One Hell of an Adventure Chp 2

    “RUN!” Walter shouts. I forget the sausage and scramble after the brown Shedu. The butcher behind us huffs, but I don’t look back. I focus on catching up to Walter who’s steadily gaining speed like a bat out of hell. He runs effortlessly, his legs smoothly folding under his body before lashing out to gain more ground. My claws kick up dirt as I reach my full sprint. With Walter way in the lead, we bolt out of the small town and up a slope. Walter slows to a jog before halting near an outcrop of boulders.

    “That was close, I didn’t hear him coming,” I pant with my brown head bowed.

    “Me neither,” Walter pants slightly as well.

    “How-how did you run that fast?” I look at him out of the corner of my eye in curiosity.

    “Almost all Shedus are born to run,” Walter explains kindly. “Where I’m from, Shedus are used in races and fights. So I guess you can say it’s in my blood. But there are a lot of others who are faster than I,” he looks crestfallen.

    “Well, I think you’re pretty fast,” I laugh between breaths, “You sure gave me a run for my money.”

    Walter grins and settles beside me. “What are we going to do now? We can’t go back into that town. How are we going to get food and directions?”

    I look up in thought. Thousands of stars twinkle above our heads in the darkness.

    “Are you sure this is a good idea?” Walter nervously asks.

    “Of course! Tokotas excel at hunting,” I say proudly.

    “I’ve never heard of Shedus hunting,” Walter murmurs, “Maybe I should sit this one out.” I look him over as we walk over a rocky slope. His lean muscles twitch nervously. He may be a fast runner, but it seemed like he wouldn’t come out of a moose hunt in one piece.

    “That’s ok,” I say after a while, “perhaps you can draw the prey closer to me then. Since I’m one Tokota, it’ll be hard to make an easy kill.” Walter nods.

    “It’s a shame we couldn’t have one more hunter with us,” Walter sighs. We continue walking in silence for a moment. As we walk over another slope, a large blob moves toward us.

    “The hell is that?!” Walter’s fur bristles and cowers behind me. I growl in warning at the moving blob. It stops short. I squint my orange eyes and recognize thick shaggy fur.

    “I think it’s a Tokota,” I whisper. Walter looks at me incuriously.

            “You sure about that Feu? Looks more like Cousin It to me,” Walter grumbles as the blob begins bouncing towards us again. The closer the mysterious creature gets, the more distinguishable it becomes. I immediately notice the creature is indeed a Tokota with a cream colored collar that thickly coats over its neck. Its body is comfortably covered with tundra colored fur with light brown dun spidering down its shoulder.

    “Hello there!” the creature greets with a pleasant chirp. The Tokota, a yeti Tokota mind you, smiled and looked behind me. “Who’s your friend?” Walter sharply shifts behind me.

    “Ah, this is Walter, a Shedu” the cat specie name rolls awkwardly off my tongue. “And I am Feu.”

    “Nice to meet you Walter and Feu! I am April,” she says brightly. “Why do you two look so glum?”

    I take my time explaining the situation to our newly found friend. She offers her sympathy and actively takes part in the conversation. I learn that she lives no far from where we sit and has a rather kind handler that would let us spend the night in their barn.

    “That would be wonderful!” I smile at the thought of a warm bed. Meanwhile, Walter grumbles about not trusting an eyeless fluffball.

    “Anything for a friend,” April nods, her shaggy fur bounces. My stomach suddenly releases a torrent of hungry roars. “Hungry, ain’t cha?” April giggles.

    “We’ve been searching for food all day,” I sigh in defeat. The hunger in my stomach was becoming unbearable.

    “I can help you guys out, I love hunting,” April rises to her feet. Walter and I haul ourselves up as well. “There were some moose tracks earlier, if we hurry, we can catch up.” I give her my thanks and begin to follow her. Walter seemed hesitant, but immediately began moving when I told him that the “eyeless fluffball” will eat him if we don’t find food.

    April set us at a jog over the rocky moor. The stars lit our way and I could faintly see the moose tracks in their light. By the amount of hoof tracks, the herd seemed small.

    And they were moving slowly.

    “They’re close! Just over the rise,” April said on my left. The ground turned into a steep incline. We take our time climbing up the rocks. I gingerly step on a rock and find myself scrambling when it crumbles. Walter quickly steadies me with his shoulder and I nod silently in thanks. Eventually, we make it to the top.

    “Got a plan?” April crouches just below the peak. The moose herd graze in the far moor on the other side. I look to my right at Walter.

            April and I take our positions just under the rocky peak and out of eyesight from the herd. I sneak a peak over the rise and see Walter moving in on the herd. He crouches and locates the selected moose from the outskirts of the herd. He slowly gets up and starts jogging before speeding up to sprint. His long strides kick up dirt and rocks that alert the herd. The moose become startled and bolt in a chaotic frenzy. Walter focuses on separating the weak moose from the herd. I see him come at its left flank and hiss. The moose is terrified and bolts to the right in our direction. It’s still off course and Walter makes a hard turn, creating a large dust circle, to scare the moose closer to our position. The moose aligns with our positions and quickly scales the peak.

            Perfect.

            I look to April and nod. She signals back and gathers herself for the attack. I can hear the panicked breath of the moose. My adrenaline spikes and gives my muscles strength.

            “Ohhhh shit!” Walter scrambles up the peak and flies right over me. His job is now done.

            Now it’s our turn.

            The moose explodes over the rocky rise and bellows in fear. April snarls and leaps onto the moose. It screeches in pain as her claws dig into its flank. She tries to reach for its throat, but the moose looses its footing on the rocky slope and tumbles. April yelps in surprise and rolls off the moose. I spring into action and descend down the slope. The moose rolls to the bottom and barely scrambles to its feet before I leap on its back.  My claws dig in, tiny rivers of blood flow from the wounds.

    “Get ‘em Feu!” April encourages as the moose collapses under me. I can see the moose’s pain in its eyes. I can see its will weakening.

            Thank you for your sacrifice I think as I bare my teeth and crunch down on its windpipe. The moose struggled for a second before slowing to a stiff halt and let out its last breath. April came up beside me.

            “Good kill,” she complements. I let go of the prey and licked the blood on my lips. “This will feed all of us very well.”

            Walter bounds up to us and looks at the moose. “That thing sure give ya a good fight. Does it taste good?”

            With that, we all settled around the moose and began do dig in. The fresh meat warmed my stomach and set my taste buds alight. April remarks how good it tasted and all I did was nod with a mouth full of meat. Walter appears to like it too. He bites off small pieces and chews thoroughly before swallowing, savoring every bite.

            We take our time to eat. By the time everyone finishes, our bellies are filled to the brim.

            “So much better than those sausages at the butcher would ever be,” Walter groans in satisfaction. I nod in agreement. I look to April, who is licking off the blood on her shaggy fur.

            “We should probably get moving soon, the blood is going to attract bears,” she says in between licks. We all manage to haul ourselves to our feet. I grunt in effort and try to shake the drowsiness from my head.

            “Uff, I’m tired,” I yawn, my jaws stretch to the sky.

            “The barn where my handler is living isn’t too far from here,” April hears my yawn, “You two can spend the night there. As long as we clean ourselves up first.”

            I look to Walter and he nods. “It’s not like wherever we are heading is going anywhere. We don’t even know where to go next,” he says.

            “We would love to spend the night,” I yawn and drag my feet in the direction of the barn.

To be continued…..