by Linda Deane
Ice Angel
by Linda Deane
Smashwords Edition
Text copyright 2013 Linda Deane
Cover design and photograph copyright 2013 Linda Deane
All rights reserved worldwide.
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This story was inspired by a very special little cat. Angelica was unfortunately mauled by dogs and we tragically lost her when she was only seven months old. We believe she was an angel and this story is a fictitious account of how we imagine one of her nine lives may have been.
If you enjoyed this story, look out for the second book in the series: Angel Bones, due for release at the beginning of August 2013. As a bonus, you will find the first chapter of book two at the end of this book. Book three should be available in October 2013.
If you like reading about cats, join the group Cat Books on Facebook for suggestions of other books about cats that you may enjoy.
Thank you for your support.
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1 MYSTERIOUS ENCOUNTER
CHAPTER 2 AMAZING DISCOVERY
CHAPTER 3 MISSING CHILD
CHAPTER 4 THE HIDEOUT
CHAPTER 5 A FANCIFUL TALE
CHAPTER 6 THE COUNCIL
CHAPTER 7 ANGELICA’S QUEST
CHAPTER 8 MAMMOTH VALLEY
CHAPTER 9 FIRST KILL
CHAPTER 10 SHOCKING DECISIONS
CHAPTER 11 EXODUS
CHAPTER 12 A NEW HOME
CHAPTER 13 THE GREAT HUNT
CHAPTER 14 NEW BEGINNINGS
EPILOGUE
BACKGROUND TO THIS STORY
CHAPTER 1 – MYSTERIOUS ENCOUNTER
A dizzying streak of blue and purple light flashed across the blackness of the night sky, ripping a vast crack across time and space. It burst into a golden shower of sparks over the icy forest of bare, wintry trees. Then, the jagged, torn edges of the heavens sealed up. The gap that had momentarily been torn into our world was closed and everything was quiet again. Snowflakes gently drifted down, down among the dark, silent trees. It was a bitterly cold night.
The cloud of smoke cleared and Angelica emerged. She shivered as she uncurled her new, earthly form and stretched her limbs. Her back arched gracefully. She drew back her head in a huge yawn, slowly opened her eyes, blinked, and looked around at the thick, white carpet of snow that surrounded her. Carefully she picked her way through the snow heading for a cave on the side of the hill. As she walked, she left a neat trail of pretty, little footprints behind her. Leaving the forest, she climbed the hillside, shaking the snowflakes from her thick fur coat and dainty little paws from time to time.
Suddenly, she stopped and looked up at the black sky, sniffing the air cautiously. The smell of smoke drifted down to her. She could see the warm, orange glow of a fire at the entrance to the cave. The ancient cave people relied heavily on the miracle of fire for protection from wild animals. They lit fires at the entrances to their cave homes at night to keep out the beasts.
Silently and carefully, Angelica trod the path up to the cave. She stopped and sat down on the bare, cold ground just beyond the fire. Softly, but persistently, she mewed until Aric stirred in his sleep. He was hungry, terribly hungry! Most nights he would toss and turn trying to ignore his growling tummy before finally falling into a fitful sleep out of sheer exhaustion.
It had been a very long, cold winter and the tribe was starving. The preceding summer had been short and they had not found much to gather or store for the winter. Hunts too had been unsuccessful and there was no meat for them to dry and keep for their winter stores.
Aric groaned and opened his eyes. He lay shivering in the dark, listening to the scary night sounds. Somewhere in the depths of the cave, he heard a bat squeak. He listened carefully. What was the other sound that seemed to be coming from just outside the entrance of the cave? Could it be the mewing of a cat?
He sat up and looked across to the fireplace, blinking. In the dim light of the smouldering embers, he thought he could see the outline of a cat’s head and shoulders shrouded in the smoke from the fire. He heard it again, a soft but persistent mewing. It almost sounded as if the cat was calling his name. Maybe it was - in cat language. Aric frowned, puzzled. Then he shook his head trying to shake away the sound of the cat calling his name but the sound was not in his ears, it was right inside his head. “Aricccccc, Aricccccc……..”, it called again and again. It was the sweetest, most beautiful voice he had ever heard.
He had sometimes seen cats in the forest. They were beautiful, shy creatures with long thick fur but they were afraid of people and stayed well clear of humans. They never came near the places where people lived. Aric was fascinated by this bold cat who had dared to venture so close to the fire. Perhaps it was driven by hunger and the hope of finding a few scraps of food.
It would not go away and kept calling his name! Why had no one else woken? Could they not hear it? Aric could ignore the cat no longer. He wrapped his tattered, old rabbit fur blanket tightly around his shoulders and carefully made his way to the cave entrance stepping carefully around the sleeping tribesmen on the floor. The cat did not move when he approached. It looked up at him from across the fireplace with huge yellow eyes and purred quietly. Aric was mesmerized by those eyes, which seemed to look deeply into his soul. He felt as if the cat was looking right into his heart. It could see his deepest and most secret thoughts and feelings.
The quiet, soothing purr drew him nearer. He knew it was completely forbidden to go beyond the safety of the fire at night but he had never seen a cat that close before and was fascinated. Forgetting the cold and the hunger pains, the tall, blonde boy crept past the glowing embers towards the cat.
