This time the panther didn’t put the kitten on the ground, but it directly handed it to him. Not even meowing, the kitten didn’t move.

The Black panther then licked Ryn’s cheeks twice, before it left.

“Ugh!, wait, wait!!”

Ryn was caught off guard and couldn’t use his hands to stop it from licking him, unwilling to drop the kittens, but also surprised by how friendly and affectionate the big cat suddenly became.

Nevertheless, the leaving Knightshade quickly redirected his attention.

"HEY!! Come and take your kittens. There is no way I am watching them for you."

He hollered at the big cat, telling her not to leave her kittens with him. But then something caught his eye.

‘Hm!’

"But why is this one not moving?"

Ryn sat down cross-legged, holding both kittens in his hands.

While his attention was on the unmoving kitten, the other one clawed its way out of his hands and started following its mother.

Ryn glanced at it once to see it flowing behind its mother and turned his attention back to the one in his arms.

He checked its fur looking for wounds or bloody injury, but he couldn’t see anything. Its fur wasn’t even as jet as the other one, yet couldn’t see anything. probably due to his bloody hands.

Then he tried to see if it had a heartbeat or if it was breathing, but he couldn’t feel nor hear anything beyond his shaking hands and loud thumping heart.

“What is wrong with thi—”

THUD!

“Huh!?”

Only now did things become clear for Ryn.

The bloody footprint, the unresponsive kitten in his arms, the mother panther bringing its kittens to him and showing sudden affection.

It was all a desperate attempt of a mother to save its children.

The panther mother started wheezing with a labored breathing sound, trying to get up, but unable to.

Ryn, startled by the situation, got up while gently holding the unresponsive kitten in his arms.

YOWWWWL!

He arrived by its side trying to see what happened to it and why it suddenly collapsed, when the KnightShade started yowling out of distress.

YOW-ow-ow-owl!

Only for its loud and intense yowling to abruptly shift to whimpering, a stark contrast in its demeanor. Not unlike a distressed mother pleading for help.

“It is ok, it is ok. I am here.”

That's all Ryn managed to offer in terms of comfort, as he soothingly rubbed its jet-black fur, only to find himself drenched in blood.

‘Is this why it brought me its kittens?’

The puzzle pieces were coming together now.

“Are more of your kittens that way?”

Gently putting the unresponsive kitten on the ground near its mother, Ryn went into the direction where the Knightshade was fetching its kittens from.

After rustling through the bushes, he arrived at what seemed to be the den of the panther.

“What are all of this!?”

To his surprise the entrance of the den was riddled with dead bodies of different small animals, but what surprised him even more was the two huge bodies in the mix of the rest.

There was a Rootclaw Stonewrath bear and the Dreadcoil snake's bodies, with the Nightshade missing its head.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Ryn stepped carefully in the unmarred areas of what appeared to be a battleground before reaching the entrance of a cave obscured by plants. The cavern, though not too deep, allowed him a clear view of its interior.

“Ah, there is…another one there. I almost missed it.”

After retrieving a gray-furred creature from inside the cavern, he also discovered another black-spotted one near the deceased Rootclaw bear.

Ryn brought both kittens to the now moaning black panther, its low mournful meow barely hearable.

He brought the other two and sat in front of the Mother panther, assuring he had all of her kittens safe in his arms, even the unresponsive ones. Only then would its pain be alleviated by some.

‘What should i do now?’

Ryn didn't know what to do from there on.

He only acted on impulse to help the mother panther and bring all her kittens closer to her, maybe then it would sound less in pain and agony.

Anything beyond that, he was at loss.

He couldn’t go and get help from the village, the kittens would be in danger. Even if he took them, he wasn’t sure if the Knightshade would be quiet without them and probably lead more predators towards her.

What’s more, since a lot of blood was spilled and a lot of commotion occurred, it was only time until more forest predators showed up.

Searching anyone from the village nearby his location and asking them to bring help was also out of the question. The sun will set by then.

“Sigh,” Ryn sighed Audibly.

He only intended to return the eggs to their mother bird, but now he found himself with even more kittens in his care.

It was only at that moment that Ryn realized the sudden, unsettling quietness that enveloped his surroundings.

The mother Panther, once a fierce and formidable presence, now lay still and silent, a mere motionless lump that once embodied strength and grace.

The weight in his lap increased so as the one in his chest.

