Author's Note – This is set after the Furies take up more lasting residence in the Glittering Caves, roughly in chapter 73 – New Arrivals.
Confusion
"Where is our daughter?" Wind-Biter whispered.
"Which one?" Starlight asked, yawning as he woke up.
"Which one do you think?" she asked, sounding a little worried.
He groaned, completely understanding what his mate meant. They had agreed to only refer to Tail-Hunter as their daughter, which she now was and had been for nearly a full turn of the seasons. Referring to her no differently to how they did with Storm-Chaser, their... first cub, was important, both for themselves and for Tail-Hunter. Their new cub had to feel wanted, accepted, and no different from their natural cub.
"She is not with you?"
She lifted a wing, showing only Storm-Chaser dozing against her side. Tail-Hunter had indeed slipped away during their family nap.
"Maybe she went to relieve herself," he proposed.
Even as he suggested it he doubted that was correct. The pits for waste were outside the Caves, and cubs were not allowed outside without protectors. Tail-Hunter was not a rebellious cub who would disobey, nor did she have problems with where she relieved herself.
"Without taking me with her?" Wind-Biter worried, looking around their ledge.
He hopped to his paws and peered out over their ledge into the wider passage of the Caves. Nothing appeared or sounded strange at first glance. The stream calmly flowed onward toward the mouth of the Caves. All was calm and peaceful down in the clear pools. He had hoped that Tail-Hunter would be down there, either swimming for fun or drinking from the drinking-water, but she was not there.
They had to go find her.
"We can leave her sleeping here," he nodded toward Storm-Chaser.
She was still asleep under Wind-Biter's wing. The caves were very safe, so leaving her to sleep there was fine.
Together, they dashed for the entrance to the Caves. Someone was always there and would be able to tell them if Tail-Hunter had slipped out. Actually, the guard would have stopped a lone cub from wandering out of the Caves.
They arrived and met Dark-Fire. While they both knew that Dark-Fire had a troubled past and still had problems with being around humans, he was entirely willing to do the boring work of being a guard to protect the Caves.
"Dark-Fire, have you seen Tail-Hunter?" he asked.
"I have not," Dark-Fire answered.
"Thank you," he said.
They trotted deeper into the Caves and faced each other.
"So she is still in the Caves. But where would she go?" he asked.
"Were the cubs going to play somewhere?"
"Not that I know of. No one else was going to be watching her."
She grumbled and looked away from him.
"What if... she went to watch someone else?"
"Who would she want to... oh. We should go check that," he groaned.
Her suspicion had lift, now that he thought about it. Who else would Tail-Hunter want to go see other than Dreamcatcher?
Dreamcatcher was a tail-twisting and soul-fire chilling problem for the pack. Her thinking was much lesser than it should be. It was as though she had become a cub in a grown body.
Together, they flew deeper into the Caves until they saw Dreamcatcher's favorite pool at the base of a waterfall. Unsurprisingly, she was there, resting by the waterfall. She said that she liked the sound of the constant waterfall which reminded her of something good in the past. She could not remember what that good in the past was, but it helped her feel warmer... whatever it was.
They flew silently and touched down on a ledge overlooking the pool. Being unnoticed might help if there was anything to see.
Cautiously and silently, they crept forward to look down at Dreamcatcher and anyone else who might be there. He could not see anyone other than Dreamcatcher at first, but his mate nudged his shoulder.
"Look," Wind-Biter whispered, indicating several rock-spikes growing from the ground.
Tail-Hunter was hiding behind the rock-spikes and staring at Dreamcatcher.
He could not find any words for how confusing the situation was. On one paw, nothing was twisted about Tail-Hunter wanting to be around her... first dam, even though Dreamcatcher could not be that for her unless she got much better.
But on the other paw, Tail-Hunter needed to somehow learn that Wind-Biter was now her dam and that he was her sire. That was made more difficult because of how Dreamcatcher stayed nearby in the same Caves, which was necessary for her own good.
He was not sure whether to interrupt and let Tail-Hunter know that they were there, or to not involve themselves.
"Should we go to her?" he grumbled.
Wind-Biter did not immediately answer.
"She will come back to us. This is probably not the first time she has gone to her," she eventually said.
He thought back on recent moon-cycles. Tail-Hunter occasionally flew away from their ledge and returned looking chilled in her soul-fire. He had always assumed that she was just unhappy after playing or because she was tired. The Caves were safe enough that cubs could be allowed more freedom as long as they stayed inside.
