I am truly sorry to have you wait so long for the next post.

Chapter 3

They arrived. The den was a tangled mot of lions searching frantically for what they could not find.

Great-Mane, the pride leader, met them as they entered the den. “As you probably know,” he mewed, his gaze resting on Flame for a moment and his voice strangely calm, “Rain has gone missing. We tried tracking him, but his scent was washed away with the rain. As you can imagine, Brightfur is frantic. I trust you’ll do your best to help us find him?” Amber nodded, and began her search.

She didn’t bother to check the den, where everyone else was searching. She scaled the tree a few den lengths away where she thought she could get a better view.

She looked around. Something caught her eye. Something that was quite cat like, but not a cat. She realized with a start what it was. A hyena.

Amber leapt out of the tree, not realizing how high she was. She crashed against the hard turf, and felt her ankle twist. “Yow!!” she let out a yelp of pain. But she paid no heed and hopped rapidly to where she had spotted the hyena.

Amber tasted the air, trying to get a whiff of lion scent. But all she could smell was the rain, still pelting down as if it would never stop. Suddenly, Amber heard a tiny mewling and recognized it immediately.

“Rain!” she called softly, calling to the frightened cub. Rain came running to her and jumped into Amber’s outstretched arms. Amber held him close.

“Why did you leave?” she asked gently, stroking the cub’s sleek head. But instead of replying, Rain pushed her backward.

“Keep going!” he cried. Amber was puzzled and tried to hop backwards with her twisted ankle, but fell. Suddenly, she realized why they had needed to move.

“Oh no,” Amber choked, as a dark shadow fell over them. The hyena had not left them yet. She dared to look up. The hyena was gazing at them hungrily and laughing.

“You’re not getting one fur of this cub,” Amber warned threateningly. But the normal hyena does not know how to speak cat, and this one was no exception. He laughed his menacing laugh and pounced on top of Amber and Rain. Amber and Rain yowled for help. She braced herself for her end as the hyena licked his chops and prepared for the kill. But it never came. She felt the weight being lifted off of her and the hyena howled in pain and ran yelping away.

“Are you two all right?” the big lion’s voice boomed.

“Great-Mane! I found him!” Rain ran out of Amber’s arms and into his mother’s paws.

“Great!” mewed Savannah, padding up to her with Sandy and Flame close behind her. Savannah was doing much better, restored to the health she should have been. Flame had only one moon before his second summer, when he would leave the lion pride with some other young lions to start a pride of his own.

“Thank you! The pride won’t forget what a leopard did for us. We are in debt of the leopards.” Great-Mane roared.

“But Amber’s human! Not leopard!” spat Sharpclaw, a lion that Amber had always despised; he was always making sure no cat forgot Amber’s origin. Amber colored up when no cat spoke against him and tried to divert her gaze from the lions.

“Hey,” yowled Savannah after a few moments, “that’s not fair! Amber’s as leopard as Tanya is on the inside!”

Flame and a few others nodded and roared in agreement.

When Amber limped back to Tanya, the rain was still pelting down harder than ever as a satisfied hyena settled down in his cozy den with a meal to satisfy her stomach and her mate’s.