Violent Homecoming

[Sky Lily]

(continued from the Meadow thread "So Much Grass" )

Zan it zan it zan it... what the heck is happening to this place?!

Creamy-gold paws stepped lightly over the dead leaves as a distraught feline trudged on through the undergrowth, his sleek dark gray shadow washing along the forest floor, his green eyes wide with alarm and wariness.

What had started out as a (literally) shaky morning had quickly turned into a disturbing afternoon... what had originally been a plan to take a break away from his den (just a short while, was that too much to ask?!) had now backfired and become a mission to race back to his home with panicking regret. And what had started out as a nice stroll under the noonday sun had gradually turned into a very somber, very urgent trot through the woods as the pulsating movements of the earth underneath his paw pads grew stronger and stronger the closer that he came to Deep Forest’s river.

Overall, this had become a very bad day.

In fact, the clouded leopard had reason to believe that this was the worst of all of his bad days. The worst.

But besides that, it also seemed to be one of the strangest in his life.

Being someone who never thought himself very fond of children, Neto never would have expected to be taking a walk through the sunlit woods with an energetic forest child skipping at his side. Though, to be honest, he didn’t quite mind this. He had come across Willow in the Meadow Of Peace, and since then had promised to bring her to his den, where the two would be safe from any possible forest fires. The girl had quickly deemed him a friend of hers and had given him a gift in return for his kindness toward her- a peculiar necklace string with a lavender feather that still hung from his neck even now.

However, also being someone who took it for granted that the world was a fairly sane place, he never, never in his life would have thought that one day he’d be living in a land that held earthquakes, explosions, and pulsating ground-waves all in the same day. Now this, he minded a great deal.

The clouded leopard was struggling to not lose control of the mental panic brewing in the back of his mind. Endless questions flooded his thinking. Was the forest falling apart? Was the world finally ending? Could someone have shot a hole into the sun and warped every law of the universe?

More importantly, could they get to his home in time? Did that even matter if the world was ending?

Whatever the situation, his main instinct was to remain as calm as he could be, and to make sure that Willow was kept safe throughout whatever was happening. So he continued heading east at a brisk pace, allowing Willow to ride on his back whenever his speed grew too tiring for her.

However, as the hours passed by the territory began looking familiar to him once more. With a breath of relief and some new anxiety, Neto realized that he was getting much closer to his own den. Relief because he knew he would be home soon. Anxiety because he did not know what terrible sight awaited him.

And then something strange happened. Before the clouded leopard could take a fifth step past his territory’s borderline, the pulses just... stopped.

There was nothing. No bird calls. No fly buzzings. Even the wind seemed to have come at a stand-still.

What the hell...

Somehow, this seemed even more troubling than the previous hiccups of the ground. Deeply affected by the deathly silence, Neto made it a point to get to his home as soon as possible, going at something a little faster than a trot this time. Like always, Willow either ran beside him or rode on his back, depending on her energy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By the time Neto reached the bank of his river, it was late in the afternoon. The sky had ripened into a deep blue, but it wasn’t so dark that one would mistake it for nightfall. Soft whisps of clouds were cast around the sky, though definitely not enough to cover the blank blue background.

The clouded leopard scanned his home with wide aqua-green eyes. To his numb shock, everything seemed perfectly normal. His earth-and-stone den, which was now visible to the eye, looked just as compact and stable as it had this morning. The air, though thick with an almost palpable tension, smelled slightly electric to him but held no scent of smoke or flames. The moist spring grass seemed even greener than the last time, and the river itself was quite peaceful and uncaring of the world around it. It flowed by smoothly, although Neto couldn’t see any fish under its surface.

However, everything was empty. Normally there were plenty of birds around this place. Lots of animals, actually. Water attracted a great deal of life. But right now, it seemed as if Neto and Willow were the only creatures here at all. Even the dark leafy trees were still, without a wind to sway their branches.

The clouded leopard flattened his ears, a soft and nervous growl rumbling in his throat. “Well, at least we’re here, right?” he said before shaking his head as if to get rid of an itch. He looked back at Willow and tried to give a small smile as he gestured at his cave-den. “You see that over there? It looks like a pile of rocks from this angle, but when you go around it you’d see that it’s more of a den. That’s what I call home. It’s nice and huge and it should fit us bo-”

He was interrupted when something in the distance made a vicious, sickening tear.

Neto felt as if his stomach had just been stretched and tied into a thousand knots. He had never heard anything like that, and the sound had made his muscles go stiff as he inched closer to Willow. “What the...”

And without warning, his words were suddenly and mercilessly drowned out by the heavy and powerful sounds of the very earth being torn apart.

The clouded leopard gripped the ground under him with his claws, feeling his paw-pads tingling with the sensation of the rumbling dirt beneath his feet. It, too, seemed on the brink of self destruction, and as the sounds grew more deafening and the forest floor more violent he nudged against the green-haired girl. He opened his mouth and tried to tell her to get to the cave, but found himself unable to focus with all the noise ringing in his head.

And as the earth tore more and more beyond the trees lining his small clearing, things began to fly. At first Neto thought that it might be birds fleeing the area, and indeed there were a few birds in the chaos. However, most of what came flying his and Willow’s way were armfuls of dirt, grass and all, being tossed through the sky. In the mess he could make out the flying shapes of stones and rocks, thin branches, even young two-foot-tall trees. Small rodents and the like had also found themselves air-borne.

