Day broke across the Pridelands, revealing a shattered landscape. It had only been a couple of days since the sky fell and the earth appeared to be deeply wounded. Kayode sat outside of his family's den, though he had not slept there. The young male had been staying with an older sibling for the past couple of days so that his physical wounds could begin the healing process. Before the sun had risen he had left the comfort of his sister and her children to make the journey home. Though, without his mom and dad, he supposed it was no longer that much of a home.
The walk had been excruciatingly difficult for Kayode. His shoulder had been struck hard by a piece of rock, and if he did not nurse it properly he risked walking with a permanent limp. The wound was angry, inflamed from overuse and bleeding freely down his front leg. He hadn't felt it, not when wounds ran deeper than it ever could. The young Pridelander was broken, and any who laid eyes upon him could see that.
They had tried to comfort him, had tried to even give him space, but he had not begun to show signs of coming around back to reality. The immense hole in his heart in the wake of his parents death would not heal easily. Time had not claimed them, but rather tragedy, and his mind could not accept it. He had... thought he had much more time with them. His shoulders shook with the effort to hold back tears at the thought. He had thought that his tears had been spent. His cheeks had been dry for days, and yet as he stood there in the home he grew up in he could do nothing else but cry.
He sunk down onto the ground, laying on his belly. His paws covered his face to hide his grief from the world, and he sobbed. Tears streamed down his cheeks and the soil below soaked in his sadness. He was too young to endure the world without them - Kayode was so convinced that he could not. He had nowhere near the strength of his litter mate. Before all of this she had always been so impressive, so confident and self-assured.
He had always been weak.
Time passed and his tears subsided. There had been a purpose in coming here, though he was no longer sure it had been a good idea to come back at all. He should have brought Adannaya with him, but then she would have seen him like... this. Kayode sucked in a few short breaths, trying to calm the frantic beating of his heart. He could not let himself get pulled back into another bout of grief. At the same time, grief seemed to be the only thing he could feel.
Rising to his feet, the young male climbed up the rock steps to the den he had been born in. Each step reminded him of the pain he felt, but he pushed himself forward regardless. He had to do this for himself. The entrance of the den was bathed in light, and as he peered into the depths of his home he could see that light reflecting upon the dust in the air. It had been unchanged by the meteor shower - one of the few places that had been spared. Everything was as it should be. Not enough time had passed for the den to be dirtied or for things to go missing.
He could hear the soft echo of his footsteps as he limped into the den. Fresh droplets of blood littered the floor in his wake, but his injury did not seem to slow him. It still smelled like them, mother and father. But the place was cold, empty without them. What glow life had given the place had been snuffed out, and if he walked deep enough in even the light would not touch him.
It was a suitable place to be alone, there in the depths of the den and stowed away from the world. He paused next to his parents' bed, looking down upon the flattened leaves. For a while he stood there, trapped in memories so revered that they would at least not be tainted by the cruelty of the world. Back further was his own bed, and it was there that he stopped his exploration. It was there that he finally laid back down himself. There was a comfort in resting in his own bed. It was so desperately needed that he would allow himself to be trapped by it.
Kayode had come to say good bye. With every step he took in this place and with every breath of air he claimed, the young male realized he was not strong enough to do that. He had not eaten in days, though he did not feel the hunger that his body was surely experiencing. Pain had made him numb to the plight of his own body. Anyone would have been correct to be concerned for the boy. His will to do anything had been slipping away from him the moment the shock had worn off from his parents' deaths.
He had gone about dealing with his pain in an entirely unhealthy way, and now depression had its grip on him. Curled tightly into himself with his nose tucked underneath his leg and his tail coiled around his neck, he slept because there was nothing else to do. Sleep and sadness were far better companions than the noise of the world around him.
The day passed and rolled into nighttime, but not a sound had been heard from the den in hours. As day broke again, there was still nothing. Only the trained ear would be able to hear it, the soft intake and release of breath. Life still lingered in a home that refused to be abandon, though it was not certain that such life could continue on.
(1003 words)