Laeta looked over at Tyler, who was napping in the midday sun. It had been a month since the quakes and the devastating loss of the black purtle's mother. Tyler hadn't stopped grieving for a moment, and Laeta didn't blame her for it. If her mother had died, she wouldn't be over it either. But she couldn't even begin to understand what Tyler had been going through lately. Laeta thought it was better not to ask, though. She didn't want Tyler to get mad at her. Besides, she didn't want to get into her business either.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Tyler fidget in her sleep. In panic, Laeta rushed to her side, her floof a light green in color. Suddenly, the amber eyes of her crush burst open and she stood up quickly, then proceeded to shake off whatever she was previously thinking about.

"Are you okay?" Laeta practically shouted. She couldn't bear to see Tyler so distressed, but she immediately regretted her tone when she saw the taller purtle's markings turn yellow. She didn't mean to embarrass her, she was just worried.

"Sorry about my tone, I-"

"No, it's alright," Tyler told the princess. "It was just... a bad dream. That's all. Nothing to be worried about."

"Well, it's just that you've been really weird lately so I was just wondering," Laeta responded truthfully. Tyler's markings flashed a dark orange color, then settled into a light grey color. Oh no, she thought. I didn't mean to irritate her. Tyler sighed, then sat back down, gesturing to Laeta to do the same. Once the princess was settled, she started to explain.

"Well, it wasn't really a bad dream, exactly. It was more like a really bad nightmare," she started.

"Those are the same thing," Laeta giggled.

"No, they're not," Tyler said, her marks the same dark orange as before.

"Yes they are," Laeta continued to argue, noticing her own markings had changed to a yellow color.

"Anyways, we were back in the caves, and everything started shaking again. I ran out of the..." Tyler continued on and on, but Laeta could only focus on the beautiful eyes of the Purtle in front of her. The amber eyes stayed focused on Laeta's own, occasionally darting another direction to try and remember a detail she forgot. She felt her face grow hot as she realized that she had Tyler's full attention on her. As she was staring into her crush's eyes, Laeta saw Tyler pause.

"Um... why did you stop?" Laeta asked Tyler, genuinely confused.

"Dude, your floof and markings... they were totally pink," Tyler murmured.

"N-no they weren't. You're just imagining things," the lilac Purtle stammered.

"No I wasn't," Tyler said stubbornly, refusing to let Laeta get away with this one.

"Laeta! Over here!" A voice called. Laeta turned to see her sister, Princess Nebula, calling to her by the mouth of the cave. She had never been so happy to see her little sister in her life.

"OkayIhavetogonowbye," the embarrassed purtle said in a jumbled mess and scurried away.

"Thank the gods Neby, you saved my life!" she exclaimed when she caught up to her sister.

"What happened? How did I save you?" she asked.

"Oh my gosh I don't even want to talk about it right now," Laeta replied, looking at the ground. "Anyways, what did you need me to do?"

----------

Tyler stared in disbelief at the mouth of the cave where the princess had exited. Does she really like me? Was she thinking of something else? What was that all about? She thought, her markings turning green in confusion. She couldn't think about this. Not now. It was giving her a headache. She decided to go find some other Purtles to socialize with. She found it funny how she spent her time this past month either taking care of her father, grieving for her dead mother, or hanging out with Laeta, but never socialized with anyone else. She knew the other Purtles were worried about her, she just never found the time or energy to talk to anyone else. But she was done hiding in sorrow for now. Tyler was going to talk with someone.

With a grunt, she got up and started deeper into the lush green meadow. She knew almost the whole kingdom would be out here today, as it was such a nice day. Luckily, she didn't have to go far until she came into contact with another Purtle. As Tyler was strolling through the meadow, a pale purtle with all the colors of the sunset on her floof, belly, and ears jumped in front of her from a high rock. Her face had a haughty expression, and by the look of things, she didn't seem very friendly. Tyler decided to talk to her anyways. What was the worst that could happen? The snotty Purtle would hurt her feelings? Haha, as if.

"Hey!" she greeted the purtle, showing all the enthusiasm in the world. The pale purtle only snickered at her. Tyler could sense her anger rising from her chest, but she pushed it down for now. "So um... what's your name?" she tried again, hoping to get a response from the Purtle she was convinced to be mute.

