Upon Paws

Chapter 19~The Chase

^Natural-Imagine Dragons^
Chapter Nineteen~The Chase

A tongue rasping through my fur woke me, and I groggily opened my eyes.

After finding the park, me and Iggy had spent the rest of daylight finding a good and sheltered spot in the park to spend the night.

So far, we hadn't met any other creaures other then normal earth creatures, like rabbits, squirrels, birds, and we even startled a large crow who had been cawing loudly.

I blinked again, my vision focusing, my eyes immediately going to Iggy. "What....what are you doing?" I yawned.

We had settled down under a large log, tall grass growing around it leaving a hollow underneath. Iggy was behind me, having stopped grooming me after I had spoken.

"O-oh, you, uh, had a bunch of dirt in your fur. I was keeping watch, so...." Iggy trailed off, avoiding my gaze.

I sat up, running a paw over my face before speaking. "Well....thanks," I said awkwardly.

We stared at each other for a moment before I stood up, shaking my fur as Iggy stretched.

"Yes, well, we better get going-" I suggested, a fluttery feeling in my stomach, while I assumed were from nerves, and hunger.

"Yes, yes, lets go," Iggy agreed, leading the way out of the grass circle.

I followed, and we walked single file in silence through the forest. Our pawsteps were loud as we were both not used to traveling through woody terrain.

We soon found the trail twising through the woods, the small gravel scraping my pads. Birds twittered in the trees, making my stomach rumble from just the sound.

I looked away, embarrassed, as Iggy turned to look at me with an amused look on his face. He had obviously heard my stomch growl.

"I'm going to have to go and hunt. I'm hungry, and I'm assuming you are too?" I asked, slowing to a stop.

He turned to me, nodding, then abruptly stopped and demanded, "teach me how to hunt."

"Wh-what?" I stuttered, taken by surpirse at his sudden demand.

"W-well, I know I don't have claws like you, but you can't feed us both, right? And I just think that-that catching your own food might be-um, gratifying." Iggy explained, looking embarrassed.

I blinked. His logic did make sense, but I barely knew how to hunt myself. I just relied on my instincts, but would his instincts be the same? He did mention when we met that he wasn't a pure-I'm assuming a pure cat-but that was obvious from the start seeing as he had wings. But would he be able to really kill anything without claws?

I shook my head. I had to give him a chance; it was only fair. I decided I'll at least check out his wings before teaching him.

"Alright," I agreed, "but spread your wings. I'm no bird expert, but I want to see if I can tell what species of bird they're from."

Iggy obeyed and spread his white wings, and I moved closer to peer at them.

I knew a bit about birds as my father had loved them, and tried to teach me. But I was a stubborn teenager at the time and didn't pay attention, but now I wish I had.

They just seemed like normal wings, if any wings were really normal, except perhaps they were narrower, built for speed.

"Alright," I stepped back, "I'm still not sure what species they're from, but that doesn't matter much when it comes to hunting, now does it?" I flicked my tail for him to follow and dove into the brush.

"No, no, your rear is still too high! Crouch, like this." I Instructed, falling into a hunters crouch.

Iggy huffed from beside me. "Well I'm sorry not everyone is a natural hunter!"

I sat up, fur bristling. "Look, I'm sorry I'm getting mad, I told you I'm not a good teacher-"

"Well, whatever!" Iggy exploded, "I don't need to hunt anyway. I'll just go and sleep now, because it seems like that's the only thing I'm good at." He stalked off, his wings flared.

I sighed. "Iggy..."

But he didn't look back, continuing to stalk away. He sat down just out of sight behind a bramble bush.

I decided it was best to let him cool off befote approaching him. I waited a few minutes, grooming to pass the time before going over. I took two steps before ear-splitting barking sounded behind me, and I managed to spring to the side as a dog slid by me, its momentum carrying it into a tree.

I didn't have any time to think, just instinctively sprinted towards the bramble just as Iggy rounded the side and we collided, tumbling into the bramble. Thorns snagged in my fur and Iggys wings were intangled with me, and we tried to awkwardly untangle as fast as we could as the dog rightened itself.

It came at us faster then we could dodge, but it couldn't stop, sliding past us. Its teeth still did catch my ear, but I managed to avoid any other injuries. I shook off the droplets of blood.

"Move, move!" I snapped at Iggy as he turned to see if I was okay. Instead I pushed him towards the thicker part of the forest, and he got the message.

I bolted towards the thicker woods, winding around a tree as more thunderous barking sounded behind me, hot breath on my tail. 

Iggy was ahead of me and splashed through a puddle, then jumped aloft. I followed with an internal cringe at the water.

I heard the dogs splash in the water behind me and sprang for the first trunk of a tree I saw. My claws latched onto the grooves in the bark and I scrambled up, the dogs teeth snapping shut where my tail had been moments ago.

Once I got high enough, I carefully balanced and treaded out carefully on a branch, reaching out to a branch on another tree. My forepaws made it to the next branch, but my back paws failed me and gave out from exhaustion.

I scrabbled on the branch, back legs hanging off. I managed to pull up, but slipped, paws sliding from the branch-but then teeth latched onto my scruff and hauled me up, pulling me up to more safer space on the branch.

It was Iggy. I heaved a shuddering breath, so very thankful for him at that moment. I knew cats could land on their feet from extremely high, but I didn't want to test that theory with me just yet.

We sat in silence as we both caught our breaths as we crouched on the branch. I spoke first, looking up and saying, "t-thanks for saving me. How did you know where-"

"I circled back." Iggy interrupted, "I saw where you were going, and flew over here.

I looked down at the dog. It was milling around in confusion, obviously not knowing where we went.

"The puddle must've masked my scent. Looks like we're safe for right now." I decided.

Iggy followed my gaze. "It does look familiar. Kinda like that dog we saw at the park one time, where we found Carlos for the first ti-"

A bolt of realization hit me. "No wonder it looks familiar. Thats T'Caps dog, and where it is, he probably isn't far behind. C'mon--we have to move."