Warning: violence, gore
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"Juniper!"
I heard my mother's voice calling me. It was always doing that. I stayed within the bounds, but she was always so frantic when she thought I was going to slip through and out of her sight.
"Yes, Mum?" I sighed back.
"You know what, young lady" she smiled back, her arms grabbing for her youngest four clambering over her back.
Mum called us her lucky stars. She'd look up at the ones in the sky and say we came from them. I thought it had more to do with us being treasured beasts that were all gradually being born with darker fur through the generations. With Mum still bearing the original white, she knew too well what cost it came with.
Nothing would protect us from poachers, Mum said. That's why we couldn't go outside the bounds without an adult to protect us. 82Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY9qSJmiFsw
I looked over to my Dad laying on the other side of the treeline, sleeping. Unlike my mother, he was just a spiked body of exposed bone and muscle that was protected with four arms. Our other father was the same, but had one of his amputated in an old wound. Other than lingering on the edge of the bounds or guarding our home at night, he hunted the forest for anything sustainable enough to feed six more of us.
I felt like my other father understood me through mutual trauma. I should have been out exploring the world beyond the home bounds, but because of my disfigured back leg, I had to always stay in the gaze of watchful eyes.
He was always so absent, just like he was now.
Maybe I could find out what was out there, just like him? It was just beyond a few trees and away from the edge.....
"June."
Sighing, I backed off and hobbled over to my father to flop down beside him.
"Don't worry, Junebug" he smiled when i huffed into the wildflowers below me "I can take you out. You've got to work that leg anyway. How is it?"
"It's stupid" I held it out and saw how deformed it was compared to my others "it always slows me down."
"And because of that, you get to see more of the world" he nudged me "rather than just rushing off blindly like your brother and sisters."
I chuckled as I looked over to see them bounding along in the flowers. They were still so small that they were dwarfed in them.
"Come on" Dad tilted his head to the trees behind him "let them tire themselves out."
My heart soared as I shook off the flowers and followed my father through the edge of the bounds. He took the lead to clear a path that I hobbled through eagerly.
"You always have to be aware of everything out here, Junebug" Dad spoke as I wandered between his legs to barely scrape out at the lead "all the sights and smells should belong here. If you see something different th...."
"Then I hide" I sighed back, smiling back at his own grin "I know, Dad."
"And I want to make sure you do" he nudged me forward gently to focus my attention back on the forestry ahead "there's a campfire ahead, so we can do one of two things. We can hunt whatever might be there, or we can avoid it completely and head down to the river, then come back home through the other side."
I carried on, not knowing he was waiting for my decision. When I realised, I gasped.
"Can we?" I breathed back "can we go look?"
I lifted my head to try and find the campfire, but only saw the same green canopies and peeling trunks swamped in dried, dead leaves.
Dad kept his stern eyes ahead, as if he were watching something that wasn't there. I saw his nostrils flaring and his lip curl just before he nudged me gently.
"Keep heading straight" he spoke "it shouldn't be much further."
Could he see it too?
Pricking my ears forward, all I could hear was the rustling of the leaves overhead as they shimmied in the breeze. I squinted to try and spy any flickering colour between the trees, but groaned at how blind I was.
"If there's any small ones, you can try hunting them" Dad lowered his head beside me with a cheeky smile.
I swelled at the thought of being able to bring home my own kill. I could never keep up when they scrambled for safety. Hunting was my weakest point, and my parents knew that well.
Still, there was hope that maybe this time I'd be better.
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We pushed on, slowing to a crawl when we rounded in on the large clearing bathed in blood and bodies. Dad kept me at his chest as he lowered himself down to keep his hardened eyes on the surprising scene.
"I can take that one!" I squeezed out of his protective arms and bounded into the blood.
It seeped between my toes and tugged at my fur. The scent of it all burned every breath I took and bubbled in my lungs.
It smelled absolutely wonderful. The warmth burned across my body that trudged through the entrails knotted in thier steaming piles. I saw teeth had severed a few organs that split and spilled into the drowned grass.
The decapitated child I excitedly stood over was my catch. Tail flipping in pride, I grinned back to my father still shrouded in the darkness.
More for me then.
