Klinrona Tribe

«Ugh it’s so boring here!» «Tell me about it.» «None of the adults have time to play with us or go outside the camp.» «Yeah. I wish there was anything new happening.» Grumpily the siblings Nickelglut and Sif were lying next to each other, lazily herding a tiny bug around with their paws. They were still too young to leave the camp on their own and because of the scarce food lately, all the older Salikos were busy trying to hunt and scare away the crazed birds that have still been harassing their tribe. Suddenly Nickels face lights up and she turns to her sister. «I’ve got an idea what we could do!» «Huh?» «Let’s find some objects and hide them around the camp. Then the other one has to find them.» «Oh yeah, that sounds like fun!» They immediately jumped to their feet and went looking for things lying around, then they proceeded to search for good hiding spots, always nervously checking around whether or not the other whelp was cheating and watching them. At the same time, in a different part of the world, a huge, brown bat-like creature was roaming it’s land for it’s own purpose. It had leathery wings, white spots on its chest and a thick, red collar with sleigh bells on it around its neck. Blitzenn is famous where he lives, but no other creature other than Kalacros knew of his existence. He just started his daily round of bringing christmas gifts to other kalas and decorating the tall, snow-covered trees with shiny and glowing ornaments. He carefully placed the baskets and presents into his bag and tightly wrapped it around his waist, ready to take off. His wings pushed up and down with immense power, the powdery snow blowing away by the wind he created. As he raised up into the air, he looked around and checked his surroundings, then decided to fly south, but a couple minutes later he felt a strong, magical current dragging him towards an unknown location in the west. He knew what that meant for him, as from time to time those streams were taking him to places with different creatures and biomes, but he really enjoyed discovering new worlds, so Blitzenn just relaxed and let the current take him. The magic seemed to shorten the time it took him to reach the large island that appeared on the horizon before him and he still had enough energy to explore the land, silently flying over a place called Ibea. Nickel and Sif were done hiding their whatchamacallits and eagerly began looking for their opponents objects, turning rocks, putting their heads between the high reeds and checking the riversides that were enclosing their camp. They had distinguished their goals from the nature surrounding them by putting them in places where they would never occur, but it was still difficult to find a mossy stone or a twig with bite marks amids all the other rocks and branches. After a short while they had lost interest in their game again, only finding few of the things they hid and being disappointed in the other one. «Come on, you’re really close!» «I don’t wanna play anymore, Sif.» «Just one more, I wanna know if you can find it.» «Sigh…Alright.» The spotted, green whelp got up with a disapproving grunt and looked through the reeds again which she had been examening a few minutes earlier. Suddenly they felt a strange presence, but couldn’t quite tell what was wrong. They sniffed the air, perked their ears and looked around, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Blitzenn had just arrived at the tribe which was on the east coast of the island and the first inhabitet place he found. He knew he had to be careful, as it wasn’t clear what kind of creatures lived there and how they’d react if they saw him. He landed on the side of a river and heard quiet yips from the other side, but high plants were blocking his view so he pressed his body to the ground and remained silent for a while. Then two tiny creatures of a species he had never seen before appeared from within the plants, looking around carefully. They were talking to each other with high barks, but the bat could not understand them. He was reliefed that the strangers were harmless enough for him, but he remained cautious as he didn’t know whether or not those two were grown up or not as he didn’t want the fangs of their angry parents in his fluffy butt. Trying to be as quiet as possible, he pulled out two of the presents from his bag and placed them next to him. He still wanted to hide them somewhere, but the small ones were obviously looking for him, as they must have noticed his arrival. «Did you hear that?» «Yeah, something ruslted over there!» «Let’s cross the river and check it out.» «No, wait! It’s way to deep here, you might drift off!» «Come on, don’t be such a coward! We’ll be fine.» Sif proceeded to step into the cold water, which already reached up to her belly just from the shore. Her sister stepped from one leg to the other, unsure of what to do and how to keep her from going in any farther, then she grabbed her siblings tail with her mouth and didn’t let go, her paws dug deep into the soft earth below her. Her voice was muffled from the fur, but she still kept telling Sif to stay with her. Blitzenn had noticed all that and his instinct told him the creatures were not the best swimmers. His