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Those Who Remain (A Heavily Story-driven Playthrough)


Speedyscout

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Chapter 1, Day 1 – On Unfamiliar Shores

Before you start reading, a note on names: vowels with a macron (so ō, ī, ū, ē, and ā) are pronounced for about twice the length. So if someone was called Īla, their name would be said ‘iila’, not ‘ila’.

 

Four Nichelings, the last of a once-flourishing tribe that had held over a hundred at its peak. They stand on the shore of a land like nothing they had seen before, still shocked from the abrupt end of their massive tribe; an ending that began only a few sun-rises ago in a series of sudden events, and had only concluded a half-night before. They had spent their time since that conclusion – the conclusion of the end of an era – crossing an ocean on precarious stones that jutted from the waves, and the full enormity of… well, everything... was only just starting to set in.

Pipiri attempts to shake off her fear, remorse, and uncertainty and turns to face the others. Her eyes quickly scan them, and she feels an ache in her heart as she again takes in the fact that the familiar face of her mother isn’t among them. But if anyone is going to take the lead, it will be her. “We’re here,” she begins, her voice hoarse from the bitter chill of the early-morning air. She takes a deep breath and repeats in a less ragged tone, “We’re here.” She feels the urge to turn and look again at the craggy mountain peaks jutting up behind her, but she forces herself to continue talking.

“It’s pretty obvious that Shasi isn’t with us anymore.” She says this for the benefit of the males, Kūta and Rōre, who didn’t see… what happened. “She… won’t be joining us.” Pipiri still refuses to actually say she’s dead out loud. But even if Shasi was still alive, she wouldn’t be able to follow them; the tiny rocks that the four young adults had used to cross the gap between islands had crumbled into the sea behind them, one of the reasons they had had to hurry across with no time to rest throughout the night.

Mīwa gently brushes her tail against Pipiri’s side, pulling her from her thoughts, and Pipiri hurriedly continues. “As her daughter, I am obviously going to be the one taking the role of leader now-”

Immediately, Rōre’s fur bristles. “Obviously?” he snaps, interrupting her, and causing her head to flick toward him in surprise. “We’re in a new and unfamiliar place. Perhaps Shasi raised you to be leader, but that was back there.” He jerks his head sharply towards the empty horizon, in the general direction of their old home – too far away now to be visible even as a speck. “I think whoever’s best suited to this place should be the leader.”

Pipiri grinds her teeth, but before she can reply Mīwa jumps to her defense. “And I suppose the ‘best suited’ is you, Rōre?” she growls. “Our tribe has always chosen leaders based on their ancestry. Just because we’re on another island doesn’t mean we abandon our traditions.” His eyes narrow, but before he can speak again Mīwa adds cuttingly, “Just speaking like that is betraying the memory of Shasi.”

Pipiri winces slightly, but so does Rōre; he snaps his mouth shut, ears flat in annoyance and hopefully a bit of shame.

Turning to Pipiri and fully ignoring both the males, Mīwa evenly suggests, “How about a vote? If more of us vote for Pipiri, she is the new leader; otherwise if more of us vote for whoever is best suited” – here she lets a bit of venom to enter her tone – “then that Nicheling will lead.”

Relieved by an idea that will hopefully satisfy at least Kūta, if not Rōre, Pipiri quickly nods. “Yes, that sounds good.”

“Then I vote for Pipiri,” Mīwa immediately says, her gaze resolute as she turns to the others. Pipiri offers her a faint but grateful smile; Mīwa has been her closest friend since childhood, and Pipiri always appreciates her loyalty and caring. Then she turns to Kūta. She doesn’t know the cracker-jawed male well; her only knowledge of him is that he was the child of a wanderer and a tribe-member – forbidden unless the wanderer joined the tribe, which Kūta’s father didn’t. When somebody found out, the wanderer was hunted down and killed, but Kūta had already been born – sickly and weak. Living proof that those relationships aren’t worth it.

At least he’s stayed quiet this whole time, besides the occasional muffled cough. Quietness is something Pipiri can appreciate, and it’s one of the only positive attributes that the half-wanderer has. As she already had many times during the journey to this new island, Pipiri wonders why Kūta had managed to be one of the survivors of the catastrophe that destroyed their tribe, and not someone more worthy – like Sashi, or Mīwa’s sister, Kōri.

Kūta finally speaking tugs her out of her thoughts, and she feels a hint of guilt for thinking so badly about him for his ancestry, something he can’t control. “I don’t wish to betray the tribe’s tradition, and Shasi’s legacy,” he says, his voice rough, likely due to his constantly sneezing and coughing. He dips his large head to Pipiri. “I agree that you should be leader.”

“Thank you,” she says, with more gratitude in her voice then she honestly feels. Forcing back her feelings of doubt – do good leaders think of their subjects like this? – she turns to Rōre. His eyes are dark as he glares alternately between her and Kūta, and she feels the tiniest shiver of fear. “Rōre?” she asks, fighting to keep her voice even.

“You know what I think,” he spits, venom in his voice as he lashes his tail. “But I guess as it’s three to one, you’re leader now, daughter of Sashi.”

She swallows back a mouthful of scathing words and says, “I’m glad we can all agree.” The flare of rage in his face is both terrifying and thrilling, but she turns away. “So…” She trails off, staring at the island in front of them – or more importantly, the channel of chest-deep water separating them from it. Which is probably also, considering the temperature of the air, freezing cold.

“Can anyone see a way across that doesn’t involve freezing our pelts off?” she asks without much hope. There’s a short pause, before Kūta and Mīwa shake their heads. Rōre has his back turned away, but she can see he has one ear angled back towards them.

Pipiri sighs, finding the idea of splashing belly-deep through the icy water absolutely unappealing. If they’re lucky, they may at least be leech-free waters due to the cold… but knowing their luck the leeches just LOVE the cold and will be more prolific than ever.

“Looks like we’re wading,” she mutters unhappily.

“Says our brave, water-bodied leader,” Rōre hisses emphatically, just loud enough for her to hear. She stiffens in shock and rage, then grinds her teeth and digs her paws into the cold, dark sand, wishing she had claws like Mīwa to swipe across his smug face.

Fur brushes against her side, and Pipiri looks up, startled, to see Mīwa standing beside her. “Shall we cross?” Mīwa asks, voice deliberately light. Pipiri hesitates, then relaxes. At least I’ll always have her. She’ll be loyal to me, no matter what.

“Yes, let’s go,” she replies. She steps forward and places a paw into the water. As expected, it’s freezing cold. But she stops herself from yanking it back out, and instead places her other paws into the water too, starting to wade towards the shore.

This is our home now. We’ll have to get used to a bit of a chill.

She always had wanted to leave that island. But not like this.

 

 

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Left to right: Kūta, Mīwa, Rōre, and Pipiri

 

Author’s Notes:

Welcome to the beginning of a new, heavily story-based playthrough: Those Who Remain! This will follow a tribe of Nichelings living in the Summer Mountains, our founders being four young adults whose tribe was destroyed in some unexpected event, and who are the only (known) survivors.

I’ve already played for pretty long on this playthrough (up until about Day 21) – and this is only the story for Day 1! So yeah, this might take a while.

The POV (point of view) for this chapter was from the perspective of Pipiri – daughter of the tribe’s former leader, who is now forced to lead the others at a pretty young age, only a few days into adulthood. However, the POV will probably change every chapter, possibly even with several different POV characters in a single chapter.

This is also actually a test playthrough for my own take on a ‘Whims of Fate’ kind of challenge, where basically everything is randomized – even the motives/quirks of Nichelings! Everyone here has a quirk but I’ll only share these when they die, if at all, because their quirks influence a lot of what they do and I don’t want anything to be too obvious. So, that’s what this playthrough is all about! I hope you all enjoy. :)

P.S. If you enjoyed this chapter, please leave a reaction so I know it’s getting read, and feel free to leave some constructive criticism or other comments in this thread! ❤️

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  • Speedyscout changed the title to Those Who Remain (A Heavily Story-driven Playthrough)

Chapter 2, Days 1-5 – Denizens of the Mountains

Content warning: POV character being bitten by a leech, mentions of blood.

Note: the day counter in the title will be for the in-game days. By this point in the game, it had been 5 days since we started, but in the story it’s still only their first day on the new island!

 

Rōre hangs back as Pipiri, Mīwa, and Kūta hesitantly start wading through the icy waves toward shore. He’s still fuming with rage after the conversation held between the four Nichelings, his mind filled with frustration at Pipiri’s arrogance. I can’t believe the nerve of that stupid brat! Just because she’s the daughter of our former leader she’s soooo special, and now she’s our new leader apparently!

