Spoiler! :
Chapter 5
Amberose crashed through the thicket, and almost skidded into a tree before catching her balance again and taking off in a new direction. Her eyes were focused as she rounded another bend in the forest path. Her prey was trying to escape.
The ground in this terrain was rough as she had tracked the cougar to the country surrounding the mountain-side, and up there, it was rough and rocky. Slipping meant landing hard on sharp stones and hard-packed, weathered earth. The gnarled trees were the only outliers, the further she went up the ever-sloping terrain, the more shrunken and withered the evergreens became.
Where she was though, the trees were still tall and relatively straight. It was part of what made hunting the big cat so difficult. She had to dodge and weave around the big trunks, a feat easier for the animal than for she.
The gun in her hand was slowing her down as well, but if she managed to catch the big cat, she would need that powerful chamber of destruction.
Her breathing came faster as she sped up to catch sight of a tawny hide leaping along the earth in great graceful bounds. The cougar was getting tired; she had surprised it in the middle of a kill. Amberose was lucky, she had its kill and now a big cat tired from its own hunting.
The cougar made one greater leap into a massive pine tree, the branches swaying under its weight, creaking with the groan of wood under stress. The needled leaves fell to the ground below, covering a small portion of the dusty earth. This season had been drier than most. She skidded to a stop and half-crouched, trying to get a visual on the cat.
She did not want to get too close, just close enough to get off a shot. Even when treed the cougar was formidable, and even more so since in the tree it had a tactical height advantage and could pounce on her from above.
If that happened, the gun would not do much good unless she got off a miracle shot. Amberose squinted and focused on a patch of tawny hide with a twitching black-tipped tail high up in the air near the middle of the tree trunk.
She raised the gun to her shoulder and closed one eye to focus the sighting bead on a section of the animal she considered closest to a kill shot. Of course, a shot to the head was her preferred shot, but she could not see its scowling face. So a body shot was what she was going to take.
Amberose took a deep breath to calm any nerves and reached out her right index finger to switch off the safety. As she pulled the trigger, she was suddenly hit from behind and the gun jerked making the bullet fly high and past the tree. The sound made birds fly from the trees and caw in anger.
Amberose went reeling from the blow, and she rolled as she hit the ground bringing herself back up on her feet from experience. She had managed to keep hold of the gun and she swung it around to meet her attacker.
Her eyes saw another Wild One with calculating yellow eyes observing her with curiosity. It was a girl of about Amberose’s own age, but she could have easily been younger. The Wild tended to age those who lived there prematurely. Amberose herself looked much older than her almost nineteen years. Her face had lines in it from the sun, and her skin was dark gold.
In other ways though, the Wild invigorated those in its spell. Amberose looked both weary and enlivened; old and young; strong and fragile; mysterious and known. It was the Wild that brought out the duality in humanity. It was a delicate balance, and easily tipped in the way that led to being a Soulless. Amberose was not going to take that path willingly.
Amberose let out a small growl of disapproval in being disrupted in the middle of her hunt. And the other girl narrowed her eyes and returned with a growl of her own. They edged around each other in a circle like cats over a kill, trying to get a measure off of the other and to see who would look away first.
Amberose assessed the girl as a threat, and was not going to turn her back on her, not after what she had done.
The girl with the yellow eyes snarled and eyed the gun in Amberose’s hands. The dull metal of the barrel glinted in the sunlight, a small sign that it did not belong in the Wild. Nothing that glitters was natural.
Good, she recognizes that I have an advantage, Amberose thought dangerously. She would not hesitate to use that gun if the girl turned out to be an enemy.
She was surprised therefore when the girl stopped moving and tried to lessen her appearance as a threat by raising her hands in surrender and lowering her eyes in a sign of submission to Amberose’s dominance.
Amberose stopped as well, keeping the gun on the girl; she was afraid this was a trick and looked around her quickly, scanning the tree line and any large boulders for hidden threats. The girl could just be a diversion and might not be working alone.
“What do you want?” Amberose asked gruffly. Her dark golden eyes never let the girl get out of her sight.
The yellow eyed girl just looked at her, as if she didn’t understand and Amberose wondered if the girl was one of the Soulless. No, that wasn’t possible; a Soulless would not have stopped fighting.
“Why did you attack me?” Amberose tried again with a different tact.
This time the girl shrugged and replied in a soft, young voice, “You were going to kill my predator.”
Amberose was shocked. “Your predator? I was not aware that another Wild One lived in my area. Or that I had to ask permission to hunt in my own territory.”
The girl shrugged again noncommittally. “I haven’t been here long. I’ve been following you most days to see if you were a threat to me. And I could not let you harm the cat, she is my…cat.”
Amberose stiffened. So she hadn’t been imagining something following her in the shadows. She had thought her paranoia was just getting the best of her. This was news.
“What is your name?” Amberose asked.
The girl frowned. “What is a name?”
Her question made Amberose sad. This girl was on her way to becoming a Soulless. Perhaps it wasn’t too late yet.
“It is what others call you, to tell you apart,” Amberose replied carefully. “You do have a name don’t you? From before the Wild?”
“There has never been a before for me,” the girl said in turn. Her yellow eyes were back to being curious.
Amberose took in the rest of her unkempt appearance. Dark brown hair, dirty skin, and tattered clothes sewn and tied haphazardly together from scraps of leather, some with the fur still attached. She looked the part of a true Wild One.
“Well, I have to call you something,” she sighed. “What do you wish to be called, girl?”
The girl looked puzzled for a moment. “Why?” she asked. She did not understand why Amberose would want to give her a name.
Amberose smiled gently, finally lowering the gun making the girl more at ease. “Because I’ve decided to let you stay with me, as long as I can trust you.”
The girl smiled tentatively. “What is your…name?” she asked as an answer.
“I am called Amberose, and I have decided that you shall be called Nera,” she answered kindly.
“Nera,” the girl said it, testing the name out on her tongue. “I like it.”
“Yes, I think it suits you,” Amberose said. She was not used to talking to someone for so long. She didn’t know what had spurred her to take in the girl. It must have been her appearance and desire to save the cat. Amberose sighed.
“Come, Nera, since I cannot kill your cat, we must find a bear or a moose while the day is young,” Amberose announced as she dusted herself off from her fall to the ground. Nera was strong for someone so young. Amberose was not easily knocked to the ground.
The newly christened Nera smiled widely. “I know where a herd of moose are right now!”
She was excited to have finally befriended Amberose. All those days of watching her had made her hope to get to know her. She knew from seeing Amberose hunt that she was exceptionally skilled and a good choice for protection.
She needed Amberose. And Amberose wasn’t aware just how much she was actually helping Nera.
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