Samantha's Third Chance Chapter 8
#9 of Samantha's Third Chance
Samantha hunts for her breakfast the next morning and has a nice deer. After breakfast she heads back into the tower and looks for Glade. After an hour she has no luck, she stands in the grove roof scratching her head when a hand lands on her shoulder. She looks behind her while assuming a fighting stance, only to see Glade. Samantha relaxes as Glade says, "Oh sorry I startled you."
"Don't sneak up on a carnivore Glade. I tried looking for you, you didn't tell me where to meet and I don't know where your quarters are."
"Oh, forgive me then. I'll show where my room is when we're done. Follow me please." Glade takes them outside the tower and after an hour to a small clearing. "Sit in the center and close your eyes." Samantha did as Glade said. "You came to us seeking to pure yourself of something. What is it?"
"A darkside of me. I once was a pawn of an evil woman and I discovered there's a piece of that pawn side still there. I want it GONE."
"Now look deep into yourself, in there you need to find where that darkside is hiding." Pardus taught her how to focus inside when he first change her to Catrai so she repeats that practice. She first actually goes through her own memories starting with her childhood. Rexperiencing her dark days as a puppet to Siana then to her time with Amura, the first being to truly love and accept all of her in her life. And finally her recent memories with Jackie. The rambunctious Kanin pup reminds her of Amura when she first came to her: energetic and mischievous. Like Amura she accepts all of who she is with no real fear. Heck she fears her leaving for good. She does find something though, a chest with a black aura around it. Mentally she tries to touch it but she is rebuffed. She mentally steps back and tries to think of ways to get in. "Samantha!" Samantha jerked her eyes open to see glade looking at with some concern.
"What?" she asks the druid.
"It's getting late we should head back." Samantha looks around and sees the sun is setting.
"Did it really take that long." She thought. A rumble from her stomach makes her smile sheepishly. "Do you mind if I hunt first?"
"Nope, it will help me learn more about you."
"Wouldn't you be repulsed by it though? You gals treasure life."
"We are a part of nature and death is a part of it. Very few anthro carnivores seek us out so I'm curious." Shrugging Samantha replies.
"Okay stay well behind be and be very quiet." Glade allows Samantha to be 20 feet ahead of her while she hunts. Glade has always been fascinated by carnivores and watching the difference between the feral and the anthro forms. Samantha herself was interesting, her fur color allowed her to blend in perfectly as night came in. Samantha was partially crouched with her nose sniffing for a scent and her tail twitching. After 20 minutes Samantha raises her hand and her nose goes into overdrive. The Catrai moves even more slowly until she spots a deer. A young buck eating some grass. Samantha takes one step a minute as she closes to the buck her complete focus in on her prey. Her tail is now barely moving as she gets closer. Samantha leaps and the buck has just enough time to look up as the Catrai lands on him and instantly breaks his neck. Samantha cleans the kill eats her fill which didn't leave much. After a few minutes of rest Samantha gets up and follows the scent of Glade to a few trees away and sees the druid eating a fruit. When she was done the both head back with out comment. Glade directs Samantha to a pool where she cleans herself unashamed of her nudity which Glade only notes. They return to the Tower and Glade shows Samantha her room, it is locate three levels down from the grass roof. Glade then escorts Samantha back to hers and says good night. Samantha just crashes on the bed and falls a sleep soon surprisingly tired. Glade meanwhile returns to her room, it is essentially the same layout as Samantha but more personalized and filled with books. The druid heads for the desk sits down and pulls out a quill and a book with a few empty pages. This is her journal of her study of carnivores. She puts the quill in ink and begins to write.
An anrtho Catrai hunting is an interesting carnivore to watch. Like feral felines I have observed the Catrai slowly and silently stalk their prey, barely moving their tail. Unlike feral felines the Catrai leap onto their prey and snap their neck then she cleaned her kill with efficiency. The Catrai herself is interesting. Her fur color isn't like anything I've seen or read, she has a black fur coat which you would think panther heritage but she has blue tiger stripes. I got a glimpse of her personality when she was trying to find that darkside she mentioned. I can tell she has had a very full life, full of what though I have yet to see.
For a month Glade and Samantha work on accessing the
chest Samantha described. Even with Glade joining in fully hasn't helped yet. They were once again in the clearing, both sitting on the grass with eyes closed. Glade had her hands on Samantha's temples. Mentally they were both looking at the chest trying to figure out how to open it for that is the first part of purging the darkside. Glade begins chanting and a green aura surrounds her. In minutes it starts the aura surrounds the chest. A green glow focuses on the lock and starts growing brightly. It's like that for a long while before the lock suddenly snaps and the chest flips open. I darkness leaves the chest and swirls around Samantha blocking her from glades view. Then the Darkness condenses around Samantha and a black version of Samantha appears with red glowing eyes. The Dark Samantha looks at Glade and smiles.
"Thanks for freeing me fully but you are too dangerous to me to live." The Dark Samantha starts charging up a spell. Glade thinks quickly on what to do. Then she remembers, there was a Kanin pup feature heavily in Samantha's mind. She projects that image towards Samantha. Dark Samantha flinches and then starts holding her head. "NO! NOT AGAIN! IT SHOULD BE ME NOT HER! NO! NOT THAT WEAK KANIN PUP! AAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHH!" The Darkness separates from Samantha and returns to the chest which is relocked and Glade is pushed from Samantha's mind. As she returns to her body she glances over at Samantha to see her collapse to the ground. Glade runs over and starts checking on the Catrai. She seems very exhausted, dangerously so. Glade extends her powers over Samantha to replenish her reserves, while doing so discovers something shocking in Samantha but that will be okay for now as long as she can get Samantha okay. After a tense hour Glade carries Samantha home.
When Samantha wakes she finds herself strangely back in her room at the Tower. She looks around and finds Glade sitting at her chair writing in a book. "Hey." Samantha says weakly. Glade looks up from her book and smiles.
"Hey sleepy how are you feeling?"
"Tired, what time is it?"
"It's afternoon."
"When that's not too bad."
"Afternoon on the third day AFTER the night we tried that spell."
"Ouch, so what's the plan?"
"I have an idea that might work, but we can't do it here. Well have to head back to your home."
"Okay."
"One more thing, when I was healing you I discover something important."
"Yes?" Samantha comments hesitantly.
"You're pregnant." Samantha faints right away.