It was another dreary morning as the sun arrived and drove back the darkness which had enveloped the world just minutes before. Eline couldn’t help but look at the sun rising over the horizon as it started to shine into the depths of her humble abode. She may call this cave her humble abode, but she knew that this was just until the original owner comes back or a new owner comes and takes it. She has no right to a luxury like a home.
Eline decided it would be best to be gone before either kind of owner could come and find her here. After all, when a weak creature like her dares to take a home there will be consequences with the most lenient being a few broken bones. She let out a grimace from the pain as she slowly got onto her legs. As Eline stood she had no choice but to check her wounds again, both of her front legs were covered in dried blood, from her or her opponent from last night is not even known to her, there were a few small cuts long the tops of her legs but it is nothing serious that could stop her from moving. Alas it came time to look at the source of her current pain as she turned her head to the right to take a look at the long gash running from the middle of her ribcage on the side to the knee cap on the right hind leg.
The battle last night had been the hardest trial of her life, yet she would not let such a quarrel stop her on her path. Nevertheless now is not the time to reminisce on the events of last night her current priority was to get out of this cave alive and to find some food. Just walking left Eline hissing in pain with each step, but she continued using pure determination to stay alive. Soon she found herself outside of the cave and in the tall grass when she heard a large creature approaching. She decided to speed up, but also try to make the least amount of sound possible lest she alert the other of her presence here. As she reached a few feet from the cave she heard the sound of scales rubbing against hard stone and couldn’t help but have her heart lurch for a second.
Considering the presence, size, and sound of scales, the one who is making the cave its home now, whether it was the original owner or not being irrelevant, is likely a Giant Horn Snake, a third stage magical beast. Lucky for Eline is that the Snake appears to be tired and couldn’t be bothered for a small morsel of meat that was her. She made sure to hurry on her way before the snake changes its mind and decides it wants a quick snack before bed. After a short run full of pain but fueled by fear Eline collapsed over the root of a tree some ways away from the cave she woke up in. She looked back at her wound on her side only to see it bleeding once again.
Eline clicked her tongue in annoyance, yet reality was that it was but a front to hide her fear, as bleeding out in an injured state is an amazing way to gather all the hungry creatures within a couple dozen feet. She started to lick the wound in the hopes that doing so would stop the scent from going too far and to stop the bleeding quicker. Her rough tongue on her open wound couldn’t be called anything other than painful, but it seemed to be effective as her wound soon stopped bleeding and no creatures came to find trouble during the time she was healing. With a sigh of relief Eline started on her way again to find food and now water as she was quite thirsty from her short run. Fortunately she could hear the sound of a river nearby and decided to follow the sound in hopes that maybe some weak mice might be getting a drink currently and allow her to solve her food problem while getting a drink.
Slowly coming to a stand Eline started to head to the water with high hopes.after 10 minutes of slow walking she arrived at the bushes next to the river. She decided to come to a stop to check for predators or even prey. After waiting for another 20 minutes there were no movements whatsoever, she suddenly realized something. Even with a river nearby when she was bleeding out no creatures came, she was likely in the middle of some powerful creatures territory and they don’t dare come here for water.
As Eline was starting to panic she heard a cracking sound come from her left side causing her to almost jump up and run. Yet as she turned her head to look at what made the sound she saw a peculiar sight. One of the rocks near the river in the clearing to her left suddenly had a gaping hole revealing it’s hollow inside. The opening in the rock resembled that of a hole in an egg shell.
After she came back to reality from the peculiar sight of a rock egg she finally noticed a small cub laying on the broken shell pieces gasping for air. Not only was this a strange sight to see a cub come out of an egg let alone a rock egg this cub’s color was also odd. The cub was pitch black in color, no its beyond black it almost looked like it was sucking in the light nearby the cub. In fact the color of the cub actually stood out from the soundings worse than a peacock would with its tail open. Eline couldn’t help but grimace at the complete lack of appropriate camouflage for day time situations as she was a similar complete black but she at least wasn’t black enough to draw attention to herself in the day time.
In the time that Eline was thinking to herself the cub seemed to have finally gotten its breath back and suddenly stood up bringing Eline back from her thoughts. The cub then looked around and stared at the water nearby, excitement filled its eyes as it started to bound over to the water. Eline couldn't help but be baffled at the extreme enthusiasm towards water. Suddenly Eline remembered her own thirst and then consequently her hunger as well.
For a second Eline let her thoughts wander to eating the small cub that seems to have just hatched. But she soon discarded that idea as it appeared to be a variant of her species known as Night Black Panthers, known for their exceptional night hunting capabilities, and besides she was only 4 months old herself and couldn’t think to end the life of a fellow panther herself. But just because she wasn’t willing to kill it didn’t mean she was willing to help the just born creature so she decided to just also head to the water and grab a drink while observing the actions of this new cub.
Just as she started to move towards the river the cub suddenly didn’t stop to drink but instead jumped straight into the river. Eline was surprised at first but just thought of it as the variant being especially good at swimming so it's ingrained in its instincts. Yet as she finally reached the edge of the river she looked up again only to be shocked motionless. The cub wasn’t swimming in the sense of the word, it was drowning. Eline couldn’t think for a second as she was stuck on why it would jump into the river then. A few seconds passed before Eline came back to, the cubs movements were already starting to slow.
For some reason she felt panic at the fact that the cub was drowning, but she was injured and could barely swim herself so she didn’t jump in. But as time passed the panic she was feeling only increased as the cub continued to slow down. Abruptly Eline heard a sound seem to echo in her brain
“I had only just come out but now I will have to wait for another cycle!”.
Eline couldn’t understand the meaning behind the words but she sensed the unwillingness and anger coming from the statement. Before she knew it she realised she was already in the water swimming towards the cub beyond any of her conscious control. Despite the pain eating away at her as she swam her body persisted in its movements dying the river red with the blood on her and coming out of the once again reopened wound on her side. As she finally reached the cub she had already stopped even thinking to resist the course of events and just decided to use her mouth to grab onto the scruff of the cubs neck and started to swim back ashore.
When Eline finally made it back shore she kept moving, instinctively feeling that the rock egg the cub came from is a safe place. She brought the unconscious cub there before collapsing in the corner of the egg from blood loss and exhaustion.
