Forever Following Blindly

[Cloude]

 

“Hey.. Mustard, was it?”

Mustard looked up, across the bush. She couldn’t help but narrow her eyes in suspicion.

“What do you want? Aren’t you supposed to be hunting?” She said with a scoff. Forest Fire simply gave a weak smile in return. “I was wondering if you wanted to hunt with me.”

Mustard gave her a weird look before moving her gaze up and down Forest Fire. “No.” She spoke, distaste in her voice. “I will not be associated with such bloody adventures.”

Forest Fire frowned, then gave a small smile. She nodded and turned away, though gave one last look back. “I’ll catch you the biggest prey I can find!” She called before darting off.

[Cloude]

 

Spring lay practically limp in the grass, taking in deep breaths with his tongue sticking out the side of his mouth. His legs had been sore beyond belief, to the point he couldn’t move them.

Sunrise had been having a staring contest with the crabbit, but after she won she turned to look at Spring. “Are you alright?” She questioned, moving over to sniff at him.

“I..” He had a raspy voice, and seemed out of breath. “Can’t..” He was going to attempt another word, but Sunrise cut him off. “Don’t worry. I’m just glad I finally get to meet you. Well, it’s hard to get to know you at the moment, but I’m glad I have my older brother back!”

Spring took a few more breaths before giving a look of pity. He took a big gulp and put his tongue back in his mouth. “You weren’t even talking before… How much did I miss?”

“A lot. Mom and Summer are.. no longer with us, but hey! We have each other!” She gave a big smile before looking off into the distance. “And.. The half-blood.” She mumbled.

“Half blood?” He questioned, trying to look at where she had motioned. “I only remember you, me, and Summer.” He said with a slightly more confused tone in his voice. “Yeah… Well mom had another kid. Forest Fire, nobody knows who her dad is but everyone knows the stories she was making. Something about nicheling from another world?”

“Woah… Do you think I’d get to meet her dad?”

“No no no, mom. Two moms.” She corrected, sighing. “The drawings were females. Quite obviously so.”

[Cloude]

 

Debris had watched for minutes as Mayonnaise and Fall spoke, glancing nervously between the two. She couldn’t tell the expression on her faces, mostly because she had been in tears from the pain in her arm. Maybe she shouldn’t have bit down so hard.

“Uhm.. Guys?” She spoke up, which resulted in Mayonnaise whipping around. That’s when Debris could see it.

“Hm?” Mayonnaise blinked a few times, then smiled. “What’s wrong?” 

Debris stammered for a few moments before looking her up and down. “You’re carrying a cub?”

The horned female looked down, then back up. “Oh, right. I’m Fall’s mate! He figured I’d be a good pick and I was okay with it so we’re going to have some heirs!”

Debris could feel her chest aching, though she gave a smile. “That’s nice. I’m just.. gonna go see how the hunters are doing. I’ll be back, okay?”

“Alrighty!”

[Cloude]

Call and Forest Fire had been about to catch a few bunnils, but they suddenly heard crying coming closer. Call looked in the direction, then back towards Forest Fire, who had tried to pounce on the escaping bunnils. Forest Fire got up with a huff, spinning around to see Debris, who had tears running down her face. Call looked over as well, immediately feeling bad and draping her wing over her back. “Hey now, what’s wrong?”

Debris sniffled, trying to put words together. “He.. He knew..” She sniffled once more, then dug her face into Call’s fur to begin crying again. Call awkwardly patted her back with her wing, looking towards Forest Fire, who was staring at Debris in confusion.

“Your brother I’m guessing? That’s the only nicheling I can think of.”

Deris hissed, throwing her head to the side to growl at the water. “He knew I liked her. He knew…”

“Sounds like he knows how to get under your skin.” Forest Fire commented, though Call lightly pushed her nose down. “She means he probably didn’t actually know. How would you know if he did know?” Call tilted her head, but Debris lashed her tail. “I know he could tell. He’s not that oblivious.”

[Cloude]

 

Mayonnaise smiled down at the cub between her paws, then looked up at Fall. She frowned to see him scratching at a boulder, then walked up to him and nudged him with her nose. “Hey, Blame’s born..”

Fall turned to look, his expression serious and yet unchanging. He simply nodded and moved past the boulder. Mayo sighed and decided to expand the nest, holding Blame close while getting ready for a second cub.

[Cloude]

 

Danger.

 

That’s all she could feel when she looked down at the bright red cub. She hesitated before backing out of the nest, pulling Toward back as well. She left Warning in the nest, looking up at the skies. It hurt, sacrificing a child based off of looks, but she didn’t want to risk anything.

 

Meanwhile, Blame had been watching Ducky, an orange male, dig through the dirt. She looked at her own paw before beginning to try to help him dig. Ducky stopped and looked up, blinking a few times. He gave a small smile before going back to digging. He quickly pulled up a small stagmole, looking it over before carefully placing it back in the hole. Blame went to reach for the stagmole, but Ducky hissed and stood protectively over the hole.

