Applebloomed

by StormDancer

To Slink

They continued for far too long. Braying and howling, barking and snarling. At one point, the Predator turned and nearly crushed Second before stepping around and out through the tunnel. Whiteflower and Dirty Sap stayed quiet, near the edge of the room, while the other pack swarmed and challenged.

Yellow Red weathered it well. As well as any true alpha could. She stayed quiet, silently letting their threats and promises of a bitter end slide off her. She flinched, biting down but refusing to show any more weakness than she had already and, eventually, it was enough.

The other pack left, leaving our pack for the night. Whiteflower showed her own mastery of magic and sealed the tunnel without Yellow Red's direction. Whiteflower is wise beyond her seasons.

Dirty Sap gave a few of her buzzing growls. I suppose she was trying to make sure none of the others had decided to return.

It was only when Whiteflower was returning to comfort Yellow Red that she stepped upon one of my twigs.

It was so small, and I was so scattered, that I didn't even feel it... but Yellow Red apparently heard.

In moments, she was up, loping around the den and searching everywhere I normally hide. She is a good alpha, and before long, the others seemed to notice too.

They searched and tracked and scoured the den, but eventually Yellow Red just flopped down on her brush and began to howl softly.

The others went to her, and I would have too, but I am too weak to pull myself together.

She does so much for us, she protects us and shelters us. She is our strength and our heartwood. It is not good for an alpha to howl in loss.

I hurt, for my alpha.

---

It is strange, being this large. I can see and hear so much, but it is so faint. I feel the dark damp and the hard cold, and even a bit of the soft green... even though it is quickly becoming the brittle brown, but it is not the same as when I was in the den or with my pack.

As the Phoenix Eye opened from its slumber, I saw my pack slowly waken.

First was Yellow Red, though she remained still. Her eyes seemed scuffed, her bark dulled. Even the bright red blossom that she keeps about her head seemed to be wilted from her night of weakness. The strange stillness continued on as Whiteflower, and eventually Dirty Sap, woke as well.

Instead of their normal prowl around the den, the three remained in a pile upon Yellow Red's cloud thing. None seemed willing to chance the other pack, choosing to remain quiet as they softly growled and yipped between one another.

I listened, there was little more I could do, as my pack comforted one another and checked for blights.

It was only when Evil began baying that they roused in spirit, perhaps reminded that they could take food from the other pack, though for how long Yellow Red's magic will hold out, I do not know.

Their battle yesterday seems to have weakened them greatly but, more troubling, it seems to have shaken my alpha's confidence.

If she can not lay her roots, there will be no hunt when the seasons change. And the dark damp feels as if it wants to become the cold hard soon.

---

My pack prepared the traveling den again today and left the whelping den as they always do, but slower.

Yellow Red growled and mewled softly as she sealed the tunnel from the side. Whiteflower brushed against her, though Dirty Sap only turned to look away. It is bad when even Dirty Sap remains quiet. Her branches seem to want to growl.

My twig in the traveling den followed with them, though being as spread out as I was, it was easier to listen to the strong sounds of my pack than normal.

They found Ambercrown and Evil, I think Second may have been there too, and all of them growled out their greetings.

Second, if she were there, was quiet.

When Ambercrown barked out a challenge, my pack was quiet.

Ambercrown barked again, more loudly, and seemed to be looking for a fight when they didn't answer but, surprisingly, Evil growled herself.

There were sounds of eating, but eventually things became quiet again until Ambercrown softly snuffled something and Yellow Red barked out pitifully.

I don't know what she said, but I recognized my name, and Ambercrown barked back softly after a while.

Eventually I heard Second whine and Ambercrown even sounded like she withdrew her challenge.

I felt them leaving the den, Ambercrown with them, as they started their hunt. My pack seemed more ill than normal and it was likely only because of Yellow Red's magic that Ambercrown had agreed to help them.

Even so, a bit later, once I could only hear them from my twig in the traveling den, Ambercrown left them to hunt on her own. I could hear my pack barking and growling softly between themselves until they set about their hunt again.

It was strange, though less than it had been before being torn apart, to listen to my pack without being able to do anything.

I wasn't in the den anymore, not really, only tiny little roots and broken shoots were there, and I wasn't really with them either. I felt the Unmoving around me, an endless swarm of them... tall and powerful, silent and unflinching.

For not the first time, I felt a bit of fear just being surrounded by their numbers.

