Orchid nodded happily and continued eating. When she finished she stood up and said, "I never caught your name. And also, what would you like to do next." She smiled warmly, her strikingly blue eyes darting from place to place thinking of all the things they could do.
Amber smiled. "Whatever you want to do next is fine by me. There's a pretty river with a waterfall if you haven't seen it before." Amber said, avoiding Orchid's question of her name.
"Ooh, that sounds cool!" Orchid exclaimed. "We should go!" She thought for a minute, "Hey, you never answered my second question! What is your name?" She wagged her tail happily, she had never had a friend, even her own siblings had hated her, her mother had shunned her and her father had never cared about any of them. She came from a pack of black coyotes so it was strange seeing so many different colors here.
"Oh, Crystal." Amber lied convincingly. "Now, let's go!"
"Oh! That's so pretty!" Orchid said as she followed her new friend Crystal to the waterfall. On they way there she was thinking back to how nice this pack was compared to her old one. Her mother had been the alpha female of the old pack and her father had been alpha male. When she was born they thought she was just the average runt and would grow to be a large coyote, like her mother. They had been so happy with her when she opened her eyes, for blue eyes, especially ones like hers were rare in her pack. When her parents noticed she wasn't growing they began to hate her. Her pack had the largest bodied coyotes and for her to be so small was shameful to them. Her mother shunned her, he father was ashamed of her and her siblings never let her have a moments rest. She recounted these memories with a sad smile. She had loved her family to the end and it had torn her apart to leave, but they were killing her and she knew she needed to go. Her smiled warmed when she thought of how loving this pack was compared to her last pack. She was going to be happy here she decided.
Amber smiled weakly. "Thanks." Amber paused at the river. "Well, this is it."
"Wow," Orchid was amazed. It was huge! It was the biggest river and waterfall she had ever seen. And she had lived in a forest before! She wasted no time and jumped in the water and hopped around, like a pup discovering a toad for the first time.
Amber smiled at Orchid's excitement and then lay down on a boulder with her head on her paws.
After thoroughly tiring herself out in the water, Orchid crawled to shore and shook. She stretched out in the sun and fell asleep. She dreampt that her family was welcoming her back with open arms and saying sorry for how they mistreated her. Then, once they had convinced her to come back they trapped her and treated her even worse than before. She woke up with a start and didn't know where she was at first only that she had to get away from her family. She bolted in the direction of the rabbit warren but this time she went inside, her body just barely small enough to fit. But once down in the chambers it was spacious. She new nobody could come in here so she laid down and hid. In her terror she had lost touch with reality for the moment.
Amber glanced up with surprise when she saw Orchid run and ran after. Seeing that she couldn't fit into the warren, she called into it, "Orchid! Come out! What's wrong?"
