Okay! All set! I hope you like it! This chapter is a bit short, since it's the first one, but the others will be longer, I promise!
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(That's Jumari)
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(That's his mum, Wildblossom)
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(That's his dad, Esoki) Now, onto the story!
Jumari opened his droopy eyes as sunlight streamed into the den.
"Jumi! Jumi come on! We're ready for the hunt!" he heard his mother call.
"Coming mum!" He called as he stretched and shook the dust from his orange-brown fur. He trotted out to the rest of the pack and they headed out, not knowing what to expect. After about a good forty minutes of trotting, a wildebeest herd came into sight. Spreading out and comunicating with barks, whines, twitters, hoots and chitters. They singled out a weak-looking beast, and chased it for about three miles until finally giving up. They didn't always catch their quarry, anyway. Almost as suddenly as a wild dog can place down his paw, a enormous dust storm rolled in, separating the hunting party. Most of the group, including Esoki, returned safely to the pack. But Jumari was left on his own. He hunkered down under a log for a while, but when it started to fill with sand, he moved on. This dust storm was not like any others Jumari had experienced before. It was painful to walk in, as the sand cut small gashes in his hide. The wind was whistling hard and loud, and Jumari could sware he heard a low, bellowing laugh. Although there was no happiness in it. It sounded prurely evil. No emotion, no care, not even life. Just pure, evil. The winds started to swirl in a circle, almost a tornado. Jumari was curious by nature, as well as a little danger-prone, so he headed for the center. What he saw was terrifying.
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It looked like nothing he had ever seen before. It was huge. Immensly huge. It was reared up, and seemed to be controlling the winds themselves. It was laughing. The evil laugh was originating from this, this, this beast. The moment it turned to face Jumari, it noticed him. The winds stopped immideatley. The shifting dust seemed to drop right out of the air. The creature froze. It started to speak. It had one of the most horrible voices to ever enter Jumari's ears. It had no emotion in it. No feeling, nothing, just, evil.
"No! No! This cannot be! The forbidden one lives! He must perish! Me MUST!"
"Who are you?" Jumari yelled to the beast, ready to flee at any moment.
"I? I?! You do not know I, the immpurity, the curse of the savannah?! For I, I young god, am Vulcanor!" And with that, the creature summoned a gust of wind, and vanished into the dust. Jumari didn't know what to think. Had he immagined it? No. No one would hallucinate enough to see that. And the dust was still lodged in his fur. He managed to get back to the pack the rest of the way relativley unscaved, although a pesky vulture kept biting aat his ears, to find everyone in a tight circle around a mound in the dirt. As Jumari approached closer, he reckognized the bright saffron color of his mother's pelt and dashed towards the scene.
"Jumari! You're all right!" He heard his father exclaim in awe.
"Get him away. He doesn't need to see this" Kaymin, the eldest wild dog said drearily.
"She's his mother. Let the pup through" Esoki commanded. As the pack leader, the others calmly obeyed him and let Jumari through. What the young dog saw was worse than the dust creature. He saw his mother, badly bruised and broken, with a badly twisted leg, laying dead in the sand. He layed his headd on her still chest and whimpered loudly. Then, teary-eyed, he raised his head to notice a fast, cold breeze. He knew what that meant. His mother had told him about the god of the dead. He had heard stories of this un-dead diety, but never saw him for real. Suddenly, from no where, a zombie-like canine spirit approached Wildblossom's body, as everyone but Jumari stepped back quickly.
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"Are you, are you really--" Jumari started, quite frightened by the spirit's appearance.
"Yes, I am. I am Bazor. The spirt of the dead" He started. His voice was hollow, yet strangely, and almost disturbingly, his voice was warm and comforting.
"Please, sir, don't take my mother. She's important to the pack. And I need her! She's my mother! She's Wildblossom of the Thundershadow pack!" Jumari pleaded. He was desparate not to let his mother go.
"Yes, I know who she is. I knew her since she was a newborn, after her mother died from giving birth. She told me the names of her pups. Saffronlily, Gildedstone, Dustypath, and of course, Wildblossom"
"But how could she tell you after she died?!"
"Watch, young diety. I will show you" And with that, he waved a paw over Wildblossom's body, and she raised herself from the ground like she was brand new.
"Mother! You'll live! Oh, mother! I can't belie--"
"No, Jumari. She will not return to you. I can't allow that. Lady Skybeam forbids any dead creature to be returned to life. Now I must go. You may say your goodbyes, and then we will set off. Your mother will be presented before Lady Skybeam, and welcomed into the afterlife, where she will live for eternity" Jumari was stunned. His mother, Wildblossom of the Thundershadow pack, dead. But how? Suddenly, everything in Jumari's young life seemed to be going wrong. And why did Vulcanor and Bazor call him "Young God" and "Young Diety"? Was it a sign? Or were they merely tricking him? It was only a matter of time before he found out. . . .
So! How did you like that? Tell me if the pictures don't show up. They should, but I don't know. Remember, I'll only write more if you ask for it, so tell me if you like it!
