Borealis Fifteen - Born to Smile

     A large, red, semi-transparent, stained tarp-sized cloth greeted Aurora's weak consciousness as she awoke. Along the cloth's edges, and even through the cloth itself, she could make out the blue and lightly clouded sky... Peace. It had been long in coming, and the cloth above rippled ever so gently at the touch of a breeze, almost as if to say that everything was going to be alright for a while.
     It was. The world was quiet but not too much so. A masked face leaned over Aurora and asked her how she was doing. For all that she felt, Aurora displayed a simple grin that spread from cheek to cheek. Her one friend, Garnet. Then, a blonde headed face leaned over as well. A new friend. That made two. It was a good day, for sure.
     "Good morning, Garnet," Aurora whispered and half mumbled through her still yet to fill, conscious lips.
     Garnet must have smiled. His mask wiggled a bit. "Well, good morning to you too, Little Mouse," he chuckled. "Don't strain yourself. Ember and I are taking good care of you." Garnet adjusted a knob and a few switches on the table bed Aurora rested on. "You should be back to full strength here in an hour or so." More smiles.
     Ember, Aurora thought. What an interesting name.
     The effect of Garnet's twiddling and adjustments kicked in just then. Sky and cloth disappeared as a glowing green took over Aurora's vision. Warmth encased her. It was good and only lasted for a minute. Then it was over. Sky and cloth came back, as did Ember's face. Garnet, however, had moved aside, probably to check on something else that needed his attention.
     Ember smirked. "What? No good morning for me? I only said it to you half an hour ago, and I've been waiting here this whole time thinking you were never gonna say it." Another smirk. "Aurora."
     Aurora couldn't remember.
     "I mean, you looked right at me for crying out loud. You'd been squirming, too. I thought you were in pain, but Garnet, here, said you were just having a nightmare. As, um..." she trailed off.
     "A reaction to the drug I had to administer, or rather," he continued, "Ember had to administer before we teleported you here."
     "Yeah," Ember giggled. "I didn't even know it was a drug."
     Aurora grinned. How fortunate am I, she thought. It had been such a long time since she had felt so happy and sure. Life had gotten so boring and tedious. Day in and day out it had been that she would wake up, sneak around the factions, the Unfortunate Ones, even her own Roof Rats, make her way down to Garnet, a Grounder Bird himself, and see what loot he had procured for her. Then, she would sneak off to one of her many hiding places to stash the loot, unless a few Sun Cats spotted her, in which case she would have to run from them for the next two hours until she lost them. The rest of the day after that was spent competing with the Rats for anything interesting that had been left behind in the wake of the Riser Dogs' morning patrol. It was tiring, and sleep, rest, and peace, sadly, always came last and never in between.
     Aurora must have been frowning while she was thinking. Ember stood over her with a concerned look on her face.
     "I'm okay," Aurora managed to say, this time with a full on smile.

Borealis Six - Bad Zephyrs

     Wind. Wind lashed and howled itself around Aurora's face, pulling and tugging, waking her up as it curved around her body and tattered her hair. All vision was blurred as though in a blended, mixed up, drunken stupor that was still spinning. Smells darted this way and that way and all the way up into Aurora's olfactory, reminding her that she had fallen to the Riser Dog's wrangle. She had lived... But how she had lived, she knew not! And, were it not for the speed that she traveled in the arms of the Dogs, she could have sussed out the answers she asked of calamity.
     Oh, and buildings and buildings were going up and plummeting down. The Riser Dogs bounded from roof top to roof top, never maintaining a straight line for fear that the other factions of the city would notice their rare live catch. If the Dogs thought Aurora special, then certainly she was. Certainly, she could be learned from. And, certainly, she could be toyed with. Hence, the Riser Dogs needed to deliver their catch as soon as possible. They needed to know what their leader, Sheer Wolf, might discern from this Roof Rat's exploits. They needed to know if her information could help them find a way into the buildings that caged their clan in the open air.
     Sadly, what they needed and what they wanted were two entirely different things. From Ember's perspective, the four leaping figures she saw didn't need Aurora at all. They just wanted her. Yes, it was really Ember who needed the girl, and she aimed to take her. So, down she went onto the Riser Dog pack. And, down Aurora went from the Riser Dogs' hands. A fight then ensued, and Aurora was won.