Is this how two cats in nature make peace with eachother? They lick their wounds mutually?
I gave a sigh rather loudly, but they still disregarded me, continuing to lick eachother vehemently as I pondered what it was that they were doing…
Eventually, after a minute or so of their tongues roaming eachother’s dirty bodies, they separated and Tessa stood up.
A moment later, Linda poised herself to stand as well, and as soon as she did, Tessa’s hand was hooked underneath her arm. Tessa easily lifted Linda off of the floor, having nestled her head on Linda’s shoulder as soon as Linda was out of the mud.
Linda leaned forwards, placing her weight on Tessa as the two of them started to purr loudly, their arms encircling eachother. Their eyes closed, their purring growing louder as they hugged eachother tightly.
“Linda, Tessa, what happened?”
Linda opened her eyes, directing her golden gaze straight onto my face.
“Tessa. Make friend.”
She then closed her eyes again, her tail wrapping around Tessa’s leg. Tessa opened her eyes at this, giving a bright smile as she snuggled Linda harder.
“Anyway...We need to find the source of the smell, think you could leave this for later?”
Linda opened up her eyes, her tail uncoiling from Tessa as she separated her arms. She gave a slight nod, as she turned her body towards me. Despite her normally unstable stance, this time Tessa supported her body, leading to Linda’s steps being stable and steady.
“Alffa. Blood.That way…”
Her largely uninjured arm swung up, giving me the same direction as last time, pointing towards where I saw the hill from the top of the tree.
I nodded, picking her light body up with hardly and effort and placing it on my back.
“Tess Tess… Lead please…”
From my back the soft voice of Linda rang out in the morning air, and off to the side Tessa nodded, instantly friendly towards Linda instead of her normally hostile attitude. God damn, this feels weird…
Tessa looked at me, making sure that I was ready to follow her when she started running.
“Take me there Tessa…”
She nodded, speeding up into a run that must have been at least 30 miles per hour, which I had trouble keeping up with but was still able to do. To her it seemed like she was hardly jogging. That makes sense, considering that her agility was probably more than twice mine…
As we sprinted through the dense woods the numerous obstacles hardly slowed us down at all. For different reasons of course. With nothing to do but run, my eyesight wandered and my mind went with it.
My eyes fell onto Tessa’s figure as she was running, the way her body moved, the way her muscles contracted and expanded, she was beautiful. Like a moving work of art, jumping a branch here, flipping over a fallen log there, using that tree as a foothold to spring forward with another burst of speed. Like a dancer or some form of acrobatic panther, unhindered by the dense forest terrain. She seemed right at home here...
Truly beautiful…
On the other hand, I am just brute forcing my body forward, smashing a log here, snapping a tree branch there. A fallen log? Just run forwards… Tree branch in the way? Just run forwards… No need for fancy acrobatics, I have the momentum to just force it all out of my way. Like a rhino or a bulldozer.. Whatever that is...
“Which Type of blood is it Linda? Predator, or Prey?”
Linda shook her head.
“Don’t… Know…”
She doesn’t know? That means that she hasn’t smelled it yet, right? Could it be something we haven’t hunted yet? Or maybe something we encountered but never fought.
We continued on in silence for a few moments, the sound of the heavy winds were the only things that filled the gap as the hill grew larger and larger in the distance, its peak growing and growing so that I could now see it over the tree layer.
“Alffa. Blood, stronger.”
I forced myself to take a deep breath, disrupting my steady rhythmic breathing that I had been using to keep myself on track with Tessa.
The smells of the forest once more filled my nose and I set to work analyzing them once again, the memories of the previous hunts filling my mind as I sorted out what was in the air around me...
Tree, Tree, Plant, Plant, Prey, Plant, Tree…
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I then chanced upon a small strand of a scent that made my body go cold.
Blood…
This blood was new… unlike anything I had smelled before… What’s more there were two types, each with a different smell, pervasive in the air of the forest, growing in thickness as the seconds passed. Whatever was wounded, it was dying quickly.
I propelled my body through the terrain as fast as possible in order to see what it was that was waiting for us near the hill.
Ahead of me, Tessa stopped, her body crouching down on a fallen log as her hair stood on end. I slowed down, stopping a few feet from her.
“What is it Tessa?”
She flinched, her ears twitching rapidly at my words. She swiveled around on a dime, her movements almost too quick to follow with my eyes as she placed her hand over my mouth.
Her free hand moved to her mouth, placing a single finger vertically over her lips.
Ah, even I know this one, the universal “Shut the fuck up” message.
I complied, only slightly annoyed that I was unable to be as aware of my surroundings as my entourage. Following her lead, I pressed myself into the damp moss that was under the log.
Silently Linda slid down from my back, and if she wasn’t connected to me by touch I would have never even noticed.
Her two clawed feet landed in the moss, and she repeated Tessa’s movements, keeping her motions limited, and her sounds muffled.
There we sat, motionless, soundless, for a minute, with Tessa’s eyes peering above the log, searching for whatever it was that had set her on edge.
A moment later, her ear twitched and she looked at me, as her gaze snapped to a point far off. She turned her head to me quickly, then gave me a light smile as she lifted her body onto the log soundlessly.
I watched in wonder as she hopped lightly, reaching a dozen feet into the air. Her right hand latched onto a branch, causing it to sway gently as she pulled herself up without any effort. A split second later she had poised herself on the branch and jumped to some place outside of my vision.
As I was putting strength into my legs to follow her, a hand was placed on my shoulder, pressing lightly down. The strength used was minimal,but the message was clear. Don’t go.
I looked at the source of the inhibition, finding Linda giving me a stern look as her golden eyes stared straight at my face. She shook her head then pressed her body close to mine and put her mouth right next to my ear.
She spoke in a quiet whisper, hardly loud enough for me to hear with my enhanced hearing, so soft that it almost didn’t make sound at all.
“Tessa go alone. Alffa trust Tessa.”
She removed the hand from my shoulder, placing it back into the moss at our feet as she leaned on the log.
My gaze wandered towards her body, now that I don’t have anything to do but wait for Tessa to return.
Linda’s body was covered in wounds, from the puncture wound in her leg to the claw and bite marks caused by Tessa. Honestly, I was surprised that she was still moving let alone alive, the amount of blood loss would probably have killed most humans. Then again, she isn’t human, or anything remotely close to one.
Infact I think some of her moderately serious wounds were already sealed, as they had all stopped bleeding a long time ago, and the skin seemed less inflamed then it had when we left the clearing. Perhaps the licking sessions between the two was actually helping instead of just healing mental injuries. Maybe it was something like a coagulative saliva thing that makes the bleeding stop and helps recovery…
Ya, something like that…
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Oh god, I cant concentrate… Too many chapters to read, too many things to think about.
I promised this yesterday, but due to complications (Party at my house IRL) I couldnt write this…
For real, I will continue with the story, just… one more chapter of Wuxia… maybe two…
Oh god… I can’t stop…
Enjoy, sorry if I missed your species, I noted a few more down in the google doc, will upload the list soon, with the next chap.
Things be happening in the book, and it will start to take off…
I don’t have the mental strength to sway myself any longer..
To wuxia once more T.T