Obstructa -Chapter II-

After their moment of silence in respect for the dead. Clementine and the strange demon cat sat on either side of Spark, who had tears still streaming down his face. Several hours passed as they sat their, feeling a mix of emotions; hatred towards the hunters, shock, fear, and sadness for those who had suffered.

Clementine blinked her tears away and swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat. She had decided that she would have to be strong, for the new cat was still recovering from her shock and Spark was sobbing hard.

Clementine stood and said, trying to keep her voice from shaking, “We must not let this tragedy distract us from our mission. The hunters come often, and we can’t let them affect us so much each time.”

Clementine said no more, fearing that her voice would crack if she did, which wouldn’t help with making her friends feel better.

With a heavy sigh, the nameless demon cat stood, her long tail still curved in an affectionate, protective way around Spark. “Yes,” she agreed. “Firstly, I think that we should find some food.”

Spark opened his eyes, which were red and puffy from crying. His brows were slightly creased, whether it was from hatred towards the hunters or determined courage or both,  was not known. He rubbed his eyes with his paw repeatedly to wipe his tears away. With a sniff, he nodded. His stomach rumbled.

“So that’s a yes,” the unnamed demon cat said, forcing a dry laugh.

Clementine cracked a smile. Spark got to his feet. But the stranger pushed them down gently--Spark with her tail and Clementine with her paw. “It’s okay,” she said, now smiling slyly. “I think that I can manage a little lunch.”

High up above their heads, a wood lemur was gliding from tree to tree, eating insects and fruit as it went. Wood lemurs are about four feet long. They are colored similarly to lemurs, but are usually more reddish. Wood lemurs have flaps of skin for gliding, like flying squirrels. They have long, retractable claws for climbing. These claws are straight, allowing the wood lemur to climb quickly and efficiently both up and down trees. They have excellent senses of sight and smell, which allows them to find their food, bugs and fruit, with ease. They also have long sticky tongues, which allows them to lick up insects like anteaters.

The demon cat leapt onto the tree stump. She gathered up all of her strength, and jumped. She landed on a tree branch in the same tree as the wood lemur. She landed softly, and the wood lemur was very intent on its food; a colony of leaf-cutter ants that were bringing cuttings of maple leaves back to their colony. The wood lemur was on the opposite side of the tree. The demon cat crept noiselessly along the length of the tree. She had to leap from branch to branch every once in a while, but every time she landed silently, her eyes fixed on her prey.

She neared the wood lemur. She was about seven feet away from her, leaping distance. She wiggled her haunches back and forth, preparing to spring. Then she pounced. The wood lemur heard the leaves of the tree shake when the demon cat leapt. The wood lemur spread out its legs, its skin flaps caught the breeze and started to carry it away from the tree, but the demon cat was faster. She reached out a clawed paw and snagged the wood lemur out of the air. She brought the creature to her mouth and delivered a killing bite.

Holding the wood lemur in her jaws, she leaped down from her perch in the tree. When she landed turned to her friends, then laid the wood lemur down at their feet.

She looked up at them and smiled. “Lunch is served.”

Awe-struck, her companions stared at her, mouths gaping. They looked at her, then the wood lemur, that back at her. They couldn’t believe how high she’d jumped. On top of that, neither of them had ever caught a nimble wood lemur, nor had met someone who had.

“That,” Clementine admitted, “was pretty cool.”

“Are you kidding!” Spark squeaked. “That was awesome!”

“Hey,” their demon cat friend meowed, shrugging and closing her eyes, “thanks, guys.”

“No, seriously,” Clementine said in a complementary tone, nodding. “I have never seen anyone catch a wood lemur. They’re just to fast and stay to hight up in the trees. But you? Wow, that was kink of awesome.”

The demon she-cat smiled. “Friends?” she asked, raising her eyebrows.

“Friends,” Clementine agreed.

“Yay!” Spark cheered gleefully.

Everyone laughed hardily. The horrible jeep and the heartless hunters were, at the moment, forgotten. The sun was hot and high, but the trees provided a pleasant shade. The grass and spongy moss proved to make comfortable seating. So, they gathered around the wood lemur to eat.

Only few moments after they began, Spark sighed in a depressed fashion.

“What is it, Spark?” the demon she-cat inquired.

“It’s just that I feel bad having an animal killed for our sake after so many died because of the hunters,” Spark replied sadly.

The pleasantness of the noon vanished. There was a long and uncomfortably depressing silence. No one ate or talked for a while.

Finally, the demon she-cat spoke. “Spark, those hunters were killing needlessly and for fun,” she said. “This wood lemur was killed for a good cause; for us to eat. Sense we can’t survive without meat, unlike the humans. This is how nature works.”

