New Worlds
AvalonReeseFanFics
A/N: Dear CB: While you're enthusiasm in reading my story is very greatly appreciated, the commenting about this story on other fics is, in fact, rather rude to me, and at the very least goes against the unwritten fanfiction etiquette. If you actually read any of my author notes on any of my stories, you'd have known that I'm struggling with writer's block. The added pressure and guilt tripping, and weaponizing of my other stories was not appreciated. Now. There's three more chapters left, and I will post them when I post them. If they're late and you're worried, feel free to create an account to private message me.
For everyone else, thanks for being patient! I hope you guys enjoy the update! I will do my best to update next week, but again, I'm struggling with writer's block so it might be late!
Chapter 18 – The Elusive Elevens
Now that Una was older, she was wondering more and more about who she was really was and where she was from. The problem was she had no one who could tell her.
Her mummy could tell her all about how she found her in that biped water wreckage, and how she saved her, and raised her but that didn't tell her who Una was.
Surely she had a biped name. Surely she had biped parents. Maybe even a biped name.
Sometimes she wished that her parents would wander up out of the ocean looking for her, willing to give her all of her answers, but then she'd feel guilty. Her mummy loved her, her pack loved her too. To want to leave them for such a silly reason, to wish for a family she had never known instead of the family who had treated her so well, seemed like a betrayal.
And while she knew she was in the wrong, she couldn't help but find herself longing for a past she couldn't remember and couldn't go back to. And she didn't know how to tell her mummy that she was feeling this way, because, she felt if she did, it would hurt her mummy.
How did one explain to their adoptive mother that they dreamed of meeting their real mother and father one day?
Una spent a lot of time by the beach these days. Sitting by the place where the biped wreckage had once been.
Not much was left of it now. What hadn't rotted away had been reclaimed by the waves, dragged back out to the sea.
Still she liked to sit there, in the sand by what used to be the thing that had brought her to this island, just dreaming of what her life might have been like if she were a true biped, somewhere out in the world out there, you know… wherever bipeds came from.
"Why do you keep coming here?"
Una started out of her thoughts and turned to where her mother was carefully padding through the sand and towards her.
"I… I like to come here to think," she said softly. It wasn't entirely a lie, she did do a lot of thinking out here.
"Mm. And what do you think about?"
Her mother was beside her now, slowly lowering herself to the sand so she could sit beside her hatchling.
"I unno just stuff."
Her mother seemed to regard her, clearly sensing that something was off. Una didn't know how to tell her what was wrong with her without seeming ungrateful. But she also knew that her mother always knew when she was lying.
Sooner or later she'd realize that Una was withholding information and would bug her for the answer, or, in the worst case scenario, flat out demand one.
"And do you need to be alone to think?"
Yes, Una was older, but her mummy really didn't like it when she was on her own. There was strength in numbers, and no pack was strong like hers but she didn't want to come here with other raptors. She wanted to be there by herself.
"I'd like to be alone, yes."
Her mummy thought that over and then raised her snout as the ocean spray washed over them. They were far enough so all they got was a little bit of the water as she wind brought it up the beach.
"If that's what you'd like," she said eventually. "But try not to make a habit of this. We don't want any predators thinking this is a pattern that they can use to hunt you with."
Una smiled and leant against her mother's shoulder. "Yes mummy."
"And no swimming in the big waves. We don't know what lurks in that water."
That time Una rolled her eyes. "Yes mummy," she said again and her mother leant over to nip at the hair on the top of her head in a loving way.
"No attitude, my hatchling," she warned. "You are still bite sized to many a predator on this island."
True, but then most raptors were bite sized compared to the massive predators. And besides, her and Grunt had an understanding now. He mostly ignored her now. So long as she didn't directly interfere with one of his hunts he didn't care what she did.
"Sorry mummy."
Her mother settled into the sand again and together they let the lull of the waves crashing against the sand calm them.
