A/N: Welp, this is my very first fanfiction story, so I would love any feedback on how I'm doing! If you would like to see what my characters really look like, please visit my DeviantArt. I'm SnowTheSlipper there. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy it!

The first sign was in the trees. (It's always the trees; they're smarter than me.) Soon the grass was playing along, followed by rocks and shrubs and everything else on the ground.

That includes me, by the way.

Everything was shaking, and in a panic, I leapt up in the air. However, I didn't stay there for long—my small wings were not enough and I didn't have much instinct to keep me airborne. Thus, I crashed down to the ground within moments of catching air under my wings. Unfortunately, my extremely winter-thick fur wasn't ready to fall out quite yet, so I was extremely heavy and the opposite of aerodynamic. Even if the wind were to pick up, I couldn't hope to ride it.

I stopped thinking about flying and started thinking about running for my life when a huge crack suddenly appeared in the ground with a deafening boom. I clapped my hands over my sensitive ears and took off running away from that direction, hoping that my family was doing the same. The cliff had split unbearably close to home. However, at that realization, I skidded in my tracks at the edge of the forest, and whirled around to run back across the field toward where my parents and siblings were—but another boom exploded just a short ways in front of me. I screamed, tears streaming down my face, and cried out, "Mom! Dad!"

No response came except more of that booming and crackling.

I started to back away, step by step, as the cracks spread. "Lar! Slim!" I sobbed, trying to be heard over it. I thought… was that an answer, or the screech of rock scraping rock? "Mom!"

The ground bucked under me, and I sobbed, wiping my face with my furry forearm before turning tail and charging into the forest as fast as my little digits could carry me. My wings and tail seemed to catch on everything as I tried to escape that horrible world-crumbling. I ripped at foliage with my claws in desperation, flattening my ears against my head to keep from hitting them on stuff. I extended the claws on my toes as well for better traction, but nothing I did felt like enough. The world seemed to be dissolving right behind me, the ground falling down almost before I put my paws onto it…

Then I was launched into the air as the ground surged like a wave in the sea. I screamed my lungs out as I was hurtled toward the jungle bordering to forest, trying to grab onto something—anything—before I crashed into the ground. I managed to catch myself in a tangle of vines, but then it turned out to be a trap, and I couldn't get out of them. I struggled harder and harder as panic mounted in me, and suddenly I couldn't breathe, and I tried to hack at the disgusting-tasting things with my teeth… but then the world went black around me, and I had to give up the fight when I could no longer move. Sleep came like an animal, whapping me over the head with palpable strength, forcing sleep and a major headache on my frazzled mind. The fear faded with everything else as I lost all consciousness.

~~~(Guy)~~~

When I woke up, everyone had already left, by the look of things. Only Belt and my bear-owl, Red, were still there. When Red realized that I was awake, she crooned happily and bounded over to me, licking my face. "Ah! Hey!" I exclaimed with a laugh. "Good-morning to you, too!"

Belt grumbled at us both, apparently not done sleeping just yet.

I continued to play around with Red, until I heard a voice calling my name from down the beach. "Gu-uyy," they called.

"Eep, is that you?" I yelled back.

"Yes, are you awake now?" Eep asked, barreling down the beach on all fours until she reached the cove and tackled me. "Ah, you are, good. Come with me, I found something really weird."

