Seasons Of Change – Chapter Four
As autumn approached, the Leafeon weren't in their usually high spirits. They saw fall as a sad time, where their beloved leaves on their trees lost their vivid green coloring, changed to browns and other ugly colors, fell to the ground and no longer sheltered them from the cold nights or the harsh winds. It was a time for them that meant moving into the spare caves that usually housed the pregnant and the new mothers. It was during autumn that they grew depressed; it was a symbol of the fast approaching winter, and they knew. When the Glaceon would be most happy, the Leafeon would be miserable, hibernating away the winter.
Aki watched over his pack, no longer he would say his parents' pack, with half happiness, half boredom. The dimwits, they'd do anything he'd tell them to. They were so dependent on others for decisions and opinions –even small ones- that they believed anything Aki said and did whatever he told them to without hesitating. If he told them that they'd live longer if they jumped off a cliff, one by one they'd all do it. A lack of common sense is what they had.
They didn't put up much of a fight with any of his decisions, even the bad ones. Being Alpha made him automatically trustworthy to the pack. He was currently up on high rock, where the sun warmed his fur. He couldn't figure out what all his fathers training was for if the Leafeon of the pack just hunted for him and didn't care about him making the right decision; as long as it was a decision, they were fine with it.
"Well," Quietly he sighed. "That kind of takes the fun out of being a Tormenter now doesn't it? I wonder how Brunn is doing with the Glaceon pack. Surely he must be having some fun being Alpha of the Glaceon. At least his minors will oppose him…give him something to do. These idiots don't even understand what a Tormenter is…But I guess that's a good thing. We are supposed to be secret…" He rolled his eyes at the Leafeon mingling down in the pack and decided to go have a little fun with them.
"Hello ladies." Aki greeted suavely as he approached three female Leafeon sitting in a small circle, chatting and laughing.
"Hi, Aki…" One of them rolled her eyes as the group replied in unison. The new Alpha circled around them and placed himself next to the one that wasn't ogling him, who happened to be the one who rolled her eyes. She was a particularly young female, maybe around his younger brother's age. She was beautiful too; she outshone any other eligible mate in the whole pack.
Disgustingly playful, he rubbed up against the female and purred. "C'mon now, Zaira, be nice to your Alpha."
She pulled back and shifted away. "Whatever."
"Aw, what are you still upset I exiled your little friend?" He laughed, shoving her in the arm with his brown paw.
Zaira turned around to him with tears forming in her eyes. "You mean your own brother?!"
"Face it, he was a killer!"
"He was my…my…" she sobbed out. "He was my arranged mate, and you know that! How could you even consider your own brother a killer?"
Aki's face turned hard. "It's the hard facts, kid. Maybe you should move on from him; you know I'm the better, older, stronger brother…"
Just then, he was cut off by the loud shouting of his own name. Without time to turn around to see who it was, he was glomped from behind by a female around his own age. "Better, older and stronger is right!" She replied nuzzling his cheek.
The Alpha scowled and spat the name of the female now wiggling her way in between him and Zaira. "Sokea…"
"Yup. Now that you're Alpha and everything," she suppressed a squeal of delight. "Can't you move our mating time to this coming one? I mean, I'm so excited and everything, and now that you can change the rules, it's ok, and I want to be a mother so badly…" she trailed off as she began to mutter them more to herself than to her future mate, obviously not seeing the great displeasure in his eyes upon her arrival. Well, it could have just been that his eyes were always like that when she was around, so she probably thought it was normal. The other two unnamed females had the brains to stop fantasizing over him now that his potential Alpha female was here. They shrunk back into the crowd of Leafeon hanging about the clearing.
Already agitated, Zaira's smile only made it worse, now that he couldn't flirt with her because Sokea was there. Zaira batted her eyelashes teasingly. "Well, it was nice chatting to you, Aki, but I think I better go." Struggling to suppress her giggles, she began walking into the crowd, following the other two females. "After all, I'm sure you want to spend time with Sokea." She called back with a grin.
"Oh, yeah! We should go down to the river! Or, we could go out hunting, or…" Sokea's extensive smile faded as she saw the frown upon Aki's face.
"Actually," he gazed in the direction Zaira had gone, then turned back to her. "I think I'm going to go…over there." Without the tiniest bit of remorse, he trotted after her, leaving Sokea with a devastated look on her face. He had become like this ever since he became Alpha…not that he had ever been different; she just failed to notice before that.
"That was cruel, you know." Aki circled around Zaira after he had finally found her in one of the empty caves.
Without looking towards him, she replied. "And exiling your brother and my future mate wasn't?"
"Ugh," irritated he sighed. "How many times do I have to tell you; that's different, because he deserved it, and I definitely didn't deserve that."
