----Elaine----
With his longer strides and greater speed, Kave began pulling ahead of me, his black fur a blur in the silver moonlight. I pushed myself harder, my paws digging into the earth, lungs burning with the cold night air, but he was still faster—always faster. He rounded a bend and vanished from sight completely.
My chest tightened. The path stretched out straight ahead, but there was no sign of him—no flicker of his tail, no sound of his paws. My heart leapt into my throat. Where did he go? He couldn’t have disappeared that quickly.
I froze, hackles raised, ears straining for even the faintest rustle of leaves. A thousand scenarios ran through my head in an instant. What if he’d stepped into a trap the patrols missed? What if there was a rogue nearby? My heart pounded in a pan
