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TW: grief, drowning, some blood
“Jacques, stop chasing Birch. She doesn’t like it.” Grandmaw Gaia picked her grandcub up by the scruff, nudging Birch back to her mother. “Have you seen Jem?” She set Jacques down near his mother, and Cosette grabbed him and started bathing him to his protest. He squirmed and pushed her snout away with his tiny paws but Cosette persisted.
“No, Jem was with Manon heading to Damiens cave last I saw them.” Cosette nudged Jacques’ paws away and licked his chest.
Cosette had birthed four cubs; Jacques, Manon, Bastile, and Jem. Bastile had tragically contracted asthma and died when she was two months old. Jacques and Jem were tigons, Jem getting tiger stripes from their mysterious father, and their mothers blue eyes. Jacques got Cosette's sunrise spots and the suave personality of his father, egged on by Damien.
“Damien isn’t here,” Gaia sighed, “they’re going to wreck his cave, those rascals.” She smiled at Cosette and headed off towards Damiens cave.
“Jem! Manon?” She poked her head into the cave and scanned the area. Nothing. She left and circled the area. She got a flashback to when Cosette was a young cub. She had wandered off and Gaia and Damien had gone into a panic searching for her.
She headed to the forest line to search in the leaves where she had found Cosette when she had disappeared four years before. Trying to find a scent, she paced the tree line, keeping her eyes peeled. Maybe her old nose wasn’t as sharp as it used to be, but she couldn’t smell them.
She headed to the main cave to search next. “Anyone seen Manon or Jem?” She addressed the cave. A chorus of ‘no’s’ came back.
“I saw them walking along the shoreline a while ago!” Someone spoke up. Gaia shook her head. This was turning into a wild ostrich chase. She thanked them and headed to the water's edge, looking to the right and left trying to see any outlines of cubs that were about to be in trouble.
Off in the distance, a silhouette was growing bigger, and soon, Manon came barreling past Gaia straight to Cosette, wailing and looking terrified. “Wait!” Gaia chased after him, old bones protesting. Before she could make it to them, Manon bolted past her again back in the direction he came from, and Cosette was following.
“JEM!” The panic in Cosettes voice shook Gaia to her core and the feeling of dread overtook her. She didn’t know what was happening, but it was life or death.
Ignoring her aching limbs, she sprinted after her daughter and grandcub until they reached a seemingly random point on the shore. Manon started to rush into the water but Cosette caught him by the scruff and swung him back. “No!” She yelled, placing him next to Gaia and heading into the water.
“What’s happening!?” Gaia demanded.
“Jem- we w-were swimming, and- and Jem just got s-sucked under, and d-didn’t come back up!” Manon wailed and sobbed.
“Riptide! Cosette, no!” She shouted, “Stay here!” She told the sobbing cub. Gaia bounded into the water towards Cosette as she was screaming her child’s name. “Cosette!” Gaia pounced on the gon, grabbing her by the scruff and dragging her back to shore.
Cossete hissed and spat, trying to swipe at Gaia. “Let me go!” She roared. “My cub!” She was bucking like a horse, desperately trying to get out of Gaia’s grip and back into the water. Gaia released her once they were back on the sand and firmly stood between her and the water.
“Cosette, Jem got caught in a riptide! If you go in, you’ll get taken too! Your other cubs need you alive!”
“My baby!” Cosette crawled forward on the sand, wailing until she got to Gaia’s paws. She buried her face in the primals chest and her body shook with grief.
Gaia was crying as well, hushing and trying to comfort her daughter as Manon came over to cry with them.
MEANWHILE
Jem couldn’t see anything. They had just been swimming with their brother, splashing and having fun, when the water dragged Jem further out than they wanted to be. It took them under the surface, tossing them around, tugging and pushing at their body, spinning them until they didn’t know which way was up or down.
Jem’s eyes were wide and terrified, trying to find anything to grab on to, but the rushing saltwater made their eyes sting, and they were being tossed around too violently to be able to focus on anything.
They had been able to catch a quick breath before being dragged under, but the young cub could only hold their breath for so long, and their lungs, begging for air, were burning in their chest. Then something sharp closed around their hind leg.
