher up the snow would get deeper on the outskirts.
"I guess I'll see you there?" Aleu raised her eyebrow and grinned. Kaleua didn't take fondly to the taunt but didn't budge. "It won't be your first time stepping on one of these trails today Kaleua, come on!" Aleu called out as she began running up the trail. Kaleua treaded carefully, inching her way onto the path. She gave her legs a shake hoping to bring them back to life. Running might warm them back up a little she thought. So she started off behind Aleu, not wanting to get too far behind.
After another hour or so they had made it to the top. The pair sat on a ridge that mimicked Pride Rock looking over the land. Aleu could see a long way off into the distance and something caught her eye.
It was a herd of caribou. What was important was that they were running and they were scattering.
"They're getting chased by something." Kaleua inferred. She was right. Not a second after you could see a couple figures following behind, although it was too far to make out if there were any in the bushes following the hunt.
The two sat for a few minutes and contemplated their options. They knew roughly how far this other pack was. Quite the journey, especially as it was evident that there was plenty of food here. This was exactly what Aleu was wondering.
"Why do you think they came to our kill?" Aleu asked.
"Maybe the same reason we came to them." Kaleua answered, deep in thought.
The caribou and pack disappeared into the trees and this gave time for Aleu and Kaleua to think.
They sat there for some time, not completely sure about what to do next. Should they head closer to try and get more information for the pack, or come back with the pack to maintain strength in numbers?
It wasn't long before their decision could possibly be made for them as another creature stepped his paw out from his hiding place.
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Yea! Another two chapter day! Feels so good to crank another one out for you guys. Thanks for all the love and support, especially for those who have reviewed. So glad to hear you like what's happened so far. I love to leave you guys on a cliff hanger per usual, hopefully it won't be too long before you get to see what's next. Talk to you guys again soon!
