* Image above is not mine: Glistening River Photograph by Amy Pearl

Huff, huff, the muscles in my legs feel heated and bunched up and I'm completely sweaty! From far away when I first spotted the bearings of our destination, I started to walk faster with the finishing goal of resting. Almost there! Good grief this reminds me of the never ending laps during gym class. The last lap was always horrendous! Though, unlike that tortuous class, I did stop every now and then to relax my legs a bit... and yeah I was also hoping that papa bear would pity me and carry me to there. But nooo.. he's stubborn in his ways of training me.

Oh my gosshhh, the glistening water from the river has never looked so gorgeous. It's just so beautiful that I want to cry in relief. Panting heavily I staggerdly went straight toward my goal, not caring if another beast was in front of me or not. Not even recognizing any beast, I just growled in annoyance whenever a huge body was seen in my way. Not too nicely, many times I've lowly growled move and they thankfully did move elsewhere.

Though there was one that did stay still, but that was only for a minute. Since that beast moved, I haven't seen any other thing in my way. Yeah, for now these blockages are things. That's how much the river looks so precious to me. Ohhhh my precioussss you look sooo dashingglyyy. I quiver my lip and reach with my hands toward the oh so close river.

Splash! Ahhhhhh this is so blissful! Sinking face up with my eyes close, I'm lying in the lightest part of the river. My sore muscles are praising the freshness of this water. And my hair, neck, and back feels as if it's sucking in the freshness of the cool water. Though, every now and the river would try to cover my nose and mouth, but I didn't even care and blew bubbles away till my nose was uncovered again.

Close to the little female cub is Dash standing with leader Axel.

"Did she walk from your den to here?" asks Axel to the cub's father.

Dash nods his head at his leader and responds, "yes, I'm training her endurance." Dash then lowers his head and with ears slightly laying low he adds, "please forgive her ignorance."

Axel snorts and starts slapping Dash's back heavily in a joking manner, "stop with the dramatics Dash, we've known each other since cubs and have fought together many times. Knowing you, I'm sure your female cub will grow to be like her father." He pauses, "as for this" he says as he signals with his thumb at the worn out cub, "I can understand."

Dash smirks back and slaps heavily on Axel's back with vengeance, "I knew you would!"

With a slight wince in Axel's eyes, both beastmen then laugh heartily.

Taking the chance that Dash was now in a good mood, Axel comments, "did you know that when you were away your cub has been creating some mischief?"

Dash still smiling nods his head in wanting to know how much alike he and his cub are.

Starting small, Axel starts, "yeah, she went swimming by herself to the deep end of this river, all while carrying some flowers in her mouth."

Dash's eyebrow lifts up and his smile twitches, "she swam alone? and to the deeper water?"

Leader Axel nods solemnly and internally says sorry to elder Liam but this is for his son. "Yes, the flowers she held was like bait to the river's fishes."

"Oh" says Dash as he unconsciously clenches his fist.

Axel hopes that Dash has a better control of his rage, "yes, she ended up being saved my son Vick."

"Spit it out Axel" says Dash as he clenches his teeth.

Axel maintaining his solemn look, stares at the bubble making cub, yet does not look at his friend. "While requesting Vick to be hers.."

A low growl is heard.

Clearing his throat roughly, "Vick saved her from the Alfatrez." (side note: totally made this fish name up, but for some reason it reminds me of WOW...nope, looked it up, there's no such thing as Alfatrez, though it does remind me of something... ahhhh.)

"Whaaattt!!" shouts angrily Dash.

Growling lowly back at Dash, Leader Axel stares heavily at him and commands, "control your rage."

Dash, knowing that his friend who was now in leader mode, was right. Looking at his relaxing cub, Dash starts to breathing in and out slowly. She's here, she's whole, and his cub is healthy. That's what matters.

Remembering what was said about Vick and watching him grow up, Dash couldn't help but scowl, "Vick's not interested in having a female."

Axel nods once and internally sighs, "true, but that time he protected her and what happened last night showed me that maybe Vick may be interested in your cub."

Clenching his fist and still in doubt, Dash had to ask, "interested in what way?"

Axel looks back and sees his friends stern expression, "I'm not sure" pauses, "he carried her the first time like a father." "But this second time I'm not sure if his instinct, like ours, is strong about protecting our tribe's female cubs or if he's curioused about her." Sensing that the female cub was about to get up, Axel adds before walking away, "or he may have placed a claim on her."

Dash wanted to growl and stomp the ground in anger but also seeing that his cub is slowly sitting up, he stops and sighs heavily. You are indeed my cub, fearing nothing.

Washing my face with the water around me, I then slowly get back up and search for papa bear. Thankfully he was standing right behind me.

Hearing my stomach growl, papa Dash smiles with his light brown eyes and motions toward our usual hunting spot. He then morphs in seconds to his golden bear beast and with a few tries I was able to get on his back so we could easily head toward that area.

More than half way there, I softly whisper toward his ear "hey papa, since I'm so tire, maybe you could hunt for the both of us?"

Papa bear snorts in no and with a quick movement he made his shoulder jump, since I wasn't holding on, his action surprised me enough for me to yelp as I flew in mid air toward the river.

With a splash, I swim back up and cough out, "okay, okay, I'll hunt, I'll hunt." Papa bear snickers.

Swimming by his huge form, we finally arrive at a place where I can steadily stand. The water is now only reaching my upper mid legs.

Morphing back, papa Dash again gives me pointers while we wait for the prey to come.

He then asks, "Suki, did you know that fish love to eat certain plants?"

Tilting my head I shake my head in no.

Seeing this, papa Dash went into a long lecture about this type of plants, which included some flowers, and the type of fishes found in the rivers, plus the danger of attracting predators like the Alfatrez.

During his speech I was able to catch three fish and munch on two. Papa sure is a worry wort.

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Authors Note: WE HAVE HIT CHAPTER 40!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let's see if we can hit another 20 Chapters Buahahahahhaha

Thank you everyone for commenting, reading, and voting!

P.S.

Sorry about not updating yesterday, hehehehehe...