No one was home.

The rain had lessened a little, and it was starting to grow darker. It’d not be long until night set in.

Yet even though the night was near… the house was not only empty, but quiet.

If no one was back by now, odds are they’d likely not be returning today.

“Maybe something horrible is happening,” I whispered as I thought about it.

It’d make sense, really… maybe there was some kind of enemy or threat out there in the forest… and I simply didn’t know of it. Because I wasn’t seen as someone worth involving in such a thing.

I wasn’t strong enough, so they cared not if I fought with them or not. To them I being there made no difference either way.

Could it be the humans…? I had overheard my sister and brother talking about them not too long ago. That they were becoming more common…

Rounding one of the pillars that held up the roof, I paused as I glared at a large puddle that was slowly dripping down the hall towards the inner bedroom.

Great. More leaks. That hadn’t been there earlier… The rain hadn’t seemed like it had picked up too much, which meant something had finally broken or dislodged up above. A new hole to deal with…

There was a new one in my room too… but I knew better than to fix my roof first. That would just get me yelled at once they all returned home.

“If they ever return,” I mumbled.

Doing my best to not grow too excited over such an idea, I hurried through the house… slowly trying to catch any scent of anyone who had recently passed through.

It was a little difficult, what with the fresh rains, but I eventually smelled both grandmother and my sister. My oldest sister, Glennessa.

Choosing to follow my sister’s scent instead of grandmothers, I left the house and headed northward.

Her scent wasn’t just the strongest… there was something else amongst it.

Picking up my pace as I smelled the strange metallic scent of blood, I hoped what I was smelling was just the remnants of uncle’s blood. But I doubted it, and knew the truth… I had cleaned myself of the blood at the stream before returning, after all.

Stepping out of the houses perimeter, I relaxed a little upon finding my sister’s smell becoming stronger the closer I got.

She must be at the smaller lake nearby. The one where she liked to fish.

Picking up my pace now that I knew where she was likely at, I hurried through the forest and its misty fog. It was getting darker, but thanks to the bright haze lingering all over the floor of the forest it was kept a little brighter than usual.

As I drew closer to the lake, and the smaller streams and rivers that connected to it… I had no choice but to try and prepare for what I smelled.

She was hurt. The scent of blood and wounds was quite clear in the air.

“Sister…” I whispered as I wondered if she had been the one to fight uncle.

There was of course that possibility… but sister winning? Really?

Glennessa was strong, far stronger than me, but… I just couldn’t see her beating uncle at all.

Rounding a tree, I paused as I finally found her.

Glennessa was in the lake. Up to her waist.

Cleaning herself.

Hesitating, I narrowed my eyes at the dark water all around her. That was indeed blood. Some of it might be mud and other gunk, but…

About to step forward, and to call out to her, I was once again brought to a stop… as my sister sniffed.

Going still, I felt my tail twitch as my oldest sister sniffed again, telling me she had just recently been crying.

Glennessa. Crying.

Impossible.

Not from pain. Not from wounds.

“Sister…?” I stepped forward, gathering my nerve as I neared the lake’s shore.

My sister’s ears twitched, but she didn’t turn around. She wasn’t completely facing away from me, but was instead at an angle. It was the first time in quite a while that I’d seen her naked… and I was surprised to see that she had more fur than I remembered. Her entire chest was covered in the stuff.

Didn’t that itch?

“Glennessa…? Are you okay?” I asked as I studied her. She had what looked like cuts and scrapes all over her. None of them looked too bad, especially since none looked to still be bleeding… but…

It was hard to tell. All the thick fur on her body hid a lot of what should be obvious. And I wasn’t able to see any of her lower body thanks to the tainted waters around her, and the darkening world.

“What do you want?” Glennessa asked.

I noted her strained voice. It was coarse. Hard.

She sounded angry… but I knew, and could hear, the truth.

She was hurt.

“I…” I hesitated, and wondered where to begin. I wanted to ask if she needed any help. If she needed me to tend to any wounds she couldn’t reach… but…

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Glennessa splashed as she went to scrubbing a thigh. As she did I noticed she was using what was likely her shirt to do so.

Odds are it had been destroyed enough to become nothing more than a rag anyway, based off her many cuts and scrapes.

“Do you need help, Glennessa? Are you okay?” I asked, worried for her.

“No. I’ll be fine,” she said.

I shifted on the smooth dirty rocks near the water, and noted how she had spoken.

She had made no comment on how she was stronger than me. How she didn’t need the help of someone weak like me, who couldn’t survive such wounds like she did.

That fact alone told me she wasn’t fine at all.

“Do… do you want me to get you fresh clothes? Or another washcloth?” I asked her, deciding if she’d not let me help her tend wounds maybe she’d accept something a little less personal.

Glennessa at first said nothing, and for a tiny moment I thought she’d actually accept my help… but instead she sniffed and turned to look at me.

She glared at me for a moment, and I hesitated at the sight of a large wound on her face.

From her forehead, down around her right eye, to her cheek was a huge gash. As if she had been struck by something heavy or sharp.

Could a rock do that? Must have been a hard blow.

