Saved by a….cat?
Luz sighed as she looked to the east. The sun was starting to rise as it cast an unearthly glow across the horizon. At that moment, she heard a tiny yawn, and she turned around to see flapjack coming towards her. His eyes glassy and sleepy; he must've been looking for her when he realized that she was gone and she felt bad that he came out here in the cold for her.
'Luz?' he asked as he came up to stand next to her. 'I woke up and you were gone…' he said and he yawned again widely.
Luz smiled as she nuzzled his nose with hers. 'I'm sorry I woke you. I just needed to get some air.'
Flapjack opened his mouth to say something but he fell at her feet and seemed half asleep already. Luz chuckled as she licked behind his ears.
'Luz?' he asked, so groggily that Luz wasn't sure he said anything for a moment.
'Luz… you'll always be here for me won't you?' Flapjack asked softly as he leaned up against her.
Luz turned her head down to look at him; thinking it all over. What could she say? Just what was she going to do? She didn't want to leave flapjack , but she longed to return home as well… but as he looked into her eyes, she knew that he wasn't going to remember this so she said—unsure of what else to say, 'Yeah… I'll always be with you.'
Luz wasn't sure if she would be able to keep that promise, but as she watched him smile and curl up as if he knew that he was safe, she couldn't help but feel as if her heart was about to soar.
It was truly a beautiful sight. Luz looked up as the world began to glow with the rising sun.
It was a dark dawn, but the sky, still dotted with sparkling stars, was slightly tinted with orange. Everything was quiet, and she sat there for a while, not thinking about anything except the fireflies. What grace they had.
She then watched the skies, it was such a sight to behold as the sun began to rise and the skies were a breathtaking combination of blues, yellows and pinks. She watched for a few more minutes before she picked him up by the scruff of his neck and simply carried him back to the den where he curled up against her warmly and they were soon sleeping deeply. The thought of the promise in both their heads…
__________
Luz felt warmth on her face as the sun's rays washed over her. She groaned as she curled up into a ball, not wanting to wake up. . She didn't want to open her eyes but she could hear a voice calling her name and opened them reluctantly. When Luz finally focused on what was around her, she spotted the ball of red fur leaning over at her.
She yawned and sat up, 'Hello, flapjack ,' she said to him as he rolled off her and began to wag his tail. She could hear the slight yelping of the three new additions from the other side of the cave and she looked over to see the tiny family of five all curled up together. Late into the night, Ava and Owen had been arguing over the names for their pups; each one having already picked them out and wanting the other to agree.
Owen was keen on one of the naming them things like Kiba —meaning fang —and Hikari for his daughter—light.
Ava on the other hand had other names in mind and argued about Ginta and Hakkaku for her little boys and the name of Kasumi for her girl—her little flower. But in the end, they were finally able to agree on three names.
For the elder son, a solid brown they named him riki —meaning Strength whom Owen hoped he would one day become. And for the younger son they named Shiro meaning white. As for the girl, since they were born here in winter, they named her Yuki… for the snow.
Luz smiled at the three newborns as they blindly tried to find their mother's milk and got to her feet. She left the new parents to tend to their family and flapjack followed her happily.
'Where are we going today?' he asked as he bounced around her feet.
'We're going to be leaving Owen and Ava alone today and we'll be hunting again,' she told him.
'And I'll be able to help?' he asked her excitedly.
She laughed and nodded. 'As soon as we find the others and get to work. Now where are they?'
'Getting a drink of water,' he told her as they all walked across the cliff tops in this frigid weather. She looked up at the bright sunlight and clear day—however this only helped to make everything feel so much colder despite the warm sun. Up this high, she could see dark clouds in the distance along the horizon.
'It looks like we might be getting another snow storm tonight if they keep coming this way,' she called to him as he went skipping on ahead. 'We have to hurry today. If we can't catch anything before those clouds pass over, I don't think we'll be eating tonight.'
