White Ghost and the Poison Arrow (8 page)

Chapter 5

Arella is
awoken in the night by a terrible sound. She sits bolt upright,
silence all around her. Was she just dreaming? Then she heard it
again. A piercing cry, and a growl, then another piercing cry.
Arella has never heard anything like it. What could it be? The
sound seems to be all around her and she cannot work out where is
it coming from or what it is. Arella cannot hear any other noises,
no other animals of the night, not the sound of the wind rushing
through the trees. The darkness is disorientating, and Arella is
confused. She wonders if she might still be dreaming and that this
is part of a nightmare. Arella pinches her arm. “Ouch, nope not
dreaming.” Then she heard the sound again, this time closer. There
are no other noises. No owls hooting, or crickets chirping. Even
the wind seems to have stopped rustling the trees. All she can hear
is the piercing cry of an animal in pain. It is not any noise she
recognises. Not the sound or a motto deer, or a paloa fox a bison…
What could it be?

The bushes near
the back of her clearing rustle and the growling comes closer.
Arella feels her heart beating faster, fast enough to beat out of
her chest. She wants to know what it is that is making the noise
but is scared. What if the growling is coming from a different
animal, the one that made the other in pain? What if it’s now
coming for her? Is she high enough in her tree that whatever it is
won’t get her? With this though Arella taker her grathon in hand,
shaking with fear she holds it tight, the bloodglass shining in the
pale moonlight, ready for whatever foul beast emerges from the
bushes, intent on killing her as well as making her its meal.

Out of the darkness a shape appears, black as night itself.
Its bright yellow eyes looking directly at Arella, but something is
wrong. It does not look at her with hunger, but with pain. There is
a strange smell in the air… Blood! Arella realises what is wrong.
The auron cat is injured, and from the strength of the blood smell,
she would say it was serious. The auron cat walks through her
clearing, limping on its left front leg. Arella recognises the cat
instantly. This was the auron cat that passed her by in the forest
just last week. She knows this because it has the same white patch
behind its left ear. It moans in pain again as it limps on.
“
Poor thing.”
Arella thinks. “
I wonder what’s wrong
with it.”
Because of the way it is facing,
Arella cannot see why the auron cat is limping and what must be
causing it so much pain.

Arella watches as the cat limps out of her view of sight,
still making pained noises as it goes, calling to something that is
not calling back to her. Arella is torn. On the one hand she knows
that auron cats can be dangerous and it could kill her without
thinking twice, even as injured as it is, but on the other hand,
she does not want to see it suffer. She would not forgive herself
if the auron cat was in pain and slowly dying for the next week but
she did nothing about it. Arella looks to the stars for an answer.
“
What do I do? Do I follow the auron cat
and take away her pain? Or do I stay here and keep myself
safe?”
As if to answer her question, a
shooting star darts across the sky, burning blue as it goes. Arella
takes this as a sign that she needs to do something, and she climbs
down from her tree house. She takes her grathon with her, and tucks
her bloodglass dagger into her boot. She starts her feet moving
before she has the chance to have a second thought, refusing to
turn back, determined to follow the auron cat to end her
pain.

Following the
trail made by the auron cat is easy. Her paw marks in the still
damp mus are clear but sometimes smudged, grass is flattened on
either side of the paw prints and there are cracked and broken
twigs all over the area where the cat has been walking. Although
the way it swerves back and forth is a little unsettling. It must
be really hurt for it to be struggling to walk in a straight line.
Arella passes a bush that looks as though something fell into it on
her left hand side, and she sees something dark and sticky on the
leaves. She touches it. Blood. Still warm. She’s not far behind the
cat. Arella can hear its pitiful moans and calls ahead of her. It
brings a lump to her throat. She knows that auron cat is a predator
and would likely kill her, but in the same way, this was the same
cat that spared her life last week when she could have easily
climbed into the tree Arella was hiding in and eaten her.

