Nulif

Koda awoke very late the following morning and as he realized, he immediately struggled to get on his feet and leapt out of his kobel. During his hasty descent off the tree, the hob who was still not quite awake yet lost balance and fell the last bit down, landing with his face on the ground, stirring up dust.

«Whoa, easy there tiger! What's the rush?»

From out of the corner of his eyes he saw someone come closer towards him. The voice was still quite unfamiliar to the jade green Mayur, so he knew it was Finn who was talking to him. Koda shook the dirt off his pelt and turned towards him, his mane completely disheveled.

«You're still here? I thought you wanted to leave.»

«Yeah well, Kali asked me yesterday if I could help her with something so I guess I won't be leaving anytime soon. Can't disrespect the wish of an alpha, right?»

He grinned widely, obviously the youngster didn't mind this at all. He was an explorer first and last, but the comfort of having a home to return to every night was not too shabby either. Octavia had not returned yet and Finn was also interested to see if she'd show up again, which is why staying longer was of great interest to him anyway. In the meantime he was helping out whenever someone asked him to do so, but the life in the tribe had become a lot more laid back since Kali told them to ignore the stranger lingering around the territory, so there wasn't much to do for him.

As Koda was about to leave through the bushes to go hunting, the badger faced Saliko followed him at a smart trot.

«Where you goin'?»

«Out.»

«Out where?»

Koda grunted an whirled around, hissing at Finn.

«Just...stop it! Stop following me, stop asking so many questions! I got a lot to do and it's bad enough I overslept!»

«You DO remember the herbs Sage gave you yesterday, right? Kali wants you to stay here all day and recover. It was no coincidence you overslept, that was what the herbs were for.»

Slowly it dawned on the hob with the filled spots and the memory of the day before returned. He sighed and shook his head, a frown on his face.

«I won't just sit around all day. I gotta stretch my legs after all.»

«From what I've heard you've done that enough lately, to the point of your pads bleeding. Just...stay here, I'll bring you something to eat. I'm bored as heck anyway.»

«Who are YOU to tell me what I can or cannot do?! And I'm not an old, helpless Saliko yet, I can hunt for myself! Go catch something for Novalee or Sage if you really wanna help someone, those could actually need it.»

And with that he left a speechless Finn behind and continued on his solitary way. He still had not been able to give his body the rest it needed so badly, but most of all, his mind never truly shut off at all, which was why the mood of the usually funny and friendly Mayur was so bad. Yet he was too restless to simply relax for a while, still so set on finding out who that piebald jill was that had trampled all over his ego by trapping and ridiculing him. Yet all of this had something good too. Ever since Koda had set out on his own so many moons ago, before he stumbled upon the Nulif tribe, there was always just one thing haunting him in the back of his mind. The memories of his horrible dispute with his former partner. He still felt terrible whenever he thought about it, but now that he was so distracted by Marcy, he had not wasted a single thought on it again. Yet he began obsessing about her, looking for the jill every waking minute. He wanted to get back at her for that lousy trick.

Marceline did not know anything about that though. About three quarter moons long, after the tribes whelp was born, she had stayed put as to not attract the wrath of everyone, but now her patience was at an end. The piebald jill was lazily lying on a large branch, up on a high tree, just at the border of the territory, yawning as she got up and stretched her legs. It was time for some mischief and whoever would run into her first she would mess with mercilessly.

After strolling around for a bit, trying to find some breakfast, Marceline was lucky enough to fetch an inattentive sparrow and munched on it with delight, licking her lips as she was done, intentionally not burying the remains of her prey so that someone would find it. She kept walking for a while, noticing fresh scent marks of some member of the tribe, and continued on with a grin on her face after leaving her own claw marks on a tree trunk. When she suddenly heard a rustling from her side, not her front where she was expecting to run into someone as the member she smelled was clearly patrolling the border, she was a bit surprised, but immediately dropped into a defensive stance in case something pounced at her. The rustling kept going for a while, coming closer, but what stepped out of the undergrowth was not anyone she had expected at all.

A cute little whelp was stumbling towards her, its black pelt mostly gone and showing a creamy, green coloration already, though its eyes were still bright blue. It hadn't noticed her yet, completely focused on the ground, toddling awkwardly until it suddenly ran right into her front leg, tumbled over and sat on its butt, slowly looking up the leg to see who was in front of him. The little pup froze as he noticed it was no one from his tribe and not just the look but especially the scent was so foreign to him. He wasn't really scared, but not brave enough to say anything either, looking at the jill with his mouth gaping.

