Hey guys, I'm thinking that I'm going to structure these as one chapter with Cal and Toby, and the next back at the family, just to even it out. This ones longer than the last couple have been, so I'll try make the next one just as long. Hope you guys enjoy, just remember I do Not own any rights to Bluesky, but my Original characters are my own.

The underground was barely grey with morning before Collette, Darcy, Bluey, Tessa, Melina and Coby woke up together, all snuggled with blankets and toys made of twigs and leaves.

"Come on Collette." Darcy said, trying to pull his little sister out of bed, while the others watched, but she only shrugged him off.

"I don't want to." She whined, turning her face away. Tessa walked up, and poked her sister in the back with a stick. Collette only shrunk away from that too.

"What's wrong Collie?" Tessa said, dropping the stick and coming closer. She realised Collette was shivering.

"It's too cold."
All five other siblings frowned. Cold. Tessa looked at Coby, Bluey and Darcy, all who shrugged in a similar way to Rufus.

"But it's not cold at all." Melina said, blinking at her triplet.

Tessa thought about it. She didn't want to get Ruby this time. Ruby always got worried. Rufus, too. Ivory would only tell them. Buck would only try encouraging her out of bed, maybe making her angry. Her moods were unpredictable when she was like this, and Tessa didn't like her being upset.

And besides, today was their birthday.

"I'm getting Lucy." Tessa announced. The others only nodded in response. She made her way past them and into the tunnel, comforted by the bit of light that was coming in from outside, albeit only being just enough. She made her way cautiously towards Buck and Lucy's chamber, hesitating at the door. She couldn't hear anything on the other side. None of this family snored, not like their mother had. She lightly pushed on the door, and it didn't creak as it opened, so she made her way inside. She went to the left side of the bed first, trying to see who it was.

The strong scent of dirt and decaying leaves reached her nose, and she knew it was Buck, just to check, she moved to the head.

She had to stifle a gasp when she saw him.

Where his patch usually was, there was scarred area where an eye should have been. The more she looked at it however, the less horrific it seemed.

She made her way back around to the other side, to the sweeter scent of tree sap and flowers. It was the nicest smell in the den. Tessa made her way to Lucy's side, but her back was turned, her head rested on Buck's shoulder as they slept together. Tessa would have to climb up onto the bed. She hesitated, but then remembered Collette's shivering. She took a deep breath, then scrambled up the pile of leaves and cloth. It was less of a bed and most of a nest, really, not supported by rocks or piece of log like the others was. Calamity's bed was stuffed in between some roots, Jai had made a sort of frame to contain all the dirt that was the padding for his. Ivory had feathers, leaves and cloth all pushed into the corner of the room where she would either sleep on top of it or amongst it, with a singular cover. Ruby slept on the dirt floor with a singular old blanket. Rufus slept pretty much the same, but he'd dug a little into the ground. Everyone's beds were different.
Tessa pushed Lucy's back lightly, and Lucy immediately shifted, her body recognizing foreign movement. Tessa shook her shoulder softly, and Lucy raised her head, eyes opened, to look at her.

"Oh, hey sweetie." Lucy said nicely. "Is everything okay?"

Tessa shook her head, and Lucy immediately rolled away from Buck, who frowned in his sleep.

"What's wrong?" Lucy said, trying not to sound to alarmed, to try not panic Tessa, although she was the steadiest out of the kits.

"It's Collette." Tessa said, and Lucy nodded her understanding, and took Tessa's paw softly, leaving the bed. Lucy followed Tessa down the den to the kits' room, where the four other kits were all standing around where Collette slept on one of the softest blankets.

Immediately Lucy frowned, and the others moved away as she knelt next to Collette.

"Collie, sweetie?" she asked softly, seeing that the kit was trembling, but she didn't smell like sickness.

"I'm cold." Collette answered.

Lucy thought quickly. "Can you wiggle your toes?"

Collette wiggled them with perfect function, and Lucy nodded to herself.

"I'll be right back." She said to the others, and left, but Tess a followed her out anyway.

"What's wrong with Collie?" Tessa asked. She knew sometimes adults tried to hide things from them, occasionally lying, and Tessa didn't know why. She wanted to know. So why hide it?

