Shade & Luna Chapter 3: Of Rattatas and Men
#3 of Shade and Luna
After two days, Shade was growing restless. He had never been in an enclosed space in his entire life, let alone for 2 days. Luna, on the other hand, seemed quite content to sleep all day.
At that particular moment, the two were resting on Red's bed in the sunlight. Luna was resting at a decent distance away from Shade. Whether it was because she wanted to be closer to the sunlight or farther away from him, he couldn't say.
Relaxing in this manner, the Absol was quite surprised to hear the usually quiet Luna speak up.
"What's it like in the forest?" Her tone betrayed her nervousness, almost as if she had been debating whether or not to ask this.
"What do you mean?" He inquired, picking up his head to get a better view of the small Umbreon.
"W-Well," Her stutter around him was growing more and more infrequent, but it was still most certainly there, usually reappearing on subjects she thought were touchy. "Is it hard?"
"Well, you have to hunt for your food, but you probably could've guessed that..."
"How did you learn to hunt?" The stutter tended to instantly disappear at times, usually when she was interested in the topic at hand.
"Absol tend to leave our children as soon as they hatch, mainly because it's the fastest way to teach them how to survive. Anyways, the earliest thing in my life I can remember is when I was a week old. I was absolutely starving, I hadn't eaten in days. I was calling out for my parents, but they were probably far away by then. By pure luck, a Ratatta crossed my path. It all came to me by instinct. I swiftly jumped on top of him, and well, to put it bluntly, ripped his head off." So it goes.
Luna's eyes widened in horror. She had never seen blood in her life, let alone death.
"He was delicious. I don't know if it's because I was so hungry, or because that's my personal preference, but to this day, Ratatta are my favorite food."
The small cat seemed disgusted, but was also intrigued at such brutality. "Is that all you eat?"
"Of course not. Mainly Ratattas, but we also eat Pidgeys or Spearows if we manage to catch them."
"Do you ever get cold? Where do you go during the winter?"
"Of course we do, and, not to brag, but we usually just rough it through the winter. I always liked to find a cave or a large hollowed out tree, though."
"Did you ever see another Absol?"
"Once. It was a male, though, and we fought it out over who got to live in my tree. I won."
"Was he tough?"
"Not really, he came at me from the entrance to the cave, so I could easily claw at him from inside."
"D-Did y-you e-ever s-see an U-U-Umbreon?" Her stutter reappeared, but this time it was much more pronounced.
"No, why do you ask?"
"N-No r-reason." She hung her head, as if ashamed for asking.
"Is something wrong?"
"No! N-Nothing's wrong!"
"If you say so..." Shade shot her an inquisitive glance. "Where did you grow up?"
Luna raised her head again; she seemed happy at the change of subject. "Right here. My life is nowhere near as interesting as yours."
Then something singular happened. Luna's face showed some interest, not in his story, but in him. Shade shook his head. The look was gone, back to the nervously quiet Umbreon. He disregarded it for the moment, deciding it was merely a trick of the eye. Glancing around, he asked, "When will Red be home?"
Luna stretched out; the sun glancing off her fur made her quite the sight, her normally yellow markings turned to sparkling gold.
"He usually gets home at four in the morning, but he goes to sleep from then until one in the afternoon, except on weekends."
"Weekends?" Shade did nothing to conceal his confused voice.
"Days that he doesn't work. He usually takes us to the park then."
"Outside, you mean?"
"Yes, where else would a park be?" She asked in jest, but Shade took it as an insult.
"Well I don't know; I've lived in a forest my whole life!" Shade shouted out in frustration at being torn from his home. "But then you and Red had to come and-!"
Luna was cowering away from him in fear. "I-I-I'm s-sorry; I d-didn't mean it that way..." She whimpered. "Please don't hurt me..."
"Don't be, it was my fault." The frustration in him due to inactivity had reached a fevered pitch. "Look at me."
She raised her head, tears welling in her eyes.
"I would never hurt you. Under any circumstances."
"Okay..." She smiled.
"Now, if you were a Ratatta..."
She giggled, and with that, a dam burst. All the confusion and fear poured out from her in laughter, which Shade joined in on.
After the fit of laughter subsided, they were lying down next to each other. Shade licked Luna's nose.
"Feel better?"
"Much better."
From that day forward, she never feared him again.
I like to think this is one of my better chapters.
Please rate, subscribe, comment,fave, watch, or anything up to and including worship.
_Addendum: The folder system is very finnicky. _