The moose was less soft than the goose, but that was okay. Not everyone could be as perfect as Mother. Doing whatever the snake equivalent of a blink was, three inches of Dewberry lifted from the moose's leg and a tongue flicked at the rocks. She was supposed to attack those? How? They were boulders. She attacked prey by biting and then swallowing them whole. She couldn't bite a rock or swallow a rock whole.
This meant she would have to speak, didn't it? The faintest of scowls crossed her face as she summoned the few words she knew.
"Do not know. To hurt. Hurt rock? How I hurt rock?" She had the distinct feeling her attempt at speech was far less than perfect, which bothered her, but not as much as disappointing Father. She would learn. She would learn how to not disappoint.
@Blueberry
Her... gem? Now that Father mentioned it, one spot of her scales felt different from the rest. Perhaps the scale wasn't a scale, after all, but a magic gem. Dewberry focused on the blue teardrop with all her might, willing it to do something.
Hurt the boulder. The boulder is my pretend-enemy. But it is not alive, so we can hurt it even though it is only pretend. She flicked her tongue at the targets. It appeared her magic-gem
was doing something. Just... not to the boulders.
A nearby pebble lifted and flopped weakly toward the boulders. It did nothing, of course. Disappointed, Dewberry curled closer to Father's leg.
"I do not think... magic hurt rock." she sighed, head drooping. But magic had to be useful for
something, right? Frowning, she tried to think.
"I think... magic not big. So moving is not big. But prey, they squeak, run, jump. Move ...." What was the word for the thing that moose and geese and prey walked on? She couldn't remember. Instead, she bumped her nose at one of Father's.
"Move and make them walk jump wrong."
@Blueberry
Proud! Father was proud! A warm feeling rose up in Dewberry's belly. It was like with Mother. Mother gave her that feeling too, when she named her and took her home. It was somehow better than the warm that came from outside, from Mother and Father and seemingly all other creatures, including prey. Prey made her warm when she swallowed it, but this, this was better. Better than anything Dewberry had felt before.
She leaned her face on Father's leg, basking in the warmth that came from all directions. She had had an idea, and Father was proud. She'd come up with more ideas, Dewberry decided. Make them all proud. Father, Mother, that black fluffy thing.
"I... am happy. Happy you are proud." There. She'd done her best to make that sentence sound like the ones her family spoke, too. Would Father notice?
@Blueberry
She did a good job on the sentences! Dewberry thought she might burst with happiness. Yes, she would learn, she would protect Mother and Father and the black fluffy one and the injured one. They'd be the happiest family in the caves!
Except... they weren't.
She was suddenly in a different world. Her senses - what was wrong with them? They were clouded, blurred, but sharpened at the same time. How was that possible. Wildly, she thrashed her head around, trying to see past the darkness that shrouded everything, tongue flickering furiously. She couldn't smell Mother. She couldn't smell Father. WHY COULDN'T SHE SMELL ANYTHING?! Panic rose in her chest as she turned and there it was - Mother! She rushed toward the goose, but her nose crashed into something - Blueberry's leg, though she didn't know it.
Mother wasn't moving. Why? She was cold. That wasn't right. Mother was warm. That was how things worked. But she wasn't just cold, she was freezing. Colder than anything she'd ever felt before. She whipped around, fear racing through her. Father was nothing but a desiccated skeleton. And
they had done this to the fluffy too.
They were coming for her. Fueled by a burst of terror, she lifted her head and neck, flattened her head, and opened her mouth wide, hissing dangerously. She wasn't venomous enough to hurt
them, though, and
they knew it.
The cold approached
and took her in its grasp
she couldn't breathe
Gasping, Dewberry's tail brushed against Father's leg. Warm warm warm, an escape from the cold. She was in the rainbow room again, looking around wildly.
"What was that?" she shrieked.
"You're alive! You're alive! Father! Mother is where?"
@Blueberry
Everything was... okay? No! That couldn't be right. Everything was MOST DEFINITELY NOT OKAY. Didn't Father see - oh. Apparently that never actually happened, it was just magic showing her fears.
"It can do that?" Dewberry fell silent, the concept settling into her mind.
"I saw..." She paused, carefully piecing together the words she had learned.
"You. Dead and gone. Nothing but bones. And Mother and Sister, the cold took them. It stole their warmth and their life. And - it was going to take me too." Her voice rose at the end, remnants of fear and despair making their way back into her emotions.
@Blueberry