Dark Before The Dawn

Chapter 3 - The Underlying Danger

No day had ever influenced my thoughts of what was happening around me as much as this one. I now suspected that Frowntown or the Doom Lords were responsible for Dad completely vanishing, and I suspected that it was the reason I caught Mom brooding that night, or heard her yell at Tigermoth, who I'm still surprised didn't scream back at her, the way she did. I'll never forget the way I stared so awkwardly at my only three-year-old brother. He may have been young and have forgotten and moved on easily, but I was still supposed to be the sister he looks up to, and the last thing I wanted to do was fail him. But then again, I didn't know any better, because I was still young too.

Months had passed, the seasons had been changing, with fall turning to winter, and then winter turning to spring, and I had turned six, while Puppycorn had turned four. A lot had also been changing since then, some of which I was still struggling to adapt to. The only one of those changes I remember specifically, though, is that Mom had decided to give us our own rooms, now that we were older, in case we needed more privacy. I liked the idea of having my own space, but I often worried about little Puppycorn at night. I had always felt the need to protect him, and I worried that he must've been extremely scared sleeping alone. I was definitely surprised when he said it wasn't scary to him at all, and I still have no idea why I thought sleeping alone was so brave of him, especially for someone as young as him. But even with that, I still felt the need to protect him from any harm.

"Can't catch me, sis!", Puppycorn playfully taunted as I chased him across the lush, grassy hill we were on. "Oh, yeah? I'll get you before you get away!", I taunted back as I sprinted after him. Whenever Puppycorn and I were playing Tag, he was always extremely difficult to catch. He certainly had a lot of energy, which he was not afraid to let out. But somehow he would never get away from me, and I would catch him every time.

I continued to dash after Puppycorn, who still seemed faster than me. I was slowly starting to run out of breath from running so fast, but was too determined to let that get the best of me. I lifted my paw, without slowing down, just nearly tagged him, and definitely would've had this branch in the way not intervened. My other forepaw hit it, and I fell forward, face planting into the ground. This prompted Puppycorn to stop and hurry over to me.

"Sis! Are you okay?!", he exclaimed as I lifted my face, was slowly getting up, and was brushing the dirt off of my fur. "I'm okay, Puppycorn. But that did hurt a bit.", I replied. "Should I go get Richard?!", he worriedly asked me. Mom was busy with her duties and responsibilities as queen, so she had assigned Richard to look after us until she was back. There were times where it didn't end well, though, and he'd get in trouble with her. There had been times, for example, where he'd lose track of me and Puppycorn, and we'd do something dangerous that would've had serious consequences.

"I said I'm okay! I'm not hurt. You don't need to go get him.", I told Puppycorn as I stood back up. He then cutely smiled, nodded, and then turned. I then took the opportunity to tag him. "Tag! You're It!", I squealed as I touched him with my paw and pulling away before he could turn toward me. He then began to chase me, while I scurried away from him. Despite losing so much energy, I still was still faster than him. I knew he was chasing me, so that kept me running. I suddenly dashed and face planted into something I didn't expect to be in the way.

"Hey! Watch where you're going, you stupid little dumb-dumb!", I heard an unfamiliar voice yell. I lifted my head and saw this humanoid, with a round, yellow, frowny face, who was wearing this dark blue, almost black cloak. He was a very mean-looking person who still looked like a very sweet one underneath. "Oh, I'm so sorry! I didn't see you!", I exclaimed. "'Sorry' doesn't cut it!", he shouted back at me. "Can't you at least be nice?", I asked him, still shuddering with fear. He inhaled and told me, "Little one, come close. Lemme whisper something to you." I flew up to him, gullible and careless, and let him whisper whatever he was going to say.