Final snippet. :)
Lop Ear heard the thunder of the Thunker Tree. It
was reverberating through the forest. Many Roo had gone to nearby Thunker Trees
to tell the story of the Giant that had been slain. Their story was being
stepped on and drowned out by each other.
He shook his head. They were excited about the
vengeance, the victory as some called it. He was just damn tired and sore. He
limped over to the side.
It had been only a few finger lengths of time
since the other Giants had come to take their dead away. He was wary of them.
It bothered him.
“Did you hear?” Fast Thumper said breathlessly.
“Hear what?” Lop Ear asked tiredly. Black Speckle
hugged his side and looked up to his brother. His body felt like one big
bruise. His arm had a ring around it under the fur. The healers said it was
most likely a crack in the bone. It was braced with a splint. He had another
around his ankles and had been told not to move.
Which meant his mate and litter were cuddling with
him to keep him from moving. They were practically smothering him, not that he
complained. Black Speckle wanted to share his presence and warmth and he’d
never complain about that.
At least not when he was feeling like she’d
skinned him and pounded his flesh out and then put his skin back on. She’d
threatened to do something similar when he recovered, which had amused him.
Funny how family threaten your life for risking it to save them?
He gently stroked her back with his good hand and
nuzzled her.
Fast Thumper’s ears went back a little but then he
straightened. “Hollow Garden and Green Painted Rocks are sending some Roo to
see what happened!” His eyes were wide. “And other communities want to send
some Roo to see!”
Hollow Garden and Green Painted Rocks were two
allied communities nearest to them. They had both done well from trade between
the communities as well as the things that the makers thought up in their
community.
Lop Ear’s ears twitched in amused sarcasm. Black
Speckle snorted softly in disdain. “Why now?” She asked. More than one Roo had
been put out over the lack of support. When the Giants had appeared and then
attacked their warren the Roo community had been slaughtered by their poison
fog. Those that had survived had managed to make their way to the Thunker Tree
and forge a new warren there.
It was expanding greatly. But they’d had to
survive the long cold season to do it. No other communities had lent their
support. It had been a bitter experience. When their neighbor’s warrens had
been struck by calamity their warren had sent additional support to help them
through the tough times.
Fast Thumper looked at her like she’d asked the
strangest question.
“I mean it. They could care less about our plight
before. Why risk their Roo now?” Roo were not known for taking risks. Well,
common Roo. Defenders like her mate and his messenger brother were different.
Defenders stood sentry duty to watch for dangers and when something came they
ran to the fight to put themselves between the danger and the other Roo.
She was proud of her mate for that part of his
character. Proud but worried. She knew deep down it would eventually cost him
his life. But at the moment her swelling pride overrode the fear of his loss.
Even with the current reminder of his … bravado.
“I think they want to know more about how we did
it in case they need to do it themselves,” Fast Thumper said slowly. The
messenger looked thoughtful.
“And no doubt they want a part of the glory of
killing one such thing. You were one of the first to kill a stomper, right?”
she asked her mate. She looked at him.
“Not me, my sire,” Lop Ear replied as he stroked
her ear and then the head of a kit came out from under the sash pouch on her
side. He shifted his hand to the kit to use a fingertip to stroke the velvet
bridge of the nose and over the tightly-closed eyes. The tiny eyes and ears had
yet to open. The kit mewed and then began to make yum yum faces.
Black Speckle had frozen when he touched the kit
but she seemed to relax almost explosively. She reached down to cuddle the kit
to her and then helped to guide it to a nipple.
“Someone needs a change,” Fast Thumper said with a
wrinkled nose.
“When don’t they?” Black Speckle grumbled. “When
they aren’t sleeping, they are pooping and suckling. It is a never-ending
cycle,” she said as she sat up to help the other kits find nipples.
“What goes in has to come out eventually,” her
mate said. “Looking forward to diaper changing duty, brother?”
Fast Thumper’s eyes went comically wide. He backed
away frantically shaking his head. He stumbled against the nest door and then
took off, half falling in the hallway.
Black Speckle snickered. “That was mean.”
“I know. But serves him right for waking us up
with something like that.”
Black Speckle snorted.
He groaned softly.
“What? What’s wrong?” She pushed him down as he
tried to get up.
“Now that I’m awake, I’ve got to pee,” he growled
as he struggled slowly to his feet. She snickered as he lurched over to the pot
and then growled. It was full so he had to take it out.
“Here,” she said as she undid her sash and her
fast hands quickly took the dirty diapers off the litter. He groaned as she
handed him the mess. At least they were disposable, having been made out of
leaves rather than cloth this time.
He wrinkled his nose and kept the chamber pot at
arm’s length as he exited their nest chamber slowly.
~======~
Tinker, like most Roo, was most active at night.
He had so many projects going but the other elders had asked him to focus on
the Giants. He had so much new material that he had agreed. He needed to
consolidate it with what they’d gotten in the previous encounters.
He had his folder open with his papers out on his
worktable to go over his findings and organize his notes. He was still puzzled
by the creatures.
Among many things that didn’t make sense, he noted
differences in the bodies of the Giants from previous times he’d sketched them.
His eye was keen; he knew he was not wrong. They had seemed, gaunt, almost
starved. They seemed to eat meat more than other things. He went through his
notes and checked. Sure enough there was no mention of the Giants gathering
plant matter. Odd. Very strange.
He made a note to ask the healers about it.
~======~
You can read the rest in The Roo Collective!
