Search for a Father :thudstonk
Entry for Fanfiction Challenge. Taunt belongs to @rhombus
Set shortly after Greatest Sacrafice
The death of Red Claw had shaken things up badly. Word on exactly what had happened was sparse and all any of the Sharpteeth in the region knew was that a pair of different Sharpteeth had first challenged him for a slice of his territory near the Leafeater-haven of the Great Valley… and within the season, said pair, reinforced by their half-grown daughter had killed him and taken his entire territory.
Everyone was wondering how they had managed it, especially since it had been common knowledge that he had all but coerced an entire Fast Biter-pack into his service. Said pack was also completely unaccounted for.
What Sharpteeth survived the pair’s purge of their new territory were of no help; most of them had only learned of Red Claw’s demise when the pair had staked their claim on his central lands with no opposition. Some of them had seen the pale-grey corpse the family had feasted upon.
Taunt was one of those that had only heard rumours, being too far from Red Claw’s territory with his pack to be directly impacted by those developments. While most of the Sharpteeth had simply been relieved at Red Claw’s demise – the pair seemed perfectly fine with hunting away any rivals, unlike their predecessor – he was partly worried. He knew for a fact that his father had always been at Red Claw’s side. What had happened to the elder Fast Biter? The fact that an entire pack was unaccounted for was beyond worrying not to mention telling, but part of him demanded certainty. Needed certainty…
The rest of the pack declared him several forms of insane and stupid, figuring that while the new rulers of the region were content to hunt away those that had already been present, they might well not be so forgiving to someone that actively invaded their territory.
Which is why he was currently sneaking into the territory on his own, slowly realizing that he really had not thought things through. For one, it had been changes of the Night Circle by now, so finding his father’s corpse was practically impossible and just going up to them was probably some form of suicidal. Unless Thud had managed to evade them for all this time, this probably was insane and stupid.
The universe blatantly agreed with that when his worries about the potential suicidality of the endeavour resulted in him actually ending up in the nearly worst situation. He had been half-following a scent-trail he thought might have been his father – it was certainly old enough – when a rock gave way under his feet. He managed to land somewhat safely on the ground, rather than breaking every bone in his body, only to find that he had half-dropped into someone’s dinner. Rather, four someone’s dinner, three of whom were looming over him.
He would never admit he squeaked.
“Didn’t we hunt everyone away around here?” The light-green female looked at the dark-green male, eyes narrowed.
“I double-checked.” He concurred, prowling closer.
Taunt regretted every choice he ever made that had resulted in him ending up boxed in by three annoyed and-or angry Greater Sharpteeth. “I… I’m just… passing through.” Short of dashing at them and hoping he could get between them faster than they could react, he was stuck. Considering they had managed to deal with an entire pack somehow, he figured he’d not make the dash.
“You’re an idiot then.” The pale-green half-grown female muttered, the grey hatchling having jumped behind her at the intrusion. “Any closer to the centre of our territory and you’re in the darn Leafeater Valley.”
“I… I… was not paying close attention to that.” He probably was making things worse, but concentrating while her father was getting dangerously close was quite hard. He could potentially jump him, do some damage, but that would definitely end with him dead.
“And here I thought most grow beyond that after hatchling-stage.” Red eyes were trailing over the rocks above.
“Why are you here?” The father of the family demanded, jaws close enough to strike in a moment’s notice. The scent of blood surrounded him at this point. “No one sane would pass through the centre of a Sharptooth-territory.” The taller male’s breath was almost hot.
Taunt would forever remember the moment when the father recognized his scent as something antagonistic. Despite him not saying a word, the storm of emotions alerted the two females, who needed just a couple deep breaths to confirm what their family-member had already noticed. Only the hatchling seemed not to make the connection, perhaps because he dared not come too close. He was about the only one who could be in danger by the Fast Biter.
“Looking for your father, I take it?” The pale-green female almost purred it. “I can oblige.” Her almost Fast-biter-like grin made it quite obvious who at the very least had his father’s body for dinner, if not killed the green Fast Biter. He should have expected it, to be entirely honest.
“White Star.” The mother stopped the half-grown female. “Rec.”
“You’re advocating letting him live?” Taunt honestly wondered how the father – whose name was Rec, apparently – got that simply from being addressed, but dared not ask. “Dare I ask why?”
“A warning.” The mother purred. “Tell you what, son of Thud, if you could do us a favour, we will not make you end up like your father.”
“Really?” The younger female – White Star was quite a fitting name, now that he thought about it – muttered. “Let’s just bite his head off.”
“He is just worried about his father.” The hatchling finally spoke up, creeping closer. “Isn’t that exactly why you guys came here?”
“I’ll do it.” Taunt dared answer the elder female’s offer, feeling that with two on his side he could dare be bold enough to speak up without being spoken to. A deadly glare send him scurrying back towards the rock-wall.
“What kind of warning would surpass us killing Red Claw and his entire collection of lackeys?” Rec demanded sharply.
“Do you really want to deal with weekly challenges for this territory?” She countered. “Fast Biter. One chance. You get your arse out of this territory and never come back. While you are at it, you can spread the word about a cute little arrangement we have here.”
Now that seemed to set her family off, though all three of them seemed unwilling to actually address whatever was a problem with that.
“Bad timing?” The voice was unmistakably speaking Sharptooth, but the sight was something else distinctly not Sharptooth.
“Sort off.” The elder male darkly answered the new arrival; an absolute massive form of a Longneck. Taunt felt his brain derail somewhat at that. “We have something of a… visitor.”
White Star rolled her eyes. “Well, he might as well now. Idiot or not, it doesn’t take much to make a connection with the Longneck here and speaking Sharptooth.”
Taunt met the brown eyes of the Longneck, who was meandering up as if she was not horribly outnumbered and outmatched. There could only be one reason for her calm. “You’re allied with the Leafeaters!?”
“We watch their son regularly.” The large grey shape answered evenly. “Now, I do believe you said you had secured the vicinity of the Valley?”
“Ah, you know youngsters, curiosity kills them.” The light-green female chuckled. “But he’s going to be a smart youngster and booking it, isn’t he?”
“Uh… yeah… yeah… I’ll…. I’ll do that. I’ll just be… going…” Before any could decide differently, he dove under the annoyed elder and started sprinting in the only direction available. When he turned and looked back from a good distance away, the group seemed to be in deep discussion.
He did a double-take at the sight, the Longneck standing out like few others would and doubted anyone would just believe him on this.