Snow on the Mountains

Chapter one

A shriek split through the air, and Rain threw herself into the air, paws grasping the air where a large pheasant had been seconds before. She fell to the ground, muttering angrily.

A chorus of high laughter partnered with a lower, hoarse peal came from the bushes, where Tundra and Opal were sitting, watching her hunt.

"Rain, you know you can't hunt, why do you keep trying?" Tundra swept into the clearing, the dusk light illuminating her glossy fur and clear eyes. She was easily the most beautiful of the sisters, with pale, tannish fur, perfect brown rosettes, and bright blue eyes, but she was the youngest, barely fully grown.

Rain frowned slightly at her. "We need food, and Opal here can't hunt, apparently."

Then, it was Opal's turn to come into the clearing. She was the complete opposite of Tundra, with black fur burnt off in places, and snowy white rosettes. "I can hunt. It's just... mating season for the pheasant, and they are quicker."

Rain heaved a sigh, and turned to the small pond, really more of a puddle, to drink. Her reflection stared back at her, the epitome of filth and destruction.

She was missing her right eye, as well as her back left paw. Her fur, a lustrous silver, was singed off around her muzzle and ears.

The fire had devastated their lives. Rain had lost her eye, her foot, and her ability to hunt and run. Her lungs had practically collapsed from the smoke. Opal's fur had burnt off in places, and she couldn't run as fast as she once could. Tundra was born after, but she was terrified of a fire, after seeing what it had done to her whole family.

Winter was coming. They needed food, but Rain couldn't hunt, Tundra couldn't hunt well, and Tundra still had the cub-like incoordination all leopards were born with.

"Rain?" Tundra's clear voice came from the corner of the clearing.

She whipped around, putting a false look of content on her face. "Yes, Tundra, love?"

"I hear something... something's off. Wrong, in a way."

Opal turned and growled. "What?"

Tundra shuffled her paws. "Something just seems wrong. About the air. And the wind. I don't know"

Opal and Rain crouched protectively in front of Tundra, hackles raised. The air was off, Rain noticed, in a way that couldn't be explained easily... more of an omnipresent phantom presence than anything else.

Rain's ears twitched, and she suddenly heard a strange sound, never one her or her sisters had ever heard before. Some kind of a metallic roar, like the grinding of boulders on rocks, but on fire. A human thing, of some sort. It was getting louder by the second, and Rain shivered in fear.

The three leopards closed in on each other, shaking, letting their fur warm each other.

"What is that?" Opal hissed.

"Some kind of Human Thing. Probably dangerous."

"Human thing?!"

"Yes, shut up, shut up." Rain's tail swished close to the ground.

Opal chuffed in fear, her ears flattening to her head.

Instantaneously, a massive creature burst through the trees. It was larger than all three of the leopards combined, and painted a gaudy yellow. It has four giant, circular things attack=hed to it, close to the ground, covered with what seemed to be bark. Inside it, there were too fleshy creatures, with odd garments covering them, and tufts of overgrown fur on their heads. They had no tails, no paws, no ears. Worstly, it all reeked of human stench, the worst smell Rain had ever smelt in her life.

Two of the Human Creatures leaked out the sides of the monster, holding ropes and shiny woven rock things. One brandished another shiny rock thing, held it out in front of it, and there was a loud bang. Then everything in Rain's life faded to silence.

END OF CHAPTER ONE