Page 30 of Keeping Freya (Warriors of Arracate #3)

Freya

S omething wet tickles my nose, and I swat it away absentmindedly. An engine starts rumbling nearby, and the wetness returns. At the same time, something swats my face. Blinking, I open my eyes and look into the giant yellow eyes of a jungle cat.

A yelp escapes me, and I scramble back, hands before my mouth.

I don’t want to scare the animal into attacking me.

When I’ve created some distance, I take a closer look.

The cat looks like a cross between a lynx and a snow leopard; its fur is white and thick, decorated with a combination of spots and stripes.

Its head is long and graceful, with tilted eyes and big ears with tuffs on the tips.

Large fangs or small tusks curl from its upper lip, and it is purring like its life depends on it.

We are approximately the same height sitting down, and when I fix my gaze in front of me, I look it straight into the eye.

The purring intensifies, and it smoothly stalks towards me.

I’m too scared to move. I’m all alone on a strange planet, with a strange predator—who purrs like a regular old house cat.

I close my eyes, waiting for the kill, but it doesn’t come.

When I feel wetness on my face again, I look beneath my lashes to see the big cat licking my face. Too astonished to act, I let him. It purrs heavily, then butts my shoulder with its head.

“Okay, okay, buddy. What do you want?” Hesitantly, I lift my hand to give the beast a little pet. Brusquely, it pushes his head into my hand. I laugh. “Oh, you want cuddles, sweety?”

I pet the cat for a while, before it steps back and lets out something between a mew and a roar. It walks up to bushes on the side of the meadow, before looking back over its shoulder.

“You want me to follow you?” Doubt fills my mind, I should wait for T’Rak here. Maybe not in the middle of the clearing, but he will be looking for me, so I could take cover in a tree somewhere and wait him out.

The cat mews and walks back to me, bumping me from behind. He definitely wants me to follow him.

I guess I could go see what he wants? No hurt in that? This clearing is huge, and I’m sure I will be able to find it again.

I follow the cat through the underbrush into the jungle.

It’s dark and humid here. Enormous leaves keep the sunlight from shining through, and the creature guides me deep into the greenery.

It’s a true struggle, and just when I’m beginning to doubt if this was a good idea, I hear a soft, plaintive meow.

The creature in front of me answers, and I stop in my tracks.

“Is your friend in trouble, buddy? Is that why you came to get me?”

It darts away between a couple of bushes, and I push them aside to follow. A couple of steps and a lot of scrapes and bruises later, I’m standing in a clearing, where the beast that came to get me is hovering next to a smaller specimen, which is trapped by a fallen tree.

“Hey there, kitty. Did you get hurt?” I slowly approach the cats, mindful that they are still wild animals and, on top of that, aliens.

The trapped cat mews again, and when I hold out my hand in front of her, she sniffs and bumps my fingers like any good old housecat. Brushing her soft fur, I tickle behind her ears. “You’re so cute.” She mews in response, and I straighten. Can’t leave this beauty trapped like this.

“Okay, friends, time to get to work.” I walk around the fallen tree to find a place to lift it so the kitten can get free.

It seems pretty solid, and my shoulders sag.

If I can free her, because I think the bigger one is a he and she is his mate, there’s also the opportunity that she’s hurt.

Which would suck, but I take a deep breath and straighten my shoulders. First things first, I need to free her.

After some research, I conclude that I need a lever to lift the tree trunk. I can’t lift it by myself, but with a big branch, I might be able to lift it just a tiny bit so that the cat can escape.

Rummaging through the bushes, I find nothing, so I turn towards the fallen tree and kick at one of the branches with everything I have.

Thank the Gods I didn’t lose my boots. They give me just that little extra leverage I need right now to tackle this tree. It crunches and creaks, and when I turn to stand on top of it, using my weight, it crashes down.

Not my finest moment, I think, when I look at the wreckage from where I landed on my now sore ass, but it did the trick. The branch is thick and sturdy, and I drag it towards the cats, who look at me curiously.

There’s a small opening next to her body where I poke the edge of the branch before I push. And nothing happens.

Grunting, I push again, and again, but it only leaves me exhausted and splinters my hands. The sad mewing picks up again, and I know I’m looking at it from the wrong angle. The first cat jumps on the branch, and I can kick myself for not thinking about using my body’s weight sooner.

I’m not the most agile person, but I manage to crawl along the branch to the top. When I get close, I slide down and hang under the branch with aching arms and legs.

I must push through, I tell myself. I can’t give up. So, I try another way: starting next to the branch, I take a few steps back and then charge. At full speed, I run towards the branch, jump with everything I have, and land on top of the thing, lengthening my arms. I push and I push.

The smallest movement arises, but it’s not enough.

I scream out my frustration, but I don’t let go.

My big friend lands next to me with a thud, making the lever tip the tree.

The wood screeches, and the smaller cat crawls out from under just when I think the branch is breaking.

All my strength leaves me at once, and when the male jumps off, I let go as well.

My sore ass gets another hit, but I don’t care.

All I see are two happy cats, purring and brushing against each other.

As I watch the pair, my face feels strange, and my cheek starts hurting.

Tentatively, I bring up my hand to touch my face, and when I feel the strain on my skin, I realize I’m smiling.

A genuine ear-to-ear smile as broad as can be is plastered on my face, and I cannot stop.

My vision blurs as tears fill my eyes and start falling.

Here, in the middle of a freaking jungle on a strange planet, where I almost drowned to death, I am finding happiness. Even though it’s just a moment in time, and life is still tough and awful, right now, I am happy. Content.

The cats appear to be done doing that cat-thing felines do, and they make their way over to me. It’s beautiful to see how in tune they are with one another. Before I can truly admire their beauty, though, I’m being attacked from both sides with cuddles and lots of purrs.

Laughing, I let myself fall to the ground. “Careful, you two, I’m just a puny human.” Of course, they don’t understand me, and when they’re all done cuddling, they sit back on their haunches, expecting looks in their eyes.

“What?” I sit up and stare at them. “You can go now. I’ll go back to the beach and wait for backup.

” They don’t move, and when I start wondering what to do next, I hear bristling, and the jungle falls quiet.

The cats backtrack, and I quickly rise to my feet to join them.

The male moves behind me and bumps my knees, urging me to follow the female while he stays behind, hissing.

I decide I don’t want to wait and see what’s coming next, and while adrenaline starts pumping through my veins, I run.