Flapjack gave a hungry whine, but he nodded as they both soon reached the river and met up with the others. Luz came up to edric and was telling him of the storm but he cut her off. 'I already know,' he told her. 'And I agree, we need to get food for tonight as quickly as possible.'
'Good luck with that,' Hunter said grumpily. He wasn't much of a morning person. 'The food up here is growing more and more scarce. I'm not sure how much longer we can keep hunting before we have to turn on belos’s wolves.'
'Hunter,' luz said as she nudged her head against his. 'We know how hard you try, but we're just going to have to make due until we are able to go back to the forest.'
She looked into his face—but concern suddenly entered her heart when she looked at the distant look in his eyes. What was going through his head right now? But before she was able to ask him, the look went away and he nodded.
'Well, you heard her,' amity said after she finished with her long drink. 'We separate today… six of us here…' shelooked around at them all and said, 'Ok, we break into two groups of three. Me, Emira, and… Inuyasha why don't you come with us today?'
Viney shrugged, not caring and edric looked at her and flapjack , 'Guess it's the three of us today.'
'Ok,' she replied and both teams turned and walked in opposite directions. Luz put her nose to the ground and sniffed for anything that smelled of food or of belos. Not having lucky with either, she and edric kept a close watch on everything around them as flapjack —happily unaware of the potential danger—was jumping around and sniffing everything he could, trying his best to help out.
'It's great that the pups were finally born, huh?' she asked edric as they continued through the snow.
'Huh?' he asked as if he hadn't heard her. 'Oh, yeah. It's great. And I'm sure that Ava is especially glad of that. It couldn't have been fun for her having to lay around stuck all this time. I think that she's really looking forward to being able to leave and hunt again. As for her pups, I can tell that they're going to be some strong wolves when they grow up.'
'Yeah,' luz said slowly looking at his sad face. 'Edric?' she asked slowly. 'Are you ok?'
'Fine, why do you ask?' he said, but Luz could tell that he was lying.
'Edric ,' she said warningly. 'I've gotten a lot stronger since I've met you all. Don't think I can't fight. What's wrong?'
He sighed and looked up back behind him. 'I guess I can't hide it from you, Luz. The truth is I'm… I'm jealous,' he confessed.
'Jealous?' Luz repeated in confusion, 'Of what?'
'Of Ava and Owen ,' he said to her softly, as he stepped over some large stones and looked at her. 'How they finally have a family of their own and everything?'
'And you want that to?' Luz asked him in surprise.
'Someday,' he admitted as his tail stopped wagging and he looked depressed. 'You know? I mean, maybe not right now… but someday.'
Luz thought that over for a moment before she nodded, 'Yeah… someday…'
She thought about now… she had always wanted to marry one day to a man or women she loved and have children, but how can she do that when she's a wolf? Just how was she supposed to return to her former life and get all that when she was stuck like this….I mean someone could tech her how to turn back but it’s probably dangerous at the moment.
but not long later she heard it. In the distance she heard the callings of the others. Listening sharply, she wondered if it was pack-song? Just singing to be doing it, not to celebrate the kill.
No, smiling, all three of them turned around and started running towards it knowing that they found dinner. She slowed down so that flapjack could keep up, but edric was speeding up ahead of her. Just as she was about to call to him to stop, she saw it. At that moment she spotted something move out of the corner of her eyes. Edric went running past her, not noticing it, but she had stopped dead in her tracks to look into the shadows of a bunch of rocks.
What was that just now? She could've sworn that she saw something moving there… or had it just been a trick of the light?
'Luz?' Flapjack called and stopped next to her—he looked where she was and asked, 'What is it?'
'I thought I just… nothing,' she said, thinking that her mind had just been playing tricks on her. But as she was about to start running again she saw what it was. Instinctively she called out, ‘flapjack behind me!'
