Way of the Slugcat

Black and White and Red All Over

Seven Thorns, Mourning Wings sat among the clouds. They drifted lazily in the blue sky below him, and he strained his eyes to see through their cumulus bodies. Nothing came of it. Beyond them lay a vast sea of nothing. He turned his mask to the blackness above him. Up there, millions of little yellow lights hung over his head, winking at him. Were they mocking him? Encouraging him? He could not tell. Slowly, they drifted closer together within the ocean of night. They turned their bodies to the emptiness below, swimming westward towards the rising sun.
"Wake up."
At first, Thorns ignored the voice. He continued to stare at the travelling lights. They floated further away from him every passing moment. He cried out to them, but his voice fell silent. The lights paid him no mind. They just kept floating. Floating further away, and vanishing beneath the surface of nothing.
"I have food, Thorns."
With that, his dream broke. It shattered itself into a million pieces right before his eyes.
"Food!?" He asked excitedly. Thorns had apparently slept through the opening of the shelter. Night sat near the entrance, chewing on the jelly seed leftover from last cycle. With his other paw, he tossed Thorns a delicacy that he instantly recognized.
"Ah, pupa fruit! Where..." He paused to take a bite of its blue flesh. His teeth cut through it like a hot knife in butter, tearing a chunk of its egg-like form off and into his mouth. The larva's rich juices dribbled down his chin as he chewed. "...where did you find this?" It took Night a moment to respond, as he had his cheeks filled with jelly.
"Mmm... not far from here. I can show you on the way out of the waste."
"The way out?" Thorns did not remember seeing any place other than the waste during his survey atop the wire tower. Maybe he had missed it?
"Again, I will show you. Put the rest of that fruit down your throat and let us get going."
Down here, the mud reigned supreme. Thorns made sure to stand as upright as possible as his feet sunk inches into the ground. As usual, Night led the way. He seemed to be having much less trouble with the mud than Thorns, who had gotten his feet stuck at least four times by now. Up the tunnels they went, scrambling against slick muddy slopes.
By this time, Thorns had given up on keeping himself white. A brown coat of earth covered his hindquarters and tail completely, as well as his arms up to the elbow. It didn't matter very much to Night, as he was already a dark color. Thorns couldn't tell if he had any mud on him at all. Finally, the mud began to thin out. A faint light could be seen at the end of the tunnel, and Thorns eagerly dragged himself from the mud to its mouth. He slid himself into the room beyond and nearly ran head first into a block of stone. His nose brushed against its rough surface, and he glanced upwards to take in his surroundings. A face was staring down at him.
"Ah!" Thorns cried as he stumbled backwards. The stone face remained stationary, empty eyes staring into Thorns' obsidian black. It looked like it had been here for quite some time, just like the others in the tunnels below.
"Don't pay any mind to them." Night commented. His head appeared above the stone's petrified stare. "They do not do anything. At least, I'm fairly sure that they don't." He smiled down at his friend mischievously.
"Well that is... reassuring." Thorns sarcastically grumbled. His tiny finger ran along the carved lines of the face, tracing the nose and expressionless mouth. As he removed his finger, a layer of mud came with it.
"You have been here before, yes?" He continued.
"Of course. I wouldn't have brought you this way if I didn't know where I was going." With that, Night's head vanished behind the face. His voice continued to speak as Thorns made his way around. He took one last look at the stone carving, squinting into its emotionless expression as Night finished his sentence.
"This world is extremely dangerous, especially if you don't know where you are going. That is why I try to stay on the routes that I am most familiar wi-"
"...Night?" Thorns rounded the corner. Behind the statue, the room opened up into a comfortably sized space. Small holes in the junk filled ceiling were responsible for the natural light filtering inside. At the back of the room, two tunnels ran in separate directions. Night stood at the entrance to one, his wide eyes fixated on something below him in a small crater.
"Night, what is the matter?"
"Come... come see this."
Thorns did not see anything of interest. The hole the rodent stood in was less of a hole and more of a slight depression in the junk. It had an odd shape to it, with three sharp points facing the entrance of the tunnel. Wait... Thorns took a step back.
"Is that a... lizard print?"
"I believe so."
The two stared at the print with disbelief. It was at least a foot and a half wide and by far the largest print Thorns had ever seen, even in his currently small stature. The lizards he had previously encountered were most likely dwarfed by whatever left the tracks. The single footprint was large enough for the slugcat to curl up and lie down in. The prints continued down the tunnel creating a rhythmic path which one could easily follow. Thorns counted the beats until they crept out of his vision. It seemed a little... off, as if the culprit missed a step every time it moved. Missing a leg, perhaps?
"Well, time to take an alternate route." Night announced.
"Wait, hold on." Thorns squinted at Night suspiciously. "Correct me if I am mistaken, but just last cycle we risked running through a valley with a hungry vulture hunting above it. Are you telling me that you are afraid to go down a tunnel that might contain a three legged lizard? And what about the pupa fruit?"
"I don't care how many legs it has! It could have none, for all I care, and I would still avoid it! The fruit is not worth it. Do you have any idea what lizard this track belongs to?" That was a good question, Thorns decided. Did he?
"Um... a green one?"
Night sighed and shook his head. "No. No, this print can only belong to one kind, one that makes the green lizard look like a slugcat to a vulture."
