Althea Stories

The sun slowly crept closer towards the horizon, sinking behind the dunes in bright orange glow, tinting the desert in golden light. It had been an unusually hot day and most living creatures had hidden and slept for the past couple hours, trying to conserve their energy until the cool night fell over the land. Just like a lone, elderly Kumba jill that put her head out of an old fennec burrow she had found, looking around and deciding it was time to hunt. She stepped out of the den, shook her pelt and sand dusted out of her fur in all directions, showing her beautiful pelt with the silver markings on her backside. Her pelt had always been silver there, but with age, even between her normal colors a couple grey streaks and hairs had grown. But despite that, she was still in best health and had no trouble living on her own, even though she had noticed that exhaustion had come quicker these days. As Althea made her way through the desert, looking for prey while leaving pawprints in the soft sand, the sky turned darker and blue night started to fall. She enjoyed the fresh breeze and her mane blew slightly in the wind. With it the scent of a mongoose carried over and entered her nostrils, so the jill raised her head and looked in the direction it came from. With a few more, deep breaths, she knew the prey wasn't far away and decided to head that direction. It didn't take long for her to find the grey mammal, digging in the dirt, its back towards her and the wind still carrying her smell away from it. It was perfect for her to sneak up and catch the animal before it would even notice, instead of risking a leg injury by chasing after it.

Slowly she made her way closer to the mongoose, always paying attention to the direction of the breeze and her pawsteps not making a sound. Two tail-lengths from it she stopped, cowered down, balanced herself by wiggling her butt and pounced with a strong leap, the prey hissing loudly in surprise one last time between her strong legs, before a quick bite of hers in its neck made it silent forever. Happy about her easy and successful hunt the elderly female lay down and began ripping pieces of warm flesh out of her fresh kill when suddenly, a strange noise caught her attention. Her ears twitched and she looked around, but couldn't see anything. Still, after she resumed eating, she heard it again, a high pitched yowl, like a cry for help. She sat up and frowned, her body might grow weary, but she could always trust her eyes and ears. There must be something close by!

The sound was a little muffled and very quiet, but it seemed close nonetheless. Her gaze stopped at the hole the mongoose had began digging and she put her head down low. The cries were coming from underground somehow. Maybe her prey had been a mother and her litter was still down there. While Althea would never hurt an innocent creature, she would also never let these pour souls starve to death, when a quick kill would be more merciful for them. The silver Kumba began digging, shoveling sand and dirt away to the side until a hollow den became visible. She was obviously right about there being something, but she wouldn't have expected what happened next. She crawled into the narrow burrow, planning on pulling out any little mongoose kit she'd find, but there was only one soft furball inside and it was way larger than a young mongoose. Carefully she picked it up with her muzzle and looked at it in the light of the moon.

With surprise and amazement she had to notice the youngling in front of her was a little Saliko whelp! It was still black and had its eyes closed, but yelled loudly in dismay. Althea looked around but there seemed to be no one else here, no footprints and no scents. She assumed the parents had either died or left the pup behind on purpose and the mongoose had found it while hunting for food on its own.

«There there little one. Shhh, it's alright now. You're safe with me.»

The jill was well experienced as a mother and has had many litters before, all of Kumbas that had grown up and went their own way. She had been living with her partner most of her life, away from any tribe, enjoying the solitude until her partner, weakened by illness and old age, had passed away, which made her a loner. Lately she had been thinking about trying to find a tribe, knowing someday the time would come when she wouldn't be able to support herself any longer, but she didn't feel the urge to seek out company just yet. It would take a lot of willpower for her to accept such a fate.

But now she would take care of this orphaned whelp and she would have a reason to go on, as well as someone to talk to. She loved little pups and they always rejoiced her heart.

After being hushed and rocked softly in her paws, the whelp had stopped crying and turned completely calm, breathing slowly and steadily in her safe embrace. She grabbed its neck skin and carried it back to the fennec den, as that at least had been larger and more secure, not risked of collapsing anytime soon. She placed the whelp inside and curled her body around it, keeping it warm and secure. Nest material was not necessary, the sand was soft enough and she didn't want to leave the whelp alone so soon just yet, even though she knew she'd have to find a way to feed it soon or it would starve after all.

For a while she lay there, trying to sleep just as the cute pup, but her mind didn't get to a rest. She didn't know what to do to feed it, not having seen another Saliko around for many quarter moons, let alone a hob.

She did hear a dromedary herd a couple days ago, which must've crossed through her area. On a whim she grabbed the whelp and left the den once more, walking after the heard. It was her only chance for help and travelling during the night would be better for the pup than in the hot daytime.

A long march later, the whelp had remained calm and seemed to sleep while being carried, she found the dromedaries and slowly walked closer. The rested, some standing up, some lying down, but since they were so much larger than the Saliko, they weren't scared or aggressive at all. She found one of the ungulates with a calf that was suckling on its mothers udder and walked up to it, always attentive and careful about how it would react, but it didn't even some to mind the fox like creature. Althea stepped below the dromedary and raised the pup up as high as she could. It smelled the milk and yawned shortly, before instinctively suckling on the teat the calf was not drinking from. The large animal still didn't move, possibly either feeling how dire the situation was, letting the whelp feed. With a sigh of relief, a weight was taken off the elderly jills mind as she found hope in the creatures peacefulness.

–

Althea got up as the sun set behind the dunes as usual, the whelp in her muzzle. She had followed the dromedaries for a quarter moon now and they had tolerated her and the little Saliko without issues. A couple days ago, the herd had found an oasis and stayed there, the matriarch of the group using this place to feed on grass and drink enough water to sustain the mothers for a while, giving them energy to produce milk, and the silver Saliko had dug a burrow close by which she called her home now. The whelp had grown quickly, the dromedary milk obviously feeding it well. It always had a round belly and seemed content, being cared for better than ever in its short life.

As the female put the whelp down in the high grass, hidden from any predator, and then walked to the water to drink, the pup opened its still weary eyes for the first time.

It blinked tiredly into the moonlight and only saw blurry green colors. The smells and sounds it had gotten used to already, but the visual stimuli were still overwhelming. Despite it being dark and its eyes hurting, the pup felt a restless urge to keep its lids open.

«Hey, look at you little buddy! You're a fast one, huh? Opening your pretty blue eyes already...I'm so proud of you!»

A face came into the baby hob, still blurry at first, but the smell and voice were familiar and made him squeak with joy. Althea rubbed her cheek on the whelps head and purred loudly, and finally the vision of the pup turned clearer. He saw a mostly black head with jet grey eyes and brighter, sandy brown markings in between the shadow mask. It was not his mother but this jill felt it and her appearance burned itself into his mind as a safe haven and the embodiment of trust.

«I knew you would make it, you are a fighter, aren't you? Let's see, you're gonna need a name now, right? How about...Valerian? Would you like that?»

The cute whelp yipped cheerfully, as if he'd understand and the female smiled happily as she nuzzled him like her own pups so long ago, finally not feeling alone anymore.