Dragoncrest Cliffs Tempest

The instant she arrived, Meerkat knew something was very wrong. The den was empty, with signs of some enormous struggle. For a beat, she just stared uncomprehendingly into the empty space, trying to make sense of what she was seeing and smelling. Her heart pounded painfully against her breastbone, chest heaving as one question rose above everything else: Where was Swordfish?

Njord and Stingray burst onto the scene. Meerkat watched dumbly for a moment as Ray also noticed the den empty and began frantically shouting for his brother. Her eyes then turned to Njord, who was smeared with blood and looked absolutely beside himself in a way she had never seen.

“I willnae bury any of our children!” he cried at her from her recent memories and, suddenly, she realized what must’ve happened, whose blood was sticky in Njord’s fur: his son’s.

But like Stingray, Meerkat couldn’t just accept that and breathlessly demanded, Where’s Fish? Where’s our son? and stepped toward Njord, touch gently desperate as her paws fluttered over him.

Feeling the blood on him, she recoiled as if burned and abruptly turned toward Ray. If Swordfish had been hurt or killed somehow—a possibility she wanted to deny with all her heart, despite the proof right in front of her—then where was his body? She would not, could not, accept this without her baby dead in her arms.

Where’s my son? Meerkat repeated, voice rising as she moved to join Ray in his evident search.

Where’s my son? she wailed as she looked at all the signs of a commotion around the den’s entrance.

Where’s my son? she moaned to the sky, starting to follow the trail and registering no one’s scents but Swordfish’s.

WHERE’S MY SON??? Meerkat shrieked for all of Sapphique and the Teekon Wilds to hear.