Burrow

Request to readers from the author
This story was created by Paliesum.

Also, credits to Safetyfireluv for making the cover! :D

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Prologue
Evelyn finished eating the last of her berries, and began going into her burrow... she was a badger, after all. There was a small, wrinkled fodder blanket, and there was small greasy golden tattering all around the blanket. Evelyn sighed, and thought, This is it, I'm going to give birth.

She would've been the first badger in Jamaa to give birth. Most animals of Jamaa thought Baxter was the only badger ever in Jamaa, and thought very much of him. But anyways, back to the scene.

Evelyn padded over to the small fodder sheet, and laid her soft little russet belly onto the sheet of yellow, and peered down at the small lump on her belly, and began straining.

Sweat cruised down her cheeks, now a shade of bright amaranth. But she had to keep trying.

Suddenly, blood leaked out of her belly and soaked the fodder bright red. Slowly, one by one, five small baby badger cubs began rolling out, their heads covered in blood, and they were wounded. One of them had a black eye.

Evelyn opened her eyes, her stomach aching. She was glad the pain was over, and scrutinised the badger cubs. They all began slowly opening their eyes, and smiled merely at their mother, then closed their eyes again. The only one that didn't open their eyes was the smallest one, with the black eye.

Evelyn checked all the cubs' genders, and began coming up with names at the top of her head. "Liam," she muttered, pointing at the biggest one. "William," she mumbled at the one that was sucking it's tiny little paw happily. She peered at one that was sprawled across her paws. Benji, she thought, looking at its chubby little face.

Evelyn got to her paws, and walked over to the other side of the burrow, where the smaller cubs were. They were both girls. She started with the slightly bigger one, who had a smile plastered on her face, and was very beautiful, in Evelyn's opinion.

"Lacey," she muttered, slowly and carefully. Then she reached the one with the black eye. She found this name almost instantly.

"Ah," she replied, looking at the small cub. "I think you're going to be Bliss." Evelyn beamed at her, and replaced the fodder blanket with some clean straw, and gave herself and the cubs a nice bath.

All of them were asleep at the time, and Evelyn was more happy than ever.

At around 8 o' clock, when the cubs were snoozing on the fresh straw, Evelyn wanted to go tell Mira and Zios, knowing they would be proud. But they weren't around anymore. Maybe I could tell the alphas... she thought, but then paused to stare at the cubs, because she was sure she saw Bliss open one eye and wink at her.

She turned her head again to concentrate washing off the blood off the fodder, and then boom. Bliss had teleported right in front of Evelyn.

She dropped all the fodder in fright, staring at her like she was about to go and kill someone. Bliss opened both eyes, and touched a claw to the the eye that had a blackcurrant-coloured ring around it, and with a small sparkle, the black eye faded.

Evelyn couldn't do much but watch in awe. She had to tell her husband, Baxter. But she knew that he was doing night shifts at Coral Canyons, working for 8 hours, and he always came home utterly exhausted.

Bliss leapt up on her shoulder like a little parrot, and began chanting, "Mira and Zios come back, Mira and Zios, but they didn't hack, Mira and Zios, if you please, come to the mother who hates blue cheese."

Evelyn was shocked that Bliss just happened to know all these crucial facts, and suddenly a small, ghostly shadow of Mira and Zios appeared in front of them, like fireworks. Evelyn began to feel light-headed, and it wasn't long before she fainted, and Bliss teleported back, sleeping calmly, like nothing happened.

Evelyn later awoke strangely in a mysterious car, but it seemed strangely familiar to something.

Chapter One: Hope
''The small purple fox began leaping over the rocks in the stream. The current was getting stronger and more brutal, and the fox was careful not to slip. But suddenly, there was a huge current that came ploughing through the purple fox's way. Her paw was on the edge of the rock, but the current sloshed over her paw, stray with cuts, and the purple fox was blown off the rock and floated away, deep down until she reached the end of the waterf- BAM!''

