Don't Ever Leave Me

Okay I'm not going to delay you guys from reading, so just review at the end and tell me your thoughts.

Chapter Twenty

They waited in silence for any sign of what could be stalking them. Out here in the wilderness it could be anything.

As Cloud watched the surrounding area he just barely saw a hint of movement through the trees.

The blond nudged the Reno slightly, pointing in the direction that he had just seen the movement in and readied his stance for the fight that was to come.

Cloud followed the direction that he had seen the movement in and as he watched there was a suddenly a growling sound off to the left of the.

Cloud and Reno quickly whipped around to the noise and came face to face with a Coeurl.

It was a huge cat-like beast with two long whiskers, a golden coat of fur and bright green eyes that were watching them closely. When they weren't facing them for their life they were beautiful creatures.

They both trained their weapons on the great beast as it started to move closer to the two men.

As they readied for the attack Cloud thought for just a moment when it hit him.

They never traveled alone.

Just at that moment, the beast leaped through the air at them with its claws extended and teeth bared for all to see.

As it leaped forward, Cloud and Reno side-stepped so there was a gap between the two that the cat would land in, but while it was still in mid-air, Cloud adjusted his body so that he was facing the creature and slashed out with his knife.

The Coeurl though saw this coming and twisted its massive body to avoid the blade and slash its own weapons at the blond instead, but Cloud was faster than the beast thought and he moved away at the last second only to swing out his blade again, hitting the giant cat in its front leg.

The beast howled in pain as it landed on the ground on the other side of them, its paw held up off the ground as blood dripped from the wound.

Reno came up next to Cloud with his blade still raised.

"Are you alright?" he asked as the cat limped back and forth, almost like it was debating if it wanted to attack again or not.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It didn't get me." Cloud said.

Reno nodded just as the beast decided to attack again.

They separated again, but this time they both swiped out their weapons to the middle and nailed the Coeurl in mid-air. Cloud hit the beast in the side while Reno got it in the throat.

The giant animal landed with a hard 'thud' to the rocky ground and this time it stayed there.

Cloud kicked the beast slightly to make sure that it was down for the count before he turned to Reno.

"We need to get out of here. They don't normally travel alone. This one was probably just scouting ahead when it ran into us and now that there's blood everywhere and the scent is in the air it'll attract more wildlife and not the good kind." Cloud said as he whipped his blades clean on the grass and then re-sheathed them.

"Yeah, that's a good idea." Reno said as he also whipped his blade and put it away.

"Lets head east another mile and then begin heading straight up again." The blond said.

Reno nodded.

"Yeah, that would still keep us off the path of everyone else and hopefully get us away from these beasts." Reno said as he began hading east once again.

Cloud followed after the red-head quickly.

They really did need to get out of the area as quick as possible.

As they were heading away from the site of the battle, they could here more of the beasts off in the distance looking for their fallen partner.

They needed to move faster or be at the risk of being attacked again and they had no idea how many there would be this time. One they could handle, but a pack of them with only two people was suicidal.

Speeding up their pace to an almost run, while trying to stay quiet, they still had to keep a close eye out for any of Zack's traps and the threat of any other predators. There were bigger and worse things out there than just Coeurl, so they were lucky that, that was all that they had run into so far.

About an hour later and they had made it a mile east and had started back up the mountain about half a mile.

They went for another two miles before finally stopping for the day.

It was going to be getting dark soon and they needed to set up camp and definitely get a fire going to scare away any predators that might be lurking after them.

"I'll get started on the camp." Cloud said as he pulled off his pack.

Reno set his down next to Cloud's.

"Then I'll get started on the fire." He said and began to travel the edge of the camp for wood.

They didn't need to be out here alone that would make them easier to prey on.

Cloud found two trees that were fairly close together and began to lay large leaves against the backs of the trees and the sides so that it would give them some sort of security for their blind spots.

Next he tied a tarp to the trees so that it was above their heads then he laid the other tarp on the ground and then put their sleeping bags on top of that.

If they didn't have that extra layer beneath them with being up in the mountains the ground would take all of their body heat even if they did have the fire right next to them. It would also protect them from the bugs.

Just as Cloud was laying down the last sleeping bag Reno came back with an arm full of wood.

"This isn't going to be enough for the entire night." Reno said as he put the stack of wood down next to their makeshift tent and then began making the teepee for the fire.

Cloud nodded.

"While you set up the fire then I'll go get some more wood. We can't let the fire go out." He said and went to go look for more wood, never going to far out of sight of the camp.

Once he had about the same amount of wood that Reno had gotten the first time he headed back to the camp.

He put the wood down where Reno had put the rest so that it was of easy access for when they needed it.

They didn't need to be out of sight of the fire that would be stupid and suicidal.

Cloud sat down next to Reno as the red-head put some more wood onto the fire to make it blaze even brighter.

"We should take shifts tonight to keep an eye out, if we both go out we don't know what could happen." Cloud said as he pulled the canteen off his pack and then he grabbed some off the dried meat.

He set the canteen down in between them and then handed some of the meat to Reno.

"That would be a good idea. That way we can also keep the fire going." The red-head said as he grabbed the meat from Cloud.

Cloud nodded.

"I'll take the first shift." The blond said and began eating.

"Are you sure?" Reno asked.

"Yeah, I don't mind, I'll wake you up in five hours." Cloud said as he pulled out his book. "it'll give me time to catch up." He said with a smile.

Reno finished his food and ten took some of the water.

"Just don't get as caught up in it as you normally do." Reno said in an amused voice.

Cloud just shook his head.

"I'll be too paranoid to get too caught up in it." Cloud replied as he opened the book to the last page he had been on.

Reno chuckled and crawled into his sleeping bag.

"Alright then. I'm going to try and get some Z's. Wake me up if there's any issues." Reno said as he snuggled into his sleeping bag trying to get warm.

"Don't just try, do, I'm going to be waking you up regardless if you get any or not." Cloud remarked.

Reno just shook his head.

Just as cloud was about to start reading and Reno was about to fade out they suddenly heard a scream off in the distance and they both cringed at the blood curdling sound.

Neither knowing what to say they just stayed silent and went back to what they were doing.

They couldn't afford to distract themselves with anybody else but themselves.

Okay so here is Chapter 20 and I hope that y'all like this. I'm not really an outdoorsy person so I'm asking my sister and doing research on most of this stuff so I hope that it doesn't suck the big one.

I'm trying to go over my chapters so that there aren't as many mistakes so if you see anything please let me know.

Um, I hope that y'all enjoyed this chapter and chapter 21 will be up shortly.

Please review to let me know what you think; I'll give you a cookie of your choice (yes I'm bribing y'all for reviews but they make me happy) hehe.

Till next time.

Zer0