Nulif

A couple quarter moons after Tengu had left the tribe, Phyra was giving birth, lying in her kobel, breathing heavily and occasionally groaning loudly when a wave of pain was rolling over her. Sage was by her side just like the last time. It was quite convenient to have a mate who was also a healer, so the jill was not worried at all and even Sage was more excited than nervous. He had a bright smile across his face whenever their eyes met, which also made the tabby smile in response, before shivering under another contraction.

Outside, Kali was walking towards the kobel, where Chai was sitting guard. The leader wanted to make sure everything was going well with the birth, as Phyra was not only her trusted deputy, but most of all a good friend to her. She nodded towards the merle hob who lowered his head politely, before the spotted Mayur put her head inside and talked with low voice to the pair.

«Is everything alright? Can I get you anything?»

«No, thanks Kali, I think she'll be fine. I guess it will only be one, maybe two whelps and the first one should be about to come soon from what I can gather.»

«Good. If there's anything I can do just let Chai shout for me, alright? Also, Koda and Novalee are still out on patrol, looking for the intruder, but they reported that it doesn't seem like he's around today. I will patrol around the clearing myself in case he sneaks by and Soren and Hinami are in camp, surveying from there. I promise we will do everything to protect you both.»

Phyra smiled at the other jill, but couldn't speak, so Sage instead answered for her.

«Thank you, we really appreciate it.»

«Of course.»

And with that Kali left again, jumped down the tree and disappeared into the undergrowth of the territory surrounding the camp, after giving Hinami a short nod who in turn smiled back and Soren, who had noticed her quiet pawsteps in the distance with his delicate, pricked ears, had turned his head towards Kali and greeted her friendly.

On their own, the two young Salikos were vulnerable and weak, but with their senses combined, no one would be able to get past them without at least one of them noticing.

Far away from the camp, on the outskirts of the territory, the jade green hob with the filled spots was controlling the border, his mouth open to be able to notice any tiny scent. He had been on his feet since his clan mate was starting to go in labor, volunteering immediately to go on guard duty. Every now and again he crossed paths with Novalee, both exchanging their findings or if they noticed anything suspicious, which wasn't the case yet, and then they continued on their way, covering as much ground as possible by going separately. The young Mayur was a bit worried about the elderly jill though, as this endeavor was clearly quite exhausting for her, but she had insisted that someone younger should stay back at the kobel, just in case.

So Koda did his best to survey the whole territory on his own as good as he could, already out of breath and his paws hurting, but he didn't stop. At least this was distracting him from the memories which constantly clouded his mind. He couldn't help thinking about Logan and Makani and everything else that had been happening before he met his sister again, but the thoughts about that didn't exactly cheer him up.

Suddenly he heard a crack from a tree above and froze immediately, staring upwards, his ears pricked and eyes squinted in attention to every detail. For a moment, nothing was moving, no sound could be heard and he was getting uneasy. He was sure he had heard something, but it must be hiding amidst the leaves!

Slowly, he took a few steps closer towards the trunk of the tree, putting a paw on the bark, ready to climb up if necessary, when all of a sudden, a loudly protesting rain hummer shot out from the crown of the tree and disappeared into a different mass of leaves, leaving a surprised Koda with his heart racing behind, but he sighed in relief. False alarm after all.

He stepped away and didn't notice the vine lying on the ground in a perfect loop, stepping right in the middle of it. Before he knew what was going on, the vine tightened around his wrist and something jumped from one of the surrounding trees, pulling the vine over a large branch, which then made the poor hob, who was tied to it, shoot upward, now hanging upside down in the air by his hind leg. Koda was confused and frightened, biting and clawing all around him to defend himself, but the one responsible was far enough out of reach. It took him a while to focus his gaze and realize who was there, standing in front of him, as Koda tilted his head to be able to see straight. An unknown Mayur jill with dark, crimson eyes and the white patches of a piebald streaking her pelt was grinning at him, then tied the other end of the vine to the trunk of a tree.

«Well, well, well, look at what stumbled into my trap.»

«Trap?! What is the meaning of all this?!»

«I expected you to go at my throat if you saw me so, out of my own safety, I thought it would be wise to wrap you up a bit so we can talk.»

«You wanna talk? Then let's talk, face to face.»

«But we are already.»

The jill seemed giddy with excitement and was humming a melody while climbing the tree the hob was hanging from and lying down on it, her head dangling off of it so the could both see each other upright. She really was acting strange and somehow...like this was all just a fun past-time activity to her.

«So, how long have you been living here? You don't smell like the others. Well except the leader, there is a similarity there, are you a couple?»

«WHAT? No, we're siblings! She's my sister!»

«Your sister! So you got royal family, huh?»

«What do you mean royal? Everyone can become leader.»

«Is that so around here? Interesting. Well, where I'm from, it's already decided upon birth who'll lead a tribe. The royal families get to become alphas, the rest just has to follow their command.»

«And what about you? Are you royal?»

She jumped back up, pouted and stared at him with squinted eyes, her mood shifting quickly, her tail brushing angrily from side to side. She was obviously mad at that question for some reason, her neck fur ruffling up and the muscles in her legs tensing up and her voice a harsh roar.

«That's none of your business!»

Suddenly a waft of scent from the stranger hit the hobs nose and Koda realized that the Saliko in front of him was the same intruder whose smell had been noticed around their territory lately.

