Trying to find some light, in all this Darkness

(February 7th, open to Little Bro and Copper)

Little Brother lied in the place that he usually slept. It was so late (At least Little Bro thought it was, but, it was hard to tell, with all this darkness.) His friends (Kishan and Lune) he had a feeling they had adjusted to the darkness, a whole lot better than him, after all they were both predators, creatures that could probably adjust to the dark, better, than a normal house puppy, and no matter how much Little Bro, tried to tell everyone, that he was a lot more, than that. Little Bro knew exactly who he was.

Little Bro yawned, He had not been sleeping well, not even a little. It was way to dark for him, and every time he'd try he'd hear a noise or a looming shadow, and it would scare him to the point, where he wouldn't get any sleep at all. Of course, he always needed to lie, if there was a time, that someone would ask him what was wrong.

He was an animal villain, what kind of animal villain would he be, if he told anyone, it was too dark, and he was scared? Not a very good villain at all, at least not in Little Bro's opinion. Little Bro yawned again, he was just about to close his eyes , but it was at that point, where he heard a noise and saw a shadow. Little Bro gasped quietly.

"Who...Who... Who.... Who's there"? Little Bro said, trying but, failing to sound brave.

Two days.

It had been two days since Granny Rose sat him and Dixie down for a good talkin’ to and Copper’s mood still hadn’t improved in the slightest. Though, Copper could have guessed that it couldn’t have been helped, the ol’ dog was bound to find out what happened between him and Tod sooner or later. Copper would have wished it would have been later, but he ended up with sooner.

Having to explain it all had only served in bringing the hound more grief than he was already forcing to the back of his mind, and Granny had done little to help ease it. Not that he’d given her reason to. Still, before the talk, Copper had managed to partially forget what had happened, and he’d done so by diving headfirst into other things. Things he probably had no business sticking his nose into, but he’d done it anyway.

With a rather loud snort, Copper shook his head in an attempt to clear it. It was all done and over with, nothing he could do about it now. Granny now knew of all that had happened to him during this war, and there was no changing that. Copper didn’t really care too much honestly, he just didn’t like the idea of having to explain himself to the elderly female. And he really didn’t too much care for the idea of her knowing of what had happened between him and Dixie, but she now knew of that too.

“W-w-w-who’s there?”

Copper’s thoughts were shattered by the sound of a fairly familiar voice calling into the darkness. Copper looked up to find the small form of Little Brother stood straight, the hair along his back raised in what was clearly freight, ever so, the pup appeared to be trying to be brave, so the hound would give him points for that.

“It ain’t nobody important,” Copper called back to him as he stepped closer to the pup. “A little scared, Brother?” he asked as he looked down at the smaller dog, one brow raised in slight question.

"Mr. Copper!!!!" The pup said happily with a wag of his tail. Little Bro was so happy to see, Copper. It had been ages, since he had seen the hound. The only 2 animals that would have made him just as happy to see, were Kishan and Lune. But, they were off doing their own thing, so it wouldn't hurt to hang out with Copper for a while. Besides, with all this scary darkness, Little Bro would be kidding himself to not say he wanted all the company he could get. Little Bro walked carefully over to the sound of Copper's voice and sat down beside him.

"Me? Scared of what? This darkness? PSSSSSHHHHH, of course I'm not scared. Why? Are You"? Little Bro asked trying to sound as confidant as he could that he wasn't scared in the slightest. Copper probably saw right through this act, who was he trying to kid?

Copper couldn’t help the small chuckle that left him at the smaller dog’s response. It was beyond obvious that the darkness that had fallen over them made the pup nervous, but he was still trying to be brave in the face of his fear. He didn’t want to seem weak, and the hound had to admire him for that. Copper himself still hadn’t completely adjusted to the darkness, but he couldn’t say that he was scared of it. It certainly had been odd to wake up one day to no light at all, but Copper had long since learned to expect the unexpected. Little brother had been a simple house pet before the war, so Copper could only guess what the darkness must have been like for him.

Copper lowered himself into his stomach beside the pup, his left hind leg pulled underneath him so that he leaned slightly to the side. Ever since his fight with Tod, he hadn’t been able to get around as well as he used to. The fact that he had old injuries that left him with a permanent limp didn’t help any. Once he’d made himself comfortable he turned his attention back to Brother.

“Ya know it’s okay to be scared,” he spoke, his voice low and nearly void of emotion. Yet, at the same time, it was clear that he did hold some concern for the smaller canid next to him. If only slight. He may not have been as close to Brother as he was with Dixie or the pups, but he did still feel for him. “I’m not afraid of the dark,” he admitted, turning to glance away from Brother and deeper into the Outlands, “but I will say that it isn’t something that’s easy to get used too. I can only guess what being in total darkness like this must be like for a pup, huh?” he asked, turning dull dark brown eyes back toward Little Brother.

(This ain't the best, but my muse is all over the place at the moment. XP)

Little Brother looked around making sure no one else was here at this moment. "Now, that you mention it, I guess this darkness is KINDA scary. I mean, this kind of thing never happened in China, when I was still a house pet. So, I guess it is scary, especially when you're dealing with it alone. So it feels good to have a little company" Little Bro said.

Little Brother's attention drifted to Copper's leg. Even in the dark, Little Bro could tell something happened. "What happened to your leg?"Little Bro said concern evident in the young pup's voice. "So, do you think the sun will ever come back, Mr. Copper? Or is it gone forever" ? Little Brother asked.

Copper smirked softly as the pup finally admitted that he was indeed scared. It honestly hadn’t been hard to tell in the first place, even if he’d have been able to hide it on his face, Copper still would have been able to smell it. In the extremely low lighting, which was coming from a fire that had been set up at Zira’s command a few days before, it was still hard for Copper to see properly, even with fair night vision. The fact that one of the hound’s eyes was now more dulled than normal and had a smokey-like blue appearance to it didn’t help the matter. The wound Tod had inflicted with his claws the month before had festered and infection set in, and for a long while Copper hadn’t even been able to open that eye at all. Now the infection was gone, but with it so was part of the hound’s sight. He wasn’t blind in it, but his vision in it now was so blurred that it was practically useless.

As Brother spoke about how nothing like the darkness had ever happened back home, Copper found himself nodded in agreement. “Yeah, nothin’ like this ever happened back on the farm either…” His voice trailed at the end as his mind was momentarily transported back in time. He had to wonder how he or Chief or… Tod, would have reacted to an eternal darkness falling over them like it had now? He seriously doubted he would have taken to it as quickly as he had now, and he doubted neither Chief nor Tod would have either. But, then again, neither of them had to worry about any of that now did they?

When Little Brother spoke up again, it caused the hound to visibly jerk back into the present. His head snapped up as he turned to face the smaller dog with a look of surprise. He had forgotten that he’d been talking to Brother. Now, however, as he blinked slowly and as his breathing slowly steadied itself once more, he realized just where he was and what he’d been doing. Giving one ear a flick as he thought about what Brother had asked him, his gaze traveled back to said leg as he opened his mouth to speak.

“My leg? It was an old injury that never healed right. At the fight the hyenas caused in the Pridelands last month I must’a stained it a little. It ain’t no big deal, I’ll be fine,” he gave a shrug to show that he wasn’t worried about it. At Brother’s next question, the hound shook his head. “I don’t know, Brother. I’d hope not, but the only thing we can do is just wait n’ see.”