He grinds his paws down into the silky, chilly sand beneath him, and as he often does, wishes he didn’t have such useless forepaws as he does; one webbed, one velvet – the same as both of Pipiri’s paws. It only brings him further frustration that he holds any resemblance to their supposed new leader.

Thanks a lot for the stupid genes, Mom and Dad.

And the thing is, he doesn’t even feel guilty for thinking like that. He’s sure some Nichelings would be all shock and horror at having venomous thoughts like these. But he can’t control his parents’ actions, so he shouldn’t have to suffer for them – and he does, every day!

Like Kūta, actually; the only one of the other three Nichelings that Rōre can find the smallest bit of sympathy for. A forbidden child, he’s lucky to even be alive, nevermind the fact he’d actually been raised in the tribe and not banished. Still, he lives with the consequences of his parents’ actions every day, too; being sick, for one, and being an outcast – it’s obvious from the look in Pipiri’s eyes whenever she regards Kūta that she holds no respect for him.

Talking of that brat…

“You coming?” Pipiri yells over her shoulder, annoyance clear in her voice. For some reason she decided to stop and wait for him, standing shoulder-deep with waves washing around her about halfway to shore. Kūta is a bit closer to the island Rōre’s on, with his head buried in the water for some reason… Oh, he’s… eating shells? Whatever. Meanwhile, Mīwa is pressed against Pipiri’s side, clearly to keep her warm, like she thinks she’s so great for being a blindly loyal idiot.

Rōre nearly got distracted with hating them again. And now Pipiri’s staring at him like he’s stupid, ugh. “YES,” he shouts loudly, partly to be rude but partly because the waves are making a ton of noise, and then he leaps into the water with a splash.

He didn’t realize, but it’s deeper then it looks, and he stumbles, his head slipping below the surface. There’s a lot of splashing and a bit of swallowing water before teeth grab his scruff and yank – hard. He surfaces, choking and coughing, to find Pipiri standing over him, unimpressed. He’s surprised she bothered to come running over and help him.

Rōre pauses. He can’t bring himself to thank her. And anyway, he would’ve been fine on his own. So he just narrows his eyes and brushes pointedly past her-

Only to immediately feel something else chomp onto him, and this time it isn’t a nicheling.

“OW!” he yelps, leaping backwards and frantically trying to look at his shoulder, where the thorn-sharp pain is coming from. He finally manages to get a look at it and groans. A fat, tan-colored leech is clinging to him.

He unsuccessfully bites at it several times, his teeth always snapping shut on nothing but air and stray tufts of fur, before giving up. “Can someone get this thing off?” he growls, his voice cracking a little at the end because OW, that actually really hurts.

He turns, gritting his teeth, and finds Pipiri staring at him in disdain. “Not until you thank me,” she snaps.

“Thank you?” Rōre feigns confusion, not very well due to the fact that he has a leech trying to eat him and it’s not fun. “Whatever for?”

To his pleasure, Pipiri actually loses composure. “YOU KNOW WHAT FOR!” she yells at him, slamming a paw down in the water like a cub having a temper tantrum. He narrows his eyes as water splashes over his face.

He was going to keep it up a bit longer, see how angry he could make her – but he suddenly feels another sharp prick of pain from the leech in his shoulder. And the water’s so cold he can barely feel his paws. So, he decides to just do what she wants, so she can get the stupid leech off already. “Fine. THANK YOU.”

Pipiri stays glaring at him for a second, but apparently the murderous look in his eyes gets to her because she soon leans forward and pulls off the leech with her teeth. That hurts, too, and he struggles not to yelp, but after a pause and a lot of blinking he feels better. He realizes Pipiri is licking the wound now, cleaning off the blood; he waits a second longer, until it’s not so sore anymore, and then pulls away from her.

She makes a face, and then dips her muzzle in the water to clean off the traces of blood. Rōre watches her for a second, and then decides it’s more trouble then it’s worth to not show gratitude. “Thanks,” he says, shortly and not very sincerely, before suddenly shivering from cold. The shore looks really far away, and he’s wasted enough time with all this, so he starts moving toward it.

“You’re not very welcome,” Pipiri mutters behind him. He ignores her, breaking into a trot… or trying to; it’s apparently impossible to move faster than a walk in water this deep. After embarrassing himself with a lot of splashing and near-falls, he gives up and just walks instead.

And he STILL makes it to shore first because Kūta is busy eating more shells and Mīwa decides to be ‘noble’ or whatever and wait for Pipiri so by the time they catch up, he’s already clambered out of the freezing water and has shaken his coat dry, and now he’s moved into the grass where there’s a bit less of an icy wind.

Pipiri and Mīwa are the next to climb out of the water. Pipiri is shivering badly, her teeth chattering, while Mīwa appears supremely unaffected by the cold but is watching their oh-so-great and oh-so-cold leader with concern. Kūta is floundering towards shore, sneezing every few seconds.

Rōre is so busy glaring at him that he stumbles into a berry bush. He jerks back, furious, and raises a paw to destroy the stupid smug thing before remembering oh, we do actually need food, and also he’s weaker then a MINNOW so if he tries to destroy the bush he’ll just squish their much-needed berries and also embarrass himself.

So he doesn’t bother to try. He just starts picking some berries with his velvet paw instead, quietly fuming at the injustice of having dumb paws and no food. After a minute, Pipiri joins him, pointedly staying on the far side of the bush. He ignores her.

“Hey, look here,” Mīwa suddenly calls from the grasses nearby. Rōre’s ears prick up and he leaves the bush – which is mostly without berries now, anyway – brushing past Pipiri as he trots in the direction of Mīwa’s voice. The berries he gathered are tucked into his fur (which is how most nichelings carry things), so he doesn’t have to worry about leaving them behind. He hears grass rustling behind him and guesses Pipiri is following.

 

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He pushes through some grass and comes upon Mīwa, standing beside some moss-looking thing in the grass. “See, it’s-” she begins, her tone oddly excited, before realizing who it is. “Oh. Hi, Rōre.” Her tone goes from pleased to disdainful in seconds.

“Right here,” Pipiri says, poking her head through the grasses and very un-subtly pushing Rōre out of the way. “Oh!” Her eyes light up. “Is that a permanent nest?”

A… NEST? Trust these idiots to get excited about a NEST. Rōre rolls his eyes and turns away, brushing through the grasses. The voices of Pipiri and Mīwa get fainter behind him, and he can only barely hear them when he suddenly stumbles out into the open. He finds himself standing on a grassless stretch of shore, grey sand covering most of it with patches of hard dirt or cold rock. The wind is stronger here, and he shivers. He pauses, and is about to move back into the comparative warmth of the grasses, when he notices something.

A tree stump! He’s seen them before, and he knows that they can be used for attracting other nichelings. Should he do it? The tribe could probably use more members… then again, more members need more food, and Pipiri would be furious.

Of course, once he has that thought, he has to do it, so he breaks into a run, heading towards the tree-stump.

“Hey! What’re you doing?” he hears someone shout from behind him – sounds like Pipiri. Of course, he doesn’t slow down. A moment later, he’s near enough the tree stump to take a flying leap, landing on it neatly… and nearly sliding off due to his velvet paw and webbed hind legs slipping on the half-frozen wood.

Luckily, he manages to regain balance before anything embarrassing happens, settling his paws in a comfortable way and fluffing up his coat to protect it from the freezing wind.

Then he clears his throat and tips up his head. And starts yelling. “HELLOOOO! ANYONE AROUND? WE’LL GIVE YOU FOOD! IF YOU JOIN US!”

Out the corner of his eye, he sees Pipiri, who was running after him, cover her ears with a grimace. This gives him inspiration and he yells even louder. “HELLOOOO! WE-”

Then, to his surprise, a strange nicheling stumbles out of the grasses. Rōre chokes on his next shout and it takes him a minute to recover, at which point he just sits and stares at her, probably looking like a startled crabbit. He didn’t actually expect it to work.

“You serious with the food offer?” the nicheling looking up at him asks, her voice hopeful but somewhat dubious. “Because I’ll take it.” After a pause, during which he still says nothing, she adds, “Anything to make you stop that racket, honestly.”

 

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(Ignore that she has her back turned; it’s the best photo of this scene that I have.