The river behind him began to plash and sputter as the objects hit its bright sparkling surface, groaning and bubbling in indignation. As a stone whizzed past his ear and a mound of soil splashed on his face, Neto circled himself around Willow to act like a shield, hoping and praying that the girl wouldn’t be stupid enough to crawl away from his hold. His heart was racing wildly and his fur was standing on end as his claws continued to grip his ground tightly, wishing with all his might that at least he and Willow wouldn’t get flung into the air like that.

Make it stop, the cat’s thoughts roared, screamed repeatedly. Make it stop make it stop make it stop!

A heavy boulder the size of a small dog crashed landed no more than a yard by him.

[Gaeva Winged Unicorn]

Willow kept by Neto's side whenever she could, either walking, running or skipping along in the direction of the River. At first she didn't really want to accept the feline's offer of riding on his back, but as her small feet and legs grew tired she felt she had no choice if they wanted to reach the den before nightfall. As soon she first climbed on however, she caught on to the advantages of being carried around. It left her open to look around at her leisure, move at a much faster pace, and most importantly, feel like a queen on top of the world. And that she liked. After that first ride she had no problem climbing back on with a giggle the moment her feet gave a hint of an ache.

The quakes and other disruptions that gave Neto such a worry provoked a different reaction from the girl. Her giggling at what could only be interpreted as possible danger was exactly what had drawn Neto to her at the Meadow, but she soon learned that laughing was not an attitude appreciated by her new friend, so she held back. As she rode on his back, safe from his view, she grinned however, tossing her head back to let her long green curls ride like a flag behind her. But even this she cut back after she stumbled once while running next to Neto, and only the feline's quick reflex kept her from going face first to the ground. After that she made sure to put on a more appropriate scowl on her face as the very ground beneath them made their travels just that much harder and longer.

The little girl didn't really keep a conversation going when she noticed Neto was too preoccupied with their surroundings, so kept it to a minimum of questions of where they were going, what it looked like, if he always used the same paths, and a few similar curious questions. Otherwise she remained silent. Until the sudden stop in tremors. Willow looked around them in wonder, up the tall trees, at the very ground beneath their feet and paws, then a giggle escaped her. She quickly slapped her hands in front of her mouth and ran to catch up with Neto again, but could not resist an excited, yet hushed question, "Do you feel that??" The girl kept looking around, as if seeing the forest for the very first time, and with more awe in her large purple eyes than she had shown so far.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Finally they arrived at their destination! Willow knew they were close just by looking at Neto, his every move seemed to scream he was close to what he considered safety. She smiled now with satisfaction, "Almost there! Almost there! Almost there! Almost there!" she sang softly as her run changed to a skip once more. "Almost there...we're almost there, right, Neto? Yeah, we're almost there!" she chatted without waiting for a reply. Then the felines topped and so did the girl, eagerly scanning the area, and even the river itself, but saw no obvious sign of a den. Frowning she looked over at her friend, catching him doing a similar scan, though looking for something else.

Willow was about to ask him where his den was, when he pointed out his home to her. Blinking the little girl turned her head in the indicated direction, and spotted the rocks mentioned. The explanation that followed made the little girl stare with open mouthed wonder. It wasn't so much the fact that the entrance was hidden, but the idea her new friend living in a cave with a similar requirement to get inside as a place she'd resided in before in the mountains. That place had held a special meaning to her.

As Neto continued to explain Willow turned to look back at him with a huge smile on her face, her eyes practically sparkling with joy, when they were interrupted by a awful sound unlike any of the others they had heard so far while traveling. Startled the little girl also moved closer to Neto, placing a little hand on his back without looking. Her eyes were turned upwards, scanning the sky. Her brow furrowed as her expression grew more serious, still looking around them as the sound grew worse. Even so she gasped when they were pelted with dirt, barely missed by several objects that could have done serious harm to either or both of them. Willow made no objection as Neto turned to shield her, and made herself smaller by dropping to the ground on her knees, flinging her arms around one of the feline's front legs.

"This is it, Neto!" she yelled up, "It's happening!" With that she burrowed her face into the feline's upper leg fur, keeping a hold tight onto his leg. Still, she could not help the shaking of her body, increasing with the sounds of heavy objects crashing around them, pelting them with even more dirt and water from the impact.

[Sky Lily]

OOC: Finally thought of something xD

BIC:

Neto was relieved beyond words when Willow made no complaint to his hold on her, but her cries, though barely audible against the noise of the tearing earth, sent a chill down his throat.

"This is it, Neto! It's happening!"

He could feel the forest child burying herself even deeper into his fur, her short arms squeezing his elbow. She might have been shaking, but if she was he couldn’t even tell. The ground was just too violent.

Water splashed against his side- no doubt from the river. He briefly considered swimming across with Willow on his back, if only to get farther away from the rocks and soil being thrown all over the place, but the never-ending earthquake would more likely pull them both underwater and drown them.

The clouded leopard cringed and snarled as something sharp was flung against his shoulder, and he lifted his head with the faintest hope that maybe that was the last thing in the air at all. He narrowed his eyes against the still bright sun, scanning the skies...

And that’s when he saw the tree.

The tree that was hurling itself toward them from the very heavens.

And it was quite big.

“Willow!” Neto yowled as he started to back away. “Tree! TREE!” He found it hard to move and looked down to see the girl still holding tightly onto his leg. “Willow, come on!”

The way things were going, they might have to run for his cave after all. Or better yet, find a way across the river.... How could he trust his cave to not collapse on them both the moment they went in?