For a strangely uncomfortable moment… neither of us said anything as she glared at me. She looked furious, yet…

Yes. She was calming down. A few heavy heartbeats was all it took for my sister’s rage to disappear, and then without warning…

My sister was looking at me with as little hatred that I could ever remember having happened before. Almost as if she had none in her heart for me at all, for once.

Another impossibility.

“I used to pity you. Funny,” Glennessa then said.

Shifting, I gulped.

My sister studied me for a moment, and then looked down at herself. “Look at us. We’re really not that different, are we?” she wondered.

Well…

My nails dug into my palm as I awkwardly shifted, and wondered what to say.

“It’s mostly just this hair,” Glennessa said stiffly… and then reached up to her breast.

Frowning as I watched my sister grab a handful of the fur on her chest, I wondered what she meant and was about to say something… but she then yanked her hand away.

I startled as she yanked the handful of fur off her. It had sounded so loud that I had no doubt it had hurt. She hadn’t even flinched.

“Some hair,” Glennessa scoffed as she rubbed the hair out of her hand. The flocks of wet fur fell to the water. Oddly… they didn’t float on the surface, but instead sunk.

“Sister…” I groaned and wondered what to say.

I knew what she was implying. I was no longer unaware.

I understood her meaning. I understood it now. After years of contemplation.

To a certain degree, at least.

She and my other sisters were seen as potential mates. By my brothers and father.

Whereas I wasn’t. Because I wasn’t pure blooded enough. Because I lacked the features, and strength, they all possessed.

I was a failure, so…

“You’re a little smaller, but not by much,” Glennessa said as she glanced down at herself.

My tail twitched, and I noticed hers was just… floating behind her. It wasn’t even twitching or swaying.

After glancing at herself she looked back at me… and frowned.

“Somewhat different ears…” Glennessa then mumbled as she reached up.

Panicking, I stepped forward. I stepped a few steps into the lake, and felt strange bile rise up into my throat as I watched my sister grab her left ear.

“Uncle’s dead!” I shouted before she ripped the ear off.

My sister paused, and then she focused on me with renewed purpose.

Her angry glare had returned… but at least her ear was still intact.

I nodded, to confirm it. “Uncle’s dead… The elder showed me his body, and then ate it,” I said.

“Wait…” Glennessa released her ear, and I breathed a small sigh of relief as she stepped towards me.

She approached a little slowly, but haphazardly. She slipped, half dunking herself in the lake, before righting herself and stepping closer.

As she got closer, I noticed the wounds on her weren’t as bad as they had first appeared. They were numerous, and some deep, but she was in no danger of dying. Not like uncle had been, at least.

And…

“Wait…” Glennessa mumbled again as she stepped closer, revealing more of her lower body. I tried not to notice the clumps of hair missing in certain places. Either she’d been pulling them out since before I got here, or…

“I don’t know how he died… I was the only one at home, so the elder just grabbed me. He was really hurt though, and…” I started to explain, but Glennessa shook her head violently as she stepped up to me. She splashed me all over as she grabbed me by the arms.

“Wait!” she shouted at me.

I gulped at the sudden panic on my sister’s face.

Her utter terror was somehow more unnerving than her earlier strangeness.

“He can’t be dead…” she whispered at me.

“He is…! I watched him die… great-elder grandfather then ate him and…” I tried to tell her again, but my voice died off as I watched her eyes.

They were really contracted. Her pupils were but thin little lines, and her eyes were wide in shock. They were trembling and…

Were those tears…? Surely not…? Surely it was just the water…

My sister then released my arms, and stiffly stepped back a step. Deeper into the lake again.

Upon her release of me, I realized she had grabbed me rather hard. My arms were now throbbing and hot, telling me she had likely hurt me.

I ignored the painful throbbing though, and reached out gently to her. I wasn’t sure what to say or do, but she suddenly looked…

Well…

Fragile…

“Sister…?” I asked worriedly.

“Now father has nothing to stop him…” Glennessa whispered.

“Father…? Are you saying father’s the one who killed him?” I asked.

It was hard to think father could, but it was believable at least. Father and uncle were not friendly, at all.

My sister closed her eyes, shook her head, and let out a weird whine. A sound I’d never once in my life heard from another person before.

For some reason it made my eyes water.

Stunned, I watched my sister reach up and grab her head. Her thick hair, clumped together because it was wet, shook oddly as she shook her head and squeezed it.

“Glennessa…!” I stepped forward, going deeper into the water.

Yet before I could grab an arm, she turned and stepped away.

Glennessa splashed me again as she hurried out of the lake. The moment her feet met solid ground, she broke out into a run.

Watching her go, I watched as my sister ran away… running away from me, the lake, and the house.

Naked and hurt. And crying.

The waters splashed from her violent escape, and I suddenly felt… very, very cold.

Rubbing my arms, where she had squeezed them, I bit back a tiny sob of my own as I went to return home.

I knew to them I was unimportant. An afterthought.

But I really wish they’d at least tell me if I was in danger or not.

And even more so…

I wished my sisters would stop hating me so much that they’d not even tell me if, and when, something was wrong.

Because I was starting to really worry for them. And worrying for people who hated and beat me was strangely painful.