Life of a Nomad

Chapter 9 - Double trouble

Halfway through the forest, the woods grew thinner and more and more rocks started to appear. Halfway through, a note was dangling in the wind, catching our attention. This time, I jumped up and pulled it from under a rock to read it.

"It says that we can't use the same path. One must take the upper one, the other stays on the ground." Looking back at Ethan, I smiled and said, "I can do this one; my cat and I don't mind."

Evan nodded happily." Good because I'm afraid of heights." I smiled reassuringly at him when he took a hesitant step forwards. "Don't worry Evan, I'm right here and if anything happens, we can help each other out, okay?" He nodded weakly before taking a deep breath as we continued on our path, him down on the road winding between the rocky outcrops and me finding my way over the rocks above his head.

"So...what kind of cat are you?" Evan asked after a few minutes of silence and I noticed that he was growing a bit pale while he eyed the edge of the road. He had spotted an arrow in the same colour of our wristband on the floor and we agreed to follow it. I was now starting to believe that Evan regrated that choice, since it led us to a track right on the edge of a cliff.

Trying to distract him from the looming depth, I shrugged slightly. "I don't know exactly. All I can say is that I am some sort of Leopard, I think. Not an African though." Evan looked up to where I was and Eve chuckled in my head. "The kid isn't having difficulties with the heights when he's not constantly focusing himself on it. Look." She whispered and I chuckled aloud when I noticed she was right.

"Are you laughing at me?" Evan asked, tilting his head slightly while his feet manoeuvred effortlessly between the rocks until we left the cliff behind us. "No, I just found it funny that you managed to walk the last part without effort when you weren't fretting over it." His blue eyes snapped down to where the cliffs were a few minutes before and then he turned into a circle when he realised they weren't there anymore.

He grinned proudly and looked back up. "You're right! I should trust my cat more often."

---Evan's POV---

Christina effortlessly stalked over the small edge above my head, making me gape in awe at her. How did her feet managed to find enough support? I would surely slip off the edge, given my clumsiness.

"So..." I thought aloud, looking from her to our surroundings. "If you're not a African Leopard...are you a Snow Leopard? That would be cool, they can have healing powers but most of them use magic." Christina frowned in thought before she glanced down. "I don't know...how do they look like?"

I tapped my pointer finger to my lip in thought before saying, "Well, they're generally white with black spots, thicker fur than a Leopard and they can climb really well, like you." Her eyes turned green for a second before she shook her head. "Eve said we aren't from that species."

"Eve? OH, your cat?" She nodded and huffed when she landed on the other side of the path since the right side stopped abruptly. "Um...you're going to hate this..." She started, looking ahead.

"What?" I asked, looking the same way before I felt my stomach clench in that familiar way; in front of us was nothing, just air with way down bellow the tops of the trees swaying in the wind. We could see the village from up here and several adults were gathering down the slopes where we needed to somehow find our way down.

"Uh, I'll uh...wait here. Yep, I'll wait here and you can go down. I'll catch up with you." I rambled before backing away from the edge, dropping on my butt. I winched and rubbed the sore spot while Christina soundlessly landed next to me on the ball of her feet.

"Come one Evan, we'll go together. No need to be afraid, all you have to do is trust your cat. I know Cheetah's aren't made for climbing rocks and descending heavy slopes but if you trust your cat, you can do this. Just follow my lead." She said, smiling softly, her blue eyes shining with compassion.