"It's nice here. I hope you don't mind me sitting with you today. I'd like to think too."
"I don't mind."
Her mummy nodded with her and then went silent, allowing them to sit in silence until Una was ready to go. Which was quickly because the guilt had settled like a stone in her stomach.
She felt like such a bad daughter.
But even then, she still those daydreams wouldn't stop.
-JP-JP-JP-
That breeding season, Una was the best hatchling minder there was.
There was no questions from the older pack members, or the newer generation about what Una's purpose was, it was simply ingrained in all of them that she would mind the hatchlings once they were hatched. And no one worried about the state of the hatchlings when they were under her care.
And Una did so well.
She was still helping along the weaker ones when she shouldn't be, but the hatchlings loved her and listened to her so that was all that mattered.
She spent all her time playing with them, catching nibbles to eat while the adults were away. She taught them hunting techniques and let them practice on one another so long as they weren't hurting the ones they were hunting. But when the adults came back, Una was disappear.
She'd climb up a tree to stare up at the night lights, or she'd wander off to the beach.
She was seeking solitude more and more and Rela was getting worried.
She didn't want to tell her hatchling she wasn't allowed at the beach, but the fact of the matter was she didn't want her hatchling out once the sun was down, and she didn't want her up a tree either.
She wanted her hatchling on the ground with her, in her little makeshift nest like she was used to make when she was little.
Rela was forced to admit to herself that she didn't want her hatchling to grow up. She wanted Una to stay that little itty-bitty version of herself that Rela had come to know and love. She lived in fear of Una leaving to start her own pack, though why would she do that? Well, she might if a biped were to come to an island.
Sooner or later her hatchling would want to mate, wouldn't she? When did that start with bipeds? When were they considered full grown? Because she was still growing. She got taller with each moon cycle and parts of her were getting bigger or changing shape.
Una hadn't mentioned an uncomfortableness though, so Rela was hoping it was alright. She was also hoping that Una didn't change much anymore because Rela wasn't sure how to explain what was happening. She knew so little about bipeds… except for how they tasted.
What Rela was worried about was Una's desire to suddenly be alone. She was always off thinking these days.
It was like she had finally become properly integrated with the pack, only to not want it anymore.
Rela wasn't foolish though, she knew that something was bother her hatchling, she just didn't know what it was, or how she could help her through it if her hatchling wouldn't talk to her about it.
-JP-JP-JP-
Since Una wanted to spend most of her time alone, she had been letting Rhum go off on the hunts to help her mother. He enjoyed hunting more than following her around anyway.
And her mother loved having him on hunts. He was fast, he was strong, he almost always got the kill down in a timely and efficient manner. She was enjoying hunting with him, so she was doing it more often.
But every day, when Rhum went off with her mother to hunt, they would leave her with the direct order to call them if she was in trouble, but she so rarely ran into trouble.
What she did run into was other herds.
Every time she went off on her own some sort of herd would find her. They were seeking her out now to get her help, but only if she wasn't at the nest. They never came to find her while she was at the nest. It was smart of them too. Because herd or not, if they wandered into a Raptor's nest they'd end up in a fight or as food.
Mostly they wanted her to use her fingers to get at small injuries and objects that need to be pulled out. Sometimes they needed her to wrap up bleeding injuries, or they wanted her to help pull a creature free from some biped contraption.
Normally she didn't mind helping, but she just wanted to be on her own and they were cutting into that.
So she had started using the trees to get herself places. Harder for the herds to track her when she was jumping from branch to branch and tree to tree. It also meant that if her mom needed to track her, she too would have issues, but she didn't mind that, that much either.
But she must have been too predictable, because her mother always found her, even if she used the trees.
"You're spending a lot of time here," her mom said, appearing beside her. Una had been so lost in thought, so lost in her daydreams that she hadn't even notice her mother appear.
"And you didn't sense me coming, it's never good to be that unaware of your surroundings, you know that Una."
