Free Web NovelChapter 46: Chapter 45 - The Girl Who Raises Cheetahs(Part 1)
Point-of-View: Aurora Pretorius
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Sixteen years...it’s been nearly sixteen years since I ended up here. I think the current date is the 1st of May, 2025, and I’m twenty-four now. I’m pretty sure that I was at least a few days off the actual date in terms of accuracy, but my birthday is the 19th of January, so I’m definitely twenty-four now.
It seems like forever ago that I was nine years old, living with actual people...I haven’t seen another human being at all since then, only animals. Oh, and also more of those strange creatures, the same as the one that had attacked me nine years ago.
It became clear that these creatures are invisible to the cheetahs and probably other animals too, I’m the only one that can see them. But they do physically exist, so they could injure an animal if they attacked them...but whenever they show up, they always ignore everything except for me.
But they only showed up for about two years, about five or six times a month at first, and then less and less, until they stopped showing up entirely. Things were peaceful for a few years after that, until four years ago...when Spot died, of old age.
I was really depressed for weeks after that, I loved her so much...the fact that she wasn’t the same species as me doesn’t matter, I considered her to be like a precious sister to me. I didn’t even mourn my dad as much as I mourned her after she died...okay, that came out a bit more heartless than I intended.
After that, it was too painful to stay at that den, so the rest of the cheetahs and I moved to a new place a few kilometers away, a cave next to a waterfall below a tall cliff. I decided to continue taking care of the cheetahs, there really isn’t anything in particular that I want to do.
And besides, it’s not an exaggeration to say that I owe my lives to the cheetahs. There was one in particular that I especially wanted to take care of...one of the cubs from the last litter that Spot gave birth to, who was five years old, a female.
I named her Dot, for two reasons...the first, because it was similar to Spot, and second, because she was small. She was born smaller than other cubs, and grew really slowly, before she stopped growing entirely, only slightly taller than my knees when she’d on all fours.
Her stunted growth also affected her instincts, she couldn’t hunt and rarely ever showed any aggression, she was very meek and docile most of the time. She’d sometimes get a bit playful, but not nearly as often as the others.
There were about twenty male cheetahs living with me, and some of them were really playful with me. All of them had known me since birth, all Spot’s children...cheetahs are only motherly while their cubs are young, but regardless, I’ll take care of all of them.
As for the strange abilities I gained, I’ve continued to hone my instincts and reflexes, while I’ve learnt more about the communication ability too. I learnt that I can talk to all cat species when, two years ago, a group of lionesses wandered near our den.
I was able to communicate with them, but they were too aggressive and hungry to calm down, they were intent on attacking us. I then instinctively commanded them to leave...and they did. That helped me better understand this communication power.
I can communicate with all cats, in three ways...talk, request and command. By talk, I mean just talking to them normally, with no specific intent. By request, I mean asking them to do something, but if they don’t want to do it, they can ignore me. And by command, I mean that I can compel them to do something against their will. I try not to use the last one unless it’s really necessary though.
Anyway, I was currently outside the cave of the new den, playing with two of the male cheetahs. These two were the most playful and energetic of the pack, I’d named them Play and Four...Four because he had a spot on his neck that kinda looked like the number four.
We were rolling about on the ground, I was aggressively rubbing and scratching Play’s belly and sides, while Four was trying to grab Play’s tail, before rolling across and pinning my legs, lightly nipping on my toes.
It was about half an hour after the end of breakfast, meat as usual, of course. I don’t really eat fruits or nuts anymore, I crave meat all the time now. My teeth are a lot stronger and sharper than they were before, and meat seems to taste better too.
Anyway, as Play and Four then tired themselves out, I stood up with a content sigh and walked towards the stream beneath, cupping my hands and filling it with water, before gulping it down, and then splashing some water on my face.
I then sat down on the grass and stared up at the sky, before lazily laying down as a pleasant breeze blew across, brushing against my skin, the grass around me rustling gently.
And then, as I let out a slight yawn and my eyelids began to flutter, I was suddenly startled and jumped up in alarm as a loud splash came from the stream.
What was that!? Did something fall into the water? But there aren’t any trees near the stream, and the spot where the splash came from was nowhere near the cliff...maybe a bird that randomly died while flying?
I don’t see anything moving...I stepped into the stream and began cautiously heading towards where the splash came from, as I felt a strong sense of curiosity. But I should have ignored that impulse...because I’ll forever regret letting my curiosity get the better of me.
As I reached the spot, I reached down into the water with my hand...and felt something smooth and round, like a glass ball or something. My senses then heightened in alarm as I felt a heat against my hand, unable to pull my arm away.
It felt like something was flowing into me, and what’s more, I could feel the invisible pressure around me rapidly growing at an alarming rate, I’m losing control of it, it’s getting all floaty like it was at first, but it felt several times more massive than it was before.
And then, the glass thing abruptly disappeared, and the heat I felt on my hand faded. Wh-what the...? It feels like...like my body is getting stronger, and I felt something else too...I lifted up my hand and acting on the feeling, my eyes widening as I produced a black mist from my palm.
Did the thing that I touched give me a new ability? I...don’t understand what this one is. It felt more complex than my previous abilities. The mist then disappeared, as I shifted my focus to the invisible pressure around me.
It feels annoying when it’s all floaty, I need to get it under control and into a steady, stable pressure. But it feels like it’s going to take a while, the amount felt more than three or four times greater than how much it was before.
Hm? What the-...? I was staring at my reflection in the water, and my eyes looked different...the whites of my eyes had turned black, and my dark yellowish irises had grown darker and sharper. Huh, actually...I kinda like the way my eyes look now. Just what in the world was that glass-like thing?
I’m so confused...I didn’t touch anything when I obtained my previous abilities, it was more like...like my surge of varying emotions forcefully triggered it. But this was a lot different...that glass-like thing that I touched, it was like it forced this new ability into me. frёewebηovel.cѳm
When I touched it, I couldn’t pull away from it no matter how hard I tried. It just lasted a few seconds, a brief moment, but that was more than enough to swell up the pressure around me several times over.
I let out an annoyed groan before heading back to the cave with a sense of bewilderment over this whole thing...just what is this?
Dot perked up as I entered the cave, bounding over towards me with a chirp, jumping up towards me as she closed in. I caught her and held her in my arms, before rubbing my face on her fur as she bumped her nose against my cheek.
As I then pulled away, I noticed that she was staring at my eyes, letting out a concerned mew and asking me what happened...she was able to communicate with more complexity than the other cheetahs, though even she didn’t understand the concept of calling me by name when I tried requesting her to try.
I smiled at her and reassured her that nothing was wrong...I haven’t really spoken out loud in about six or seven years, I’ve gotten used to communicating with them using just my thoughts. There was just no need to do so, it’s so much easier to just talk to them without actually talking.
I then gently set Dot down and headed for the back of the cave and sat down with a sigh...what is happening? These are like superpowers or something, and back when I lived with people, I always thought that stuff like that wasn’t real.
But it clearly is real. Should I be worried about this? It’s definitely not normal, but...that doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing, right? After all, these strange powers have helped me protect my family, that much is undeniable. And in the end, maybe that’s all that matters.
Well, it’s not like I know how to get rid of these powers even if I wanted to, so in a way, I have no choice but to accept it. But like I said, these powers help me protect my family, so I’ll happily accept them.
However, ignorance is bliss, and my bliss wasn’t going to last much longer. If only...if only I knew what these powers were about to lead to, in just a few days from now, I’d have never touched that glass object...
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