We fell asleep pretty soon after our match ended; of course, I had clearly been the victor and definitely hadn’t been pushed down by sibling No.4 while the others clamped their small jaws around my legs. “I’m not a veritable buffet for you to feast on!” is what I would have said if that had happened, though. Having completely forgotten about sibling No.2’s situation, we all collapsed in a heap away from the bedding area with not a care in the world.

Upon waking up, the first thing I noticed was a weird scent permeating the den. Opening my bleary eyes, I searched for the source of the smell to find Mother and Father with droopy ears as they were constantly nuzzling sibling No.2’s sleeping form. Feeling a little hungry, I padded over to Mother and whimpered for some milk but was ignored for sibling No.2. “Mother doesn’t love me anymore!” I cried internally, before staring at my sleeping sibling.

His wound seemed to have stopped bleeding, however there seemed to be some small insects buzzing around it.  The strange smell seemed to be coming off him…perhaps he needed a deep clean in a nearby pond. Padding over to him, I noticed Mother and Father not reacting to my presence which annoyed me. “Hey! I’m your child, too! Don’t play favourites!” I barked while stomping my front paw on the ground.

Father turned his attention on me, then nuzzled me before resuming his affection towards sibling No.2. “Am I only worth a small nuzzle, Father...?” Not wishing to be too much of a nuisance, I eventually quietened down and crept closer to sibling No.2. By this point, my other siblings had woken up and all echoed the actions I performed towards Mother. As with me, she ignored them all and continued nuzzling sibling No.2.

I have to say, I get relishing in our parents’ show of affection, but isn’t silently lying down and not moving at all a bit much? Thinking thus, I promptly decided it was time for sibling No.2 to wake up and to stop being lazy. Marching over to his sleeping face, I licked his eyes roughly before biting his nose. Mother growled at me before kicking me away. I repeat: Mother growled at me before kicking me away.

Seeing this shocking turn of events, my silly siblings all crowded around my crumpled, crying form and began to console me for the injustice I’d suffered. Sibling No.1 confidently went over to sibling No.2, obviously thinking that he’d have better luck than I. I do wonder, did I bear the look of schadenfreude when witnessing him getting kicked away just as I had?

After a session of consoling each other for being ignored by our parents, we decided to go outside to play – waiting for sibling No.2 to wake up on his own. Running around the area, we tackled one another, bit at each other’s ears, nipped at siblings’ legs, and overall had a wonderful time. When we could barely keep standing from the amount of exercise we’d done, we headed back into the den to see whether sibling No.2 had woken up yet, or not.

The stench inside was even worse than when I woke up. I noticed us all scrunch our noses in an effort to mask the smell and show our disdain over it. Mother and Father seemed to have not moved from their initial positions, apart from now looking forlorn and depressed. “Forlorn and depressed? What do I mean by those words?” Unsure of what they were feeling, I sidled up – more cautiously this time – and lightly nuzzled sibling No.2 to see if he was going to wake up.

It seemed that this time Mother wasn’t being aggressive, as she just lay down and stared lethargically while I attempted to rouse sibling No.2 from his apparently deep slumber. Noticing I wasn’t attacked by Mother this time, my other siblings soon crowded around to help wake up our lazy sibling. Father got up and headed out of the den with his ears still drooped and tail hanging low.

After a few minutes of licking sibling No.2, nibbling at his ears, jumping on top of him, and pulling at his tail with our mouths, we soon realised that he wasn’t going to wake up. Getting a little worried about his unusual silence, we started whimpering at him as if to coax him from his slumber. When that didn’t seem to work, we turned to Mother in confusion before realising we hadn’t eaten anything since waking up.

Mother seemed to finally realise we were her children as well, as she stood up and gave us some regurgitated termites from the night before. She even provided us with some of her delicious milk to help with the process of eating the mushy remains of termites. Wagging our tails at finally having a meal, Father re-entered the den and looked at Mother. I was a little curious at what he’d been up to and so scampered over to him and wagged my fluffy tail.

Father nuzzled me before licking my face, then moved over to Mother and nuzzled her, too. Mother then gathered sibling No.2’s stiff sleeping body in her mouth and carried him outside with her. Wondering where she was taking him, I began to follow only for Father to pick me up and carry me back to my other siblings who had started fighting over some leftover termites. I squirmed in frustration over how small and easy to pick up I was, but soon couldn’t complain due to the tangled mess of bodies that I was caught in the crossfire of. “Crossfire?...What…?”

After the fighting was over, we all began yawning from our very active day of playing and so padded over to our usual sleeping spot in the bedding area and lay on top of one another. I vaguely recall hearing Father leaving the den again when we were all sleeping, which made me wonder if he and Mother were secretly teaching sibling No.2 how to catch termites more efficiently. “The cheek! Treat your children equally!”

The next day, I woke up to see Mother and Father had returned – with them sleeping in postures that encircled my siblings and me. Crawling out of the warm blanket of bodies, I stretched and yawned – pushing my rear end in the air while my head lowered close to the ground. With a small tear formed in the corner of my eye, I blearily looked at my siblings and noticed that sibling No.2 wasn’t there. “Did he sneak out for more food while we were all sleeping?”

Roused by my movements, Mother lifted her head and watched me for a few seconds before standing up and nuzzling me affectionately. “Ahhh, this is the Mother I know. It feels so nice.” Getting engrossed in the loving actions, I failed to realised sibling No.1 had also woken up. I soon became aware once he had pounced on my back and dug his claws in before biting my ears and kicking me out of Mother’s reach. “Ah! No fair! Give me back my coddling time with Mother!”

My barking in protest at what had happened woke up the rest of the family, resulting in an all-out brawl between all of us siblings. I vaguely felt like I’d forgotten something important, with the word, “Dead,” floating in my mind, but I wasn’t really sure what that was or why I kept thinking it. It’s strange, though…when my thoughts turned to the missing sibling No.2, I felt different from when I had been angry, or happy…“Remorseful.” There was that word I didn’t fully understand again. Whatever the case may be, I hope to not feel it again since it somehow hurts without being physically painful, and I don’t like pain!