Also, yes, Kūta is next to a healing plant in the background. Pipiri actually found it just before following Rōre to the log, but Rōre doesn’t know about that, so it’s not mentioned.)

 

 

Author’s Notes:

Hey everyone. So, Chapter 2 is here! In this chapter, we discover that Rōre is really not a very nice Nicheling. He’s a jerk, honestly. Which actually makes him pretty fun to write, but I don’t think Pipiri appreciates it very much…

We’re also introduced to a new nicheling, a wanderer! I’ll tell you her name; it’s Sēse. But you’ll have to wait until the next chapter for further information on her :D

Next chapter might be from the perspective of Kūta, but it might be from the perspective of… someone else. *secretive music (whatever that means)*

Also, on the topic of posting schedule for this; I want to post every day if I can. Since I didn’t post yesterday, I’ll try and post two today.

That’s it for now. Hope everyone is enjoying this so far! Bye! ❤️

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Chapter 3a, Day 5 – Chance at Freedom

Kūta’s throat aches, which isn’t an unfamiliar feeling; but this time it’s mostly from cold instead of his sickness. His paws would probably feel like they’re about to fall off, but he can’t feel them at all, so he can only assume. He can’t help but sneeze every few minutes, and he’s starting to get tired of it; he’s been tired of it his whole life, really, but the cold seems to make his illness worse than ever.

Everyone else is already on the shore. It’s probably warmer there.

When he finally does reach land, he manages not to stumble until he’s in the grass, but once he’s there he immediately flops down and tries to get warm. It’s freezing on this strange island, and he’s almost as unadapted for cold as Pipiri is; he has fairly thick fur, but he also has a different tail to the others, one that doesn’t keep him warm.

It’s several minutes later by the time he’s only shivering every second instead of non-stop and his fur is starting to dry. Kūta groans and hauls himself to his feet, which are tingling as they become un-frozen; a sensation that is honestly more unpleasant then numbness. But he can’t hear anyone else and suddenly he’s scared they’ve abandoned him, so he forces himself to start moving despite the unpleasant feeling.

Luckily, a trail of crushed grass points him in the right direction, and a minute later he hears a very loud and unpleasant shouting sound that seems suspiciously like Rōre. Kūta hesitates and then he thinks of bearyenas. Which should probably have made him run the other way, but he breaks into a sprint heading toward the sound instead.

What he sees when he tumbles out of the grass and onto a freezing, grassless beach isn’t that alarming, though. Rōre found a treestump – apparently that was why he was yelling – and his loud noise brought a wanderer female to him.

There seems to be some sort of argument (or normal conversation, since Rōre can turn just opening one’s mouth into an argument) going on between the three over there, the wanderer staying largely uninvolved by the looks of it, and none of his tribemates pay Kūta any mind; but the wanderer looks briefly in his direction, seeming a bit surprised. She says something to Pipiri, who glances his way – also looking a bit surprised – before shrugging and turning away, maybe to say something.

Kūta’s ears flatten and he steps back into the grasses. It’s obvious he’s not wanted over there.

As he sits gloomily just before the place where the beach begins and the grasses end, he wishes Pipiri would see him for who he is, for once, instead of for who his parents where. It’s obvious in her amber eyes whenever she looks at him. He can tell what she’s thinking; oh, the half-wanderer. The sick one. The forbidden child. The one who isn’t as good as Mīwa or Shasi.

The only one who doesn’t look at him at least kind of like that is Rōre, and what Rōre’s eyes say when they look at Kūta is idiot.

At least he can take comfort in that Rōre looks at everyone like that. Either idiot or get lost. And really, that’s not very comforting at all.

Mīwa looks at him like why is he here and not Kōri, but that actually makes him angry, because he can handle her wishing he was someone else – someone she loved, and who she’s lost now – but she never looks at him with the slightest hint of guilt. It’s like she doesn’t recognize him as the one whose life she ruined. Maybe she really doesn’t recognize him at all.

He’s pulled from his thoughts because he really had to sneeze, and after he does that he realizes that it’s partly because of a weird, pepper-sweet smell that’s winding around him, making his nose itch. It’s somewhat familiar, although he doesn’t recognize it immediately. But there isn’t any threat in it so he decides to follow the smell. Better then brooding, anyhow.

It’s only a few bushes’ distance away when he finds the source, tucked away and hidden in the grass. He looks at it for a moment before it clicks; a healing plant! He’d only seen it once before, but they’re very distinctive looking, and paired with the unique smell it’s pretty easy to figure out what it is.

More interestingly, there’s crushed grass around it and some of the grass covering the plant has been cleared. Sniffing it reveals Pipiri’s scent, meaning she found it already.

More interestingly still, however, is that this particular plant currently has the distinctive and strange orange-ish flower that these plants produce growing in the center. A flower that is known to have very potent healing abilities. And this one is ripe for the picking.

Kūta looks at it, and an idea is forming in his mind. An idea that could free him from his illness, for the first time in his life.

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Chapter 3b, Day 5 – A New Home

Sēse had been having a pretty normal morning. Wake up, sniff the air to check for danger, and go out foraging for berries, nuts, and roots. Maybe get a rabbil if she was lucky, but she was normally too slow to actually get one, and her reddish-brown coat with no camouflaging markings made it hard to sneak up on any prey.

That day, she’d decided to go down to the beach. It had been a while since she’d gone there; she’d gathered most of the roots and berries on the highland, so there was nowhere else to go, really. The closest nut tree was a good half a day away from her normal sleeping-spot, and she’s getting old; so she doesn’t usually trek over there anymore. Too little gain from a few tiny nuts anyway. Plus, she wanted to check out that healing plant near the best berry-bush she knew down by the sea; just make sure it’s still there in case she ever needs it.

She wasn’t aware when she left her nest that morning that she won’t be returning there for a while. If she had known, she would’ve stashed those leftover berries from breakfast much better. But she was in a rush and so she left them lying loosely in her nest as she scrambled over the tree-stump beside it and trotted down to the shore.

Sēse’s day takes a turn for the worse when she hears that horrific wailing about a half-hour later.

First thing she considers running toward it to help, then she considers running away, then she decides that it doesn’t seem particularly distressed. And then she remembers that tree-stump on the beach, washed up there in the last big storm. And finally she actually hears what the shouting nicheling is saying – something about giving out food – and of course she has to go investigate. She pokes her head out the grass and immediately sees the nicheling causing the noise. And some others too apparently.

The one on the stump is pretty odd; one webbed foot, one velvet; strange horns like the ones who came from the savannah port had; dark yellowy fur with a grey mane. Also, he’s currently choking, for some reason, so that’s interesting.

The one next to him on the sand is even stranger. She’s a rather unpleasant bright yellow, covered in pale near-pink blotches, and she has two velvet paws; but the strangest thing is her body. Sēse has never seen a creature except fish with a fin like that, in all her life; definitely never a nicheling looking like that.

The one who’s just run up and is standing next to the splotchy one, out of breath, is actually pretty normal-looking; big bodied, good for cold, platypus beaked, one deformed paw like those annoying rogue males often have.

Anyway, they aren’t attacking her so Sēse decides to check out if shout-nicheling was being honest. “You serious with that food offer?” she asks hopefully… but doubtfully, because who would actually give food to strangers in exchange for, what, giving them more benefits like safety and, she doesn’t know, more food? “Because I’ll take it.”

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He’s managed to stop choking and is staring at her weirdly. Maybe he thinks she’s being impolite? Should she give a reason? It’s been ages since she’s actually spoken to anyone. Oh, yeah; she’ll pretend it’s about the noise. “Anything to make you stop that racket, honestly,” she adds not very honestly at all.

He nearly chokes again (maybe adding that was even more impolite?) but then he notices that very-strange-nicheling is glaring at him with a look that says do NOT offer her those berries, so he jumps down and offers her some berries. “Of course!” His voice – which is much pleasanter to the ears when not screeching – is odd to find here; more of a grassland accent, maybe a bit of an aquatic accent too. She doesn’t remember hearing it often, except…

Sēse suddenly remembers the port with tall grass just across the beach, near the healing plant. Aha. She guesses that these three came from there, across the sea… which explains their odd looks and his accent. And also the way they behave.

Well, he’s holding berries out to her so she doesn’t hesitate and snatches them right up, stashing them neatly among the spikes on her back. “What was in exchange for those again?” she asks. She can tell he’s baffled by how quickly she scooped up the berries, blinking at his outheld paw and then at her. But he clears his throat and replies, “Oh, well, joining us! Our tribe!”

