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The little CinnaBar cub yelped in pain as her sister, Eve, bit down on her tail. Glaze swatted at her and tackled her to no avail. Eve only giggled in glee instead of squeaking in fright. Glaze let her up and watched as her sister trotted a few paces away and started examining her pelt. Glaze looked over her own fur. She was the same CinnaBar as her five siblings but unlike the others she had a reverse tuxedo marking. White fur covered the tips of her toes and climbed up the underside of her legs. The white marking covered her belly and rode up her throat and to her chin. She knew, from many visits to her reflection in the pool, that the white tipped her muzzle and crawled up along her jaw and into her ear tufts. Glaze lifted a paw and rubbed it over her face, lightly touching the white dots over her eyes. Her beautiful sun glow eyes. She was snapped out of her reverie when the others kitten piled on top of her.
Glaze wriggled free of their sibling pile and bounded to an empty nest. There she curled up and closed her eyes. Man, playing did really take a lot out of you didn't it? She felt another body slip into the nest beside her, curling against her flank. Soon she felt four more bodies slide in and curl around her. They all snuggled closer into a warm bundle and glaze drifted into a deep sleep.
The next morning she was the first to wake up. Glaze's father poked his cold nose into the nest and nudged her up. "Get the others up within the next few minutes and sit in a line." Exo said no more as he turned and padded away. Glaze sat up, parting her jaws in a quiet yawn. Tiredly, she poked and prodded her siblings, waking Cherry Blossom first. Her sister mewled in complain. "Come on Cherry. Daddy says we have to get up and get in line by the cave entrance." Cherry yawned and sat up, helping Glaze shake the others awake. Once everyone was up, Glaze lead them to the cave entrance and sat, tucking her tail by her paws. Cherry made sure they were in perfect order before taking her spot beside Glaze.
She paid very close attention to her father as he explained the days activities. On his command, the cubs stood and shuffled after him. Glaze gazed around at the pride mates, watching the line of cubs and King making their way towards the river. Glaze had never been to the river but she heard it's rushing water all day and night. She picked up the pace and watched as Exo leapt up onto something. She couldn't quite see what it was until after the two cubs in front of her jumped up, realizing now that it was a log. Bunching up her muscles, she launched up onto the log. Her eyes went wide as she watched the water gush not a foot under her paws. Glaze scurried along, forcing her eyes shut until she toppled off the other end and fell. Exo huffed and didn't bother to help her. Eve, Cherry and Dawn helped her to her paws and hurried to follow their father.
They entered another prides territory and Exo was offered a turtle shell with some beetles inside. What was the point of that? Glaze wondered. She didn't have time to think about it as three snow white lionesses stepped forward. They all had the same white fur, red, albinoid eyes and pink noses. She arched her back and hissed as one of them picked her up roughly. Glaze fought and wiggled as the lioness carried her away. She got one glimpse of Exo as he was leaving, not even pausing to look back or say good bye. Glaze felt sad but quickly got angry as she was unceremoniously dumped into a nest. She grumbled as her siblings were pushed in and one of the lionesses curled up beside them. Glaze settled down as her siblings all dipped off into sleep, but she only closed her eyes. Would she be able to sleep again? After the heart breaking, soul wrenching good bye from Exo?
Frosted Glaze grew up in the safe protection of Birch Fall. All of her siblings had remained right here and she was happy with the results. However, her mind never left the fact that Exo had left without a word. She tried not to think about it too much now. Cherry Blossom would brush it off if Glaze brought it up. Always saying something about it being better off that they live here instead of in the old pride where Exo would have been cruel. Glaze still grumbled about it to this day.
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