Chapter 6: Prey, Hunting
"Forest fire! Forest fire!" Windteller's yowl echoed through the thick smoke.
"Thanks for the update!" spat Raindrop, heaving herself onto her feet. Pounce lay motionless on the ground beside her. "Pounce, wake—up! P—Pounce—w—wake—wake up already!" The smoke was filling her lungs, and Raindrop could hardly speak. Pounce didn't move. "Pounce, come—on!"
Pounce rolled over and groaned. "Where—is it time to g—go?"
"Yeah, we're leaving," Raindrop choked with relief, grabbing her friend by the scruff. "C'mon, get—up—P—Pounce, come—on, get up already, let's g—go."
"M'kay, I'm coming. Can I just—ah, ah—achoo!" Pounce sneezed and spluttered onto her feet. Raindrop gasped and choked her way towards the den entrance, or rather the exit, her tail resting on Pounce's shoulder.
"Pounce! Raindrop!" Eddy careened over to them. "You—you're okay--?"
"Fine," she gasped. "Never been better!"
"F—found her," grunted Pounce, stumbling over to Eddy, "asleep. Where's Whisper?"
"O-over there," croaked Eddy. "W—we ought to get g—going, we're the l—last ones here."
"What's worth waiting for?" demanded Raindrop sarcastically.
"The service?" suggested Pounce with a cough.
"Whisper!" yowled Eddy. "We—we're going! C—come on!"
"Raindrop! Heh—help!" Windteller's cry sounded from across camp.
"Whisper!" Pounce yelped as if someone had bitten her. The three of them stumbled across the camp, gasping and choking through the smoke towards the sound of their friend's voice. The smoke was getting in their eyes and up their noses, clogging their throats and thoughts, until everything was just a black mass of darkness and smoke…
"R—Raindrop! Pounce! Eddy! H—help!" Windteller's screech cut into the swirling black shroud around them, and they realized they had been going the wrong way.
Turning, Pounce looked the other two in the eyes and said, "You two g-go ah-head. I'll g-get Whisper." Raindrop gave Pounce a look, but she didn't flinch. "I'll help him. Don't worry."
"Oh, o-okay," Eddy looked as perplexed as Raindrop felt, except she would act confused by getting irritated rather than spluttering. "We—we'll g-go to the river, and maybe—"
"The river?!" Raindrop gasped, choking spectacularly, but she spluttered on with growing fear, and so with a worsening mood. "The branches aren't guarding us! 'The fish will snarl and the cats must swim'! It's the whispers! The stuff they said at the Telling—" but Raindrop coughed uncontrollably, and slumped onto her side, wheezing.
"She's right!" Eddy gasped. "We have to stay with you, Pounce, and then go to the river! Whisper's near the entrance anyway!"
Pounce looked confused, but Raindrop spat at her, "don't ask!", and the confused to-be led them through the smoke towards their friend, Raindrop leaning on Eddy and hard.
Windteller was stuck in a hole in the camp's hammock of a floor as it smoldered near him. He looked panicked beyond sanity, and he was snarling and squeaking, trying to get free. The only thing he'd managed to do so far, though, was to get tangled even worse; both his legs were hanging beneath the vines, thousands of tail-lengths above the forest floor, and the charred, clawed vines around him creaking ominously.
With a wheezing squeak, Pounce dove forward and heaved him out of the vines, the flames nearby rising higher and crackling closer. Eddy and Raindrop stumbled forward and helped bite him free from the net, and finally Windteller scrambled up, coughing his thanks.
"Come on!" snapped Raindrop. "Look!" They all followed her terrified gaze, and suddenly the flames were right in front of them.
With yelps of fear, they sprang back, and suddenly the charred camp floor gave way beneath Pounce.
The vines snapped, and Pounce plunged down.
"Pounce!" yowled Eddy and Windteller. Raindrop dropped automatically onto her stomach and swatted down with her claws. They snagged the twisting and shrieking Pounce's scruff, and Raindrop dug her hind claws into the vines behind her. They twisted beneath her, and she held tighter to Pounce's scruff.
