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Snowy blinked a few times, awakening under the pounds of
snow. With very little space to move in, she scratched at the snow. She clawed
away some of the cold substance, and soon scratched out enough snow that she was
able to move her upper body. She dug away more of the avalanche and then was able
to thoroughly move. So she scratched away more and more and began to make a hole
through the avalanche.
Snowy continued to cautiously scratch away-trying
not to cause the small hole to cave in.
After a long time, Snowy finally made her way
out of her imprisonment. When she pulled herself out of the snow, she looked
around to see if her family was out. She scanned the avalanched snow and spotted
a white paw. Snowy hurried over and began digging eagerly. She then had half
of the Kougra's body out of the snow. It was Clira. Her mother was knocked unconscious.
Snowy slashed away more of the snow, and finally
pulled Clira fully out of the snow. "Are you okay, Mom?" Snowy asked and nudged
Clira, hoping she might regain consciousness.
Her mother slowly began to move, then opened
her eyes and looked at Snowy. "Snowy!" She stood up, speaking softly, as she
embraced her daughter. "I'm glad you're okay, sweetie!"
"I'll go look for the others, Mom. You're wounded,"
Snowy said. "Stay here." Then she padded off to look for the others. She was
making her way around the avalanche to see if any of them had made it out already,
or if they had a tail or leg out of the snow.
"Snowy?" Kosesho ran up to the white Kougra.
"Uncle Kosesho!! You made it out! Great!! Do
you know where Miro is?" Snowy stared at the huge pile of snow.
"I'm not sure, but I'll try to dig through.
Where's Clira?" Kosesho cocked his head.
"I found her in the snow unconscious, she's
awake now, but she's wounded-"
"I'm okay." Clira stepped up to the two Kougras.
"Really. Don't worry. I just needed to fully become awake, that's why I seemed
a little hurt."
"Okay," Kosesho said, "Now let's look for Miro.
I'll go deep into the snow. You two can search around and on the outer parts
of the avalanche. I'm a magical snow Kougra, so I can hold up the snow when
I dig through it, I don't want to put you two in the danger of getting crushed
under hundreds of pounds of ice."
Clira and Snowy nodded in acknowledgement and
headed separate ways around the avalanche mountain as Kosesho dug through the
middle. Snowy was heading around the snow when she suddenly heard a few muffled
noises. "Dad????"
"It's…" Snowy heard the same muffled voice.
"Kosesho…" the stifled voice continued. "I… found him…"
She perked her ears at that and then called,
"Mom!!! Mom, quickly! Kosesho found Dad!!!"
Clira swiftly ran up to Snowy, with a happy-but
also worried-expression. They hurried back around and made their way to Kosesho,
who was halfway in a hole that he had dug.
"Is… that you… Snowy?" Kosesho asked, voice
a little clearer, but still muted, with his head still in the snow.
"Yes, and me, Clira," Snowy's mother said. "Are
you okay?"
"I have…" Kosesho began, "My paw stuck in a…"
His words got slightly more drowned than the rest of his sentence. He was aware
that they couldn't hear it, so he repeated, "My paw is stuck in… a hole in the
ground… and I have Miro right here. I don't want to get him crushed by accident,
so I wanted to make sure both of you were here and could help us if we get stuck."
Then Kosesho seemed to move around a bit, and soon he said, "My paw is out!
I'll get him."
Kosesho backed up and out of the hole as he
pulled Miro out. Snowy's father blinked a few times wearily.
"Dad???" Snowy said, worry stinging hard in
her voice.
"I'm okay." Miro lifted his head, and then sat
up. "We should hurry out of here. The dark Kougras might come for us any minute."
The other three Kougras agreed and they headed
off. They made it farther away from the dark Kougra cave, but Snowy quickly
stopped when two Zafaras crossed their path.
"Snow Kougra!!!" the Zafara laughed. "I don't
know your name, but I remember you!!! My name is Zaret."
"I remember you too!" Snowy smiled. "I'm Snowy."
"This is Clinteranie-or just Clin-my girlfriend."
Zaret looked over at a Faerie Zafara and then turned back to Snowy.
"Hello," Clin waved and smiled.
"So, where's Blizzard?" Zaret gave a puzzled
look.
"He's…" Snowy began, now thinking of Blizzard
again. "He's not here… it's complicated…" Snowy let out a sigh and gave a troubled
expression.
Zaret nodded, acknowledging Snowy's sad appearance
and understanding that something was going on with Blizzard.
"This is my family," Snowy said, shaking away
her sadness and letting a smile spread across her face. She introduced them
all. "But we have to get going. There are dark Kougras after us and they're
in a cave not that far from here. It was nice meeting your girlfriend and seeing
you again!" Snowy said, also warning Zaret and Clin about how perilous the dark
Kougras were, and then Snowy and her family walked off.
After many hours of walking, it was late at
night, and Snowy and her family was exhausted. They all went deep into an icy
forest to try to hide themselves and slept.