Their encounter may have been brief, but the departure of the mother panther left a lasting impact on young Ryn, tugging at his heartstrings with a force as powerful as the panther's presence.

Ryn's heart skipped a beat as he peered down at the motionless kittens in his lap, mirroring the stillness of their departed mother.

The fear that they might have followed her gripped his soul.

Frantically, with trembling hands, he checked each tiny chest for the reassuring thump of a heartbeat, a sense of urgency and desperation seeping into his actions.

The weight of responsibility and sorrow pressed down on him as he sought any sign of life in the little ones left behind.

The first one had departed, its once lively form now limp and motionless.

The second one, in a tragic echo of fate, followed suit, silently joining its sibling in the realm of the departed.

“No, No. This can’t be happening now.”

For a moment Ryn’s small heart was gripped tight by the thought that none of them survived, even the one that hissed at him at the beginning.

“Your mother entrusted me with you. You… you can’t..”

Ryn couldn’t finish his sentence. A lump in his throat, his eyes almost watery.

Ryn was a child after all.

Ryn didn’t stop checking their heartbeat or any movement of their chest as proof of life. Right then, his ears picked up a barely audible groan from one of the kittens.

‘This one’s still alive.’ Ryn breathed a sigh of relief.

“What about the other—”

While trying to check the other cat—the first kitten he accidentally saved from the jaws of the MoonHowl—he locked eyes with its vertically slanted eyes that had been observing him for a while now.

‘This one survived too.’

Ryn broke eye contact nervously and checked its body, unable to see any injuries or fang marks, even though it had been carried by the jaw of that huge wolf.

“Don’t tell me that MoonHowl was stealing this kitten!?”

The only reason it didn’t have a punctured hide would be if it was being carried carefully and not hunted.

‘So what happened to the other two?’

Ryn couldn’t understand what killed the others if they weren’t preyed upon.

“Unless… they were trampled on!” Ryn sighed.

If such big predators were fighting and these small kittens ended up between them, it's only natural they would end up as collateral.

Ryn stood up, kittens in his hands, and made his way to the satchel by the tree. He wanted to put them inside and then decide what to do with the dead bodies, but he was worried they might suffocate inside, so he left them by its side.

“It will be noon soon.”

Ryn was baffled about what to do. The kittens needed attention, and he knew the perfect person for that. There were materials he could get from those bodies around him, but in doing so, the kittens might perish since they needed quick assistance.

Leaving all of that behind seemed like an idiotic thing to do. And if night fell, there was no guarantee any of them would survive until morning.

“I should return first.”

Ryn decided to go back first to save the kittens, then think about how to obtain those materials.

He strapped the satchel over his neck and carefully placed the gray and black kittens inside, but not in the same compartment as the eggs.

Ryn hurried back, his steps quick but not fast enough to run. He didn’t want to cause more harm to the kittens or damage the eggs.

It took him longer than usual because he kept stopping to check if the kittens were still with him, but nevertheless, he arrived at the village gate around noon and headed straight home.

“Mom? Mom!”

Ryn rushed in, calling for his mother as soon as he arrived.

“Son, what is it!?” Enara answered, startled by her son’s sudden urgency.

“Mom, can you save them?” Ryn pleaded, taking two kittens out from his satchel.

“What are those!? Where did you find them, and what happened to them?”

Enara bombarded him with questions while taking the kittens from his hands and bringing them to the table.

“They are kittens I found while returning the eggs. I think they are dying.”

“Dying!? What happened to them?”

Enara checked for any signs of life while questioning him.

“The black one fell from the jaw of a Moonhowl, and the gray one I found near a cave.”

“What about their mother!? It should’ve been around the den or it wouldn’t let that wolf take its offspring.”

“The mother cat wasn't in the den or anywhere close; I didn’t see it when I saved the one from the wolf.”

Ryn hesitated before replying to his mother.

‘That means the mother cat is gone.’

Enara thought her son was hesitating because he was worried something bad had happened to the kittens' mother.

‘Mother will probably not let me go if she learns what really happened.’

Ryn didn’t tell his mother the whole truth, but what he said was still part of it. He didn’t want his mother to ban him from venturing outside the village, so he told a slightly safer version of what really happened.

“Don’t worry, son, I will save them,” Enara comforted her son.

“Really!? Thank you, mom.” Ryn felt a weight lift off his chest and breathed a sigh of relief.