What Happened With Bell, Lucky and Their Kits, Chapter Four

“Sunny! Sunny, where are you?” Bell called.

“Mama! Mama, I’m here!” Sunny cried.

Bell couldn’t see her, but she could hear her. She followed her voice and soon she could see the outline of Sunny through the fog. Her eyes lit up and she raced over to her kit. Sunny had managed to get her paw out, right before the no-fur pet was on her. Of all the worst injuries she could have gotten, only her paw was bleeding. It was twisted where the no-fur pet had ran over her.

“Oh Sunny! I thought I lost you!” Bell mewed softly.

C-Can we go home n-n-ow?” she stuttered in the cold air.

“No sweetie, we better make camp for the night and fix you up too.” Directing her attention to Lucky, she asked”, Where should we camp for the night dear?”

She had told Sunny to stick her paw in the snow to get the blood off. It was torture to watch her little kit wince with pain. Quin had helped deal with wounds, sprains, twists, broken bones, and delivering kits. She said they couldn’t find any dock, for sore pads, comfrey, for flesh wounds, white oak bark, for pain, thyme, for shock, or yarrow, for swelling, until the snow had stopped.

She was just beginning to dose off when she heard an ugly scream. Sunny! She got up and raced out of bed to find the others waking up.

“What’s going on?” Pearl asked.

“Did you hear Sunny scream?” she asked them.

“What are you talking about? She’s right there,” Lucky mewed sounding concerned.

He was right. She was still there fast asleep. It must have been a dream, a horrible dream.

She went back to her nest and fell asleep waiting for darkness to take her. She woke up the next morning to find a prey-pile at the edge of the blackgrounds. She took a squirrel for herself and a mouse for Sunny. She followed the scent trail to where Lucky was.

Sunny was still walking on three legs since they hadn’t found any herbs to cure her injury. They really needed to find dock and comfrey. Bell had been carrying Sunny, most of the time, and Lucky had been carrying Lion. Pearl and Taz had been carrying Cookie and Smokey, and Benny and Quin had been switching off Star.

The snow had finally stopped by the time they crossed the blackgrounds. Sunny had started whimpering because of the cold, so Bell put her on the ground and started to rub her with her paws; it was an old technique that supposedly mountain cats did to warm up their young.

They started to walk again after Bell was finished warming up Sunny. The rest of the kits had been asleep since they had started moving. They all woke up and Star asked where they were.

“We are close to the barn. I know we are, we have to be or else we would be in trouble, right?” Lion said confidently.

“Yeah. Plus if anything scary comes out me and Lion, Lucky and Taz will fight it off. Don’t be scared,” Smokey said bravely.

“Don’t forget me!” Benny meowed.

“Can you smell that?” Lucky asked. “It smells like the barn!”

The barn! Yes, we’re- what? It’s just an old stray cat sleeping! Hmmm… maybe we could have some fun with him?

“Hey! You seen a barn… uh, punk?” Smokey said as though he read Bell’s thoughts.

The cat just smiled and went back to sleep.

“Did you see a barn that’s red and abandoned?” Lucky asked.

“No, I did not, although I saw a stoneyard,” The cat mewed.

Bell gasped.

“A stoneyard? Where?” asked Taz.

“I saw it a couple paws down there. It should be there,” the wise old cat said.

“What should we call you if we run into you again?” asked Pearl.

“Ummm… Tiger!” he said thoughtfully.

“Tiger? He’s almost 114! What a funny name for such an old cat!” whispered Cookie.

They walked down the stonestrip all the way down to a blackground. They scurried across it when there was an opening through the gaps. They came to another stonestrip. After they walked all the way down, they saw some grass. They had decided to make camp there for a meal or two.

Bell couldn’t help to think that she had seen Tiger somewhere. Even his name sounded farmiliar. She decided to go check on Sunny. When she got there she noticed it was finally starting to warm up. She gave Sunny the mouse and shared the squirrel with Lucky.

“Do you think she’s awake yet?”Cookie asked.

“I don’t know, let’s find out. Pearl! Pearl!” Lion yelled in her ear.

“Lion, don’t do that. She’s probably still tired,” Lucky said.

“Tired from what?”asked Bell.

She had just walked in to find everyone surrounding her.