"I think it has something to do with her dreams. You know how she can feel bad things coming?" Lucy said, waiting for Tessa to catch up with her. Tessa nodded, liking that Lucy wasn't trying to hide things.

"It seems like something is happening in a cold place, and she can feel it. I don't know how, or even where. I have something to help her though." Lucy walked into a small chamber, smaller than all the other chambers, that smelled of fruits, plants, herbs, vines, and some strange nuts.

Lucy dug through a container made of a cut coconut shell, and pulled out a deep purple leaf.

"This should do it. Come on." Lucy held Tessa's hand again as they made their way back to the small chamber of kits, and again knelt next to Collette. She crushed the leaf between her paws, then said to Collette,

"Can you open your mouth for me?"

Collette nodded, then opened her mouth.

"Put this on your tongue, but don't swallow it, or it'll make you sick. I'll make you spit it out again in a few minutes."

Collette obeyed, putting the little bundle of purple leaf on her tongue, and let it sit there for a while.

Tessa and Bluey watched her, while the others got bored and started drawing patterns in the floor of their chamber with sticks of charcoal.

After a little while of Lucy just brushing Collette's hair lightly, she told her to spit it out again, and put the leftover leaf in another leaf to wrap up, planning to throw it out later. Or maybe bury it, to stop the other from trying to taste it. Kids tried strange things.
A few minutes later, Collette stopped shivering, and sat up in bed, looking at her arms.

"It's gone?" she looked at Lucy, who nodded with a smile.

"It's Benzo, a plant that makes people sleep better when its juices are diluted. In other cases, stronger, it calms down people hallucinating from poisons. I have a feeling it can stop your visions."
Collette's eyes widened, and she smiled, then hugged Lucy tightly.

"Thank you!" she said, and Lucy gave her a hug and kiss on the head.

"Okay, do you want to go wake the others, it is you birthdays after all!" Lucy said, and they all cheered.

"Buck first!" said Darcy, who liked Buck the most.

"Don't you think you should get Rufus and Ruby first?" Lucy suggested. They cheered again, and ran from the room. She knew the noise would have woken Buck, and he would be tying his patch back on. Lucy didn't think any of the kits had seen him without his patch on, and wasn't sure what they would think of it. Jai and Cal had found out when they were younger than these kits, and Cal had teased him about it while Jai had simply stared, so it was hard to guess how they could all react.
Just as she guessed, she left the kits' room and found him leaving their own room, patch on.

"Mornin' darl." He laughed, watching as the kids went to Rufus' room first, and the sound of Rufus grunting as one jumped onto his belly as he slept.

"Ouch guys!"

Lucy laughed, and greeted Buck with a kiss.

"Collie had another vision." She said in a low voice.

Buck frowned and sighed. "She okay?"

Lucy nodded. "I gave her some Benzo, it calmed her down. Buck, she was shivering, as if in snow."

"Wha' the-…" Buck said, looking at her, and she knew he was taking note of the warm temperature around them.

He looked past her to the exit, and the outside world, and she knew he was making a map in his head, showing Canine Mountains with a big red circle around it.

"You think they crossed the range?" Lucy asked, glancing at the kits dragging Rufus to Ruby's room, making sure none of them were listening.

"I swear love, if they crossed those mountains when I couldn', I'm givin' 'em a medal!" He said in annoyance, although Lucy knew that inside he was just as worried as she was. He was just the better liar.

"They've never seen snow before, let alone trekked in it." Lucy said.

"'Bout time though. The ultimate test." Buck said, winking.

"Buck!" She said harshly, and he dropped the grin.

"Sorry love. Bu'…I seriously think they're fine. I don' know how, I jus'…"

Lucy nodded, trusting his instincts, and her own as well. Collette hadn't had a horrible nightmare, she'd just been shivering, giving them a good idea as to where Cal and Toby were.

"They make a good team, Cal and Toby." Lucy said, and Buck smiled.

"Too righ' they do. Now come on, the kits are driving Ruby nuts."

It only took the kits a few minutes to wake everyone up. Adrian had Darcy and Coby attached to an arm and leg, hobbling down the tunnel, his fur mussed in many places and his eyes showing he was still half asleep. Ivory arrived, with Collette hanging onto her back. Ruby had Bluey and Tessa, while Rufus had Melina on his shoulders. While buck, Lucy, Ruby, Rufus, Adrian and Ivory took the kits out to get a breakfast going, Cabe went and fetched Jessica, Trudy, and Abu's family.