She raises an eyebrow – partly because a tribe with three members is rather interesting to see, and partly because the very strange nicheling looks like she wants to kill him.

I am the leader!” she bursts out, tail whipping furiously. “You can’t just INVITE NICHELINGS TO JOIN OUR TRIBE when you are not LEADER!”

Ah, that would explain the look. Although why a three-member tribe wouldn’t want more member is entirely beyond Sēse. Also how come the least cold-resistant of all of them got to be leader. That’s rather baffling too.

The loud one glares at his leader. “We need members,” he growls. “And how else are we going to get members except inviting them?”

Having cubs together, Sēse thinks with amusement, but decides not to say aloud. Because those two look like they’d rather have cubs with a dodomingo than eachother. She watches the interaction with interest, noting how the well-adapted nicheling says nothing, but glares at the shouty one, backing their odd leader up.

“THAT-” begins the not-leaderly leader, and then she stops. Her eyes narrow and she takes a deep breath. “That is true.” Clearly she finds it very hard to admit the other one is in any way right. He smirks.

“But you didn’t ask my permission,” she snaps before he gets too smug, and his expression reverts to a scowl. “And you may have just wasted five berries.”

“Suuure.”

The leader struggles to regain composure before turning to Sēse. “So, do you want to join?” she asks, voice hard. “Because if not, I strongly advise you return those berries.”

Sēse considers saying either Well after that little exchange, you’re really lucky that I’m actually still going to say yes! or Of course I’ll join; that was a very interesting interaction and I like being entertained. However, she decides both of those would probably get her flung into the ocean and settles with saying, “I’d be happy to. Thanks for the offer.”

Leader-nicheling gives a slightly strained smile. “Than welcome to the tribe- uh. I don’t know your name.”

“Sēse. What about you?”

“I’m Pipiri,” she replies, seeming proud of her name. Sēse thinks it’s kind of weird but she still says, “Nice to meet you, Pipiri.”

“You too,” Pipiri replies with a nod. She turns to the quiet nicheling. “This is Mīwa.” The one called Mīwa smiles. “Hi.” Then Pipiri turns to the shouty one and opens her mouth, but he quickly interjects before she can say anything, “I’m Rōre.”

Sēse wasn’t really paying attention, however, because she just noticed another nicheling poking his head out of the grass, across the beach. He’s a bit of a distance away, so Sēse can’t see his expression; but she gets the impression that he knows these three. “Who’s that?” she asks, surprised.

“Huh?” Pipiri glances the way that Sēse was looking. Spotting the other nicheling, she blinks, then shrugs and turns back to Sēse, looking kind of unimpressed. “Oh. That’s Kūta; he’s also part of our tribe.”

And from your tone, you wish he wasn’t, Sēse observes. She sees Kūta’s head withdraw into the grasses.

She decides to ignore it, for now. She’ll probably get to meet him later. Focusing back on Pipiri, something occurs to her. “What’s your tribe called?”

And for some reason, Pipiri hesitates. Some expression Sēse can’t decipher – sadness, anger, uncertainty? – crosses her face. She looks down, and Mīwa looks at her with concern, before turning to Sēse. “We used to be called the Tribe of Scattered Isles,” she explains, “but our tribe sort of… doesn’t exist anymore. We just arrived here this morning.”

That explains a lot. Like why they only have three – four, I guess – members.

“Well, you might want to rename it than,” Sēse suggests. Mīwa gives her an odd look, so Sēse elaborates; “Your tribe. Maybe name it after this island?”

Pipiri looks up, taking in the low mountain that rises over their heads.

“…I suppose so,” she says, voice quiet. “What do you call the island then?”

Sēse puffs up her chest in pride; this is her home they’re talking about, after all. The place she’s lived in since she was a cub and will probably live in until the day she dies.

“It’s called the Summer Mountain,” she replies.

 

 

Author’s Notes:

So! I did it, another chapter! Well. Kind of like 2 chapters? I wrote them together, but they’re from different POVs, so I decided to split them into chapter 3a and 3b.

We get to learn more about Kūta – who’s also pretty fun to write, poor nicheling – and properly meet our new wanderer friend, Sēse! :) We also learn some other things. First is that the tribe used to be called the Tribe of Scattered Isles. And second is that the island this takes place on is, in fact, the Summer Mountains island! It’s cold and there are pockets of mountain biome between the grass, but it won’t snow, as far as I know.

Also; I have to apologize for the images, which are literally just cropped versions of the image in the last post! I didn't take a bunch of pictures for this playthrough, but having a few is better then none I suppose, so these are what you get. :/

Well, that’s it for now. If all goes well, Chapter 4 should be posted tomorrow. Hope everyone is still enjoying this though! I’d love to have some feedback – like what did you or didn’t you like about the characters, do you think there’s anything I could change or improve, etc.? Thank you in advance if you do give any!

Bye! ❤️

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Honestly I kinda like Rore. But I think I like Kuta the best. I don't dislike Pipiri, though. I understand wgere everyine is coming from. I'm shipping Kuta and Sese (or maybe Sese and Rore cause he must have le heirs), but as long as any children happen soon I'll be happy! Great playthrough! The images are few and far between but with all the text describing the story they aren't really needed. With how long it takes to get through you may want to do a time-skip at some point

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11 minutes ago, Chiyanna said:

Honestly I kinda like Rore. But I think I like Kuta the best. I don't dislike Pipiri, though. I understand wgere everyine is coming from. I'm shipping Kuta and Sese, but as long as any children happen soon I'll be happy! Great playthrough! The images are few and far between but with all the text describing the story they aren't really needed. With how long it takes to get through you may want to do a time-skip at some point

I'm glad you can see where everyone is coming from; that's what I was hoping to achieve so I'm glad it works!! :D Unfortunately I can't promise children very soon, but after the next chapter or two there'll likely be a time-skip since there's a while where not much happens. Also thank you for being my first reply on here haha, I appreciate it! And everyone who has reacted so far too. :) Very glad people are enjoying this!

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Sorry AGAIN for not posting yesterday... I started work on a chapter but it was already late so I had to leave it unfinished. I promise I'll post one today! Okay, here's an idea: if I don't post one today, I have to reveal a plot point, major or minor, that will be in the next chapter. :) Hopefully that will give me some incentive haha... and maybe appease anyone who Wants More NOW...

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It's alright! These are like writing chapters in a full-on book and probably take alot of time and effort. Sometimes you have to deal with things in real life. Just try and set a schedule you think you can handle

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6 hours ago, Chiyanna said:

It's alright! These are like writing chapters in a full-on book and probably take alot of time and effort. Sometimes you have to deal with things in real life. Just try and set a schedule you think you can handle

That's true! Yet again I didn't post but I think I'll try and post every second or third day, not every day.

However, you guys still get the plot point sneak peak:

Pipiri is mad.

Really unusual, huh? ;)

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Chapter 4, Day 6 – The Looming Storm

Mīwa wakes up to a grey morning, rain drizzling from the sky and her fur already soggy. For a minute, she’s confused as to why grass is beneath her instead of the familiar mosses and dry seaweed of her nest; then she remembers where she is and everything comes flooding back.

Their home is gone. Kōri is gone. Sashi is gone. Everything is gone.

For a minute she lies still, feeling the dripping rain send cold shivering through her. She feels suddenly tired, a bitter, hard tiredness instead of normal exhaustion.

But she learned a long time ago that sadness isn’t worth it. So she pushes herself to her feet and checks the situation, as rain drips into her eyes and down her face and trickles along her beak.

Pipiri is curled up beside where Mīwa was; still apparently asleep. Rōre was next to the wanderer, Sēse, when they settled down last night, but apparently it made their new tribe member uncomfortable, or she was unused to being so near others, since she’s sleeping a bit of a distance from the others instead. A dryer patch near the edge of the clearing, apparently his sleeping spot, is the only sign of Kūta ever existing; but after a quick scan Mīwa sees a trail of crushed grasses marking the route he took away. She decides not to worry about him.

The thick clouds coating the sky from horizon to horizon make it impossible to see the sun, but Mīwa guesses it is around the same time as they first arrived on this island the previous day; just after sunrise. The air has a biting chill to it, and the water seeping through her pelt only amplifies the cold, leaving Mīwa shivering. She can’t imagine how cold Pipiri will be when she awakes.

Although tempted to lay back down in the grass and let it shelter her from the rain, Mīwa soon comes to the conclusion that she will only become wetter and colder; and it also occurs to her that they don’t yet have a steady supply of food. She glances back at the sleeping tribe. Nobody is stirring, so she turns away and starts to push through the damp grasses away from their temporary camp.

