Lunar Heart, Shadow Bound ✓ [when the moon lies]

Ch.1: Escaping Responsibility

Edited: Aug, 24, 2020

Note: Character art by Moyari_08 

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Pinti twitched her whiskers, frustrated when she lost the scent of the squirrel again. Grimacing, she searched around the forest floor and found it. This time, she didn't let go. Following the scent, she ran through the forest leaving her sister behind. Bushes snagged on loose fur and she left behind tufts of blue, but she didn't stop.

The forest began to thin. Uneven terrain flattened out. Her heart thumped. The edge of clan borders lay ahead. The squirrel rounded a tree and disappeared, taking the scent with it.

"Not again!" Pinti scowled and only then did she stop. She could tell smells apart but following them was a whole other story. Her clan's Hunters trained all the time to follow scents for catching prey. Sometimes, the Hunters would even look stupid—she'd seen them. Making sure her sister hadn't caught up yet, Pinti dropped down on all fours like an animal to get a good whiff of the dirt. But she wasn't a Hunter, so the scent was lost.

"I know what scents," she grumbled as she stood, brushing dirt from her paws. "Just not where scents."

Before her was the barricade—a wall made of tangleroot trees with crooked black branches and jutting tangling roots that prevented them from going out. But there was one place, a small opening, that she knew she could fit under. And maybe this time she could go all the way and not just poke her head out.

Do I dare try? She wondered with a smirk, swishing her bushy light blue tail back and forth in thought. Never once had she thought of sneaking out, but right now it sounded a lot better than trying to find the vanished squirrel.

"There you are!" Her sister came panting behind her, not exactly the fastest runner, but always determined to keep up. She flopped down on the ground in a pile of wet leaves. The little blue bundle stretched out and whined. "Can't run anymore."

Pinti trilled in amusement. "Oh, but we're just getting started."

As her sister, Tendri, groaned, Pinti closed her eyes to test her nose. If she concentrated hard enough, she could find scents far from where she stood—something she called, 'stretching senses'. With that, she could imagine where those scents were using her acute sense of hearing if there was anything to listen to. Now at the edge of Makiista Clan's borders, she wanted to see how far she could stretch her senses. Hunters of prey would train years to be able to do what she did.

"Father will be so mad you're not studying." Tendri chided, but Pinti flattened her ears and ignored her. She didn't want to study. She didn't want to take after the clan like her father wanted her to. Every day was like duty had its claws around her, holding her captive.

What if I just leave? She trembled with excitement at the new thought. Not just beyond the barricade. What if I go to other Rings? Then I'll surely have to rely on my senses. Satisfied with her rebellious decision, she concentrated on the scents and sounds around her.

She smelled the musty wet soil from yesterday's misty rain. And there was the sweet scent of flowers and new-green for spring was on its way. With her ears she listened, hearing the insects scuttle beneath the leaves and grasses; hearing the single stream that stretched beyond clan borders, across the field she was forbidden to go, and into the territories of other clans. The water-loving Prendai Clan was closest. Some days, if Pinti snuck outside the tangleroot barricade, she would catch a glimpse of another young Kathula just like her having poked his head out from underneath his barricade.

Longing for adventure like me? Pinti swished her tail in excitement and searched for the fishy scent of the young Prendai male, but he wasn't there. Pursing her lips, she swiveled her senses away from Prendai Clan to travel through the vast field. Even without opening her eyes she could see just as clearly as if she were standing right there. Some others in her clan could do the same thing, but they weren't as adventurous as Pinti.