The Sigil Makers

Chapter 20

The dawn rolled around and Woe continued to lay calmly in her nest. While everyone was still asleep, it was a good time to start reflecting on all that had happened in the past months. 

The cool morning breeze and soft reflected glow of the morning mist on the grass felt so calming. The way birds began chirping as they woke up made Woe feel safe. In reality, she hadn't felt true calm after Bliss' death. Now that she had her brother, but she would never try to replace Bliss with Rue. Rue may look like Bliss, but he was different. He was gentle and tranquil like Woe was. He only unsheathed his claws in the most dire situations.

The memory of the day when she and her sister were being chased by the scavenging dire wolves still replayed in her mind every time to time. Her heart beating faster and faster every step and her panicked thoughts echoing in her head. The way she feared for Bliss' life just as much as she feared for her own. The relief she felt when the other smilodons had showed up and the excitement when they killed the dire wolves. It all felt so fresh in her memory.

The soft wind twirled Woe's hairs around. She could smell the fresh scents of the forest and the familiar scents of the camp and the other smilodons. Her family, who might now only consist of her brother, mother and the male she still thought of as her father, but that was enough for her. She knew that to some smilodons it wouldn't be enough.

Then the day Bliss attempted to take Woe's life in a jealous rage. Woe had never felt so betrayed and so afraid for her sister's life like she had that day. The way anger burned in Bliss' eyes scared her, like that mad beast of a smilodon had always been hidden underneath her sister's brave and reckless surface. Then Woe had killed her. She never wanted to do that, but in cold panic she didn't know what she was doing. She knew that the stick that she had impaled through her sister's throat was still buried alongside Bliss in that grave. Then she had blamed Aureate for it, which she would continue to feel shame about for the rest of her life. She'd still be alive if I had just.. owned up to what I did.

She squinted her eyes when a particularly bright ray of sunlight flashed before her eyes. It lit up the camp and the pelts of the smilodons who were sleeping in their nests, sides slowly rising up and down. Mastodon slept calmly in his nest that had been built next to his brother, Mammoth's nest. Cypress was sleeping underneath a small sagebrush, on a nest that was built from needles and feathers. Eyes was calmly resting on a patch of sunlight. Woe now understood why the elderly smilodon had chosen that spot. Rue was sleeping calmly next to Woe's nest. His right hindleg kicked softly empty air every other minute. 

And now, she had found out that the smilodon she had thought was her father was just her mother's old mate. Nobody else. She wondered how Bliss would feel about it. Would she accept the fact or turn Amnesty into a bleeding pile of maggot-food? There was no way to know now, but Woe still wished she had the answer. At least she now had her brother by her side.

She could hear one of the sleeping smilodons murmur something in their sleep. She perked her ears up to hear who it was. Mammoth was purring in his sleep and mumbled something incoherent time to time, something that Woe was more than familiar with. She could also hear Eyes softly whispering about her mate. Something along the lines of: "Carabidae, my love, I appreciate you tried to hunt down that peccary, but you know they're difficult to hunt down without help. Here, let me clean that wound for you"

Woe swore that when she inherited the leadership of the pack, she would help hopeless smilodons find a home and family. She could rebuild the pack back to its original glory and prove to any smilodon that might challenge them that loyalty ran deeper than blood did. At least it did to her. And it would continue to do so, always.