Arella pushes
further on into the forest, coming to parts she does not recognise,
walking for miles. The woodland becomes less dense, and more and
more clearings start to appear. Wild flowers and bushes filled with
berries and nuts fill these clearings, but the trail of flattened
grasses, broken branches and blood on leaves continues. The auron
cat is clearly determined to get somewhere. This worries Arella.
There is only one thing she could think of that would make anything
so determined to get anywhere when they were in such a bad
conditions. Babies. The auron cat must have kittens. This brings a
whole new sadness to Arella. It is bad enough for one animal to
lose its life for nothing, but for its kittens as well… Arella
hopes that her theory is wrong, but she knows deep down that she
will be right.

The ground
beneath Arella’s feet becomes more stony, and the grasses grow in
clumps rather than one long bed. The sun is beginning to rise and a
red glow covers the morning sky by the time Arella catches sight of
the auron cat. The trees are all but gone, and the landscape is
fairly flat. Small rocky outcrops cover the land, and Arella loses
sight of the auron cat behind them every now and then. She keeps
walking in a straight line, following the footprints and blood
drips left by the injured cat. Her mournful calls can still be
heard, but her pace looks to have slowed. Arella can see from the
trails on the ground, the cat is now dragging her left front paw on
the ground. Arella’s heart aches for the auron cat. She picks up
her pace in order to catch up with her but her legs are beginning
to ache. The sounds of the auron cat is making could be attracting
predators too, which means wolves. Arella knows she would not be
able to handle a pack of wolves. She must get to the auron cat
soon. Arella knows she could not watch the cat be torn apart by a
wolf pack. Arella has no idea how long she has walked for, but it
might have been most of the night.

Arella’s hand
is beginning to cramp. She did not realise she was holding the
grathon so tightly. Arella feels a little exposed in the open land
like this, and pulls her hood up to shield herself from the coming
sunlight, but she still feels exposed. After spending the last week
hiding, it feels strange to be willingly walking through open land.
The sun beats down on Arella's back, heating her skin and making
her sweat. A headache has started to form in Arella's head,
dehydration setting in after the long walk following the cat, but
she must push on.

Arella keeps
her eyes on the ground, following the weakening footsteps of the
auron cat. The sun is too bright for her to watch the auron cat
directly, the sun bouncing off the dry stony ground, reflecting
into her eyes, making it hard to see. Black shadows flit across the
ground. Arella looks up into the brightening sky to see what they
are. As she squints up at the sky she sees great black vultures
circle in the skies above, not far ahead of where Arella is
standing. A dark feeling fills the pit of Arella’s stomach.
Vultures are dark signs, and death usually follows, although Arella
hopes it will not be her death. The fate of the auron cat is
already sealed, she just hopes she can end it for her quicker and
with less pain than slowly bleeding to death.

Arella is gaining on the auron cat, and she begins to get
closer to her back. A gust of wind blows from behind Arella,
pushing her scent forwards. The auron cat catches this scent and
lifts its head. She turns to the side, wincing as she does do and
looks directly at Arella. It is now when Arella can see what has
caused the cat so much pain. An arrow juts from her left shoulder,
broken off close to the skin but clearly visible. She doesn’t
recognise the make of the arrow. The auron cat must have gotten too
close to a villages livestock. ”
Poor thing.
She was only looking for food.”
Arella
thinks. “
Humans can be so cruel. There was
no way the auron cat was going to hurt one of the villagers, just
take one of the young bison for her tea. There was no need to
attack her.”
Arella is filled with anger,
but there is nothing she can do to change this.

Arella is close
enough to see the severity of the wound, and the auron cat stays
perfectly still, judging Arella in silence, her big yellow eyes
watching her intently. The fur around the arrow is dark with blood,
and looks matted. The cat holds her left front poor off the ground,
seeming to not be able to put any weight on it. Arella takes a step
forwards and the auron cat growls softly. She turns her back on
Arella then continues to walk. Arella follows cautiously, not sure
what to do next.

The auron cat
veers off to the left and towards one of the rocky outcrops. She
calls out and huffs as she gets close. A higher pitched call comes
from inside the rocks, and Arella’s worst fears are confirmed. The
cat has kittens. She slinks down into a large opening under one of
the larger rocks with a massive effort. The pain is clear to see,
even from where Arella is. She stays well back from the opening of
the den respecting the personal space of the injured auron cat,
trying to think what she should do next. Going into the den with
the cat and her kitten would be dangerous, so she must wait until
the cat comes out.

