Hey Guys! Guess what!? I'm totally back with a vengence! I stayed up until 2 in the morning writing the next two and a half chapters of the last installment of my stories! I hope you guys enjoy. P.s. I graduated high school but now I work four and a half days a week, so if i still take ages to write this one, please understand. It feels soooo good to get back into this story, I'm so excited to see how this is going to plan out. I have an even better plan than the last one, and some pretty exciting things coming up, can't wait to see what you guys will think. Please remember to leave comments, they make writing this easier and more fun too.
I have no right to the Bluesky characters or setting, but I do own my OC's so please do not use them without my permission. If you want to use them please ask me and i will be cool with it, just send me a message. Rights reserved etc.

The village at night sounded normal. Laughter from some dens, the smell of food and fire, and the comforting lights coming from them. The brush of the canyon floor was dark, as the torches had gone out in the soft rain. Rufus ran through the plants, huddled over a package he'd traded some food for, heading for the canyon sides. In this rain, he couldn't be bothered with going to the gates, the sound of it would only put off many of the residences.

He scrambled up the sides, his feet occasionally slipping, but he caught it on roots or rocks that jutted from the sides, and propelled himself back up. By the time he got to the top, he was covered in mud, but the grin on his face couldn't be broken, not even by the rain wetting his fur. His shook his head to rid of the drops getting into his eyes as he raced in the underbrush towards home.

Home.

He laughed at himself. Home? Home! He loved the thought of that word, and what it meant. The feeling in his chest used to scare him, after he'd realised it was there. Some kind of pressure, and he was scared it was the same pressure that had been the force of rage he'd had before, long ago, as a kid. Granted, that pressure of rage and hate had saved his life a few times, but now he didn't need it.

The pressure had come back, and he'd been terrified, so terrified of himself that he'd even told Ivory. She'd laughed about it, and told him she'd had the same pressure. Together they'd realised it was just their hearts getting used to the love that now surrounded them. Their hearts almost exploding with how full they were.
Rufus ran for what seemed to him only a few minutes, his ecstatic feeling sifting away the time.

He saw the fire's light before he heard or smelt them. The fire was clearly too hot to be affected by the light drizzle.
He hid behind a rock first, to count the bodies and hear their voices, making sure the kits weren't still out this late. He could recognize Lucy and Buck's scent's immediately. Buck's was the strongest, and Lucy's the sweetest. There was his sister, Ruby, who's scent he knew so well. Adrian too, who's scent was not as strong but who smelt like reeds. Cabe, who had been quiet since Cal had run off, but his smell was distinctly that of berries, his favourite food.
And Ivory. Rufus didn't know how she smelt of 'moonlight', but it was all he could describe it as. Soft, cold, like the scent itself was too apologetic to disturb his nose. He stayed there, breathing it in for a little while, before he decided that he couldn't hide for very long. Ivory's nose had already started to twitch suspiciously.

He came around from the rock, and everyone smiled when they saw him.

"You got 'em?" Buck asked kindly, his arm, as usual, draped around Lucy's shoulder.

"Yeah, and they're awesome Buck. Not as good as Jai's work, but almost." He knew they wouldn't mind Jai being mentioned, and they didn't.

"Come on then, show us!" Ruby said impatiently, grabbing for the package, but Rufus held it out of her reach.

"Fine, but we need cover, the rain'll ruin them." Rufus said.

Buck got up and walked to a nearby tree, then grabbed at a piece of bark, and with Lucy's help, pulled it away. Cabe and Buck held it up, while everyone else huddled beneath it to watch Rufus uncovering the package.

He untied it carefully, unsure of how fragile the contents were. He was clearly taking too long, because Ivory rolled her eyes and took it from him gently, unwrapping it softly but quickly. Everyone gasped slowly as the toys inside were revealed. Buck, holding up the cover with his left arm, took one softly with his right, turning it over and assessing it with his perfect eye.

"These are grea'. Just th' thing for the little ones."

"I thought things that could move would be best." Rufus answered, looking at one piece in particular. A raptor, carved out of deep brown wood, standing on a base that had wheels.

"Jai would have put the wheels directly on the feet." Adrian observed.

"Bu' he woulda used half the jungle t' get it righ'." Buck said with a laugh. Lucy had picked up an elegant wooden doll, carved into the form of a weaselette dancing on a leaf.

"Collette and Bluey are going to fight over the raptor." Cabe said.

Ruby shook her head. "Bluey will want that one to draw." She nodded to the one Lucy had.

"Melina is going to love this one." Ivory said softly, holding a delicately carved dragonfly. Even the membranes had been carved, if not a little raggedly.

"Check this one out for Tessa!" Adrian said, holding a little sword.

"Darcy's gonna flip when he sees this!" Buck said, holding a pterosaur carving.

They spent a good twenty minutes simply admiring them, and guessing which of the kits will want which toys. They then packed them back carefully, and Rufus hid them in Buck and Lucy's room. The kits never dared go in there, so it was the safest idea.

It was late at night, and Adrian and Cabe went to bed, Ruby following suit. When Ruby had started going to bed early, Rufus had worried, not sure what was going on. Again, he'd said this to Ivory, and again she'd assured him it wasn't as bad as he thought. Ruby was sleeping better than she ever had, in the Grandfather tree, and enjoyed being able to get eight hours of sleep every night, taking advantage of it. Rufus suspected she was secretly preserving. Constantly preserving energy in case she needed it. Ruby never did these things without thinking of the overall benefits. She was resourceful and smart. Which also made her annoyingly bossy.
Buck stretched on the log he was leaning against, then placed his arms behind his head, Lucy curled up to his chest. Rufus marvelled at their love, and how strangely intact it was. How could they possibly go through all this, and still be the same with each other? They'd been hunted, stabbed, ridiculed and held as heroes. Their children were crazy and famous, and had run off to the other side of the world, and yet they still held onto each other like vines onto a tree.

