“Alright, kits. What have we learned today?”
“A treefall is also a windfall, one just needs to take advantage of it!”
“Crashing furniture is easy but creating some is hard!”
“Woods taste terrible and crafting is for wuss!!!”
*BOOM*
At the sight of me carving out a huge chunk of the trunk with my bare foot, the little lǐon wisely clamped his mouth shut. However, to my surprise, the kit actually chose to stand his ground while sending me the most challenging stink eye possible! This brat!
… No, wait, false alarm. That was the usual “fight or flight” look. The cub was starting to shake a bit as well. I might have scared the poor thing a little too much…
*Whoosh*
*Tatta*Tatta*Tatta*
Thankfully, a distraction in the form of my masterful mastery quickly snapped the scaredy-cat out of his trembling. As my paw trailed a single claw in quick succession, the trunk shed its skin as various crafts slowly emerged from within. Soon enough, I finished my dance with a flourish and drank in the awe of my audiences, who were still rubbing their eyes in disbelief.
Of course, it did not take long before curiosity finally took over the mischievous mass. Under the pretense of “quality inspection”, a word ma Mma most definitely regretted teaching them, the brats began to jump up and down their newly made furniture as if possessed. Predictably, the declaration of a bed brawl soon broke out, signaling that whatever new chairs and tables available would not be left standing for long.
As the youth tenders scrambled over a furniture fort, I shook my head in amusement and turned towards the bratty cat from earlier, who was busy rubbing his foot on the ground. Seeing this, a sense of satisfaction swelled within me. At the same time, some mischievous thoughts began to tug at the back of my mind, tempting me not to let him off the hook so easily…
“...!”
In the end, though, I decided that the kit had already learned his lesson. As the little lǐon looked up at me in surprise, I stopped ruffling his hair before crouching down, until both of us could see eye to eye.
“It was thanks to our crafts that we managed to evolve from the mindless animals that lived in caves and holes, little one.” Hearing my words, the cub hung his head in shame. “You might think that crafting is something only the “weak” do. Yet, it is important to remember that the backbone of our Horde is constantly supported by fetchers, crafters, traders, as well as countless others. Without their hard work, wanderers wouldn’t even be able to wander off, and Wyld Land would have become a much deadlier place to live.”
Lifting his chin up, I gave the little lǐon a warm smile. “I know that becoming a wanderer is what all younglings dream of. However, you should keep in mind that behind every glory, there are countless grimes that pave the way for its success. Once your twilight years at the nest are over and you find yourself at the shouting halls, remember what I said, ok?”
“... Okay, big sis.”
“Good. Now go and help your friends already. They won’t be able to hold the fort for long, you know!”
“Okay!!!”
With a fierce roar, the little lǐon fearlessly charged into battle, sending a youth tender tumbling into the ground. While his compatriots cheered at the timely intervention, my own companion was giving me a smirk, much to my annoyance.
“Funny. There was this bὕnny I knew that used to cry herself to sleep for days on end, after hearing that she couldn’t become a wanderer.” Imun nimbly dodged the high kick coming her way before continuing. “If big sis Nexa had not stepped in and told her the same thing I heard just now, I wonder what would have become of that girl…”
“She would have grown into a wonderful youth tender, or found her calling making crafts and gathering grasses in the boonies, I’m sure.” I huffed at the miss, though my annoyance was quickly soothed by a sigh of nostalgia. “Almost a decade already, huh? Time certainly flies…”
Both of us soon slowed our pace, until our kicks and flicks resembled those of two little hillbὕnnies all those years back. The sweet taste of honey and the telling smell of flowers seemed so distant, as if our memories of a place called “home” were just another silly, childish dream.
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“... Hey Isa, do you ever miss the hills?”
“Nah, still trying to forget ‘em~”
“...”
With that, we stopped the bunfoolery, though Imun still looked like she had something else to say. After a moment of silence, the doe looked towards the most damaged part of the nest, where several of her fledglings were hard at work cleaning up said mess. However, her gaze did not linger on them, but instead settled on a boy with pure black hair, someone I was quite familiar with.
“You think he misses his home?”
“Hiro? Hard to tell, but if he does, then he certainly doesn’t show it.” I shrugged. “In fact, if I didn’t know any better, I might have thought that he actually wanted to be here instead of anywhere else. The novelty must have not worn off for him, I’d wager.”
“...”
Something close to frustration briefly marred my colleague’s face, though she quickly shook it off with a shake of her head and a sigh. Seeing this, I turned my head away and gave her time to compose herself. What my old friend wanted to hear was clear as day, yet I couldn’t find it in myself to agree with her.