“What? You attached to a stagmole?” She questioned with a raise eyebrow, getting ready to fight him for his spot. He simply lowered his stance and glared up at her. She growled and jumped at him, but Mayo quickly pulled her back. “Hey! No fighting. We don’t need any of that.”

Blame growled, then glared at Ducky before turning to see her father approaching. She quickly sat tall, lifting her head to try and seem as tall as possible.

Fall looked over all the cubs, then nudged Toward forward. “This one.” He then simply walked away again.

[Cloude]

Sunrise had been coughing on and off for the past few minutes, and Spring was starting to get worried. He carefully approached her, attempting to move around her to see her face.

“Hey.. You okay?” He questioned, trying his best not to sound too sappy. Sunrise nodded a little, curling up more in her little ball. “Are you sure? I could go find one of the medics! There’s still some of those, right?” There was a slight tinge of panic in his voice.

Sunrise slowly lifted her head, eyes ever so slightly dulled. “Sh… I’m okay…” She whispered, her voice rough from all the coughing. Spring gave a worried look, then lay down next to her. He lay his feathers over her as a sort-of blanket from the cold.

Sunrise slowly fell asleep, digging her snout into his fur and looking peaceful, unlike all her restless nights coughing.

Spring smiled at her, though nudged her a bit.

 

After a few moments with no response, he used his paw to push her snout to the side a bit, hoping it would wake her up. 

He waited a few moments before tearing up. “Sunrise?”

.

.

.

He checked for a pulse before sighing. She had just been sleeping… But why wouldn’t she wake up?

[Cloude]

 

Spring woke up in the morning to see Sunrise curled around a cub, though Sunrise’s body had been limp and giving off a foul odor. Spring’s eyes widened, ad he quickly picked the cub up by the scruff to stop the crabbits getting to her. He then set the cub between his paws, looking her over before beginning to cry.

Why did she have to be sick?

He could recall the size of her newborn body, curled up next to their mother as he was pushed away gently with her tail.

He could recall her voice calling out to him as he slowly arrived at the new land.

He couldn’t remember the last time they played.

He couldn’t stand the thought of her being gone.

 

He snapped out of his thoughts, looking down at the small bundle of fur between his paws. He sniffled, then curled around her, not wanting to leave Sunrise’s side.

[Cloude]

 

Starfall opened her eyes to be surrounded by yet another limp body. She blinked a few times in confusion. She slowly began to waddle over to the crabbits, taking small nibbles out of one of their bellies. After eating, she slowly closed her eyes again, not paying any attention to the call of birds in the distance.

[Cloude]

 

Ducky came to a halt, which caused Blame to trip over him. She quickly got up with a growl. “Hey! Tell me when you stop next time!” Though her annoyance had been ignored, Ducky’s gaze fixed on the pink male in front of them. Blame looked up to see, eyes scanning the area to see a limp body next to the male. Her eyes widened and she quickly backed away.

“Ducky, let’s go.”

But yet again, she had been ignored. The two males had been in a staring contest, but Blame shoved Ducky. “I said let’s go!” She said, her panic evident through her voice. Ducky looked over at her, which caused the pink male to leap at him.

Blame quickly shoved Ducky into the water, then ducked. The male went flying over her, but quickly recovered on the other side. He let out a low growl, and Blame quickly pulled Ducky out of the water by the scruff. Blame then quickly ran off towards the others, though Ducky took a bit to catch up.

[Cloude]

 

The children all awoke to see Warning cuddled up to her mother’s dead body. This happened to alert quite a few of them, as you would imagine.

“Warning..?”

 

Warning looked up with a smile, picking out some fur from her teeth. Blame’s fur went on end, and she quickly hissed out, “Did you hurt her?!”

Warning chuckled a little before getting up. “So? What if I did? Not like you’re going to do anything about it.”

 

Toward glared over, locking his gaze on Warning.

“Get out of our tribe. Now.”

Warning smirked in response, looking over. “And what if I don’t? You gonna poison me? Your own little sister?”

Toward hissed before running at her. Warning dived out of the way, but Toward managed to stomp on her tail. She let out a yelp, and he quickly bit into her arm.

Warning shoved him off before sprinting away.

 

All while Nectar watched silently.

[Cloude]

 

Days later, Velvet was born. Kit stared down at her, occasionally waving a paw in front of her face. When he went to poke her, she latched her claws onto his paw. He tried to get his paw back, but he ended up dragging her towards himself, so he awkwardly dragged her back into the nest.

He looked around, waiting for Mustard to come back from collecting some berries. She had been taking an awfully long time.

Then again, it could have been Forest Fire’s fault for not responding to the kit’s mews.

[Cloude]

 

“Where’d the fishies go?” The young male spoke, looking up to his partner in crime, persay. Rakosi looked around, then pointed down the stream. “The fishies went over there.” She whispered, hoping he’d still hear her. She went to hop into the water, but Lami quickly leaned forward and picked her up, bringing her closer to avoid getting water splashed everywhere. “No no, none of that. We can wait for the fishies to come back.”