Maybe she had actually been going to see her troubled, thought-twisted dam.
"We should have known about this. Do we need to talk to the Alphas?" he groaned.
"What is there to say? We want to live in the Caves, but Dreamcatcher needs to be here too."
"True, but this is not good for our daughter."
They watched a few more wingbeats as Tail-Hunter secretly observed Dreamcatcher asleep.
Wind-Biter nuzzled his neck.
"Do we tell her that she cannot be curious about her... birth-dam? We cannot say that."
"No, but I still think we must do something. Maybe you, me, Tail-Hunter, and Storm-Chaser should go on a flight to the mountains or the water. We could have time away from the Caves," he proposed.
She grumbled.
"But she will still be curious and will want to see her after we come back."
He agreed, though that got them no closer to figuring out what to do for her.
"My sister is twisted!" Storm-Chaser hissed, splashing the water with a paw.
Wind-Biter rolled her eyes, amused that her daughter thought that. But she had thought that herself about her own sister long ago, so it was not abnormal.
"How is she twisted?" she asked in between mouthfuls of water.
"We had a fight!"
"A fight? What about?"
"She does not like you!"
She blinked and faced her daughter in alarm. That Tail-Hunter might have a problem with her was far more serious than a normal fight between cubs. She had to learn more about whatever happened.
"No? Why do you think that?" she softly asked.
"She said she hates her dam... and that you do not want her!"
That was even worse! Tail-Hunter thought she did not want her? What? Had she failed Tail-Hunter in some very bad way? She had never, as far as she could recall, snapped or hissed at Tail-Hunter in any way other than the normal grumbling a cub deserved when they were being twisted. She always let Tail-Hunter sleep in warmth under her wing whenever her mate did not do that.
It was very confusing that Tail-Hunter would think she did not want her.
Great skies, this is bad!
She quickly looked around and saw the Alpha pair and Free-Flight. The Alphas were speaking with another packmate while Free-Flight fidgeted on his paws, probably because he was anxious to be doing something more fun.
"How about you go play with Free-Flight. I need to speak to your sire."
"Okay!" Storm-Chaser bounded away.
She spun around and quickly flew to her mate. He and Tail-Hunter should be resting at their ledge.
As expected, he and Tail-Hunter were there, their daughter resting at his side. This was a perfect opportunity to talk in confidence.
She landed, trotted to them, and barked softly, waking them up. They both yawned and purred at her.
Was Tail-Hunter already hiding what she really thought? A cub falling into lying and tricking at a young age was not good.
"Daughter, how are you?" she purred.
"Good!" Tail-Hunter answered.
"Good. Do you want to talk about anything?"
Tail-Hunter tilted her head in confusion. Even Starlight appeared confused, though that might be because he just woke up.
She stepped closer and lay down before Tail-Hunter so their daughter could rest at her chest.
"I heard that you and your sister had a fight," she whispered.
Tail-Hunter's ears went back as she looked down to her paws.
"Maybe..."
"What about? You can trust us and tell us. You know that we love you, yes?" she purred, nuzzling Tail-Hunter's head.
Starlight wildly looked between them, still unsure what was happening, but he said nothing so far.
Tail-Hunter was silent for many wingbeats.
"She is stupid and mean!" Tail-Hunter whined, hanging her head.
"What did she do?" Starlight asked, visibly worried.
Was their first daughter being cruel, biting, or bad in any way?
"She was being sneaky!"
"How?" she asked.
"She followed me when I told her not to! I wanted to be alone, but she snuck after me!"
Wind-Biter paused and took a deep breath. She suspected she knew what Tail-Hunter had wanted to be alone for.
"Did you go see Dreamcatcher?"
Tail-Hunter froze, still staring down at the ground. Then she started shaking and whining, crying with her soul-fire very chilled.
"My... dam... does not... want me!" Tail-Hunter gasped.
"Yes, I do!" she answered, furiously nuzzling Tail-Hunter.
But Tail-Hunter did not nuzzle her or lean into the nuzzling; rather, she just sat there and stared at the ground.
"You are not my dam," Tail-Hunter whispered.
She froze, deeply chilled by the sudden news that Tail-Hunter still thought of Dreamcatcher in some way as her dam. That was despite everything she and Starlight had done to try to make Tail-Hunter feel like their own cub.
It hurt to hear that.
"I... did not birth you, but I do care about you. We both do."
"My sire and dam cared! They went away! You... you will go away too!"
