Crimson Moonset ↠ TWILIGHT

chapter 18: 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘥𝘦

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Starlight shone down through the thick branches of entangled trees. The faint silver sheen was just enough to show a narrow clearing between the trunks of the huge, leafless trees, which trunks' were all covered in pale moss and entangled with foreign lichen.

The shadows at the base of the clearing where piles of large stones rested thickened, and three large shapes emerged. The biggest, and the one leading them, was completely pitch-black in colour with untidy fur. He padded up to the centre of the dark clearing and turned to face the two others. Before he could speak, however, the female companion of the three spoke first.

"You're not coming with us, aren't you?" she deduced, her pale green eyes narrowing slightly.

They were finally alone now, speaking in in the hush of their telepathic bonds. The large male's molten amber eyes, which glistened like fire in the shadows, shook his head solemnly. He glanced behind him once again to make sure they were completely alone, and once he was satisfied, he turned to face them again.

"I can't leave just yet," his voice was deep and smooth, and there was something naturally commanding about it. "Not while Bracken is sick. I have to stay with him. He's my brother. Once he's well again we'll come find you."

The female, who can be seen as pale in colour in the starlight, shared a look with their third companion, a dark-brown male who was flicking one of his ears anxiously. They both strove to quieten their reeling thoughts, but nothing could help them from thinking of how much they felt like they were abandoning their home and their duties by going through with this. But, with a quick and hushed reminder from their senior, both of the young werepuma's remembered that they were on the right path. They had no choice but to do this.

The larger werepuma blinked slowly at them. "Remember what our kahuna told us, Calliope."

"We will. Warlow said to head east until we find a great sycamore," the female, Calliope, responded, certain. "Once we are there, we are to follow to where the moon dies until we come across the black, salt sea. We're to cross it north and-"

"Keep to the sun trail." The black creature finished for her, pleased. "Good."

At last, the moment came when, in a sort of fever, they said their conventional farewells. The two young werepuma's each took turn in pressing their muzzles against the older warrior's shoulder, and when they pulled away finally, they felt uncomfortably cold, making their fur prickle. They had never left the borders of their homeland before, and now they'll most likely never return.

Just then, two more werepuma's lingered by the tree line, their eyes huge in the half-light. One of them shuffled his paws as if they had frozen to the cold, damp ground.

The older werepuma eyed them for a moment. "It's just my brother and Gyda."

"They must go now, Skiafros," Gyda called from where she stood, her sleek midnight fur flashing in the starlight. "Patrols are coming."

Skiafros nodded her way, then turned back to the two young werepuma's before him. "Go."

The two quickly took their leave, not looking back to see Skiafros bounding away back into the darkness of the woods with Bracken and Gyda as his heels.

Calliope felt her heart break as the realisation that they were actually abandoning their home finally sank in. Beside her, her brown-furred mate was muttering coherently under his breath. Some nonsense about having such a "charming goodbye" and "hoping to get to their destination quickly" even though it was going to take them days, perhaps even weeks, to even cross the ocean to get there.

As the two of them crossed the border of the territory, her mate placed an uncareful paw on a stick, which made it snap so loudly that he gave a shocked cry. Leaping like a coward, he quickly ran down the slope and way ahead of his pale-furred mate.

Momentarily, Calliope had forgotten about the situation they were in and her pale green eyes shone with mirth as she watched her mate stop near a tall pine tree, his fur bristling with the aftershock of what just happened.

Calliope realised that they had both been so uptight tonight, terrified that every little sound or movement in the corners of their eyes was... the pale warrior shook her head and padded over to her lover, her soft tail flicking almost irritably on the leafy floor. "That was a stick, Aethelwulf, you idiot."

Aethelwulf huffed at her, clearly embarrassed. "Yeah, I knew that. I was just... trying to light the mood, is all."

Together they continued to walk out of their former home, and already he was back to muttering grumpily to himself about trivial things like how dark it was and that he hadn't even eaten yet. Though, despite his complaining, he had no quarrels of getting out of sight from the territory and into the vast moorlands, for they didn't want to dwell there any longer than they had to. Not with a patrol heading their way.

They had to move swiftly. The sun was already peaking on the horizon, and they were rapidly losing the setting moon.

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