Howling Thunder 4: Into the woods.

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“OUch!”

What just, waaaaah it’s cold!

I have no trouble in the dim candlelight of my room finding my blanket and pull it back over me. The source of the pain in my ribs is revealed.

Red is hugging my tail, legs kicking in her sleep. She still does this on occasion whenever she’s nervous or upset. It’s happened less since last year when we got our own rooms finally.

I pinch the ankle of the offending foot, she wakes with another kick. This one sending me over the edge and onto the hardwood floor.

“You know sister, you have your own bed. Remember? It's in that room on the side of the hallway with windows. The room which you chased older brother around the entire cave making scary faces until he gave it up.”

A cute girl with short, layered red hair and small red fox ears sticks her head over the side of the bed to look at me on the floor.

Her eyebrows narrow, “I wasn’t making scary faces! I was trying to breath fire!”

….Is that so.

I get up and dive back onto the bed, “I must have dozed off in the lesson about fire breathing foxes.”

She puffs her cheeks, “When aren’t you asleep in class? But no, I saw mother do it! She turned into a fox with two tails and blew little rings of fire!”

Well I wouldn’t put anything past mother, but I think she’s thinking of the smoke rings from mother’s pipe.

While fixing my blankets, “You don't think you're getting a bit old to be sneaking into my bed still?”

Red steals the thicker top blanket and wraps herself up in it, “My room is cold, your tail is warm. Why, could it be you feel nervous sharing a bed with the beautiful girl I’m becoming?”

More like I fear waking up with broken ribs, “Hardly sister, besides, you're tall as some adults, stronger than most of them, and flat as a …”

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A knocking wakes me up, must be the throbbing in my head.

Mother walks in my door, she’s upside down… I'm upside down.

She pulls me up by the arm, “Did you sleep like that all night, no, nice black eye darling.”

“Sister seems … to dislike comments about her chest.”

The noble, living goddess, Madam Inari plops onto my bed and snatches up my pillow to sulk into, “My little pups are growing too fast. Look at you, you're tall as a dwarf already. Where did my grumpy, little black fuzz ball go?”

I recall the instructor saying something about our race grows larger depending on our individual strength. I'm taller than all the other pups except my siblings. Grey barely beats me but Red is quite ahead.

Sitting on my bed side, mother looks me over. Her arm length pipe sending smoke to my ceiling, I can faintly smell cherries. I like the silver clouds design on the pinkish wood.

With a flick of my nose, “Your fine, hurry downstairs, well don't hurry, you did hit your head. Just get going, you're the last pup we're waiting on.”

Ah! The hunt!

I grab my equipment and stuff it in a pack along with the extra snacks I snuck from the kitchen last night.

Mother watches this from my bed with a grin, I hug her before dashing out into the hallway.

Out in the courtyard the large group of pups stands waiting.

Just as a couple were about to comment they seemed to notice my eye. All the pups look at Red.

She reels back, “He deserved it!”

Red folds her arms as if to say that's the end of it. I see Older Brother roll his eyes and turn to face the large male in front.

Ptah addresses the group, “Alright, now that we're all here, today as you well know is your final test to earn your names.”

He pauses to look at the excitement in the pups, “You will be moving out in teams of three…”

I’m sure he's going to go on for a bit, I should give my equipment a check.

“...been sighted a bit west of here, be wary of their markings on the gigapines..”

I quickly glance at the menacing, giant black pine trees that tower into the sky, blocking nearly all light. The den, the gate, the furniture in my room, even the shaft of my spear is carved from the dark wood.

“Lastly, remember that you must be back by evening tomorrow. Any way I won't delay you anymore, first group step forward.”

Oh? Well that's a first.

The groups make their way forward from the gate, Ptah holds them until the previous group is out of sight and sends the next one in a new direction.

When Grey’s turn is next, the wild twin leans over to me, “Good luck Fuzzy.”

She almost skips to catch up with my silent brother. I’m doing my best not to laugh at the annoyed glance he gave me as he ignored Ptah and immediately turned west out the gate.

“Black,” Sister looks in the same mood as Grey, “your tail is wagging.”

“Pardon me for trying to enjoy my day despite waking up on the floor because of a certain someone’s temper.”

Her body goes rigid, “I do Not have a temper!”

Says the girl with flickers of red flames in her hair. I pat them out and she seems to relax a bit. Just in time for our turn.

Ptah pulls a black and tan furred boy from the group of remaining pups, “Black, take my nephew with you two. Head directly north, don’t bother hunting till tomorrow, the further you go the better chances of finding something to compete with what your brother is after. Just don’t be late or get your group killed. Your mother and my family will torture me till the end of my days.”

The jackal tribesmen doesn't seem to be kidding.

Whatever, I do a last mental check of my gear. Spear, jacket, rope, blanket, knives, food, everything I need to get lost for one night.

We set off straight ahead. The dark woods welcoming us like death itself. The enormous black pines barely allow a few snowflakes to make it to the ground. What new adventure awaits us? What danger lurks..

“So are you gonna marry my cousin?” Jackal boy asks.

The dangerous look from Red is not quite what I had in mind.

She snaps at him, “You! What are you talking about?”

His tail wags at my sister’s attention, trust me buddy, it isn’t a good thing.

He puffs out his chest, “Call me Copper, and I heard my uncle talking to the Inari about it at dinner. They said Black here will get Ptah’s daughter for a wife.”

Ohh, “Is she cute?”

Red immediately punches my shoulder, I nearly trip over a branch.

Sister is too selfish, “Red, let's not injure your nice older brother before we even make camp.”

She lets out a single laugh, “Nice? Who was it that spent a whole week bursting from shadows to scare Instructor Ragna? Or how about when you poured honey into eldest brother’s pillow.”

Copper adds in, “Uncle told me you once hid a fish in the forge, he said the stench lasted for a month.”

“Wasn’t me.”

A flat lie. Both of them stop to look back at me.

I let out a sigh, “We’ve been holed up in the den for years, pardon me for getting bored.”

Red stretches her arms as she continues ahead, “You’re always bored brother.”

Jackal boy asks me, “Do think she’ll be happy if we find something fantastic to hunt?”

This little…, “Oh yes, Red won't be satisfied unless we bring home at least three bears.”

I see her smile back as she slightly glances at me.

Copper grips his spear tighter, he’s either motivated or nervous...probably both.

From Red up front, “I wonder if there are dragons in these woods?”

The Jackal trips on a stick and his face hits the dirt.

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