Gonalona Pack

«It's time, I gotta go.»

«Are you sure about this?»

«Yeah, I thought about it for a long time now. I wanna go after her and explore the world together.»

On the clearing of their tribes camp, a heavily pregnant Phyra, her partner Sage and their son Tengu were sitting opposite of each other, talking about a serious topic. The young cream hob had told them a couple quarter moons ago already that he wanted to go travel through Ibea, going on his own adventure and discovering the mysteries of Ibea. But he loved his parents, was loyal to his tribe and wanted nothing more than to keep his sister safe, so he had waited a while to think about his decision and let others adjust to the thought. The first Saliko he had told of his plan was Kali of course, but in private. He had asked her if it was alright for him to leave and she had stayed silent for a moment, staring at him quietly, but then she had nodded slowly and, with her usual demeanor, said «Do what you must», so with that it was already agreed.

Since Soren and Koda had joined the tribe, Tengu had felt as if the tribe did not rely on his help as much as it used to and now that his parents were expecting another litter, the little camp was getting a bit too crowded for his liking anyway. They would be fine without him for a while and he knew he'd return soon to visit them anyway. Another reason why he wanted to go was because he was crazy in love with Octavia, but her longing for freedom and the habit of moving between areas was so ingrained into her life that she just couldn't stay with him and had left a while ago to follow her usual ways and with every day that passed when he didn't see her, he missed her even more.

Phyra felt confident he'd be alright in the outside world, herself having been a loner for quite a long time and having enjoyed that time just as much as her orderly, settled life now.

Sage on the other paw was very worried to let his first son go like that, knowing his brother was somewhere out there, yet he knew trying to keep Tengu close to him would drive him even farther away, so he had to let him go and pray for his safety.

Last but not least, Hinami, who loved her brother dearly, did not understand what was going on and no one could explain it to her either. But after Tengu had said goodbye to everyone, cuddling his parents and hugging the cream jill, she got tears in her eyes, feeling something awful was going on. But she remained brave and watched him go.

With one last glance back, a hopeful smile and a soft wave of his tail, the hob left the camp and began his journey, that would eventually take him many quarter moons.

Just when he crossed the border of his old territory, making one deep breath as he set his paw on neutral ground, ruby red eyes glinted from the shadows, looking at him intently, but he didn't notice them. The Mayur watching him tilted their head curiously, but stayed hidden, spying on the cream hob until he was out of sight, then crawled out of the bushes and frowned, still looking in the direction where he had gone off to while slowly shaking its head, a smirk across its face.

«Such a pity...He looked like someone who's entertaining to be with. Guess someone else will have to do instead.»

~

In an abandoned stretch of nether land, which didn't belong to any tribe, Octavia was crawling through the trees, her dark pelt hardly visible through the dense vegetation, sneaking up on a birds nest which she had found and was trying to get a tasty snack from now. The magpie sitting on the delicious looking eggs had not noticed the predator yet and was completely oblivious to the Saliko. The jill wasn't planning on killing the mother bird, happy with just the eggs, but if she'd happen to get a piece of meat she wouldn't mind either.

So with expertly movements she got closer and closer to the nest without being detected and, after a quick leap, managed to grab the bird which was just getting startled by her sudden movements and trying to flee, right between her jaws, biting down and breaking its neck, so that the creature immediately went limp. She didn't feel bad about it though, feeding on the adult bird and the eggs, as magpies were actually somewhat of a nuisance and all over the jungle anyway. As she placed the motionless, feathered body in the nest, she noticed a sore on her face, right above the lip. The sharp claws of the bird had scratched her just before the bite and she was bleeding a little bit, still it was nothing but a little inconvenience.

She licked the wound and felt her saliva hurting it, but the anticipation of eating was too great. After de-pluming the prey and with a few large bites she swallowed the still warm body of the magpie, before continuing to crack the eggs and suck out the yolk. It was quite the meal and the jill was completely content with it, deciding to take a nap after such a well hunt to regain her strength. Octavia climbed higher on the tree she had been, until she was out of sight in the high altitude, lay down in the fork of a branch, her legs and tail dangling down, and dozed off quickly.

She awoke suddenly and a bit confused as something was unsettling her, but she didn't know what it was yet. Octavia looked around, but couldn't see anything, so she slowly climbed down a bit and spied through the leaves, still well hidden. The dark, spotted jill sensed a presence close by and looked around, noticing a familiar scent, but not only that, something else was around, yet she couldn't tell what it was. She frowned and looked around, trying to find anything that might be responsible for this, then suddenly, a Saliko jumped at her from above. She rolled off to the side, but lost grip, falling off the branch but holding on to it with her front paws still. Only as the stranger grabbed the scruff of her neck and pulled her back up she noticed it was a friend, not a foe. The female shook herself to release the stress, her fur slowly flattening again after standing on edge, then she took a closer look at the hob next to her.

