Families New and Old

The Three Seconds

Blue sighed. She was starting to feel weaker, and she was hungry. It was the middle of the night, not the most convenient of times. The moon was illuminating the glade with a silver light, and under other circumstances she would have admired the beauty around her. Right now though, she wanted to eat more than anything else.

So she softly barked at Beloved, who was currently sleeping beside her.

He stirred and sat up, groggily asking what was needed. She replied by asking him to hunt for her, much to his 'great' surprise. He had gotten used to these random calls for food, and he was being stretched by all of it.

By now both of them knew what was happening, and Blue didn't feel bad asking him to hunt and care for her like she had last time. Now it was simply an obligation he knew he needed to fulfill, and she knew she could rely on him. She knew that the whole pack could rely on him.

The children were sleeping in their side territory, having collectively decided that they wanted to be as far away from Blue as possible at night. None of them wanted to be sent on her midnight runs.

This left Beloved to care for her by himself, which he was more than capable of doing, as last time proved. But this time he at least had some help during the day.

He growled as he stood up, camouflaging only his golden stripe to make himself completely dark.

Usually he would use his camouflage to conceal himself completely, but not at night. It was energy consuming to do so, and at night, when he was already tired, it just wasn't worth it. He had natural nighttime camouflage in the form of his black hide anyway, and he'd utilize his many other abilities to take whatever he needed.

Blue sighed softly as he walked out of sight, content knowing that she'd be full soon.

She wasn't to the point of barely being able to drink yet, but she didn't want to strain herself. She wanted everything to go as smoothly as possible, with as little stress as possible.

Beloved had long since gone into full paranoid protection mode, and as a result he had to go outside of the glade to hunt, there just wasn't anything left inside of it. The other downside was that the plants were growing bigger, but that would change once Beloved would be at the point of letting animals in to graze and eat again. The upside was that when the children were patrolling they would bring in whatever they happened to find trying to get inside. It helped, but it wasn't enough to get Beloved off the hook.

So Blue laid there, waiting for her mate, tired but restless.

She looked around, wondering if something would try to get to the pond again. Every once in a while an animal would try to get water from their pond, and though they'd be left alone under normal circumstances, now they just became food for Blue and the pack.

Soon, Beloved returned with the body of a big four legged feline. He had been scratched on his left leg, but it was almost nothing to him. She sighed happily, she had chosen a very powerful mate.

She devoured the kill with gusto, leaving some of the good parts for Beloved to snack on.

When both of them were full and content, they laid back down on their comfortable nest and slept.

o-o-o

The Indoraptor growled as he walked the edge of the glade. A pack of furry predators had moved onto their own territory just beyond his, and they were turning into competition. Not in that they were threats, or that they had the power to take from his family, no, they were competitors because they hunted the same prey and frightened them as a result. It made it more difficult for the family to provide for itself, and that was especially bad at a time like this. Frightened prey were more cautious, and harder to surprise.