"Nice analogy..."
"It does not matter how sharp of an eye you have or how intensely you listen to your surroundings; this lizard will find you before you even see it. When it does, you had best prepare yourself to run like the rain is falling. Four legs or three, it doesn't matter. It will catch you and it will end your cycle very painfully. This one is the largest I have ever seen."
Thorns gulped. "...alright." He certainly had not expected such an animated response from his friend.
I suppose being at the bottom of the food chain will do that to you, he thought, and then continued.
"How about we start moving away from this tunnel, then?"
"That is the best idea you have come up with since I've met you." Night hopped out of the paw print and began walking towards the second tunnel. Thorns followed close behind, keeping a wary eye on the prints behind him. Night spoke up again as the tunnel closed in around them. "Oh, and promise me one thing?"
"O-oh, of course. So long as it does not get me eaten."
"If you see something red, run. A red lizard, red centipede, red lights coming down from the sky, anything. Just run."
"Wait, lights? Red lights?" Thorns found himself nervously glancing above him. The holes in the ceiling were becoming more frequent, and he guessed that they were nearing the surface.
"Do those belong to some kind of lighthouse or scanning purposed organism?"
"Purposed what?" Night glanced back at Thorns.
"Purposed organism. You know, organisms genetically engineered to facilitate certain niches in society and architecture?"
Night blinked. Thorns could almost see the invisible gears in his brain turning, very slowly, around in circles as he tried to process this information. Maybe it had been too much?
Oh well, Thorns shrugged. He will get it eventually.
Finally, the black slugcat spoke.
"Will that information help us survive?" This time, he sounded genuinely curious.
"W-well, maybe! If we know what the organism was originally purposed to do, then we know what abilities it will have, and therefore we can-"
"Hold that thought." Night cut Thorns off as the tunnel came abruptly to an end. He took in a much needed breath of fresh air as he emerged into the sun, then froze at the sight of what lay before him. Night strutted confidently ahead and turned to face his friend's hesitant expression, white eyes glinting in the light of many others behind him.
Before them loomed a massive skull hoisted high into the air by a crude looking pole. It skewered the bone and emerged out the top of the cranium, where it was met by dozens of straps and ties holding the skull to its steel body. A set of antlers sprouted regally from the sides of the skull, adorned with strings of pearls that danced with every movement of the wind. They clattered together and sang like windchimes in the breeze.
The skull itself was decorated with a kind of red paint. It was smeared onto its forehead in the shape of lust, a karmic symbol representing one of the five primal urges. It started with a straight line across the brow, then curved underneath the line and ended with a little tick mark pointing towards the right eye.
After taking in the overwhelming sight of the skull, Thorns allowed his eyes to travel to what lay below. At least a dozen strange, antlered creatures stood around the pole's base, each one staring at him, as if expecting something. A large white individual stood in the center of its peers. Its hand was outstretched, and it glared at Thorns with startling intelligence. Thorns gulped. It was clear that it remembered him from his first cycle as a slugcat. After their brief encounter, he hoped to never run into it again. It did not seem to care for him much. Thorns made pleading eye contact with his friend, to which Night simply responded with a gesture to their surroundings. Mountains of stone heads left those who wished to pass through the area little choice of movement. Their vacant eyes all stared down at the gathering of animals, as if patiently waiting for something to happen. There was no other way around. Thorns sighed.
"You don't need to worry." Night said. "I have been through here before and they know me. I have something for you." He lifted his hand over his mouth and closed his eyes. His stomach made a few quick contractions.
"Night!? What are you-" Thorns was cut short by Night's gagging cough. It sounded -and looked- like a cat coughing up a hairball, much to Thorns' chagrin. He grimaced as Night spat a saliva coated pearl into his hand. He shook off some of the goop and offered it to Thorns, whose nose instinctively wrinkled up as the pearl got closer.
"Oh come now, It isn't so bad!" Night brushed a bit more of the spit off the pearl. "Stop being so squeamish and take it. You need to give this to the scavengers so they will let you cross the toll."
"They want... that?"
Night nodded,
"But they already have so many! Did you see the skull?"
"Yes, I did."
"So why do they want more? Why do they even have that many? Do you have any idea how much valuable information is contained within those pearls? They do not even have the technology required to read any of them!"
"They are greedy little brutes, aren't they?" Night commented in a lowered voice. "That white one in the center seems to have something against you already."
"Well it should not! I did not do anything bad in its presence. Its friend threw a rock at me, that is all!"
The slugcats glanced back at the toll. The white scavenger had not taken its eye off of them. It nudged its peer, a bright blue scavenger with little nubs for horns, and slid a sharpened piece of rebar from its back.
"Just take the pearl and follow my lead." Night shoved the slimy ball into Thorn's hands. "Stay close to me and low to the ground. And whatever you do, do not aggravate them. Do you understand?"
"Is there no other way?" Thorns whined.
"If there was, we would be taking it instead of wasting time arguing. Now stop your complaining and follow my lead very closely." Night took a paw and placed it firmly on Thorns' shoulder. Hesitantly, Thorns responded with a nod. Together, the slugcats turned and walked slowly toward the toll.

Greed
Nothing more than a roadblock.