⇷—————————☾—————————⇸ The moon rose high above the forest. Its pale light casting a glow on the leaves of the trees and shadows onto the forest floor. The wind danced past darkened trunks and chirping crickets. It brushed through Vérité’s fur and slipped away into the night, leaving her watching after it in silence. The mottled kit shifted slightly at the entrance of the den. She glanced back once at her siblings, curled in blankets of shadow. They looked peaceful, tucked away together, but Vérité had never been able to rest in that kind of darkness. Not with all of them asleep, and no one to notice if something went wrong. Her gaze lingered. The warmth of the den should have been a comfort, but it had never been to her. It had always been permeated by that sense of familiar wrongness. One that she now assumed was her. Her mask, her walls, were growing sturdier by the day, keeping everything inside where no one could touch it. Still… if she left and something happened, wouldn’t it be her fault? But if she stayed, what could she do? The truth gnawed at her… it was more likely she would be the reason things went wrong. Whatever was broken inside her had taken Pére from them too. They were better off without her. So Vérité followed the wind. Past the creek where she got her water, past the towering trees with nests she sometimes watched, just to see the birds take flight.. They rarely returned once they fled from the nest. They reminded her of her siblings, in a way. One day they’d leave the nest too, never to return. Vérité had no doubts about that. Her paws carried her through familiar places and into corners of the forest she’d never seen before alike… until she stumbled into a clearing at last. The stars glittered overhead, unobstructed by swaying branches. The stars glittered down at her from overhead. The view was clear, uninterrupted by the swaying of leaves that she’d always seen from her creek. The whole sky seemed to be watching her, thousands of silent eyes gleaming down. She wondered what they saw. Did they see who she tried to be, or did they find her unworthy of their gaze… just as Pére had. And then… she saw it. A flower bloomed in the center of the clearing. It was white, delicate, and so fluffy Vérité almost didn’t believe it was real. She crept closer, moving as though one wrong pawstep might scare it away. Her motions were careful, deliberate. Her paw brushed lightly against the fuzz of the flower. It clung to her paws. Panic prickled in her chest. She took a few alarmed steps away, shaking her paw, but the fuzz was firmly attached. Had she broken it? Was this an attack? Were even the gentlest of flowers warning her to stay away? It wasn’t until Vérité took a closer look that she realized what had happened. Tiny brown ovals nestled in the fuzz. Seeds. It hadn’t attacked her at all… it had trusted her. Trusted her to carry a piece of itself someplace new. Vérité didn’t smile, but something softened in her chest all the same. She shifted, carefully brushing the seeds onto her tail. Where they would be safe. She carefully curled her tail around the flower next, letting the rest of the seeds cling to her fur the way the first had. It was the first time Vérité could truly remember the feeling of being trusted. And Vérité would not let this little flower down. ⇷—————————☾—————————⇸ The seeds clung stubbornly to her tail all the way home, brushing against her with each step. Vérité checked them more than once, twisting herself in odd shapes to make sure none had slipped away. She’d thought she was clever. She’d found a sheltered hollow underneath the roots of an olive tree and thought it perfect. Safe from wind, from storms, from the prying eyes of cats who wouldn’t think twice of ripping them out of the ground. She pressed the dirt down carefully with her paws, satisfied with the little mound she’d made over the seeds. “Là...” she whispered, though no one could hear her. Not her siblings, not Pére, not even the stars overhead. Only the olive tree and the seeds. “Tu es en sécurité.” For nights after, Vérité returned to the spot. She checked the soil, watered it with moss balls she’d dunked into the stream. She’d watch the stars and hope that she’d keep the promise she’d made. But nothing came. The days stretched into weeks, until a whole moon had passed. The earth stayed bare, the soil dark and damp from her care. No green shoots, no fragile stems, no soft white flowers like the one she had seen in the clearing. The only thing that grew was her frustration. Could she not even do this much? To protect the seeds she’d sworn to protect? To watch them grow and thrive. The olive tree swayed gently above, its branches blocking most of the light. Vérité glanced up, then back at the soil. She pressed it flat again, tighter this time. Safe. It had to be safe. ⇷—————————☾—————————⇸
It was during one of her rare escapes during the day that she noticed it. The hollow beneath the olive tree looked just as it usually did. Dark. Damp. Painfully empty. But this time, Vérité blinked away the sunlight from her eyes and looked around. The forest floor shimmered with sunlight, flickers of gold catching on leaves and blades of grass. Patches of green pushed up everywhere the light touched. Little clusters of weeds, blades of grass, and even a lone wildflower was stubbornly opening its petals toward the sky. But beneath the olive tree? Nothing. Vérité’s breath caught. She crouched low, eyes flicking between the empty mound she had tended so carefully and the thriving shoots scattered just outside the tree’s shade. The truth was suddenly, painfully obvious. They hadn’t failed because they were weak. They hadn’t failed because of her. Because Vérité had hidden them too well. Because she had tried to protect them, and only caused them suffering. She buried her claws into the dirt. She thought she had been protecting them from harm. But in her fear of losing them, she had taken away the one thing they needed most… the light. Carefully, Vérité began to dig. Gently clasping the seeds in her jaws, she carried them to a place just beyond the shadow. Where the light could reach them. She pressed them into the soil, careful this time not to bury them too deep, leaving space for the sun to find them. And when a few days later, green shoots began to reach towards the sky, Vérité didn’t smile. But she felt lighter all the same. She curled her tail around the sprouts, and stared up into the sky. She’d fulfilled her promise. ⇷—————————☾—————————⇸ Do I write too much when it comes to Vérité? Definitely. Have I been writing this since she was 4 moons old? Yup. Oh well. TLDR: Vérité may be alone, but at least she's learning to garden Lmk if this isn't allowed, I've been writing it since she was four moons old but she is also very much not four anymore because I procrastinated the thumbnail and didn't want to post it until the thumbnail was done. Art: Me Song: Hiding in the Blue by RIELL and TheFatRat