"Sunset. You're the Purtle always hanging out with the princess?" She replied this time, a mocking tone lining her words.

"Well, yeah," she said awkwardly.

"Oh. I don't like her," Sunset replied simply, meeting Tyler's eyes with a hard glare. Tyler felt her blood boiling, and knew that her markings probably displayed a red color. She was confirmed right when Sunset sent her a satisfied look.

"Well I guess everyone has their own opinions," Tyler barely said through gritted teeth. She knew this conversation would be hard to endure.

"Well, do you like her or not?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Maybe because she doesn't like you. Think about it, she only feels bad for you. She only hangs out with you because your mom died. She's the princess. It's her job to look after every Purtle in the kingdom. She doesn't actually care about any of us," Sunset said. At this point it felt like Tyler was going to explode from how angry she was.

"Laeta was the one who helped me through all this. No one else came to help me, just her. Besides, who cares if she doesn't like me, I care about her more than anything!" Tyler yelled the last bit, then covered her mouth with a paw. Her markings were colored light yellow in utter embarrassment.

"I can't believe I just said that," Tyler muttered. Even Sunset had a surprised look on her face. She shook her head.

"You know she does have a crush on someone else, right?" Sunset whispered quietly. Tyler's face froze in a look of horror. Sunset nodded.

"Yeah, kinda a shame that you got to know her. Now, you'll never get over her. Oh, and did you also know that she's a huge liar, and probably the fakest Purtle you'll ever meet? And honestly, you two wouldn't last long. She would be so wrapped up in her work and you would see her true colors. You can thank me for saving your tail before you went and asked her out," Sunset smirked rather proudly. Tyler considered her words for a moment.

"M-maybe you're right. I mean, who would even want to hang out with me if my mother hadn't died? She wouldn't even know me if she hadn't died..." she trailed off, looking into Sunset's cool blue eyes. "She was just taking advantage of my emotions!" Tyler yelled, suddenly understanding what Sunset was trying to get at the whole time. Sunset nodded, her expression full of understanding and sympathy.

"I can't believe it! I can't believe it!" Tyler found herself yelling and pacing around. Her markings were pure red now, tears threatening to escape her eyes.

"What a sick thing to do," Sunset shook her head in disappointment. "You poor thing."

The two walked back to the caves together, as it was getting to become dinner time, Sunset's tail placed delicately on Tyler's back. As the wide open skies turned to dark cave walls, Tyler said her goodbyes to Sunset, then walked to the royal cave alone. She wasn't going to speak to the princess ever again. What a sick thing to do.

------

Laeta watched Tyler walk into the cave, her eyes portraying hurt and her markings colored dark grey. She shrugged it off. Must be another phase of hers. But something was telling her that it wasn't really a phase. She didn't want to wake up Tyler's napping father, so she didn't ask. She nodded to Tyler, hoping to get a nod back or an smile or anything else, but all she got was a hard glare. Was it something she had done? Surely it wasn't the incident that occurred earlier? Was she really mad about that? She mentioned to Tyler that dinner was ready, but all she got was another glare and an eye roll. The tall black purtle walked out of the cave without a word.

Laeta felt heartbroken. Her markings and floof were light grey. She tried to think happy thoughts before she went to dinner. But if Tyler was her happy thoughts, how could she think them? She decided to just skip dinner that night.

A week later it had gotten no better. Tyler was still avoiding her. Her heart was still broken. Tyler had begun to hang out with Sunset. Laeta knew Sunset hated her, for what reason, she didn't know why. The princess couldn't be her normal hyper self, so she spent all her time comforting Dan, who still lay solemnly in the cave with Sanctia at his side. Laeta knew Sanctia worked hard to please everyone, and she could really appreciate it. But sometimes, she wished it was just herself in there. Nebula was always socializing with friends, and the rest of her family was always out doing business. Today, they were working on rebuilding plans. In fact, they had been working on rebuilding plans for the past month. Only just recently had they started actually taking action. About time, too, she thought. All the Purtles whose homes had been destroyed had been sleeping either under the stars or in makeshift nests for the time being. It saddened Laeta that they had to sleep like this, but soon they would be back in their own caves. Everything would be back to normal.

