Returning To The Burrow

Waking up in my bed of leaves I stretched and yawned and reached for my siblings so I could use them for warmth, opening my eyes I was in my cave, loneliness crept in my mind. I missed them, hopefully, mother got them back to the burrow and away from those filthy spiders. Looking about the empty cave there was only my leaf bed, the fur, and the meat. I stood up and grabbed the large chunk of meat and took a bite, there wasn't much to gain from it other than to fill my belly as most of the life energy had drained out from it while I slept.

Looking at the pelts I had a thought, I grabbed them and made a few strips from a piece and made a few cuts with my claws, a few minutes later I had a piece of fur hanging from my waist to my knees. It definitely wasn't anywhere close to what my protector had been wearing but it felt right and it protected a rather sensitive of my body, such a weak point shouldn't be shown to the world, it was just asking for trouble. It did provide some warmth even if there was a refreshing breeze as I moved about my cave, I took another bite of meat and walked out of my cave and into the sun. The warm light leaking through the branches above like small beams of light, I walked to where I had buried her and patted the dirt that covered her.

Closing my eyes I played back all that happened a few days back, from leaving the burrow to my narrow escapes with death which had lead to my evolution into whatever I was now. I don't think I had become a god as my elders had talked about, my small form was quite evident of that, whatever she had been I knew her people were strong and fast though they weren't invincible. She had let her guard down for only a moment and it had been the end of her, and if it could happen to her then it could happen to anyone. This was both a good and a bad thing, I could use this method to hunt stronger opponents as most beasts could not scheme in deep plots. Now that I had evolved I could feel my thoughts becoming more clear, some concepts that hadn't occurred to me before were more obvious. Like when we were ambushed by that first spider, it was obvious that the danger could only come from above if all other places were clear of any threats.

Sadness and anger welled up in me as the ambush was still fresh in my mind, my chest felt tight my eyes and nose burned as I remembered the cries of my siblings during the ambush, I knelt beside the pile of dirt and wept. I wanted to find my mother and the rest of the clan and make sure they were alright, I wiped away the tears and snot from my face and turned towards the bloody battlefield. I climbed into a nearby tree and moved along the thick branches back towards where the massacre happened, from there I would look for where I was injured and backtrack to the burrow.

The trip to the bloody field was quick and quiet, anything that lived in this area had fled, died, or was still hiding. There were no large corpses left, and hardly any small ones either, the scavengers and large beasts had cleaned up the field rather quickly. Most of the damage in the area was unchanged with only a few new areas that had seen small scuffles, it made it a little easier to find my original path to the field.

I followed what felt like the right path back towards the site of the ambush, I moved slowly towards the nest of spiders and centipedes, I constantly checked above and below my path for any traps. I slowly made my way to a small clearing, looking around I saw a tree that had a blood stain and cracked bark, there were also a few bent and broken branches below the stain. Looking about I saw a few pieces of insect carapace on the ground and ripped webbing in the branches above. This was it, I crept along my branch until I arrived at where our mother had led us into the clearing, I hadn't seen any spiders or centipedes, they had either died or had to leave after the large battle.

I started to follow along the path that led back to the burrow, I stayed vigilant the entire way just in case the spiders had moved in this direction. As I got closer to the burrow I looked around again before I started to run to my home, I leaped over a large vine and ducked under a low hanging branch, my home was just around the next few trees. I push myself to run a little faster until I stopped in my tracks, there it was, my home was still there.

Taking in a breath I started to follow the branches towards the entrance, climbing up I saw the entrance to my home except the entrance was ripped wide open. Massive scratches and claw marks were on the tree close to the entrance, taking a closer look I saw patches of fur and puddles of blood near the entrance.