Lost Hope: Book 5: Forest of Vipers

Chapter 12

Foxflame and Lilacsnow were, still, stuck in the rogues' barn. Still. Foxflame thought they would've escaped by now, but it had been at least a moon. Maybe two.

    It wasn't even stressful anymore. Foxflame was just bored really, except for the occasional conversation that he was able to overhear while the guards thought that they were asleep. He didn't learn much from those though. Just cats complaining about the exercises that they were being made to do. Foxflame wondered why they didn't just leave since they obviously didn't enjoy it here.

    "You there!" Someone barked from the entrance.

    Foxflame and Lilacsnow looked up to see a spotted golden tom with fierce brown eyes. Foxflame thought his name was Jaguar.

    "Yes?" Lilacsnow asked in a slightly exasperated tone.

    "You'll be coming with us today," Jaguar said. "It won't be easy work though, little warriors." He sneered at them, and then beckoned them out of the compartment. Foxflame and his sister exchanged a bewildered look before following him.

    There was another cat with him, a tortoiseshell she-cat about their age with striking green eyes. Foxflame paused when he saw her. Lilacsnow nudged him and started forward again, focusing on where they were going instead of who they were with.

    "If I may ask, where are we going?" Lilacsnow inquired.

    "We're hunting," Jaguar said.

    "That's it?" Foxflame said.

    "Of course not," the tortoiseshell told him, her eyes sparkling. "We're hunting something you've probably never even heard of."

    "May I ask what it is exactly?" Foxflame said.

    "You may certainly ask, but I am under no obligation to answer," she said.

    She's messing with me, he thought sulkily, looking away.

    "The folk who live here have a bunch of animals locked up in large cages," Jaguar explained in his deep voice. "We're hunting what's called a 'pig.' The smaller ones at least. There are bigger ones, way too big for us to hunt."

    Jaguar and the tortoiseshell led them out of the barn and into open air. Looking around, Foxflame could see many different structures including lots of large fences like the ones in Aster's Town. Inside the fenced areas were a myriad of animals that Foxflame didn't have words for.

    "Pretty cool, huh?" the she-cat asked him with a smirk.

    "Yeah," he breathed. And then somehow his next words were out of his mouth before he could stop them. "Hey, what's your name by the way?"

    "Vixen," she said, looking at him appraisingly. "Yours?"

    "Foxflame," he replied. Vixen. Fox.

    She wrinkled her nose a little. "You Clan cats have such odd names. I'll just call you Fox."

    You can call me whatever you want, Foxflame thought.

    "Just over here," Jaguar said and led them over to fence that was about at least hundred foxlengths away for the barn. This one was muddier than the rest, but it had a fair amount of dry spots with bits of grass poking out of the soil. The animals that roamed around inside were fat and pink little things with some black spots. Their legs were short and stumpy and they had the most peculiarly curled tails. Foxflame had never seen anything like them.

    "We have to catch one of those?" Lilacsnow asked skeptically.

    "Oh, it's much harder than you think," Vixen said. "They may not be fast, but they're fairly strong, much heavier than a cat even though they're only slightly bigger."

    "Shouldn't we have a few more cats then?" Foxflame asked.

    "Jaguar counts for at least three," Vixen said with a wink and the golden tom narrowed his eyes at her.

    Jaguar ducked under the fence while Vixen jumped up the bars to the top and then leapt back down, her paws landing precisely on the small patches of dry land. Foxflame tried to jump after her, but Lilacsnow grabbed his tail between her teeth before he could take off.

    "Don't embarrass yourself," she said and went under the fence.

    "I wasn't going to," he protested quietly, but he followed her.

    With Jaguar in the lead, they trotted over to were a group of pigs were huddled. There were all different sizes, but Foxflame knew they would be going for the much smaller ones.

    "You two will run over there and separate them all," Jaguar told Foxflame and Lilacsnow. "We can't grab one if they're all in a group."

    "What if we get stepped on?" Foxflame asked, starting wonder if this was how he would die. Squashed by a pig.

    "That's your problem," Jaguar said gruffly.

    "Not sure Viperfang would see it the same way. . ." Vixen trilled merrily.

    "Shut it, Vixen," Jaguar snarled and the tortoiseshell kept her mouth shut. He turned to Foxflame and Lilacsnow. "I hope you're not planning on waiting for them to disperse themselves. GO!"

    Lilacsnow bolted and it took Foxflame a moment to realize that he should probably follow her. He bounded after her, trying to avoid splashing up to much mud, but failing spectacularly. He wasn't sure he would be able to call himself ginger after this.

    Snorts of alarm went up from the clumsy creatures and Foxflame had to sidestep every couple of heartbeats to avoid being trampled to his death as the creatures moved out of the way.

    Lilacsnow let out a high pitched screech that sent more pigs running in all directions. Foxflame copied her tactic and soon the whole group was disbanded with pigs trotting away from them.

    He spotted Vixen and Jaguar chasing after a small pig and followed. Vixen leapt and landed on it's back. It let a shrill squeal that was cut short as Jaguar delivered a killing blowing to it's thick neck.

    "See? Not much to it," Vixen said with a smile in Foxflame's direction. He thought he might melt in that very moment, but he shook himself and forced his eyes to look away.

    "Let's get this back to the barn, and we'll stop by the pond to wash off this mud," Jaguar said, leading them away, grasping the pig between his jaws.

    Well that was certainly a day, Foxflame thought as he follow the cats back to his prison.