Valley of Weeds

Chapter Sixteen [Edited]

Chapter Sixteen:

"Mother!" Nahoko groaned as Atha swiped her tongue across his spine. "I'm clean enough!"

"That's what you think," Atha replied between licks. Beside them, Kysta was grooming Bay in a similar fashion. However, Bay's face was stuck in a look of utter distress that tightened with every stroke of her sandpaper tongue. What was more disturbing was the rusty sound it made.

Amur's tailtip flicked around with amusement as Bay's eye twitched. Flicker flopped down on her side to the right of him, bored.

"How much longer?" she asked. "Nano and I need to go practice."

"Practice what? And who's 'Nano'?" Lysla frowned.

"Nano is Nahoko," Flicker rolled her eyes as if it was the most obvious fact in the world. "And we gotta go practice fighting and hunting and being awesome!"

Lysla scoffed. "Yeah, right! You don't need to practice anything, Flicker. You're lying!"

"No, I'm not!"

"Yes, you are!"

"She's not lying, Lysla!" Nahoko scowled. "Flicker would never lie! She's the most honest and smartest and fastest tiger there ever was! And we do need to go practice! We're awesome! Aren't we awesome, Uncle Amur and Flower?"

"Yes you are," Amur nodded matter-of-factly. Flower nodded enthusiastically.

Lysla's scowl strengthened and she went to go sit beside Atha. Once the two were in the same view, they seemed quite alike. Both could be bossy and demanding, and Amur could recall Atha having the same bone structure when she was that age.

"Okay! I'm clean!" Nahoko jumped from his mother grasp and padded over to Flicker, who greeted him with a smile. Atha heaved an exhasperated sigh and moved on to groom Lysla. Unlike Nahoko, Lysla didn't move a muscle.

"I'm gonna be so pretty!" she exclaimed proudly.

"Gonna be?" Atha echoed. "You're already so beautiful though! Surely, it's impossible to get any prettier!"

Nahoko and Flicker shared a skeptical look before grinning at one another fondly. Amur found himself smiling at their strong bond.

"C'mon, Flick," Nahoko gestured towards the trees with his tail. "Let's go practice being awesome."

"Is that code for just walking around and talking about doing stuff that'll never happen?" Lysla asked.

Flicker scowled at her before shifting her expression to a michievous grin. "No! It's code for 'Lysla smells funny!'"

Nahoko burst out laughing while Lysla wrinkled her nose and looked away.

"Hey! W-wait a minute!" Bay called out to her brother and sister as they turned to leave. "Can I come? I wanna be awesome too!"

"Sorry, little one," Kysta shook her head. "You're only halfway done."

"That's okay," Nahoko tilted his head and sat down. "We can wait."

"No, no," Atha disagreed. "Go on. Get yourselves out of everyone's fur."

Bay sighed as her siblings shrugged and disappeared into the trees. Next time, she would make sure that she was with them. They seemed so close! How was it possible that they wre everything to each other while she had nobody? Flower had Amur and Kysta had Atha, and Lysla wasn't particularly the most enjoyable tiger to be around. At least, not if she didn't idolize you. She was a suck-up to Atha.

Her pale blue gaze found her uncle, who was examining his claws. His roan eyes were focused and hard. They always seemed to be as shiny as could be. Was he angry about something? A few days prior, Atha was scolding Nahoko and Flicker for planting a burr in the mouse Lysla was eating. She couldn't speak for the rest of the day due to the stinging in her mouth. Bay had to admit that it was funny, but that was probably because Lysla had called her stupid shortly before she ate the mouse.