Felis (Hiatus)

Chapter 3

I walked slowly into the main clearing, where all of the Hunters assembled for assignments. I had chosen to become a Hunter at the celebration of my tenth year. That would have been about four years ago. Now I was an expert.

"Sora, Miel, and Jana, head to the North where we last saw the humans. You will hunt there," Oma, the deputy, said. "Watch out for the humans. The Guard will patrol the area later today."

Miel and Jana were both clouded leopards, but they were slightly larger than me. We were the only three clouded leopards. They were siblings and were orphaned at a young age. Not that you could tell.

"Let's go," Jana said, stalking off. Miel walked with her and I quickly followed. When we were out of camp, Jana turned to me.

"Don't get in our way," she hissed, bounding off with Miel following. I growled after them. I leapt into a the tree closest to me, and made sure that my knives and bow were in place. Then with my tail streaming behind me I set off towards the beach, where I knew the other two wouldn't go. They didn't like the beach very much.

There, I snatched crabs from the sand, their little legs wiggling fiercely as if they could hurt me. As I moved along the beach, I sensed someone watching me. I didn't know what to think, so I continued on as if nothing was wrong. I turned towards the forest again as I heard the unnatural rustle of leaves.

A human stumbled out of the brush, looking quite terrified and amazed at the same time. There was a hint of something dark around the man, though, something sinister. Of course, I ignored it, I was always reading into people too much.

"It really is you," the man said.

"Who?" I growled back. I wasn't accustomed to speaking the language of humans. My mouth wasn't quite right for it either.

"It really is you Abigail. My wife was right," the man said. I scrunched up my face, before distantly remembering that Abigail was my human name. I put two and two together and decided that this man was my human father.

"Dad?"

"Yes. Why don't you show me around Abigail, or is that not your name anymore?" There was just something off about his voice. It somehow didn't come across as a fatherly tone. I was reluctant to tell him my true name, as names were highly valued in my society. So instead I just let him call me Abigail.

"Abigail okay. I not show you around. Not allowed. Humans bad with nature, humans hurt nature," I said, for indeed they had already cut a few trees down. I would have let someone know about that, later.

"Alright, Abigail. Why don't you come with me then?"

"Where?" I asked, becoming slightly wary. Of course, Mai and Sakura chose that moment to come rushing out of the woods, only to stop short as they saw me talking to the human.

"What's going on, Sora?" Mai asked hesitantly.

"I found out this is my human father," I replied, happy to be able to speak my true language again. Human language was hard.

"And what does he want?" Sakura prodded.

"He wants to go with him. I think he is going to show us the human camp."

"Guys--"

"--That could be dangerous. It could be a trap," Sakura state plainly.

"Hey!"

"What Mai?" I answered, not understanding why she was agitated.

"This could be our chance! I know Sakura and I only came out here to swim, but instead we could find out exactly what we're dealing with, with the human problem! You could go with your human father, and Sakura and I could follow closely, in case it's a trap," Mai finished, smiling mischievously. At first glance no one would think much of the quiet, shy black leopardess, but Mai had some great ideas. This was just one of them.

"Let's do it," I growled.

"Sure," Sakura chirped. She was probably hoping for some action. I walked back over to my human father.

"I coming. Friends wanted see how hunt was going," I said, showing my human father the basket full of crabs, smiling proudly. I handed my catch off to Sakura, who took it happily. My human father smiled, flashing too-perfect teeth. He grabbed my paw and started walking. I stumbled, before righting myself and walking gracefully after him. He talked about things which I only barely managed to grasp, something about "using the island as a nature reserve" and "bringing other humans" (which I did not like the sound of).

We came to the human's camp, which consisted of several helicopters surrounding large orange tents. It was teeming with humans, like ants in their anthill. They scattered all over the place when they saw us, grabbing small flashing objects and white rectangles that they scratched on with yellow sticks. It was all very odd. One guy even came up and tried to touch me. Let's just say he almost lost his hand.

I felt their flitting gazes and also the observant ones of my friends who hid up in the trees. One spoke to my human father: "Does it have a name? Is it intelligent?"

My father replied almost angrily, "Of course she has a name. It's Abigail. She is my daughter, remember, the one I told you guys about that I thought died? Well, here she is. She was human, but then the Felines did something to her and now she's like this. And by the way, she is intelligent and can understand every word your saying!"

I looked over at him, a bit confused. I did not understand half of what he said, he was talking so fast! Plus I wasn't the greatest with the human language. I heard Abigail, and was a bit confused before remembering that I didn't give out my real name.

"So, uh, Abigail, what's it like living the way you are?" Some random person came up to me. He had a large black boxy thing hoisted on his shoulder. I thought about his question.

"Green. Happy. Peaceful until humans come and destroy and take, and go where should not," I said in my growling voice. The human looked taken aback, but from what I wasn't sure. Was it something I said, perhaps? I only told them the truth! Maybe it was the fact that I spoke some of the human language.

The human asked me a few more questions, like what I ate, and how old I was. All the while I followed my human father around the area, while he showed me around. He didn't know it, but I was mapping the whole area in my head, taking into account the number of humans, of helicopters. It was getting late, around dinner, and I forcefully removed myself from the group of humans surrounding me. If I had the choice, I would never have gone into that place which reeked of humans.

In the trees, I met up with Mai and Sakura. I shared with them what had happened, because they couldn't here what was going on from the position they had been in. We rushed back to the village, and I was just in time for dinner at my house. I ate and then reported to the Chief the information that I had gathered, before retreating to my room and falling asleep.