Chapter Text
Snufkin always loved it in moominvalley, the constant warmth that seemed to emanate from the moomins house as he would sit by the river fishing. What he would give to be back there. Sighing he poked at the dying flames of the fire and acknowledged the sun falling. It’ll only take a week to get back to the valley. The Mumrik put out the fire, then tried to get himself to fall asleep. Morning arose soon enough with a burning song with a blinding light, but of course Snufkin who didn’t sleep a wink was up the whole night.
Rummaging through my pack trying to find something to eat for breakfast, it’s been a while since he’s been able to put something away for storage. ‘Well it’s not like I haven’t skipped meals before, for example the last few days the most I've been able to get my paws was only a few nuts and berries. I'll be fine’ he thought to himself as he swiftly packed up his tent. Just like that he was on his way again, his head felt light as he kept close to the trees for balance. THe small critters nervously moved out of his way as this wasn’t his normal path he took. He tried to keep his focus on what was in front of him, but the tiredness and the lack of food seemed to be catching up to him. Stomach growling to encourage its owner to find something to fill it up. But all snufkin could do was curl up on the ground and hug his stomach in pain. As he did so there were multiple little figures moving in and out of his peripheral vision. Thinking it was nothing was one of his many to come grave mistakes. The figures sniffed him, before Snufkin could do anything about them he felt a sharp pain in his shoulder. Not a few seconds later he was out cold.
—
Little did he know that he was surprisingly close to a village, a quaint one but all together one that knew how to throw parties. No not the fun types, there have been reports of Niblings becoming overpopulated and finding their new source of food in the nearing village. Edwick was one of the members in the recent search party as they were investigating the scream they heard not too long ago. There was only one other person with them, Miff she was a strong one that’s for sure. The two made their way through the dense forest trying to locate the owner of the scream. Miff held out her arm in front of Edwick making them let out a small oof “Did you hear that?” Edwick was about to ask her what she was going on about, but had no chance to as Miff stiffened right before she went running and yelling “GET OFF THEM!!!”
Edwick quickly followed Miff and soon stumbled upon her trying to stabbe a few of the present Niblings. By the looks of it some didn’t have the blessing of getting away. While all the others scrambled off, fresh blood dripped off their chins as they did so. Shaking their head to bring themselves back to the hurt, what looked like a Mumrik, laying on the ground. “They don’t look like anybody from the village, who are they?” They asked, kneeling next to Miff. “Doesn’t matter right now, let’s get them back to our village before they bleed out. I’ll get their pack, be careful and bring them back.” Directed Miff as she huffed and picked up the strangers pack. Gently picking up the Mumrik, while Edwick wast expecting them to be as heavy as a boulder. Quite the opposite in fact, they felt scary light. In fact they could feel their ribs as if there was nothing between Edwick’s hand and the bone itself. Cringing a little they followed Miff as she made her way back.
Entering their home Miff finally spoke up after the long walk home “There's no one else here that can help, we got to do this ourselves. First cleaning the wounds.” She said while pondering for a second. “Their smock will get in the way, I’m gonna have to take it off”. At this point Miff was talking more to herself than them. Getting to work quickly she undid the strangers smock and took it off, only pausing for a moment with a sharp intake of air before she started whipping away the still running blood off their shoulders. For the most part Edwick hated blood, the smell alone makes them feel sick. But curiosity of how bad the wound the nibbling inflicted on the stranger, they looked over to the body on the table and just like Miff couldn’t help but too pause everything for just a moment. They were so very small without their coverings, the ribs Edwick felt earlier were oh so visible among the terrain of sunken in skin. The deep fresh gash seemed to only be a small addition to the poor Mumrik’s littered skin. A sudden gasp from the stranger made Edwick look away in shame, it just didn’t seem right to be looking at them so intently for no reason.
Miff didn’t let the gasp go unnoticed, mainly because the one who supplied the gasp was trying their hardest to shove Miff away and to get off the table. “Hush Hush. You're ok, please don’t run. I'm just trying to help” Miff tried to soth them, but didn’t seem to be heard over their rapid breathing. Sounded like they were on the verge of hyperventilating. Miff backed away hoping the space will calm them down. It worded and after a while the stranger was finally able to calm down enough and focus on the two. “Who.. where?” Was all they were able to make out before their voice gave out. I went over and carefully rubbed their back, not letting the violent flinch bother them too much. “You're in the golden village, and I’m Edwick, that's Miff” point to each respectively. “Who might you be?” The aforementioned two looked over to the shocked Mumrik. “Snufkin” they were able to get out. “Speeded, now Snufkin. Please let me finish patching you up, so you can get some much needed rest. How does that sound?” There was no verbal reply, but they did relax, but apparently not willing to lay back down just yet.
I took the liberty of taking Snufkin’s discarded clothes to wash them, but to be honest they couldn’t stand being in that room since Snufkin had woken up. To be honest their eyes looked just so sad, and Edwick just couldn’t stand the feeling of not doing anything helpful.
After the articles were done getting soaked and all the blood scrubbed out, Edwick went back to the lobby. Snufkin was fast asleep wrapped in a blanket and looking as if they were having the worst sleep ever. Edwick settled down next to Miff who looked so drained, “how are they?”
“He”
“Oh, how is he?”
She threw her paws to her face proceeding to rub her temples, “He’s got a slight infection and fearing real bad, the obvious lack of food isn’t helping the case.” Edwick looked at their paws, still a little bloodstained from today. “Nothing more we can do, How about you go and get some rest?” They offered while taking Miff’s hand to detect the question to the distracted Mifflink. After a while of sitting waiting for a reply Miff nodded and they both headed upstairs to their shared bed. Nobody in that house got a good night's rest, but as the remaining two were finally drifting off to sleep they were disturbed by a blood curdling scream.