It dragged them deeper, puncturing the flesh around their paw, and Jem made the mistake of yelling, releasing what little precious air was left in their lungs. Panicked, they sucked in water, and blacked out.
The shark had been tasked with getting Jem and bringing them to the underwater cave where Nun, the God of Chaos and Water, was waiting for his offspring. The shark arrived with a limp lion cub, and Nun took them, giving the shark scratches under his chin, and released him.
As the shark swam away, Nun examined his cub. They weren’t dead yet, but he had to work fast. Their oxygen was running out.
~ ~ ~
Jem woke up disoriented. They didn’t know where they were but as they looked around, they saw they were in a cave. ‘Did mama save me?’ They thought, going to stand up. They got their front legs under them, but something was wrong with their back legs. They felt tied together? Jem looked around and yelled, trying to run. A shark was eating their butt!!
They couldn’t get far with just their front legs, and they felt so light, like they were floating a little, so they flipped onto their back and clawed at the shark. A sharp pain shot from where they struck and they stopped, confused. Their claws had barely punctured the thick rough skin, and blood was floating upwards?
They looked closer at the shark attached to them and realized with horror that a shark tail was fused to their lower half. Heart rate rising, breathing fast- wait, breathing? Their breathing felt.. not normal. Something on either side of their neck kept moving with each breath, and they weren't feeling air through their nose. They lifted a paw to feel. There were slits! Tender to the touch, and if their paw was covering the slits, it was harder to breathe.
Their mouth felt weird too. Their teeth felt bigger and she explored them with her tongue, almost slicing it on her teeth that were now sharp on the edges. Her fangs were serrated now, like shark teeth.
None of this made sense. Last they remember, they were drowning. And now someone had put their back legs in a shark tail. They tried to move their legs, but it was the shark tail that swung side to side! They tried again, pushing on the tail with their front paws to try and get it off, but they could feel the pressure of their own paws on the tail!
They looked around the cave, “Mama? Jack?” No response, and their voice was carrying further than normal. And the wind felt strange and thick as it tugged on their fur. “Anyone?” Their eyes stung as tears started to form, but they didn’t feel any tears falling. They curled up, crying and feeling utterly alone, their shark tail moving awkwardly as Jem tried to wrap her now nonexistent lion tail around herself.
~ ~ ~
A shadow passed over Jem. They sniffled and looked up. And they screamed. They screamed and tried to run away, but they didn’t know how to move well with this new body.
Swimming above them was a shark, and they finally realized they were underwater. The shark turned towards them as they spread their front paws out to swim away, their tail twitching back and forth unnaturally. The shark bumped its nose against Jems back and Jem snarled and turned, claws out, and raked the shark down the face.
The shark turned away quickly, moving faster than she knew a shark could move, and it settled down on the other side of the cave, it’s snout bleeding. It clearly didn’t want to eat Jem. At least, not at this moment. They took this opportunity to clumsily swim to the entrance of the cave, but they came to a halt, the front half of them drifting over the edge. They shouted, and turned back towards the cave, pulling themself back in. They couldn’t see the bottom.
Jem swam more slowly to the entrance again, keeping their paws on the rock to steady themselves, and looked up. Dozens of schools of fish and wandering sea turtles blocked the view, and they couldn’t see how far the surface was. They sighed, pushing themselves back in and turned to keep an eye on the shark.
It was watching them, but not moving. Or was it watching them? It’s eyes were completely blacked out. It was eerie. They picked up a rock to use as a weapon if the shark came close again, but it swam out of the cave instead, it’s body moving gracefully in the water.
Jem watched closely. Maybe they could learn how to swim from this. When the shark was out of the cave and seeming to swim away, Jem put the rock down and looked back at their tail. “Just.. side to side?” They asked aloud. They wiggled their hips and moved forward as their tail pushed through the water, kind of like the shark. But much more awkward.
They tried again, using their paws to walk themself forward as they got more used to the movement. Eventually, they were able to lift their paws off the rocky cave floor, and paddle them through the water to keep themselves steady as they concentrated on the correct movements of their tail. The shark was watching from a distance.
