𝕤𝕦𝕓𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕗𝕦𝕘𝕖 [𝕥𝕡𝕟 𝕩 𝕠𝕔]

1

~~~

"Mama, why do animals kill their babies?"

Isabella frowned at the sudden question posed by the young girl next to her, taken aback. "What do you mean, Ruth?" She asked, glancing at the child.

Ruth didn't respond for a while, swinging her legs absentmindedly as she fidgeted with the book in her hands. "I dunno," She finally muttered, looking up from the book.

Isabella smiled, running her hand through the young child's hair, paying careful attention to the small bump on the backside of the child's ear. "Did something happen?"

Ruth shook her head, turning her attention back onto the picture book in her hands. On the pages were illustrations of many different animals and small blurbs of information next to each one. Isabella had picked it out for her after she refused to go outside during breaktime.

"Are you interested in the animals?" Isabella tried again. Ruth had always been a quiet kid, never talking to anyone and always staying by herself. Even around Isabella, Ruth still rarely opened up.

Nodding her head, Ruth pointed at a white bear on the page. Above the picture were the words 'Polar Bear' written on top of it. Next to the polar bear was a small blurb on how they've almost completely gone extinct and were often times found eating their young.

'So that's what this is,' Isabella thought, chuckling softly. "There can be many factors that play into this phenomenon, but rest assured no mother would ever want to hurt her babies. They just want to survive."

"Survive?"

"Yes," Isabella nodded, "The outside world is very dangerous for animals. Sometimes mothers need to make the sacrifice to survive."

"To survive..." Ruth inaudibly repeated to herself. "Mama...

...would you ever sacrifice me?"

~~~

As a child, Ruth was never interested in socializing much, to the point of flat out ignoring anyone that tried to talk to her. She had often opted to stay next to Isabella, and could only be found in the library on rare occasions, which was why it surprised everybody when the young girl started hanging around them.

Emma was the most excited to see Ruth. Despite them growing up together, Emma was never truly able to interact with Ruth; the reclusive girl surprisingly good at hiding from other people, especially when approached, forcing Emma to only be able to stare longingly at the her from afar.

"Hi! Your name's Ruth, right?" Emma beamed, happy to finally have a conversation with Ruth. "I'm Emma!"

"...Hello," Ruth mumbled, uninterested. She hated the outside; the sun was much too bright and the children too loud, but today Isabella finally persuaded her to join her siblings during break.

"Wanna play tag with us?" Emma asked, still smiling, unaware to Ruth's reluctancy as her bright green eyes sparkled with a look of expectancy.

"No," Ruth responded out of habit, though seemed to quickly change her mind when she glanced over at Isabella. "Sure."

Emma cheered, turning around to face the tree as all the kids dispersed. "I'm it! 60, 59, 58..."

Ruth stood still as she watched all her siblings run into the forest. She'd seen this set up before whenever she'd stare out from the library during break, where all the children except one run away. it seemed simple enough, and yet Ruth had no idea what to do. Unmoving, the young girl awaited the instructions to "tag."

The orange haired girl continued counting down the seconds, subconsciously speeding up as she reached the last few numbers, until she reached zero. "Ready or not, here I come!" She yelled, stopping in her tracks when she saw her new friend still standing there, confusion written all over her face.