The kits had never had a decent birthday, nor had they ever gotten a good present. Even their birthday day was made up, because Ruby and Rufus had been too young to remember the day, so they made it up years later, and made it a birthday for all of them, so they only had to remember one day, instead of eight.

As the kits played tag on the edge of the jungle, Buck, Adrian and Ruby went fishing, while Lucy, Ivory and Rufus went collecting fruit and herbs.

"So, Buck," Ruby said, holding a fishing three-pronged spear above her shoulder, "Do you and Lucy have birthdays?"

She stepped around a rock that looked like it could be hiding a nasty crab.

"Nope, jus' the kids. I never knew mine, neither did Jai, my brother. We never really cared." Buck's arm snapped out, and his spear pierced a fish's head, killing it instantly.

Ruby shivered in the water. She wasn't used to being in the river this long, and it had soaked into her fur. Luckily it was a warm day. She spotted a fish, but it saw her shadow before she could move against it, and it sped off. Adrian stabbed it while it passed him, and he threw it into the basket he had on his back.

"You, Adrian?" She asked.

He shook his head. "We didn't care either."

Ruby cocked her eyebrow up, but didn't say anything.

"Do you think the kits are going to be uncomfortable with so many mammals around, or will they be alright?" Adrian asked her.

She laughed. "No, they love everyone now. Especially Abu and his son. Trudy's always giving them rides on her raptor. They'll go nuts when they found out everyone's coming over just for them."

"Not jus' for them, for you two kiddo." Buck said, and Ruby remembered it was her 'birthday' as well.

"Eh it's mainly for them." she shrugged.

"Don' be so sure." Buck said with a grin, and grabbed something from out of the bag slung over his shoulder, the one without the fish. "Here."
He flicked something in her direction, and she caught it with her free hand. She gazed at it, turning it over in her hand, rubbing her thumb over it. She heard Adrian and Buck chuckling as they moved further into the river, but Ruby had stopped dead, the water moving around her.
It was a pendant, a strange piece of stone, red and orange, and smooth as a cloud-less sky. It was curved like a miniature basin. There had been a small hole punctured into it, and a piece of string made into the tie, adjustable.

Why is it I never know what to say? She couldn't even say thank you. It would sound empty, ingenuine. Instead, she stabbed the spear into the river bed, and put it on immediately, hanging it around her neck and staring at it for a bit longer.

"Hey Ruby, you comin' or what? We'll ge' all the fish an' you'll miss out!" Buck called, so she quickly grabbed her spear and caught up with them.

I still don't know how to say thank you. How is it so hard? She kept her head down and looked out for fish, but her mind was far away, and she let one slip past her.

"You okay Ruby?" Adrian asked. "You barely even flinched after that one."

Ruby laughed. "It was just lucky."

Buck and Adrian glanced at each other in a way that said they knew she was lying. Ruby looked away, and kept going down the river, keeping her head down.
They followed silently, and she knew that if she wasn't there they would have been talking about her. It kind of pissed her off.

"If you've got anything to say to me," She said darkly, "don't be afraid."

"You say that in a way that sounds more like 'be afraid.'" Adrian said back, leaning against his fishing spear.

Her ears dropped, realising she sounded ungrateful. "I didn't mean it like that."

"Then what did you mean?"

"…that you're thinking about me, and I don't like it." She said, unable to change how it sounded.

Buck laughed. "After a whole life o' no' being thought abou', the moment someone does I', you go all defensive." He waved his hands in the air when he said 'defensive', and Ruby poked her tongue out at him.

"That's not what I meant either. You were judging me."

"About what?" Adrian asked, with a raised eyebrow.

"I don't know, you tell me." She said back, and Adrian's laugh took her by surprise. She wasn't sure if she'd ever heard him laugh like that.

"We weren't judging you, just thinking about you." He said, shaking his head.

"So you were pitying me." She growled.

"No' necessarily." Buck answered, smiling in a strange way.

"What!?" she asked, snapping a little. Goddammit, why am I like this? Something didn't feel right inside her, like a rock in her belly had been dislodged.

