Squirrelly Days - Rammu

001 - Kion

Waking just before first light, Kion silently rolled up his sleeping mat and affixed it to the top of his backpack before putting it on.

While taking a long, deep breath, Kion looked over his now barren bedroom before making his way out into the hallway.

As he tiptoed down the hallway, he paused intermittently to admire his eldest mother's immaculately detailed family portraits.

Upon reaching her latest painting, at the end of the hallway, he let out a somber sigh, then cracked a smile as his eyes wandered over the details. His elder mother had done a phenomenal job at capturing his siblings personalities, especially his troublesome little sister Dyla who was ever so surreptitiously trying to place a frog atop her little brother's head while his eldest sister Chyla watched with coy anticipation.

As his eyes landed on himself sitting melancholically in the corner of the painting, his heart sank once more and he turned away.

After a long calming breath, he cautiously descended the staircase, being mindful of steps he knew squeaked, cracked or creaked.

As he entered the main common room he was met with a surprise hug from his elder mother Maria, a tall, muscular, gray with blond streaked fur, blue-eyed older woman, wearing long faded blue overalls, with a surprise piece of toast she stuffed in his mouth without warning afterwards.

'''

Kion: *muffled* I'm a rammu now, I'm not supposed to eat refined food.

Maria: Too bad you already bit it; now you have to eat it. *raspberry* *sassy smile*

Kion: *cracked smile* Thank you, Maria-su.

'''

After giving his elder mother a second hug, Kion made his way out of the house to where his elder father, Eldric, a dark gray furred male with green eyes, clad in thick deeply weathered, once green cactus leather, was waiting for him.

'''

Eldric: I've never been one for long sappy farewells.

'''

Eldric held out a lightly worn, dark brown satchel for Kion.

'''

Eldric: This was the last satchel I had as a rammu. Take it and go.

'''

Kion accepted the satchel while thanking his elder father for the gift, then began making his way towards the forest without looking back, knowing it's what his elder father would want of him.

A couple of turns into the giant shiba forest, that sprawled through much of the Ankarok wildness, Kion was caught off guard by the sound of his elder sister's voice calling out to him.

Looking towards her voice, he found his usually neat blond furred, green-eyed, well dressed elder sister hastily brushing shiba needles out of her knotted fur and grungy nightwear as she got off the raised tree root she had seemingly been sleeping on.

'''

Kion: You're not supposed to sleep in the forest in your nightwear.

Chyla: I'm also not supposed to talk to you today either, but you know how I feel about rules. *devious smile*

Kion: And you know how Maria-su feels about your feelings towards them.

Chyla: Yeah-yeah, I'm going to be paying for this little chat all phase, but it's already worth it. *cheerful smile*

Kion: How so?

Chyla: Because you look even gloomier than usual. *playful smile*

Kion: *somber stare*