Disclaimer: I don't own the Croods or the characters except Jharii, she is mine.
Jharii woke slowly the next day to light shining into the cave around the boulder. She sat up slowly and looked around at her family still huddled up sleeping; Sandy was holding crispy bear and kicking Thunk in the head. Jharii giggled quietly at that and lay down again to wait for her family to wake up. While she waited she thought again about what the noise from the previous day could have been.
'I've been climbing the cliffs since I was a little girl but I have never heard anything like that. It sounded like someone talking but that's impossible, we are the only family left around here' Jharii sighed and continued to think about what could have made that noise, but before she could be lost in her thoughts Grug woke up. He yawned that loudly it woke the rest of the family up, Ugga stated groggily that it was bath day, Gran complained like usual. After everyone had the dirt hit off of them with a gnarled stick, Grug told a story which Jharii again did not listen to. It was usually because she was thinking about a more a more fun life but this time it was because she couldn't stop thinking about that mysterious noise.
The day was spent like all the others when stuck in the cave, gran complaining about food, Thunk running around with Sandy biting his head. Ugga telling Thunk not to look Sandy in the eyes if he is not ready to challenge her, Grug trying to tell stories but only Eep really listened and Jharii sitting at the back of the cave on a ledge drawing on the walls with dirt using the occasional rock. Jharii did this most days as long as there was enough light shining in through the gaps around the boulder, even when there was light it was only enough to allow everyone to see where they were going. Jharii liked the ledge because none of her family sat up there so she could draw what she wanted without having her father putting a massive handprint over it because it was new or different. Jharii looked at all the things she and drawn over the years and noticed that as she got older they got better, she favourite drawing was of her family outside in the sunshine looking happy.
This had never happened before but she wished it would, it would definitely be better than living in fear and paranoia. Living by her father's rule 'Never not be afraid' was not fun, Jharii had questioned him about it in the past but it had only ended with Grug explaining how dangerous the world was and that fear keeps them alive. Jharii was tempted to ask him again just to interrupt his story, the one he was telling was a particularly sad a demoralising one. She decided not to and just went back to drawing on the walls, she found a small blank spot on the small and dipped her hand in the dirt and rock dust and started a new drawing. Jharii started drawing her favourite spot outside hidden in the cliffs around the cave, as there was only the one colour for the drawing she either left a space or put an extra layer of the dirt and dust mix over whatever she was doing.
Once Jharii had finished she climbed down from the ledge and sat next to Eep to listen to the end of another story about Crispy bear. After a couple more hours of entertaining themselves in the cave the light finally stopped shining around the boulder, this was the signal that it was time for everyone to sleep. That night Jharii slept with the rest her family and didn't miss the happy look Grug's face, she knew he was happy because no matter how old she got he saw her as his little girl and didn't want her to grow up. She loved her father but he needed to realise that she wasn't as little as she used to be and has to grow up sometime. She pushed away all those thoughts and just enjoyed being in the company of her family, after everyone else had drifted to sleep Jharii took one last glance around her at her crazy and paranoid but lovable family then she too drifted to sleep.
Two Days Had Passed
Jharii woke up before everyone else like usual and slowly got up to stretch her legs, she had slept leaning her back against the wall so she was a bit stiff.
'Today is probably going to be a hunting day and if it is I'm going to explore around the cliffs and see if I can find what made that noise three days ago' Jharii thought as she walked around the cave waiting for her family to wake up.
She was right as soon as everyone was wide awake Grug said it was a hunting day. He pushed the boulder out of the way and slowly went outside, the family waited for him to signal that is was safe to come outside. Jharii thought it was a bit odd and confusing that the signal was an animal noise, if there was an animal outside they would want to stay inside the cave. Once Grug gave the signal and everyone but Jharii was outside he pushed the boulder back in front of the cave. After waiting for a short period in time Jharii crawl though the largest gap around the boulder, she looked around to make sure that her family was out of sight and gone before making her way to the base of the cliff she always climbed. As she started to climb up, Jharii tried to figure out where she should look first as there were many places where creatures could hide up in the cliffs. She decided she would head to her favourite spot first then figure out where to go from there.
Jharii soon reached her spot and looked around trying to spot anything that would give her an indication if anything was different or if what had made the noise had been there. From what she could see nothing was different, she walked around in a circle while she decided what she would do.
'Were should I look next, there's the smallish cave, or the other area around here, there the only two places close to this spot that are easy to get too. May as well start by looking at the smaller cave first, it's the most likely place to find anything' Jharii thought as she started going in the direction of the cave. It didn't take long before she was standing in front of the small cave. It was a lot like her family's cave but the mouth of the cave was more jagged, she slowly eased herself into the cave. She made sure that nothing was going to jump out and attack her; once she did that she slowly examined the cave. She found nothing again and decided she would check the other place then head back to the family cave. Jharii climbed around the cliffs till she spotted the other area, it was like her favourite spot but there was much less grass and bushes there. As she looked around Jharii noticed that some of the smaller sticks from the bushes were gathered into a small pile and looked black, and there was black dust around the pile. Jharii didn't know what caused the sticks to look like that but she was determined to find out. Jharii was bending down to look at the pile when she heard a noise behind her, she stood up quickly and stun around too fast. She slipped and fell backwards and hit her head hard on one of the larger rocks found there, before she lost consciousness she saw a blurred shape of what she thought was a warthog leaning over her.
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