"A little help here?!" snarled Raindrop, slipping towards the hole; the two toms dove forward and pulled them up. Pounce twisted and yowled, and Raindrop spat and coughed and struggled to hold onto her friend as they pulled her up. Gasping from the second rescue, the three of them bounded out of the camp with the last scraps of their energy, away from the crackling flames as they consumed their home.
The four friends ran through the familiar branches of their home, the dry air full of smoke, their throats scalded, their fur completely black, their eyes dull, the last of their energy nearly gone. They were silent. They all headed towards the river, knowing where the fire had started, and hoping their tribe hadn't gone that direction.
The piranhas. Fish. Prey.
They were being hunted. And now there was nowhere for the tribe to go.
"There's the river."
Pounce's mew was a hoarse whisper. It was nearly midnight, and the river was a silver ribbon through the vines and trees of the forest. The smell of fire had followed them all the way through the Jungle, the hazy sun setting behind the mountains and the silence of night falling. Raindrop was really scared. Nighttime had never been silent before. The creatures of the jungle must have fled with the tribe. And the tribe: they still hadn't found it. There was no one but them in the forest. No one had spoken a word since they'd left camp.
Windteller's fur was covered in soot, his eyes were blank, and his tail singed. He still looked as terrified as he had when he'd nearly fallen through that hole, and when Pounce had plunged through the vines. Pounce's fur was fluffed out and her eyes were wide, and the usually chatty to-be was completely silent. She limped slightly as she bounded from branch to branch. Eddy was shaking, his fur singed and his jaw clenched. Raindrop had never seen him like this, grim and scared. Raindrop herself was the worst off: her fur was half burned off, scratched by the briars in their camp's floor, and one of her was eyes puffy and closed from a thorn that had whipped across it. It was hurting a lot, and smoke and dirt had gotten into it. If she'd asked Windteller, he'd probably have told her it was infected.
But she hadn't asked.
The shroud of nighttime had fallen behind the veil of smoke behind them, and the lost to-bes turned at the sound of the thundering river. They crept onto the shore warily, in case there were any piranhas or bald monkeys hanging around. The pebbles skittered loudly beneath their paws, and the sound of the river pounded their ears. The sky was hazy and orange, but the to-bes had gone so far upstream that they could no longer see the fire that had devoured their home. None of them recognized this part of the river.
"Lunch?" offered Pounce, dragging over a huge fish that stank of crowfood. Raindrop coughed and gave Pounce the eyebrow. "I'm joking," sighed the prey-hunter to-be. "Sheesh, Raindrop. You're always so dang serious. Lightening up is sometimes occasionally a good idea!" Raindrop glared at her friend for a heartbeat. Then she exploded.
"Pounce, what are you talking about?!" shesnarled. "in case your brain hasn't processed it, the Jungle is on fire! We might be the last tribe cats still alive on this planet, and you're telling me to lighten up?! What is wrong with you?! I knew you were determined to be cheery at all times, but I didn't know you were this shallow! You, Pounce— 'Gee, we might die, and the forest is gonna burn down, and the piranhas are gonna eat us, and our tribe is burnt to a crisp, Raindrop, so, lighten up! It's sometimes occasionally a good idea!' Sometimes occasionally?! Lighten up! Lighten up! We're gonna die, so lighten up! Is that what you're trying to say, Pounce?" Windteller cringed, and Eddy stared at Raindrop with something like horror. But Pounce walked right up to her fellow to-be and rose to her eye level, glaring.
"Yes," she hissed, "that's what I'm saying."
Windteller let out a muffled gasp and Eddy's eyes widened. Raindrop bristled.
"Wha—?!" she began angrily, but Pounce cut her off.
"Yes, Raindrop, lighten up," she growled. "You are such an insufferable pessimist, you just always have to look at things from the gloomiest possible perspective, and you're always mad about something, and we're—just—sick of it! They—" Pounce jerked her head towards the toms, and Windteller flinched, "don't have the guts to say it, but they're fed up with it too! You. Need. To. Chill." Pounce whirled around and stalked off.
Raindrop stared after her, her mouth hanging open. She looked around and saw that the other two were staring at her. Windteller shifted his wide-eyed gaze to Pounce, his look one of stunned surprise. Eddy, however, gave Raindrop a long look before turning slowly and walking down the bank after his cousin.
Raindrop clamped her jaws shut and walked off towards the forest's edge, scowling.
