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

~Chapter Twenty-Three~ Awake Again

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Sparrow asked, peering at Tony through a small gap.

Before he could answer, the small gap closed and she was engulfed in darkness. "HEY!" She yelled. "GET ME OUTTA HERE!"

Sparrow heard seats scraping against the floor and slowly but surely, a crack of light appeared, which eventually opened to reveal the world around her.

"Why am I in a casket?" She asked curiously, looking up at the velvet top above her. "And why is everybody wearing black?"

She looked at Tony and widened her eyes. "And why the heck is Tony crying?"

Nobody answered, and Sparrow sat there and stared at everyone, disturbed by the silence. "Hey, are we going to sit her and wait for me to die, or are we going to answer?"

Then somebody laughed. Sparrow looked at Lyss and watched her laughs become shouts of joy. She watched these shouts affect everyone else around her, and soon everyone was laughing...everyone but Sparrow...and her father.

Sparrow's father bent down and wrapped his arms around her. She felt tears dampen her shirt and she tried to shrug him off, but he held on tighter.

"I thought you were dead." He whispered. "I thought you were gone, my beautiful, beautiful daughter."

***

A/N: I AM GETTING THE FEELS SO BAD RIGHT NOW! SORRY TO INTERRUPT BUT I NEED TO KNOW IF I'M ALONE IN THE WORLD.

***

Sparrow narrowed her eyes. "Dead? Why would I be-"

Then it all came back to her. The stabbing, the empty looks, the blood, the pain...

"Oh my...OH MY GOD DAD! YOU CAN-I MEAN-DAD YOU'RE NOT TRYING TO KILL ME!" She screamed, and she threw her arms around her father and held him close. She cried on his shoulder and he cried on hers, and in that moment, a bond was formed between the two of them. They hadn't even looked at each other in years, and here they were, hugging each other and ignoring the years gaping between the last time they had seen each other.

In this moment, they were family again.

***

A week later, Sparrow was sitting in her room, laying on her bed and looking at the ceiling. She was sore from training today, for Tony and her had run five miles and she could barely run one. Frankly, she wasn't sure how she was still alive.

Then again, she had already "died" so why on earth shouldn't she be alive?

Obviously, she was intended to do something else with her life.

But what?

She started tracing the lines on the ceiling with her finger. She was bored out of her mind, but she couldn't (or didn't want to) move.

She heard someone walking in the hallway and turned her head toward the noise. It was Tiquail.

"Tiquail! Could you come in here please? My brain is going numb from its lack of activity!" She called.

Tiquail winced as she heard her name called, and vaguely, Sparrow wondered why. Reluctantly, the snow leopard walked into the room and nodded at Sparrow. "Why don't you just join us downstairs?" She asked.

Sparrow laughed bitterly. "I can't move." She replied.

Tiquail's whiskers quivered with amusement. "So Tony gave you one of his famous training sessions, did he?" She purred. Sparrow tried to sit up, but groaned and laid back down. "When did his sessions become 'famous'?"