Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The shadow blotted out the red sky, swallowing me in its darkness. My ears flattened, my heart pounding harder.

I dared a glance upward.

A wall of muscle and black fur towered over me, my only escape the cliff's edge, which was certain doom.

My tail tucked.

Yep. This is it. Goodbye cruel world… uh… hell world.

Then as my eyes drifted up more, I noticed the muscled chest split into three necks, with three accompanying heads.

Oh.

It’s just Dad.

Though he didn’t seem happy. His leftmost head pivoted around, watching the sky as he normally would, while the middle one leaned down as he took another step towards me. His massive paw was nearly the size of my entire head. He gave a gruff chuff that sounded like some kind of a, “What are you doing out here?”

I’d been in trouble with Mom before, but never Dad. This was a whole other layer of terrifying. Really, I didn’t have much of a relationship with him beyond the fact that he was the one who always brought our food. Usually when he hung around the cave, he would just lie near Mom while one of his heads watched us play. Right now he definitely seemed mad, though.

His middle head nudged me towards Luke and by extension, back to our den. I wasn’t sure I could climb up that slope even if I tried, but I suppose he could carry us if he was serious enough to make us go home.

Either way, message received: Playtime is over; it's time to go home.

However, as I looked up the slope to the mouth of the cave, I saw Mom up there sitting on her haunches. My four other siblings were beside her.

Dad’s ears folded back on all three heads as they looked towards her. She didn’t seem mad at all. Her tail wagged back and forth softly, then she looked down towards Iris and let out a soft “Ruff.”

Iris’s tail wagged as she leapt off the side of the cliff. Dad jerked to attention, alarmed, until Iris’s wings sprouted out of her back and she started to glide down, softly landing beside Luke, who seemed to have calmed down a bit.

Then, Ben, Jerry, and Lily started working their way down the slope. Lily moved with the grace of a shadow, hopping from perch to perch until she landed beside me. Ben and Jerry… not so much. Jerry misstepped and slid in a spray of pebbles before catching himself, claws scraping stone, while Ben wobbled the whole way like a badly balanced boulder. Still, they made it down, and soon all six of us were gathered at Dad’s feet.

Then, I heard a thick, steady thump, thump, thump.

My ears folded back as I looked around for the source and realized it was Dad’s tail wagging and hitting the ground!

Ben and Jerry both tilted their heads up and let out small fireballs, which made Dad’s tail wag even faster.

Last, Mom came down with one big jump, landing proudly over us. Dad’s head nodded, and then he turned as he stood from his haunches. If I could have been impressed by Mom’s jump, Dad put it to shame as he suddenly took off like a rocket, aiming for higher up on the cliff face. A few more big jumps that sprayed mini avalanches of rocks were all it took, and he was far, far above us, looking down.

I looked at Mom, feeling surprised that she actually supported our little outing. Until now, if any of us had ventured too close to the mouth of our cave, we would at best get a scolding and at worst be quickly yanked up by our scruff and tossed deeper inside. Mom’s rule of staying in the cave was so strictly enforced that I had given up on ever even attempting an escape. That’s why I thought for sure actually leaving like this would get us in trouble.

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But now, Mom began leading the way into the world, walking ahead of us along the flat pass that hugged the side of the mountain. Her head looked back with a low “woof” as she nodded for us to follow.

Dad, meanwhile, remained far above like a three-headed sentry, surely looking out for any predators—uh, well, predators that may be bigger than us, I suppose—that might interrupt our first exploration of the world.

***

As we made our way down the cliff, I decided it was time to try using one of my new skills. I wasn’t exactly sure how to activate Pulse Sense, but maybe it’d be like sniffing but with my brain.

I stopped and looked over the ledge of the pass to a lower level of flat ground. I focused but wasn’t sure how to activate it. I closed my eyes. At first, all I felt was the wind ruffling my fur and the sound of my siblings’ paws scuffing against stone.

I then tried it as a mental command, directly thinking:

{Pulse Sense}

A steady but fluttered rhythm sounded inside my head—ba-dump-ba-dump-ba-dump-ba-dump.

It sounded like a heartbeat, I suppose, but it was a bit faster than I think a normal heartbeat should be. As I focused on it, I got a sense of what direction it was coming from. I looked down along the lower level. There were some rocks, some scraggly bushes, and not much else. A bit of dust danced along the surface as a wind blew.

Then, I focused on one of the bushes and saw something small and white hunkered down.

It was a rabbit!

I heard a “Woof!” and looked up, startled. Mom and my siblings were a bit further ahead of me now, so I quickly ran to catch up with them.

I felt an urge to find my way down to that lower level and see if I could sneak up on that rabbit. It was a sort of craving—like imagine you think of a specific food or dessert and you just can’t get it out of your head until you get it. That’s how I felt about that rabbit right now.

But, as I trotted along and caught up to my family, the pulse disappeared from my brain, and I was able to shake off my budding desire for blood. The idea of hunting excited me.

We descended lower and lower, the pass curling down and changing direction until it opened into a nice wide deserted area with more of those scraggly bushes. We were now closer to the top of the trees but would have a long way down before entering the forest.

Mom sat on her haunches, and as Luke started to wander ahead, she suddenly put a paw down on his tail, stopping him in his tracks.

Luke let out a surprised yip and turned back to Mom, looking offended. She lowered down to him and made the lowest growl I’ve ever heard from her. It was a very soft warning that seemed to tell him to be quiet.

Then Mom turned her attention to me and nodded over to one of the bushes as if she was telling me to do something.

My tail wagged, thinking I understood. It was time for us to learn to hunt, and I was up first!

I hunkered down, eyes scanning and tail wagging.

{Pulse Sense}

Instantly, I heard several of those thumping heartbeats in my mind. Some closer, some further away. I set eyes on a scaggly bush—no, not that one. Then, a particularly large rock grabbed my attention. I was pretty sure that’s where it was coming from, and what’s more, it was right near the slope of the mountain, which provided a nice shadow for me to creep through.

Staying low, I began moving. I wondered if Mom would be impressed with me being so strategic on my first hunt. I was surely excited to show off to my brothers and sisters.

As I came closer to the rock, I slowed down. The heartbeat was so loud in my ears now, and I knew it would be hiding just around the bend.

I suddenly sprang into action, moving around the rock to see a rabbit pulling at a tuft of grass. It looked up surprised and began a fleeing hop, but I tackled it before it even got one foot down again!

I latched onto the back of its neck and started shaking, very soon hearing several small pops of bone breaking.

Prey Eliminated - Lvl 1 Rabbit

Experience gained.

You have leveled up!

You are now level 2!

Stat Gains

+2 Attunement

+3 Sense

[Achievement! First Kill!]

Bonus Development

Minor bonus to all stats