Eclipse Event Stories (NOT CANON)

Yawning excessively and stretching himself, Cisco got up from his nest and walked a few steps towards his parents, who just came into the den through one of the cave tunnels. The adolescent Kumba with the light grey fur was excited to out and learn hunting with his parents, but they seemed a little too exhausted from their border patrol. His whiskers twitched eagerly as he talked to them.

«Are we going now?»

«No Quartz, not now. we gotta rest for a bit. Had to chase an Asferatu away today.»

«What? But you promised me we’d go out and practice!»

«Which we’re gonna do. Later…»

And with that his parents fell into their own nest, curled up and fell immediately asleep. Cisco was grumpy and looked at them in anger. He spent all day in the caves, every day, even though he was old enough to go outside already. But he was his parents first whelp and they were still too cautious so that nothing bad happened to him. He knew they did it because they loved him, but he couldn’t stand being trapped underground any minute longer.

The young hob looked around. The caves were pretty dark, with a bit of light coming in from the crack in the high ceiling over the little lake, the water glittering with little sparks of the sunshine.

Ferns were lightly brushing his legs as he waded through the dense vegetation around their nests and walked towards the exit that he had used with his parents a few times before. The way was covered in large rocks from a cave in and the hole that they could come in and leave through was right at the end. Kumbas weren’t used to climbing, but Cisco learned quick and discovered that this skill would surely be useful to him someday, as he was very well hidden amongst the stones.

Breathing heavily, but happy, he left the caves and looked around. The sky was cloudy that day, yet still bright. It seemed like a storm was rising up. He raised his nose and sniffed the air, trying to find some prey to test what he had learned about hunting lately. Slowly he walked across the desert sand, looking around and ears pricked at all times. He easily saw a few footprints of other animals, but they all just stopped somewhere, implying the creatures had disappeared into their holes and dens…or taken by something or someone.

Cisco kept walking like that for a while until he saw a few vultures circling above him. He knew they usually only feasted on deceased prey, but his parents had mentioned that there have been more and more aggressive and dangerous birds around lately. Something about a large elephant disappearing or so, but the hob didn’t understand what that meant. He hadn’t even seen an elephant yet.

So he hid in the shadows of the cliffs and rocks, trying to blend in and not move too hastily, as to not attract the creatures. His tail twitched uncontrollably, as he always looked back up into the sky, trying to keep an eye on the large birds. Suddenly he heard a quiet squeaking from a rock besides him and glanced over it, not moving his feet another step, trying to keep quiet. His gaze wandered around a bit, though he couldn’t see anything, only hear the squeaking. Finally he saw a nose and whiskers show up behind one of the rocks. It was a dark grey Longnose Mouse! It was cautious and sniffed the air at all times, but hadn’t noticed him yet. He knew if the wind would turn or if he made one wrong move, it would be gone before he could even leap. Silently he crept closer until he was half over the rock it was hiding behind. If he could scare it the other direction, out in the open, he’d have a better chance of catching it, as he was a fast runner, like all Kumbas. Then, out of the blue, a loud cry could be heard from behind him and he winced, then ran after the mouse that was surprised and scared, dashing away from him and the strange noise. He had a bad start, but Cisco still managed to catch the mouse after all, the grey rodent struggling and biting all around, trying to free itself. The noises hadn’t stopped and the fade colored youngster was curious what was going on, so he put the mouse down, stepped on it to keep it from running away and the killed it with one good bite in the neck. He was sure his parents would be proud of him if they saw how well he did! The Kumba proceeded to dig a little hole in the sand to hide his prey in, then covered it up again and followed the voiced in the distance. As he reached the top of a rock and looked down, he saw two Salikos fighting below him, though one of them seemed more like a victim than an attacker. Cisco jumped down and walked closer, not even trying to hide himself.

«What’s going on here?»

The two strangers, a brown Tatra hob and a green Mayur hob, stopped and looked at him, then the Mayur snarled and talked to the grey teen.

«Get away, cub, this is none of your business!»

«You’re in my territory, I think it IS my business.»

«YOUR territory? Why don’t you run back to your parents and tell that to their faces.»

Cisco set back his ears and crouched down a bit, taken aback by the adults harsh words. He immediately saw the Kumba was too young to live here on his own.

«I don’t need a babysitter, fishface. Now tell me what’s going on.»

No one, not even the fade himself, expected him to sound so serious and vicious, so all of them turned silent for a moment, then the Tatra finally raised his voice.

«Please, you have to help me!»

«Oh shut it, birdbrain! You have nothing to ask of us here!»

«He just attacked my out of nowhere! I don’t know what he wants! You have to help me!»

The Tatra looked in Ciscos direction, yet his gaze went through him. He was obviously blind, yet seemed to know exactly where everyone was and what they did.

«Why don’t you both just…take a break for a second, huh? Talk about it.»

The Mayur seemed quite annoyed.

«Ughhh…momma’s boy.»

Cisco squinted his eyes and, with claws exposed, slapped the hob right on his head. The green stranger was so surprised at that, he didn’t even react at first, just looked in disbelief at the teen. Then he turned mad once more.

«You little…»

He walked towards the fade, who was fast and energized, quickly jumping backwards and dodging the strangers hit. They danced around like that for a while, the Tatra was completely forgotten. Cisco wasn’t very exhausted yet, lightly trotting over the hot sand, yet the Mayur was in full sprint trying to keep up with him until he finally stopped, coughing loudly and then, swishing his tail angrily, turned and walked away, his voice becoming more and more quiet the farther away he got.

«You know what?! Fuck this! I’m out! I fucking hate this stupid desert and its stupid inhabitants. Just get these birds off my back…blablabla…vultures...blabla…involved…»

Cisco was sure, after that humiliation of losing to an adolescent, he wouldn’t be back anytime soon.