VSOCT- The Light at the End of the Tunnel Part 1

A world far, far beyond this one is going dark, the sun flickering like a candle moments from going out. The sky has long since been obscured by blizzards, and the long grasses coated in ice and snow. The previously open, warm caves of the natives are now blocked up and stuffy, overpopulated with a race that has no where else to go. However, our tale starts miles away from these caves, on a cliff face previously reserved for Burds only.
------------
"Aw, shucks, you guys." Pollyander said, gently lifting the frozen, stiff corpse of a screechie up. "Look at the state of your mama. Such a good mama. Making sure you were safe with her dying breath." He clucked maternally at the small clutch of eggs that he found lurking under the body, brushing a finger against them. Still warm. Could be saved.

He retrieved a small maroon crystal on a string from the pocket in his jeans, and jiggled it a bit in his hand, retrieving Lulu from her nest back at home. "Lules, look what I found." He said to her. the small burd trilled, examining the eggs with one eye, before sidling her old, withered body over the eggs to keep them warm. "Good nest." she croaked, blinking one amber eye up at her master. "Haha, ah know, right? We got lucky that they were warm enough... they are warm enough still, right?" The young Kurkuran said nervously.

Lulu shifted herself on the nest. "Yes. Eggs warm." Polly grinned wider than should be possible. "Sweet! Thanks Lules!" "You are welcome." She said as he whisked her back through the crystal. He carefully pocketed the eggs in a fur jacket he was wearing over his distinctive black turtleneck. Only three but... three could help preserve the rapidly disappearing species, so he wasn't complaining. After carefully covering the body of the mother with her raggedy nest (It was a Kurkuran tradition to bury an individual with their bedding- leaving them something to sleep with in the afterlife.), he slid back down the rope he climbed up there on, and landed softly in the deep snow. The summoning crystal throbbed warmly and gently against his hip, and he pulled down the hood as the screeching wind tried to drive stinging ice crystals into his eyes.

Despite the thick fur lining the jacket, he could still feel the biting wind as it chased him back to the caverns. The entrance would be invisible to anyone that didn't know it was there- it'd look like any other pile of boulders and snow. However, a carefully moved boulder released a welcome rush of warm air, and the familiar smell of cooking fires. He dropped into the hole, carefully closing off the entrance once more. He heard a familiar huff, and knew who it was before he even turned around.

"Madelina!" He cried, extending his arms for a big hug, as if he hadn't seen his cousin just an hour ago. "Come here!" She carefully parried his outstretched arms, crinkling up her nose. He giggled. "Ya know, a lot more men would be attracted to you if you didn't scrunch up your face like that." He meant it in jest, as he always did, but that didn't stop the Shekurk from frowning even harder. "Look, did you find anything?" He nodded. "Yep. Three burd eggs- still warm... their mother wasn't as lucky, though." Her frown lost some of it's terrible intensity as she replied to the Hekurk, "Where's her body then?" Pollyander shrugged. "Left it there. Covered it with the nest, like one should."

She growled slightly- and her stomach did too. "Oh for goodness sakes, Polly! Why did you do that? We could have added that to the stew, you KNOW people are going hungry here!" He blinked for a moment, then narrowed his eyes at her. "You were going to... eat a screechie?" "Don't be such a youngling, you know they aren't called tha-" "You were going to EAT a BURD?" "It... it was going to be chopped up! No one would be able to tell the difference!" Her face changed to one of guilt and surprise as Hekurk snarled back at her. "You KNOW screechies are sacred right? You remember that from the knowledge singers' teachings, yeah? We start saying okay to eat them, how soon till we say it's okay to take supplies from the graves of the dead? To eat each other? How long until we go feral? Do you WANT to go feral? Is that what you want Madelina? Is it?"

She paused, a stricken look on her face. She grit her teeth, her eyebrows sliding towards her temples, her yellow and cyan eyes averting his gaze. "No..no, you're right. Sorry." While going feral is not very common in our culture- indeed, there isn't much reason to- more and more Kurkurans were going feral each day- abandoning their culture, civility and sanity to survive in the environment of their dying planet. The last ally had stop replying to messenger burds months ago- and a scout they sent out never came back. Their population was large, well over 2,000- but the cold and hunger was slowly killing them off. Indeed, Madelina was the only family Pollyander had left- not that it mattered. Children were informed of who their parents and relatives were, to avoid inbreeding, yes- but the children were a community responsibility, coming and going from any nesting cave they wanted before going to the knowledge singers' caverns each day to learn about their history and culture.

He sighed. "It's okay, don't worry about it, we're all hungry. Just don't give into the temptation, okay?" he said. Madelina nodded fiercely. "I wont, don't worry." then, the familiar and comforting scowl returned to his cousin's face. "Now, get to the clutch caves before those eggs die of cold." He gave her a smiling nod, and tugged on her braid as he walked past, "Sure thing, missy." he snickered.

As he strolled, his paws left prints in the familiar and well worn tunnels of his village. Slowly but surely, his burds picked up on his scent and began following him until all 12 of his flock flapped, glided, and perched on or around him. Lulu took her usual spot, tail wrapped around his neck, head tucked under his chin, ear hole monitoring his pulse. Eventually, he exited into the clutch caves. Originally, the high vaulted ceiling, with all it's nooks and crannies housed thousands nests and their creators, the brightly colored burd that would dance and sing above the heads of and Kurkurans that entered.

But no more. Now, only a scant 5 dozen lived in the caves- and a fifth of those belonged to Pollyander. He was, as far as he knew, the last burd keeper; and he was proud of that title. He found Primrose, a screechie almost as old as Lulu lurking in an easily reached nook, a nest already built beneath her. "Lulu said eggs." she croaked, her thick accent clogging her throat. Polly nodded and rifled in his pockets, and carefully deposited the three eggs beneath her waiting wings. "Yep. Three new little hopes."