Jakyra glowered at the rain outside the den. Riddiq, her oldest and most favored sibling, had gone out in it. Gintare, their mother, hadn't made any move to stop him. She never did, it seemed. Perhaps she understood Riddiq's need to get away from the noise and bustle of a family better than anyone else, given that she tended to spend her days in places unknown, leaving at dawn and returning at dusk many days. Jak would have accompanied her brother, but he'd asked her not to, and she'd done as he asked.
When she saw Kofie make for the out of doors, where rain came down steadily, Jak looked expectantly toward Gintare, waiting for her to tell her blue-grey cub not to go out in the rain. Gintare did no such thing, however, and only watched Kofie go. Jak frowned irritably, thinking jealously that Kofie would probably manage - somehow - to find Riddiq and she'd get to spend time with him that Jak wouldn't. Maybe it was even something Kofie and Riddiq had planned out between them. She'd never noticed that Kofie and Riddiq were close, but maybe they were.
Her grouchiness required her so either spread the mood or do something about it. Vaako could get her riled up too easily, and so she decided not to try talking to him. He was such a stick in the mud, anyway. That left Gintare, who was wearing that look which said she'd rather be somewhere else, and Svanhild. Not much of a contest, really. Jak had learned early on that when Gintare looked like that, it was best to leave her be.
The brown cub stalked over toward her palest sibling and without warning sent her paw darting out to pin her tail, giving only her greeting as a warning. "I'm bored."
After waiting for several long moments and receiving no response, Jak tried again, releasing Svan's tail and then recapturing it before repeating her two-word declaration: "I'm bored!"
This time her emphasis was different and her paw on her sister's tail was heavier. All this earned her, though, was an unamused glare. Jak sighed irritably and looked around the den in disgust. How could they all be so complacent and content? For that matter, how could they not care that she, Jak, the youngest of the litter, was bored? It was a matter of utmost importance to the blue-eyed cub, and she thought somebody really ought to do something about it.
"Jak," her mother said in a warning tone. "Why don't you go find Riddiq?"
Jak didn't want to go find Riddiq. She didn't want to always be the one chasing after him, trying to get him to play with her or talk to her or just notice her. She was aware that doing so lacked dignity, and while dignity wasn't high on her list of concerns as a cub, she was still a proud creature. Her mother was proud, her siblings were proud, and she was proud. On the other hand, she recognized her mother's tone, and knew that it wasn't really a suggestion so much as an order.
"Fine," she muttered and slunk out into the rain wearing a scowl.
The rain was predictably wet and a little cold, but not unbearably so. Just the same, Jak's mood was not improved by being out in it. And having been sent outside like that just frosted her. As if she was the one being disappointing and a nuisance! She was just trying to make the den a more interesting place to be. It was everyone else who was being disappointing and failing to hold up their end of the deal.
As she stalked farther away from the den Jak began to make up stories about what it would be like if she didn't have all those siblings, just one really amazing one who understood her perfectly and was always there when she wanted them. The sibling was a combination of Riddiq and some other people she'd never met. He would be awesome, and together they would be unstoppable. It was a pretty great fantasy, what a fierce duo they would make.
They would go on all sorts of adventures and meet all sorts of people, and if anyone tried to threaten them or hurt them, they'd have each other's back. Kind of like her and Riddiq, but it would be as equals. Her other brother, the one she was imagining, would be her partner and they'd work together. It wouldn't always be a case of her trailing behind and asking him to wait up. And he wouldn't just vanish on her.
"What do you think?" she said to her imaginary brother as she looked at a quickly-growing puddle. "Is it likely to flood?"
There was a pause as she waited for him to examine the puddle and then respond to her question. While she "listened" she nodded, taking his thoughts into account. When she'd done so she asked him, "So, do you think we should head for higher ground to wait it out? It can't last forever, right?"
Her brother agreed once more and they set off in search of higher ground, which manifested in the form of a tree. She'd climbed this particular tree before and used it to scout out the territory, but it was a more difficult climb when the bark was wet and slippery. The leaves, too, seemed determined to beat her about the face whenever the wind blew, and it wasn't pleasant to be slapped by the things.
Once she'd reached a branch of sufficient altitude Jak curled up, imagining that her made-up brother was curled up next to her, and tried not to shiver. Made up brothers weren't as good for keeping warm as real ones, even if they were better company and more reliable. As the rain came down harder, Jak closed her eyes and tried to recapture her sulk, but in truth she would have traded all the made-up brothers in the world for Riddiq to come along and tell her it was time to go home.
When he didn't after what seemed like hours, Jak decided she would brave the elements and spend the night in the tree and the wind and the rain, and when she came back the next morning, they'd all be worried about her and they'd feel guilty. The thought made her smile as she tried unsuccessfully to sleep. It would be a long night.
She spent most of it shivering and twitching drops of water out of her eyes, but sometimes she made up stories about the adventures she had with her made-up brother, and came up with terrible disasters which would happen because of this rain, and in them she was the only one who could save her family from rapidly rising floodwaters. Imagining swimming through swirling, swollen rivers and being pelted with rain wasn't too difficult with the wind blowing the rain every which way.
What was difficult was sleep. She had forgotten because it was grey outside that it was actually daytime, and so her resolution to spend the night in the tree meant that she was actually spending much longer aloft than she'd planned. She meant to stay in the tree until she saw sunlight, or at least until the rain stopped, and as the hours dragged on and her muscles stiffened and her fur grew soaked to the skin she wished more and more that someone would come looking for her.
Night fell eventually and the rain had not let up. Instead the winds had increased and brought some thunder and lightning. Jak cowered as close to the trunk of the tree as she could get and tried not to cry out at the roaring rolls of thunder and the blinding flashes of lightning. Eventually she grew used to both and realized that she wasn't afraid of them, and that she could use the one to predict the other, and then she recovered her grin a little. That would be something to tell the others when she went home.
Just the same, she was exhausted and cold and maybe a little sniffly by the time the storm passed, but there was just enough sunlight that she could justify returning home. She couldn't wait to see how worried they all were by her absence.