Buck shrugged. "Ya jus' scared is all."

That really made her frown. "Scared? Of what?"

"Of us." Adrian answered.

"I am not! I could beat you fair and square." She said, crossing her arms, one of her paws still gripping the fishing spear.

"We're not talking about being afraid of us fighting you." Adrian said, and he and Buck shared a smile.

"Yeah right!" She snapped back, and felt her muscles tense. Buck would be likely to tackle her into the water to prove a point. On land, she might have been able to at least trick her way out of it; they would go easy on her, but they were better at fighting in the water than on land. She'd seen Buck and Rufus sparring on the river stones before, and Buck won every time, even holding back.

"Go on, take ya fish an' head back to Lucy." Buck said, waving her away with a smile. Ruby, still suspicious, backed out of the water to the bank, watching them carefully, but they turned away and continued searching the water. Thirty metres into the jungle on her way back to the Grandfather tree, she hid behind a rock, waiting for them to follow her. It only took her five minutes to figure out they didn't intend to ambush her here.

What was that all about? She thought, reimagining the scene again and again, looking for clues.
When she went back to the fireplace, a black scorch in the jungle clearing after years and years of use, she found Lucy already there.

"Lucy, Buck's being weird again." Ruby said, dropping her basket of fish.

Lucy smiled. "It was the necklace wasn't it?"

"What? No, I- the necklace is great, I really like it. I just-they started being weird around me, and said something about me being scared. He was just being weird."

Lucy sighed with a smile, shaking her head, and skewering some fruit onto a stick. "He's a good liar, Buck, but he's not so great at giving someone a straight answer."

"You can say that again." Ruby said.

"What did you say when he gave you the necklace?"

Ruby paused as she knelt next to the fish basket. "Uh…"

Lucy laughed. "That'll be it."

"What will?" Ruby said, standing back up.

"He was right. He scared you."

"No he didn't." Ruby said, feeling even more confused.

"What's going on?" Rufus had arrived, carrying two nets of fruit, Ivory hauling a third one behind him, both of them smiling.

"Lucy and Buck are being weird!" Ruby said, harsher than she meant.

Rufus frowned. "You mean more than usual."

"Way more than usual. They gave me a necklace and they keep saying something about me being scared or something."

Ivory, surprisingly, laughed, making Rufus frown. It was only then that Ruby realised Rufus was wearing an arm guard with stones similar to the one hanging around her neck tied into it.

"Now you're being weird." Ruby said to Ivory, who was sharing a look with Lucy.

Ivory rolled her eyes, dropped her net of fruit, and pulled Ruby into a hug.

Ruby tensed so tight that her muscles hurt with the effort, and her heart started beating as if she had spotted a raptor in the brush. Rufus was staring at Ivory as if he was the one being hugged, and Ruby imagined her expression looked quite the same. Startled, confused.

The dislodged feeling inside of her increased, as if someone was knocking against her rib from the inside.

Eventually, her body started to relax, and her eyes started to burn.

What the-?

She gave Ivory a small squeeze back, and it was enough to have Ivory let go of her, and Ruby backed off.

"You're all cracked in the head." Rufus deadpanned. "I'm starting the fire."

Later, Cabe came back with half a crowd of weasels. Trudy, Jessica, Abu, Abu's wife Faye, and Abu's eight-year-old son Bo. Trudy brought some of her young raptors that had been fully trained, and the kits squealed when they saw them, then calmed when the raptors skittered at the sound. As Buck and Trudy helped the kits ride around on the raptors, Abu, Faye, and Ivory prepared the special breakfast. Rufus, Ruby, Cabe and Adrian played their own game of ball while they waited, with nothing really to do. Ruby felt better doing something, having competition to give her energy, no matter how small. She threw the ball to her brother, who caught it expertly and tossed it over Cabe's head with a flick of the wrist, and it fell through the home-made hoop Jai had carved when he was twelve, with Buck's help.

"You guys are good." Adrian said. He'd seen them play before, but had never really payed attention to how well they worked together in the game.

Ruby retrieved the ball from where it was bouncing across the dirt. "We played a lot with the other neighbourhood kids before the kits came along."

"Didn't they bully you or something?" Cabe asked.