He did what he was told and not a moment too soon. A large tan wolf came out of nowhere and attacked—missing flapjack by inches. When he missed the pup, he spun around, looking for another attack, now foaming at the mouth. Luz let out an angry howl in warning, flapjack cowering behind her as she did so. She growled furiously at the wolf before she muttered to the pup, ‘flapjack , go and get Someone.'
'But Miss luz!' he gasped, terrified as the large wolf, bigger than any other she had seen, crouched low ready to spring again.
'Just do it!' she yelled and she charged forward, hoping to direct the enemy's attention onto herself. She ran forward, taking him by surprise, and leapt up to bite his neck. Howling with pain and fury, he began to toss his head around trying to get her off. She just bit down harder, tasting blood in her mouth and hung on as tightly as she could.
For the first time she heard the wolf speak furiously, 'Get off me dumb bitch!”
'You'll have to kill me first!' she thought back as he was now slamming her against a wall of boulders to get her to let go.
She could feel a terrible pain in her back as she was smacked over and over again, but she knew that if she let go now, she wouldn't stand a chance. If she could just hold on until someone got here…
But before she had a chance to finish that thought, something happened.
The first thing she noticed was she felt a second, very strong and powerful body, shove her from above. The appearance of the newcomer surprised her so much that her jaw opened and she fell backwards onto the hard stone. The second thing she was aware of was that she now heard loud hissing and furious barking now going at each other. Luz was so dizzy that she couldn't see straight.
She tried to push herself back up, only to collapse and gasp for air. She had a nauseating lurch in her stomach as the world flooded back into her senses. She had a few moments of horrible disorientation—trying to remember who she was, where she was—before everything rapidly settled back into place and focused. She was dizzy and feeling as if she was about to be sic, but she was able to grasp what was happening.
She flipped over and rolled back to her feet. Choking and gasping until she had air in her lungs and was able to see the scene before her. Standing there over the dead body of the murderous wolf, was another large figure… but the creature standing over the dead wolf was much longer, and graceful looking than a wolf was…
'Amity?' she called hoarsely. Her voice was edged with fear and nervousness.
The beast turned and she realized that it wasn't a wolf at all… but a albino mountain lion cat… a very big cat with large blue eyes looking at her.
'Hey there,' she said with a grin, reveling very big fangs and she stepped forward a few steps and showed off claws that were longer and sharper than any dog's. The claws of a mountain lion… 'Nice to meet you. My name's ghost … and you weren't half bad there wolf.'
Luz gasped for air as she looked around to find a trace of flapjack , but he was gone. Ghost must've guessed what she was thinking because she said in a calm tone, 'If you're looking for your pup, he went running off for help. Most likely went to go and get his father. I have to say, he's got one tough mother.'
It took luz a few minutes to realize what ghost said and turned to look at her. 'Oh, no… I'm not his mother.'
'Really?' she asked as she stretched out lazily and lay down like how king used to do whenever he was tired. 'You were willing to fight to the death to protect him. That sure looked like something a mother would do.'
Luz knew she would be blushing right now, but she was to shaken to do so. 'Anyway,' she said, 'I don't know who you are, but thank you for saving me.'
She smiled back as she flicked her tail. 'Don't mention it. I was just up there,' she looked to a spot over Luz’s head and when she looked, there was a large ledge—impossible for a dog to get up there—but perfect for a cat.
'I was looking for dinner and I heard this one,' she gestured her head to the large wolf that lay dead next to them, 'Growling. I looked and there he was charging you and your pup.'
'I already told you,' luz said at once, 'He's not my pup, but I am taking care of him.'
Ghost smiled and Luz knew that she didn't believe her. 'Well, whatever happened, I saw you go after this wolf here to protect the pup, but when I saw that you needed help, I decided to jump in. I hope you don't mind, I need to eat to.'
Luz looked at the dead wolf and shook her head. She had been forced to hunt and kill since she'd been here, but eating something like that was going too far.
'You can have him,' she told ghost honestly. Ghost got back up and went over to the kill just as luz asked, 'I haven't seen you before.'