~ ~ ~
Exhausted, Jem had fallen asleep, their tail feeling weakened now from the new muscles being used. When they woke up, there was a pile of dead fish near their face. They looked around, seeing no one. They looked towards the cave entrance, and the shark swam past, snapping its head to the side with frightening speed to catch a nearby fish.
Jem watched it curiously. If it wanted to eat them, it clearly would have done it by now. And… was the shark the one who caught these fish for them? They couldn’t sense anyone else… hungry though, they dug in.
The shark lazily swam in, making no move towards Jem, and ate its catch. Jem watched it, more with curiosity now. There must be some reason it was hanging around and not eating them… Jem finished the fish and scooted towards the shark. It didn’t move. They scooted closer. And a little closer, until they were right next to it. Far enough from the face that they would have time to react if it lashed, but close enough to touch its tail.
They reached out a paw and placed it on the shark. It twitched slightly at the touch, but settled down and held still, it’s black eyes watching Jem.
“Are you lost like me? Why are you taking care of me?” Jem asked, not expecting any response, but it felt nice to talk to another being. The shark just flapped a fin. Jem sighed, stroking the shark. It was so smooth! It felt just like their own tail. Looked similar too, but their tail had stripes on it. This shark was just plain grey. But this shark was also much bigger than Jem.
“Well,” Jem continued, wondering if the shark even understood them. “My name is Jem. I- I don’t know how I got here… but I want to go home. I don’t understand what’s happening to me.” Their eyes started to sting as tears welled up, but never fell. Just mixed with the water surrounding them.
The shark turned and Jem started to back up but the shark just bumped its nose into them, like it was trying to comfort them. Jem, after taking a breath to calm down, wrapped their paws around the shark's snout, giving it a hug.
“What should I call you?” They asked, using the sharks head as a bed almost, letting it support their front half as their tail dangled down in front of its nose. “How about Cetus? That’s the name of a group of stars in the sky. Have you ever seen the sky? It actually means ‘sea monster’ but...” They sat in awkward silence for a moment. “Is that mean? You aren’t a monster… but the name is cool. We can make a new meaning for the name.”
Another lapse of silence before Jem sighed. “Can you help me get home?” They asked quietly. Sadly. Then Cetus started moving. Jem gave out a small shout and hugged the sharks head tighter as it swam out of the cave and up towards the surface. They gasped as the shark picked up speed, and their head broke the surface of the water.
Disoriented by the light and the sudden cold breeze, along with the waves pushing them, they flailed their paws, their tail thrashing to try and keep them upright. Cetus, hovering just below the surface of the water, pushed Jem towards the beach. Composing themselves, Jem began to paddle their paws and focused on moving their tail in a productive manner until their paws touched sand.
Cetus stayed back so he wouldn’t get beached as Jem crawled forward, dragging themself onto the sand.
“Jem!?” A familiar voice called out.
“Jacques!?” Jem shouted, ecstatic as she recognized her brother. “Jacques!!” She cried happily, struggling to run to him.
“Woah!” Jacques halted as he drew near, seeing Jems full body. “Bro what happened…?”
“I- I don’t know..” Jem said, shifting their body to hide their tail. ‘I shouldn’t have done this.. I’m a freak now. How can they accept me like this? I can’t even live with them anymore.’ They thought.
“That’s sick dude!” Jacques exclaimed, bounding forward to close the distance between them and nuzzling his sibling. “Man we’ve been thinkin’ you were dead! Oh everyone is going to be so excited to see you! I’ve been staring out into the water every day to see if you’d come back and you did! It was the force of my will that brought you back, wasn’t it? You’re welcome.” He gave Jem a sly smile that earned him a smack on the shoulder as they both laughed.
“But seriously,” he continued, “Jem.. you’re alive!” He threw himself on top of Jem, wrapping them up in a soft warm hug, and Jem purred and nuzzled their face into him.
Flavor text
Jem seemed down today. When Corvak asked them what was wrong, they looked up at him with sadness in their eyes and asked why everyone treats them so differently.
After instructing his lionesses to go out on a hunt, Jem walked up to Corvak and looked offended at his inability to hunt his own meal. He explained that the females of the pride are the ones who kill prey and provide for the pride. Jem turns up their nose and struts away, muttering under their breath about "useless males" and "outdated societal norms". What?
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