"Didn't your father teach you not to run off ahead, Junie?" a voice appeared above me when I was buried down the throat of the child.
Lifting up and coated in blood, I beemed up to my other father who promptly ran his large tongue over my whole face in one quick swipe.
His mouth splattered blood over himself. His body was bathed in it and glistening from the abandoned fire still throwing dancing shadows over every notch in his battered body.
I saw a whole deer being roasted over it. Two of its children were already carved and hollowed, mid way through being seasoned for the fire. Thier eyes were gouged out and dripping from the sockets of where they had been split apart.
"How's the leg?" he pressed against it as it poked out to the side.
Tucking it back in shamefully, I wobbled at the shift in balance.
My father lifted himself from the edge of the clearing to approach my other. With his size, he easily stood over him as they rubbed heads in greeting and surveyed the gore sprayed across the ground.
"It's enough to do us for a bit" my other spoke up "but a few did get away when they saw me coming. They were a hunting party, but it wasn't anything to be worried about."
"They aren't heading for the family?"
"I made sure they had no choice going the way they came" I heard the smugness in my other father's voice.
I squeezed my body further into the hollow I had carved out. My teeth stripped the fat and flesh from the slathered bones squeezing around me. Warmth radiated through me as it slathered down my fur.
"Can you breathe in there, Junebug?" a voice laughed above me.
"Is that your new home, Junie?" the other quipped with a snort.
I giggled back, swatting my tail again in glee that was plucked at by a playful boney hand.
When it suddenly pulled away, I felt the shift of tension in the air. Laying down immediently, I tried to push myself further into the corpse, but hung out of it uselessly. My whole backside was exposed.
"Junie...."
"I know" I whispered, remaining planted "I won't move."
There was a snarl and accompanying growl from both my father's. I heard thier bodies shift to guard mine as I froze up entirely.
My heart was hammering against the ribcage I was currently wedged in. With my hands keeping the space around my smothered snout cleared, I was entirely vulnerable to an attack at my back.
I wasn't going to move at all. Struggling out would only draw attention on me, and I already knew I couldn't outrun a hungry predator.
So, I stayed wedged there as my guardians took off to face whatever was out there.
There was a scuffle further off and the thundering of feet giving chase. I smiled to myself, knowing I'd be safe soon enough to continue enjoying my meal before it was dragged back to the rest of my greedy siblings.
The crunching of feet behind me made me smile. I wriggled myself back, until something siezed my tail to rip me free.
I didn't even get to see who it was when I was thrown into a sack, yowling.
The fabric smothered me and pressed against my sides. It pulled into a peak at the top where I was being carried away.
"Dad!" I cried out "Help!"
Trying to fid some sort of footing, I tumbled against the fabric that forced me onto my back.
"You caught one?" a gruff voice laughed above me.
There was a split second where I saw a brown eye peeking at me through the top, before a long whistle followed.
"Mighty nice beast, that. What are you going to do with it?"
"Daddy!" I whimpered, struggling again. My claws caught the fabric that tugged at the tips painfully.
"It's defective" the voice replied as I was justle again in movement "but, there's a bunch more further up that would fetch quite a nice price."
"So..."
There was an uncomfortable silence. The fabric above me twisted tighter and squeezed my body closer together.
"....what will we do with this one?"
I was thrown around as we moved again. Wavering squeals escaped my trembling lips that sobbed for someone to rescue me.
"An eye for an eye."
I didn't even know what was happening before I felt something smash into my side and blow at my ribs. I threw out my hands to try and save myself as I was hurled against the sack that was swung around again.
Squealing at the force smashing against the side of my leg and face, my vision blurred with hot blood and cold tears.
"D..."
I choked, gasping and trying to call out when I was swung around again to be smashed into the solid force snapping my ribs and blowing every gasping breath from me.
There was nothing I could do. I couldn't even feel my arms anymore. Everything was filled with lead that bubbled into the bottom of the dripping sack stained with my broken body still trying to move away from whatever I was being swung into over and over.
Each breath was snatched back into me. I swallowed it to make sure I still gripped to the inch of life wheezing through me.
I closed my eyes when I was swung again, waiting for the impact that would blow my life away for good.
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