Sunset
Two dark shapes circled him as his eyes squinted into the night, eyes not adjusting to the sudden change. Blood was still pouring into his left from a forehead cut and the entire left side of his pelt had been gouged by deep cuts that spurted blood whenever he moved. All of a sudden, the creatures disappeared and the moon he did not notice that was being blocked drifted above his head again. Blood hidden in the darkness suddenly appeared. The grass and leaves were stained red and his paws felt like lead as he dragged himself up. She was near, he was sure. He shouldn't have come here, but it was too late. The visions in his head had finally come true.
These dreams usually happened but lately he hadn't been able to see anything. His last hope was for her to see what was going to happen, but of course sharing had a price. The price was his ultimate death. No- he couldn't die. He had to see her, one last time. This time had failed, such as many times had. This was the last time.
The wounds all over his body either oozed or dumped blood down onto the grass, making his paws covered with the irony smell. Would that cover his smell? He knew this was what made her remember every time, except it was different now. Would she forgive him for what he had done? It had been so long ago.. but these visions surely had the ability for her to remember memories buried so far beneath.
She was near, the bond told him so. The clearing grew nearer and nearer as the familiar place clouded his vision for a moment. When they were kits, exploring the forest nearby and finding this place, which he made this their hideout. Every day, when their humans didn't notice they would sneak out at dawn and return at dusk, ready for a healing helping of whatever kind of fish they had prepared. It always came in their bowls.
He tripped over five branches until he was sure she could see him. Her expression was distinguishable from this far, a mixture of horror, pain and dawning understanding in her eyes. Unable to use any weight on his legs any more, he tried to leap and barely managed to cover the rest of the distance. As he hit the ground by her feet, he stared up at her beautiful dawn colored eyes and the visions took over his mind, swirling around as she disappeared from his sight.
When he awoke, the sun dazzled against his eyes as his body began to ache again. Was he with the stars? He might have ended up in heaven with his luck. His mind was averted back to reality as silver's eyes gazed up at him, concern and something else swirling in the depths. Seeing he was awake, she curled her tail around her paws and blinked at him. He tried to push himself up to his paws but he collapsed after barely stretching upwards. 'A-are you ok?' She asked in a small voice. Falcon blinked up at him, confused. Was she really this shy after only being in the forest for two weeks? They had to leave and promised they would stay in touch, but Silver's unusually good memory had failed her.. or was there another reason? There were flickers of remembrance in her eyes but she did not say anything else, as if she was calculating if he could be a threat. He scoffed mentally. Did she think his injured body could do her any harm? Even if she wanted him dead he would never touch a hair on her pelt.
The colors of the world were unusually bright. New hues, ones that he had not seen before had appeared in font of him, as a ladybug with wings that were like brown but less..browny. Did silver see this too? He gestured with his left paw, muscles twitching. She glanced at the trees, then looked back questioningly. 'What? Do you see it? The colour is different, more like les brown but not less.' Silver leaned her face close and looked him dead in the eye. 'Are you feeling alright? The trees have always been the same. There's no prey because the birds have flirted elsewhere. Everything's the same.' He tried to persuade her otherwise, that his head was fine and Ibay his vision had changed its spectrum, but she wouldn't listen. Every time he tried to talk, she stared with a menacing gaze as she watched and monitored his movement. Slowly, his wounds began healing and scabbed on their own, though the pain did not subside.
A few hours later, Silver went out to do some hunting and that was when he could get a better view of her camp. It looked so different to the cabin they had went in their early months, stubby legs stumbling to climb the flattest of hills. Now, feathers and bones that smelled of hare were laid in two separate corners and he found himself to be awkwardly positioned onto a moss bed. It was not as comfy as the human made material that smelled odd but he had a good night's sleep. Scraps of the green and soft plant fell off his ears as he finally managed to stretch his paws which ached from running through the forest last night.
He had not planned on telling her anything, afraid of her outburst when she found out. Had it only been so long? Or..on that night had he passed out for longer than he thought? What if… it had been so long and that was the reason that she had felt confused in his presence? The memories were from so long ago, when they still shared the same household. They were not related but had been found separately, him in the alleyway and her on another tree watching him intently with those same eyes she often did now. The two humans had only noticed her and so had he because she had fallen from the tree and twisted her leg at the sight of the humans, scared of their open arms. Eventually, she had gotten used to them with a lot of their weird antics like wearing weird stuff on their heads and giving weird pellet-shaped food to them. If they were lucky, they could have tuna, its pink fleshy color still embedded in his mind.
Silver came back later to an awaiting falcon, her jaws carrying a fat starling and a small hare. 'How are you feeling?' She asked with an air of concern mixed with sympathy. 'I think there's a broken bone in my left leg, it's swelled up considerably since I woke' he replied, grimacing as he spoke and turned to his left hind leg, which indeed it had swollen up so that the skin under his pelt had become red and burned whenever he tried to move. Silver examined the leg carefully and gazed back up at him.'This leg's broken all right. I can't fix this but I'm sure— the-the humans can fix it.' She said the words like they were speaking the chirps of birds calling all around. He ignored this and hooked a claw towards the starling. 'I'm hungry.' 'Eat up'.
The starling's black and white feathers did not make the taste worse but made the texture exquisitely different. The smell wafted into his nose just as his jaws clamped down, making the taste of freshly slain prey clouding his mind with the juicy meat. 'This is SO GOOD! Where did you find this?' He asked with a mouthful of feathers. Silver turned slightly pink and muttered something about finding it in the forest. Hurriedly, she wolfed down the rabbit like the eagles above and finished it in a few gulps. The bones, she kept with the pile at the end of the cabin then shook her pelt and stretched. 'Well, you'd do better with sleeping' she said, then bounded out, but not without calling 'I'll wake you up tomorrow' and he fell asleep on his nest, with peaceful dreams of relaxing in the sunshine in the forest, staring up at the trees dotted with flowers.