After moving a few paces away, she pauses. She doesn’t know if it’s safe to go out alone in this new place… but after thinking for a few minutes, she decides that the matter of food is urgent enough that she’ll risk it. Anyway, they have a healing plant tucked away in the nearby grasses in case of emergencies. But there’s also the problem of where exactly prey, or any kind of food, may be. The berry bush they gathered from the previous day was in the other direction, past the sleeping-place, and now that she’s left she doesn’t want to double back and possibly wake anyone up.

Instead, it occurs to her that with her platypus beak, she may be able to gather worms from the sea-floor, or even catch fish. Although she doubts either of those will be an enjoyable meal to the others, it’s the least risky option; so a short while later she’s padding towards the low, constant roaring sound of waves breaking against the rocky island shore.

The second Mīwa steps out from the sheltered grasses, she feels an icy wind slicing through her pelt; it seems to blow constantly along this dreary shore, even on clear days like the one before. The noises of the rain and sea and wind mingle, forming a low sound that drowns out everything else. Despite this making her nervous – how is she meant to be wary of danger when she won’t hear it coming? – Mīwa starts moving across the beach, her feet sinking into thick, wet sand with every step.

She reaches the ocean after what feels like an eternity struggling against the wind and stops with the waves lapping her claws, feeling the freezing chill in the water. Then she takes a deep breath and moves deeper, the choppy waves splashing against her legs, and after a few more steps, her belly.

Blinking water out of her eyes yet again, she tries to see through the churned-up water to find a soft patch of sand that she can dig in with her beak. But the storm-tossed waves are foamy and tumultuous, dark and blurry from sand and shadows. After struggling for several minutes to see anything through the water, she decides she has to resort to diving down.

She takes a deep breath and plunges under. Immediately, the world turns quiet. Distorted shadows of waves pass over her head, and silver glints of fish flicker past. She forces herself not to get distracted and quickly searches the seafloor, using her deformed paw to skim over the sand and find soft patches. Just before her breath runs out, she finds one; but she has to swim to the surface, gulping for air. Her hind legs, barely grazing the bottom, are all that keep her from being swept out by a current.

She dives under again as soon as she gets her breath back, but as is the nature of turbulent seas, she’s lost the spot. She finds another one – or maybe the same – quicker this time, however, and plunges her beak into the soft sand, using the flat, spade-like top to scrape it away. Her vision is obscured by the fine clouds of sand that fill the water, but she manages to feel the worms she unearthed and hold them in her beak as she kicks off the sea-floor, shooting to the surface.

Her ears are filled again with the loud rush of rain and waves, and she’s disorientated for a moment. When she gets her bearings again, Mīwa realizes she’s further out to sea then she expected, and she hastily starts swimming back. It’s hard going, and by the time she reaches shore – half helped along by a smaller wave – her legs ache and she’s shivering with cold.

That is NOT worth a few puny worms, she thinks remorsefully as she deposits them on the ground.

There are only three of them, not even enough to feed everyone. In their old home, she’s brought back as many as nine; then almost everyone here could eat two, which would be ideal. But as it is, only three of them will get to eat, and only one worm.

She sighs, hoping the others have the sense to gather from the berry-bush they found the previous day. Otherwise it’s going to be a hungry morning and a hard day, searching for food until dusk.

A while later, Mīwa steps into their temporary camp just as the rain starts pouring down even harder. Everyone else is awake – and to Mīwa relief, Pipiri has some berries piled in front of her, mostly fresh as if gathered from the bush only today. It seems they were waiting for Mīwa before they started to eat.

She pads up and drops the worms next to their berries. “Good morning.”

Pipiri smiles at her, before frowning a bit and glancing back the way Mīwa came. “Where’s Kūta?” she asks.

“No idea,” Mīwa replies, a bit startled. “Why? Haven’t seen him?”

“No,” Pipiri replies, looking slightly concerned.

Sēse is eyeing the berries hungrily, but she glances up. “We thought he was with you,” she explained. “But I guess not?”

“I haven’t seen him all morning,” Mīwa says.

Pipiri hesitates, and then sighs. “Well, we’ll look for him after we eat; just leave some for him.” Mīwa nods; Sēse looks uncertain, but then nods too. Rōre refuses to acknowledge any of them except for Sēse, so he just glowers at the rainy sky before grabbing two berries and starting to eat them. Mīwa eats a worm, since she knows the others will rather have berries; and by the end of their meal, nobody has touched them, so she has another. All that’s left for Kūta is the third worm and two somewhat shriveled berries that nobody else wanted.

“Let’s go look for him,” Pipiri mutters, clearly unhappy. She pushes the remaining food to the side, where it’s well-hidden, before forcing her way out of the grass ahead of the others, following the trail that Kūta left that morning. It’s more subtle now, but still visible; and Pipiri can probably smell his scent, too, something Mīwa finds tricky at the best of times due to her unusual snout.

Suddenly Pipiri stops, Mīwa almost stumbling into her. Mīwa can’t see past her, but from how tense Pipiri is, it’s not good.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Pipiri growls at someone. She steps forward and Mīwa sees what is going on; Kūta is crouched beside the healing plant, and the flower is gone.

He sits up, looking startled, and Mīwa sees bright orange petals scattered around the wet grass.

20210619092643_2.jpg.6a5ae4f1c406dd2e9529a5db8c8c3739.jpg

“Well, I found it yesterday,” he starts, “and I remembered they heal wounds and stuff, so I thought-”

With a snarl, Pipiri leaps at him, pushing him away. He stumbles, slipping on the wet grasses, eyes wide and shocked. Mīwa moves to Pipiri’s side as she scans the ground, but nothing remains except scraps of petals, glistening with raindrops.

“You ate it,” Pipiri growls, her voice low and threatening. Her eyes are like twin flames, blazing with rage.

“…Yeah, w-what’s wrong with that?” Mīwa is amazed by how straightforward he is, no excuses. His voice is shaking a bit, but if Pipiri hadn’t been angry Mīwa suspects he would’ve made it seem casual. Like, why not eat healing flowers whenever he wants? She glares at him, too.

Pipiri shoves her muzzle in his face, and he flinches back, looking almost comically startled. “What if I’d gotten hurt? Or Mīwa?” Mīwa is interested to notice she doesn’t even mention Sēse or Rōre – both of who had now emerged from the grasses and are standing nearby. She hopes that if one of them did get hurt, Pipiri wouldn’t deny them the right to get healed. There’s part of our tribe, too, and she leads this tribe. Forcing down her worries, she keeps listening as Pipiri continues.

Then would you have eaten this plant for – what? Your sickness?” Pipiri lashes her tail. Mīwa is startled; she had almost forgotten about his sickness, and now she feels guilt prickling through her fur for her earlier anger.

Of course he ate it. If I was sick, I suppose I would have probably done the same.

She touches Pipiri’s flank with her tail and she looks back, startled. Mīwa’s gaze seems to convey her thoughts to Pipiri, because her gaze hardens is annoyance before she turns back to Kūta as he starts speaking.

“I mean… yeah… why shouldn’t I? Nobody else was hurt, so I thought-”

Pipiri cuts him off sharply, but in a calmer voice then before. “That’s understandable. But you should have asked my permission.” Mīwa is relieved to see that Pipiri understood her wordless message.

Kūta looks anxious, ears lowered, before admitting quietly, “I thought you wouldn’t let me.”

She probably wouldn’t have wanted to, Mīwa thinks to herself. But I would have convinced her to. Really, he should’ve just asked; then there wouldn’t have been trouble.

Pipiri narrows her eyes, before flicking her tail sharply. “It doesn’t matter. You’ve eaten it now, so there’s nothing we can do.” Seeing nervousness flicker in Kūta’s eyes, she adds, “I’m not going to punish you.” He sighs, relieved, but she continues in a harder voice; “Just don’t do that again. Ask my permission next time.”

Kūta immediately looks nervous again, but he quickly nods and mumbles some words of confirmation. Mīwa stands quietly at Pipiri’s side as she says something about food, but as Pipiri starts heading back toward camp with Kūta following, Mīwa hangs back. “Are you two coming?”

Sēse and Rōre are still by the plant; at Mīwa’s words, they look up, Sēse with surprise and Rōre with undisguised hostility. “No,” he snaps. “We’ll catch up later.” When she doesn’t immediately leave, he adds, “Better go catch up to your great leader before she gets back to camp, or she might banish you for being slow.”