Someone groaned in their sleep and stirred within the cave. In a flash, the cat was gone, scampering away into the dark night. Frightened and confused, Aric darted back into the cave nearly treading on Soren, the tribe leader, in his haste to get back to his sleeping mat. He lay there in the dark, his heart pounding for a while. He no longer felt cold and hungry. He thought only of those big yellow eyes and the soft, soothing purring which filled his head as he eventually fell into a deep sleep.
Aric dreamt of the cat. He dreamed that she had wings, huge, magnificent white wings. She flew into the cave and he reached out for her. She let him hold onto her as she powerfully flapped those great big wings. They soared out into the open sky. Night turned to day as they flew over the trees. The landscape changed below them, becoming more mountainous. They flew over hills and deep valleys. Far below them, a trail of great lumbering beasts was making its way across the snowy land, up mountains and down valleys. Where were they going? They followed the trail of beasts to the top of a high mountain. Surrounded by a ring of snowy peaks was a sheltered valley where the grass grew tall and many animals grazed on the rich pickings of the valley.
CHAPTER 2 – AMAZING DISCOVERY
Aric’s mother, Elya, shook him gently by the shoulder. He surfaced from his deep sleep, blinking away the fragments of the dream. “Are you ill Aric?” asked his mother with concern. She was not used to her children sleeping so soundly. In these cold, difficult times, as soon as the first grey light of dawn slid its bony fingers into the cave, the tribe was up and about; anxious to scavenge for anything they could find to fill their empty bellies.
Aric smiled a happy, co
ntented smile and gave his mother a hug. She was even thinner and bonier than he was. He felt happier today than he had ever felt. He thought about the strange dream he’d had. “I dreamt about a cat last night, Mom. First, she came to the entrance of the cave and called my name. She stared into my eyes. It seemed as if she could read my thoughts and see right into my heart. I felt all warm and cosy as I looked into her eyes. She disappeared, but then I dreamt she came back and she could fly. She picked me up and flew with me to a beautiful place. I slept so well last night Mom, that I’m not even hungry this morning!”
This really worried Elya. At the start of the winter her mother, Aric’s granny, had died. Before she died, Grandma had also lost her appetite and had strange dreams. She kept telling them everything would be all right, then her old eyes would get hazy and she’d sit and stare into space with a peaceful expression on her face. What little food they had to give her, she would not touch. She just sat beside the fire, staring peacefully into the flames all day. When they brought her share of the food, she fed it to the small children. She had grown weaker and thinner. When they came in late one afternoon, having found nothing more than a few dried berries and a root or two, they found the old woman had died. She had been the oldest member of the tribe.
Elya could not bear the thought of losing Aric too. Now her beloved son was showing signs of the same behaviour his granny had shown. “You must get up and help us look for food, Aric. You must eat!” she chided, more harshly than she had intended.
“I will Mother, I feel strong and healthy today. I could kill a mammoth by myself today.”
“Huh, you’d have to find one first!” snorted Elya, “There hasn’t been one of those seen around here for many, many seasons! I’m surprised you can even remember what a mammoth is!”
Aric hummed softly to himself as he pulled on his fur clothes. He picked up his sharp digging stick and strapped on his leather collecting bag, readying himself to join the women and the other children on their foraging expedition for the day. He was not yet old enough to join the men on the hunt. Perhaps by summer time they would consider him strong enough and old enough to go hunting with them. Not that it mattered much; they hadn’t brought in anything bigger than a rabbit since two summers ago. Game was scarce. The cold weather seemed to have chased everything away.
Nevertheless, Aric practised everyday with the spear his father had made for him. His aim had become quite good. He thought about the cat in his dream. A long time ago, he had watched as a cat from the forest had stalked and caught a bird. He wished then that he could be as agile and swift as that cat had been.
After their meagre breakfast, the small band of gatherers wound their way down the hill into the forest. The hunters took the opposite path, up and over the hill. The old people stayed in the cave to care for the smallest children. The tribe was quite large. There were forty-seven people including the new baby who had been born that summer. It was weak and sickly, and cried most of the time.
The tribe had not always lived in the cave. Five winters ago, the weather had taken a turn for the worse and the elders had decided it was time to abandon their old mammoth-hide tents and find a more permanent shelter. Food was becoming scarce and the tents were so old and tattered that most of them were barely usable. It was time to move on to a new area.
For as long as Aric could remember, the tribe had never stayed long in any one location. They were always on the move, driven by the constant need to find food, following the herds of game that roamed the plains. The elders told stories of good times when game and fruit were plentiful. Those times were long, long ago and these tales had been passed down from generation to generation. Nobody, not even the oldest members of the tribe could remember a time when they weren’t hungry, desperate and cold.
The elders were very worried. A lifetime of cold winters and brief cool summers had made them tough, resourceful and resilient. However, this current period of bad, cold weather was the longest and most intense cold period that any of them could remember. They had only intended to use the cave for a short while, but this was already their fifth winter here. The area around the cave had been totally exhausted of food. They had not found mammoths for many summers and had no hides to make new tents. They dared not venture too far from the cave in search of better hunting and foraging grounds, because they had no shelter.
