Worlds Clash
Chapter 4
She crouches low in the treetops, staring down with narrowed eyes to the ground below. The elk would be a good kill. It would feed many in the pride.
Now? the young she-cat questions, clutching the hilt of her bone knife.
Wait a little longer, Giles responds on the branch just above. He hunches close to the limb, just watching her. Still your tail, Bella; you have the patience of a kit.
She immediately listens, stilling the subtle flick so that it doesn't rustle against any leaves, cursing herself. It's one of the basic and first lessons you are taught when you start training at 48 season, 12 whole cycles.
Her attention immediately drops back to the elder elk as it steps just beneath the perch.
Now, her mentor directs, and she immediately drops.
The animal startles at the sudden weight on its back, the claws digging into its hide, but it doesn't have time to take more than two staggering steps before the cat draws her knife deep across its throat. She leaps away as it collapses, blood pouring from its wounds.
She quickly dips her fingers into the crimson and draws them in a line from my prey's forehead to its nose, before grabbing the large head and staring deep into the scared brown eyes.
"May you go forth from here in peace, and find your way to the great wilderness where there is no death and your pain is nonexistent," She whispers the prayer aloud to the animal. She watches as a calm settles in its eyes as the twitching stops and the brown orbs become glassy- lifeless.
She gently places the head back to the blood soaked earth and looks up to her mentor who jumps gracefully from the tree.
Excellent, Bella, he compliments. She preens under his praise. Perhaps there will be a time when you will be mentor to one of my kits.
Carla is pregnant? She smiles wide at the news, but hers could never be as large as the one Giles sports. That's amazing!
Kits are always celebrated in the pride because they are so rare. Only two were born in their pride this spring.
Lets get back then, she turns away with a bounce in her clawed step. I'm sure you want to be with your mate.
The younger cat stoops to the fallen dear, running her hands over the flank before finally hefting and settling it around her shoulders.
Giles? she calls, confused, to her mentor when she turns to see him farther away, standing very still and looking into the trees. The female makes a small noise, chirping to draw his attention, and he hold his hand out in a stop gesture.
She becomes uneasy as he scans the top of the trees, nose twitching. She starts to bend to gently lower the carcass to the dirt when there is a flash of white.
"Giles!" The body drops as there is a crack of broken bones. Her mentor, her friend, yowls- just a blur of teeth and pearly marble skin. The fight is so fast that she can hardly keep track of which is cat, Giles having shifted, and which is vampire.
She phases quickly when she smells blood, and gathering her wits, lunges into the fight, claws splayed and slashing.
She catches the vampire by surprise, but then the red eye is dodging and the young lioness can hardly sink her claws into him.
He lunges away, skidding a few feet and doesn't come back in for another attack, eyeing them wearily. Her heart pounds as she sees blood on the corner of his mouth and staining his teeth when he grins. Then he turns and flees.
She takes a step in pursuit, before going ridged at her mentor's voice, aloud.
"Bella, don't."
She whirls to her friend, crying out and shifting when she sees him collapsed to the earth. She's at his side in an instant, cradling his head and pressing her hands over one of the bloody wounds.
It-it'll be alright. You'll be okay, her voice cracks even in her own thoughts as a strangled noise comes from her closing throat. We can get you back and the healers can help you.
Bella, he tries to sooth, but his grimace in pain does little to calm his charge. The camp is miles away, we won't make it. It's okay.
"It's not, it's not," she sobs, "What about Carla? What about the baby?"
His face scrunches in pain, and she doesn't know whether it's from the venom or her words. A vampire bite is deadly to a shifter. The venom will kill them in minutes if not treated immediately. It's rare that a shifter ever gets help in time.
She'll die, too, she reminds him, clutching more firmly at his wounds and wishing more than anything, at this moment, that she had been chosen for medicine.
A shifter can not survive without its mate. The bond won't allow it. They can live, for a few months maybe, but eventually their body will brake down and give out- if they don't immediately kill themselves in heartbreak.
He throws his head back, moaning, and the black veins bulging to the surface of his skin is the scariest thing she's ever seen.
Please, please, please don't die.
She hugs him, uncaring of the blood transferring to her.
If they survive, he pants, take care of my kits.
I will, I will, I promise. His hand slides from her shoulder to the grass, and she can hear his speeding heart going too fast, trying to fight the toxins. The she-cat yowls in grief when it finally gives out, and stops completely.
With a trembling hand, she pulls back and gently closes his sightless eyes before drawing a line from his hairline to the tip of his nose. She places her forehead against his chilling one, sucking in a shaky breath.
"May you go forth from here in peace, and find your way to the great wilderness where there is no death and your pain is nonexistent."
She sits back on her heels, tears silent now, in silent vigil for her friend. When morning comes, as is custom, she rises and start digging, first with her hands, then with her paws, until there is a deep hole.
When she finishes, she tugs the body into it with her, gently lowering him and placing a kiss on his chilly skin.
With that final goodbye, she buries him and rises, covered head to toe in dirt and blood, with the scent of death in her nose.
Even through that fog, she can still smell the sweet scent of the male vampire, curling from the path he went.
Rage seers through her chest.
She scales the tree and pull out her bag, tucked into the branches, leaving the other untouched. I will be back, she promises the grave before turning to the path that she sees, like a trail of colored smoke.
She charges into the trees, following her mentor's murderer.
...
"My teacher," she finally responds to the human male, anxiety and grief rising as she clutches her hands into fists. She has to fight to pull back her claws, and the wounds in her hands close in seconds. She carefully wipes the blood residue onto the human grabs encasing her legs.
"Where is he now?" The human, 'Chief Swan,' ask gently.
The cat shifter remains silent, unwilling to bring the man into her confidence. He would get himself killed, or drive himself mad looking for something he could never hope to find.
The Chief sighs, laying down his pen and looking over at the seemingly young human girl.
He had spent over an hour before he came here, looking over files on unsolved missing children cases for as young as three months up to six years of age.
In his eyes, this young girl has obviously been held captive. She sits stiffly, and her eyes dart around the room to all the corners, her eyes straying to the exits (namely the wall of windows). Her eyes, though hidden, hold a sadness and anger.
He doesn't know who took the girl or how she escaped, but he will find the man who did this to her. The good thing is that she is safe now, and though signs of abuse, Carlisle told him there were no recent signs of rape.
It would be so much easier if she were to cooperate, though.
"I'm here to help, Bella. Anything you can tell me at all of where you were, would help greatly. You're safe now."
The girl remains unmoved, back straight and hands fisted under the table.
She doesn't seem like a typical abused child, he muses as he tiredly stands from the table to go in search of the doctor. She isn't meek, rather she stares him down, unflinching.
This case is already rather perplexing, starting with a girl, covered in blood that isn't her own, walking out of the woods.
"How did it go?" Carlisle asks, meeting him in the entrance hall.
Charlie Swan sign, rubbing a hand down is face to rub at his jaw.
"Not very well, she won't say anything."
The doctor frowns, having known the answer already, but confused. The girl had been rather forthcoming to his family when they asked questions.
"I hate to ask this of you, Carlisle, but she seems to have taken to your family. I don't think moving her would be best. Do you think, perhaps, just for a few days you could-"
"Of course," the vampire rushes to assure. "We'd be happy to have her here as long as it takes."
The Chief smiles, glad to have one less worry during this case.
A/N: So, you have just a little bit of Cat culture in this. More information will come in future chapters, especially things on mating.
The poor Chief wont get very far in this case...
Please review!
~Silver~