Mīwa’s fur bristles in rage, and she glares at him. “Pipiri is our leader now,” she hisses. “You’d better learn to respect her.”

With that, she turns away and pads back towards camp, forcing down her lingering doubt.

Author’s Notes:

Yes, I finally finished this chapter! I’ve been working on this on and off for about four days now, and I’m very happy to finally have it done. From now on, chapters will not be posted every day; I’ll try and post one every two days, but it may be as long as a week between chapters. However, I promise I’ll try my very best to post at least one a week. :)

After this chapter there will be a time-skip, because the next few days in-game are just them moving further up the mountain.

Also, sorry for the lack of photos; the entire scene with Mīwa getting worms was actually not a real scene! It was instead a replacement for a scene at the very beginning where she gathered worms, which I did not include here. So obviously I had no photos of that scene, otherwise I would’ve posted them.

If you’re surprised that I used basically a fake scene… I’m going to do that a lot. It makes the story seem much more real, so that’s why I do it. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed! See you in the next chapter! :D

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12 hours ago, Speedyscout said:

Chapter 4, Day 6 – The Looming Storm

 

Mīwa wakes up to a grey morning, rain drizzling from the sky and her fur already soggy. For a minute, she’s confused as to why grass is beneath her instead of the familiar mosses and dry seaweed of her nest; then she remembers where she is and everything comes flooding back.

 

Their home is gone. Kōri is gone. Sashi is gone. Everything is gone.

 

For a minute she lies still, feeling the dripping rain send cold shivering through her. She feels suddenly tired, a bitter, hard tiredness instead of normal exhaustion.

 

But she learned a long time ago that sadness isn’t worth it. So she pushes herself to her feet and checks the situation, as rain drips into her eyes and down her face and trickles along her beak.

 

Pipiri is curled up beside where Mīwa was; still apparently asleep. Rōre was next to the wanderer, Sēse, when they settled down last night, but apparently it made their new tribe member uncomfortable, or she was unused to being so near others, since she’s sleeping a bit of a distance from the others instead. A dryer patch near the edge of the clearing, apparently his sleeping spot, is the only sign of Kūta ever existing; but after a quick scan Mīwa sees a trail of crushed grasses marking the route he took away. She decides not to worry about him.

 

The thick clouds coating the sky from horizon to horizon make it impossible to see the sun, but Mīwa guesses it is around the same time as they first arrived on this island the previous day; just after sunrise. The air has a biting chill to it, and the water seeping through her pelt only amplifies the cold, leaving Mīwa shivering. She can’t imagine how cold Pipiri will be when she awakes.

 

Although tempted to lay back down in the grass and let it shelter her from the rain, Mīwa soon comes to the conclusion that she will only become wetter and colder; and it also occurs to her that they don’t yet have a steady supply of food. She glances back at the sleeping tribe. Nobody is stirring, so she turns away and starts to push through the damp grasses away from their temporary camp.

 

After moving a few paces away, she pauses. She doesn’t know if it’s safe to go out alone in this new place… but after thinking for a few minutes, she decides that the matter of food is urgent enough that she’ll risk it. Anyway, they have a healing plant tucked away in the nearby grasses in case of emergencies. But there’s also the problem of where exactly prey, or any kind of food, may be. The berry bush they gathered from the previous day was in the other direction, past the sleeping-place, and now that she’s left she doesn’t want to double back and possibly wake anyone up.

 

Instead, it occurs to her that with her platypus beak, she may be able to gather worms from the sea-floor, or even catch fish. Although she doubts either of those will be an enjoyable meal to the others, it’s the least risky option; so a short while later she’s padding towards the low, constant roaring sound of waves breaking against the rocky island shore.

 

The second Mīwa steps out from the sheltered grasses, she feels an icy wind slicing through her pelt; it seems to blow constantly along this dreary shore, even on clear days like the one before. The noises of the rain and sea and wind mingle, forming a low sound that drowns out everything else. Despite this making her nervous – how is she meant to be wary of danger when she won’t hear it coming? – Mīwa starts moving across the beach, her feet sinking into thick, wet sand with every step.

 

She reaches the ocean after what feels like an eternity struggling against the wind and stops with the waves lapping her claws, feeling the freezing chill in the water. Then she takes a deep breath and moves deeper, the choppy waves splashing against her legs, and after a few more steps, her belly.

 

Blinking water out of her eyes yet again, she tries to see through the churned-up water to find a soft patch of sand that she can dig in with her beak. But the storm-tossed waves are foamy and tumultuous, dark and blurry from sand and shadows. After struggling for several minutes to see anything through the water, she decides she has to resort to diving down.

 

She takes a deep breath and plunges under. Immediately, the world turns quiet. Distorted shadows of waves pass over her head, and silver glints of fish flicker past. She forces herself not to get distracted and quickly searches the seafloor, using her deformed paw to skim over the sand and find soft patches. Just before her breath runs out, she finds one; but she has to swim to the surface, gulping for air. Her hind legs, barely grazing the bottom, are all that keep her from being swept out by a current.

 

She dives under again as soon as she gets her breath back, but as is the nature of turbulent seas, she’s lost the spot. She finds another one – or maybe the same – quicker this time, however, and plunges her beak into the soft sand, using the flat, spade-like top to scrape it away. Her vision is obscured by the fine clouds of sand that fill the water, but she manages to feel the worms she unearthed and hold them in her beak as she kicks off the sea-floor, shooting to the surface.

 

Her ears are filled again with the loud rush of rain and waves, and she’s disorientated for a moment. When she gets her bearings again, Mīwa realizes she’s further out to sea then she expected, and she hastily starts swimming back. It’s hard going, and by the time she reaches shore – half helped along by a smaller wave – her legs ache and she’s shivering with cold.

 

That is NOT worth a few puny worms, she thinks remorsefully as she deposits them on the ground.

 

There are only three of them, not even enough to feed everyone. In their old home, she’s brought back as many as nine; then almost everyone here could eat two, which would be ideal. But as it is, only three of them will get to eat, and only one worm.

 

She sighs, hoping the others have the sense to gather from the berry-bush they found the previous day. Otherwise it’s going to be a hungry morning and a hard day, searching for food until dusk.

 

A while later, Mīwa steps into their temporary camp just as the rain starts pouring down even harder. Everyone else is awake – and to Mīwa relief, Pipiri has some berries piled in front of her, mostly fresh as if gathered from the bush only today. It seems they were waiting for Mīwa before they started to eat.

 

She pads up and drops the worms next to their berries. “Good morning.”

 

Pipiri smiles at her, before frowning a bit and glancing back the way Mīwa came. “Where’s Kūta?” she asks.

 

“No idea,” Mīwa replies, a bit startled. “Why? Haven’t seen him?”

 

“No,” Pipiri replies, looking slightly concerned.

 

Sēse is eyeing the berries hungrily, but she glances up. “We thought he was with you,” she explained. “But I guess not?”

 

“I haven’t seen him all morning,” Mīwa says.

 

Pipiri hesitates, and then sighs. “Well, we’ll look for him after we eat; just leave some for him.” Mīwa nods; Sēse looks uncertain, but then nods too. Rōre refuses to acknowledge any of them except for Sēse, so he just glowers at the rainy sky before grabbing two berries and starting to eat them. Mīwa eats a worm, since she knows the others will rather have berries; and by the end of their meal, nobody has touched them, so she has another. All that’s left for Kūta is the third worm and two somewhat shriveled berries that nobody else wanted.

 

“Let’s go look for him,” Pipiri mutters, clearly unhappy. She pushes the remaining food to the side, where it’s well-hidden, before forcing her way out of the grass ahead of the others, following the trail that Kūta left that morning. It’s more subtle now, but still visible; and Pipiri can probably smell his scent, too, something Mīwa finds tricky at the best of times due to her unusual snout.

 

Suddenly Pipiri stops, Mīwa almost stumbling into her. Mīwa can’t see past her, but from how tense Pipiri is, it’s not good.

 

“What do you think you’re doing?” Pipiri growls at someone. She steps forward and Mīwa sees what is going on; Kūta is crouched beside the healing plant, and the flower is gone.

 

He sits up, looking startled, and Mīwa sees bright orange petals scattered around the wet grass.

