The Trail that Told A Tale.

Besides, we gained nothing from this! N-O-T-H-I-N -G! All that cat did was pounce on a bird or two, run and climb a tree, kill a snake. I’m calling it quits.” Derek finally spoke up, “ well, if you were observant enough, you’d have noticed we took a circle back just 2 hours ago. I believe Amber’s house is not too far away from here now. But you’re right. The sun will set soon, I guess we should head back.”

Amber bent down to pick Tabby up. As soon as she touched Tabby, his ears perched to the side & in a second, he ran away without thinking, Amber’s body acted on its own as she ran behind Tabby, trying to get her dear cat back, with the hot 4 on a lurch behind Amber, trying to get her back. Amber huffed panted as she parted the bushes, only to see her cat standing by a tree. She ran to hold her little fluff, who ended up hissing at her. That was a strange behaviour. Tabby had never hissed at Amber. “Y’know, usually after a cat experiences threat, they start getting assertive & hisses back, thinking everyone to be a predator.” Before anyone could say anything, Dylan yelled “Quick! That tree seems hollow! Someone help me out!” The 4 of them successfully managed to bring out a man who was camping inside the tree. He was semi-conscious  as they laid him on the ground. “I guess we finally found our person. His hand is missing. What say we bring him back to the house and hear his story?” Derek speaks up.

After the man regained complete consciousness and cleaning up, he sat on the chair of Amber’s house. But I need to leave. It’s not safe for me here. They will be back…”, the man starts spiralling. Just as Derek was about to speak, Tabby jumped on the man’s lap. “ Oh, it’s you little one. I guess he is your pet huh?  This one is extremely smart. Oh, where are my manners? I haven’t even introduced myself. My name is Jacob. I was on the run for God knows-how-long: Long story short, I came across some bad blood who are serious hunks you do NOT want to mess with.” “This,” Jacob says as he shakes his arm with a missing, “ is a result of that. I wanted to find my sister. Well, not even find, maybeto to see her once, you know? I told my friend about my escape plan but word got round that he was hiding something so those criminals thought he stole the jewels & tortured him. He ended up telling my plans. I had already escaped by then until they caught up to me, shot, but they got my arm. Ah.  I was immobilised. But I ended up falling in a ditch so they never caught me. Oh? the severed hand?  I cut it off. I did not want to leave a blood trail towards me. It was hard climbing back up, for surely. I don’t even know how the cat ended up with my hand. Imagine that I finally got in a hollow tree & lost consciousness due to the blood loss. The next thing you see when you regain consciousness is a cat! dragging your severed hand across, crazy right?” Amanda & Amber looked at him stunned while the boys were in awe to the cool story. Amber was at a Loss of words. Amanda’s eye widened “You-!” when suddenly her words were on deaf ears by the sounds of gunshots “Crap! Tell me anything but that! Don’t tell me they found my location!” panicked Jacob. The door swung open and small army of masked bandits surrounded the house. “You thought we can let you escape after all that you’ve seen? Think again pretty boy,” the leader says as he cocks revolver “& say your last prayers.”

His words got drowned by the sounds of police sirens encircling the whole house. Bea appeared behind the officer-in-charge and exclainied “whew! Imagine if I got here later eh? I just felt like I had to. It’s not everyday you get the serious Amanda begging. Bea ain’t gonna take these lightly y’see. That’s why I got my gang covered. Always making the last minute saves. The police had captured every single bandit who were later revealed to be one of the major rings of smuggling. They had conducted several heists and grew their circle. From stealing valuables they took to kidnapping a fellow or two to do the dirty work for them. Now that the whole ring got captured, they were safe. The police went to the hideout to capture any others & to release their prisoners.

After the police left, Jacob sighed a sigh of relief as he started tearing up. This is all finally over, eh? The 5 friends chattered excitedly as they filled the details to Bea regarding what she had missed. As Bea listened to the story, she happened to glance at Jacob. “Oh hey! You Amber finally got your broski back, Amber? Happy reunion eh?” Jacob froze at those words as he tilted his head bit by bit towards Amber. “Wait, you didn’t tell him? There’s no way you guys wouldn’t have known. That tattoo on his arm did everything except cover up the scar he got from saving Amanda-” Bea Continued. Jacob ran & hugged his sister, overtaken by his emotions. After the happy reunion & the sharing of stories to fill in the details of what they’ve missed out, the phone rang Amber answered the call. “How’s it going dear?”, her mom asked her. “Boy, do I have a surprise that you  would love when  you return.” Amber ended the call