Arella can hear purring, but it is high pitched and sounds
like it is only coming from one source. “
She only has one kitten?”
This is
unusual. auron cats usually have large litters. Perhaps the others
were eaten by other predators. Either way, Arella fears for its
life now its mother is sure to die. Doubt begins to form in
Arella's mind. She is not sure she could kill the cat. It would
leave the kittens without a mother, and they would surely
die.

As the sun
grows higher in the sky, Arella finds shade under one of the larger
rocks about thirty feet away from the opening of the den. She can
hear the moans and whines coming from the mother, and the tormented
cries of the kitten for its injured mother. Arella’s heart is
breaking and she knows she must do something soon. Just as she is
about to get up to go over to the den, yellow eyes peer at her from
the darkness. They blink once, twice then move in the darkness. The
great black auron cat hauls herself out of her den and walks
towards Arella. Her heart beating hard, Arella stands up, hands
shaking and sweat dripping off her brow. As the cat pads closer to
her, Arella relaxes slightly. It does not look at her with the
intent to kill her, only with sadness in its eyes. Arella loosens
the grip she has on the grathon, dropping it to the ground as the
cat moves slowly towards her.

The auron cat
stands in front of Arella, big yellow eyes looking up at her and
huffs. She is within touching distance, yet Arella no longer fears
her. Arella drops to her knees and the auron cat is now taller than
her. She looks the great cat in the eyes, and the cat stares back
at her. Arella extends her right hand towards to cat. She pulls
back slightly, looking at the hand, the presses her face into it,
closes her eyes and relaxes. A flood of feeling pass through
Arella. Her first though is that this is amazing. The power this
cat possess is immense, and Arella can feel all of her strength and
power in that one touch, but she is saddened by the knowledge the
she will need to end the life of the beautiful creature. The cat
seems to know this fact, and her eyes fix of the hilt of the dagger
in Arella’s boot, then looks Arella in the eyes again. “You know I
don’t want to do this right?” Arella says to the great cat. She
just stares at Arella and purrs. Her purr is broken and stuttered.
Tears begin to form in Arella’s eyes. “But what about your kitten?”
Arella asks. The auron cat presses her face into Arella’s hand and
something strange happens. Arella closes her eyes and an image
appears in the blackness. Arella is holding the kitten in her arms
and walking back through the forest towards her tree house. The
image then changes and Arella is walking through the woods with
that same kitten, except now the kitten is not a kitten but a full
grown auron. When Arella comes out of the semi-dream the cat
inflicted on her, she is breathless and dizzy. “You want me to look
after him? Help him grow up?” Arella is confused. “But why me?” The
cat does not answer, she only looks at the dagger with intent. A
tear falls from Arella’s eye, wetting her cheek and falling to the
ground. “I don’t know how to do this.” Arella’s voice breaks as she
talks. The great auron cat seems to answer this question for her.
She lies herself on the ground on her side and purrs softly.

Arella takes
the bloodglass dagger in her shaking hand, aims it at the auron
cats chest and pauses. She takes one last look into the eyes of the
cat and with tears clouding her vision, drives it into her heart.
The cat winces with the pain, takes one last breath then passes
away. Arella pulls the dagger from her dead body, drops it on the
floor and weeps for the life she has just took.

Chapter 6

Through teary
eyes and broken sobs Arella looks at the body of the creature she
just killed. Her beautiful black fur matted with blood, the wound
from the arrow raw and painful. She looks smaller now somehow, like
death has made her shrink. Sadness washes over Arella and she feels
like it will never lift. She disappears once again into a flood of
tears and prays for mercy from the gods for taking a life when it
was not hers to take. Arella looks at her hand, covered in blood.
She recoils from it, horrified at the sight. Her body is once again
racked with loud cries of pain. Arella clutches her chest, her
heart breaking. She has never taken the life of something she was
not intending to use. Arella feels like a murdered, a stone cold
killer.