The Otter with the Warpaint

Chapter 5

Pine had stayed home that day for he feared the murderer would kill him. He would have gone picking berries with Liverwort or Bramble but his mother insisted that he stayed home where he was much safer. 
    He was going to offer going berry picking with probably his best friend, Sitka, but he knew she had always hated berries. He should have offered fishing or even just swimming in the lake but his safety needed to be put first. 
    His mother, Sage, walked in with a mouth full of young salmon. The otter gently set them on the ground next to Pine. 
    “I brought some lunch,” she finally said. 
    “Thank you,” he sat up and began to eat his lunch. 
    “You're welcome. I’ll be back in a few hours. Don’t leave the camp,” she then left the hut to return back to the pup den where most mothers left their pups for the day. 
    He quickly began wolfing down a salmon. After he would finish his lunch, Pine decided that he would work on his wood carving. He then left the hut once his lunch was finished. The camp was bustling with otters. He quickly made his way to the Northern side of town which was where the wood carving shop was. He worked there and made sculptures for a living. 
    He made small figures, parts for spears, decor, but the thing he recently carved most was Pineneedle. Pineneedle was his brother who had gone missing several days ago and was found, choked at the bottom of a lake with a rope. Pine could not get over his brother’s death for he was very close to him. Pine was even sadder than his parents were. 
    He walked up to the large shop and walked into it. It was a very open place; only covered by a small roof and no walls. He sat at a small table where he had left his unfinished sculpture. Pine grabbed a wood whittling knife and the unfinished sculpture. It was of Pineneedle. For the last two days, that's all he had carved. Sculptures of Pineneedle. 
    The otter who ran the workshop, Wintergreen came up to Pine to check on him. 
    “Pine,” she started, “what are you sculpting?”
    “Pineneedle,” he quietly replied.
    “Pine, how many sculptures of him do you need? You’ve already made three other sculptures of him in the last two days,” she seemed both worried and annoyed with him, “we need sculptures to sell.”
    “I miss my brother more than anything right now and this is the only thing that makes me happy!” Pine stood up and raised his voice at Wintergreen. She looked at him with a worried look. 
    She sighed, “take the day off, Pine, you need it.”
    “I want to finish my carving,” he firmly told her. 
    “No, Pine, you need to take a break. You need to go relax your mind and get this stress off your shoulders,” she calmly dismissed him. 
    “Fine,” the grey otter hissed as he left the workshop. He went back home and laid down. Wintergreen was right. He was too stressed out. 
    I need to just take several days off and try to take my mind off things but I really want to finish my carving. My mental health needs to come before my job or else I’ll get too stressed out and kill myself.
    Since his brother's death, Pine had been quite suicidal since he felt that he should have died instead of Pineneedle. With the stress of work and death of his kin, Pine nearly went mad. He calmed his mind. 
    I remember when I would be super stressed out, Pineneedle would bring back some blackberries just for me and we would sit down by the fire, eating blackberries. I remember when we would race down the fast river, swimming alongside the sockeye salmon. I remember when we went fishing in the stream with just our bare hands, no nets, no traps, just our claws and teeth. The memories made him cry but quickly put him to sleep. 

    He woke up close to dusk but the sun still shined a little from behind a peak. He got up, feeling quite rested but starving. Pine left the hut and glanced around the camp. His father was still guarding the camp and his mother was still nannying the pups. Someone walked up to him. 
    “Hey, Pine,” a sweet voice greeted. It was Sitka. 
    “Oh hey, Sitka,” he responded. 
    “I'm going to swim in the stream tonight, wanna come?” she offered. 
    “Oh, I'm not aloud outside the camp but thank you for the offer,” he tried to walk off but she talked to him some more. 
    “You seem sad, Pine… I just wanted to brighten your mood by going down the stream. It might make you feel better. Like nothing had ever happened,” the way Sitka said that seemed strange. It just didn’t sound like her. 
    “Maybe tomorrow,” he nodded quickly and ran off. 
    “Sounds good!” she yelled at him as he darted off. Like nothing had ever happened it echoed in his mind Like nothing had ever happened? What does that mean?