The forest went still, only the sound of the leaves moving in the wind could be heard. Sulfur flexed her claws into the soft earth beneath her paws, her eyes focused on a patch of grass. She lunged forward at it, but screeched as her tail was clasped and someone yanked her back. Another pitiful shriek responded to her, and a small brown mouse darted out of the patch of grass and ran off. "Rinick!" She hissed, whipping around to face her brother. Sulfur's eyes blazed with fury. Her lip curled back into a snarl and her ears folded back against her head. Rinick suppressed an execrable chuckle. Sulfur responded with a reprobate snarl at her brother. "Fool! We hadn't catched anything in weeks and you just scared off our hope of food!" Sulfur hissed, narrowing her eyes. Rinick purred trilly, putting his shoulder over Sulfur's shoulder. "Don't feel bad." He stated, towering over Sulfur. She squeaked in terror and dashed off back to their makeshift camp, her heart pounding in her chest.

Sulfur entered into camp and fixed her gaze onto her mother. "Mother! Rinick scared off a mouse!" She complained. Sulfur would not stop thinking about that, it stuck to her mind like glue. Her mother whipped around to face Sulfur, her eyes infuriated and her fur bristling. "RINICK!" She screeched, tail lashing. "Damian, watch Sulfur." Her mother said crossly as she stormed out of the clearing in the direction of Rinick's scent. Sulfur turned her head over to look at her father. She smiled as she stared into his friendly warm eyes. Her father smiled and she gave a brighter one in return. Sulfur's smile faded quickly as she observed how scrawny and slender her father looked. They needed food, otherwise they wouldn't survive through leaf-bare. "You should eat what's left of bird we ate yesterday." She commented sympathetically for her father and the condition he was in.

Her father shook his head. "I'm afraid that unfortunately Rinick ate up the last scraps." Her father replied with a raspy voice. Sulfur touched her tail lightly to her father's flank, eyes clouded with sorrow. "You need to be filled with more effervescence." Sulfur replied, flicking her tail off his flank with a smile. "I suppose you're right." Damian sighed, looking down at his paws. A few minutes passed and Rinick entered the clearing somberly, his eyes staring at the ground and a plump hawk in his jaws. Sulfur's eyes widened. She licked her maw greedily, but knew her father deserved the most of the gigantic bird. Then she realized that her mother wasn't following behind Rinick happily. Her tail drooped and her voice became strict, but before she could say anything her father beat her to it. "Where's Chrystal?" Damian growled, his fur standing on end.

Rinick raised his head to look at Damian. "She's dead. The hawk attacked her while I was off hunting. I heard her screams and raced over to the bloody horrific event. It looked like a battlefield with how much blood she lost. I found her. She was barely breathing and I needed revenge." Rinick lowered his voice. "I slaughtered that hawk like there was no tomorrow." He stated, dropping the hawk and turning it over to expose long slashes across the hawks throat. Sulfur jumped back, her fur prickling and her ears pinned back. Damian was frozen in complete horror from the story. "SHE CAN'T BE DEAD!" He caterwauled, pupils small and the size of a mere dot. "I'll go get her corpse..." Rinick murmured, unable to meet his father's eyes. Sulfur shrunk back towards her shoddy makeshift den. She stared at the stale moss, a mix of emotions swirling throughout her. The moss was crinkly and broke apart when she laid on it, making it uncomfortable and a bit distressing.

**********

Sulfur pressed her nose against the cold body of her dead mother. She wished her mother would just leap up and say it was all a prank and she was okay, but she remained still. She buried her face into her blood soaked fur, grief clenching around her heart and piercing it deeply. "Goodbye, mother." She whispered to her. Sulfur's eyes became glassy with tears, and her yellow orbs with wide with sadness. Damian stood up and lightly gripped Chrystal's scruff in his jaws. He slouched down and gently tossed her onto him. Her father padded away at a slow pace, his strength ebbing with the weight he was carrying. Sulfur watched him go up until the point that he was out of sight. She sniffed the place where they put the corpse, trying to get another wiff of her mothers sweet elegant scent. But instead, the stench of Rinick filled her nose and she cringed, rubbing her nose with her paw.

Then she recognized a trace of her mother's scent mixed in with her brother's. Sulfur also picked up a faint hint of blood in it as well. Icy fear locked around her heart, making her freeze in place and her tail droop. Could her brother have possibly killed Chrystal? That was impossible, though. Why on earth would Rinick ever put a claw on their mother? Sulfur pushed the thought out of her head, but it seemed to cling to the back of her head. She attempted to think of something else, but the thought just simply would not go away. She spotted her brother sulking out of the clearing in the corner of the eye and yowled his name. "Rinick!" Rinick whipped around to face Sulfur, his fur spiking out. He flattened his fur and flicked his ear in annoyance. "Stay here. You can't leave me alone." Sulfur replied, her tail tip twitching slightly. Rinick groaned and walked back, sitting down on his haunches and not meeting Sulfur's eyes.

Damian returned and night had fallen upon them. His eyes glinted in the moonlight as he looked up at the sky, his gaze burning into the starry night. Sulfur slowly approached her father, joining him by his side. Her father tore his gaze away from the sky to stare at his daughter approvingly, but disappointment gleamed in his eyes at the same time at the thought that Rinick wasn't going to join in. "She's looking down on us now." Sulfur promised to Damian with a small smile. Her father returned the smile and licked her between the ears. "I was about to tell you the same thing." He purred soothingly. Damian wrapped his tail around Sulfur, pulling her closer to him as the two of them shared a lovely moment of passion and embrace. After a while, Damian got up. "Let's go to bed, it's really late." He said somberly. Sulfur nodded and followed her father to their makeshift den. Rinick was splayed out on the ground, sleeping. Her brother snored loudly and she couldn't help but scoff. Damian suppressed a friendly chuckle and curled around Sulfur tightly. Sulfur shut her eyes and felt sleep pull her down into an endless dark pit.