Free White Ghost and the Poison Arrow by Kellie Steele

auron cats can be dangerous and it could kill her without
thinking twice, even as injured as it is, but on the other hand,
she does not want to see it suffer. She would not forgive herself
if the auron cat was in pain and slowly dying for the next week but
she did nothing about it. Arella looks to the stars for an answer.
“ What do I do? Do I follow the auron cat
and take away her pain? Or do I stay here and keep myself
safe?” As if to answer her question, a
shooting star darts across the sky, burning blue as it goes. Arella
takes this as a sign that she needs to do something, and she climbs
down from her tree house. She takes her grathon with her, and tucks
her bloodglass dagger into her boot. She starts her feet moving
before she has the chance to have a second thought, refusing to
turn back, determined to follow the auron cat to end her
pain.

    Following the
trail made by the auron cat is easy. Her paw marks in the still
damp mus are clear but sometimes smudged, grass is flattened on
either side of the paw prints and there are cracked and broken
twigs all over the area where the cat has been walking. Although
the way it swerves back and forth is a little unsettling. It must
be really hurt for it to be struggling to walk in a straight line.
Arella passes a bush that looks as though something fell into it on
her left hand side, and she sees something dark and sticky on the
leaves. She touches it. Blood. Still warm. She’s not far behind the
cat. Arella can hear its pitiful moans and calls ahead of her. It
brings a lump to her throat. She knows that auron cat is a predator
and would likely kill her, but in the same way, this was the same
cat that spared her life last week when she could have easily
climbed into the tree Arella was hiding in and eaten her.

    Arella pushes
further on into the forest, coming to parts she does not recognise,
walking for miles. The woodland becomes less dense, and more and
more clearings start to appear. Wild flowers and bushes filled with
berries and nuts fill these clearings, but the trail of flattened
grasses, broken branches and blood on leaves continues. The auron
cat is clearly determined to get somewhere. This worries Arella.
There is only one thing she could think of that would make anything
so determined to get anywhere when they were in such a bad
conditions. Babies. The auron cat must have kittens. This brings a
whole new sadness to Arella. It is bad enough for one animal to
lose its life for nothing, but for its kittens as well… Arella
hopes that her theory is wrong, but she knows deep down that she
will be right.

    The ground
beneath Arella’s feet becomes more stony, and the grasses grow in
clumps rather than one long bed. The sun is beginning to rise and a
red glow covers the morning sky by the time Arella catches sight of
the auron cat. The trees are all but gone, and the landscape is
fairly flat. Small rocky outcrops cover the land, and Arella loses
sight of the auron cat behind them every now and then. She keeps
walking in a straight line, following the footprints and blood
drips left by the injured cat. Her mournful calls can still be
heard, but her pace looks to have slowed. Arella can see from the
trails on the ground, the cat is now dragging her left front paw on
the ground. Arella’s heart aches for the auron cat. She picks up
her pace in order to catch up with her but her legs are beginning
to ache. The sounds of the auron cat is making could be attracting
predators too, which means wolves. Arella knows she would not be
able to handle a pack of wolves. She must get to the auron cat
soon. Arella knows she could not watch the cat be torn apart by a
wolf pack. Arella has no idea how long she has walked for, but it
might have been most of the night.

    Arella’s hand
is beginning to cramp. She did not realise she was holding the
grathon so tightly. Arella feels a little exposed in the open land
like this, and pulls her hood up to shield herself from the coming
sunlight,