"That's mean. She really likes you, you know. You're all she talks about, and actually…it's kind of annoying. Anyways, the thing is she liked you before you were Alpha. Take her as your mate, not me."
"Well, why should I?"
"Because I don't like you! And I never will! Now get out!" She argued back, hissing and batting his face with her paw roughly as a warning.
Angrily he turned and left the cave, deciding he would have to come up with an idea to get Zaira to be his queen, whether she liked it or not.
---
With the falling of the leaves, Kaivo grinned at the varying colors dotting the ground of the sunny forest surrounding the campsite. He had never known why, but autumn always seemed to delight him. Everything was so green all the time; he loved seeing so many unique colors littering the forest floor. His pack had always thought him strange for this, but now that he was an Outsider, he could shout his love for the fall at the top of his lungs and all he'd get were a few strange stares for screaming so loud. No one there cared if he was different or not.
It was getting dark already; the sun was slowly sinking on the horizon and the moon up to conquer the sky once again, shining brightly in the black sky. Kaivo and Suvi were lounging around by the small river near the edges of the packs territories, chatting like they had been for the last few hours. Over the week and a half that Kaivo had been there, he had become especially close with Suvi; the two would be out lying by the river or hanging around the campgrounds together almost all the time.
The two were chatting happily when a rustling to the north interrupted them and a muscular Umbreon appeared out of a bush. He grunted and Suvi gave Kaivo an apologetic look before heading off to the Umbreon and disappearing through the brush. He sighed and rolled over onto his back, now that he had nothing to do.
He lay there for a while, staring up through the bare branches at the moon. It was so peaceful, he realized, here with the Outsiders. He could be out as late as he wanted; no rules, no curfew no nothing. Enjoying his freedom, he hardly noticed the crunching in the shrubbery and the Leafeon that walked up to him.
When he did notice, he jumped in surprise. It was Guida. "Oh, hello, I didn't hear you coming…" Kaivo apologized, breathing heavily.
Guida smiled half-heartedly and sat down beside the youthful Leafeon. "I know our meeting was a little awkward, and I'm sorry I haven't gotten to you sooner, but I felt we needed to talk."
Kaivo only nodded, so Guida nodded too, caught his breath and muttered what sounded like 'okay'.
"I'll get right to it; you were there when I was exiled, and you know what for. But I came here tonight, in hopes that you would listen to my side of the story.
"You already know that my wife Signora, my young son Figlio and I were banished because we were accused of having killed your grandfather Nonno, a truly great leader."
He struggled against his dropped jaw. "Your wife and young son? I only heard that three Leafeon killed him, I had no idea…"
"Yes," the older Leafeon sighed and nodded, thinking back. "That's what your father told everyone. When I tried to defend myself, I couldn't speak…"
"I was the same way."
"They usually are." Guida noted sadly. "Everyone in our pack says they were unable to speak or defend themselves, but no one knows why.
"I'm not sure why, because your father was a great Leafeon, but once he wrongly accused me, my views of him changed. I saw him as a liar and a poor ruler. I'm sorry, but I just have to know, haven't your views of him changed?"
Kaivo tapped his paw nervously. "Actually…my father wasn't the one who exiled me. It was my brother, Aki. He actually accused me of killing him."
Guida seemed to change. "Oh, I'm sorry, how hard that must be for you. But you're saying your father's dead, but you didn't kill him?"
"Exactly." The young Leafeon nodded.
Sadly, Guida looked up to the crescent moon hanging in the sky, and let out a sigh through his nostrils. "I'd like to chat with you further but I feel we should get back to the campsite. It's getting late."
The two walked back to their homes, taking the path that Suvi and her Umbreon brother Veli had taken a while earlier.
---
Kiduttaa lay comfortably in his cave under the rock in the very center of Transform Forest, smirking to himself as he thought about his plans. From the way things were going, all of the Alpha's of the evolution packs were dead and his pupils ruling comfortably, as he was. Of course, he had been born the prince of the Eevees, so all he had to do was kill his father and mother, and he was automatically appointed Alpha. His pack accepted him slowly as he pretended to save young Eevees he paid to act like they were drowning or stuck in a tree. Once he had gained their trust, he began to rule the way he wanted to, having the pack hunt for him as he lazed around in his cave. After many Eevee, young and old, had died at his paws, he moved his residence to the boulder in the center of Transform Forest and said that any who opposed him would die, because soon the whole forest would be his. Then they could do nothing to stop him.
He watched as the new Alpha of the Vaporeon pack, Hideri, stalked out of his cave from reporting to Kiduttaa about the status of the water Eevee evolutions. Yes, everything was going to plan…After his pupils, or Tormenters as they called themselves, had put their packs in place and in two weeks time brought them all to his boulder and the center of the forest, he could kill the Tormenters and take the forest as his own. Soon, the world would know of the mere Eevee that ruled all of its evolutions.