On a crisp morning, Last Whisper stirred in her sleep. She turned over this way, then that way trying to get comfortable. Her limbs seemed restless all of a sudden, and she couldn't re-arrange them in a way that would calm this urge to go. Where? She didn't know, nor did she particularly feel like walking about, but her legs were saying differently. So, grumbling something about how early it was, the dark doe opened her eyes, lifted her head and slowly crawled out of her den.
Her den was a very large, very dead tree. It had broken in half long long ago, half of it left standing, and the rest lay directly next to it, touching. As a young filly, Last Whisper had found this tree and instantly knew it was home. There was already a hole in the standing half, so it was merely a few weeks' time to hollow out the rest. At first, she only hollowed out the standing half, but rather soon, it began filling with her many treasures, and became crowded with them. She had to enlarge her den.
After many days of planning and preparation, the adolescent filly set to work, hollowing out the fallen half. Now, the girth of this tree was more than two times the filly, nose to tail, so it took her some time, but every second was worth it. She had taken mud mixed with dirt and clay to the outside, patching the huge log where it didn't touch the trunk. Eventually, after adding branches and more mud to the outside, and hollowing out and smoothing the inside by polishing it with round rocks, the log became a tunnel. Her tunnel led nowhere, and her trunk still had a roof, but she had made herself a sturdy den, and a place where she could store her most precious treasures, all tucked into two lengths of the same tree.
But on this crisp morning, near the end of Winter when the green began to flourish with hyper-activity and Spring was a mere reach away, Last Whisper crawled out of her den. Once out, she stood up and shook off thoroughly, attempting to stir her dreams away and awaken fully.
Yawning widely, the doe began to walk forwards, simply listening to where her feet wanted to go. She chewed on her tongue as she walked and tried not to complain about the time of day and about how the sun had just barely made it over the horizon and began taking it's path across the sky.
Before too long, the doe found herself following a barely-walked path through some particularly thorny bushes. There was an odd smell in the air... one that seemed very foreign to her, and yet... she had a sense of remembering... a feeling of warmth and closeness passed over her and an image of wind changing into a skull appeared and then disappeared in her mind. She shivered, "That was odd...." she whispered softly aloud and paused a moment.
A quick shake of the head and she kept going, wanting to know what was calling her closer. Her neck stretched forward and her nose wiggled as she sniffed the air that guided her to the source of the smell. A few more struggled steps through the thorns and she ended up in a small clearing where a few big boulders leaned up against each other with some trees cradling the front of a crevice in the rocks. The smell was coming from in there!
She shook off one last time and then lowered her front half to edge forward and into the space between rocks. It was rather dark, but her Kimeti eyes glowed red softly, donning some light on the wonder hidden here. She was mere hairs away from touching a translucent substance, that could only be a baby sac. The filmy covering hugged the creature inside, hinting at it's green coat through the milky blanket. She dared not breathe as she inspected the bundle, watching it slowly pulse with life, as if it were in fact breathing. Last Whisper backed out of the protective shelter and stood upright. Lifting her head, she realized that there was no one else about, and that she had not gone very far from her den. In fact, her den was only a few lengthy strides away! She had walked a big circle only to end up behind her beloved tree and find this formation of rocks with a baby sac inside!
She called out loudly, "Hello? Hellooooo!? Anyone out here...?" She paused, perking her ears up and flicking them about to listen for any responses. Nothing. "Did anyone lose a baby?" Once more she scanned for any responses, but again, she heard nothing. A few more seconds passed before she could bring herself to accept that no one was coming to claim this baby as their own.
An unfamiliar feeling took over the dark doe, one that she had only felt once before... when she had laid eyes on her first skull. It was a feeling of need, a feeling of absolute caring. She knew that she would not be able to part with this newest possession of hers. Well, in truth, it was not a possession, and she knew that, but as it was now, it felt like a living treasure to her. Something that she needed to protect and look after.
Dropping back down, the doe crawled forwards once more to look at the baby sac in more detail. Her nose got there first, and she realized that the smell was familiar because she must have been able to smell it when she was in her own baby sac, and yet so foreign because it wasn't quite the same... it was... more woody than hers had been... not as flowery either...
She shrugged off the smell and looked at the little one better. As she had seen earlier, it was definitely green. But upon closer inspection, she saw that the little curled up limbs ended in yellow and the tiny head also donned yellow and even touches of white. She counted each limb, making sure they were all there. Once satisfied that it looked normal, she studied the patterns, trying to memorize them, losing her thoughts over and over again as she got distracted by the breathing of the sac.
No longer able to restrain herself, the doe stretched her nose forward and touched the sac. Just as suspected, it was curiously slimy to the touch and slid away from her softly, as if not wanting to be held. But it had no say in that really. Last Whisper had put her mind to taking care of this baby sac, and that was exactly what she would do!
One more time, she backed out of the rocks and retreated back to her den. Once there, she pulled out her favorite possession: that first baby kimeti skull she had ever found; and trotted back to where the sac was hidden. She wiggled back in and settled in right next to the sac, her side up against it. She placed the skull down between her front legs and gently nuzzled the slimy sac, whispering to it, "Sleep well, Little One. I'll keep you safe now." And with that, she rested her head on her forelegs, draped over the skull, and closed her eyes. And though it was early morning, Last Whisper was at peace, and her restless limbs had grown still. She could finally sleep now, at ease.
Over the next few days she would make many trips between the rocks and her den, talking to the sac, telling it of her many treasures and of how she found them. She would only be found elsewhere when she made food ventures, and even then, she wouldn't stray too far. The path through the thorn bushes became more and more worn every day as she trampled upon the branches and stamped them into the ground. She kept the sac warm by sleeping next to it every night, and she kept it company by talking to it and humming to it when she had nothing to say. A few rodents tried to make the crevice their home, but she dealt with them easily and mercilessly should they be slow enough to get caught by a stray hoof.
She waited patiently as it began to grow. She knew it would not be long before it broke out and took it's first breath. And she would be there to witness it!