«It's you!»

She calmed down again, curious at his reaction.

«It's always nice to meet a fan. I guess my coming has been rumored in the area, hasn't it?»

«Let me GO! This is my tribes territory, you have no right to be here!»

«Is that so? Well I'll have to disappoint you 'cause I go and stay wherever I please and right now, I really love being here.»

«I swear, when I get down from here I'll flay you alive!»

«Ouch, so harsh. I'm sure that's just because of what's going on in your camp today. Yeah, I know all about it and don't worry, I have no intention of unsettling everyone when you're so on edge because of the new litter.»

«Wha...how do you...»

«There is nothing I don't know, my dear friend. Like the tide in the sea I move from here to there and sometimes I stay, sometimes I don't. But I've grown a liking to you guys, your little tribe is really cute.»

For a moment Koda pondered if this jill was Octavia, whom he had only seen briefly, back when he had just become part of the tribe and with all the new faces, he couldn't remember every single one of them right way. From the way she acted, the description would fit. Walking in and out of tribes, placing traps, sneaking around...but no, it couldn't be. Octavia was of very dark appearance from what he remembered and after all, the tribe had been on high alert because of this jill lately, so it couldn't be her.

«Who are you?»

«That, my friend, we will resolve the next time. Until then, keep your chin up!»

«Hardy har har.»

The sarcasm in the jade colored males voice was hard to miss as he was still dangling from the branch, his chin lower to the ground than any other part of his body. The piebald giggled, not oblivious to the convenient joke she had made, then used one of her claws to cut through the vine, making Koda fall to the ground with a loud boom. He had to sort is limbs for a moment, trying to roll over and get up, leaving enough time for the jill to haul ass and get out of there. When the Mayur with the filled spots was ready, after struggling to get on his paws, he immediately set after her, chasing her away from the territory, but he lost her track quickly and had to give up, walking back with his tail dragging through the dirt in defeat.

When he returned to the camp later, after Novalee had found him and told the hob to return home, all his clan mates were surrounding the tree with the kobel in which the birth had been taken place. Most had already seen the litter, and were talking to each other in low voices, as to not disturb the newborn. Kali signaled her brother with a flick of her tail that he can go up, and he followed suit, excited to see the whelps. Inside, Phyra and Sage were lying next to each other in their nest, cuddling closely, one little black ball of fur suckling at its fathers belly. Everything seemed to have been going fine and despite the parents seeming a bit exhausted, they were obviously happy nonetheless. Koda smiled and got closer to sniff the little fella, who raised its head towards him, eyes still closed, and opened is tiny mouth for a long, toothless yawn.

«Say hello to Vernin.»

«Hi Vernin! What an extraordinary name.»

Sage huffed shortly, then looked at his partner with one raised eyebrow and a smirk.

«Well I had a different name in mind to be honest. Novalee had the idea and Phyra loved it. But it's alright, it is a nice name and the next one I will get to choose.»

The all giggled quietly, making sure not to scare the whelp that had fallen asleep now, its fathers tail curled around it to keep it warm.

«Good, well I'll let you rest then. And congratulations!»

Koda left the den and climbed down, looking around for someone in particular. His expression was serious and worried and as Kalis gaze fell upon him she immediately noticed something was wrong and gave him a sign to follow her into her own kobel.

Inside she sat down, her tail neatly placed over her front paws, waiting patiently for Koda to say what was bothering him.

He sat down in front of her with a deep sigh.

«I met the intruder, but she escaped.»

Kali remained calm, but she was clearly very attentive and curious now.

«Who was it?»

«I don't know, I've never seen her before and she didn't say her name. It was a piebald jill with red eyes. Couldn't make out a lot about her though as I was...incapacitated.»

The leader tilted her head and looked at her brother with a frown, obviously waiting for him to explain in detail what had happened, even if he didn't want to.

«You see...she caught me in some contraption and I was hanging upside down from a tree branch...»

«Hm. How curious. Maybe Octavia knows anything about her, they seem to have a similar way to do things.»

«Yeah I suspected as much. But there's more...»

He wasn't sure whether to say it or not, as he didn't want to worry Kali, but he knew keeping it a secret would be even worse. Especially the tribes leader should know everything that was going on.

«It seems she's spying on us. She knew Phyra was giving birth today and I've got the feeling she knows exactly what we do at any given time, like she's constantly surveying us without anyone noticing.»

«That is truly quite worrisome, especially with the whelp. We have only found faint scent marks of her around the border, anything else she must've been able to hide. I'll send someone to find Octavia and ask about her as soon as Phyra and Sage have settled a bit better again. Either way we'll have to pay close attention to the borders, I don't want that stranger to become too comfortable here. She seems dangerous.»

«Yes Kali.»

Just as Koda was about to get up and leave the den, she called to him one last time.

«And please, don't tell anyone else about this just yet. I think this would only make it harder for everyone to go after their everyday duties and make them scared for no reason. As long as we have competent warriors patrolling and guarding, we should be fine.»

The jade hob gave a single nod and jumped down the tree. He couldn't stop wondering who that jill was, as she seemed to know everything about them, yet was such a big mystery to the tribe members. It was making him uneasy and Koda promised himself to do everything he can to make up for his mistake of letting her get away and bring that weird Saliko to leave them alone for good.