mind raced with thought about how he’d be able to keep them from coming closer and possibly drowing or freezing in the river. Quickly he grabbed the gifts by their ribbons and flew into the air, his winds bending the plants around him and exposing him to the Salikos, whose eyes were widening as they saw the huge monster fly into the air before them. «Whoa, what’s that!?» «I don’t know? Looks like a juniper bat but WAYYY bigger!» «Let’s follow it!» «NO!! Sif, for Kydos’ sake stay here! It looks dangerous!» «Pfft, I laugh in the face of danger!» Suddenly the brown creature flew over their heads and into the camp, the two whelps running after at, though the green only reluctantly compared to the one with blue fur. Blitzenn landed in the middle of a clearing and looked around suspiciously. He smelled the foreign creatures very strongly and knew he was right in their home, but no one seemed to be around. The gifts were still dangling in his mouth and he leaped around the are quickly, hiding them somewhere before he’d be disturbed. One present he hid amidst high ferns and covered them with a log, the other he placed under an overhanging rock and pushed dirt over it to cover the bright colors, then he returned to the middle of the clearing. The younglings had just arrived as well and stared at the bat, their mouths wide agape. Trying not to scare them, he lay down on flat the ground to look smaller and kept his gaze on them. The other two crept closer as well, noticing but ignoring the long claws on his wings and sharp fangs that graced his muzzle. He breathed slowly and steadily, the cubs reaching him and stading right in front of his face, when one of them extended a paw and softly touched his nose. He smiled, overwhelmed by the cuteness of the little, curious fluffballs and they realized he was a gentle giant. Now the other one dared to sniff him and then carefully touched his chest fur, it’s face beaming with joy as it called to the other one in excitement, though he didn’t udnerstand them still. «It’s so soft! You gotta try this! I’d love to cuddle up to it all day!» «Where do you think it came from?» «I don’t know. North maybe? There’s a lot of strange creatures beyond the mountains.» «Wait a minute, didn’t it have something in its mouth before?» «Right! Maybe it watched us and wanted to join in on the game!» They looked around and the bat knew they had noticed the gifts were missing and immediately went to look for them. Funny how the three of them didn’t even need to talk to be able to understand each other. A few moments later they had each found a present, sniffing and tapping it, not sure what it was. They quickly discovered that there was something inside and they managed to open the objects, discovering shiny red balls, pointy leaves with berries on it, skulls and many more things, many of which they had never seen before. They showed each other what they got and chattered loudly, then turned to the bat who had given them the great surprise. Blitzenn was happy they were enjoying it so much but felt like it was time to leave and the two noticed in his demeanor what he was thinking. They ran up to him and cuddled up to his chest fluff once more and he wrapped them with his wings, embracing the cute whelps. «Thank you, big juniper bat!» «Yes, thank you!» «Are you gonna come back someday? We’d love to see you again!» «Yes, please visit us sometime!» Despite him not understanding what they said, he could feel in the way their yips and barks sounded what they were asking him and, with a wide and warm grin on his face, he nodded. With a promise to himself that he’d be back to check on them the following year, he spread his wings and flew into the dark night, the Salikos waving goodbye below him. Some time later the adults returned from their hunting parties or naptimes and found the girls sitting in the clearing, surrounded by colorful leaves which ruslted like dry grass. Galina, their mother, walked up to them and watched them with an eyebrow raised and a kind smile. «What’s that you got there?» The siblings looked at each other, not sure whether to tell her the truth or not, but they knew they could trust her to keep their secret. They eagerly told her, taking turns in telling their story. «A creature appeared! It was brown like treebark and had birdcatcher spots in its fur!» «Yeah! And it’s chest was covered with thick fur and it had large, smooth wings!» «It looked like a bat but it was gigantic!» «And it brought us things! Look!» They grabbed their presents and neatly arranged them in front of the kupfer colored jill, who looked a little confused and worried, but then decided that all must’ve only been in their imagination. «That was awfully nice of that bat! What did it say to you?» «It didn’t talk at all, maybe it was just shy.» And like that they talked for a while longer, Galina showing interest and asking Questions, while the words that left Sifs and Nickels mouth almost tumbled over each other. Blitzenn had stayed and watched them a while longer. He was sitting on a large branch in the distance, his sharp eyes watching all the movement going on in the camp and then he decided he’d stay on that island a while longer and discover more about the creatures living there.