I only own the characters that made. Well, technically I can't own a crocodile...
Chapter 2: My Brother
Mother and the Shishigami had a reason for only naming me, Kikyu, Naku, and Saria. The other four remaining pups fates were to be caught by a predator, tramped by boars, fell of a cliff, and one drowned in a river. The remaining four of us had a generally good time. We established our den in the cave where we found our names, and slept under the carvings that the Forest Spirit made. At the time, we thought that we would live in that den for the rest of our lives. Later, certain circumstances prevented that. Of the four of us, I was the leader. At 4 years of age, I was already half the size of a normal adult and physically mature. I was closest to Saria, as she was my sister. Because she had an unusually small size (though not the runt of the litter, he had already died), I may have felt even more protective of her. She also had a very attractive black splotch that ran down her mostly white body from muzzle to the tip of her tail. Kikyu and Naku were just beginning to develop physically, and it was obvious that they were headstrong and reckless. At first it was annoying. By the time I was 5, it became a serious problem.
On the 5th anniversary of our birth, my brothers decided to try to catch fish where the ocean met the river. Remember, the forest I am in now is not the forest I grew up in. It was a half day run to get there, so by the time we got to the estuary we were tired. Naku had hurt his leg in a play fight with Kikyu recently. It had been over a piece of deer leg. Because of high tempers, it could have been a fight to the death if I hadn't intervened. Every day we grew I felt more and more like a mother figure to them, scolding them and trying to keep them out of harms way.
Saria did not like the water. She balked at the thought of even touching it, and I had to bite her on her flank to get her to take a bath. Kikyu wanted to jump right in, but not without Naku. Naku cautiously limped over to the water, but when he got to the edge he felt the need to jump in. As Kikyu and Naku played in the water, they quickly forgot about fishing. Again feeling like a mother, I lay down on the bank and watched them, looking for trouble. As I lay there, Saria snuggled up to me. Even though I normally would have dwarfed her, she was smaller than usual, and was able to use my shadow for shade.
I had always had a 6th sense for danger, and something did not feel right. After looking down at Saria, who was now curled up in a ball of fur, asleep, I gently got up, as I did not want to wake her, and slowly walked towards by brothers. Unbeknownst to us, we had a deadly visitor. It was not until many years later that I learned what kind of creature tore away our predictable and comfortable lifestyle. It was a crocodile.
Without any warming, Kikyu disappeared in a splash of water and blood. Just under the surface, the attacker went into a death role and snapped my bother's neck, killing him. This was not a god. It was not a demon. It was just an unusually large and sadistic crocodile that happened to find prey at a random estuary. This crocodile was not hungry when it killed my beloved brother. Rather, it just wanted to kill, its tiny brain demanding bloodshed. As it let go of Kikyu and let his mangled, lifeless body float to the surface, I took off after the killer. But I had miscalculated, and headed for the wrong direction. Naku, with his injured leg, had tried to escape by swimming out to sea, hoping the killer would not see him. But it did. As it grabbed his already hurt leg and prepared to go into another death roll, I realized I was too far way to get to him. I couldn't believe it. Half my family, dead in one day? But then I saw an unbelievable sight. Little Saria, who would not touch the sea for anything, taking a running jump off the side of the ocean, landing on the crocodile's back. She was too tiny, and her fangs and claws too small. She could not hurt it. She could only distract it. But it gave Naku time to get away. And for me to act.
I jumped into the water and sunk my fangs into the tip of the crocodile's tail. It lost all interest in Saria and turned to its latest annoyance. I planned to be more than an annoyance to it. As it hissed in pain and snapped around to get me, I let go and slid up its body until I reached its belly. I wrapped my legs around it, and we were locked together, belly to belly. He dove far underwater, with me attached to him. He rolled, dived, tried anything to get me off, but to no avail. I opened my mouth and began tearing at the crocodile's soft underbelly. I started ripping through skin and muscle, hoping to get at its heart. But this came at a price. Already woozy from lack of oxygen, I stared getting saltwater in my lungs. But I ignored the searing pain, and resumed my attack, finally reaching his organs. I chewed my way into his kidneys, his stomach, his lungs, and finally his heart. He stopped struggling. I stayed under for as long as I could, making sure he wasn't faking. He wasn't. He sank to the bottom, and I managed to paddle my way back to the surface and sweet air. I immediately saw that we had a problem. The current had moved me, my sister, and my brother (it hurt too much to think about the fact that I only had one brother now) out into the open ocean. Naku could not swim with his injuries, and poor Saria had no idea how to swim. I first went to Saria. ((Bite my neck!)) I ordered. She complied, sinking her teeth hard into the loose skin that was at the nape of my neck. It was deep enough to draw blood, but I did not care. She was attached to me. I managed to swim over to Naku, who was almost unconscious from loss of blood. Just like Saria did to me, I grabbed his neck a hard as I could without seriously injuring him. To my dismay, he was so delirious from shock and blood loss that he did not even yelp. I tried to swim back to shore, but I only succeeded in moving out of the open ocean and into a water current that loosely followed the coast. My strength exhausted, I let the water carry me and my family, and hoped that the Shishigami was with us.