The New Light of Hope: Books I to VI.

Chapter II: Returning to the Southwest Forest.

Amethyst:

The next morning came and we all went ahead and headed to the Southwest Forest just as we promised.

The long walk to the Southwest may have been tiring, especially in the scorching hot summer heat, but we still walked to the forest either way. During that our trip to the forest, I had a feeling of abience when it came to being around Abby– Abigail McConnell had been one of my "best friends" since fourth grade but when my brothers and I learned that our parents were criminals, it sort of fell apart as she began to tease me and shaming me for my parentage and my family's history of crime.

And so, I try to avoid saying anything that would make her say something to me. That is, until we got to the forest.
…
We made it to the forest where Chief ArrowHeart and MoonStone were waiting for us. "I told you we'd come when you asked us." Aurora said. "I never doubted any of you to break a promise." Chief ArrowHeart responded. "Now, follow us, we have matters at paw." We followed as him and MoonStone led the way to the Forest Spirits Division, not knowing what we were about to get ourselves into.

When we entered the camp, we saw a few animals roaming around and noticed that some of them looked a bit skinny, malnourished, tired, sickly looking, weak, and starving. We noticed so much the very second we walked inside, all of them were so hungry that they barely recognized us and barely spoke a word at all. As we were walking, I was then startled when I felt someone sinking their teeth into my tail. "Gotcha!" A voice exclaimed in triumph. I turned to see who it was that grabbed me by the tail; it was a young she-wolf pup with cream colored fur and green eyes and she also looked to be healthy and thriving well compared to what we were seeing with the other animals. "Cream, let go of her tail and don't bite others tail, either." A voice gently scolded; I looked to see that it was StealthHunter who said that. "Yes, mother." She said as she let my tail free. "I'm sorry."

"It's all right; no harm was done." I said. "Now, go run along and play with your siblings and friends." StealthHunter told her– I watched as she did what she told her to do before I looked back to face StealthHunter; she looked mildly sick but looked a bit healthy as well– it was hard for to tell. Poor StealthHunter, she was so frail and tired that she didn't completely recognize any of us at first, but rather gave us a small glance. But when she did catch a glimpse of me, she weakly asked: "Amethyst, is that really you?"

Amethyst: "Y- yes, StealthHunter, it's me."

StealthHunter: "I am so sorry, I didn't recognize any of you at all. I haven't been doing all that well and neither have we."

Amethyst: "Hey, it's all right, we've come back to help y'all."

StealthHunter: "We've been trying our very best to figure out the food shortage situation. My hunting patrols I have sent out and the ones I have been on have been very unsuccessful finding enough food for all of us; some have already died due to starvation and some have fallen fatally sick due to the lack of food that we have. We've been rationing our food so that way they is enough for the young and old– I have already talked with the other Lead Hunter's and it is needless to say that they are also not doing very well."

Amethyst: "Don't worry; we're here to help y'all out. I know you and Chief ArrowHeart are just as worried as we all are, but like I've said, we're here to help y'all out here."

"I welcome all of you back and I thank you for coming back. I never doubted Chief CrimsonPelt for a second." She said in calm tone. Just then we heard a voice yell: "Stop, Cream! That's my ear you're sinking teeth into! Mom!"

"Oh, great, sounds like Cream's gnawing and biting on Crystal's ear again; she's got a habit of doing that. Well, I better go and straighten it out. I'll talk with you later on, Amethyst." She said and she turned around to straighten out the situation. "All right, see ya!" I replied as she left.