FSE

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Khara laughed as she observed Grath playing ball with some of the other pups in the camp. He was one of the oldest in their little group of friends, now being seven, where Khara was five.

Grath was far taller than she was now, and had begun to show the first signs of musculature. They had both been told to start wearing loincloths, as had all of the others in their group. She couldn't quite fathom it, as they seemed uncomfortable to her, but she supposed that the wisdom of the elders was far greater than her own.

They were all excited for today, because today, they had been told, they would be allowed to play a game with all of the pups and cubs from their tribe and a few from other tribes - it would be a marvelous event, so it had been said.

There were ten pups in their group alone, all in the same age group. Seven males and three females. The others, besides Grath and herself, were Rotik, an arrogant male with black fur and golden eyes that was supposed to be the future shaman, Jarol, a quiet, reclusive young male that had pure white fur and emerald green eyes - he was a friend to Grath, and thereby a friend to Khara, then there was Makaz and Zakam, the twin brothers with a wit, both of them possessed of dark brown fur and eyes the colour of molten topaz. Then, there was Sheerol, a short, thin, un-athletic male with tan fur and silvery-grey eyes. Finally was the beefy, rounded male known as Kragga, who had reddish fur and red-orange eyes.

The only two females in the group besides Khara were Yis'ra, a frail, delicate creature seemingly obsessed with her own appearance over anything else, and Sha'sori, a taller, lithe female possessed of extreme dexterity and speed, often putting the males to shame in contests of agility. Khara herself had developed, thus far, into one that was okay at all things but truly good at none. She was, admittedly, still quite young, but she secretly wondered if she would stay like this for the rest of her life.

She paid for her introspection when the clumsy Kragga bowled into her, knocking her flat, and then toppled over onto her, nearly crushing her with his bulk.

"Mmph! Mmph!" She struggled to squirm her way out from under the heavy Kragga, who appeared to be just as surprised as she - so surprised, in fact, that he couldn't even move thanks to the shock.

Kragga was abruptly shoved off of her, and she found herself looking up at Grath, who had bent over to check on her.

"Khara? Khara? Are you alright?" He was extremely worried - concern laced his voice.

"I... I'm fine, I think. I don't think anything is bad, anyway." With the help of Grath, she pulled herself up, smiling nervously at Kragga, who had also stood up.

"Sorry! Didn't see you." Kragga sounded cautious, although he was still obviously apologetic.

"It's fine, I'm alright." She felt as though she were reassuring Grath as much as Kragga.

As the others went back to playing ball, Khara simply watched - despite what she had said, she had scraped her knee in her fall, and it hurt a lot. She figured that she couldn't even stand on it very well, let alone play ball while it was so injured.

She watched as Sha'sori jumped and leapt over and around the males, laughing. She was the oldest female, the same age as Grath, in the group, and it showed. She got along with all of the others, even the males. Khara simply couldn't comprehend it.

Even as she observed this, she heard sounds of movement - and several dozen other pups moved into the clearing, escorted by a handful of adults. There were roughly equal numbers of males and females now, as the different groups mingled.

Khara pushed herself up and wandered over to them, the pain in her knee forgotten at the sight of so many of her kin in one place.

One of the adults, a powerfully built male in a loincloth, stood up upon a tree stump, speaking in a clear, powerful voice.

"It is time for the game you have all been waiting for", he boomed to the excited, gathered pups. "The rules are simple, as I'm sure you all know. You simply have to scatter into the woods. There will be a few of the pups that will be charged with seeking out the others and catching them. Whenever one of you is caught, you go to find others and catch them until only one remains that hasn't been caught." With that, he announced the names of those that would be the first seekers. Grath was amongst them, and he puffed up with pride as he stepped forward with the other seekers.

"The rest of you, go!"

Those that had not been chosen to be seekers darted off in their own directions, some seeking places that they had prepared ahead of time, others simply running about aimlessly.

"Hey, Khara! With me!" Sha'sori called over to her, and Khara ran off with her.

Unfortunately, Khara was nowhere near as fast nor as agile as Sha'sori, who, without realising it, had soon lost Khara completely and utterly, who then began to wander aimlessly, seeking a place to hide.

And then she misstepped, her scraped knee suddenly giving out under her, pitching her into the darkness of a hole in the ground - not too deep, but deep enough to hurt her - and deep enough so that she wouldn't have been able to escape even if uninjured.

She groaned loudly, realising that she had seriously hurt her left leg. She heard paws skittering above - stopping just short of the pitfall. "H-hey..!" She called out weakly, barely able to muster the effort to do so through the pain.

"Khara?!" She instantly recognised the voice as that of Grath, and she moaned softly in relief. "What happened? Why are you down there? Are you okay? I'll get you out of there!"

"My... my leg. It hurts. A lot." Her voice was hoarse with the pain now.

He poked his head out over the edge of the pit. "Hold on! I'll be back soon!" He disappeared again.

"No..! No, don't go..!" She whimpered softly. "Please..!"

He was gone for a few minutes, and all was quiet, with the exception of her quiet sobs of pain and abandonment. Then he returned, with several of the other older males, bearing several poles and sheets of cloth and rope.

"Khara! Can you climb?" It was Grath again and she nearly cried out in delight. His voice had never sounded so good as it did now.

"N-no... I d-don't think I c-can..." She answered, stuttering now.

"Then hold on, you'll be out of there in moments, and we'll get you back to the camp in no time."

"O... okay."

True to their word, they worked admirably, building a crude bed for her to roll onto, dropped it carefully into the pit and brought her up once she had secured herself on it.

By the time they had brought her back to the camp, she had passed out, but she would no doubt live.