Laeta saw Adrian walk from his cave, yawning like he had just woken up from a satisfying nap. The innocent light tan purtle with his aquamarine floof and markings looked around for something entertaining to do. Taking advantage of the situation, Laeta walked up to him to engage in conversation.

"Hey, Adrian!"

Adrian looked at her, his markings turning a pale green-yellow color in surprise.

"Oh, hey Laeta!" He said, his face brightening up like usual. "I just woke up, haha. Overslept," he shrugged, still smiling. Seeing the Purtle so happy made Laeta smile as well. It felt good to smile again.

"It happens. Hey, do you want to walk to the river with me?" the princess asked, wanting any excuse to get away from the populated caves.

Adrian's face seemed to grow even happier at the sound of this. "Of course! Let me go grab a scarf then. Don't move!" And with that, he scurried back into his cave to grab a scarf. Laeta looked back at her own cave, debating whether to get a scarf not. She decided against it; both Sunset and Tyler were chatting near the entrance, and Laeta was in no mood to even look at them. Adrian came back out, now with a warm red scarf on his neck. She saw the older Purtle look at her, his floof turning dark blue in curiosity. She looked down at her own floof and saw it had turned dark green from jealousy. Her floof quickly turned bright yellow in embarrassment.

"Sorry. Let's go," the lilac purtle quickly said and started to walk out of the central cave into the meadows. Adrian followed her out cautiously, his floof now green in confusion. Laeta ignored it, though. She didn't want to tell him about why she was jealous of the two hanging out. Sadness tugged at Laeta's heart. She just wanted Tyler back to herself. Adrian must've seen Laeta's floof change color again because he came running up to her side and asked her what's wrong. She brushed it off with a simple, "I'll tell you later," and kept walking. Adrian obviously wasn't pleased with this answer, because his floof and markings turned orange. Laeta ignored this, however, because she wanted to keep going.

She focused on the border between the Snowi Rainforest and the meadow. The white snow of the rainforest brought a calming feeling. The tall trees were covered in it, the weight of it pulling the large branches down. In the distance, some snow could be heard falling from a branch, which seemed to spook Adrian, because he jumped in fright. Laeta couldn't help but suppress a giggle, but quickly clasped her jaws shut out of guilt. The tan Purtle seemed to notice her orange floof, because he smiled and laughed as well. 

The two padded on. Each time snow fell from the trees, Adrian would jump, and the two would laugh. They even managed to make some conversations, despite Laeta's bad mood. The sun came out as they talked, warming their pelts and lifting their spirits. The princess didn't realize they had reached the river until Adrian pointed it out. It shone with the warm sun now beaming on it. The frozen willows that surrounded the river dripped and shined with the new heat. The river wasn't frozen, but was bound to be frigid, so Laeta didn't even think about going in the water. Instead, she led Adrian underneath a frozen willow that was on the bank. She dug up the snow and cleared a spot for the two to sit.

"Why did we come all the way out here, if I may ask?" Adrian asked, sitting down and readjusting his red scarf.

Laeta shrugged, "I just wanted to get out of the caves, that's all." she trailed off a bit.

"Then what happened back there, then?" Adrian referenced back to Laeta's moment of jealousy back in the caves.

"It's just... I... uh..." Laeta tried to explain, but she couldn't find the words.

"I know you and that black purtle were good pals. Did something happen?" Adrian asked, all the sympathy in the world in his eyes.

Laeta sighed. She could feel her eyes watering and her nose started to tickle. The world started to blur as she blinked the water out of her eyes. She could see her floof turn light grey. Adrian took this as a yes and moved closer to the princess, resting his tail on her back. 

"I'm sorry," he said.

"Don't be," the princess sighed, starting to stand up.

"Laeta, wait," Adrian said. Laeta looked at him.

"Have you tried talking to her?"

"She won't talk to me."

"Ask to see her privately. If she really means that much to you, you need to show it. Just talk to her, alright?" the tan Purtle told her.

Laeta smiled warmly down at the older Purtle. "Thanks."

-------------------------------

By: dip

Laeta Belongs to: Zod

Tyler belongs to: Limp Noodle

Adrian belongs to: Also Limp Noodle

Sunset belongs to: Zoooooodi

Princess Nebula belongs to: Hori

Sanctia belongs to: dark