The distant rumbling of the storm filled the mother's large ears. She roared, her paws swiping as she tried to gather all five of her cubs together. Water slowly trickled into the entrance of her cave den, soon consuming the entirety of the dirt floor.

Suddenly, the father strided in, his thick, golden-brown coat matted by the furious rain. "Hurry, Adira," he coaxed his mate, carefully grasping one of the Cubs by her scruff. She let out a little squeal, flailing her paws around.

Adira did not budge. "I can't do it alone!" She wailed, trying to bring two of the Cubs closer to her. "There's just too many of them!"

"Then we'll have to improvise," the father decided. Carefully, he crouched, the water on the den's floor lapping at his pelt. "Armani, Cayenne, climb on my back," he instructed two of his daughters.

The Cubs in question waded towards their father easily, scrambling onto his back and digging into his coat with thorn-sharp claws.

Cautiously, the father padded ahead, stopping at the entrance of the den. "Come on, dearest. We cannot haste if we want our family to survive,"

Reluctantly, she crouched down, and motioned for one of her Cubs to climb onto her back. The one that did was the eldest of their litter, and he knew to climb on, as the brother that was with him usually felt comforted when being carried by their mother.

The younger brother squeaked as Adira quickly lifted him, his wet pelt acting as extra weight. He felt his body bounce a little as his mother moved out of the den.

His tiny brown eyes widened. His home, any sign of dry land had been consumed by flood waters. He could barely make out the tops of scrubby trees as the rain hammered down.

A sharp wind pushed at the big cats, threatening to knock them into the waves. Adira held her ground, crouching slightly as she dug her claws into the muddy ground. The male Cubs squeaked fearfully.

Ahead, their father acted as a guide, slowly wading through the destructive tides that failed to sweep him off his feet. His daughters clung to him like burrs, refusing to even try jumping into the waters to play.

The young male cub brought his tail to his legs, as if he was trying to hug himself. He felt Adira's strong breath on his scruff, and wiggled a little. That only made his mother clench onto him tighter.

As the two parents waded through the currents, the Cubs mewed amongst themselves quietly. " Shaqiq," the older brother mewed. "Jaspira. Are you okay?"

The cub nodded, still trying to curl into himself. Adira let out a small, sharp warning growl. Though her yellow gaze was fierce, it was only a ferocity out of concern and love for her youngest son.

Suddenly, there was a loud, thundering boom that came from the sky. Adira and her mate stopped, holding their ground as they glanced up.

The sky was dark and purple, completely blotting out the moon and stars with dark, ominous clouds. The big cats were distracted by a distant light show of lightning that they didn't see the large wave knocking them down.

The youngest cub couldn't squeal as water filled his mouth and nose. He felt as if his scruff had lost its tightness, and realized that he was floating away, as he could clearly see the agonized look on his mother's face.

A rush of fresh air hit the cub as he surfaced, and heard the distant wails of his family.

"Shaqiq!"

"Jaspira!"

"Alshabal!"

" 'Umi!" He tried to scream back, but he found that he didn't have the strength anymore as the young cub felt sleepiness tug at him just as fiercely as the waves...

***

"I'm telling you, one day I'll be the next Convenor, and I'll be able to make all those decisions," a brown and white tabby flicked his tail certainly. His companion, a cream molly with long fur rolled her eyes. "And let me guess, I'll be stuck as your Mistress," she predicted sarcastically.

"Precisely!" He exclaimed.

His companion promptly whacked him over the head with her tail.

"I swear, sometimes you have the brain of an eagle!" She protested. "Maple, the only way for a cat like you to become Convenor is to be elected to become a Delegate, and have whoever is Inheritor-,"

"Or Heiress!"

"-yes, or Heiress, pass away without enough time for the Convenor to give birth to another litter. You act just like a kit sometimes, you know," the she-cat pointed out in a disappointed tone.

"Well, I certainly do have a way of being a disappointment, especially to my parents," Maple reminded his companion, briefly walking over a log before jumping down right beside her. "But you wouldn't know how that feels, wouldn't you, the utmost perfection that is you, Tulip?"