«Hm? And who are you, little buddy?»

«...»

«Are you...»

Marceline moved her head closer to the cream pup in a sudden and fast, jerky fashion, her mouth a wide grin, showing her white teeth, as an attempt to scare the whelp.

«–AFRAID?!»

The young one fell over onto his side, his paws with the tiny, needle-like claws slashing the air in front of him as an attempt to defend himself. Marcy giggled to herself and stepped back to give him some space.

«I'm just messing with you, I won't hurt you. What are you doing out here all alone, shouldn't you be with your parents?»

«...»

She looked around from side to side and took a deep breath to check the scents, but it seemed like there was no one else close by.

«You know, I would say something along the lines of "aren't you too young to walk around on your own", but when I was your age I did the exact same thing, so...let's just go.»

«Go where?»

«Well, on an adventure of course! That's why you're here, right?»

«Uhm...yes!»

«Good. Then follow me.»

The adolescent Saliko turned and walked away from the camp, leading the whelp towards the edge of the territory, away from its home.

They crossed the border of the tribe and kept walking a little longer, Marcy constantly paying attention the whelp did not get hurt and was still following her. The little guy reminded her of herself when she had been stealing away from her tribe for the first time, which is why she did exactly what she had needed back then. Someone to show her around and protect her, not rebuking her and bringing her back into camp. It only made her want to repeat those lone explorations more and more.

So shortly thereafter, already outside the territory, they reached a shallow pool in the middle of the dense jungle, with bright turquoise water and some vines hanging down above it from the canopy. She sat down at the shore, looking at the glittering surface of the water, the whelp with the bright pelt sitting down next to her. He was fascinated by the beautiful colors and his eyes sparked with joy as he lay down in the grass and tried to dip his paw into the lagoon, but his leg was too short. Suddenly he noticed something moving underwater and hesitated, his mouth agape but not saying a word, frozen in place. Marceline looked at him with a smirk, his reaction was just too cute to her.

«Those are fish. Have you seen any before?»

«Uhm...yes! But when my parents eat them they're not as pretty anymore! And they don't move at all...»

«That's because they're dead. You know what death is?»

«......Yes?»

«Don't act cool, you don't know obviously. Well, that's gonna have to wait, it's none of my business to tell you.»

«But I wanna know now!»

«No.»

«Pleeeeeease!»

She sighed in resignation, not wanting to deal with a whiny youngling.

«Guess it's best to just show you.»

The piebald crouched down next to the water as well, her red eyes focusing on the pool while her tail twitched occasionally in excitement for lying in wait. Vernin was just sitting there, his head tilted, watching her and, after a while of nothing happening, copied her pose for fun. Marcy was waiting for some of the fish to come closer which soon enough happened and, with one quick swoop of her paw, catapulted one of the slippery creatures on land where it flopped around helplessly. It was a mapelfish, shining in beautiful orange and yellow hues. The amazed cub walked over and sniffed it, getting a fin slapped into his face from one of the desperate flails right away and flinching back in a slight stun, then laughing about it.

«It's so beautiful! What are you gonna do with it?»

But before the adolescent jill answered, she bowed down to the fish and closed her jaws firmly around its face, the creature immediately seizing any movements and just hanging from her mouth until she placed it on the ground once more.

«But...but now it's just like the other fish! Why doesn't it move anymore?»

«Eat. You gotta grow up fast to survive out here.»

«But my parents will always protect me!»

«And where are they right now? You cannot depend on anyone else, you gotta fend for yourself.»

He looked at the dead maplefish and seemed very sad, the sight of the lifeless prey being difficult for him to understand. But he had seen others of his tribe eat prey before, so he just did what that strange jill told him and ripped a little piece out of the carcass.

«It tastes weird, not at all like dads milk.»

«Get used to it, because once you're a bit older you won't get any more milk at all.»

«Yeah...I know.»

The whelp collected all his courage, trying to seem mature, and nibbled a bit more on the fish. He had been quite hungry already anyway, but just didn't want to ask the jill to bring him back home so he could drink from his father. At first he thought he wouldn't be able to eat all of the prey, but soon enough all of the fish was devoured. After all it seemed like he was in a growth phase and his body needed it. When he was done, his little belly was big and round and the cream pup had trouble standing up and walking, shambling clumsily back to the piebalds side and lying down with his head on her paws, immediately napping away. She didn't know what to do first, but the sight of the innocent whelp cuddling up to her made her so content that she just let him be and hummed a soft melody, like a lullaby, while watching over him.