Starlight barked in shock and stepped closer to her.
"No, we will not leave you! We named you our cub!" he said.
"I was her cub, and dam does not know me now!" Tail-Hunter whined.
That explained what had to have happened. Tail-Hunter had at some point approached her thought-confused birth-dam to talk to her, but Dreamcatcher did not know her. That or something like that had to have happened.
Wind-Biter gently lay her chin on Tail-Hunter's head while purring to her.
"She has a sickness. That sickness made her forget all of us, not only you, dear one. Your... birth-dam did not want to forget you, but bad happened to her."
"You will not get sick and forget me?" Tail-Hunter whispered.
"Never. Neither of us will get sick or forget you."
Tail-Hunter said nothing else, but she did not shy away from the nuzzling.
Holding and comforting her daughter, she could not help but think back to what had happened to Dreamcatcher in the past. Tail-Hunter and Storm-Chaser being close to the same age meant that she and Dreamcatcher had watched each other's cubs much. That let her and Dreamcatcher talk and get to know each other better than most others in the pack, and had been part of why she had to name Tail-Hunter as her own.
Dreamcatcher's losing her overly trusting brother to humans had put a cold wind in her soul-fire. Only Growls-At-His-Shadow, then a loyal friend and flightmate, had been there to help warm her as a friend and eventually as more. While the male was very brash about his previous violence toward humans, which was entirely deserved and good of him, he was not dangerous or violent toward fellow packmates.
It was he who had suggested Dreamcatcher take her name, shedding her old name which carried too much bad with it.
She had tried to be there for Dreamcatcher after hearing the news that Growls-At-His-Shadow had died in the fighting. Her friend had appeared to be warm enough at first, though she was very quiet.
She could not have known how twisted and rotted her friend's thinking was becoming. Or maybe she was just not a good enough friend, to have failed in some way to be there or do what was necessary for Dreamcatcher.
Regardless, the suffering Dreamcatcher had endured in the past had left her more vulnerable to further loss than most packmates probably were.
"I know that you might want to think of her as your dam, which she is in a way, but she cannot care for you now. Not while her thinking is twisted. We will care for you as she cannot," she whispered.
"Yes, we will. We and your sister love you. You are safe here," Starlight hummed and gave her a lick on the face.
Tail-Hunter wiped her face clean with a paw, huffed, and flicked her tail.
"Maybe you love me, but my sister does not. We had a fight!"
"A fight? That is normal. She thought you were saying bad things about me, but she was confused," she explained.
"Really?" Tail-Hunter warbled.
"Yes. She was just being silly, and you know what that means?" she asked
"What?" Tail-Hunter barked, her ears lifting.
"It means she cares about you. She wanted a brother or sister, and now she has you! She likes playing with you."
"Really?"
"She does. She is playing with Free-Flight right now. Do you want to play with them?" she chuckled, glad that her daughter was thinking about topics more warming to the soul-fire.
Tail-Hunter got to her paws and stretched, pawing at the rocks she had been sleeping on.
"Yes! She wanted to do games of hide and hunt in deeper caves!"
She purred, very pleased by how warm and eager Tail-Hunter had become. At the same time, it was amusing how twisted cubs could be. They could fly from being very twisted and chilled to being playful and warm in just a few wingbeats.
The young were very good at observing, but not very good at understanding what they saw.
Wind-Biter returned with Storm-Chaser after leading her to the waste pits. Starlight and Tail-Hunter were waiting on their family ledge when she got there.
Everyone was tired after a long day of playing in the Edoras-nest, as the cubs had done, or watching and protecting prey-herds, as she and Starlight had done.
"Ready for sleep?" she purred.
Her daughters yawned widely.
"No..." "Maybe a little..."
"Good."
She and Starlight lay down, leaving a little space between them, since that would let their cubs have the warmest possible place to rest. Storm-Chaser immediately snuggled between them.
Tail-Hunter took a step toward her but paused, hesitating slightly.
A pawful of days had passed since the incident and chilling talk about how Tail-Hunter did not truly think of her as her dam. They had not said anything else about that topic in that time, partially because they had no idea what to say. They could not make Tail-Hunter see her any differently. All they could do was continue to be there, care for her, and try to warm her soul-fire as... as a true sire and dam would.
Tail-Hunter pranced to her and curled up between her paws at her chest. Nothing was said, but nothing needed to be said aloud.
There might always be small problems in their situation, but she had no doubt that Tail-Hunter would truly know that she was loved. It would happen eventually.