Ivory sat next to him, knees pulled up to her chest and half lidded eyes staring at the fire. Rufus rested his head against the log behind him, putting an arm up to rest on it. The rain had stopped without him noticing, and he breathed in the freshly earthy scent of the trees soaking it in. The healthiness of it all. How alive everything felt.

After a while he felt himself drifting off, but didn't worry a bit. He felt Ivory shift next to him, and he cracked an eye open to look at her.

She had curled up on the ground, clearly like him, feeling safe enough to sleep out in the open.

Instinctively, Rufus looked at Buck.

Buck was looking out to the jungle, with Lucy fast asleep against him. His eye was hard, and very much in the present.

"Something wrong Buck?" Rufus asked, feeling his wakefulness come back at the possibility of danger.

"No. Jus'…" he looked at the two sleeping girls. "Maybe, no' tonight."

"You don't think it's a good idea?"

Buck took a while to respond, then slowly shook his head. Then he cracked a smile.
"We only jus' go' those presents for the kits. Be a shame if we go' eaten before we could give 'em to 'em."

Rufus laughed quietly. "I dunno. Circle of life. Dino's gotta eat too."

"Even your precious snowflake there?" Buck teased.

"Pffft, what about your honey dew-drop?" Rufus teased back, though it wasn't strictly impacting.

Buck tickled his mates nose gently, and smiled at her rubbing the feeling away in her sleep. "She can take care of herself."

"So can Ivory." Rufus said back, a little more defensively than he'd intended. Buck looked at him, tilted head.

"You're righ' of course. I suppose you couldn't 'ave protected her the whole way through tha' fight."

"I almost died a few times trying to get to her."

"We all almos' died a few times tryin' t' get t' someone." Buck said, and then looked again out into the jungle.
Rufus did too, ears flicking as he stared into the darkness. Unsettled, he stood quietly.
"I'm getting Ivory inside." He announced.

"Righ' behind ya." Buck said, standing as Rufus stooped and gently gathered Ivory into his grip. Buck had to stoop lower to grab Lucy, and Rufus saw some glints of the whit-silver hairs that were growing on his muzzle in the firelight.

"I can come back and get Lucy if you want Buck." Rufus said.

As if to prove a point, Buck hoisted Lucy up as if she were a child, and comfortable settled her in his arms, and he didn't shudder a whisker doing it. But the look in his eye made Rufus spine stiffen, as if a threat were nearby, and he quickly retreated into the trees chambers.

He made his way to Ivory's room, and found it in the dark. He made his way to her bed, and laid her down, pushing the covers aside so he could drag them back over her again. When he tucked her in, he turned to leave quickly before he ended up staring at her for what was left of the light.

Something snagged on his paw, and he saw it was her soft paw on his. Well, they had been soft long ago, but now they were tougher, developed for the world around her like she had. He looked down at her, and her eyes were slightly open.

"Come on, stay with me." She mumbled, barely awake.

"Buck'll have my head." Rufus said, though he wasn't sure if that was true. Buck was unpredictable about these things.

"So, the only reason you won't is because of Buck?"

"Is there any other reason that should exist?"

"Being a gentleman perhaps." She said, slightly more awake.

He looked at her with a raised eyebrow and smirk, and she giggled slightly into her blankets (from Sasha's old stash, naturally), and Rufus felt himself blush under his fur at how cute it had been.

"Please stay. Everything's so…" She trailed off, and he got what she meant. Things were great, apart from the fact that they didn't know if Jai, Calamity and Tobiah were still alive. A hidden, dangerous shard in a pool of murky water. They were walking blind to the fact of where they were.

"Murky." Rufus said.

Ivory smiled. "Never knew you were the poetic type."

Rufus snorted. "And you never will."

She giggled again, and Rufus slowly knelt next to her bed.

"I can stay here if you want." He said, but she shook her head. She grabbed his arm and pulled him to sit next to her on the bed.
Rufus' heart was bashing in his chest, and he wasn't sure what he was feeling. Was it fear, of Buck bursting in and cutting off Rufus' head for even thinking of sleeping in the same room as Ivory? Buck would've never slept in the same bed as a girl at Rufus' age.

I'm not Buck.

Rufus' jaw clenched in shame. He was eighteen and unfortunately, he could remember things he'd done at age fifteen and sixteen. Scandalous things, with other girls. Things that maybe Ivory wouldn't be surprised about, but certainly maybe more guarded in situations like this.

"Ivory I…I'm just gonna go to my own bed." He said, and seeing Ivory's sad, confused look, he came up with a valid excuse. "I think the kits would be confused if they…they might get the wrong idea, you know."

"What would be the wrong idea?" Ivory asked.

Rufus wasn't sure how to answer, so he only said, "Goodnight."

He left her room and went slowly to his own. He heard a shuffle and looked down the length of the tunnel, and saw Buck standing in the doorway to his and Lucy's chamber, the only one with a door.

When they met gaze's, Buck nodded approvingly, then went back to Lucy and closed the door.
Rufus rubbed the back of his neck, confused, annoyed, proud, confused again. He decided sleep was the best thing for it, and entered his room, finding it empty of anyone else, and the sight left him feeling empty as well. During the weeks they had been escaping from the village, he, Ivory, Ruby and the kits had all slept in one pile, for warmth and comfort. Of all the people to miss such a feeling, Rufus knew he was the last.
And yet here he was, missing it.