Salim barely hesitated two heartbeats before he laid the kittens on the muddy ground and carefully pulled them to their mother's belly. He looked at them anxiously, just hoping that the dead lynxess still had enough milk in her and that the kittens could get it.
Valja and Akuma pressed themselves against the belly and looked for a place where they could drink in peace, regardless of each other. Salim watched them open their tiny mouths and occasionally let out a few high-pitched sounds as they felt the delicious white filling their bodies.
Relieved, Salim sighed and took a deep breath. It was working. His absolutely crazy idea had worked and the two kittens might actually get fed. To protect the little ones from the rain, the lynx stood next to their mother and bent his massive body, just that of a male and adult lynx, over the siblings. Salim watched their too-normal movements as if nothing in the world was a misfortune, as if this food could solve all the problems that existed. It seemed so peaceful, the way they drank, that Salim would have almost forgotten about Miles if the wind hadn't gotten colder and stronger.
He wanted to leave the little ones here a little longer, with their mother's dead body, to let them drink.
What if they asked him at some point what had happened to her? What if they wanted to get to know her? He couldn't tell them anything about their mother, no stories or little anecdotes. He didn't know her, didn't know how she smelled or spoke. He knew nothing about her and suddenly everything seemed so hopeless and pointless that Salim had to sigh. What was the point of the lynx raising the three of them if they were going to leave him eventually anyway? What difference did it make whether they died here or in someone else's clutches?
Salim immediately forbade himself any such thoughts. How dare he even think about it.
"The seventh law of the lynx circle. Take care of any kitten you find and raise it as if it were your own," he whispered, nodding slightly.
Then the lynx first lifted Valja by the scruff of her neck, Akuma followed and both let out a bitter mew of protest. But Salim wasn't allowed to stay away that long, because he didn't have a good feeling about leaving Miles alone for too long. He really didn't know how lynxesses did it when they had to hunt on the side and suddenly felt the greatest respect for them.
By now the fur was hanging off his body in long streaks, with more and more clumps of mud and leaves getting caught up in it. It was simply awful, Salim thought, but he didn't slow down, instead moving even faster.
But then, all of a sudden, the lynx stopped. He pricked up his ears, listened with the help of his brushes and turned his ears in every conceivable direction. Salim heard the rain pattering on the ground. The kittens meowed. And somewhere, bushes and leaves rustled on the ground. Alarmed, he glanced around his surroundings, but everything he saw had been there before. The firs and spruces, the wood sorrel, blueberries and the churned-up mud from his walk. He knew these surroundings only too well, as his cave was not far away.
And then it went through him as if he had been struck by lightning, which would not have been quite as unlikely as on a sunny day given the thunderstorm. It was the smells that didn't fit into this landscape. Of course, there was his fresh smell, that of the kitten and the foliage. But a second one, which had almost been washed out and covered by the rain, was now boring into his muzzle.
A lynx. There had been a lynx here not so long ago. How could it be that within two days his territory had already been crossed by two lynxes? His scent markings had probably long since faded, but another stranger straying here was just as unlikely as seeing the moon now.
Salim didn't allow himself to look up, as he was now fully occupied with trying to locate the source of the scent. Even if the kittens didn't particularly agree, it was just as important for their safety to know if there was anyone else here. Slowly and carefully, he stuck his nose in the air and tried to follow the scent.
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And to his shock, the three followed it straight to his cave.
Salim's breathing quickened involuntarily, and he started to run when he was sure that the trail led to his cave. This couldn't be true. He'd gone off to feed Valja and Akuma and yet another lynx had strayed into his territory and wanted to claim it for himself immediately. It really was too much action lately. In the first few moons it had been so quiet and still here, which was exactly why he had stayed, but now everything seemed to change in one fell swoop.
He panted through the little one's fur and gasped exhaustedly for air again and again, but he didn't want to, indeed he couldn't, stop. Too much was at stake if he didn't get there in time. He didn't want to imagine what had happened to Miles. He hoped that nothing had happened to him and that Salim had hidden him under enough moss, but that was too unlikely to believe.
He broke through the bushes that offered some protection to the entrance of the cave and found himself in the darkness of his home just a few heartbeats later.
Salim winced as the smell of the strange lynx polluted the air here too and settled on all his home stones. It had to be a lynxess, the smell told him, but there was, it seemed, something else. It was the sweet scent of blood that forced its way into his muzzle and made him cringe. The smell he usually loved when the red water shot through his body when he ate. This time, however, it sent a shiver down his spine and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up involuntarily.
He carefully set Valja and Akuma down on the hard stone floor, who had suddenly fallen silent and were huddled close together. Perhaps they sensed the unrest in Salim's body, perhaps they smelled the blood or sensed the atmosphere of death.
Slowly, the lynx walked towards his sleeping place and a deep fear almost overwhelmed him when he saw what lay there. The small body of Miles, still so young, was barely recognizable under all the blood that had gushed from his throat and now encrusted everything near him. The lynx's lifeless eyes glared at Salim from dark sockets. The lynxess must have opened them forcibly, because no lynx at such an age could lift its eyelids. Salim, on the other hand, almost retched at the horrible sight. The fur was still smooth from the lynx's tongue, it must have been killed while it was still asleep.
And then everything around Salim collapsed. His cave blurred before his eyes and was covered in black spots. He felt sick and if he hadn't been aware of the presence of the kittens, he would have vomited. He would never have believed that a lynx, a lynxess at that, could commit such a crime and immediately all his respect for lynxesses vanished. How could someone like that manage to kill a little kitten that couldn't even defend itself? Salim's breathing quickened with grief and despair. His little son, who was not his own, had gone up into the sky despite all his efforts.
The lynx wheeled around in rage and anger, ran outside where the rain was pattering on his fur and swiveled his head back and forth.
"Come out, you miserable murderer!" he roared in grief, "I know you're still here, but believe me, you'll regret this! Nobody kills Miles and gets away with it!" He paused briefly as his helpless sobs choked his words. "You won't get Valja and Akuma."
A storm of innumerable emotions raged inside him and threatened to suffocate him. He could barely hold a clear thought. He stood still in the rain for several thousand heartbeats before slowly walking back into the cave. He briefly closed his eyes in despair before taking a deep breath. Valja and Akuma would not be killed by her. He would never let that happen. Only with great effort did he muster the strength to join the two of them.
"I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I wish I'd paid more attention. I'm sorry," he whispered dejectedly into the little ears of his siblings, who snuggled up close to his fur. He didn't know if they had understood his words, but their touch comforted the troubled lynx.
"Please forgive me."