Ruby shook her head, bouncing the ball over. "No, we just distanced ourselves when we started having to find food for a whole brood instead of ourselves."

"We still had a few friends, but they were dodgy like us." Rufus said, taking another goal while he had no competition. "Our main enemy was Cal."

"Yeah," Ruby said with a smile. "I almost miss it."

"When was the last time you saw your friends?" Cabe asked.

Ruby and Rufus both frowned.

"They're not our friends anymore." Rufus said.

"Why not?" Adrian asked.

"Once they found out we were living with Buck and Lucy…" Ruby trailed off, then she shrugged. "They were fake anyway. They liked us because we were just as messed up as them. Thieves, liars, fighters. They thought they were the toughest next to us."

"So, when was the last time you saw your Mum?" Cabe asked.

"When was the last time you saw yours?" Rufus said back, and they both stared at each other for a while, a silent battle waging.

"Come and get breakfast!" Ivory called, so the ball, and conversation, were dropped. The kits leaped from the raptors, which Buck and Trudy tied up.

Fish large and small had been cooked over the fire, while fruit and berries lay on a leaf, skewered by light sticks. A carved bowl held nuts and roots, which was picked at throughout the morning. Oak-eye came from the jungle at the smell of food, so Buck hacked off a chunk of fish and fed it to the friendly raptor.

"Haven' seen you for a week or so buddy." Buck said, patting him with a smile while the raptor ate. "Ya look good."

"Lucy, Buck's talking to dinos again." Cabe said, throwing a blackberry into his mouth.
Buck glared at him, then whispered to Oak-eye, "Ignore 'im, he's an unbeliever."

The kits laughed at Buck, so he pretended Oak-eye was talking back to him, using the raptors chewing jaw to time the speech, leaving the kids half-spitting their food out of their mouths in laughter.

"This fish is amazing Ivory!" Ruby said, taking a particularly tasty bite.

"Thanks." Ivory said kindly, taking her own piece. "I still have a few things I learnt from the above-ground females. Fish was rarer up there, so they made sure it was worth every bite."

"True that." Rufus said, licking his paws of the leftover juices.

"Don't inflate her ego too much or she'll start talking like Buck." Adrian said, and they all laughed as Buck threw a fish bone in Adrian's direction.

The kits ate their fill, and Rufus made sure they sat for a while to let the food settle in their bellies before they ran around half the jungle and threw it all up again.

"Bluey I swear if you try sneaking off again one more time, you're not getting your present." He said, dragging Bluey back from where he'd tried sneaking behind the log the others sat on. At the word 'present', all six of the kits turned their heads and stared at him. Ruby growled and whacked her brother on the back of the head.

"Great, now look what ya did!"

"Calm down sis, look!" Rufus pointed, rubbing his head. From inside the burrow, Buck and Lucy emerged with the package of presents, and another one from Abu's family. They had decorated it with flowers, and as they set the parcel down, gave each of the kits a flower to put on their heads, everyone laughing at their squeals and giggles of excitement.

"Go on then, open 'em, but be careful." Buck said.

The kits leaped onto the leaf-wrapping like a swarm of piranhas on a piece of meat. They removed the wrapping in a matter of second, and gasped at the toys inside. As they predicted, Bluey picked the dancing weaselette, while Tessa immediately started swinging the sword. Melina sat with the dragonfly, making buzzing noises while moving it around her, while Collette ran the raptor back and forth across the ground. Coby was spinning a wooden spinning top on the harder parts of the ground, watching it with a mesmerised expression. Darcy was running quickly, making squawking noises with the pterosaur in hand.

Bo presented them the presents from Abu; six small sets of leather armour and a few shields.

"I'm sure they'll make th' weapons themselves." Abu said quietly to Buck, who winked, both of them knowing that a toy sword or a wayward stick would suffice as a weapon. All children got to an age of whacking things roughly, and Abu had at least provided them with some protection to limit the amount of inevitable tears.

After an hour of playing with their new toys, and having a few small games of ball, Rufus sat down, needing a break from the excitement. Buck sat down next to him, rubbing the places the kits had hung on to him, challenging him to a playfight or game.

