It took us a while but most of the snake fish was gone, the only thing we left untouched was its slimy skin, it tasted terrible. Both our stomachs were round and spilling out, nap was the only thing we needed once we regrouped with the rest.
As we were gathering up the scraps to carry back to the others Cyante's frantic howl cut through the air. "Mom! Ad-" It got cut out.
"Stay away!" A moment later Mom's growl shook the ground, I could feel the air vibrate, and the shaking trees were proof that I wasn't just imagining it. She had used magic to strengthen it.
It seemed like Cyante got himself into trouble, thankfully he was closest to Mom.
Not long after the ground shook again, followed by loud explosion and snapping of trees.
"ASHER GET HERE QUICKLY!" Mom's magically strengthened voice pierced through the air it hurt my head so much. I doubted Dad wouldn't be able to hear it, no matter where in the forest he was.
Then no more voices could be heard. Only occasional explosion, though much smaller than others last one.
Smoke appeared in the sky in the direction where Mom was dealing with whatever trouble Cyante got into and Janym emerged from between the trees, still dripping water. He looked startled but quickly calmed down once he joined us, not saying a word.
None of us dared to say anything, none of us knew what we could say. Nobody ever told us about something like this.
The smoke where Mom was was getting thicker.
***
The sun had moved quite a lot by the time Mom's voice finally reached us again, calling us to where she was.
Without delay we rushed there. There were a lot of trees completely burned down or still smoldering. Even more trees were uprooted and broken into splinters. All the foliage on the ground was burned away. Mom was standing over Cyante, flickers of flames still burning in her roughed up coat but there were no burn marks on the surroundings there. Dad was growling at Fertam in her condensed light form.
"...if you don't get involved in our conflicts. Fuck off before I cripple you too." More than angry he sounded sad.
It was then I noticed two bodies laying scattered about, fur burned off of the tens of pieces they were in. It looked like the remains of two adult Caniro.
(AN - in their language it's "our species" but Dwarvish is the scientific language of this world so I will use that for now instead.)
I ran to Mom, my brothers right behind me.
Cyante was still not moving. And when I finally got next to Mom I understood why. His throat was crushed and his head lay at unnatural angle, his sides were torn up as well, his guts spilling out. He was dead, those two killed him before Mom could get here.
"Did any of you meet someone strange?" Mom asked us, still focused on Cyante. She had a bloody gush on the left side of her snout, but otherwise was unharmed.
"No." We all replied.
"Good. Let's just send him off." Mom said and started eating Cyante's corpse.
Nobody wanted to die, but if they did, they would want their help to at least help their family. Everyone understood that, though I didn't think it would be one of my littermates who would die first.
Dad growled profanities at Fertam one last time and went to join Mom, as did Janym. Xerio and I were completely full from the snake fish.
When a bloodied patch of grass was the only reminder Cyante ever existed, the three turned to the remains of his killers.
"Burn them slower and more thoroughly next time, they will taste better..." Dad grunted probably trying to cheer Mom up, but his voice was still full of grief.
Xerio was sulking by the river and I didn't know what to do myself.
***
Finally everyone was full and after we gathered the uneaten remains we left this unlucky place behind.
"Who were they?" Dad asked Mom through his full mouth.
"No clue, never seen them around here. They were around twenty winters old, both of them, judging by how long they lasted." Mom said.
"They should have known better than to try take over territory by force at their age." Dad snorted, "Who starts a direct fight with the families living there the first thing they do? Idiots..."
"They probably didn't think I was this close. If they went for anyone else they might have been gone by the time I got there..." Mom whined.
"I should have gone with you."
"And who would take care of the other three?" Mom asked.
"They are old enough to take care of themselves, Lyara is good hunter."
"That's enough... We have a family to lead." Mom grunted and shook as we did to get water out of our coats.
"You could let me grief a bit more." Dad complained.
"If I did that you would run away to wipe out their families."
"They would deserve it if they can't raise their pups properly." Dad growled.
"In that case they were lucky to have met us instead of Yalo. He would be halfway there by now." Mom grunted.
Cyante definitely wasn't the first of their pups they had to watch die and it likely wouldn't be last. They knew what their responsibilities were towards the family and wouldn't let everyone down. Though I could still tell they were grieving
I didn't know how to feel though. I wanted to stay strong, but the thought of Cyante just not being here anymore, I couldn't imagine it. Xerio looked to be going through the same. Janym meanwhile seemed to have copied our parents and I couldn't see any uncertainty in him. He refused to speak, however, which told me he was in the same state as the rest of us.
***
When we finally arrived at the densite, the rest of the family was already waiting there. They were all battered, some were bleeding but nothing looked too serious. Off to the side were half-eaten remains of large moose.
"What happened?" They all ran to Mom and Dad.
"Cyante got killed." Mom said, "What were you doing to get like that?"
All three of them exchanged guilty looks.
"Always think of your safety first..." Mom grunted as her eyes wandered to the moose carcass and understood. When I was able to guess what happened, there was no way Mom couldn't.
"Be more careful and don't let what we do distract you." Dad said.
"It's not that we weren't careful..." Lyara said, "You said to finish the hunt before returning and we wanted to be back quickly..."
"So you risked your safety for that? What..."
"ASHER! Enough." Mom growled.
"I'm going to sleep." Dad whined and trotted off.
"He's right though." Mom said, "The best thing you can do to help us with things like these is to make extra sure you are staying safe. Take care of the little ones, please. I'm exhausted, two against one is hard when their talent is good against mine, even if they were weaker." She complained as she walked away.
"How did it happen?" Trumpet asked and yelped with pain as Lyara pushed him away. He was the most injured of the three.
"Leave them alone. It's the first time they had to deal with this. How did it go with the fish?" She asked us.
"Hard, I only caught one." Janym said. "I'll go sleep too."
"Sleep well. And you two?" She asked, licking our faces, she already sent the boys running with a glare.
"I caught two, but Xerio had to help me with the second one. it was way too big and strong." I said, though I wasn't really in the mood to brag.
"Let's just sleep, you should feel better after." Lyara said and lay down. We both snuggled up next to her and quickly fell asleep.