Refugee

This is my monthly challenge entry for October at - Perspective!  

It's Idai as a puppy being carried from his tiny hometown by his father Keal after Virspera attacked and claimed it as their own, capturing his mother in the process. They're trying to reach Ghost Run and find safety there.
The story is below:

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 The cry went up louder tonight than it ever had. He had been around for Virspera raids before; heard the yelling of the town's sentry and the din of the citizens gearing up for battle, but Idai was far to young to comprehend what it really meant. The racket that always stole away his mother in the middle of the night, and forced him awake as his dad scooped him up only to rush him to some other place was scary. He could see and hear the terror the adults so obviously displayed, and cried over being awoken so rudely to such chaos. Tonight would have been no different than the others, except the sheer panic in the screams of the townsfolk seemed to be making his parents hysterical. Idai was woken not only by the cries, but by their hurried; pounding footsteps as they rushed outside. There was indiscernible yelling, and  then they both charged back into his room.

The boy stared with wide eyes; his whole body suddenly jarred as Adanna pulled her only son into a tight embrace. Her pulse was so quick; and her actions so rushed than before he knew it Idai was back on the floor with a kiss to his forehead and more confusion than comprehension. He was already feeling uneasy; and on the verge of tears upon noticing his father's sudden absence when Keal returned. A whimper slipped past his clenched jaw as he was hastily wrapped in a blanket and whisked up into the air once more. They were usually quite rough with him when this happened but tonight was worse. Coupled with being jostled by his dad's sudden break into as much of a sprint as he could manage, Idai had little choice left but to break into wails. Defensively, he started to shift into the form that he felt safer in; his Garu, and the extra fur would prove to be more than helpful once the child was outside.

The spring air was chilly; only adding to the list of things wrong with this whole situation, and the list of reasons to cry so that someone would fix it. Unfortunately he was utterly ignored and carried much further than the usual distance they went, but Keal was still running. His grip was so tight; giving Idai little room to move or even take in enough air to sob as much as he wanted to. What on earth was going on? With his little head peeking over the man's shoulder, shining blue eyes took in the last of the town as they raced into the woods. A couple others were running with them, and they were crying too. He caught a glimpse of Garu-shift Vukar in the streets, but they were all heading away. The trees would block his view before the boy could determine what they were doing.

Finally his father slowed, and the jarring along with him. By now Idai's tears had stopped, though his face was still wet and his nose sniffled from the all-out bawling the little two-year-old had done. Keal was still gripping him tightly; though he would never know just how much his father's arms were already aching from it. Now as the Remulus pup looked around, he saw more. Other humans big and small were with them, but only young Vukar. Everyone was much like him; sniffling and wiping their faces as the group gathered together. There was more talking, and Idai was finally given enough slack to be comfortable again. Eventually he'd be allowed to wander around on the ground again while everyone rested in... wherever this was his father had taken him. Still, he was worried and unhappy with Adanna's absence, and this time Keal sounded less certain in his reassurances.

They stayed there for a while, until someone could return from the settlement to tell them whether or not it was safe. Though their scout spoke some words he didn't understand, the emotion was clear, and it brought the whole party to tears again. Once more the pup's dad drew him in close, except now they were both crying. No matter how many questions the youth flung at him, Idai couldn't get any more of an answer than “we're going, we have to leave,” and “Mom's not coming.” The last part flung him into wails louder than those before, and if his little lungs could have burst, they would have. But, there was little time to grieve as the Virspera were sure to be heading after the stragglers unless they got moving again. Idai was difficult to quiet, along with several of the other children, despite the fact that they were told their screams would only attract the attackers.

Somehow the group moved fast enough to evade them, or perhaps the Virspera were too preoccupied with their new base, but either way they survived. The now refugees wandered through the wilderness on distant hopes of reaching Ghost Run, and safety. They shambled, hollow beneath the moonlight and quiet in their devastation. Even the boy gradually slipped into a peaceful but anxious silence. His bright eyes searched upward; his body clenched against his father's chest as they drudged on. Every step they took was on strange ground, under strange skies, and it left him only to wonder at his fate. And what of his mom? If she wasn't coming with them, where was she going? He would fall asleep with only questions, but despite the trauma it would be a time in his life that young Idai would soon grow to forget.