Good, Evil, and the Gray Area (FIRST DRAFT)

Chapter 39

My breaths came smoothly through my wet nostrils. When I let them out, they formed a steamy white cloud. My flanks were heaving in and out. I could feel the sweat steaming off my fur. I focused on my running, not wanting to think of who I had left behind.

Ava. My best friend. My only friend, other then the people of the tribe, and they were in Africa. I clenched my jaw. You got in a fight. You escaped without her. Tough cookies, she can escape on her own. She's just as strong and smart and fast as you are. But I couldn't stop thinking, what if they kill her? I didn't know what I would do without her. I had almost died when she had almost died, back in Africa. I didn't know anyone else back then, though, and had attached myself to Ava. Now I was stronger.

I wasn't wishing death on my best friend. I spun quickly, staring back at the huge paw prints I had left in the snow. I really needed to switch to a cat more suited to a cold climate then a Siberian tiger, but I hadn't bothered. I sighed.

"Ava, you better not be so mad at me that you refuse to come when I rescue you," I said into the cold air. I changed back into a human, immediatly feeling the cold wind biting through my clothes, and then back to a cat. A bobcat. Small, sneaky, and furry. I needed the warmth. I was starting to get frostbite on my hands, or paws, as a tiger. 

I was nervous about running into a camp full of wolves as a small cat. But I was hoping to go unnoticed. I twitched my tail and started off at a jog. It would take me a while to get back, because I had traveled away from the camp for almost an hour at a sprint with the huge strides of a tiger.

So I ran, determined to get back. 

About two miles before the camp I leaped into a tree, my claws scrabbling for purchase against the frozen bark. When I came to the first limb I perched on it, catching my breath, and watching with my big, unnaturally blue eyes. 

I climbed higher into the tree, and leaped into the next one. I kept on like that, not wanting wolves to be able to scent, see, or follow by my tracks my progress into the camp. I flew from tree to tree, slowly gaining my balance and becoming secure in the treetops. I was a skilled climber, as a bobcat, and that made it easier. 

Finally, I was once again at the camp. I looked down into it, perched in a huge pine tree where I was hidden from view. I saw the very tent in which I had been imprisoned, and imagined Ava in there, waiting for me to return. Maybe someone had told her of my escape, and she hated me. 

I sighed at that thought. Then, I climbed slowly down to the lowest branch of the tree, and peered into the camp once again. Wolves moved about, but there were only five. They were patrolling the borders, and I flinched as one passed directly below me. Thankfully, he didn't look up. 

When the next one passed, I would go, I vowed to myself. I couldn't just sit here. There would always be wolves patroling, and after this next wolf there would be about thirty seconds when no one would be watching the route to the duct-tape blue of Ava's tent. 

Then, the next wolf passed. I watched him closely as he walked below me, his thick brown fur fluffed up against the cold. I sat, soundless, biting my lip with my sharp teeth. And then he was by. I leaped down into the snow, not making a sound. I was grateful that the ground was just slush and frozen mud, not fluffy snow in which my tracks could be spotted. 

I sprinted to the tent, my paws barely touching the earth. I came to the flap, and pushed my way in, hoping that no one was in there with Ava. 

I got my wish, and then some. There was no one in there at all.