The Beginning

Chapter 22

Clauchice had a MASSIVE scare looking for Jhaufyther.

He wasn't in his den, and she couldn't think of another place where he could be. So when Haphmoun emerged from presumably thin air, Clauchice rushed over to her. "Where's Jhaufyther?" she demanded.

Haphmoun blinked sleepily at her. "Oh, he's having a lazy day today. He's been feeling very tired."

"Where-" She looked behind Haphmoun and saw the cave that Jhaufyther made as a sanctuary. "Oh."

"Yeah," Haphmoun said. "I'll leave you with him, and then we can go hunting for trapjaws."

"Of course." Clauchice almost forgot that she was supposed to take Haphmoun on her very first trapjaw expedition.

Jhaufyther was curled up, his tail occasionally flicking. He opened one blue eye. "Oh, hi. I assume she already told you?" he wondered.

Clauchice nodded. "You scared me, you know. You weren't in your den."

"Well, technically, since this is under my den, then isn't this part of my den?"

"I mean, yeah, I guess."

He nodded. "Exactly." He sat up and stretched. "I thought you were going to come in here to make a fuss about me having a relaxing day."

Clauchice shook her head. "I already knew that you were starting to tire."

He tilted his head, raising an eyebrow. "How, exactly, did you know?"

"Well, first off. Your fur becomes less shiny, and your fur has been more dull recently. Secondly, your eyes also lose that spark that made Haphmoun fall in love with you."

"I didn't even know that you can tell how I'm feeling based on my fur," he said.

"You never know what your fur can tell you," she commented.

He yawned. "Well, I'm going to be here the entire day. Let me know if you need anything, and I might be in the mood to help you." He curled up again and closed his eyes.

"Okay, then." She could see that he was already falling asleep. Careful to not wake him up, she quietly slid out of the den. She went to his aboveground den and looked for Riley. She was with Sam, talking about something.

"... making sure that the newbies don't know," Sam was saying. When she heard Clauchice coming, she turned around and widened her eyes. "You look like you had a rough night," she remarked.

"What-" She looked at her fur, then sighed. "I forgot to clean my fur this morning."

"Clauchice, forgetting something? Really?" Riley said, smirking.

She glared at her. "Shut up. Anyway, I was wondering if you would like to-"

"To hang out with us for the day," a voice interjected. Hazefhur was standing behind her, looking extremely pleased with himself.

"Yeah, it's been kinda boring around here recently," Sam admitted.

"Did you agree with them or something?" Clauchice snapped at Hazefhur.

"Nah. I agreed with Jhaufyther to take care of them while he's... resting," he said, shrugging.

"Speaking of Jhaufyther, where is he?" Riley asked.

"He's been more tired recently, so he wanted to take a lazy day today," Klickhaze said, popping out behind Hazefhur.

"Okay, let me go see how he's doing." Riley was about to walk away when Hazefhur stopped her.

"Uh, it isn't a good idea to wake him up right now," he said.

"What? Why?" Riley asked, frowning.

"He gets REALLY grumpy if you wake him up at midday," Klickhaze admitted. "Last time someone woke him up," she said-looking at Clauchice, which she found incredibly unfair, considering it wasn't even her fault- "he almost decimated the local mice population."