Una nodded, she did know that. Her mother had been drilling that into her since she was little.
"Now. Something is clearly bothering you. So why don't you tell me about it."
Her mom was in the process of settling herself into the sand beside her and Una almost got up and fled. She didn't want to tell her mom what was wrong with her, because she knew it would make her mom sad and she would feel bad.
But she also knew that if she tried to bolt her mom would chase her down. She was faster than Una, after all.
"I don't want to talk about it."
"Well that may be," her mother said sharply. "But you can't continue on like this. Something is wrong, I can tell. So just tell me what it is."
"You'll be mad," Una said with a sniff. She couldn't help it but she was starting to cry and that was stupid.
"I will not. Don't be silly," her mother chided. "I can't help you if you don't tell me what's wrong."
She knew her mom wasn't going to drop it so she might as well tell her the truth. Get it over with it.
"I… I'm lonely."
And then she chickened out at the last minute. It was a half-truth. She was lonely, she was craving something that she was never going to get and she really didn't want to tell her mom that. Maybe she could get away with just the half-truth.
"Okay… well… I don't know how being by yourself was going to fix that. But if you're lonely you can have Rhum back…"
Aw, no that wouldn't be fair. Taking Rhum away from hunting when they both liked it so much. Especially since the pack needed him for the bigger and better kills.
"No… I mean… I just… I want someone… like me."
Her mother turned to her at that point and Una lowered her eyes.
"I know that's stupid to wish for. And it's honestly got nothing to do with you, or the pack or anything. I love you guys so much and I feel so… ungrateful… but sometimes I wish… I wish there was someone here… like me. Someone who could answer all my questions… who could explain what I'm going through."
Her mother nodded.
"That's not silly at all. Did you think I would find you ungrateful? Is that why you thought I'd be mad?" Una nodded her mother huffed at her. "That's ridiculous Una."
"I'm sorry… I just…"
"Well, for starters, I do know you love me, and the pack. I know you're happy to be with us, that you're grateful for everything. But I also understand why you would wish for someone like you around. I sometimes wish there were someone… a biped maybe that could answer all the questions I don't know the answers to."
"Sometimes I dream of my real family."
There she had blurted it out, it was out there, out in the open for her mom to hear. And Rela just sat there staring at her. Una had no idea what the older raptor was thinking, but it probably wasn't very good.
"Well… I suppose that makes sense too."
"It does?" Una asked, completely surprised.
"Yes. It would only make sense that you would wonder where you came from, in the sense of parents. I always knew there would come a point where you were old enough to understand that two other creature gave you life and you will most likely never meet them. It is only natural to wonder who they are and whether or not they loved you."
"Do… do you think you did?"
Rela thought for a moment. "I know that, somehow you managed to survive that wreckage that your parents didn't. It isn't a stretch of the imagination to realize that they stowed you somewhere secure to keep you safe. And that is love. Making sure your loved one is safe before finding your own safety. And… well… who couldn't love you? You're just so cute."
She paired that last statement with a loving nip and Una half smiled at her.
"Now… if you feel like you need your alone time, that it perfectly fine, but don't you feel bad. Familial longing is not unfathomable to me."
"Why not?"
Rela thought about it for a moment and then said: "Well, just because I wonder from time to time what my clutch might have grown up to be like if the tree hadn't flattened them, doesn't mean I don't love you. It just means I wonder about the what could be, and sometimes that what could be makes me ache. But again, that doesn't mean I love you less. Now does it?"
Una shook her head and Rela butt her head into hers. "Now, shall I give you your time alone?"
"Could you stay? Just a little bit? I do my best day dreaming when you're here."
"Mmm, you dream the day away, I'll stand watch."
She didn't stand up but she did straighten. Her head bobbed, swivelling side to side as she kept her eyes on the area around them to make sure all was still alright.
And Una, well, Una felt much better.