Chapter 13: Save her

I woke up to see Mint still asleep. I had wondered what Jayfeather was trying to tell me last night... I hope that Mint wouldn't get hurt, I would rather it be me.

Since she was still asleep I figured I would catch something for her. I got up from the branch and then began sniffing in the air. There were not as many scents as there were last night but there were still a few nearby.

I went after the closest vole that I could smell.

I saw it and did what I normally did to catch a vole and a mouse. I went after it and easily caught it.

I then put the vole down and sniffed to see if anything else was nearby. But the mouse I had smelt earlier was gone and there was nothing that I really knew nearby. I could smell other prey but I just couldn't smell a vole or a mouse. And we weren't in the type of territory where we could catch a rabbit.

I would just share it with Mint whenever she woke up. I then began to head back to the branch that we had stayed at last night. I looked up but she was nowhere to be seen. And since I had gone after the vole that wasn't close by I didn't know when exactly she had gotten up.

I tried sniffing for her scent but it was a bit of an older scent and I couldn't tell the exact direction in was heading. I was tempted to yell like I did last night but I wasn't too sure about the area we were in right now.

Tristan had told me about how some cats attacked and killed others. I believed it because the cats that used to come to our old place used to tell is about how some cats would attack you.

This looked like the type of area where I couldn't be too careful. I would just wait and hope that she was doing the same thing I was. I almost wanted to eat the vole but if Mint didn't come back with anything then I didn't really want her to be starving.

She had only actually caught 1 real animal in her life. I wasn't all that hungry but I was slightly hungry. I just went below the branch that we had slept at last night and decided to wait it out.

I then felt a little scared, I tried clearing the thoughts that I was thinking in my head. What if another cat caught her, this looked like the type of area this might happen. What if she had left and gone back to her home. She did seem a bit weary about all the things that had happened over the past few days.

I then heard some footsteps and I turned around to see Mint walking over to me. I nodded grateful that she was still okay and and I pushed our pelts together.

"What is that?" I asked. I had noticed that she had an animal I had never seen before. It had a long and wide tail and it looked a bit skinny. But it was definitely enough to feed 2 for a full day. I was tempted to through out the vole but it would be a waste of prey.

"This is a squirrel, your friend Squirrelflight taught me how to catch it last night!" She said to me. I nodded, I hadn't even thought how she could have caught that if she could barely hunted a mouse in the first place.

"Thats cool! Wanna share both? I want to taste a bit of that." I asked her. She nodded and then I ate a bit of the vole and then gave the rest of it to her. She ate about half of the squirrel then she throw the rest of it to me.

I bit into it, it had a bit of a different taste but but it was definitely still an amazing taste. And it was a lot better than eating voles and mice over and over again like I had the last few days.

"Thats delicious! You mind teaching me how to catch one of those?" I asked her. She nodded and then began sniffing the air to try and scent another squirrel.

"Well theres not another one anywhere nearby and I'm not hungry now at all." She responded to me. I looked down a bit disappointed but then I went back to the squirrel to sniff at it. That way I could remember the smell.

There was really no use in trying to sniff the air. I had already known that Mint was way better at sniffing out prey.

"Well at least teach me how to catch it, I know what it smells like now..." I said to her. She looked at me and then nodded. She then headed closer towards me. I looked right at her, normally it was me teaching her, but last night I had been with Jayfeather tonight it would be her turn.

"Okay, you go towards it slowly... Once you get near it you run fast, you are faster than it... If it runs up a branch you can jump up and still catch it." She said to me. I nodded keeping it for later or maybe tomorrow.

"Alright lets start heading out then." I said to her. She nodded and then we began heading out in the direction of the sun.

It was a bit later not late enough for us to start heading to sleep. At this point the sun was lowering a lot and I didn't see any other tree lines that we could head in nearby. At this point I just wanted to stay back in the woods that way we would have somewhere to hide over the night.

I looked at Mint but I didn't see her anywhere. It scared me a bit and I yelled me a little bit. I was wondering what was going on. She usually didn't run off anywhere and I wasn't going that fast.

"Mint! Where are you!" I yelled as loud as I possibly could. I didn't hear her so I began heading backwards wondering how we got split up. I didn't smell her scent anywhere nearby so we must have split apart a while ago and I just hadn't noticed.

I was tempted to just go all the way back from this morning and hope that she would think to do the same thing. I just had no idea how we could split apart like that. Surely she was watching me from behind the whole time. If she needed to slow down she should have just told me about it.

I then was actually starting to wonder now that she might have gone back and didn't want to feel bad about having to tell me about it.

"Mint! Where are you! You're sca-" I yelled even louder than last time. But I heard a scream from nearby. It sounded like Mint was in trouble! This was what Jayfeather was telling me about! He told me that something bad would happen to us tomorrow.

Was there another cat! Was in attacking her! I then began running towards the direction that I had heard the sound come from. I saw Mint fighting something that looked like a thing that Tristan used to tell me about.

I had no idea how he even knew anything about the stuff that was out here if he had told me he had never been out there. He also had told me it wasn't a place for cats. I was starting to believe it with all the things that were attacking us. And it made sense why the clans had fallen apart.

"Help her!" Squirrelflight yelled to me from right beside me. I nodded, I was stuck in my head, wondering if she was going to die rather than actually trying to save her life.

I then ran after the badger and hopped on top of its head. It groaned and then grabbed me and pulled it off the top of its body.

It then hopped on me but I moved before it had the chance to attack me. Mint hopped on it like I had just done and I got up to help her. The badger pulled her down and attacked her. But she had shit the ground hard and couldn't get up on time to do what I did.

It bit into her and I ran over and began scratching into the badger. I groaned and then pushed me back.

It was me versus him now. Mint was laying on the ground groaning and there was not a thing I could do to help her.

This thing was way bigger than me, and looked liked it was way stronger as well. The only thing I had was that I was quicker than it. I would use that against it.

I scratched on it a few times and then ran back before it could attack me. I kept doing that over and over again. It was starting to get upset I could tell it was.

I wasn't scratching it hard, it wasn't in too much pain, but if I kept at it, it soon would be. I had to go faster tho now. It looked like Mint was unconscious at this point but I could still see her breathing.

I continued scratching at it. I could tell it was getting more and more upset at this point. It then ran at me and I dodged it and then hopped on not of it like before. This time a began scratching at its eyes.

It then yelled very loudly and then pushed me backwards. This time it did not try to continue attacking me. It then began to run off and I was tempted to run after it and give it more of a beating for hurting Mint so badly.

But I had to help Mint, I knew that it was gone for good now. I ran over to her and looked at her.

There was a large spot of blood under her stomach. I then began crying, she was going to die! What could I do, how was a supposed to save her there was so much blood coming from everywhere.

Mint then opened her eyes and looked at me. She began smiling, I could not smile back at her though, she was going to die! I put my hands over her paws trying to stop the bleeding like Tristan had told me to help stop bleeding.

But it wasn't doing that great of a job, and this was a lot more than normal blood that Tristan had told me too help others with.

"Moon... I love you, good luck on your journey..." She told me. I began crying, she was going to die what was I supposed to do!

I saw Jayfeather look at me and then nod at me. But I had forgetten what he had told me to do... And I wasn't thinking about it in the exact moment. I had to try to hold off the bleeding for long enough.

"Moon you can save her..."