"Whoo. I need a breather." He said, stretching against the log. Rufus had never realised how often Buck stretched, but it seemed to be an awful lot. This had to be a reason behind his still very nimble body. He may have been past his prime, but he could still easily beat mammals much younger than himself, though Rufus had almost bested him a few times recently. He tried not to glance at the large scar in Buck's front, where the sword had pinned him to a tree months ago.

"You get tired easily, for a great adventurer." Rufus said with a smirk.

"Runnin' through the jungle is a breeze compared t' hangin' ou' with kids." Buck said, stabbing his knife into the ground.

"Were Cal and Jai this much work?" Rufus asked.
Buck thought about it, mouth twisted to the right. "Cal, yeah. Similar t' Tessa. Jai always entertained 'imself though. He liked games, bu' only for short times before he jus' wanted to pick flowers with Lucy." He smiled, remembering something that Rufus couldn't even picture. He'd never had a good imagination anyway.

"You guys never ask about our parents." Rufus said, not sure where he was going with the conversation. It seemed he and Ruby both were trying to figure out he dynamics around them now.

"I knew ya dad pretty well, and I got 'im killed." Buck said. "I don' need to know abou' ya mum, or ya past life, I know plenty about I'. Ya just as crazy as us now, so ya better get used to I'."

Rufus tilted his head back, looking at the ice sky. "Yeah. We better."

"Speaking of which guys," Trudy said, approaching them, "you might wanna explain that to her."

Trudy's eyes were fixed on a point behind them, and they turned simultaneously to see what had caught her attention.

A figure was stumbling from the jungle, and Rufus' fur stood on end.

"Ruby!" he yelled, not taking his eyes off the new arrival as he got to his feet. He felt his sister's attention shift, and just about everyone else's in the clearing. His voice must have held the familiar timber, the timber he hadn't heard for close to six months. The alarm. His sister had a similar tonne, that acted as a code.
He heard Ruby say something to Ivory, and he wanted to turn his head to her. To reassure Ivory that it wasn't something they couldn't handle.

"Kits, come on, we'll go for a swim." He heard Ivory say, but it wasn't met with a single cheer.

They see her. They know she's here.

His mother leaned against a tree, heavy lidded eyes and hair messy. Even from where Rufus was standing, he recognized her scent, but surprised it wasn't doused in the fermented scent of alcohol.

Rufus stood completely still, staring at her, hearing Ivory try coaxing the kits away from the scene. He chanced a look at them, and saw something else that surprised him. They were standing like him, Tessa with her arms crossed, glaring at their mother. He could have laughed at their gutsiness.

"Kits?" his mother said. He supposed her voice was meant to be strong, but it didn't have any force. "Kits come here, give mumma a hug."

"You aren't their mother!" Ruby snapped, suddenly next to Rufus.

Oh great. Here we go again. Rufus thought he'd escaped this fight, this feeling. He could feel something rise inside of him.

"You must be bonkers to come 'ere!" Buck said loudly to their mother, but with a grin. Rufus didn't even hear his mother's reply, because Buck quickly whispered to Rufus, "Keep ya head Ruf."

Rufus considered relaying the message to Ruby, but one quick glance and he knew that it would be useless. Whatever had tried rising in himself was already boiling beneath her fur.

"Get out of here!" Ruby yelled. Their mother only took more steps forward.

"I wanna see my kits!" Their mother yelled back.

"They don't wanna see you!" Ruby snapped.

"I just wanna see 'em on their birthday." Their mother mumbled. "I heard the faggot say youse were havin' a party."

"The what!?" Ruby screeched. "Did you just-? I can't BELIEVE you! You weren't invited, you're gate crashing."

"Ruby." Lucy said from behind them. "Calm down-."

"No!" Ruby screamed. "She can't just come here, thinking we'll just forget what a terrible person she is!"

"Ruby." Rufus said, annoyed at how calm he was, annoyed with himself about what he was about to say. It obviously took his sister by surprise too, because she stopped in her hysteria.

Rufus turned to his mum, and said forcefully, "Get outta here mum. Don't ever try find us again."

"You can't keep me from my kids!"

Something moved in the corner of Rufus' eye, and he watched as Tessa stomped past him and Ruby. Ruby tried grabbing her, but Rufus grabbed her arm and she stopped short, glaring at him. Tessa walked right up to their mother, and shoved her roughly.

No. Not her too. He rushed forward and gently picked Tessa up, taking her away from their mother.

