Pilio's ears twitched as he slept peacefully in his den, snoring softly. He mumbled something and curled more in on himself, drawing his tail closer. His ears suddenly flattened against his head, reacting to something in his dream.
Outside the cave, a flash of blue was streaking across the sky.
It wasn't anything spectacular, just a blue streak, similar to a meteor. But it wasn't only there for a second. But it wasn't a comet either, it was too bright. As it fell to the ground, it seemed to get brighter, as if coming closer.
Pilio was awoken by a loud crashing sound. His head bolted up in surprise. He yawned, about to go back to sleep, but then he noticed something. After the initial crash, it was silent. If it was a lion, there would usually be some cursing after a sound like that. But there was nothing.
He stood up and quietly padded out of his den, checking to make sure no one was awake yet. Much to his disappointment, his parents seemed to already be on their way out, likely to investigate. He rolled his eyes in annoyance and set off after them.
He padded behind them quietly, hoping to not be seen. Unfortunately for him, his mother, Urania, has incredible hearing. She has to, since her mate is mute and can't always give a visual indicator that something's wrong.
"Pilio? What are you doing up?" She asked, swiveling her head around towards him. His father Ayo followed suit shortly after, giving him a curious look.
"Uhh, looking for the thing that made that loud crash just now?" He said, "Didn't you hear it?"
Ayo nodded as Urania answered, "Of course we heard it. That's where we're going too."
Pilio sighed in resignation, before motioning for them to lead the way. While they were leaving the cave, one of his bug friends, a cricket named Callea, starts jumping up his leg.
Hey, Pil. Watcha doin'? She asked, nestling in the fur behind his ear.
"Oh, hey Cal, nothing really, just going to investigate an ominous crash that woke us up," He responded.
Really? She asked, I've talked with a couple bugs who were there already. They said it was bad news. Something about a huge area of forest that's burned.
"What?" He asked incredulously.
"Pilio, who're you talking to?" Urania asked, turning back to her son.
"Callea, mom. Remember her? She's my cricket friend," Pilio said.
Ayo nodded understandingly and started leading Urania towards the thing again.
"Sorry about that, Cal, you were saying," Pilio said.
Apparently it's a glowing blue ball. I don't really have much information on it, everyone really wanted to get out of there in a hurry. Callea answered.
Pilio nodded when Ayo lifted his head up and started sniffing the air. Urania and Pilio looked at him as though he was insane, before they started smelling something off as well. Ayo took off running towards the source of the smell.
"Hang on, Cal," Pilio says before bounding after his dad. Callea clung onto him for dear life, nearly falling off a few times. He could hear her screaming at him to slow down, but he didn't want to miss what happened when they found it.
The four of them emerged in a clearing that was easily the size of the central cave. In the center, just like Callea said, there was a large, glowing blue rock. The trees surrounding the crater had their closest branches burned away, some embers still smoking and flickering. Thankfully there weren't any large fires, but there were enough small ones to be concerned for the nearby forest.
"Pilio, I want you to go get Shimo, Amoka, Kosa, and Sable," Urania said, unable to take her eyes off of the sight in front of her.
"What?! But mom, I want to stay and see if anything happens," He argued, flattening the ear that Callea wasn't behind.
"And I understand that, Pilio, I do, but please listen to me. We need them here to help with the fires, you're the fastest runner," She pleaded.
"Mom-"
"Pilio," She said, her voice tense and stiff, "go get them."
His tail and head drooped, "Yes mother," He said reluctantly before racing back towards the cave. On the way there he dropped off Callea, much to her relief. He rushed into the cave, almost tripping over his paws.
"Shimo! Kosa, Amoka! Sable! Come quick, something's happened!" He shouted, doing his best to sound urgent. Lions started stumbling out of their dens, confused and annoyed at the loud shouting.
"What's goin' on?" Talako mumbled as he walked out.
"Sorry, no time to explain," Pilio replied apologetically, "Could you go and wake them?"
"Sure, kiddo, just gimme a sec," Talako muttered sleepily.
Shimo emerged from his den looking exhausted, "What is it, Pilio?"
"I'm really, really sorry Shimo, but I can't explain right now. You're just gonna have to come with me," Pilio said urgently, his eyes flicking towards the cave entrance.
Shimo sighed and nodded. The rest of the group came out shortly afterwards. Once they'd woken up, the group set out into the forest, Pilio leading the way towards the meteor.
They arrived rather quickly, and they stopped right at the edge of the crater. Their eyes widened at the sight in front of them. Pilio glanced at his parents, who nodded approvingly. He stood up a little straighter.
"What.. is that?" Sable asked, curiously placing a paw in the crater. The ground was warm and rough. It felt scorched. Kosa pulled her back quickly.
"Thanks for coming, we'll try to explain in a bit, but for now can we focus on the fires?" Urania asked, glancing up towards the embers.
"Right, of course," Kosa said, nudging her daughter with her shoulder.
The three of them, Amoka, Kosa and Sable, made quick work of whatever was left from the initial crash.
"Okay, so," Shimo started when they were done, "What happened here?"
"We're not entirely sure ourselves," Urania said, "We just woke up to a loud crash. Honestly, we're surprised no one else heard it. Ayo and I were already on our way out when Pilio started following us. We went in the direction of the sound, Ayo smelled something weird and we ended up here. That's all that happened before I sent Pilio to get you."
"Well, I suppose the question is," Shimo said, looking towards the thing in the crater, "What do we do now?"
(1054 Words)