Snowy opened her eyes and sat up on the tree
that she was in, yawning, and then standing up agilely; ready to climb down
the tree. But once she was fully awake, she quickly realized that it was not
yet day; it was still very dark, and the moon was in place. She cocked her head,
confused at why she had suddenly arose in the middle of the night, feeling not
a tinge of weariness. But then she noticed something; the same dark layer of
thick fog was in the forest, the same dark fog that she had seen once before.
Snowy looked around, straining her eyes to see
through the thick dark fog, and then jumped down from the tree. She was about
to head out of the forest to see if there was anyone coming, but then her attention
quickly shifted when she noticed, out of the corner of her eye, that Clira wasn't
in the tree that she had went to sleep in. 'She might have moved during the
night.' Snowy thought. But hesitated to continue walking. She strode over near
the tree that Clira had been in and looked around to see where she went. She
was confused and worried when she saw Clira and Miro knocked unconscious, lying
on the ground next to a tree. She ran towards them.
Snowy leapt back when a dark Kougra jumped out
at her and stood in front of her, growling and standing his ground. Snowy stood
crouched, and let out a roar. The dark Kougra began walking toward her, when
Snowy jumped at the dark Kougra and scratched him. The dark Kougra reached out
his paw and slammed Snowy onto the ground on her stomach, holding her down by
her back, with a paw on her neck. His claws were unsheathed and sinking into
Snowy's skin. He began to slice his claws against Snowy's neck, when suddenly
Kosesho pounced at the dark Kougra and held him to the ground.
Snowy stood up, straining her eyes to see through
the now thicker dark fog. She gasped once the blurry figure of another dark
Kougra stirred into focus. He growled viciously and slashed Snowy. He emitted
another growl. Then Kosesho had a snowstorm start up very quickly. The dark
fog began to clear up in the icy wind. Clumps of hard hail hurled through the
freezing wind. The dark Kougras jumped and dodged the hail. Kosesho ran out
towards Snowy and motioned for her to follow him.
They agilely darted through the snowy forest,
avoiding the clumps of hail that were thrusting through the air. They finally
made their way to a small, frosty cave.
"We have to help my parents!!!" Snowy had just
realized that her parents were still out there.
"No, Snowy!! Stay inside!" Kosesho said, "Right
before the dark Kougra tried to destroy you, I had found your parents knocked
unconscious. A dark Kougra tried to eliminate me, but I fought him off and quickly
hid your parents in a hollowed out tree, making sure they were covered and that
their scents were hidden so that the dark Kougras couldn't find them. And since
they were just knocked out and not destroyed or captured, I realized that the
dark Kougras aren't after your parents; they're only after us."
"They discovered that they can't absorb your
powers, and I think they're too annoyed with us that they wouldn't want me to
marry Aoraef anymore, anyway." Snowy comprehended. "What do they want? To destroy
us?"
"Yes, I think that's their only reason. So we
don't have any time, it's not like they're going to let us live, like how they
had planned to let you live before, so that you could marry Aoraef, but I could
tell that they just want to kill us now; I could see it in the dark Kougra's
eyes when he had his paw on your neck. They're just here to assassinate us."
Snowy sighed and sat down. So I guess this
means Blizzard really doesn't care, She thought. He is staying evil.
He must know that they're coming to kill me, but he's not doing anything to
stop them.
"I'll keep the storm going for a while,." Kosesho
whispered. Even though there was a huge storm going on, so it was harder to
hear, with the noise of hail smacking against trees, and rocks hurling onto
the ground, they had to stay as silent as possible, because the dark Kougras
might find them. "Maybe the dark Kougras will leave to avoid this harsh weather."
Snowy nodded in agreement, afraid of what their
fate might be.
Kosesho noticed Snowy's scared expression and
said, "Don't worry; I'm gradually increasing the storm. Every second that goes
by, the storm gets rougher. I have to do this slowly, because I want to keep
this going for quite a while. If I make the storm very strong all at once, I'll
be exhausted."
"What about my parents???? Won't they get hurt
by the storm?" Snowy asked, worry stinging her voice.
"They'll be okay, the hollow tree was very strong
and sturdy, so they won't be harmed by the snowstorm." Kosesho gave Snowy an
assuring smile, "You should sleep, though. You need the rest."
"But what about you?" Snowy asked, knowing that
Kosesho probably couldn't keep the storm going if he slept.
"I'll be fine," Kosesho said in a reassuring
voice, "It's a little after midnight, but I was able to sleep enough that I
should be able to stay awake through the night. And I have to keep this storm
going, so that the dark Kougras can't find us."
"Really?" Snowy said unsure, a yawn escaping
her maw.
"Yes," Kosesho smiled, "See, you're tired. Get
some rest."
Snowy was reluctant to leave Kosesho there,
not being able to get any sleep. But she knew that she couldn't fight with Kosesho,
he was certain that he was going to stay awake, and nothing she could do would
change his mind. Snowy lied down and closed her eyes, and drifted off to sleep.
To be continued...
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