And then I heard the racket of whatever my pack had decided to stalk. A roar of barks, yaps, yips, and howls, all of them straining to be louder and more energetic than the others. The sound of wood on wood, of root and stone colliding... I could not hope to guess what it was my alpha had deemed must feed us. It sounded like whatever battle they had come from yesterday.

And above it all, that singular howl that made all the others become silent.

It must surely be a terrible wolf to make them all become still.

Well, all but two that growled and chittered softly. I doubt even my alpha heard them.

---

My pack returned, battered again.

For some days, Yellow Red has been quiet; sometimes Whiteflower will return with her, other times, Dirty Sap. Some days she simply comes back alone.

Ambercrown is clearly becoming agitated. She growls and snarls occasionally while wandering the herd of the Unmoving. She doesn't seem to know I can hear her.

None of them do.

Evil sleeps most often, but even she has been more apt to screech since my alpha's injuries became more obvious. Perhaps they believe the blight might spread to them. What a sorry thing, to not even know you are already afflicted. This sickness is truly unnatural.

Even the Predator is more hasty in his demands of the Unmoving. His threats have become more forceful... his demands more cruel.

I can hardly blame the Unmoving for their resentment at this point. While hunting is a part of the wild... a part of life, what he is demanding is nothing less than the Unmoving relinquishing all of their young for his due.

If they weren't so tough, I would think they might rebel at their treatment. As it stands, they are only growing more angry - they've darkened their leaves again.

And yet, I have been unable to so much as move a single one of my twigs to warn my pack. If nothing changes, I may become a silent witness to their massacre.

---

The Phoenix Eye woke today, but the sky, without Yellow Red's magic, consumed it wholly. Clouds choked out the sun and even Second fled from the dark.

I could not flee, and so I was forced to wait for the sky's anger.

And then it came, the cold wet. The sky brought the cold wet and I felt it break and wash the parts of me I had begun to forget.

It was wet. Wet that I desperately missed. That I hadn't even known I had missed.

The dry dark became the damp dark again! And then the wet dark!

I drank, oh how I drank, and somewhere I began to feel my roots sinking in again.

I have missed my damp dark, but my wet dark is something I will seek.

---

The sky brought wet for most of the day, only giving back the sun when the ground was about to swallow it up again.

I saw my alpha, alone again, as she wandered her territory, but I lost sight of her until she returned to the den when Ambercrown began howling.

Even so, in the fading light of the Phoenix Eye, I felt a little stronger.

Tomorrow I will try again. I cannot leave my alpha without her pack.

---

Yellow Red has gone off to hunt. Ambercrown has gone off to hunt. The Predator is far away, somewhere in the herd of Unmoving, and Evil is resting in the den.

I lay, in so many pieces, soaking in the dark damp and the light of the Phoenix Eye. Something was different. Something was good. It felt as if I had been hunting, as if I had caught and eaten a number of the bloated bulbs of the Unmoving. Somehow, Yellow Red's magic must be feeding me even now.

I will use this strength. I will guard my pack.

I had pulled and strained, twisted and tugged with every root and leaf I still had. I had sent new, weak, little fibers into the damp dark, and even these I pulled free to struggle. And a struggle it was.

I have not found all of me, but there is enough that i can move.

I will find the rest of me and I will guard my pack until they are healed again. The other pack does not know I am back.

Whiteflower taught me to keep them unaware, Yellow Red, to be stealthy. I will not fail this time. I will stalk the Unmoving and keep them from acting.

They may fear the Predator, but he cannot be everywhere at once. I will keep them weak where he cannot.

And yet, even now I have been seen. Second has been watching me from the den... through one of the holes in Yellow Red's magic.

I cannot return there, then. Second will surely tell her pack.

But I know where I can make a den for myself. It is close enough to watch my pack, but far enough to keep Second from alerting the others. I may have returned, but I cannot fight them all on my own... especially with my alpha so weak.

I will go there, to our den in the Unmoving herd, where so many wonderful things were learned and so many bulbs slaughtered.

After all, they would never seek out our old, secret, den.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

Who's the other tag for?

[StormDancer]

7676466
Technically, Sprout is not an OC, and since it's a non-standard character (not to mention a non-standard portrayal), I figured the "Other" character tag would be a best fit. It's NOT a CMC story after all, even though they play an important role, and this way it's more clear the focus is not simply on them.

[bloons3]

I worry that I'm not understanding everything that's going on in this story, but I love it so much! A great take on a very original concept!

[StormDancer]

7679331
You would not be the first that became confused. Do not worry though, most of the confusing terms work themselves clear within a chapter or two.
Even so, that is high praise in my book.