«Tengu?! Why are you here and how did you find me?!»

She was ecstatic to see him, nuzzling him without further ado and both purred happily.

«I was looking all over, took me at least a moon to find a trace of you, but now I'm here. I left the tribe to be with you.»

Octavia was stunned, as she never would've expected him to do this for her, but she couldn't keep her joy in. And because of this happy reunion, none of them noticed the deep, rumbling sound coming from one of the bushes below them.

«So where were you heading off to, O? Did you have an assignment to do?»

«Yeah, well you know how it is, there's always work to do. I'm currently on the way to visit a friendly, far away tribe and see if everything's alright with them. Took a different route this time though, I think it might be faster in the long run.»

«I see. So you're just as lost around here as I am, huh?»

«You could say that. I was lost...but now I'm found.»

The two smiled at each other, but suddenly something changed.

Octavia opened her eyes again after blinking happily and everything seemed to happen in slow motion. She noticed Tengu, who was standing farther out on the branch, suddenly sink below her, as if the limb of the tree was breaking off and falling. He looked just as confused, his eyes widened, not realizing what was going on as it was happening way too fast. Something had grabbed him by the leg and pulled him off the branch with one swift movement!

Before his body even hit the ground, the jaws of a large Saliko closed themselves around his neck and pushed together. Octavia could hear the loud crack of his spine, then blood shot out of the cream hobs throat, splattering in her face. The hob standing over the body, which had now blood pooling under it, was licking its lips to clean off the residue, his face serious and somehow superior.

«Good. Finally some nice meat for the tribe.»

The hob had a very dark pelt, even darker than Octavias, with shadow spots on its body, an extended mask covering his throat and vampire fangs. But not only that, his eyes and claws were bright red, the latter being something the jill, who had seen almost everything, was completely unfamiliar with. He even had a lot of bones hanging around his neck and shoulder, among them a large, heavy looking skull and also a fang through his right ear. He was covered in scars and one of his fangs was broken, yet Octavia didn't dare thinking about how his past opponents might look, if they were even still alive.

The attacker looked up and stared right at the jill, his red eyes piercing right through hers and pure fear was running through her veins as he spoke with his deep voice, but not directly to her.

«Get the jill but don't hurt her. We need some live food. The hob we'll cut up and carry home in pieces.»

Out of shock Octavia couldn't move at all at first, she was still looking at the body of Tengu whose muscles had completely stopped twitching by now and his eyes had turned grey. There was no way to help him anymore. It was too late.

Suddenly the branch bobbed up and down as another weight was stepping on it and she turned her head to see another Saliko climb it to get to her. With a huge leap she ran across the trees, jumping from branch to branch to get away from those chasing her, but she heard them go after her, not losing sight of her once. After what seemed like an eternity of them running after her, she noticed she wouldn't be able to get away from them. Tears had collected in the corners of her eyes, partly because of fear for her own life, but mainly because of her dear friend who was taken without warning. How would she ever explain that to his parents? Was it really true even?

And would she survive all this to be able to get the choice to tell anyone...?

Her path across the crowns of the trees had led her towards a rocky cliff side, not that steep but covered with many waterfalls that rushed across the stone and into the deep. She had no way to escape to one of the sides anymore, closed off as there were no more trees growing on the rocks. Octavia had to slow down a bit in order not to fall as the branches were getting pretty thin and suddenly, she felt a clawed paw reach out and grab her. She whirled around, hissing loudly, the touch making her fur ruffle up once more, but this time with disgust. But while doing so she lost balance and fell off the tree, landing on the rough, hard surface with her side, scraping her skin open and howling in pain.

Her followers were jumping off the tree, but they would be too late. Octavia struggled, her whole side smarting like hell, but she stumbled onward still, only to notice she had run into a dead end. The waterfalls were rushing into the deep and disappearing into a crack in the rocky ground. She didn't have time to think about what she was doing, making one more step forward. As she was falling, she turned in the air, looking back towards the ledge she had been jumping from and saw the Salikos that had been chasing her. Then, the dark one with the red eyes appeared and stared at her as she fell. Their voices were getting quiet already, as Octavia was dropping quickly, but she could hear him say «Forget about her, she's done for and I won't scrape up her remains», then they all turned away. During her fall she saw Tengu before her, his last moments before all of this happened, his happy smile and his comforting purr. Then everything got dark as she fell into the crack, the water rushing loudly around her as she came close to the surface where the waterfalls gathered. With a loud splash she broke the tension of the water, her back hurting by the impact, but she was still in one piece. Completely exhausted she struggled to get back on land, now inside a cave system below the jungle, the tears had been washed away. As she stepped on safe ground, she immediately collapsed and became unconscious, her motionless body lying there all alone in the darkness, as if she was dead too. And truly, a part of her died that day.