Paw Prints (Book One in the Trails Series) *BEING EDITED-NEW VERSION WILL BE LONGER*

~Chapter Twenty~ The Small and The Mighty

"What do you think, Assero?" Tiquail asked quietly as the ocelot looked up from examining Sparrow.

Assero shook her head, her eyes horrified, wide, and sad. Tiquail's tail drooped. "Should I go tell her father?" She asked. 

Assero sighed. "I guess you should. She has no pulse, she's not breathing...I know she can do extraordinary magic, but escaping from multiple stab wounds..."

"Seems unlikely." Tiquail finished grimly, the last of her hope evaporating as she turned and walked up the spiral staircase, looking for Sparrow's father and sisters. 

"What's the news?" 'Lyss asked, jumping to her feet as Tiquail entered the room. When the snow leopard didn't reply, she seemed to deflate. 

Christie let out a wail. "Oh, holy crap we killed our sister!" 

Julia, Kayla, and Lyss all started crying softly, while Christie continued to moan, as if her brain was disregarding the information and pushing it away. "We killed her! We killed her! Oh my God we killed her!" 

The only person who hadn't reacted was Sparrow's father. He was staring at Tiquail with a blank look that worried her. 

Sparrow's father had spent the longest in the Tracker's facility. No one knew how he had been treated, but it obviously hadn't been well, judging by the broken way he had been acting ever since he woke up from the Tracker's controlling him. 

Sure, the death of his youngest daughter would stun him, but not this much. Something had happened in that place that no one really understood, nor would they ever.

This man was broken. Everything that had happened to him in the past few years was haunting him, following him wherever he walked, watching him.

Tiquail walked slowly up to him and laid her muzzle on his head. "I know, I know it's bad. We'll find a way through it." She assured quietly. 

Tiquail hadn't had a cub, and by now she was probably a bit too old to do so. She had never been a mother, but she still had the instincts that she would have had. Every female wild cat was born with this, plus they learned anything else from their mother.

Now, Tiquail was using the skills and the instincts that she had never gotten the chance to use. She was talking to Sparrow's father like was a scared cub, mostly because that's what he was acting like.

When the man didn't react, Tiquail turned to walk out of the room, grief clawing even more fiercely at her heart as she thought of the man as he was when he was a boy, eager to be an Ancient. 

She remembered the way he knew the answers to everything, how quickly he learned, how happy he had been when he had found her.

She had messed this man up. It was all her fault!

And suddenly, Tiquail felt fury rise in her heart, and she closed her eyes and made a silent vow, one that would stay in her heart until the day she died. 

The next time I see her, I'll kill her. She took away one of the oldest families in this place, she's torn away the boy that could have done wonderful things. She's joined the side that killed her youngest and poisoned the rest.

A traitor. 

Marielle will die in my paws, and mine only. 

Suddenly, as she was walking down the stairs, Tiquail heard a loud thump. She froze and listened for a moment, then she heard a scream. 

The snow leopard spun around and ran back up the stairs. "What is it!?" She roared, bursting into the room where the Chole family was staying. 

She stopped in the doorway, staring at the scene in front of her. Her eyes widened at Julia looked at her over her shoulder. "I-I don't know what happened. He just...he just passed out."