 

 

20210619092643_2.jpg.6a5ae4f1c406dd2e9529a5db8c8c3739.jpg

“Well, I found it yesterday,” he starts, “and I remembered they heal wounds and stuff, so I thought-”

 

With a snarl, Pipiri leaps at him, pushing him away. He stumbles, slipping on the wet grasses, eyes wide and shocked. Mīwa moves to Pipiri’s side as she scans the ground, but nothing remains except scraps of petals, glistening with raindrops.

 

“You ate it,” Pipiri growls, her voice low and threatening. Her eyes are like twin flames, blazing with rage.

 

“…Yeah, w-what’s wrong with that?” Mīwa is amazed by how straightforward he is, no excuses. His voice is shaking a bit, but if Pipiri hadn’t been angry Mīwa suspects he would’ve made it seem casual. Like, why not eat healing flowers whenever he wants? She glares at him, too.

 

Pipiri shoves her muzzle in his face, and he flinches back, looking almost comically startled. “What if I’d gotten hurt? Or Mīwa?” Mīwa is interested to notice she doesn’t even mention Sēse or Rōre – both of who had now emerged from the grasses and are standing nearby. She hopes that if one of them did get hurt, Pipiri wouldn’t deny them the right to get healed. There’s part of our tribe, too, and she leads this tribe. Forcing down her worries, she keeps listening as Pipiri continues.

 

Then would you have eaten this plant for – what? Your sickness?” Pipiri lashes her tail. Mīwa is startled; she had almost forgotten about his sickness, and now she feels guilt prickling through her fur for her earlier anger.

 

Of course he ate it. If I was sick, I suppose I would have probably done the same.

 

She touches Pipiri’s flank with her tail and she looks back, startled. Mīwa’s gaze seems to convey her thoughts to Pipiri, because her gaze hardens is annoyance before she turns back to Kūta as he starts speaking.

 

“I mean… yeah… why shouldn’t I? Nobody else was hurt, so I thought-”

 

Pipiri cuts him off sharply, but in a calmer voice then before. “That’s understandable. But you should have asked my permission.” Mīwa is relieved to see that Pipiri understood her wordless message.

 

Kūta looks anxious, ears lowered, before admitting quietly, “I thought you wouldn’t let me.”

 

She probably wouldn’t have wanted to, Mīwa thinks to herself. But I would have convinced her to. Really, he should’ve just asked; then there wouldn’t have been trouble.

 

Pipiri narrows her eyes, before flicking her tail sharply. “It doesn’t matter. You’ve eaten it now, so there’s nothing we can do.” Seeing nervousness flicker in Kūta’s eyes, she adds, “I’m not going to punish you.” He sighs, relieved, but she continues in a harder voice; “Just don’t do that again. Ask my permission next time.”

 

Kūta immediately looks nervous again, but he quickly nods and mumbles some words of confirmation. Mīwa stands quietly at Pipiri’s side as she says something about food, but as Pipiri starts heading back toward camp with Kūta following, Mīwa hangs back. “Are you two coming?”

 

Sēse and Rōre are still by the plant; at Mīwa’s words, they look up, Sēse with surprise and Rōre with undisguised hostility. “No,” he snaps. “We’ll catch up later.” When she doesn’t immediately leave, he adds, “Better go catch up to your great leader before she gets back to camp, or she might banish you for being slow.”

 

Mīwa’s fur bristles in rage, and she glares at him. “Pipiri is our leader now,” she hisses. “You’d better learn to respect her.”

 

With that, she turns away and pads back towards camp, forcing down her lingering doubt.

 

Author’s Notes:

 

Yes, I finally finished this chapter! I’ve been working on this on and off for about four days now, and I’m very happy to finally have it done. From now on, chapters will not be posted every day; I’ll try and post one every two days, but it may be as long as a week between chapters. However, I promise I’ll try my very best to post at least one a week. :)

 

After this chapter there will be a time-skip, because the next few days in-game are just them moving further up the mountain.

 

Also, sorry for the lack of photos; the entire scene with Mīwa getting worms was actually not a real scene! It was instead a replacement for a scene at the very beginning where she gathered worms, which I did not include here. So obviously I had no photos of that scene, otherwise I would’ve posted them.

 

If you’re surprised that I used basically a fake scene… I’m going to do that a lot. It makes the story seem much more real, so that’s why I do it. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed! See you in the next chapter! :D

 

That's a very good chapter that gives some insight into how Miwa thinks! I'm glad Kuta wasn't severely punished.

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On 6/27/2021 at 3:21 AM, Speedyscout said:

Chapter 4, Day 6 – The Looming Storm

 

Mīwa wakes up to a grey morning, rain drizzling from the sky and her fur already soggy. For a minute, she’s confused as to why grass is beneath her instead of the familiar mosses and dry seaweed of her nest; then she remembers where she is and everything comes flooding back.

 

Their home is gone. Kōri is gone. Sashi is gone. Everything is gone.

 

For a minute she lies still, feeling the dripping rain send cold shivering through her. She feels suddenly tired, a bitter, hard tiredness instead of normal exhaustion.

 

But she learned a long time ago that sadness isn’t worth it. So she pushes herself to her feet and checks the situation, as rain drips into her eyes and down her face and trickles along her beak.

 

Pipiri is curled up beside where Mīwa was; still apparently asleep. Rōre was next to the wanderer, Sēse, when they settled down last night, but apparently it made their new tribe member uncomfortable, or she was unused to being so near others, since she’s sleeping a bit of a distance from the others instead. A dryer patch near the edge of the clearing, apparently his sleeping spot, is the only sign of Kūta ever existing; but after a quick scan Mīwa sees a trail of crushed grasses marking the route he took away. She decides not to worry about him.

 

The thick clouds coating the sky from horizon to horizon make it impossible to see the sun, but Mīwa guesses it is around the same time as they first arrived on this island the previous day; just after sunrise. The air has a biting chill to it, and the water seeping through her pelt only amplifies the cold, leaving Mīwa shivering. She can’t imagine how cold Pipiri will be when she awakes.

 

Although tempted to lay back down in the grass and let it shelter her from the rain, Mīwa soon comes to the conclusion that she will only become wetter and colder; and it also occurs to her that they don’t yet have a steady supply of food. She glances back at the sleeping tribe. Nobody is stirring, so she turns away and starts to push through the damp grasses away from their temporary camp.

 

After moving a few paces away, she pauses. She doesn’t know if it’s safe to go out alone in this new place… but after thinking for a few minutes, she decides that the matter of food is urgent enough that she’ll risk it. Anyway, they have a healing plant tucked away in the nearby grasses in case of emergencies. But there’s also the problem of where exactly prey, or any kind of food, may be. The berry bush they gathered from the previous day was in the other direction, past the sleeping-place, and now that she’s left she doesn’t want to double back and possibly wake anyone up.

 

Instead, it occurs to her that with her platypus beak, she may be able to gather worms from the sea-floor, or even catch fish. Although she doubts either of those will be an enjoyable meal to the others, it’s the least risky option; so a short while later she’s padding towards the low, constant roaring sound of waves breaking against the rocky island shore.

 

The second Mīwa steps out from the sheltered grasses, she feels an icy wind slicing through her pelt; it seems to blow constantly along this dreary shore, even on clear days like the one before. The noises of the rain and sea and wind mingle, forming a low sound that drowns out everything else. Despite this making her nervous – how is she meant to be wary of danger when she won’t hear it coming? – Mīwa starts moving across the beach, her feet sinking into thick, wet sand with every step.

 

She reaches the ocean after what feels like an eternity struggling against the wind and stops with the waves lapping her claws, feeling the freezing chill in the water. Then she takes a deep breath and moves deeper, the choppy waves splashing against her legs, and after a few more steps, her belly.

 

Blinking water out of her eyes yet again, she tries to see through the churned-up water to find a soft patch of sand that she can dig in with her beak. But the storm-tossed waves are foamy and tumultuous, dark and blurry from sand and shadows. After struggling for several minutes to see anything through the water, she decides she has to resort to diving down.

 

She takes a deep breath and plunges under. Immediately, the world turns quiet. Distorted shadows of waves pass over her head, and silver glints of fish flicker past. She forces herself not to get distracted and quickly searches the seafloor, using her deformed paw to skim over the sand and find soft patches. Just before her breath runs out, she finds one; but she has to swim to the surface, gulping for air. Her hind legs, barely grazing the bottom, are all that keep her from being swept out by a current.

 

She dives under again as soon as she gets her breath back, but as is the nature of turbulent seas, she’s lost the spot. She finds another one – or maybe the same – quicker this time, however, and plunges her beak into the soft sand, using the flat, spade-like top to scrape it away. Her vision is obscured by the fine clouds of sand that fill the water, but she manages to feel the worms she unearthed and hold them in her beak as she kicks off the sea-floor, shooting to the surface.

