"Storm, wake up. Time to groom yourself."  The soft, gentle voice whispered in my ear.

"Heron?" I slowly opened my eyes, spotting my mother hovering over me. I smiled and blinked my eyes repeatedly to get the blurriness to go away. It was foggy out, but still nice. Then a thought struck me. "Is Simba still here? Is he okay?"

"Whoa, slow down there, Storm. Simba's right here. I'm going to put some more herbs on him later." Heron looked at me with concern and tilted her head thoughtfully. "Why are you so worried about him?"

I blushed. "No reason." I caught a small smile before we both got up, heading over to my wrestling siblings.

"Get off of me you big fluff-butt!"

"Stop calling me that!"

The next remark was muffled. "Get your butt. Off my face." I walked around the last bit of long grass and into the clearing. The second I saw what was happening, I burst out in laughter.

"Holly! You just got sat on by Simba!" I looked over and saw my sister's limbs go limp and Simba grinning. "He's, like, half your size!" Holly huffed, waiting for Simba to get off.

The golden tom reluctantly got up, padding over to sit next to me. I smiled at Simba before glancing at my sister. She looked ridiculous. All of her fur was standing on end, other than the fur she was licking down. I chuckled and trotted over to the sleeping body of my brother, pouncing on his back. "Wake up sleepy head! I want to play mossball and you're playing, too." I motioned for Simba to go by Wolf's head and tap his nose. He always wakes up when you do that. Simba cautiously padded over, barely touching Wolf's nose. I sighed, got off of Wolf, and bopped his nose. 

"What?! Is someone attacking us?" Wolf held his head up with astonishing speed for his grogginess before opening his eyes. "Oh. It's just you. What do you want?" I shook my head before replying.

"Wow. Grouch much? I wanted to play mossball. You're playing, too." I motioned for Wolf to come on over to make a mossball with me, Simba, and Holly. Holly walked over to us after grooming herself and grabbed a small portion of moss out of our nests. It was a rule; every time we lost a mossball, we had to make a new one with our own nest's moss. Holly was the perfectionist of the mossball-making process. By the time she was done with that, Wolf was up and walking over to us. Holly tossed the ball up high, slapping it with her forepaw. 

~

I hit the mossball as hard as I could, sending it flying over Simba's head. 

"I got it!" Simba raced after the bouncing mossball. I was thankful I didn't have to run with my aching legs. I felt bad for hitting the mossball so hard. Especially when Simba is our guest. 

"Do you guys still want to play when he gets back?" I turned back around to look at my siblings before I realized they weren't there. "Holly? Wolf? Stop it! This isn't funny!" I kept turning and turning and turning... Eventually I got dizzy and stopped. The moment I stopped, Holly jumped at me from my  left, Wolf on my right. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no!" I tried to dash forward to get out of their reaches, but I was too slow. When Wolf landed on me with Holly on him, I let out a huge puff of air. "Get off me yo-" I was cut off by a disgusting, furry tail in my mouth. I frantically tried to get the tail out of my mouth so that the stench would go away. Finally, Wolf lifted his tail.

"What was that? Sorry, you kind o-" I mustered up all my strength and bucked both my brother and sister off my back, them landing a whisker-length from my face. I started rolling on the ground laughing.

"-of beat your butts!" Wolf and Holly started laughing, all of us smiling and loving every minute of our lives. I saw Heron out of the corner of my eye, and saw the affection in her eyes abruptly turn to confusion. I stopped laughing and walked over to her. 

"What's wrong, Heron?" She looked down at me, the confusion vanishing. 

"Oh, nothing. I was just wandering where Simba was?" I paused. Oh no! Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in... I looked back up to her for a split second before running off, talking over my shoulder. 

"He ran off to get the mossball!" I kept on running towards the spot where Simba should have been. "Simba? Where'd you go?" I looked around, trying to spot the ball of pale green moss. I stopped when I spotted it, sitting perfectly in a small bare area of grass. That's weird. Simba was supposed to get the mossball, not leave it. Why is that area bare?  I stepped closer, hearing my siblings running up behind me. Putting my muzzle close to the grass, I saw a small spot on the mossball; it was blood. Fresh blood. This is all my fault! He must've gotten taken! I followed the scent of Simba, slowly, it mingled with a different, disgusting scent. Kind of like that 'Frost' cat. "Wolf! Holly! Over here!" I kept my muzzle to the ground, my mouth wide open. When I looked up, I saw a large smokey-gray tom with Simba in his jaws. 

"PUT. HIM. DOWN!" I ran at the tom, not noticing the steep cliff-side Heron always talked about. I head-butted the tom away from the edge so he would drop Simba. Simba fell roughly to the ground, stumbling. The tom growled, glaring right at me.

"Oh, you're going to pay for that little kit." He stood there, not daring to move closer to the edge of the cliff. Right when Holly and Wolf stumbled through the brush, I ran at the tom. He stared in confusion before grinning.

Time slowed way down. He whipped around, hindquarters to me. His hindpaws shot into my chest, flying me over the edge. I attempted to grab the edge, but missed. Simba came over, trying to catch my scruff in his mouth. I kept falling and falling, farther and farther towards the Thunderpath below. The loud, smelly monsters ran below me. Holly. Wolf. Heron. Flint. Spark. Amber. Fog. Timber. Dexter. Simba. At each name, an image of my friends and family flashed before me. The last thing I heard before darkness was the grieving yowl of Simba. 

"STORM!"

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Written by Spirit! I decided to release this one a day early, since we aren't really updating anything. I hope you liked it, and that the end didn't make you cry or anything. If you could tell me how you feel about this book so far in the comments, that'd be great! Have a good day! ~Spirit

Edited by River.