wip story collection

The Dogs (wip rewrite)

[CW: GORE AND ANIMAL DEATH]
————————currently rewriting————————
She was a kitten in a catnip forest, standing tall, proudly looking over her modest campsite. A singular hut was placed haphazardly to the north of the bonfire which her camp was centered around, various resources bordering out in a semi-circle. Amber had set up her camp in a large clearing in the eastern part of the Catnip Forest, close to the dog-infested Dogfruit Fields.
     The Dogfruit Fields was one of the most dangerous places on Yeld. The ground was made of ever rippling flesh that seemed to grow, searching for more untainted land it could infect, inching closer and closer to the Catnip Forest every year. The trees were abstract and ridged, small sacs holding malformed puppies which served as the ‚Dogfruit', the only reliable source of food besides the mangled hounds that stalked the area. The Dogs were fierce and brutal, attacking without care for their own wellbeing, a strategy that had proved successful many times before. Although they were brutal, seemingly acting without thought, they were just as smart and capable as the Kittens. They had a civilization, a way of living, that seemed barbaric to the outside. They thought, they calculated, they knew.
      Amber's calico tail swished and fought against the wind, leaves brushing past her paws across the ground, making her claws dig into the dirt instinctively. Her ears perked up at the sounds of animals rustling in the underbrush, the cacophony of birds singing and animals being in the forest. She had dragged her best friend, Oreo with her little brother, Chalice, along to join. Amber was worried about starting a new life, but too prideful to admit it.
"Again, thank you so much for coming along." Amber mewed happily, cocking her head to the side as her ears perked up in excitement.
"It's not like we had a choice..." Chalice grumbled under his breath, kicking at the dirt with his arms crossed.
Oreo nudged him, miffed at his impatientness. "Oh, hush!" She looked towards Amber with an apologetic smile quirking up the side her mouth. "We're happy to be here, Amber." Oreo purred, putting a paw on her friends shoulder.
Amber smiled at her friend as she lead the brother-sister duo around her campsite, which was truly only a few modest strides. The group stuttered to a halt as they heard a loud rustling boom towards them. All of the cats' fur stood on end, bristling with anger and fear, eyes blown, on edge. Amber's paw went to the dagger she always kept laced to her thigh, a low, rumbling growl coming from somewhere deep, primal, inside her throat. A warning, a promise.
In a split second a rabbit came bolting out of the underbrush, skidding on the dewy grass. Tension still hung in the air as all of the kittens' fur smoothed out, slowly but surely. They all looked at each other, sure they had heard something more, something more threatening than just the snorts of a simple rabbit.
As Amber looked over to Oreo to see if her friend was as confused as her, though before she spoke she noticed Chalice was hiding behind his big sister's leg, his tail interlocked with Oreo's, his fearless facade drowned out by innate fears of abandonment and death. When Chalice noticed that Amber was looking down at him with a somber smile on her face, he immediately snapped forward, his tail bristling with frustration, almost tearing up from the anger he forced forward so suddenly.
———„What are you looking at!?" Chalice snapped at Amber, paws balled into fists at his sides as tears of anger rolled down his soft, fluffy cheeks. "It's not like you've never been scared before!"
"It was just a rabbit, no need to be so on edge." Oreo chuckled innocently at her brother, placing a soft paw on her brother's head, playfully comforting him.
"Y-Yea, but I didn't know that! And neither did you!" Chalice hissed, sniffling and crossing his arms like the frustrated 8-year-old he was. "You shouldn't pick on other kittens! I won't forget this next time you're scared."
"I wasn't picking on you, and I don't think Amber was either." Oreo retorted playfully, rustling his long fur, flecked with endearing bits of brown and silver as she smiled. "You shouldn't take everything other kittens tell you to heart."
‚I'll remember that' Chalice thought with the slightest grin. "Alright, mom." He snorted as he swatted his sister's hand away from him, bounding off to the fire.
Oreo let out an exasperated sigh as she shook her head, chuckling when she looked up to see Amber holding back a laugh.