Chapter Text
His feet pounded against the dry, rocky path of the greenest tree lined path on Mobius. the Great Forest... it was plentiful with berries, though the smell of those berries mocked him. Too high for him to reach, especially the rotten and gross ones on the ground.
As he stopped he started a raspy, painful coughing fit, his throat was painfully dry and his saliva wasn’t enough. It felt as though someone was talking nails and clawing the inside of his throat. He needed water badly.
The sun was not a help as it was scolding hot on his thick butter colored fur, having said fur made It even worse to be out here at the time of the smoldering hot sun, It hadn’t poured or even drizzled for over thirty days, he knew this because the geek part of him made it a point to track the weather.
His ears drooped as he panted, reaching his gloved paw up to wipe sweat off his forehead, he needed to find water for the camp, it was the task the "grown-ups" entrusted him with and he would not fail. This was his chance to show the others he wasn’t a baby anymore and he could completely take care of himself.
He kept walking for another twenty minutes, his legs were burning, and he couldn’t use his tails to fly from being over-used the couple days before, rendering them sore and useless.
He continued on and yelped at the sound of a snap, looking down, he sighed In relief as he saw the skinny wood twig underneath his paw, it was “nothing to worry about” he told himself. So continuing on his mary-way he was left with his thoughts, he wished badly that he could have a friend around his age to relate to–
He was almost immediately pulled out of his thoughts as he heard the smashing and sloshing of water against hard boulders, he had found the river! A rush of pride poured over him, gaining a confidence he had started to believe was evaporated by the burning sun.
When he reached the river, he bent down, degloving his paws to reveal black padded fuzzy yellow hands, small claws at the tip of every finger. he cupped his hands and repeatedly dipped them in the water, grabbing small handfuls of water and gulping it down in between breaths.
he finally stopped and dropped his backpack, zipping it open and pulling out a metal bucket that temporarily blinded him. he placed it in the water sideways, facing the open side of the bucket opposite of the way the water was rushing, it almost slipped from his paws but he made sure to adjust his hold. When he was finished he placed the bucket down and looked over his shoulder, taking a deep breath as he finally accepted he'd have to now take extra weight on the already rough journey.
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She sat on a wood log next to the blonde, quiet wolf. The two hadn't shared a word in the past thirty minutes, she didn't know if Whisper was still mad at her after referencing the diamond cutters. She felt horrible that she didn't realize how much it’d affect her friend.
The lemur’s long striped tail twisted around her body and wrapped her arms around the tail. She was just as quiet as her friend, she didn't want to make their situation worse. The two sat out on either side of the log, they were waiting for Tails to be back with the water. Lanolin and Amy both sat on another log directly in front of them, past the fire pit.
Lanolin was the most worried for the young fox, Amy kept reassuring her that the boy would be fine. Though the sheep had doubts, she tried to keep her confidence that the fox would return safely.
“He’s gonna be fine. I'm sure of it, Lan.” Amy gently reassured, her voice angelic and calm.
“Yeah– but what if we just sent the poor kid to his death...?” the sheep growled warily.
“He's eight years old darnit..!” Lanolin exclaimed but quieted herself down quickly.
Lanolin was constantly moving around and fidgeting with random things around her, she had made it painfully obvious she hated the idea since the second it was outwardly thought of to send out the youngest of them to take on such a vigorous task
Amy sat next to Lanolin with her hands intertwined and laid comfortably atop her dress-covered legs, she constantly tried to calm the unnerved sheep but her words were doing little to ease the sheeps grasp on the situation.
Tangle's eyes flicked between the two of them, sometimes even to the trees and fire. Everything had now looked interesting after her and Whisper's conversation, God she hated the silence between them two.
Please say something, she thought desperately
Pleasepleaseplease — she hated the silence so much it felt like she was in that tight dark safe, again, as if she was about to start suffocating from the lack of space and oxygen around her. Her vision blurred and she could barely register the noise coming from the pink, blurry blob a couple feet in front of her.
Suddenly she was met with a gentle apprehensive hug from her side, soft, gentle whispering in her ear.
“Follow me, alright…?”
She nodded very subtly
“1 deep breath in…”
She took one deep breath in
“1 deep breath out..”
She breathed out calmly and the world came back to her, her vision slowly but surely returning normally.