Into the Woods!
“The woods! Why would the even attack the woods, nothing is there!” You usher the kids to the fringe of the battle, trying escape towards that parting in the trees. Screams echo out as swords and blades fly past them, flung out of the invisible barrier of the fight happening centered in the field, but you manage to get each charge to the edge.
“You!” You jolt, hearing the harsh voice of an attacker. You and your charges freeze still. “No escape!” A blade flies forward, attacking not you as everyone else had, but for the closest child. You watch, with sudden, rising horror as the small body crumpled. A spurt of dark red broke out over the pure, soft white of the child’s furred body and it falls like a forgotten teddy bear and not a living being.
The other children instantly scream. Their voices rise out madly in horror. You jump into action, retaliating against the being and rushing the children into the cover of the woods before someone can see your escape; but that child’s fallen, supple form haunts your eyes. Instead of trees, you see its chubby legs. Those eyes, huge and confused as the blade broke through its center.
Something so small, not yet covered with the armor of a warrior or worn to accepting death by a lengthy life only broke with that single strike. The red on white. That blood, so pure, never before spilled.
You feel a sudden switch in your form, a reminder almost that you carry life so much like that small, fallen cub.
“Where are we going?” You realize you’d been running, the small charges along you following until they cannot keep up. You freeze, looking down at all those little cubs. “We’re going right to here! We’re safe now.”
You drop to the ground, pulling them all around you. Your arms circle around four pair of hips at once, feeling their squishy, soft fur against your cheeks and chest as they collapse exhausted into you.
Faintly, you can hear the screams of battle still; but louder is the small, innocent rumble of the purring cubs piled over your lap as though you’d already given birth.
“I can’t leave them. I can’t abandon them now” you realize, squeezing them tighter and staring out into the falling night. You don’t sleep, you only stare out as a silent, stone watchdog against any dangers in the wood. You don’t know if you’ll ever sleep again, but you do know that you’ll never see another crumpled cub body at your feet as long as you can still fight for them. For these cubs and the ones still growing within you.
“I just know I can’t leave.”
Written by Picklessauce69 on 18 May 2016
The end (for now)