Like Animals

~ Chapter Two ~

Kalyk wanted to follow Ryven back to the base. She wanted to track him, and arrive that evening to much praise, and possible her Rising Ceremony. 

But she knew she had to wait. She had heard what Synarii had said. So she sat beside Shanti, trying to put together the puzzle of instructions the Vixen had given them. 

But... there wasn't enough. She hadn't been told what to do, only been given vague and oddly inspiring guidelines. No, more like rules. Rules of what not to do. But there weren't even that many of those. She had been told to wait. She had been told not to follow. She had been told her goal... but was there something she was missing? It felt like it. 

By the time the uneasy churning in her stomach had settled to an inconsistent throb, it had started to rain. Shanti's voice snapped her out of her confused daze.

"We need to find a place out of the rain," she said. 

Not easy, since the only sheltered places were clustered together at base, the one place they weren't allowed to go. But the comment had given Kalyk a goal that was less vague, and simple enough for her to understand over the ache that had appeared in her head from lack of water.

"The only caves and dens I know of are at base," Kalyk pointed out, hoping for more suggestions. "But..." the gears in her head started shifting, as she tried to think of a plan. Shanti beat her to it.

"Why can't we make one?" her friend suggested. "We could dig a hole... make it a tunnel... no that would take too long... the rain is still light, we need a den before it starts pouring..."

"What if we made a den?" Kalyk suggested. "We could use one of the rockpiles, and just shift a few at the bottom to make a hollow, and use the rocks leftover to build around it... and we could use grass and mud to waterproof it, and I smell a sapling nearby, i could go and get moss from the trunk and leaves from the branches to make a nest..." 

Kalyk was suddenly aware of Shanti staring at her curiously. 

"...and we could sleep there for the night... and then have a mini base to go back to if we get lost... and maybe we could face the entrance in the direction we came so we have a vague idea of what direction to travel when we are ready to try finding our way back..." she trailed off, too timid to continue.

But Shanti had heard enough to form a plan. "Okay, we'll stick together until we find a rockpile, and while I start to move the rocks you go and get branches, leaves, and moss from that tree. Once everything is ready you can finish the den while I go hunting. Is that okay?" 

Kalyk nodded, and padded beside her as Shanti stood up and deftly clawed a line in the dirt indicating the general direction to base. Then they both padded towards the towering rockpiles ahead. 

I can't believe Shanti just came up with a plan like that, Kalyk marveled, impressed. 

They soon arrived at the rockpiles and Shanti immediately started checking for loose rocks or possible places to make a den. Kalyk padded a little ways off and spotted a large pile, with loose stones down the bottom just small enough for a leopard to move, but sturdy enough at the top for it not to collapse. She barked twice, prancing back to show Shanti. 

"Perfect!" she purred, and Kalyk wagged her tail, pleased with herself. "Now, go find that tree!"

Kalyk didn't need to be told twice. She hared away, following the scent of new growth and wood, until the rockpiles were far in the distance. 

She soon arrived at the sapling, which was bigger than she expected. There was moss hanging from the lower branches, which Kalyk quickly bounced up to snatch in her jaws. She stored it under the roots of the tree to keep it dry, while she padded around the base of the trunk, wondering how she would get down a branch and leaves, and how to get it back to Shanti in one trip. 

Suddenly she got an idea. She sprang into the air, and wrapped her forepaws around a smaller branch, her weight snapping it off the tree. She repeated this, and gathered a bundle of tallgrass. She laid the two branches under a cluster of dead leaves higher up on the tree, and arranged the grass on top of it, the long strands stretching from one end of the branch to the other. Then she backed up, and launched herself onto the higher branch, shaking the leaves onto the ground, or the strips of grass below. When she was satisfied, she snapped a few other branches off with her teeth, tossing them next to the grass and leaves. Finally, she leaped down, landing with a thud on the hard earth, and scrambled to her paws. She retrieved the moss from under the roots and set them on top of the leaves. Carefully and quickly, she pulled the two branches together in her jaws, and a quiet snap hung in the dry air as the wood connected, trapping the ends of the grass blades between the sticks. 

Slowly, Kalyk lifted her muzzle, relieved to find that the long leaves held, carrying the things she had collected in the wide grass loop that had formed. Clamping the branches tighter in her jaws, she adjusted one of the sticks with her paw, before slowly padding back to their makeshift camp. 

-AUTHOR'S NOTE-

Kalyk is a baby. I love her. Who's lost puppy is this someone claim her before I steal her and give her cookies. 

*clears throat* 

Anyways! This completes what I've been digging up in my archives, so everything after that should give you less of a headache writing wise. I need to re-read things and figure out what the hell I'm doing before I go any farther with this because although I know what the sequel of this series is going to look like and the lore behind it, I have absolutly no clue what this shelter is supposed to look like so hang tight and bear with me while I continue an ADD wrecked writing extravaganza about talking animals I made up in my head.