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In the morning the tribe found that both Aspen and Autumn had passed. Nobody had known what had happened to Aspen, but Vipeje knew what happened to Autumn.
Vipeje knew that she couldn’t breath with the water in her lungs… But mom had told her before that Autumn was very.. Problematic. If she was gone they wouldn’t have to deal with the problems, right? Except… There was a child… Who’s child even is that? Blizzard isn’t here anymore- How is there another child?
Vipeje shook her head a bit and walked over. She flicked her ear when the mews grew closer. Oh how the noise annoys her. She looked down at the child, who was shivering and curled up next to Autumn’s body. She picked the child up by the scruff and walked over to where one of the twins were standing by the water. The twin looked over with a sweet smile.
“Hello Vi-” She was cut off by something small being thrown at her. She shook her fur off a little before looking down. Wait- was that a child? Did Vipeje just throw a child at her??
Call looked up at the healer with a confused expression. Vipeje just glared at the child before turning and walking back over to the nests. For some reason Vipeje didn’t even seem concerned about the long-gone Autumn in the nest right next to hers.
Call looked back down at the child, quickly curling around them when she realized how cold they were.
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Of course some of the tribe were rushing ahead. Well- more just someone had to chase Brikoi and Spring all day, and they happened to find another river ahead.
Brikoi immediately went to jump in, but Tumbleweed bit her tail and yanked her back. She knew that Brikoi was immune to her fangs, so it was fine. Well- besides from the fact that she started getting hit in the face by a freaked out Brikoi. She just took it because she knew that Brikoi would just cross and get lost again if she let go. No matter how much it hurt she just stood there.
Surface was trying to calm Brikoi down but nothing would work. She refused to hurt either of her siblings- so she just stood there and watched. I mean- she couldn’t even move without pain shooting through her entire body.
When someone so much as just brushed up against Echo she stopped, so it wasn’t that hard to stop her from going anywhere. Surface could just keep watch over her instead.
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Whoce just walked around, trying to help anybody who’d been hurt. She didn’t know how to heal nichelings, but she still tried. She couldn’t do much because of Spring constantly kicking her in the face though. It was getting harder to carry him because of how big he had gotten. Whenever Spring so much as touched the ground it was hard to get him to stop kicking his legs around.
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Fall and Debris helped everybody else move on. Fall was a bit disgusted by Debris constantly biting at her paw, but he couldn’t really do anything to stop her. Plus, it wasn’t as bad as some of the others, right? I mean- there was someone attacking people whenever they got close before running away, someone who was currently much faster than any animal he’s ever seen, and someone who looked like they should’ve already been in the soil.
Fall quickly stood up when he saw something moving around in the grass around them. He hissed, eyes scanning the area.
A nicheling jumped out in front of him. He was about to swipe at them, but stopped himself when they just sat down. They looked all happy and cheerful. Did they not hear any of the noises earlier?
“Hey, hey, who are you?” The nicheling reached out and booped his nose. He took a step back, going cross-eyed for a moment before blinking a few times. He then just stared at the female in confusion.
Debris looked over and just sorta stared at the female. Woah- she’s pretty. Pretty enough to distract her from her paw for a bit. But only a bit. She went back to chewing on her paw, but was still staring nontheless.
Fall looked over at Debris before looking back at the wanderer.
“Uhm.. Fall. I’m Fall.” He was really quiet when talking. Almost more quiet than a whisper.
The female gave a confused look before smiling and hitting her front paws against the dirt a few times. “That’s a funny name! Where’d you get it?”
Okay this female wasn’t a normal nicheling. “Where’d I get my name…?” He looked a little skeptical.
“Yeah! Was I being too quiet? I can be louder if you want! Loud talk?” How fast she was speaking finally registered in Fall’s head. “No thanks. You’re loud enough.”
She went to boop him again, but he pushed her paw down before she could. “Alrighty! Wanna know my name?” She sorta flipped onto her back for a bit, then rolled on the ground before standing up again. Why was an adult so hyper? Or would playful be a better word to describe them?
“Sure… Just follow me when you talk. Walk and talk.” He motioned for Debris as well before heading off. Debris and the strange wanderer followed him towards where the rest of the tribe had been going while they were distracted. The wanderer, of course, just never seemed to stop talking. What surprised Fall was the fact that Debris started to take her paw away from her mouth long enough to respond. I mean- I guess he didn’t have to deal with talking then?