jamaa had not seen much of the phantom population ever since the sealing of the hive. for years the land remained prosperous and the community peaceful. jammers had started looking forward to the future, rather than living in fear of it. they were especially happy to not have to dread the tenth month of the year any longer; a few years without phantom season had done the population well.
this was until a certain bunny family had woken up on a day seemingly no different to any other. they had exited the burrow to start on their farm work, and instead were met with the sight of their once flourishing crops, wilted, dry and twisted with grotesque and unnatural properties; purple carrots with dull leaves, shrivelled up bushes, and possibly the worst thing, the cause of all this death amongst their healthy crops— every water source nearby had been polluted by thick black sludge, filling the now smoggy air with a toxic stench that screamed 'phantoms!'.
greely was by far the most phantom-informed alpha amongst the group. each one had their strength— graham was quite the tinkerer, cosmo the botanist- although sometimes he ironically had trouble remembering what a tomato was called- and so on, but greely stuck out. some said he was the most phantom-informed man in all of jamaa, and that judgement wouldn't be too far off.
the hive was first sealed by the alphas as they saw no other option for containment, but greely was never in favour of this plan, for he saw that by sealing the phantoms away, it would only prolong jamaa's fate. it would allow their twisted kind to fester and grow stronger, needing no sustenance and reproducing rapidly through mitosis like oversized bacteria. there were multiple phantom kings, and were able to be replicated the same way, given enough time. greely knew that the hive had been, essentially, a tomb of festering black pus. until they felt they were strong enough. and when greely heard of the news at the burrow, he knew it was time.
research was vital in a situation as sensitive as this. after the area had been cleared of any threat, greely was allocated to visit the site for study. of course he could defend himself, so when sir gilbert insisted on joining him for protection, he was more than begrudged.
"greely." the tiger greeted with a respectful nod when greely had arrived at the burrow. all his canine counterpart could do was roll his eyes and wave his hand dismissively.
he moved past gilbert and looked towards the farm so that he could make an initial assessment. as he was trying to focus, he felt gilbert come up behind him. he had a rather large frame so was hard to miss, even out of eyesight.
in an attempt to establish somewhat of a partnership, the big cat got down on greely's level and looked around. "so.. what are we thinking?"
feeling quite insulted, taking gilbert's behaviour as mockery of his height, he whipped around to look at him with a scowl. "leave me to my work!!" he exclaimed sharply. greely spoke rather quietly most of the time, being the introverted soul he was, so to witness him raising his voice at someone would've been a surprise to anyone who was familiar with his nature. yes, he often got frustrated and snappy with people, but he hardly yelled. "i know what i'm doing!! i did /not/ want you to accompany me in the first place, that stance has not changed. may i /remind/ you, this is a /very/ serious situation!! you fools may not have listened to me years ago when you sealed the hive, but seeing as i am your biggest chance of containing this issue before it germinates into any mainland, i /suggest/ you listen to me! /for once/!"
by the end of greely's tirade, gilbert looked more like a spooked kitten than the fearless tiger he was supposed to be. he watched the wolf storm off in anger and grumbled to himself. here he went, messing things up yet again.
admittedly gilbert was hopelessly in love with greely. he admired every single thing about the male— every mannerism, every little detail. his immense wisdom, the way he walked, the slight gravelly tone to his voice despite how soft it was, his refined english accent, the way he would get flustered so quickly. of course gilbert himself had never extracted one of those reactions— he could only dream.
