Post by Desiderata on Jan 24, 2011 13:29:13 GMT -5
Desiderata
The weather was beginning to cool down. Autumn was upon my homelands. The bite of Winter was growing ever stronger in the air as the wind whispered past my rounded ears. I’d always liked Autumn, all the changing colours, the birds giving way to those that hung around in Winter. I sighed softly, my breath pluming out in a puff of vapor as the sun started sinking below the horizon. Night was coming in. I stopped, a sound had captured my attention. There weren’t any troublemakers around were there? And by troublemakers I meant male cougars. But just to be on the safe side…
I glanced around myself looking for a tree that could support my weight. In moments I spotted a large pine with branches low enough to the ground that I could spring to them from the ground and make my way up to a covered spot within the branches, out of sight but where I could still see. The sounds came closer. I bolted to the bottom of the tree and vaulted upwards. Landing upon the branch I’d selected with hardly a sound or the dislodging of needles. Then I dug in my claws and sprang to a higher branch, and still another higher, and then the sounds were nearly on the spot I had just been.
Dropping low upon the branch I glanced downward and to my right. Then I waited, silent as I possibly could be. I waited and a few moments later I silently chuckled to myself. I’d been spooked by a cow elk and her calf. They made their way beneath my tree perch and I sprawled across the branch to cat nap as the pair continued on their way to their bed. I sighed softly and listened as the night came alive around me. Songbirds sang their final songs of the day, and then a few moments of silence before the chorus came back with the calls of owls and other night birds.
Soon I yawned and lay my tawny head upon my left paw and let my eyelids drift shut over my blue-gray eyes. I was on the border of sleep and a new sound brought me to alert. I felt a few pine needles and I looked upward baring my fangs momentarily before laughing aloud and staring. A Great-Horned owl decided that three branches above my head would be a perfect perch. Shaking my head at my jumpiness I laid back down, but didn’t feel like napping any longer. I sat up and stretched and then froze again. The owl and I were no longer the only ones here, someone else was approaching. Stay hidden Ata. I told myself as I looked down from the tree again.