The New Light of Hope: Books I to VI.

Chapter VIII: The Next Meeting.

Summer:

Date: August 8, 2020.

The next day came in a flash and later came time for the next meeting to take place and we would discuss the ongoing situation on the fact that food was continuously disappeared for three whole days and figure what we were going to do to ensure that no one else would sneak back into one of the Divisions and steal even more food from the Divisions and lose more than what we already have left.
…
"Hello everyone and welcome back another one of our weekly meetings." Chief GorseHunter announced to begin the meeting. "We have a lot to talk about tonight in regards to several counts of trespassing and theft. So without further introductions, let's jump right into the subject at paw." Then he looked at Chief ArrowHeart and said: "Go ahead, ArrowHeart."

Chief ArrowHeart: "Thank you, Chief GorseHunter. Now, as many of you may know by now, rogues have been sneaking into our Divisions without any of us even knowing that they did, leave, and we would wake up in the morning to see that a piece of prey or two had been taken out of the pile overnight and now there is barely any to go around. But we have a good solution to this problem."

Commander Aurora: "Yes we do, and the basic idea is that we must ration what is left in the prey pile and not overhunt small animals and send out hunting patrols that can bring back bigger animals such as deer, wild cows, or wild boars which are large anough animals to suffice hunger until the situation is resolved. But that does not mean we should just go out and kill half of the population of the aforementioned animals that I had stated earlier. I hope that I am making myself clear to everyone here."

The sound of everyone agreeing was shared from within the crowd that we stood in front of.

Amethyst:

"That's good to hear." Chief DoveFeather added in. "In the Shade Hunters Division, two young bobcats who go by the names of Juniper and Dandelion, have begun their apprenticeship. Juniper will be training to become a fighter under OnyxFur and Dandelion with be training to become a hunter under YarrowClaw; however, both of the will also be training under Amethyst until they complete their apprenticeship next spring." Cheers of welcome and congratulations mixed with the many of the animal gossiping, sharing snarky, worried, and distrustful comments with the others around them and I could see that Dandelion wasn't worried about what the others were saying about her or her sister while Juniper had a bit of a sour and angered look on her face as the animals spoke amongst themselves. Soon though, the commotion simmered down and the meeting continued from there.
…
"This meeting is now dismissed." Chief CosmoPelt announced. Then the rest of the animals began to disband from the meeting area and head back to their rightful Division of residency.

Back at the Shade Hunters Division as everyone was calling I a night, I could see Juniper sitting outside of the Den of the Apprentices and clearly showed a bitter, angered and disheartened expression on her face. I went up to her and asked: "Hey, Juniper, is everything okay?"

Juniper: "Okay? Okay?! How the hell can everything be okay when you have half of the forest gossiping about you and your sister and their parentage?"

Amethyst: "They got to you that quickly, didn't they?"

Juniper: "Well, if you put it that way, yeah, they kinda did. But it's not like I could've taken all of them in a fight."

Amethyst: "Juniper, don't talk like that! You just use violence as the answer to all of your problems depending on how the situation you're in is. Look, Juniper…"

I sat down next to her and began: "You see, my brothers and I were a lot like your and your sister many years ago."

Juniper: "Oh, really?"

Amethyst: "Yeah, we sure were. When we were younger, we were constantly bullied namely due to how we dressed, who are parents are, our looks, and due to how weak we were back then– every singal day, we were bullied over and over again for those reasons until we told our parents about what was going on at school and they handled the situation from there. But with each passing year and new grade level, we were still bullied continuously only to have it resolved by just telling a parent. But during those dark times in which we were judged and teased for who we were and where we came from, each one of us found hope and the strength to keep pushing forward in our own ways; my older brother, Wilson, found a way to push through the circumstances by offering a helping hand to those who somewhat found themselves in the same situation as us where as my younger brother, Rascal, found a way to keeping pushing forward by not just doing the same thing as Wilson but also expressing himself through art and through his love for comics; and as for me, I did the same thing as my brothers and helped those who found themselves in a similar predicament and I also found a way to express myself through my writing and we are still here today and we drown out what other people have to say about us no matter how bad it is."

Juniper: "What was the whole point of all of that?"

Amethyst: "The point is no matter how much criticism you and your sister receive from other animals, it's best if you just ignore and just go on about your day and not try to fight back or resort to violence as an answer. But I will tell you tess; if anyone ever does anything to you or your sister, you to make sure you have each other's backs no matter what happens to either of you in the long run."

Juniper stopped to think for a moment and then got, looked at me and said: "Well, thank you, Amethyst. I'll keep this in mind."

Amethyst: "No problem."

Then she went in the den and I could see that she her sour expression turned into a much sweeter one as she drifted off to sleep. At least I gave her something to think about. Then I walked away from the den, knowing that the road to helping Juniper and Dandeion turn into better animals was already coming into view.