︴▹ sunny 🍃

TW: blood/injuries & near-drowning

In the dappled shade of the riparian woodland, a young adolescent sat at the edge of a small stream. Her siblings rolled and played in the shallow water, their fur becoming thick and heavy with mud. One of them, Foggy, sat up, shaking mud off his ears. "Sunny, come on, it's perfectly safe!" he teased her, just before another of Sunny's siblings, Leaf, snuck up behind him and pushed him into the mud. With a yelp of indignation, he scrambled up and jumped on Leaf in retaliation, starting a squabble between the two in which Leaf would most likely be the victor.

Sunny sighed as she watched them. She would have joined them any other time, tussling in the leaves of the grass, but in the water it was different. She backed off unhappily and then turned and scrambled up the riverbank, using roots that jutted out from the moist soil to clamber on. Her long legs got in the way and once or twice she slipped, but she finally managed to heave herself onto the soft grasses on top.

Sunny yawned and plopped down onto the ground, feeling the grass tickling her belly and sides but not really minding. She stretched out her legs and then settled down more comfortably to watch the antics going on below. Her siblings, oblivious to her absence, were tussling, but soon they broke apart and faced each other, talking. From the snatches of conversation that Sunny heard, it became clear that they were preparing for a game of 'hunt'.

'Hunt' was a common game among adolescents in her pack, and it consisted of one wolf who would be the prey and the others, who would be the hunters. Their goal was simply to catch the prey, but the prey was allowed to run and fight back. If the prey was pinned down, then the hunters won that round. Typically, Sunny had been told that the finisher - whoever pinned down the prey - would be the prey the next round, but in most cases whoever wanted to be prey next or whoever had performed the worst that round would be chosen.

Soon, Leaf turned around and bolted, making it clear that they were this round's prey. Yelping in excitement, the three hunters - Rail, Foggy, and Minnow - bolted after them. The group pursued them through the shallow river water before Leaf seemingly slowed down. Foggy lunged to grab them and Leaf neatly dodged, sending all of the others tumbling over Foggy, who had landed face-first in the mud.

Then, while the hunters were still recovering, Leaf leapt out of the stream and ran for the bank. As Leaf started climbing up towards her, Sunny got to her paws and crouched, preparing to pounce. Just before they reached the top, she leaped on them, sending both wolves rolling down the steep slope and into the mud at the river-edge. Sunny planted her paws on Leaf's shoulders and grinned. "Got you!" she said triumphantly.

"Good job," reluctantly called Minnow, who had managed to scramble out of the stream and was now trotting up the bank towards them.

Leaf wriggled out of her grasp and got up, their fur dripping with mud. "That's not fair," they complained between breaths. "You weren't part of the game."

"I am now," Sunny pointed out with amusement, wagging her tail and scattering mud everywhere.

The others caught up to them, all of them drenched and muddy. Foggy looked embarrassed, and Minnow kept glaring at him; noticing, Leaf smirked. "Am I too good for you brilliant hunters?" they inquired sarcastically.

Foggy growled. "That's it," he said. "I'm going to be the prey this time, and just see if you can catch me!"

He whirled and took off, running down the narrow riverbank; Minnow, Leaf, Sunny, and Rail rushed after him, paws squelching into the muddy ground. Sunny managed to overtake the others, running with her ears flattened back by the wind. She felt a rush of joy and excitement. Then, Foggy suddenly skidded to a halt and leaped sideways into the river just before Sunny could grab his tail.

She also came to a halt, only to immediately be pushed aside by Leaf and Rail brushing past her, leaping into the river in pursuit of Foggy. Minnow loped past at a slightly more leisurely pace, giving Sunny an exaggeratedly confused look, as if she didn't know why she wasn't in the river already, and then turned her attention back to the game at hand.

Sunny backed off, her ears flattening, all of her excitement instantly gone. Of course Minnow knew why she wasn't going in the water. In fact, Sunny's fear of water was Minnow's fault.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Sunny lay, twitching restlessly, beside her mother and siblings. Her ears swiveled to catch the slightest sound, and every so often she would quietly lift her head. Each time, Minnow's grey eyes gleamed back at her, before closing again, signaling that it wasn't time yet.

The night grew darker, the only sounds being the swishing of the wind through the leaves ahead, and the burbling of the river. Finally, what felt like hours later, Sunny's eyes were closing when the sound of pawsteps signaled that the hunters had returned. Sunny froze as the steps moved past the nest, and the wolves moved through a patch of moonlight, illuminating their brown and golden-toned fur. There was the sound of prey being placed in the stash, then more footsteps. Finally, everything fell silent again as the hunters settled into their nests.

A few minutes later, Sunny felt Minnow's tail brushing against her ear. She quietly got to her feet, checking again that everyone was asleep, and then crept after her sister. They hurried into the deep shadows of the large trees surrounding camp, then stopped, speaking in hushed voices.

"Where now?" Sunny asked, trying to keep her voice down. Minnow flicked her tail over Sunny's mouth, keeping her quiet, and then whispered, "Follow me." She paused, then flicked her tail and hurried off. Sunny scampered after her, ears swiveling with nervousness and excitement.

The two pups moved through the forest, mostly keeping in the deep shadows. Sunny followed the flicker of Minnow's white tail tip, her paws sinking slightly into the soft, moist forest floor at every step. After a while, Sunny noticed that the sound of the river was growing louder, and sure enough, they soon left the denser foliage behind and stepped out onto the steep bank of the river.

It was flowing fast, clearly still full of water from the snowmelt up in the distant mountains. Now, in the moonlight, it looked eerie and somewhat surreal, the water dark and inky with just glints of silver dancing on the surface. Sunny stopped, feeling oddly nervous, while Minnow crept closer to the edge and peered down the bank. Then she looked back at her sister and rolled her eyes. "Come on, it's fun!" she whispered.