After all, I simply had no intention of clinging to a dead, dreaded past so long ago.
“Heh… Your ward sure is something, huh?” Thus, the old topic was buried, as it should be. “Just so you know, when words reached the shouting halls last night, betting pools started popping up like wild mushrooms. “How long will the sleeping beauty have his nap? One week? Two weeks? Stick around and find out!”” Imun said with a smirk, which immediately strained at her next words. “I lost quite a bit of my savings because of that… Heck, everyone does, really… In fact, how the ever loving wyld did that boy manage to recover so fast from his mana exhaustion!? This makes no sense!”
“Ma~gic” An annoyed stomp greeted my lackluster response, though I did not budge. “C’mon, you know as well as I do that those like him will always be special. Descendants of chosen ones often are, especially those closest to the divine. No points asking why or how they can achieve the impossible now.”
Imun huffed at that, yet she did not refute me. We watched as the human fledgling helped some tenders with the cleanup, despite various burdens he had to carry on his back.
“Still, are you sure that he should be up and running already? The weight might be too much for him, and those kits look heavy…”
As if on cue, more brats began to pile onto the poor sap, eager to have their flight on top of the “mighty eagle”.
“Trust me, I am the one most concerned with my ward’s health.” Also because I was responsible for his plight, twice. “In fact, I almost had to put the fellow on nest arrest. You should have seen his face after waking up, wanting to fix the mess he made and all that.” Which was tech-ni-cal-ly my fault to begin with. Let’s not dwell on that, though… “Had the druids not confirmed his full recovery, I wouldn’t have allowed him to even get out of bed, let alone go outside.”
Imun gave another huff, echoing the same sentiment running through my mind. Someway, somehow, the young fledgling kept on making our head spin. Be it his ridiculous resilience or questionable qualms with being a bad guest, nothing seemed capable of keeping him down for long…
Ah well, at least my plan to make the brats like him is a success.
Not far away, the star of our show was resting head-first on the ground while his tiny slayers celebrated their victory, and I could just feel a little smile tugging at the corners of my lips.
Truly, despite all the headache coming my way since his arrival, things were never dull around this troublesome fledgling of mine.
•ㅅ•
“Okay. So this, this and this. 1 small should be enough, right?”
“Just 1!? Miss, these fruits carry a unique sweetness that was nurtured by Crescent Well itself! To carry them to Growling Trunk while still ensuring their freshness would be worth 1 small alone! 3 small! That’s my final price!”
“2 small, and I will take some of the bad ones which are starting to rot underneath that bowl of fruits.” Leaning in closer, I added. “Unless, you want to negotiate with the bєar buying a similar bowl earlier? I can hear his sour mood, even all this way, you know. And he sounds pissed~”
Having finished my trading with the trader, I proceeded to spend a little more time perusing the wares of some other night stalls. With just a glance, I could already see more rocks changing paws than my eyes would care to register. From fruits to juices that smelled suspiciously like those unwanted boozes, all of them flooded the market of this city, where hungry customers were many and aplenty.
Popping a berry into my mouth, I could not help but let out a chuckle.
See, this thing called “time” had quite the tendency to make people forget. For example, just a few days after our spectacular spectacle, folks had already moved onto newer dirt. Just a few frights got proven wrong, the initial wariness had already been left behind.
Just a few nights seeing the same tail being stale, my marks had already gotten cocky.
I turned towards a stall and hummed at the selection on display. Beyond the border of this stand, fruit was no longer a food available, for up ahead was the heaven for meat lovers where one could just feel the soft teasing of sweetness practically oozing from so many wild game.
Here, where meat did not taste tough and rough, it was no surprise that wylders were naturally drawn towards this slice of paradise. Indeed, this market was truly the best place where our hard-earned rocks could be put to good use.
“Whoops! Sorry!”
At least, the cloaked “wćlf” I accidentally bumped into while turning around must have thought so, before my stinking berries were splattered all over him.
“I am so sorry! Do you need some water to wipe that away? I have some right here!”
“uH… N.. no… it’s okay. Please excuse u- me! Please excuse me!”
A mismatch of voices answered my query before their owner took off in a hurry, and I just had to bite back my chuckle at the way “he” constantly tumbled over with his wares. In fact, it was quite the miracle that no one managed to catch onto the trick, especially when the trader kept shooting out “his” pairs of hands to drag dropped game back inside the cloak.
With a small stretch, I let the prey run ahead, before slowly making my way towards their stinky trail.
Run, little wolves, run. For the big, bad bunny is after you all~