Way of the Slugcat

Drowning

Thorns woke to the sound of thunder.
No, not thunder, he thought. The entire room around him was shaking. Thunder did not do that.
His eyes fluttered open. The sound of rain pelting against water and concrete reached his ears. A stream of water fell from above, so thick in fact that Thorns could not see the bridge he had fallen from. The slugcat attempted to right himself in his haze, still only half conscious. When he moved to stand, however, he felt nothing beneath him. He flailed his limbs in an attempt to find something, anything, to stand on. Was he still falling? Was he hanging from something? Thorns dared to look beneath him, going against everything the rest of his body was telling him to do. It screamed at him to somehow run, or to grab something to slow his "fall".  His panicked eyes looked down.
Water.
He was suspended in water! But where was Night?
"NIGHT!" He screamed into the air around him. Or tried at least, for when he opened his mouth, the water that had stopped his descent invited itself inside.
Get out of the water! His mind yelled. Get out, get out, get out!
Thorns swiveled his head about the room, looking for any sign of land. The water was getting choppier by the second as a result of both the rain and of the shaking of the walls around it. The first thing he spotted through the chaos was the flailing white body of the lizard that had caused all of this. It had apparently survived the fall, much to Thorns' chagrin. He couldn't worry about that now, though. Where was Night!? Thorns turned the other direction.
There!
Laying sideways on solid ground was Night's limp body. Thorns would have never even seen him if it were not for the tiny floating square above his head. The particle shown with a faint light, just enough to give away its owner's presence.
Thorns dove towards his friend. His skinny arms battled the raging waves in the water as he doggy paddled to shore. The rain made it difficult to keep his head above water, as the combined force of a thousand droplets pushed down on his entire body. Slowly, the water level began to rise.
Thorns' paws hit solid ground. He scrambled over to Night, still lying unconscious on the soggy ground.
"Night! Night, wake up! It is time to go!"
He could hardly hear himself over the roar of water coming down beside him. He and Night had somehow found their way under an overhang or sorts, which shielded them from some of the water's fury.  Only some, and it would not last forever.
"NIGHT, WE NEED TO GO NOW!"
"Wh... huh?" The black slugcat's eyes cracked open. Upon realizing their current situation, courtesy of Thorns' panicked expression, he shot up from the ground. The water now reached Thorns' knees.
"This way!" He pointed in the only direction not currently being drowned. Without hesitation, both slugcats scrambled further underneath the underhang.
The room kept going. So did they. Faster and faster, they scrambled into the dark, splashing through the rising water level. The walls shook with such force that Thorns' vision was blurred every time he touched the ground. Water had begun to seep through cracks in the ceiling. Thorns guessed that if they had not fallen so far down, they would already be dead. The rain on the surface was most likely at its deadly best. He glanced to his right. Night was now nothing more than a black stain in his vision. He glanced to his left.
"Night!" He bellowed over the cry of the rain. "Is that a shelter!?"
"A whaaat?"
"A SHELTER!"
The ceiling burst. A gaping hole the size of a slugcat's head had opened up behind them, spewing gallons of water by the second. The liquid that was at Thorns' knees now reached his stomach. His little legs could no longer reach the floor.
Shelter or not, here I come!
He grasped Night's paw in his and struggled towards the little hole in the wall. It's entrance was lined with the teeth of countless gears, giving its true identity away. Without them, it would have looked completely inconspicuous. Thorns' head slipped through the hole, followed by the rest of his slick body. Thanks to the elevation of the water, he didn't even have to jump to get i side. The tunnel curved downwards and spit him out onto a chilly metal surface. Night plopped in after him, soaked to the bone and shaking as much as the walls had been. The steel shell of the shelter managed to keep itself steady. It seemed the slugcats had finally been freed from the rain's fury.
"...that...was...close..." Night panted. He had allowed his body to collapse to the floor in exhaustion. Thorns still held fats to his paw.
"No...no kidding." Thorns responded.
Thump!
The slugcats leapt backwards as a soggy blur of scales fell onto the floor in front of them. The mechanical whirring of gears and chains sounded from above as the shelter's entrance closed. Sprawled out on the floor, coughing up lungfuls of water, was the white lizard that had started it all.
"You have GOT to be kidding me!" Thorns growled. He threw his paws in a motion towards the reptile, emphasizing its presence. "Why could you not have just drowned or something!? There is plenty of water up there for you to drown in!"
"Grrrhrrrhrrr?" The lizard gave him a questioning look, then curled up in the corner. Thorns sighed.
"...nothing to get angry about, self. Frustration? Yes. Anger? No. No no no... Night?"
"Yes?"
"Weapon?"
Night looked down at his empty paws, then responded.
"No weapon."
"Damn it."
"It will be alright... probably." Night raised his paw to scratch his muzzle. "I have hibernated with a lizard before. Granted, it didn't previously try to eat me, but it was done."
The two friends glanced over at their unwanted guest. Thorns' spear had left a large, bloody hole in the side of its body. The weapon itself had been pulled out and was nowhere to be seen.
Perfect. Thorns complained. Nothing for self defense. Absolutely brilliant.
Luckily, the fiend seemed to have other things on its mind. It had curled itself up in one corner of the shelter and squeezed its eyes shut. Every so often, it would take a deep breath, flinch, and relax. Before long, it's breathing became a rhythmic beat. That was music to Thorns' ears.
"I think it is asleep." He whispered as he leaned over to Night. His friend nodded. How the lizard could have fallen asleep so quickly after what was sure to have been a traumatic experience he did not know. He was just thankful that it didn't try to eat Night again.
"Did you see it?" Night whispered back.
"See what?"
"The red lizard! It was right behind you, and it was absolutely massive! I have never seen a lizard as large as that one. What was it eating, whole vultures!?"
"I could eat a whole vulture right now..."
The conversation paused. Thorns' stomach growled, and Night gave him a disapproving glare.
"I would think that almost being eaten by a gargantuan red beast would take your mind off of something like that."
"What? I only had one pupa fruit this cycle, remember?"
"Yes, and I only had one jelly seed this cycle. Do you hear me complaining?"
"But Night-"
"Sometimes things like this happen. Besides, there isn't anything we can do about it now." Night stated as he pointed towards the sealed shelter door. "Hunger cannot bother you if you do not allow it to. So long as you get enough food to survive, you are set."
"I do not want to degrade into skin and bones!"
"You do not want to have a bloated tummy, either. It is important to find a good median."
"Well, this is not my-"
The creature in the corner let out a low snarl. It let out a wheezing sound, like wind blowing through a pipe, and then the half hearted snarl again. The sounds matched up perfectly with its breath.
"Is it... snoring?" Thorns asked. He had pressed himself up against the wall.
"...how about we continue this conversation next cycle?" Night said, his voice having been hushed by his closed teeth. Thorns did not bother saying anything and instead simply nodded. The two curled up side by side, touching tails as they settled themselves in. It was as if they were checking to make absolutely sure that the other was there.
"Thorns?"
"Yes, Night?"
"Thank you for helping me."
Thorns smiled. In the darkness, he kept a close eye on his friend's little light.
How mysterious, he thought. How intriguing, and how very useful.

I will not lose him again. Not again.

Swimming
Keep your head above the waves