Hope for the Future

Asha

I watched Kutumika as she stepped forward. "I'll rip his throat out." She growled "No, you won't." I said to her. "We're going peacefully." Kutumika scowled, "Fine. Then what's the plan?" I laid in the grass, unmoving, camouflaged. "Get him back to the camp, in any nonviolent way you can." Kutumika nodded, I knew she hated Kovu, with a burning desire that not many cats had these days. "You can do it." I said, "I know you can." Kutumika walked forward and I crept behind her, as slowly as I possibly could. Finally, she reached Kovu, and I watched as they talked. "Kutumika?" Kovu asked, with his deep, rough voice that I'd gotten sick of "What are you doing here?" Kutumika answered calmly "General Enzi told me to come here, to guard the river." Kovu grunted "I can help you, if you want." I didn't understand Kovu, he was usually such a jerk, treating everyone but Enzi as if they were under him, except Kutumika, he treated her like a friend, as if she hadn't seen how he treated other lions in the camp. "No, I'll be fine." Kutumika answered sweetly, probably with the biggest smile she could muster. Finally, Kovu started back towards camp. "Come on," I said as soon as he was out of sight, we don't have much time, as soon as he gets back, Enzi will get suspicious of where we are. Let's go!" We started running, towards the rainforest. "Come on!" I yelled behind me, I was running, and Kutumika was just sitting, staring at a tree. "What are you doing?" I called, then she started pushing on it, trying to knock it into the river. I ran back, "Come on!" I nudged Kutumika, trying to make her go faster. "Just, bear with me." She said, "I want to see how fast the river is." She finally pushed it up to it's roots, and it fell into the river. It went pretty fast, a little faster than my jogging speed, then, Kutumika jumped out and onto the branch, hooking her front legs on the thin tree. "What're you doing?" I called out to her as she started floating away. "This'll get us to the jungle faster!" Kutumika called back, "Jump in!" I noticed several flaws in her plan, but I took a running start and jumped as far as I could. I missed the tree by a fraction of an inch, splashing into the river. Water filled my vision, and my nose and mouth when I foolishly tried to breath. I swam up as fast as I could, surfacing in mere seconds. Breathing hard, I didn't see Kutumika ahead of me. I turned my head, and saw she was behind me. I started sinking, and dark water was at my chin. My heart was racing, and my body was going numb. "Help!" I yelped "Kutumika!" Screaming answered me from behind "Asha!" I tried to slow down, but the current was going faster. Waves started washing over my face, causing me to gasp after my head broke the surface again. Then, a big wave pushed me under and the undercurrent dragged me along, and it was so strong I couldn't pull myself back up for air. My consciousness was slipping, and my thoughts were blurry. I finally stopped fighting and let the river pull me along. As my consciousness faded completely, my last thought was, 'Am I going to die?'