Sunny edged forward uneasily, stopping a few steps away from the edge. Stretching out her head, she could see the dark water rolling away below, and hear the little waves slapping against the wet dirt of the bank. She whimpered in excitement and stepped closer, peering down into the strange, shifting shadows of the river.

Beneath her paws, the slope crumbled. She yelped in terror as she plunged forward before hitting the surface of the water and immediately sinking beneath it. It was ice-cold and dark, surrounding her and rushing into her nose and mouth. She choked and struggled before the current suddenly surfaced and she found herself floundering up for a second, her nose breaking the surface.

"-ny!" she heard Minnow yell. She managed to take a gulp of air before she was tugged under again, tumbling in a rush of darkness and panic. She scraped over the bottom of the river, stones and buried twigs raking painfully through her fur, and then felt herself ripped upwards again. Before her snout broke the surface, she slammed into something hard and was sent whirling. Her chest ached from lack of air and she struggled to swim upwards, but the relentless force of the river kept dragging her under.

Her vision was fading and blurring and she found herself being dragged along the rough river floor again. Suddenly, she felt a shift in the current, a slight tug to her side. Reactively, she managed to kick off the ground, and found herself lifting up and striking out with her forepaws. One leg caught on something and she was wrenched painfully to the side, out of the current and into a calm pool.

She burst to the surface, trying to breath, but her body refused to. She paddled desperately until her paws felt the ground beneath them. Sunny managed to scramble up the bank before she stopped, retching up water onto the ground. Her vision was a blurry jumble of dark grey and bright silver, and she suddenly realized she was lying on her side, though she didn't remember falling. She realized she still wasn't breathing and took a gulp of air before her vision started fading again. She took another breath and then she slipped into darkness.

--------------------------------------------------------------

When Sunny woke up, she was lying on a soft carpet of woven mosses and flowers. The sun was shining softly through the trees and birds were singing in the canopy. Everything was too perfect and serene, and she wondered if she was dreaming. She couldn't remember what she had been doing before she fell asleep, but she had a strange sensation of tightness in her chest.

Then she remembered: the river.

She scrabbled in panic, trying to get up, and felt a sharp pain in her right forelimb. With a yelp, she fell back into the mossy nest, whimpering and pulling her leg closer. It was wrapped in a poultice of leaves and moss, so she couldn't see what was wrong, but it stung as if she'd been scratched and one of her toes was throbbing painfully. Actually, her entire body ached.

"Don't try to move," a voice said firmly. Goby, the pack's healer, loomed over her. "You hurt yourself badly falling in the river like that. Your parents will speak with you when you're healed, but for now, you're staying here."

Sunny mumbled her assent, ears flat. She had always admired Goby's skill in healing, but she found him to be cold and rough, not caring very much for his patients. She'd thought he might be kinder if she had a worse injury than just a thorn in her paw, but clearly that wasn't the case.

She lay still, but every time she closed her eyes she saw an image of the black river, lapping hungrily at the riverbank below her. She shivered and then whined with pain from even the slight movement. Goby looked at her sharply.

"You need to sleep, Sunny," he said, his voice slightly gentler. "Otherwise you won't heal."

"I can't," she mumbled quietly. He pricked an ear and gave her a quizzical look, apparently not having heard. She said a bit louder, "I can't sleep."

Goby sighed and rummaged around in his herb stores, before padding to her side and dropping some flowers at her paws. One was large and pale purple with strange fuzzy curls on its petals, while the others were white with orange centers. "Eat them," he said. "They'll help."

She assumed that he meant they'd help her sleep, so she hesitantly bit into the flowers. They tasted earthy and slightly bitter, but not too unpleasant. She managed to eat most of them, before nudging a leftover white one to the side and spitting out a few stray petals. Then she lay back down, not wanting to bother Goby more.

Soon, she started to feel drowsy and calm. The world grew slightly blurry and she blinked, suddenly panicking, as she remembered the same thing happening… whenever she'd gotten out of the river. She lifted her head, breathing fast, then slowly relaxed again and began to feel silly. She put her head back down and after a few minutes actually dozed off.

--------------------------------------------------------------

"Sunny," said her mother, her voice firm. "You know pups aren't allowed to leave camp alone."

"Yes, mom," Sunny said, her head low as she glared at the dirt.

"Now you know why. It's dangerous, Sunny, and little pups-" She cut herself off, then said, "You shouldn't have taken Minnow out there."

Sunny startled, her eyes widening as she involuntarily looked up at her mother. "What?" she stammered, her ears flat in shock. "I didn't, it was her idea-"

"Sunny!" Sunfish snapped, her voice suddenly hard. Her daughter flinched and quickly looked back at the dirt, fur bristling in fear. "Minnow told me quite clearly that you convinced her to go. Of course, she would never have done it herself. You cannot blame your sister for your idea just because you got hurt by it!"

Sunny subtly turned her gaze to the side, to where Minnow was sitting alone in a patch of sun. For a minute, their eyes met; then Minnow turned away, her ears flat. Sunny stared after her in rage and disbelief.

"Sunny, look at me," Sunfish said, her voice suddenly composed again. Sunny turned back to her mother, trying and failing to hide the anger in her gaze. Sunfish's mouth twitched in displeasure, but she continued. "Since you were hurt, the pack agrees that you have been punished enough. Let this be a lesson to you."

Sunny's eyes flashed with defiance and Sunfish sighed. "Sunny, darling," she said in a sickeningly sweet voice. "This is for your own good, alright?"

Then she got up and walked away.

Sunny sat, frozen, bristling with disbelief. When she looked up next, Minnow was gone.