ASIA

The Quelled

The Quelled

Asia walked unseeingly. Her mind was back with the huge guards and boggled over what had just happened. Suddenly, she was pounced on by a huge cat. It was purring and licking her face. Once she was over the shock she began to wrestle away from Declan.

“Gross! Declan! Stop licking me!” she said.

“Sorry Asia… but, I finally found you!”
Asia sighed.

She sat up and said, “Why were you even looking for me?”

Declan didn’t want to tell Asia that he had followed her but he could see no way around it. “I…I followed you. But, it was because..!”

Asia stood up and brushed herself off. Her ponytail was riddled with leaves and seed husks. She interrupted him.

“What do you mean you followed me?”

Suddenly his idea to playfully hunt Asia didn’t seem like such a great idea.
“Well… I… I haven’t been hunting in ages… I was bored and…” He trailed off. His excuse sounded stupid, even to him.

He quickly changed the subject. “Where did you disappear to? One minute you were there, the next you were gone! I’ve been searching for you for at least two hours!”

“That long?” it had seemed like seconds to her.

Then she considered how long she had been walking and how much ground a cat can cover. She concluded that between the two she had been at least 4 hours from home.

“Ya! Where were you?!”

Asia rubbed Declan’s head and scratched behind his ear. His loud purr rattled and soothed her ruffled nerves.

Her “I don’t know” sounded confused. “Declan, what happened? Where was I? What was that place? Who were they?”  Her questions tumbled out one after the other.

‘I don’t know either’ he said. ‘I’m sorry Asia. No one has ever disappeared on me like that before but I can ask my Móraí.’

‘What’s a Móraí Declan?’ She asked as they started the long trek home.

‘Oh. Móraí is the word for grandma in Irish’ he said conversationally as he loped along beside her.

They walked along in companionable silence until the pack house was in view. Asia stopped Declan with a hand on his head. They stood looking at the house.

‘Declan, can we keep quiet about this for now? There is no use upsetting everyone before we have answers.’

Declan didn’t think that was a good idea but it was Asia’s story to tell so he agreed. But, Asia needed more than agreement.

‘Swear on your prowl’ she demanded.

Declan purred and rubbed her legs with his head. He was sent marking her as his friend. Asia knew that this was an honor.

‘Asia, I swear on my prowl to keep your secret.’

Just then Jasper stepped out of the trees.