Rainbow Reflection

Chapter 27

"There! Go off there and park the other side of that clump of Teatree!" I order as my inner cat paces restlessly.

"Stay on the road!" Sam orders from the backseat but Malcolm chuckles and I catch his quick sidelong glance my way.

"Better yet get back on the bitumen road," Steven growls. He then starts cursing as the vehicle bumps over the rough ground of the shoulder of the road. I can't help the feral smile that has my teeth showing as I glance back at the two protesting toms. What had started out as a simple trip into town had been diverted under my directions towards my mountain.

The hairs on my arms and legs stand on end as does the hair on the back of my neck as the vehicle comes to a halt. I have my door open and am a good ten metres away from the vehicle before the engine is turned off. I pause to glance back at the others who are watching me with various expressions on their faces.

"Get back here!" Sam demands but I laugh with the unrestrained joy that is flowing from the ground beneath my sneakers up into me.

"Come on," I call out to him, "It'll do you good."

"We don't have time for this," Sam says tightly. I feel my smile fade as I stand looking at my brother. He is pale and still weak from his injuries that just aren't healing the way they should, injuries he should never been able to survive.

"You need this as much as I do," I don't know where the knowledge comes from but I realise it is true as it leaves my lips. I turn my head to take a look at the mountain behind me before turning my attention back to my brother.

"I can't make you come if you don't want to but you can't stop me from going," I say calmly and evenly before turning away from them and setting off for my mountain. Something guides my steps, a memory? An instinct? I'm not sure, I only know when I have to change direction slightly to find a path that is waiting there for me.

Upwards ever upwards I travel, now and then I pause to glance behind me. I can no longer see the three forms following me but something inside me, something wild and frightened can feel them following me ...

The bush around me wavers as if from heat and transforms into a different kind of vegetation. The ominous smell of a coming storm hangs heavy in the air and I pause on a rocky ridge to look back over my sleek shoulder. My fur glints copper and black in the late evening sun, the rising wind ruffles my fur along the top of my back parting the strands to caress the skin beneath. I can't see my pursuers but I can feel them behind me, dogging my steps. It's strange, I know fear drives me, fear of being caught, fear of what they will do to me ...but yet ...

I fall to my knees with a gasp, one hand clutches the rough bark of the tree beside me while my other hand cups the side of my head. The pain in my head quickly lessens and I concentrate on my breathing as the memory swirls in my mind as if looking for a place to stay. Tears of pain dry on my cheeks as I get to my feet shakily and glance back over my shoulder slightly surprised to find myself in human form not cat. My head throbs dully but I shake it off, shake off the fact Micah isn't here to hold me through the agony.

I begin walking up the slope once again as I turn the memory over and over in my mind examining it. I know I had been afraid, more than afraid, I had been terrified. No lingering trace of it remains just the knowledge that is how I had felt at that time, even my memory doesn't contain the sensation. I pause for a moment and look up the rocky incline, my eyes are drawn to the faintest of scratch marks in a rock. I feel one corner of my mouth lift slightly in a half smile as I recognise them. I had made them on one of my many treks up this slope, maybe it had been one of the times I had been returning from Nimbin. I turn and look out across my country in the direction of that small country town.