Death on the Table, a Chibera story -5minutefreewrite (500 words, really)

I'm writing a story set in the Chibera world. With each entry, I grow more and more excited about Chibera. Here's the story so far:
Prologue, The World Tree:
https://steemit.com/chibera/@improv/chibera-the-world-tree-s-call
Chapter 1, Inkpot:
https://steemit.com/freewrite/@improv/door-5minutefreewrite
Chapter 2, Shabron:
https://steemit.com/freewrite/@improv/kit-5minutefreewrite-wcnh32z4
Chapter 3, Holly:
https://steemit.com/freewrite/@improv/visit-5minutefreewrite
Chapter 4, Shalgarth:
https://steemit.com/freewrite/@improv/dragon-breath-5minutefreewrite
Chapter 5, Pumpkin:
https://steemit.com/chibera/@improv/pumpkin-a-chibera-story

Kit stalked. Low to the ground, she delicately raised one forepaw, placed it an inch in front of her whiskers, delicately shifted her weight onto it, and then, one paw ate a time, creeped her mass into a position bare inches closer to her quarry, a slice of salmon jerky on a string. @Snook cackled as Harbron stomped, heedless of the stealthy lynx, into camp and dumped an armful of logs next to her. Kit sprang across Snook's lap to land on Shabron's shoulder, where the stringed salmon led.

"Plenty of fallen wood. If you three help, we could have a roaring fire all night, keep away the boogeymen." Harbron's rough speech contained nothing but love well-seasoned by exasperation.

"Kit has to learn to hunt," Shabron piped up.

"And I'm supervising," offered Snook.

"I'll help," Garbron roughly matched Harbron's pitch, and leaned heavily on her own walking stick as she pushed herself to her feet.

Harbron shook her head helplessly, jangling the long string of glass beads and wolf teeth she wore driven into her scalp where the others had hair.

As Garbron and Harbron hobbled into the woods, Shabron turned her dark eyes to Snook. "Sometimes I don't feel like I..." she stopped herself. "I don't know."

Snook, with eyes still twinkling, looked for what felt like a long time to Shabron at the lithe young human whose older siblings had 10 stones more weight and a head and shoulders more height. She looked at the lynx, Kit, who had found a fold of Shabron's cloak to curl into, and was now purring contentedly, very lazily batting a single paw at the salmon on a string that Shabron held above her whiskers. Then she looked into the part of the earth where the fire would eventually be built.

Snook moved to begin building the fire, but held a hand up to stop Shabron from helping. "Keep that Kit content, and let me tell you a story while I make us a happy fire."

As Kit finally grabbed the salmon in both paws and proceeded to gnaw on it, Shabron sunk off her rock and leaned against it, settling in for one of Snook's famous stories.

"Your parents were full of love, and when they apprenticed you three to me, I never doubted that you would grow up to be like them in that way. But before you were even born, I knew your parents." Snook lips twitched up at the surprise on Shabron's face. "I knew them when they were Garbron's age. I only came through with The People once every few years, but when I was at Copperhook, we were fast friends."

Kit mewed softly as Snook's eyes, though they'd glanced up from the firepit and now pointed in Shabron's direction, took on a soft focus. Shabron felt like Snook was seeing through her into her past.

"It was a feast night. Ondra and Brosh and I had been singing and dancing and drinking with everyone, but mostly with each other. That night, though we'd been together all night, I felt like I didn't belong with them. I knew they shared something with each other that they didn't share with me, and though I was welcome with them, they were more welcome with each other. So I let them wander off alone. I had nowhere to be besides with them, but I wanted to be, I don't know, THAT to someone. There were ladies and fellas who had caught my eye that night, but that wasn't what THAT was. So I just wandered after they wandered off on their own. As it happens, we both had the same attitude about wandering, and so I ended up near them at a rather intimate moment. They didn't see me, and I didn't want them to. I didn't know if I wanted to be there or not, but I was so full of conflicting emotions that I just leaned against a wheel and sat there. Not crying, because I couldn't tell if there was something I wanted to cry about or not, but just...sitting." Snook's eyes refocused on Shabron. "That's not why I'm telling you this story. I guess it's part of it. The point of this part of the story is that I was one of them, but not in the same way as they were one with each other. It's not the same, but it's kind of the same as your being one of them," Snook indicated the woods where Harbron and Garbron had hobbled into, "but not in the same way as they're one of each other. They're two peas in a pod, and you're a whole pod of peas yourself on the same vine."

Shabron muttered under breath, "I hate metaphors." Snook didn't react as if she'd heard, but she didn't make another metaphor.

"That night, as I sat in the area of your parents sharing the fullness of their love under dim moonlight, I heard a rustle in the bushes near me. Do you know Squambauth, the merchant boy?"

The question caught Shabron by surprise. "I... um... Yeah? I mean, I know Squambauth, third of his name, the Merchant."

"Ha, yes, of course he is. Well, a rustling, and out pops the lanky lad, moments away from stumbling onto Ondra and Brosh. I don't know what would have happened if he had. Maybe nothing. But in that moment I decided their love needed protecting. Their moments alone were probably rare, and here I was trespassing. The only thing that could make up for that and make me a better friend was to help them preserve that. And so I pounced on Squambauth, and took him to a different quiet place to distract him." Snook shook her head again. "The things I do for friends." She smiled and lit the fire she'd built, then took three steps away from it. Almost instantly, a beautiful largemoth flutter overhead.

Shabron looked up at it and the thoughtful expression on her face lifted into a joyful, unworried smile. "Look, a largemoth," she said unnecessarily.

As Snook looked up at the large moth and stepped back from the smoldering flames, Kit's hackles rose. She leapt from Shabron's arms, and ran past Snook into the woods. Shabron stood, sudden stillness in her face and said, very steadily. "Kit just said, 'Death is on the table'"

A single long, slender leg of a Longlegs caught the light from the growing fire.

All photo sources my own pics!


This particular entry has been written both for Chibera: https://steemit.com/chibera/@chibera/chibera-tell-us-about-characters-story-usd200-in-rewards
And for @freewritehouse: https://steemit.com/freewrite/@mariannewest/day-335-5-minute-freewrite-wednesday-prompt-death-on-the-table