The creamy cat, Tulip, felt a little warm at his words. "Oh, quiet you!" She attempted to scold him, but even a fiery cat like her couldn't keep up her frustration, and soon that anger faded into embers as Maple rubbed his head into her neck fur.

The two cats walked like that for a while before Tulip broke the silence. "We better get down to the scrubs and check how bad the damage is," she reminded her partner. "Frostbite will want to know how the area's holding up after that terrible flood last night,"

Maple nodded silently. Even a bright cat like him couldn't joke about the terrible storm that wrecked the lands. Although him and the rest of his community were safe in The Abyss, any creature in the scrublands were sure to have been drowned, or permanently damaged for life by the storm's brutality.

As they approached the end of stone and beginning of dirt, the two cats stopped, their faces agape once they had seen how badly the environment had suffered. Trees and bushes could be seen floating in the muddy waters, torn out of the ground. A few smaller creatures like mice could be seen as well, their drowned corpses floating on the surface. Maple could hear Tulip gulping. "I can't believe this..."

"It's happened before," Maple murmured. "My father told me a story about a storm just like thi-,"

"Maple, look!" Tulip suddenly meowed, snatching his attention away from his story.

"But I wasn't finished with my sto-,"

"Nobody cares about your dumb story! I think that's a kit!" Tulip snapped, rushing towards a small, unconscious body lying half in the water.

Maple hurried over as Tulip gently lifted the kit out of the water. The older tom could barely tell by its scent that it was male. The poor thing's body was plastered with mud, and his ears were flattened onto his head. Maple thought he saw a trickle of blood running down from where his scruff was.

Tulip wasted no time. She dragged the little body onto high ground. Then, she frantically licked his pelt the wrong way, hoping to clean him off and warm him up at the same time. Maple watched as she worked, his eyes filled with hope for the young one.

Suddenly, the kit's body jerked, and he threw up a stomach full of muddy water. He coughed wretchedly, his whole body shaking and shivering. Maple relaxed, happy to see that the kit was still alive.

Tulip had stopped licking, and wrapped her body around the kit's. Through the Molly's work, Maple could see that he had an caramel-coloured pelt, with little black tufts on his ears and wide, amber eyes.

"Hello, little one," Maple greeted the kit kindly. "Are you feeling any better?"

The kit in question gazed at him fearfully and with confusion. " 'Ayn?" He spoke. Even for a little kit like himself, he had quite a noticeable accent.

But what caught Maple off guard was how he spoke. He had never heard a word like 'ayn before. Carefully, he sniffed the small creature. His own eyes widened at his discovery, and he stepped back.

"Tulip, that's- that's a caracal cub!" He exclaimed, shocked at how such a young cub was alone inside the borders of The Abyss.

Tulip's eyes widened. "So?" She questioned. "All I see is a kit who needs help after being separated from his family during that big storm. Even you're smart enough to know that," she pointed out dryly.

Gently, she turned to the cub, smiling. "It's alright little one," she mewed kindly. "We aren't going to hurt you. Can you tell us your name?"

The caracal cub softened. Even though he didn't understand what Tulip was saying, he understood by her tone that she wouldn't hurt him. He gulped. "Jaspira," he murmured.

Maple had an odd look on his face. "It sounded like Jasper," he said, his head tilted curiously.

Tulip ignored him. "Jasper is a wonderful name," she purred, rubbing herself against the young cub. The cub reluctantly purred back, comforted.

The cream she-cat raised her head to smile at Maple. "Perhaps we should nurse him back to health? At least, until he's older," she proposed.

Maple's eyes widened drastically. "Are you sure, Tulip? How do you know that Frostbite will approve of this?"

"Who says Frostbite has to know?" She shot back in a calm voice.

Maple fell into silence, his amber gaze troubled. Finally, he sighed. "He won't know," he decided.

Tulip nodded. "It's a dangerous game, but a game I'm willing to play..."

***