I had become accustomed to Mother’s absence now – despite my tendency to never leave her side within my first months that she was here. I had found something else entirely to take place of her comforting presence.
I lay within the darkest recesses of the birthing den, my paws twitching every few moments as dreams flare up brightly within my head. I awake with a long inhale as eyes of amethyst roll back into place within their sockets and ears twist upon my skull. It is not the intensity of my dream that troubles me so but the imagery that was depicted in it; a premonition I would so believe. Eros had stepped into a pit of flames and yet he was not consumed, instead he was able to continue walking through it for reasons unbeknownst to me. I am still young, inexperienced, and such intricate things elude my unripe mind.
It now dawns upon me that it was the sharp howl of Mother that drew me from my lucid slumber, and with a small yawn I slowly rise to my paws. For now I dismiss the visions in my dream and focus solely on finding where Mother had called from. Despite her vanishing act I still desired to be reunited with her after all. My pale, tawny figure emerges into the daylight only to be disoriented by the shining sun. Within a few moments my pupils adjust to the drastic shift and I am jogging off toward the direction in which her scent blows in.
Time was not an aspect I was entirely worried about and yet I am the first to be greeting our lost Mother after so long. I approach at the same steady speed and slow only so that I could circle about her as I sniffed every inch of her legs and underside. Where had she been? Who had she seen? What did she do? These were all things that I needed to know and my nose would tell it all to me. None of it seemed familiar enough, though it is not surprising, and I wished to know more than what I could scent. ”Why?” I questioned with one word. Part of me was, perhaps, a bit heated about her sudden removal from my life. I had needed her still and she hadn’t stayed around to know it.
Instead, I was left to find a strange cannibal in the woods all alone without her watch. Whether she would have minded or not was lost to me; but what difference did I know?