Chapter 933 - Leaving the mountain (2)

About one hour later, Sarah, Aiden, Jesse and Haru were making a good progress down the mountain.

Aiden was checking the map and Sarah was more than happy that she does not need to think where to take a turn. She has her man-compass right next to her. And he can cook rabbits perfectly in a thermal blanket.

If all goes according to plan, they will reach nearest town early afternoon. From there they will call the flight crew to wait for them at the private airport which is about half an hour drive from the town. They are expecting them, and it should not take them long to prepare everything for the trip back to Los Angeles. The flight is just over 12 hours long, but because of the time zones, they will arrive the same day, three hours earlier than their departure.

Sounds of gunshots made them freeze. They ducked and listened. Few seconds later, three more gunshots were heard. All four of them exchanged glances. These must be those poachers that Master Hollow mentioned.

All four of them regretted not discussing what to do in this situation. Their only plan was to reach the town at the edge of the forest. Should they confront the poachers? Or just hide and wait for them to leave? If poachers see them, they will probably try to remove witnesses. After all, poaching is a crime, and here in the woods it's easy to dispose of people without anyone knowing.

Two more gunshots later, there was some cursing, sound of an engine drifting away, and then it was quiet.

Sarah peeked above bushes.

Aiden pulled her down. "What are you doing?"

"Making sure they left."

"What if they didn't?"

"We will not know unless we check.", Sarah said matter-of-factly.

"They left.", Jesse said from the side. He was standing straight and observing the surroundings.

"Where are you going?", Aiden whispered with urgency while following after Sarah.

Somehow, he knew that she will go in that direction to investigate. She was never the one to let things just… be.

"What if they are hiding somewhere? We need to make sure they are gone and it's safe to move around. I don't want to be hurt by a stray bullet.", Sarah explained.

"What if they are hiding somewhere are you are hurt by a bullet which was intended for you from an ambush?", Aiden gave her a grimmer scenario which she ignored.

It didn't take long for them to reach a small clearing. Sarah held her breath at the sight of three large cages and motionless animals inside them.

"These are tire tracks of a large vehicle. Truck probably.", Jesse guessed while observing the ground where tire tracks could be seen in the soft moss.

They can see that the truck came here more than once, by the way it created an unkept forest road which snaked behind the bushes.

"Why are they killed?", Sarah asked in horror while looking at the not fully grown tiger in one of the cages who has two gunshot wounds in the head.

"Master says that this happens when the byers back off.", Haru explained. "There are several spots in the forest where poachers keep animals until byers come. Sometimes byers don't show up and they don't want to keep and feed the animal. Poachers shoot and leave them here for other animals to feed on them. They will come back in a week or two to pick up the cages."

"Master is allowing this to happen?", Aiden asked. His opinion is that Master Hollow would not just sit and watch something like this.

Haru shrugged helplessly. "What can he do? Even if he clears up their hideouts, they will be back. These people are pawns, replaceable. It's a big network and it's not easy to disrupt it."

Sarah sighed while looking at three cages.

She perked up at the faint sound coming from the middle cage. She was right next to it.

"This one is not dead!", she exclaimed and tugged on the padlock.

"Wait, wait…", Aiden wanted to pull her back. What is she thinking by just opening the cage of a wounded wild animal?

Before he reached her, Sarah picked the lock and opened the cage. She touched the big black animal. "This is not right. There is no pulse."

Aiden's hand stopped one inch away from Sarah's shoulder. He exhaled in relief when he heard that animal is dead and not a danger of hurting her.

He was about to scold Sarah for her reckless behavior when she gasped.

Sarah lifted front leg of the large animal and spoke softly: "Hey, little guy… come here…"

When she stood up and faced her three companions, she was holding a black cub of a leopard. The cub is completely black with faint golden spotted pattern across forehead.

"It seems that his mommy protected him.", Sarah said while gently rubbing head of the cub.

Haru looked at the cub. "They would not waste bullets on him. He is too little to survive on his own." He peeked between hind legs. "It's a girl. Maybe two months old."

"Does she need milk?", Sarah asked.

Jesse answered before Haru could: "Leopard cubs nurse up to six months old. But as soon as they get teeth they can eat meat. They just can't hunt by themselves."

Haru reached to see if the cub has teeth and the cub hissed at him before burying face in Sarah's chest.

"Well, it has teeth.", Haru said, obviously put off by the hostile way the cub treated him.

Sarah stifled a laugh while cradling the cub in her arms. "Kitty does not like that you checked her private parts."

Aiden pinched roof of his nose and sighed. 'She already named the animal!'

He can tell that she wants to take it with them. And just as he guessed, when he looked at Sarah, he met her puppy-eyed expression.

"If we leave Kitty here, she will die.", Sarah pleaded. As if on cue, the cub rubbed head on Sarah's hand which stopped providing rubs while she talked. "Look, she likes me."

Aiden took a deep breath and tried to sound calm. "I don't think these are permitted in California."

"How about we do our research once we reach home?", she countered.

Aiden exhaled and made a gesture to move along. There is no point arguing with Sarah when she decides on something. He thought that they should leave this place as soon as possible before Sarah decides to adopt someone or something else.

Sarah gave him a smacking kiss. "Thank you!"

The cub hissed and extended front paws to push Aiden away.

Sarah held cub's paws and spoke softly. "Kitty, don't push daddy away."

Aiden was not sure how to react to this. Should he be happy that they are a family of three now? Or upset that the cub does not like him? And he does not know how he feels about the fact that Sarah has a tendency of picking up people (like Haru), and now animals as well.

Sarah, Aiden, Haru and Jesse looked sadly at three cages with dead animals in them. They know that they can't bring them back to life and burying them will only deny food to other animals in vicinity. It's a circle of life, unfortunately impacted by poachers.

Sarah tucked the cub inside her jacket and spoke to Aiden when they continued their journey down the mountain. "We should find out who is doing this illegal trading and see what we can do about it."

Aiden's expression stiffened. "Like we don't have enough on our hands."

Sarah pretended not to see his disapproval. "We need to do this. For Kitty."

Aiden didn't want to argue. They should go home and make arrangements for Haru and Kitty. He put his arm around Sarah's shoulders and the cub hissed.

Aiden frowned at the cub and pointed his finger threateningly. "You need to learn who is the boss."

The cub stopped hissing and extended its head outside of the protection that Sarah's jacket offers to smell Aiden's hand. A second later, Kitty gently licked his finger.

Aiden smiled smugly. "She is smart. We can keep her."

Sarah laughed.

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