'That's cause I live up much higher than the wolves do,' she answered. 'It's almost impossible for you to get up those steep sides, but I can manage it. I have seen you around though. You're new with Amity’s pack?'
'You know Amity?' she asked, feeling her fear of this lion slowly fade.
'We've good friends ,' Ghost confessed. 'Though I wouldn't say that we're friends with hunter. I see your pack and belos going at it all the time though. I saw you the other day when belos injured you. Are you alright now?'
'I'm fine,' luz answered truthfully. She calmed down and said with as much sincerity as she could, 'But really… thanks for saving me.'
Ghost smiled at her again and said, 'Like I said, don't mention it. You were just lucky that I had been up there when it happened. I don't usually go after wolves because they hardly hunt alone, but this one must've been hungry enough to disobey his pack and went off to attack the first thing he saw.'
'Did you know him?' she asked carefully.
'Not personally,' ghost answered. 'But I do know he's part of Belos’s pack. He's the glutton of them all however. I have heard some of those wolves call him mason.'
'Mason?' Luz replied, wincing slightly at the pain in her back where she had been rammed against the wall.
Ghost got back to her feet and bumped her head against her own. 'Is there something wrong?'
'I'll live,' she said firmly and the albino lion laughed.
'Good to hear,' she answered before she sniffed the corpse. 'If you really don't mind…?'
'Please,' Luz said, guessing what she wanted. 'He's all yours.'
'Goodie!' Ghost purred. 'I kinda thought that you would've wanted the pleasure in eating him.'
Luz shivered. 'I rather not. Just escaping with my life is enough for me.'
Just at that moment they heard the sound of pounding feet. They both turned to see Hunter , edric, Emira and amity running towards them. '
Luz!' Amity howled in panic.
She dashed forward and met them halfway, almost being run-down by their haste to get to her.
'What happened?' Amity demanded.
'I thought that you both were right behind me,' edric agreed in worry. 'Suddenly, flapjack came running out of nowhere screaming that one of belos’s wolves attacked you.'
Luz and Hunter nuzzled each other's snouts. 'I'm fine,' she assured him. She looked back at ghost and said, 'Thanks to her.'
They all looked up to see her and amity went over to her at once.
'It's that damn cat again,' Hunter said suspiciously. 'What's she doing here?'
'So you do know her,' Luz asked at once.
'We've talked before,' Hunter answered, his red eyes narrowing. 'But we have an agreement… we don't bother her, and she doesn't bother us. We really don't speak with her.'
'Well, she saved me,' Luz told him. 'If she didn't jump in when she did, Mason would've…'
'Mason?' Hunter demanded and edric looked horrified—staring around them as if expecting mason to come out and ambush them.
'It's alright!' she told him quickly. 'He's dead! Ghost took care of him! Look!'
They both just spotted the body of the tan wolf and edric went over at once to inspect it as amity spoke with Ghost.
Hunter looked back at her and asked, 'You sure you're alright? I knew that I should've have left you with Edric!' and she was surprised to hear how angry he was.
'I'm ok,' she answered and turned back to the others. Luz stopped shaking and turned to face him, 'You don't have to say sorry it wasn't your fault.'
He just looked at her long and hard before she went back up to ghost and amity who were having a polite conversation as if they were business partners in the middle of a conference. 'And that's pretty much what happened,' ghost told her coolly.
'Thanks for that, Ghost ,' amity said, her tone was filled with gratitude.
Ghost purred before she went over to the body and took it in her great jaws. With a great leap, she dragged her prey up with her and up onto the ledge she had been on. For a brief moment, she dropped it at her feet before she looked back at them and nodded her head before she turned and left.
The four of them slowly made their way back to the den after that, edric apologizing the whole way. 'I'm so sorry, luz ,' he said over and over again. 'I thought that you were right behind me. I should've known that something was wrong when you didn't catch up to me. I mean, you can beat almost all of us when it comes to racing. But I thought that you were just keeping up with flapjack … I should've…'
'Edric ,' she sighed for the hundredth time. 'Really. I'm alright. You don't have to keep apologizing. How could you have known what mason was gonna do?'
