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The messenger had never been one for sleeping in. He required less sleep than the other slugcats, and as such he would almost always wake up before them. It was one of the many changes his creator had made to his body in order to make him a more efficient messenger. Nearly every night he would wake up before daylight, and do some tasks that needed to be done around the tree.
Tonight was no different. Waking up, he found himself in the warm, familiar embrace of another slugcat. He didn’t need to look to know that it Flower, the slugcat that had taken care of him during the worst time of his life. Even in the dim light inside the tree he was able to clearly see her beautiful yellow fur. Her face was pressed against his chest, a smile clearly present even while she slept. The rest of her body was pressed against his, her shorter stature resulting in her legs only coming slightly below his.
Admittedly he quite liked being in the embrace. The warmth of her body was very comfortable, and the fact that it seemingly helped her sleep was a nice bonus. Unfortunately there wasn’t much that could be done from this position, and he felt the need to go and do something productive. He also felt the desire to stay here in her embrace, before suppressing those desires. As he been conditioned to do by his creator.
Pulling himself away from Flower took some time. Not because he wasn’t trying, but because if he did it wrong he would probably accidentally wake her up. Seeing as how she needed her sleep, he considered such a result unacceptable. Pulling away, he stood up, and examined her. He noticed that her smile had faded, but other than that she seemed like she shouldn’t wake up. Another urge pushed him to go over to her and gently nuzzle her. Unlike the other one, he wasn’t able to suppress the urge to do this one, and gave in. Watching in silent satisfaction as a small smile appeared on her face once more.
He found it odd that she was able to make him do things without doing anything herself. It was even more strange that he didn’t mind it most of the time. No other slugcat had that kind of power over him. Why she able to hold that kind of power over him, he didn’t know.
Still he was now free to leave and do something productive. Moving silently through the tree he quickly found his way to the storage area. As the name would suggest the area was primarily used to store various items, from food to spears.
Knowing the importance of spears in hunting, he prioritized keeping the spears combat ready over most other tasks he could be doing. While the rebar used as spears were quite common, and would only get more common as the metal structure continued to decay, the quality of those spears was quite bad. Most of the time it would have trouble piercing the hide of a lizard, much less causing any long lasting damage, and don’t even bother trying to pierce the scales of a large centipede.
Grabbing the small stone he kept around for this purpose and a dull spear, he sat down and got to work. A few moments later he poked the tip of the spear, before deeming the spear sharp enough for general use. Setting it down beside him, he grabbed another dull spear, before sitting down and repeating the sharpening process.
In the middle of sharpening his fifth spear, he began to hear footsteps. Pausing his work he sat still, and listened to the sound. His enhanced hearing capabilities allowed him to identify the source of the footsteps, and he relaxed. Deducing that it was a slugcat coming to see him, he resumed his work.
From the tree’s hollowed branches emerged Flower, her face clearly showing her exhaustion. She locked eyes with him almost immediately, and rushed over to where he was working. Wrapping him in a hug she nuzzled his face. He returned the hug, feeling no small amount of guilt for having likely caused her to wake up.
Deciding that he could finish sharpening the spears another day, he began to get up. Hoping to lead her back to the nest where she would be able to go back to sleep. Flower however, wasn’t interested in going back to the nest. Taking hold of his paw, she began to pull him along with her, as she walked, some what clumsily, through the tree.
She seemed to have a destination in mind as they walked throughout the hollow branches of the tree. Although her exhaustion seemed to cause issues with her keeping balance. While the trip was slow they eventually arrived at a hole, leading to outside of the tree and onto one of its branches. Excited, she walked through the hole and onto the branch, dragging him along with her. The branch was large enough that there was little risk of falling off, so he had no issues allowing her to walk on her own even.
Letting go of his paw she sat down towards the edge of the branch, beckoning him to join her. Curiously, he sat down beside her and followed her gaze. In the distance he was able to see many more trees like the one that they currently resided in. All of them shining beacons of light into the darkness. It reminded him of the stars that he had once viewed whilst on top of a metal god. While not as pretty as the unobstructed night sky, it was still a breathtaking view.
Seeing his reaction, Flower smiled and leaned against him. Together they looked towards the lights of the trees in the endless expanse in front of them. The only thing that could make the view better in his opinion, was if the stars were visible. Clouds blocked the skies, even though they were outside of the area were the crushing rains fell.
He didn’t know how long they stayed there, but he enjoyed his time with her. Eventually he felt the weight on his shoulder grow heavier, as she began to fall asleep. Wrapping his arm around her, he pulled her closer. It was clear that she was fighting the urge to fall asleep as she forced her eyes to stay wide open, and he held her in order to keep her from accidentally falling off.
Something seemed to be bothering her as she looked away nervously, before turning back around and trying to his face down to meet hers. At first he resisted her pull, not understanding what she was doing. After a moment he gave in allowing his head to be pulled down, with his face getting very close to hers. Suddenly, she pressed her mouth against his. Almost immediately after, she let go and pulled her head back, a sheepish smile covering her face.
He felt his pulse rise as he sat there, unable to process what just happened. Emotions, thoughts, and urges and passed through his mind, and he was unable to make sense of any of it. None of them were new to him, but they had always been minor, easy to suppress. Very rarely would any of them come so strongly, let alone all at once.
Unable to control the emotions and hormones swimming through his brain, he did the only thing he could think of. Wrapping both of his arms around her, he pulled her as close as he possibly could and squeezed. Locking her in a tight grip he pressed his head against hers as he held her tightly.
Flower seemed to enjoy his reaction as her smile grew, and she nuzzled his face in return. Soon the rush of what she had just done started to fade, as they sat there and enjoyed the presence of each other. Eventually she was no longer able to resist the urge to go to sleep. As her eyes closed she slowly started to go back to sleep, a smile still on her face. Picking her up he took her back to their nest, and gently placed her inside. Her smile slowly faded as he backed away once more. Before leaving once again, he mimicked her earlier actions by giving her a kiss on the top of her head. Smiling to himself, as a smile reappeared on her face.
Heading back to the storage area his mind still hadn’t managed to clear yet, but a smile remained on his face as he got back to work sharpening spears.
Maybe one day he would be able to repay what she did for him today, but for now he had work to do.