 

Her ears are filled again with the loud rush of rain and waves, and she’s disorientated for a moment. When she gets her bearings again, Mīwa realizes she’s further out to sea then she expected, and she hastily starts swimming back. It’s hard going, and by the time she reaches shore – half helped along by a smaller wave – her legs ache and she’s shivering with cold.

 

That is NOT worth a few puny worms, she thinks remorsefully as she deposits them on the ground.

 

There are only three of them, not even enough to feed everyone. In their old home, she’s brought back as many as nine; then almost everyone here could eat two, which would be ideal. But as it is, only three of them will get to eat, and only one worm.

 

She sighs, hoping the others have the sense to gather from the berry-bush they found the previous day. Otherwise it’s going to be a hungry morning and a hard day, searching for food until dusk.

 

A while later, Mīwa steps into their temporary camp just as the rain starts pouring down even harder. Everyone else is awake – and to Mīwa relief, Pipiri has some berries piled in front of her, mostly fresh as if gathered from the bush only today. It seems they were waiting for Mīwa before they started to eat.

 

She pads up and drops the worms next to their berries. “Good morning.”

 

Pipiri smiles at her, before frowning a bit and glancing back the way Mīwa came. “Where’s Kūta?” she asks.

 

“No idea,” Mīwa replies, a bit startled. “Why? Haven’t seen him?”

 

“No,” Pipiri replies, looking slightly concerned.

 

Sēse is eyeing the berries hungrily, but she glances up. “We thought he was with you,” she explained. “But I guess not?”

 

“I haven’t seen him all morning,” Mīwa says.

 

Pipiri hesitates, and then sighs. “Well, we’ll look for him after we eat; just leave some for him.” Mīwa nods; Sēse looks uncertain, but then nods too. Rōre refuses to acknowledge any of them except for Sēse, so he just glowers at the rainy sky before grabbing two berries and starting to eat them. Mīwa eats a worm, since she knows the others will rather have berries; and by the end of their meal, nobody has touched them, so she has another. All that’s left for Kūta is the third worm and two somewhat shriveled berries that nobody else wanted.

 

“Let’s go look for him,” Pipiri mutters, clearly unhappy. She pushes the remaining food to the side, where it’s well-hidden, before forcing her way out of the grass ahead of the others, following the trail that Kūta left that morning. It’s more subtle now, but still visible; and Pipiri can probably smell his scent, too, something Mīwa finds tricky at the best of times due to her unusual snout.

 

Suddenly Pipiri stops, Mīwa almost stumbling into her. Mīwa can’t see past her, but from how tense Pipiri is, it’s not good.

 

“What do you think you’re doing?” Pipiri growls at someone. She steps forward and Mīwa sees what is going on; Kūta is crouched beside the healing plant, and the flower is gone.

 

He sits up, looking startled, and Mīwa sees bright orange petals scattered around the wet grass.

 

 

20210619092643_2.jpg.6a5ae4f1c406dd2e9529a5db8c8c3739.jpg

“Well, I found it yesterday,” he starts, “and I remembered they heal wounds and stuff, so I thought-”

 

With a snarl, Pipiri leaps at him, pushing him away. He stumbles, slipping on the wet grasses, eyes wide and shocked. Mīwa moves to Pipiri’s side as she scans the ground, but nothing remains except scraps of petals, glistening with raindrops.

 

“You ate it,” Pipiri growls, her voice low and threatening. Her eyes are like twin flames, blazing with rage.

 

“…Yeah, w-what’s wrong with that?” Mīwa is amazed by how straightforward he is, no excuses. His voice is shaking a bit, but if Pipiri hadn’t been angry Mīwa suspects he would’ve made it seem casual. Like, why not eat healing flowers whenever he wants? She glares at him, too.

 

Pipiri shoves her muzzle in his face, and he flinches back, looking almost comically startled. “What if I’d gotten hurt? Or Mīwa?” Mīwa is interested to notice she doesn’t even mention Sēse or Rōre – both of who had now emerged from the grasses and are standing nearby. She hopes that if one of them did get hurt, Pipiri wouldn’t deny them the right to get healed. There’s part of our tribe, too, and she leads this tribe. Forcing down her worries, she keeps listening as Pipiri continues.

 

Then would you have eaten this plant for – what? Your sickness?” Pipiri lashes her tail. Mīwa is startled; she had almost forgotten about his sickness, and now she feels guilt prickling through her fur for her earlier anger.

 

Of course he ate it. If I was sick, I suppose I would have probably done the same.

 

She touches Pipiri’s flank with her tail and she looks back, startled. Mīwa’s gaze seems to convey her thoughts to Pipiri, because her gaze hardens is annoyance before she turns back to Kūta as he starts speaking.

 

“I mean… yeah… why shouldn’t I? Nobody else was hurt, so I thought-”

 

Pipiri cuts him off sharply, but in a calmer voice then before. “That’s understandable. But you should have asked my permission.” Mīwa is relieved to see that Pipiri understood her wordless message.

 

Kūta looks anxious, ears lowered, before admitting quietly, “I thought you wouldn’t let me.”

 

She probably wouldn’t have wanted to, Mīwa thinks to herself. But I would have convinced her to. Really, he should’ve just asked; then there wouldn’t have been trouble.

 

Pipiri narrows her eyes, before flicking her tail sharply. “It doesn’t matter. You’ve eaten it now, so there’s nothing we can do.” Seeing nervousness flicker in Kūta’s eyes, she adds, “I’m not going to punish you.” He sighs, relieved, but she continues in a harder voice; “Just don’t do that again. Ask my permission next time.”

 

Kūta immediately looks nervous again, but he quickly nods and mumbles some words of confirmation. Mīwa stands quietly at Pipiri’s side as she says something about food, but as Pipiri starts heading back toward camp with Kūta following, Mīwa hangs back. “Are you two coming?”

 

Sēse and Rōre are still by the plant; at Mīwa’s words, they look up, Sēse with surprise and Rōre with undisguised hostility. “No,” he snaps. “We’ll catch up later.” When she doesn’t immediately leave, he adds, “Better go catch up to your great leader before she gets back to camp, or she might banish you for being slow.”

 

Mīwa’s fur bristles in rage, and she glares at him. “Pipiri is our leader now,” she hisses. “You’d better learn to respect her.”

 

With that, she turns away and pads back towards camp, forcing down her lingering doubt.

 

Author’s Notes:

 

Yes, I finally finished this chapter! I’ve been working on this on and off for about four days now, and I’m very happy to finally have it done. From now on, chapters will not be posted every day; I’ll try and post one every two days, but it may be as long as a week between chapters. However, I promise I’ll try my very best to post at least one a week. :)

 

After this chapter there will be a time-skip, because the next few days in-game are just them moving further up the mountain.

 

Also, sorry for the lack of photos; the entire scene with Mīwa getting worms was actually not a real scene! It was instead a replacement for a scene at the very beginning where she gathered worms, which I did not include here. So obviously I had no photos of that scene, otherwise I would’ve posted them.

 

If you’re surprised that I used basically a fake scene… I’m going to do that a lot. It makes the story seem much more real, so that’s why I do it. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed! See you in the next chapter! :D

 

Sounds like Rōre likes Sēse. And it's good to see Mīwa helping Pipiri become a better leader.

Rōre might be planning to take the next fruit for himself.. Pipiri will need to be careful. If he can use the healing plant strategically, he might be able to force Kūta to join him if he does attempt a takeover. Both are relatively strong, and Pipiri can't fight.

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8 hours ago, Chiyanna said:

That's a very good chapter that gives some insight into how Miwa thinks! I'm glad Kuta wasn't severely punished.

Yeah, Mīwa is a pretty interesting character, so I'm glad that you enjoyed reading from her POV! :)

8 hours ago, Nightfire said:

Sounds like Rōre likes Sēse. And it's good to see Mīwa helping Pipiri become a better leader.

Rōre might be planning to take the next fruit for himself.. Pipiri will need to be careful. If he can use the healing plant strategically, he might be able to force Kūta to join him if he does attempt a takeover. Both are relatively strong, and Pipiri can't fight.

Mīwa may seem blindly supportive sometimes, but she isn't oblivious! :) So she does try and help Pipiri become a better leader sometimes.

Rōre is definitely more of a threat then Pipiri seems to think. ;)

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