Aric was thinking about the gloomy mood of his elders as he walked along, scanning the snowy ground for signs of something to eat but he could not suppress the feeling of optimism inside him. He thought about the cat and about his dream, wondering what it all meant.
“Stop daydreaming Aric!” chided his sister Mika, “Hurry up, or you’ll be left behind!”
Aric smiled at her. Nothing could annoy him today, not even bossy Mika, or thoughts about how severe their predicament was. His thoughts kept returning to the cat in his dream and he sensed that something good was going to happen today. He knew she had been trying to tell him something last night, something important. What was it? Deep in thought, he stopped at the frozen stream to break off a piece of ice. It was cold and slippery but it was so nice to put a piece of ice in your mouth and let it slowly melt. He looked around to find a big stone. The ice was thick and solid and he couldn’t chip off a piece with his stick.
He looked up straight into a pair of beautiful, yellow eyes. Startled, he dropped his stick. Perched on the rock above him was the cat from his dream. She purred softly at him. Aric was taken aback. Had he dreamt about her last night or was she real after all? Was he dreaming now? She stared at Aric, then turned and jumped off the boulder. She walked a few paces then turned again, looked up at him and mewed softly.
Aric was confused, he knew he was not supposed to stray away from the tribe but he felt compelled to follow the cat. He looked back at the group of women and children who had crossed the frozen stream. He looked in the opposite direction at the cat who was edging towards the forest. As she stared deeply into his soul he forgot about the rest of the women and children who had slowly spread out along the banks of the stream in an effort to gather whatever food they could find. Aric was inexplicably drawn to this strange little grey cat. Spellbound he followed her. Her tail was thick and bushy and she was dressed in a warm winter pelt. Aric was dressed only in his ragged, patched furs that were full of holes and threadbare, but he was not cold today. Every now and then, the cat would stop to make sure Aric was following her, encouraging him with a gentle mew.
The tribe was so intent on their food -gathering mission, that nobody noticed that Aric had wandered off. The crisp white snow, sparkling in the early morning sunlight, crunched under his deerskin boots. On, and on, and on he trudged over the snowy ground, under the trees and across open meadows. The little grey cat was always just in sight. Aric lost track of time. He had no idea where the cat was taking him or why he was following her. He did not even realise that he had been trudging through the snow for hours. Nor did he notice that he was in a completely unfamiliar place. He was oblivious to the fact that he had eaten little more than a small bowl of herb and root stew since midday the previous day. He had not eaten his breakfast – a handful of dried berries. He was not hungry and he was not tired. He knew only one thing, and that was that he had a compelling desire to follow the cat.
Although he could not explain how, in his mind he knew she was communicating with him. He could feel her talking to him deep inside. Somehow, he knew her name, Angelica, and she knew not only his name but also all about him and everything that had ever happened to him. They were communicating with each other without words and without speaking. Aric marvelled at the way she could read his thoughts and he could read hers.
Just as the sun was starting to set, Angelica slowed her pace. They approached the top of a hill. As the big yellow eyes scanned him, Aric intuitively knew she wanted him to move slowly and carefully. He crouched down low and crept along quietly. It soon became apparent that they would end up at the top of a cliff. Angelica crouched
even lower and silently edged her way forward. Aric followed her example and carefully peered over the edge.
With a shock of surprise, he lurched back violently bumping Angelica with his hide bag and nearly sending her tumbling over the edge. He could not believe what he had just seen!
CHAPTER 3 – MISSING CHILD
Elya searched high and low. Tears streamed down her dirty face as she called for her son in vain. No one had noticed exactly when Aric had disappeared. Mika had seen him dawdling at the crossing just after they reached the stream but she had reprimanded him and assumed he had followed right behind her.
She had found some dry stems poking out of the snowy ground and had stopped to dig up the roots below the surface. When she was done, Aric was no longer behind her. She had assumed he’d passed her while she was absorbed in her task. The tribe had been concentrating so intently on their mission of finding food that none of them had noticed he was gone until they stopped to rest at midday. Elya had immediately recruited the women to help her search.
They’d retraced their steps and they’d searched the area in and around the cave but there had been no trace of the boy. When the men returned at sunset from their hunting expedition - empty handed yet again - there was still no sign of Aric. They immediately went out again in search of the missing boy. It was getting very late. The sun had all but disappeared. Elya was sick with worry but she had other children too who also needed her attention. What little had been found during the day had to be cooked and shared amongst the family. Aric’s father Isthan was still out with the other men searching for the boy.
Poor, responsible Mika blamed herself for not being more vigilant. Why had she not kept an eye on her brother? She knew what a dreamer the child was! Mika had been born only two summers before Aric, but she was already one of the women and was a very responsible, hard-working member of her tribe. She secretly worried that Aric had been taken by a wolf or a cave lion but there had been no traces of such animals for a long time. They had become increasingly scarce. The cold seemed to have driven them off along with the other wildlife, but perhaps a hungry beast had been lurking near their cave driven to it in the hope of finding an easy meal. She shuddered at the thought.