~~~(Moon)~~~

I didn't sense the tree before I hit it. That's usually the way it goes. There's me, there's a tree, I hit the tree, the end. However, this time, I was higher than I had thought I was, and plummeted a good distance before actually hitting the ground. I groaned and brought my tail around into my lap, patting it until I found the smooth bit on the end. I rubbed the smooth bit gently, wondering if something was wrong with it. Then I tried to extend my wings, but they were snared by the plants around. I sighed disgustedly, hating the feel of greasy plants on my skin and fur, and decided it was time to get help. "Kim!" I yelled out toward the jungle. "Kim! I'm stuck!" I got no response, and growled softly to myself. "Maybe I should have caught her some breakfast," I muttered to myself. "Then she wouldn't go off by herself… Kim!"

~~~(Eep)~~~

I heard the thing growling, and motioned for Guy to stop walking and look around the edge of the wall of plants. He nodded and peeked through, then gasped softly. I followed suit, wanting to get another glimpse at the… whatever it was.

It, or maybe she, bent over a small pool in the ground, clawed hands outstretched as though to try and catch something. She had funny, furry legs, with very long feet, and stood on only her toes. She had a long, fluffy tail, and from her elbows to her fingers was more fur. Her ears were big and pointed and furry, shaped like a cat's. Her hair was long and curly, and was dark red with even darker streaks in it. She even had a pair of wings. She wore a slightly worn-looking animal-pelt dress over her top half, the strap of leather coming up over around her neck but not covering her slightly red, heavily freckled shoulders. Also, she looked like she was about the age of my brother—way too young to be out in the jungle all by herself.

Suddenly she looked up and levelled her green-eyed gaze directly at us. We froze, but could tell that she saw us. Guy stood up slowly, and she responded by crouching low and backing up, spreading out her wings widely and generally looking like she was trying to be threatening. "Shh, shh," guy said soothingly. "Don't worry, we're not going to hurt you… look, we're people, like you… sort of like you…"

I stood up alongside him, looking at the "girl" on the ground. "I'm Eep," I said. "And this is Guy. And Belt."

She narrowed her eyes at us, but I saw the claws on her fingers and toes retract slowly. "I-I'm… Kim…?" she said nervously, evidently unsure whether she should be talking to us.

"Well, Kim, looks like you need help catching some food. If you want, we could help you," Guy said, leveling his spear at the water in demonstration. She looked like she had no clue what the tool was for or what it could do. "Here, watch."

Guy stared at the water for a moment, and then deftly flicked his spear. Second only to my dad, he never missed a toss with the thing. He walked over and pulled it out of the water with a "Ta-da!"

Kim's eyes went wide when she saw the fish impaled on the sharpened stone at the end of the stick. She inched a little closer, much the way I did when I walked on all fours. "Here, you can have—hey!" Guy started.

Kim grabbed the fish with teeth that could only be classified as fangs, yanked it off the spear, and took off running into the jungle. "Oh, no you don't," I said, and charged after her on my knuckles. Guy called after me, but I wasn't paying attention to him.

The girl was fast, whatever she was, and her long arms combined with her strange legs gave her animal-like grace when dodging over and around stuff. She even bounded right of the trunks off trees a few times. She suddenly changed directions with a gasp, dropping the fish and running almost twice as fast. I scooped up the fish as I ran by, putting it in my bag and dropping back to all fours in hot pursuit. She screamed out, "Moon!" and I was confused instantly. What was she talking about? I stopped running and hid in the bushes, not about to let her know that I had kept up with her.

"Moon? Where are you?! Moon!" she cried, screeching to a halt in a large clearing. She looked around wildly, obviously panicking. "Moon! Where did you go?!"

"Hey, are you looking for someone?" I asked, approaching slowly. "Someone like you?"

"Y-yes," Kim said, backing away from me. Her ears went back, like a scared animal's. "H-he's… Moon. I c-can't live without him!"

"Why not?"

"He's… he lights up. At night. He keeps the dark away… I hate the dark… and he can't live by himself, either! I have to find him before he gets hurt!"

"Hey, I'm sure he'll be fine for a little bit," I said, putting my hands on her shoulders. "Tell you what. I'll help you. My family can help you find him; let's go get them looking."

"N-no, you don't understand… I can't… the jungle…"

"Hey," I said insistently. "We'll find him. And maybe you two can stay with us. We're good at surviving."

"I'm not," she whispered.

~~~(Kim)~~~

That night, around the campfire, I told the Croods my story. I told them about living with my parents and my eight siblings on the gathering lands on the edge of the Gray Forest, and about the cracking of the world that chased me into the jungles. "I've lived out here for two or three winters," I said. "I met Moon, my friend, during the first one. We never really get along, but… when he found me, I was starving. He helped me, and I learned that I could help him, too. We need each other, so… that's why I need your help to find him tomorrow."

"Why does he need your help?" the small boy, Thunk, asked.

"He has a weird problem," I said. "He says that everything looks the same to him. Light and dark, or different colours, or where things are—he can't tell anything. His eyes are sick. He says that it has always been that way for him. So, I can help him, and be like the good eyes he doesn't have. And he knows how to find food and water and stuff, so he helps me with that."

"How come… you don't get along?" Ugga, the mother of the three children, asked tentatively, a concerned look on her face.

"Oh, It's not like we don't like each other," I said, putting my paws up. Then I held my face in those same paws and stared at the fire, thinking. "It's… he teases me too much is all. He always does dangerous stuff when I tell him not to, and won't listen when I tell him he shouldn't do something. He doesn't really listen to me at all. Also… he's the sort of person who always moves around. I grew up in a cave-maze. He always wants to get moving, keep walking, wake up at the crack of dawn and stay out way too late… he's not like me at all. So we argue a lot."

"Hmm," she smiled with her eyes at me. "You two are probably good for each other."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, looking up at her.

"Oh, nothing," she said, and winked at Eep across the fire. "Hey, how old is Moon?"

"Oh… I think he's only a few winters older than I am," I said, counting on my fingers. "He told me how many winters he saw, once, but I don't remember exactly…"

"That's alright. I just wanted a general idea. Now, how about we all go to sleep? We have looking to do tomorrow."

I opted for sleep on the ground rather than in one of their hummocks. No one needed to forfeit their bed for me when I slept on the ground normally anyway, I told them. I made myself a little nest out of sand and filled it with fresh leaves and grasses, and then curled up inside, staring up at the stars and thinking of Moon. Where could you have gone? I wondered. I told you I was coming back… why can't you just listen to me once in a while?

I got no answers from the stars.