When he turned around again, their mother was gone.

It didn't take much to make the kits forget the incident. Buck brought them to the river and they played water games, tossing the leather ball about and making statues from the sand on the banks. Adrian helped dig a tunnel, and they played with it for hours.

Ivory had Collette on her back while they kicked water at Cabe, who had Darcy on his. The only sight that made her remember what happened was Ruby and Rufus trying too hard to have fun. She knew the twins too long to know when they were hiding something from the other kits, and at the moment they were hiding their pain.

It got worse when the day finally ended, the guests left and the kits went to sleep.

Ruby and Rufus had an argument.

Ivory had never seen them argue in the months she'd been spending almost all day and night with them. The sound of Ruby's accusations were penetrating, and Ivory watched them without guilt behind the Grandfather tree, though she didn't dare intervene. Rufus' yelling was deep, and didn't have as much power, but Ivory still felt herself shudder while watching them at it. She'd watched them fight in a war, but had never seen them this angry, full of so much hate. She tried to tell herself that this was normal, but she knew deep down it wasn't. Ruby and Rufus had conflict with almost everyone around them, but between them was a desperate trust and need of survival, putting their partnership above all others.

What was it now that challenged that? The fact that they no longer had a desperation to survive, because they had others around them to support them? Ivory could see how that would shake them up, just like the necklace, and arm guard had. The presents that Ivory, Lucy, Buck, Cabe and Adrian had given to them. That would have sent their walls up again that Ivory and the others had worked so hard to bring down. Now? They must have just felt lost.

Eventually, they went separate ways, stomping off to opposite sides of the jungle, and Ivory felt herself tear a little, too. Which one was she going to follow? Logic said Ruby. She was Ivory's best friend. But logic also warned her of Ruby's strange anger. She knew Ruby would never hurt her physically, and she had never insulted her before, but Ivory was unsure about this whole situation as much as they were, and didn't want to take the chances. Her best bet was Rufus, who would take her presence more calmly.

While Ruby had headed towards the river, Rufus had headed into the jungle towards the North. Ivory waited a few moments before following him, a tightness in her heart.

Things were supposed to be getting better.

She entered the jungle, without any of her old fear. She hadn't been afraid of the dark greenery for a long while now, not with Buck's confidence boosting, Adrian's guidance and Lucy's kindness.

She followed Rufus' scent, and noticed that he started wandering back and forth, curving from east to west while still making it north.

This seems familiar…

Just as she remembered why, Rufus leaped from a bush. Ivory gave a screech and tried avoiding the tackle, but he caught her with his arm and pinned her to a tree.

"This is a bad habit of yours." Rufus said in annoyance, his ears pinned to his skull.

"Well this seems to be a bad habit of yours." She retaliated defiantly, pushing his arms away.

He looked momentarily surprised, then dropped the expression and stepped away.

"Why are you following me again?"

"Same reason as usual." She said, her voice reflecting his. She had the urge to cross her arms, but realised that Ruby would have done that, and she didn't want to remind him of his sister at the moment, so instead she put one paw on her hip.

Rufus' chest expanded as he glared at her, paws curling into fists. Then, as if the fight had been yanked from him, he sighed and hung his head.

"You've changed."

Ivory, who hid her surprise at his change in attack, said quietly, "So have you."

"For worse or better?"

"Better." She said immediately. "Me?"

He smiled. "Better."

She bit her lip nervously. "Well, you weren't better today."

She saw his jaw tighten, and he turned away, walking slowly into the jungle. "I was fine. It was Ruby who overstepped."

Ivory followed without hesitating. "Lucy was right. And Buck, and Adrian."

"Right about what?" Rufus said, stopping to look at her, confused and defensive.
Ivory rubbed her arm, feeling her head duck a little, but when she remembered she had no reason to fear others anymore, she stood her full height again. "She's just scared. So are you."

Rufus' breathing increased, and a strange expression came upon him, as if he was in pain, or fighting an internal battle, and Ivory had no idea what was going through his head, when usually she did.

She jumped slightly when he went to his knees, gripping his head with his claws roughly. Alarmed, Ivory knelt in front of him, pulling his clawed-fingered hands away from his head.

Before she could say anything, Rufus whispered only one thing:

"I know."