“Warmth…Comfy…Feels nice. Hmm?”

Feeling a wet and sticky sensation on my head, I opened my tired eyes and saw darkness. The wet movements ceased as I felt a soft nudge against my cheek. “Hmm?” I turned to look at what was nudging me and saw a large, furry creature nuzzling me. A familiar scent entered my nose which immediately caused my body to lower the guard I had subconsciously put up and relax. “Ah, this is a nice scent.”

The creature moved away from me and began licking a bundle of fur beside me. Turning my head to watch, I noticed a tinier and fluffier version of the large creature. Tilting my heavy head, I ended up toppling over and hitting the ground only to realise there was another tiny fluffball under me. That’s when I noticed it: I was the same as these creatures. “Aardwolf.” I don’t know why but the word just popped into my head as I observed the stripes running along the back and bushy tail of what I assumed to be my mother. Noticing my falling over, Mother turned her attention to me and bit the back of my neck – carrying me to an empty spot before nuzzling me again. She then went back to licking my siblings who were yet to open their eyes.

After a few minutes of watching while lying down, Mother eventually picked each of us up – one by one – and placed us all in a line before resting on her side. Wondering what was going in, I noticed the sibling next to me slowly move to a protrusion on Mother’s belly before sucking on it. A sweet scent wafted in the air, causing my stomach to rumble. “Hungry.” Acting on instinct, my body moved closer to another protrusion on Mother’s belly and I, too, began to suck.

“Mmnh?! What is this delightfully delicious stuff?!” Feeling an urge to consume more, I sucked harder and swallowed the sweet liquid coming out of Mother. “Tired.” Within several minutes of me gulping down mouthful after mouthful, I eventually felt I could no longer have any more. Feeling an overwhelming sense of drowsiness, I swiftly collapsed and drifted into slumber – as did my siblings.

+++

“…What is this…?”

Opening my eyes, I was in another place. No longer inside a small hole underground, I was standing on the edge of a cliff with my back to the precipice. Instead of the four legs I still couldn’t properly control, I was standing on two. No fur could be seen on my body, and a strange sensation was felt whenever I moved…like having a layer of not-fur on me.

Unsure of what was happening, I had no control over my own body as I watched the scene before my eyes pan out: In front of me were several other not-family members, all carrying something and fending off attacks from much larger creatures. Some of them made noises… “…Words…What are words?” Not understanding this current quandary of mine, I continued to observe this strange scene as my own body swung forward – striking down a large beast.

“You disloyal scum! Do you not realise what you’ve done?!” I seemed to…say? Whatever say even meant… “…Why do I know it is say…?” Watching through this creature’s eyes, I presumed, I saw  several not-family members motion for other beasts to attack us on the cliff’s edge. Before I realised what had happened, a blinding flash of light glared throughout the entire area as a sense of weightlessness overcame me.

+++

“…My head hurts…”

I woke up amidst a bundle of warmth and comfort, provided by my siblings, and found myself suffering a severe headache. Not able to bear the pain, I found my tiny body producing little whimpering sounds which drew the attention of Mother and who I presumed to be Father. Mother lifted her head in my direction, before being nuzzled by Father(?), then rested it back on the ground.

Feeling distraught over Mother already abandoning me, I began to whimper more loudly. However, I soon realised that Father(?) was coming to my rescue instead. Picking me up by the scruff of my neck, he carried me in his mouth to Mother and placed me between them. He then licked me all over before lightly nibbling at my sensitive ears. “Ahhh, so nice!” Distracted by the soothing sensations, my headache became a forgotten memory of the past as I quickly fell asleep once again while snuggling into Father(?)’s fur. “So comfy!”

Nahrenne

Hi, Nahrenne here! Here's the first chapter for my Adventum contest entry, I hope you're liking it so far!

Anyway, I thought I'd just pop this author's note in to show you what an adult aardwolf and pup look like. By the way, I don't own these pics, I found them on Google image search.

Spoiler

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They're a variant of hyena from Africa that are insectivores and thought they'd be an interesting animal to choose for my story. Thank you for reading this chapter! I hope it intrigued you enough to read more.

>w<

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