Spark nodded, but didn’t seem satisfied with the answer. Another silence. Spark thought about what his new friend had said; about how ‘this is how nature works.’ Was it really? All of this killing was going to make him sick. Could they really only kill to survive? He really didn’t want to live like that. He thought about how sad the poor little wood lemur’s family was feeling right now. How would he feel is someone killed his sister, Clementine? Or even his new friend, the demon cat that he had met just this morning?

Clementine broke the ice. “Well, how about we start guessing more names for you?” she suggested, addressing the demon she-cat.

The mood of the demon cats almost visibly brightened. “Sure,” the demon cat agreed, a sparkle in her eyes.

“Well,” Spark started, “we’ve already guessed Gemstone, Jewel, and Gem. So what else could it be?”

“You were going to say something that you thought it might be before... before the hunters came,” Clementine meowed. “What was it?”

“Just that I was thinking that it’s probably a specified gemstone,” she replied.

“But what kind of a gemstone is pink, blue, red and yellow?” Spark questioned.

“Diamond!” Clementine said, standing up abruptly. “Your name is diamond! Diamonds come is all sorts of colors, including red, pink, blue, and yellow.”

“Why didn’t I think of that!” the demon cat squeaked joyfully. “Thank you! Thank you, thank you!”

“Okay then,” Spark meowed purring happily. “What are we waiting for? Let’s try it!”

“Okay,” the demon cat said, taking a shaky breath. She shut her eyes tightly. “I--am--Diamond!”

Her voice rang through the forest, echoing back to them until it faded completely. Nothing happened.

“I don’t feel any different,” the demon cat meowed, sounding disappointed. “Is this how it feels to be named?”

“No,” Clementine said, shaking her head, downcast. “‘Diamond’ isn’t your name. It must be something else. I’m so sorry.”

“Oh,” the demon she-cat said, crestfallen.

“So what about Crystal?” Spark offered.

The demon cat attempted and shook her head. “No,” she sighed. “That doesn’t seem to be my name either.”

“Then how about something like, uh, Ruby, or Sapphire, or Topaz, or something,” Spark said.

“Well, none of those gemstones are all of those colors,” the demon she-cat pointed out. “Plus, I’ve already tried a majority of the names of gemstones that I know.”

There was a silence as the three of them thought.

“Wait! I know!” the demon cat cried. “Sterling!”

“Why Sterling?” Clementine wondered, tilting her head.

“You know, as in sterling silver,” the demon cat replied, still hopping mad with excitement. “I’m silver, so maybe the gemstones in my insignia are a hint.”

“Yeah!” Storm agreed. “Try it!”

“I--am--Sterling!” she shouted, her voice nearly cracking with excitement.

Again, nothing happened. Another disappointment.

Their new friend sighed. “Oh, what could my name be?” she sighed, looking up at the sky. It was already in the afternoon.

The demon she-cat turned to Clementine and Spark. “I’m sorry, guys. I shouldn’t have gotten us all exited over nothing. It’s getting late, now. I suppose we should stop guessing.”

“You can’t give up!” Spark cried.

“I’m not giving up,” she said in reply. “I just think that we should take a break.” She flashed a forced smile.

“Okay,” Spark said begrudgingly. “But what should be call you until we find out what your name is?”

She laughed. “What about Petra?” she suggested.

“Hey,” Clementine said. “Why don’t you try it out?”

“I--am--Petra!” Petra said, although she seemed to be doing it grudgingly as though she knew that this would just lead to another disappointment.

Petra sighed. “Thanks for the suggestion, Clementine, but I suppose we will have to find out what my name is in another way.” Then she looked at her crestfallen friends and said quickly, “You don’t have to come with me, you know. It could be dangerous.”

“What?” Spark meowed, looking horrified at the suggestion. “You think that we would abandon you just like that, no questions asked? No way! Right, Clementine?”

Clementine nodded her head vigorously. Her brows were set and she looked very determined. Spark looked at Petra with an expression that told her that he would face anything to help. Petra could tell that neither of them were ever going to back out of this. She sighed with relief, for she was grateful for their companionship.

“You’re awesome, guys,” she said.

Spark smiled broadly. “Well, let’s get going,” he said.

They all smiled, happy to have each other as friends. It was about noon by now, and they were all hungry. So, Petra offered to hunt.

“Hey,” said Clementine, giving Petra a playful push. “Why don’t you save some of the bragging for someone else for a change?”

“Okay, then,” Petra smiled, “you can hunt.”

“See ya all later, suckers,” Clementine laughed as she ran off. “I’m off to catch me some mice!”

“Girls,” Spark snorted, rolling his eyes.

“Hey!” Petra snarled playfully.

Petra leapt onto Spark with a fake hiss and the two rolled around in a ball of wrestling fur, laughing.

Petra had found herself a couple of wonderful friends.

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-KittyLover8
© 2013