Premonition

"I just want you to know that none of this was your fault, I don't want to hear that. A mother's duty is to look after her children, to raise them under a better life and to ensure that they have a better future. But above all else, it is to make sure your children are safe."

Everyone had relocated into the kitchen, with Emyri leaning against the table with a sore look in her eyes. Facing her, KuliKuli slowly nodded as her mother reached out and placed her paw over hers.

"It's not something I had meant to hold back, this was meant to be temporary, I don't tolerate secrets in my family."

Syri nodded, sitting atop Janette's lap.

"But I do not wish to explain what I do not know, so I will only elaborate on my side. Na'Vi knows her part of the story, and I would rather she tell you the rest. You two need to talk, she is having difficulties coping with this as well. Is that understood?" Everyone in the room either stayed quiet or nodded, leaving room for her to carry on.

"Okay." Emyri sighed. "If my memory serves me well, I believe it started since you began to sneak out."

KuliKuli focused on the details, her ear flickering as slowly her mother's words helped paint a clearer image. Whenever she tried to remember, her head felt foggy and distant and often she would find herself frustrated and lacking progress. But this new information began to help form a narrow path, and suddenly she began to remember fragments at a time.

---

"Hey mother! Hey sissy!" Nityri beamed a mighty smile, showing off her teeth and ruffling her baby sister's hair.

Her mother smiled back at her, leaping down from the branch she rested on with an apple held by her tail. Syri, clearly not amused, groaned and shook her paw away. "Knock it off, you know my hair is hard to comb right."

"Just get your friends to fix it for you, or get Mommy to help." Nityri giggled, dashing behind her mother and quickly climbing up the tree before taking her comfortable spot on the branch under the shade.

"You do seem rather excited today sweety, did something new come up?"

"Nu." She replied, taking a bite off an apple she snagged from its stem above her. She hummed gleefully as she chewed. "Mmm! Ish-nuthin!"

"Manners." Nityri waved her paw before swallowing. "Better, you were saying?"

"Sowwy hehe, wellllll it's nothing reallly, just had a fun day I guess."

Just the, Dimyri had arrived briefly waving goodbye at the Nekomata cat girls she was with before they dispersed. "Hey mum, sis." She smirked before messing with her sister's hair.

"Cut it!"

Dimyri raised her paws and shrugged, waving her tails around. "Hey Mom, Nityri." Nityri raised her apple back at her.

"You know, I saw Na'Vi today and well you wouldn't believe where she was around." She smiled as Nityri glared at her in return. The interaction certainly drew their mother's attention. "Remember that village that's like twenty minutes east?"

"The one I told you girls to keep away from?"

Syri rolled her eyes. "That's like, every village around us mommy."

Emyri looked up to see her daughter look away. "Did you and Na'Vi do something you shouldn't have, again?"

"She certainly did!" Dimyri grinned before being pelted in the head by an eaten apple. "Ow!"

"Nityri, you come down here right this instant!" She frowned, all the girls watching as Nityri sighed and leaped out from her branch. "What did you do, tell me the truth. If it doesn't line up with what your sister says, you know what you're in for."

Nityri gave a crossed look at her sister. "Eyes on me, missy!" Her mother said, demanding her attention which made her jump slightly.

"Okay okay, we saw some more people at the place and well, I wanted to get a closer look." She shrugged. "It wasn't as bad as you said, I mean none of them seem so dangerous."

Emyri raised her eye. "What gives you the confidence to say that? Nityri did you speak with anyone in there?"

"BUSTED!" Dimyri clapped her paws together, believing to be safe from harm only to be mistaken. A tail reached over and tugged at her cat ear hard. "OW!"

"And you!" Emyri shouted, now fixating her wrath onto her, "You're the oldest, you mean to tell me you watched your sister and her friend do this and didn't say anything?"

"It's not like that, I told them but they didn't listen!"

Nityri growled. "Yea right, you didn't say anything! You were back at the pond with your girly-friends!"

"Speaking of girlfriends-!"

"QUIET!" Mother's voice certainly did just that. "Dimyri, you aren't supposed to catch your sisters in trouble, you're supposed to stop them from getting into trouble. You and Nityri are both grounded." Both girls groaned and began to whine. "Zip it! Neither of you are to step into the pond, to the ravine, or near the waterfall AND you are to be back here before sunset understood?"

"Yes mother." They chanted in unison.

"Good, now I should have a word with Na'Vi before the end of the day. Both of you, into your den." They nodded and walked away, leaving Emyri alone to work on supper while Syri watched.

"How come we aren't allowed there, mom?"

"People there are dangerous and I don't want to catch either of you around there. That goes double for you."

Syri tilted her head. "But isn't dad from there?"

Emyri paused from her activity. "That's no exactly right, no."

"Then where is he from?"

"It's complicated."

"So you don't know?"

Emyri turned around. "Well since you are feeling quite chatty, why don't you ask around for Na'Vi and tell her I need to speak to her?"

"Okay!" Syri smiled and ran off, leaving her mother with a bit of peace and quiet. Staring into the wooden bowl carrying a mush of various fruits and berries, Emyri felt a bit sick inside. Not from the food, rather it was an ill feeling, a sort of premonition.

---

"I suppose I should have known from there, but the nothing came of it the day after or the next. I spoke with Na'Vi, told her never to cross into their, and that was that. Or well, it was for a while." Emyri explained, thinking back to that fateful day. The day when everything went wrong.