'But still,' he said sadly, his tale between his legs.
They continued walking and she asked, 'Did you guys get dinner?'
'Yeah,' Hunter said not looking at her, his head looking straight ahead of him. 'It's another goat… or a ram I guess. It's got horns anyway and it took us no time at all to hunt him.'
'We then let you guys know that we got him,' viney said at once. 'Just as we were heading back to the den, edric runs up. We thought that you guys were only going slow but…'
Edric whimpered sadly and Luz rubbed her head against him. 'It's alright,' she told him.
'Then flapjack comes running, screaming that you were in trouble,' Viney went on. 'We told him and honey to take the food back to the den and we would take care of it. We took off, and you know what happened there.'
Luz nodded.
'Just what happened?' Edric asked her in concern.
'I don't know for sure,' she answered. 'It was all so fast. I saw something moving from the bush and when I turned to look he came charging at me. I panicked and charged at him and grabbed him by the throat. But I might've just been a flea to him, I couldn't even injure him. I told flapjack to get help and I just hung on until ghost saved me.'
'Wow…' Emira said, looking at her with new respect.
'What?' Luz asked bitterly. 'I couldn't do anything except wait for someone to save me… again.'
'You just don't get it do you?' Hunter asked. And it startled her to hear how angry his tone was, but before she could ask, edric said, 'We've fought with him before. He's incredibly fast and difficult to get hold of.'
'Just fangs and one giant stomach,' Hunter went on sullenly. 'He must've been running on empty for him to go after you like that.'
'Actually, I think that he was after flapjack ,' luz said thinking back.
'Oh, that makes much more sense,' amity agreed. 'Of course that coward would've gone after a little pup.'
'How is flapjack anyway?' Luz asked at once. 'Is he alright?'
'They should be back by now,' she answered, suddenly concerned. 'They must all be worried sick.'
Just at that second, in the distance, they could see the form of another large wolf bolting for them, luz tensed up, half expecting another attack, but it was only Owen.
'What happened?' Owen demanded, once he got near them. ‘Flapjack and honey both came back crying. Saying that there was an attack…'
'Owen,' edric said quickly. 'Mason is dead.'
Owen stared at him. 'What?' he asked and they all went into the explanation of what happened. Once they finished he looked satisfied. 'Well, can't say that it's a tragedy. Good thing for us… less to worry about.'
He then turned and walked away.
'He's always hated mason ever since he ambushed him once,' edric whispered to her. 'Almost took his leg off. He's been wanting to get rid of him ever since.'
And so, tired and hungry, they all went straight back to the den. When they got there, the first thing she saw was the ball of red fur all curled up in a tiny ball at the entrance.
she called. At once, the pup looked up and looked round wildly. When he spotted her, he cried out tearfully, 'Luz!'
He then ran at her so hard and fast that when he reached her, he knocked her clean off her feet.
'Luz!' he cried out tearfully and rubbing his face against her fur as if he thought he'd never see her again… then again, there was a very good chance that she might not have made it out alive. She rubbed her snout into his red fur and said to her, 'It's alright… I'm just fine flapjack .'
'I thought that wolf was going to eat you!' he cried refusing to let go. 'I thought that he was gonna…'
He couldn't go on because the tears just continued to fall. Luz picked him back up and carried him back into the cave tiredly where honey , Ava , and the pups all were.
'Luz?' Ava asked at once. 'Are you…?'
'Fine,' she answered tiredly, hoping that they'd stop asking that. She looked over to Hunter , who was still ignoring her. She couldn't understand why he was acting like that. But she didn't get a chance to ask him as dinner started up.
Later.
After all of them finished filling their bellies, it had gotten dark and the storm that she saw coming had indeed come. They all decided to just huddle up and try to stay warm this night and soon they were all asleep—listening to the snowstorm raging outside.