Bliss slammed the book shut, her eyes sparkling with tears. She hated sad stories, but had a whole collection of her books were all tragic, emotional, and heartbreaking.

She had these ever since she was four, but after her mother's tragic death, when she was eight years old. Bliss had become more and more emotional over sad stories, which involved death.

She was always the quiet, ambitious, clever, loyal and cautious cub of the family. Well, she wasn't a cub anymore. She was eighteen now, and lived with her four siblings; Liam, William, Benji and Lacey.

Liam was rambunctious, playful, cheerful, and brave, that being strange because he was the eldest, but the brave part seemed understandable.

William was ambitious, cunning, moody and a great fighter. He loved having little tug-a-wars with the middle child, Benji.

Benji was loyal, hardworking, confident and had a small thirst to prove himself, making him a little bit like William, but he tried not to be the twin of him though.

Lacey was the eldest girl, being beautiful, clever, caring and had a huge heart. She was always trying to help Bliss cope with the death, even though it had been ten years since it had happened, and sometimes Bliss could hear her weeping softly through the other room. She looked at the cover of the book, crouching on her paws in her bed. Slipping, it read, in big bold letters. By Evelyn Badmont. Bliss paused. This book was made by her mother? She flipped through all the books. All of the sad ones said, By Evelyn Badmont. She grimaced in disgust, hauled all the emotional books on the floor and stepped on them, waiting for the covers to crack, and threw them all in the bin.

She then had an emotional breakdown, and listened to the sizzling sounds of Liam and Lacey cooking, and the olive oil raining from the top of the sickle frying pan and it pouring satisfyingly down onto the platinum surface, and putting whatever was for dinner into the pan, making tiny dents on the silver palette.

--

~*~

Knock, Knock.

Bliss heard soft knocks on her door. She sighed, and turned the knob to see Lacey.

She was wearing her favourite chef's apron, with stains, bits of tomato and oil plastered on it. She nodded at Bliss, beaming.

"Who's hungry, my little lion cub?" Lacey said cheerily, like the way their mother used to say it. When she was six, she would respond with, "I am, I am!", and rush to the kitchen, and wolf down her serving, and then choke out many bits of food on the table. But now, she was older, and knew her mother was gone and her father hardly ever got to see her, due to depression and late night shifts at work.

Today, she replied with, "Lacey, don't say that when you know Mama's gone. It makes me upset, just call me the normal way, please." she responded solemnly, gesturing to her to leave. Lacey nodded, and Bliss heard a small yell of, "Bliss is coming soon, William! And yes, you can start eating now, Benji."

She slowly trudged to the kitchen, where all her siblings were sitting on small lambskin stools, and there were minute tables in front of them. Benji was finishing his 3rd serving of dinner, while William handed her a bowl of pasta, sliced tomatoes, and two fried birds eggs, with a glass of water. She accepted this gratefully and began chewing happily, but not daring to smile.

She would never smile again, and had forgotten how to, and the next ten minutes were sounds of crunching, chewing, belching, guzzling and slurping.

~*~

Bliss woke up, and checked her clock. 12:01, it read. Stupid, she thought to herself. Stupid, thinking I heard someone knocking on my door, but suddenly, she heard the pounding again, but this time, possibly even louder.

She groaned in defeat, and turned the knob to see Lacey, again, but this time in her nightgown.

"Yes?" she said, not even making eye contact with her. Lacey smiled warmly at her. "Sit down. I want to explain something to you." she explained, as Bliss slowly sat down on her bed, as Lacey began sitting down too. Bliss nestled her furry head in Lacey, and she began stroking it.

"I know you want to smile sometime, Bliss." she whispered softly in her ear. "But you just have to hope to smile. Hope not to cry. Hope to dare. Hope to live."

She nodded, tears streaming down her eyes, and immediately closing them. Lacey left the room quietly, and whispered through the keyhole, "Goodnight,"

Chapter Two: Bird-Watching
WIP